Round the Sphere Again: Assurance

Scriptural
And in Hebrews, the book with the scary warning passages, no less. 

Ultimately, the believer’s security rests not with the believer but with the living God. His final promise in the letter, “Never will I leave you, never will I forsake you,” is wonderful assurance indeed. So then, “we may say with confidence, ‘The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid, What can mere mortals do to me?’” (Heb. 13:5, 6).

But still there are those warning passages. How do we reconcile them with the words of encouragement and assurance? Read Collin Hansen’s whole interview with Peter O’Brien at The Gospel Coalition Blog.

Confessional
Kevin DeYoung looks at what two Reformed confessions, the Canons of Dort and the Westminster Confession of Faith, have to say about assurance of salvation. Both confessional documents say more-or-less the same thing: 

If you want to know if you are truly in Christ, forgiven of your sins, and sealed for eternal lifeyou should rest in the good news of justification by faith alone, listen for the Spirit speaking to your spirit that you are a child of God, and discern (with the help of others) that God is slowly but surely changing you from one degree of glory to the next. Different people at different times under different circumstances will need to hear about all three grounds of assurance.

(More on the Canons of Dort and the Westminster Confession of Faith.)