Samuel Richardson encourages believers to draw comfort from their justification, accomplished by the finished work of Christ, rather than looking to their ever-imperfect growing in sanctification.
Assurance
Faith is not then properly the condition of the Covenant, upon the performance of which, they have a right and title to it; but a choice effect of it, and a singular means for the application of the promises, and fetching in of Covenant blessings to the Soul: by that the Promise, or what is in the Promise, is given to it, and Faith having thus to do with the Promises, it must needs have an aptitude above other Graces, above Sanctification and Evangelical obedience to witness a Soul’s interest in the everlasting Covenant.
…
By Faith the Soul maketh out [i.e. looks] to Jesus Christ in the Free Promise, as he alone that giveth it subsistence in spiritual Life…Christians live by Faith, by what is laid up in Divine Promises, by these things they live.
…
I have often thought, if Christians did give more attendance to such direct acts of Faith, and spent less time in questioning their conditions, or giving way to doubtings about them, they would find their interest in the Covenant cleared up, yea and consolation also coming in as by the by.
…
We are to take heed, that we do not ground and bottom our consolation on the qualifications within, but on the promise itself (or the Lord therein) without. Many are drawing and fetching their comfort from their faith and other graces, and lay the stress of it there, and accordingly are up and down, ebbing and flowing therein, instead of fetching it from the Lord in the promise, an immutable thing, Heb. 6.18. by the means of faith and taking that and other graces only as evidences of interest in it. Some, because they are weary and heavy laden, thence take their rest
and refreshment, wheras they are called out of themselves, to come for it to Jesus Christ, Matth. 11.28. When qualifications lie most dark, or are most clearly discerned, yet we should not look so much to these, as to Jesus Christ in the promise for Consolation … when Jesus Christ was upon Earth, he performed the office of a Mediator as to satisfaction; and now he is in heaven, he doth it still as to intercession, Heb. 7.25. He presenteth his obedience continually to the Father for our obtainment for what he hath purchased. Would we have any foederal blessings, the Law written in our heart in more lively characters, the Lord witnessed more fully to be our God, sin to be pardoned? Let our faith be acting upon him as one that mediateth for our obtainment of all; for he is the Mediator, not of the Old, but of the New and Better Testament, which is established upon better Promises.
“Christ and the Condition: Samuel Petto (c.1624-1711) on the Mosaic Covenant,” by Michael G. Brown
(PDF can be found here.)
Editor’s Note: This essay is taken from Chapter 9 of Horatius Bonar’s The Everlasting Righteousness, originally published in 1874. The Trinity Foundation is now publishing a revised edition of the book.
Assurance of Salvation
”Christ for us,” the obedient in the place of the disobedient, is the first part of our message. His assumption of the legal claims, which otherwise would have been made good against us, is the security for our deliverance. That deliverance becomes an actual thing to us immediately upon our consenting to allow him to undertake our case.
“Christ in us” is the second part of our Gospel. This second is of mighty moment, and yet is not to be confounded with the first. That which is done for us is not the same as that which is done in us. By the former we are constituted righteous, by the latter we are made holy. The one is properly the Gospel, in the belief of which we are saved; the other, the carrying out of that Gospel in the soul. Christ “for us” is our justification. “Christ in us, and we in Christ,” is our holiness. The former is the external substitution; the latter, the internal energy or operation, taking its rise from the former, yet not to be confounded with it, or substituted for it. Christ the substitute, giving his life for ours upon the cross, is specially the object of faith. The message concerning this sacrificial work is the Gospel, the belief which brings pardon to the guilty. God has given us this Gospel not merely for the purpose of securing to us life hereafter, but of making us sure of this life even now. It is a true and sure Gospel; so that he who believes it is made sure of being saved. If it could not make us sure, it would make us miserable; for to be told of such a salvation and such a glory, yet kept in doubt as to whether they are to be ours or not, must render us truly wretched. What a poor Gospel it must be, which leaves the man who believes it still in doubt as to whether he is a child of God, an unpardoned or a pardoned sinner! Till we have found forgiveness, we cannot be happy; we cannot serve God gladly or lovingly; but must be in sore bondage and gloom. This is the view of the matter which Scripture sets before us; telling us that salvation is a free, a sure, and a present gift. “He that believes is justified” (Acts 13:39). “He that believes has everlasting life” (John 3:36). The Bible gives no quarter to unbelief or doubting. It does not call it humility. It does not teach us to think better of ourselves for doubting. It does not countenance uncertainty or darkness.
The Sovereign Logos 