Well said Wesley! Also, I believe that Josh does not understand Biblical justification. <br>As Bishop Ryle has written in his book Holiness taken from the chapter Assurance,<br><blockquote>One most common cause[of lack of assurance of salvation], I suspect, is a defective view of the doctrine of justification.<br>I am inclined to think that justification and sanctification are insensible confused together in the minds of many believers. They receive the Gospel truth--that there must be something done IN US as well as something done FOR US, if we are true members of Christ: and so far they are right. But then without being aware of it, perhaps, they seem to imbibe the idea that their justification is, in some degree, affected by something within themselves. They do not clearly see that Christ's work, not their own work--either in whole or in part, either directly or indirectly--is alone the ground of our acceptance with God; that justification is a thing entirely without us, for which nothing whatever is needful on our part but simple faith--and that the weakest believer is as fully and completely justified as the strongest.<br>...Redeemed sinners, justified sinners, and renewed sinners doubtless we must be-- but sinners, sinners, sinners, we shall be always to the very last. They do not seem to comprehend that there is a wide difference between our justification and our sanctification. Our justification is a perfect finished work, and admits no degrees. Our sanctification is imperfect and incomplete, and will be so to the last hour of our life.<br>...In this matter as well as in many others, the old Galatian heresy is the most fertile source of error, both in doctrine and in practice. People ought to seek clearer views of Christ, and what Christ has done for them. Happy is the man who really understands "justification by faith without the deeds of the law."</blockquote><br> <br>Susan