05-Legal Assurance

The New Testament, it is clear, does not describe the believer as a
‘wretched man’, but speaks of him as one who enjoys ever-
increasing glory, liberty and assurance. 1 And this, of course,
should be the lot of every believer today. Many Reformed
disagree. They think that Romans 7:14-25 represents the believer
at his most spiritual, and that most believers never get full
assurance; some even think that most believers don’t deserve it!
They also argue vehemently that the believer is under the law of
Moses (usually whittled down, without the slightest justification,
to the ten commandments, the so-called ‘moral law’) for
progressive sanctification. 2 It’s my contention that all this is
connected, and explains why so many believers, reared under
such a legal system, find themselves in bondage, fear and doubt,
often for years, if not decades, if not all their lives. Indeed, many
Reformed men preach, teach and write in ways which positively
encourage doubt and introspection, fear and lack of assurance.
Some even glory in the fact that they make believers anxious!
And it’s not only where the law is openly and statedly preached.
The teaching of legal assurance – or that which leads to it – casts
its shadow far wider than that.