While nothing is inherently wrong with experience, problems arise when experience becomes primary, especially in our assurance of justification. Faith is not experience, but a hoping in things unseen and often un-”experienced”:
There are indeed people who for the first time in their lives quite consciously experience God’s justification in a very personal and profound way. It is, however, not right to prescribe the experience of a few as a model for all. Others then await this special, overpowering experience, while–for a shorter or longer span of time that precedes it–they keep themselves far from the acceptance of the promise that Christ will be our righteousness. Faith in this promise is impeded by the thought that justification must first be experienced in a dramatic way before one can speak of Christ as “my righteousness.” In this scheme the significance of Christ is then identified with the experience of this special moment. This actually leaves no room for hesitant contemplation of God’s promise and growth for hope in Christ. There is only this indeterminate waiting for that one special moment. All contact with Christ in faith is marked by the liberating force of justification. Assurance of justification is not restricted to a unique form of experience, but characterizes all contact with Christ, who wants to be our righteousness. The danger is that this special (type of) experience is made into a prerequisite for justification. In this way faith is assigned much more than a functional (facilitating) role.
. . . one can only experience justification through the preaching of the gospel. In this preaching salvation, including justification, is mediated.
- J. van Genderen, W. H. Velema, Concise Reformed Dogmatics trans. Gerrits Bilkes and Ed M. van der Maas (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R, 2008), 622-23.
Tags: Assurance, Concise Reformed Dogmatics, Gospel, Justification, Preaching
