Of Assurance of Grace and Salvation, XVIII:4

True believers may have the assurance of their salvation diverse ways shaken, diminished, and intermitted; as, by negligence in preserving of it, by falling into some special sin which wounds the conscience and grieves the Spirit; by some sudden or vehement temptation, by God's withdrawing the light of His countenance, and suffering even such as fear Him to walk in darkness and to have no light: yet are they never utterly destitute of that seed of God, and life of faith, that love of Christ and the brethren, that sincerity of heart, and conscience of duty, out of which, by the operation of the Spirit, this assurance may, in due time, be revived; and be the which, in the mean time, they are supported from utter despair.

We learned earlier that progress in sanctification often pursues a rocky road and occasionally a foot slips, a stumble occurs, or there is even a fall. So it is with assurance. Even those who have assurance of grace and salvation may find they do not always have it to the same degree, or at all. The Confession here lays out several ways by which our assurance may be adversely affected:

1) We may neglect to preserve it, chiefly by failing to take advantage of all the means discussed previously.

2) We may fall into special sin, something outrageously out of character (and the Christian who denies that he could ever commit such-and-such a sin deceives himself) or a besetting sin or something over which we have grown complacent. Such may wound the conscience; such certainly grieves the Spirit.

3) A sudden or powerful temptation may overwhelm us. We must constantly be on the alert. Satan throws all sorts of barbs and arrows at us.

4) God, for his own good and wise purposes, may for a time withdraw the light of his countenance from us. Although this may seem a horrible idea, recall that for the Christian all things work together for good even though the good may not be apparent to us immediately or even for many years. God has in mind to do us good; sometimes he leads us through the valley of the shadow for our sakes.

But no matter what we may know that we are never destitute, never alone, never bereft. God does not take away what he has promised will endure forever. In his time he will revive us again. He will ensure that we persevere and finish the race set before us.

Tomorrow: Assurance summarized.