Assurance

Assurance in Scripture refers both to the certainty of divine facts and to the personal confidence of the believer's standing before God. Paul in Acts 17:31 declares that God has given assurance (Greek pistis) of the coming judgment by raising Christ from the dead. The Epistle to the Hebrews emphasizes the full assurance of faith in drawing near to God (10:22) and the full assurance of hope (6:11). Colossians 2:2 speaks of the riches of full assurance of understanding in knowing Christ. The Reformers and later Puritan theologians gave extensive attention to the assurance of salvation as a legitimate and important aspect of Christian experience.