The Creeds, Assurance, and Good Works (3): Canons 1:16 (c)

What, then, shall the impenitent sinner be terrified by the doctrine of reprobation? Yes, say the Canons: “this doctrine is justly terrible [terrifying]” to impenitent sinners (Canons 1:16). They should tremble before the God who ordains sinners to everlasting destruction in the way of their sins. However, no man living should say, “I am irrevocably reprobate” and then, using reprobation as an excuse, continue in his sins. Instead, he must, as all sinners must, repent and believe the gospel, not prying into the secret things of God. The gospel is clear: Whoever believes in Jesus, even if he fears to be a great reprobate, shall be saved. The one who is damned is the one who refuses to believe in Jesus Christ and repent.

The Creeds, Assurance, and Good Works (3): Canons 1:16 (b)

The Creeds, Assurance, and Good Works (3): Canons 1:16 (a)

The Creeds, Assurance, and Good Works (2): Canons 1:12

We observe these things in ourselves “with a spiritual joy and a holy pleasure.” These things do not make us proud because we see them as “fruits,” fruits which we could never bring forth except in union with Jesus Christ. These things give us joy and pleasure and we conclude, “I could never have these things (faith, reverence for God, sorrow over my sin, and a desire to have a life conformed to God’s standard) if I were not elect.” These fruits are not perfect, of course (for our best works are defiled with sin and we have many evil inclinations in our hearts), but they are real, genuine fruits, fruits in which we observe the effect of the grace of God in our lives. That gives us spiritual joy and holy pleasure. And it gives us spiritual joy and holy pleasure to observe them in our fellow believers, in our children and young people, in our friends and family, in our fellow church members.

The Creeds, Assurance, and Good Works (1): Heidelberg Catechism, A. 86

If good works are not the basis, the cause, the reason, the instrument, or the means of our assurance, what do we make of Answer 86 of the Heidelberg Catechism, which gives our good works a certain role? Answer 86 in response to the question, “Why must we—who are saved “merely of grace, through Christ, without any merit of ours” (Q86)—“still do good works,” we read (among other things) this: “also, that every one may be assured in himself of his faith by [German, "aus;" or "out of"] the fruits thereof.”