Assurance, peace and joy

Question 36 names five gifts that come with justification, adoption and sanctification in this life: assurance of God's love, peace of conscience, joy in the Holy Spirit, increase of grace, and perseverance in it to the end. Each comes from God, and each can be sought again when it seems lost.

Two pilgrims unlocking the gate of Doubting Castle with the key called Promise (The Pilgrim's Progress)

This week's questions

What are the benefits which in this life do accompany or flow from justification, adoption, and sanctification? The benefits which in this life do accompany or flow from justification, adoption, and sanctification, are, assurance of God's love, peace of conscience, joy in the Holy Ghost, increase of grace, and perseverance therein to the end.
Question 36

Question 32 promised the called "several benefits" besides the three great gifts of the last two weeks (justification, adoption and sanctification). Here are the gifts of this life; next week the catechism turns to what believers receive at death and at the resurrection.

Five gifts and where they come from

The light of the rising sun spreads through the morning mist and over the river, where a cow stands in the water below the castle's blue shadow. — Joseph Mallord William Turner, Norham Castle, Sunrise, c. 1845 (Tate Britain) · Source

Romans 5 holds three of them in two verses, the first proof text:

Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.
Romans 5:1-2

Notice the word ‘since’. The benefits ‘accompany or flow from’ what God has already done; they are fruit, not root.

Assurance of God's love. The catechism does not say assurance of our love for God, but of his for us: "God has poured out His love into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, whom He has given us" (Romans 5:5). The Spirit adds his witness: "The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children" (Romans 8:16). The Westminster Confession teaches that true believers "may in this life be certainly assured that they are in a state of grace" Westminster Confession 18.1.

Peace of conscience. Peace with God comes first (Romans 5:1); a quiet conscience follows from it, because the charge against us has been answered in Christ.

Joy in the Holy Ghost. "For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit" (Romans 14:17), a joy Peter calls "inexpressible and glorious" (1 Peter 1:8).

Increase of grace. "The path of the righteous is like the first gleam of dawn, shining brighter and brighter until midday" (Proverbs 4:18).

Perseverance therein to the end. Another proof text speaks of those "who through faith are shielded by God's power for the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time" (1 Peter 1:5). God keeps them, and keeps them believing. No one can snatch Christ's sheep "out of My Father's hand" (John 10:29), and "He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion" (Philippians 1:6). The Canons of Dort, of the Dutch Reformed synod of 1618–1619, say frankly that a believer's falling away, "with respect to themselves, is not only possible, but would undoubtedly happen; but with respect to God, it is utterly impossible" Canons of Dort V.8, as the Westminster Confession also confesses 17.1.

When assurance is shaken

These gifts are real, but not always felt. The Larger Catechism says that believers, after enjoying assurance, "may have it weakened and intermitted, through manifold distempers, sins, temptations, and desertions; yet are they never left without such a presence and support of the Spirit of God as keeps them from sinking into utter despair" Larger Catechism, Q. 81. The Psalms give words for it. Asaph asks, "Has His promise failed for all time?" (Psalm 77:8), and then turns: "I will remember the works of the LORD" (Psalm 77:11). Psalm 88 ends still in darkness, and is still a prayer. In John Bunyan's story, Christian lies in Giant Despair's dungeon until he cries, "What a fool, quoth he, am I, thus to lie in a stinking Dungeon, when I may as well walk at liberty" The Pilgrim's Progress. He had a key called Promise on him, and it opened every lock.

The Reformed have stressed this in two ways. John Calvin defined faith itself as "a firm and sure knowledge of the divine favor toward us, founded on the truth of a free promise in Christ" Institutes 3.2.7. The Westminster Confession, with its eye on troubled believers, adds that such assurance "doth not so belong to the essence of faith, but that a true believer may wait long" 18.3. Both send the doubter to the same promise.

On perseverance Christians differ. The Remonstrants' fifth article of 1610 left open, to be examined from Scripture, whether those grafted into Christ can fall from grace The Remonstrance; Arminian and Wesleyan Christians came to teach that a true believer may fall away, reading Hebrews 6:4-6 so. Lutherans, who follow Martin Luther, reject the view that those once justified cannot lose the Spirit of God, and teach that the fallen are restored by repentance Augsburg Confession, art. 12. The Catholic Church teaches that final perseverance is God's gift, that no one without a special revelation has a certainty of faith that he will receive it, and that all should place their firmest hope in God's help Council of Trent, Decree on Justification, chs 12–13, canon 16. The Reformed confess with the Heidelberg Catechism that Christ keeps his own, and by his Holy Spirit assures them of eternal life Heidelberg Catechism, Q. 1.

These are taken further in Effectual calling and perseverance, Assurance of salvation and Holiness and perseverance; see also Can salvation be lost? and the glossary's assurance and perseverance.

To ponder this week

An old title page within a border of printer's ornaments, printed 'The Whole Booke of Psalmes' with the verses from Colossians 3 and James 5 that bid us sing psalms. — Title page of the Bay Psalm Book, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1640 · Source

Which of the five do you lack most this week, and where does the catechism say it comes from? Not from trying harder to feel it: each one flows from justification, adoption and sanctification, that is, from Christ. If it is peace, read Romans 5:1 and remember the verdict. If it is assurance, read Romans 8:15-17 and call God Father. If it is joy, sing a psalm aloud.

Practice

Practice 1 of 6
Which list gives the benefits Question 36 names?
Practice 2 of 6
According to Romans 5:5, how does God's love reach our hearts?
Practice 3 of 6
Which proof text pictures the increase of grace as dawn shining brighter and brighter?
Practice 4 of 6
Why, according to the Canons of Dort, do believers not totally fall from faith and grace?
Practice 5 of 6
In Psalm 77, after asking whether God's promise has failed, what does Asaph do?
Practice 6 of 6
Which pairing of a tradition with its teaching is accurate?

Reading to the end marks it read; tap to switch it.

Source

John Bunyan, The Pilgrim’s Progress 1678 — An allegory begun in prison: the pilgrim Christian leaves the City of Destruction for the Celestial City. Read
John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion 1559 — The classic statement of Reformed theology: first a small book printed at Basel in 1536, revised and enlarged until the last edition of 1559. Book 1, chapters 7–8: Scripture is confirmed by the inner witness of the Spirit, and the proofs of its credibility (ch. 8) are secondary helps to our weakness. Read
The Remonstrants, The Five Articles of Remonstrance 1610 — The Arminian articles, five in number, presented to the States of Holland in 1610: election in view of foreseen faith, atonement for all, grace that can be resisted; and those grafted into Christ are given power through the Spirit to fight sin and win, while whether they can fall from grace is left to be examined further from Scripture.
Council of Trent, Decree on Justification 9, 12–13장, 법규 16 / chs 9, 12–13, canon 16 — 1547. No one can know with a certainty of faith that cannot be mistaken that he has obtained God's grace (ch. 9); without a special revelation no one can know whether he is among the predestined (ch. 12). Perseverance to the end is God's gift, of which no one should promise himself absolute certainty, yet all should place the firmest hope in God's help (ch. 13; canon 16).

Lessons from the Bible, the church's creeds, the Westminster Shorter Catechism and the Reformed confessions, the Fathers and classic commentary. They teach the Catechism as the Reformed churches' own, a week at a time, and present both sides where the Reformed differ, and other traditions' views, fairly. Scripture quotations: BSB.