Many Christians struggle with doubt and a lack of assurance of salvation and that then has consequences for their confidence in coming to the table of the Lord. So it's not unusual to be asked as a pastor, what should I do if I have lost assurance of salvation or don't have an assurance of faith? Should I stay away from the Lord's Supper or should I come and partake of the Lord's Supper? One thing to remember is that assurance is not of the essence of faith, which means that a person can have faith but not be assured of the fact that he has that faith. Now he may believe everything in the Bible about God and Jesus Christ and the way of salvation and that salvation is only through Christ by faith alone.

He may believe all of those objective things, but his question is this, how do I know for sure that I have believed? Well assurance is not of the essence of faith and our forefathers in the faith wrestled long and hard with this question. So the early reformers tended to bring the two things together So if you'd have asked John Knox, is faith assured he would likely have told you yes, the person who has faith is assured of his salvation. A hundred years later the Puritans came to see that many people in their congregations struggled with this and in the Westminster Confession of Faith they provided a whole chapter on this subject of the assurance of salvation And in fact in the larger catechism they devote question and answer to this very subject so it's clearly something someone or some people have struggled with for many years. The question is 172 of the larger catechism, may one who doubteth of his being in Christ or of his Jew preparation come to the Lord's Supper?" Now not read the whole of the answer but basically they teach us that if the person who doubts is concerned about that doubt, is fighting sin that there's no scandal in his life, that the Lord's Supper is a means of grace to that individual whereby his faith can be strengthened.

So the person is thinking should I come to the Lord's table I don't have assurance of faith and they say well if you're fighting against your sin come with all of your doubts and your confusions, because this is the very table where Jesus Christ himself feeds our weak and trembling faith.