Thursday, March 01, 2012

Spurgeon: "I looked at Christ and the dove of peace flew into my heart. I looked at the dove and it flew away"

Recently I listened to a lecture in which Spurgeon was quoted saying, "I looked at Christ and the dove of peace flew into my heart. I looked at the dove and it flew away."

In the context of the lecture the point was that if one scrutinizes their own works for certainty of salvation, if one is truly honest with oneself, no work is good enough to meet the criteria of salvation. In fact, even our best efforts are tainted with sin. The only thing deep honest scrutiny of our works would produce is... despair. If you want to end up in despair like Luther before his evangelical breakthrough, take a good long look at your works.

I like how the Belgic confession puts it in Article XXIV:
Therefore we do good works, but not to merit by them (for what can we merit?); nay, we are indebted to God for the good works we do, and not He to us, since it is He who worketh in us both to will and to work, for his good pleasure. Let us therefore attend to what is written: When ye shall have done all the things that are commanded you, say, We are unprofitable servants; we have done that which it was our duty to do. In the meantime we do not deny that God rewards good works, but it is through His grace that He crowns His gifts.
Moreover, though we do good works, we do not found our salvation upon them; for we can do no work but what is polluted by our flesh, and also punishable; and although we could perform such works, still the remembrance of one sin is sufficient to make God reject them. Thus, then, we would always be in doubt, tossed to and fro without any certainty, and our poor consciences would be continually vexed if they relied not on the merits of the suffering and death of our Savior.
This sort of thing about works producing assurance is one of the reasons I'm not Puritan-crazy. I know, the Puritan writings are vast and varied. I'm not throwing them all out. I'm not particularly fond though of any that over-emphasize self-introspection to such an extreme that finding any sort of assurance of salvation is like finding a pearl of great price. Any sort of "assurance" that begins to function like a second blessing (the paradigm that sometimes works like, "Now I'm good enough to take communion") is not for me. I've run into these people. I met a dear old woman one time who explained to me she never took communion because she wasn't sure of her salvation.

That Spurgeon quote certainly hits the target. I was curious about the particular quote attributed to him, so I did a cursory search, and came up with... nothing. I don't claim to be any sort of expert on Charles Spurgeon, nor would I even admit to having read many of his writings. I do though have many of his writings, either in electronic format, or actual books. I even took the time to contact the mastermind of the Spurgeon Archive, and he likewise could not find anything.  So, my guess is the quote isn't Spurgeon's, or if it is, perhaps it's a summary of something he said.

As to assurance in general, here's my 2 cents. It's grounded upon the gracious promises of God in Christ. Yes, the witness of the Spirit in our hearts confirms it. Yes it is also confirmed by the way of obedience. But these later two do not trump the only foundation, the finished work of Christ and the promises of God. Someone focusing on the witness of the Spirit in the heart and  the way of obedience demonstrated by works rather than the promises of God tends to be relying on personal experience for assurance.

Go ahead and scrutinize your works. Do you find yourself falling short of your duty? If you do, like I do, embrace the promises of God for your assurance. Do you want some sort of supernatural experience of the Holy Spirit assuring you of your faith? Cling to what the Holy Spirit wrote in the pages of Scripture. Believe what He says. You see, even the "experiential" assurances should lead you back to the promises of God for your assurance.

8 comments:

Martin Yee said...

Sobering reminder. Where I am in Asia, everyday I am surrounded by people who believe good works are necessary for salvation. This is the basis of almost most religions here anyway. Not too sure in America, is that the case also?

James Swan said...

Martin,

An imbalance as to the importance of "what we do" as being necessary in regard to our salvation is universal and infects each of us to a greater or lesser degree.

That's why each week at church, I need to hear the preaching of the Gospel!

The Blogger Formerly Known As Lvka said...

Hi, guys!

I just wanted to share with you this a beautiful devotional passage about the value of FAITH and the worthlessness of our own ASCETIC efforts, which fits so nicely with what Spurgeon said:

"Neither going about naked, nor matted locks, nor filth, nor fasting, nor lying on the ground, nor smearing oneself with ashes and dust, nor sitting on the heels (in penance) can purify a mortal who has not overcome doubt". (Buddha, The Dhammapada)

Viisaus said...

Better not start throwing stones in a glass house, Lvka. The similarities of Eastern Orthodox ascetic monkery to pagan Hindu or Buddhist practices are disturbingly close.

The Blogger Formerly Known As Lvka said...

...and, if you truly want to know just HOW close they REALLY are, you can read the last 15 short posts on my blog... :-)

Anonymous said...

This is at least the idea from the supposed Spurgeon quote: from his sermon, “The Blood”

IV. And now, lastly, WHAT IS THE LESSON. The lesson of the text is to the Christian this. Christian, take care that thou dost always remember, that nothing but the blood of Christ can save thee. I preach to myself to-day what I preach to you. I often find myself like this: —I have been praying that the Holy Spirit might rest in my heart and cleanse out an evil passion, and presently I find myself full of doubts and fears, and when I ask the reason, I find it is this: —I have been looking to the Spirit's work until I put the Spirit's work where Christ's work ought to be. Now, it is a sin to put your own works where Christ's should be; but it is just as much a sin to put the Holy Spirit's work there. You must never make the Spirit of God an anti-Christ, and you virtually do that when you put the Spirit's work as the groundwork of your faith. Do you not often hear Christian men say, "I cannot believe in Christ to-day as I could yesterday, for yesterday I felt such sweet and blessed enjoyments." Now, what is that but putting your frames and feelings where Christ ought to be. Remember, Christ's blood is no more able to save you in a good frame than in a bad frame. Christ's blood must be your trust, as much when you are full of joy as when you are full of doubt. And here it is that your happiness will be in danger, by beginning to put your good frames and good feelings in the room of the blood of Christ. O, brethren, if we could always live with a single eye fixed on the Cross, we should always be happy; but when we get a little peace, and a little joy, we begin to prize the joy and peace so much, that we forget the source whence they come. As Mr. Brooks says, "A husband that loves his wife will, perhaps, often give her jewels and rings; but suppose she should sit down and begin to think of her jewels and rings so much that she should forget her husband, it would be a kind husband's business to take them away from her so that she might fix her affections entirely on him." And it is so with us. Jesus gives us jewels of faith and love, and we get trusting to them, and he takes them away in order that we may come again as guilty, helpless sinners, and put our trust in Christ. To quote a verse I often repeat—I believe the spirit of a Christian should be, from his first hour to his last, the spirit of these two lines: —

"Nothing in my hand I bring,
Simply to thy cross I cling."

James Swan said...

Hi Anonymous,

Thanks for the Spurgeon quote.

In general for anyone coming across this post: since I wrote this blog post back in 2012, I've since made peace with the Westminster Standards and the Puritans. For the former, I've done an in-depth study on assurance as presented in the WCF. For the later, I've learned to not lump all the Puritans together- some of what they wrote on works as a sign of assurance was not all that bad!

Anonymous said...

Sometimes, when my faith is vigorous, I catch myself doing this. There is joy flowing into my heart, and after awhile I begin to find that my joy suddenly departs. I ask the causes, and I find that the joy came because I was thinking of Christmy joy, then my joy fled. You must not think of your faith but of Christ. Faith comes from meditation upon Christ. Turn, then, your eye, not upon faith but upon Jesus. It is not your hold of Christ that saves you; it is his hold of you. It is not the efficacy of your believing in him; it is the efficacy of his blood applied to you through the Spirit.

^this is maybe even closer to the original Spurgeon quote