Pull quote: -----If we have been convinced and made sensible of sin and of our lost condition by nature; if we have not smothered that conviction, but cherished it; if we have not run to this or that duty for satisfying of divine justice and for making of our peace thereby, but were necessitated to betake ourselves to Jesus Christ made offer of in the gospel for the salvation of sinners; and if we have closed with Him as He was offered—if we have done so, we may thence conclude that He had loved us and given Himself to save us because He has humbled me for sin ... and given me this faith to believe in Him; and this is His promise which I rest upon that I shall be saved.
Use One. The first use serves for information to let you know that there are many professing Christians that account this a curious, nice and conceity thing, to study to be sure and to make it sure that Christ in His death and sufferings minded them in particular. Others maybe think it impossible; and all may think it a right hard and difficult thing and indeed so it is. But yet we would have you to consider: 1. That simply it is not impossible, else we should say that the comfort of the people of God were impossible. 2. That it is no curious thing; for the Lord does not lay the obligation to curiosity on any, though we would wish that many had a holy curiosity to know God’s mind towards them that they might not live in the dark about such a concerning business. 3. “That the secret of the Lord is with them that fear him” (Ps. 25:14), and even this same secret concerning redemption is with them, “and he will show them his covenant.” And indeed it were no small matter to have this manifested.
Use Two. And therefore as a second use of the point, we would commend to you the study of making this sure; for it has many notable advantages attending it. It would provoke to humility and to thankfulness to Him “that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood” [Rev. 1:5].It would make a comfortable and cheerful Christian life; it would warm the heart with love to God and to Jesus Christ, Who has thus loved us as to give Himself for us. When we commend this to you, it is no uncouth, nice, needlessly curious or unattainable thing; nor would we have you, when you cannot attain it, to sit down discouraged; neither would we have you take any extraordinary way to come by it; nor waiting for any new light, but that which is in the Bible; nor would we have you resolving to do no other thing till you attain to this. But this we would have you to do, even to make faith in Christ sure by fleeing to Him and casting your burden on Him, by cordial receiving of Him and acquiescing in Him; and then you make all sure. The committing of yourselves to Him, to be saved by His price paid to divine justice and resting on Him as He is held out in the gospel, is the way to read your interest in His redemption.
And this is it that we have in Galatians 3 and 2:19–20, where it is disputed at length that we are heirs of Abraham by believing. “By the law” (says the apostle) “I am dead to the law, that I might live unto God: I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ lives in me, and the life which I live in the flesh is by the faith of the Son of God.” Hence he concludes, “who loved me, and gave himself for me.” And this he proves in the last words, “I do not frustrate the grace of God.” ‘I do not disappoint it, I mar it not in its end and design.’ ‘It is’ (as if he had said) ‘seeking a lost sinner to save and I give it a lost sinner to be saved.’ For though God’s decree be the first step to salvation and the work of redemption follows on it and then believing on both; yet to come to the knowledge of God’s decree of election and of our concern in the covenant of redemption, we look downward and seek first to know if we have a right to make application of that which was thought upon long since concerning us. And this we do by reflection on the way we have come to believing.
If we have been convinced and made sensible of sin and of our lost condition by nature; if we have not smothered that conviction, but cherished it; if we have not run to this or that duty for satisfying of divine justice and for making of our peace thereby, but were necessitated to betake ourselves to Jesus Christ made offer of in the gospel for the salvation of sinners; and if we have closed with Him as He was offered—if we have done so, we may thence conclude that He had loved us and given Himself to save us because He has humbled me for sin (may the serious soul say) and given me this faith to believe in Him; and this is His promise which I rest upon that I shall be saved.
Or you may try your interest in His redemption thus: Whether am I one of God’s people or no? Whether do I walk like them? And so go through the marks and signs of holiness, asking yourself, what sincerity is there in me? What mortification? What humility, meekness, love to God and His children? And what fruits of faith in new-obedience? These two, faith and holiness, are the pillars that bear up the house of assurance—working and not resting on it, believing and yet not growing vain and light because of it; but so much the rather studying holiness; and to go on between and with these two till we come to read God’s mind about our election and redemption. For neither believing nor holiness can make any alteration in the bargain of redemption, yet it will warrant our application of the bargain and clear out interest in it; as the Apostle Peter plainly insinuates when he thus exhorts, “Give diligence to make your calling and election sure” [2 Pet. 1:10]. How is that? Will diligence make God alter His decree of election or make it any surer in itself? No, by no means. But it will assure us of it; for “by so doing an entrance shall be ministered unto us abundantly into his everlasting kingdom.” By giving all diligence to add one grace to another and one degree of grace to another, there shall be a wide door opened to us to go into heaven by; and there is no hazard in commending this doctrine to you all, even the study of faith and holiness, thereby to come to the knowledge of God’s secret counsel concerning you.
James Durham, Sermon 20, Collected Sermons of James Durham: Seventy-two sermons on Isaiah 53 (new edition forthcoming, Naphtali Press/Reformation Heritage Books, 2017).
