The Perseverance of the Saints

The Bible’s major narrative (what its content aims to communicate) is really about God who is Creator, Redeemer and Restorer of all that human beings have ruined due to our rebellion against him.  Our addiction to our own autonomy and independence from God (something we can never really realize but are deceived into thinking that we can) turns us away from our Creator and from life itself and has set us on the path toward death and utter loss.  Now for his own glory the Triune Creator God (even before human rebellion and the fall into sin) by grace established a plan to redeem from the mass of human rebels a people for his own possession.   It is for God’s own glory that he will not allow his creation to fall apart.  However, God did not create the cosmos and the earth and all that inhabits it out of any deficiency within his own being but rather it was out of the overflowing fullness of his being that he created and it is for his glory that He well rescue that fallen creation.

The crown of God’s creation is the human race of image bearing men and women.  Yet as a race we are lost in sin and rebellion heading for the wrath of God.   Even God’s wrath will be for the display of his utter glory (Romans 9:14-23).  Yet in wrath God has also remembered mercy.  He has by grace determined to save a people – His people.  Before the creation of the world God knew them and purposed to give them to His Son who by grace came to purchase them as his own possession.  He did this by his incarnation, obedient life, sacrificial death and glorious resurrection. 

So God’s grace is sovereign in that he alone is its source and he is under no necessity outside of himself to give grace to sinful and fallen people.  Yet he as Lord has determined, based on his own will and good pleasure, to save those he chooses.  This is what is called unconditional election.  It is God choosing in eternity those whom he will save.  Those whom he foreknew he predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son (Romans 8:29).  This is all by His grace.  Then by that same grace God sent his Son to secure their redemption.  Jesus did this by his obedience.  His atonement was particular in that He died for the elect, for his sheep, for his church.   God’s grace is also at work when he irresistibly calls lost and rebellious sinners to Christ and by the Holy Spirit working through the Gospel causes them to be born again or raised spiritually so as to be joined to Christ by faith. 

Salvation is by God’s grace alone.  It includes not only the new birth and justification but the progression of our maturity in Christ through faith and obedience (sanctification) and our final glorification.  This saving grace of God doesn’t just bring us to saving faith while the rest of the Christian life is dependent upon our resolve and energy.  God’s grace is his power to keep us and bring us to glory.  This does not mean that we do not have a part to play in this journey.  We are called to endure and persevere.   Yet we work out our salvation with fear and trembling knowing that it is God who is working in us to will and to do according to his good purpose (Philippians 2:12-13). 

Some have taught that Christians due to their sin and neglect of the means of grace can lose the saving grace of God.  Others have taught what is called eternal security or once save always saved – maintaining that all one needs to be saved is to make a profession of faith in Christ and say a sinner’s prayer.  Once you do that you are saved and will not lose your salvation.   Both views misunderstand the Bible’s teaching.  The Bible never teaches that genuine saints can lose their salvation.  However, the Bible just as emphatically affirms that not everyone who merely professes faith in Christ is really saved.  

Rather the Bible teaches what is called the perseverance of the saints.  This doctrine means that all those who are truly called of God and born again and thus come to faith in Christ will by God’s grace continue to persevere by faith to the end. 

The other reality to this doctrine is the utter necessity of such persevering faith for only those who endure to the end are truly called of God and born again.  So such perseverance is the ultimate evidence of one being truly saved by grace. 

This doctrine does not mean that true believers cannot sin and at times even grievously.  Rather what it means is that God gives grace so that such saints are restored through repentance.  However, such sin will cause those who are indeed born again to grieve and to seek God’s promised forgiveness.  God will see to this.

The doctrine of perseverance of the saints if understood will not leave us lax but rather stir us to be sure that we grow in assurance of God’s grace by making our call and election sure and working out our salvation with fear and trembling.  Those who are indeed called of God and born again will persevere by faith because God gives this grace of persevering faith. (John 6:37-40; 10:27-30; Romans 5:8-10; 8:29-30; Colossians 3:3-4; 1 Corinthians 1:8-9; Philippians 1:6; Hebrews 7:25; 1 Peter 1:5-7).