Marks of a True Disciple

Bunyan, through his allegory, Pilgrim’s Progress, gives to us great insight as to one’s assurance of salvation. Christianity can be a very deceptive thing.  Not unlike the character Talkative, there can be some who speak of “of prayer, of repentance, of faith, and of the new birth; but he knows but only to talk of them.” The Pilgrim engages such a one and in the process gives us good insight into the nature of saving faith.

First he speaks of evil. There are those that willingly jump on the bandwagon against evil in all its deadly forms, but “a man may cry out against sin, of policy; but he cannot abhor it but by virtue of a godly antipathy against it.”  Do we speak against sin or do we loathe it in ourselves?  Saving faith introduces a character that is repulsed by sin.

Secondly, what of the knowledge of the Truth?   Are we not often aware of our own level of Christian comprehension yet we find ourselves so inept in obedience? “For there is a knowledge that is not attended with doing: “He that knoweth his Master’s will, and doeth it not.” A man may know like an angel, and yet be no Christian: therefore your sign of it is not true.”  Saving faith produces a desire to obey.  “There are, therefore, two sorts of knowledge, knowledge that resteth in the bare speculation of things, and knowledge that is accompanied with the grace of faith and love, which puts a man upon doing even the will of God from the heart: the first of these will serve the talker; but without the other, the true Christian is not content.”

Thirdly, what of Jesus Christ?  The true Christian “. . . findeth, moreover, revealed in him the Saviour of the world, and the absolute necessity of closing with him for life; at the which he findeth hungerings and thirstings after him; to which hungerings, etc., the promise is made.” What a difference to know about Jesus, and to love and delight in Him? 

“Christ did not die to forgive sinners who go on treasuring anything above seeing and savoring God. And people who would be happy in heaven if Christ were not there, will not be there. The gospel is not a way to get people to heaven; it is a way to get people to God. It's a way of overcoming every obstacle to everlasting joy in God. If we don't want God above all things, we have not been converted by the gospel.”  ― John Piper, God Is the Gospel: Meditations on God's Love as the Gift of Himself

Bunyan goes on through the conversation with Faithful and Talkative to say this:

“To others it is thus discovered:

1. By an experimental confession of his faith in Christ.

2. By a life answerable to that confession; to wit, a life of holiness-heart-holiness, family-holiness, (if he hath a family,) and by conversation-holiness in the world; which in the general teacheth him inwardly to abhor his sin, and himself for that, in secret; to suppress it in his family, and to promote holiness in the world: not by talk only, as a hypocrite or talkative person may do, but by a practical subjection in faith and love to the power of the word.”

Oh that these things: heart-felt love for Christ; an inner passion for holiness and obedience, would be my testimony.  Anything else short of that is of no avail.