Holiness: For the Will of God Is Your Sanctification – 1 Thessalonians 4:3 [Annotated, Updated]

by J.C. Ryle

Lastly, it cannot be wrong to be confident in a matter where God speaks unconditionally, to believe decidedly when God promises decidedly, and to have a sure persuasion of pardon and peace when we rest on the word and oath of Him who never changes. It is an utter mistake to suppose that the believer who feels assurance is resting on anything he sees in himself. He simply leans on the Mediator of the New Covenant and the Scripture of truth. He believes that the Lord Jesus means what He says, and he takes Him at His word. Assurance, after all, is no more than a full-grown faith. It is a mature faith that grasps Christ’s promise with both hands. It is a faith that argues like the good centurion, “If the Lord speak the word only, then I am healed” (Matthew 8:8). Wherefore then should I doubt?[2] We can be sure that Paul was the last man in the world to build his assurance on anything of his own. He who could write himself down as the chief of sinners (1 Timothy 1:15) had a deep sense of his guilt and corruption, but he had a still deeper sense of the length and breadth of Christ’s righteousness imputed to him. He who could cry, O wretched man that I am (Romans 7:24) had a clear view of the fountain of evil within his heart, but he had a still clearer view of that other Fountain that can remove all sin and uncleanness. He who thought himself less than the least of all saints (Ephesians 3:8) had a strong and abiding feeling of his own weakness, but he had a still stronger feelin...