DOCTRINES OF GRACE: THE PERSEVERANCE OF THE SAINTS - PART I
INTRODUCTION
Every doctrine of the word of God is a two-edged sword. On the one hand it can be properly wielded to encourage and motivate the saints unto holiness or on the other hand it can be improperly wielded to discourage the saints or to give them a false sense of security as they head down the road to destruction. This statement is especially true of the doctrine we are now to consider, the fifth and final doctrine of grace, The Perseverance of the Saints. Many a true saint of God has found great hope in rightly embracing this succulent truth. Many a false professor has used it to bolster a false hope and further harden his soul to the gospel. It is therefore with great care and yet joyful confidence that we commence a discussion of this doctrine. For the true believer who sees in himself a hope in the gospel, this amazing truth is proffered as a balm to the soul. For the mere professor who evidences no faith in God’s work in Christ, this section should be read with great sobriety of heart. Our prayer is that this truth, the perseverance of the saints, will comfort the convicted and convict the comfortable.
DEFINITION OF THE WORDS.
The doctrine of the Perseverance of the Saints is succinctly defined in the Westminster Confession: “They whom God has accepted in His Beloved, effectually called and sanctified by His Spirit, can neither totally nor finally fall away from the state of grace; but shall certainly persevere therein to the end and be eternally saved.” [1] The doctrine of the Perseverance of the Saints, as with all the Doctrines of Grace, can be subject to misinterpretation. First let us consider the word ‘saints.’ Contrary to Roman tradition, saints are not an honorary group of people who have been canonized by the church because they meet certain levels of piety and who have performed documented miracles. This is a total twisting of the word saint. A saint by definition is anyone who has been saved by God. The word for saint ‘hagios’ (gk: ἅγιος), simply means ‘different’ or ‘set apart.’ Those who have been saved by God are set apart for Him alone and are given by God a different status (and hopefully a different life) than the common man. Saints are truly ‘uncommon’ people, but not in the sense of the Roman Church, nor in the sense of personal giftedness or ability. They are uncommon because God has chosen them to be His special treasure. This is the meaning behind Deut 7:6 where God says to Israel, “For you are a people holy to the LORD your God. The LORD your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.” Notice that the status of being special is rooted in election. And just as one can take no credit for his election, neither can he take credit for his or her status as a saint. God chooses saints, saints do not choose God. Thus to be a saint is to be one who has been set apart for God’s usage. That is the core meaning. And if God has chosen certain people to Himself then one would expect that this favored group would be gripped by an overwhelming desire to walk worthy of the calling with which they were called. [2]
When we get to the word perseverance we immediately run into a dilemma. Perseverance is a moral quality of sticking with something to the end. We have argued, however, that the Doctrines of Grace are a summary of all that God has done to save humanity. Nothing in these doctrines allows for any contribution by man. Election is God’s sole decision to choose men before they were even created. The atonement is God’s work to cure the sin problem for those He chose and that without their permission or help. God’s call to those He choses is an irresistible work whereby God unilaterally draws His people to Himself. Now if God has done all that for His people, then it stands to reason that He will continue to work in them throughout their spiritual journey. If God has done all the work to save sinners from eternity past to present atonement, then shall He not also do all the work of sustaining them through that final leg of the race? Or will we attribute the saint’s ability to persevere to the end to his own efforts? In other words, is this doctrine saying that Christians persevere in the faith due to their own resources? If not then what exactly do we mean by the doctrine of the Perseverance of the Saints?
THE REFORMED DEFINITION OF PERSEVERANCE
Though the word ‘perseverance’ leans in the direction of human contribution, the Reformed or Calvinistic doctrine means something different. First, Calvinists do not assert that perseverance excludes the human will. On the contrary all reformed theologians admit that perseverance is that quality of earthly existence whereby one completes a goal. One perseveres because he or she has made a conscious decision or decisions to press on in the face of many obstacles. We see this quality in every facet of human endeavor. This is no less true in Christianity. No one is ever saved who has not willed to press forward in the faith. All Calvinistic theologians agree about this.
Second, though proponents of the Doctrines of Grace acknowledge that perseverance includes human choice, they in no wise place the onus of completing the Christian race on the one who perseveres. What it does mean is that those who have been chosen by Christ and called in time, will be ‘saved to the uttermost’ which includes getting safely to the end of one’s spiritual journey. In other words behind this perseverance, which is a product of the human will, are factors that render that perseverance a certainty. Or to say it another way, what causes any saint to persevere is not anything found in the man, but in what God is doing behind the scenes to ensure that perseverance.
That leads to the third characteristic of perseverance according to Calvinism. That is, perseverance rests on God’s immutable decree according to God’s covenant of redemption. In that covenant the persons of the Trinity conspired to save a specific people. The Father chose them, the Son agreed to pay the ransom price for their sins and purchase them, and the Spirit applied those benefits to the saved and sealed them irreversibly till the day of redemption. We find this covenant interspersed in many biblical verses especially in the Gospel of John. For example Jesus, speaking of Himself in the third person, says to His Father, “You have given Him authority over all flesh that He should give eternal life to as many as you have given Him” (John 17:2). In Ephesians 4:30 Paul encourages the believers not to grieve the Spirit of God who has sealed them for the day of redemption. Perseverance is part of a larger, comprehensive divine plan that cannot be altered.
Fourthly, perseverance rests on the Christ’s continuous saving work in heaven. In the verse quoted above, those who are “saved to the uttermost” (read: most assuredly saved) are guaranteed to persevere to the end because of His intercessory work on behalf of His people. The author of Hebrews rests the continuance of the salvation of the elect on Christ’s eternal priesthood where He “ever lives to make intercession for them.” That is, the elect are not only saved by His death on the cross, but they are continually being saved by His pleading to the Father on their behalf from His seat of authority. This is what Paul means by “much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life” (Romans 5:10). Later on when we look at the assurance of the believer we will look at the example of Peter who was preserved by the intercession of Jesus even while Peter was denying his Lord. “But I have prayed for you,” Jesus told him, “that your faith does not fail.” (Luke 22:32). In John 17:9, acting as the eternal High Priest Jesus pleads for His disciples. “I pray for them (the disciples). I do not pray for the world but for those who you have given me.” The Scriptures make it clear that the perseverance of the elect stands unshakably upon the labors of the High Priest.
Fifthly, the saints are preserved because of the work of the Spirit in their lives. His keeping ministry begins with regeneration. He implants in believers a heart that yearns for the things of God (Titus 3:5). He gives the saints hope on earth which helps them carry on to the end (1 Cor 2:10). And He further supplies believers with gifts that edify the church and keep the saints of God strong (1 Cor 12:11). Of all the instruments that the Spirit uses to preserve the saints, none is more important than the word of God itself. For example the author of Hebrews warns the believers who are drifting from the faith by quoting Psalm 95 which is the very word of God. Notice that the author specifically attributes the authorship of that psalm to the Holy Spirit. [3] In Ephesians 6:17 Paul expressly states that the word of God is “the sword of the Spirit.” As far as instructing the church and sanctifying individual believers, the Spirit uses the word of God to achieve those ends. Another important role of the Spirit is that He ‘seals’ believers, that is, He puts a protective seal of ownership around them that protects them from spiritual death. This ministry of the Spirit is expressly stated in Eph. 1:13 and again in 4:3 where Paul is trying to give assurance to the those in the Ephesian Church. All in all, the works of the Spirit to keep the saints in the faith are innumerable. Suffice it to say that Spirit’s work is to keep to the end all for whom Christ died.
Because the keeping of the saints is clearly the work of God, there can be some confusion in describing this keeping work as perseverance. As we said earlier, the English word perseverance rightly describes a tenacious quality of the human will. One perseveres in his or her goal despite all hindrances. It comes by an act of the will, and for the most part is a great virtue. But when it is used to connote the idea of God in keeping His elect the word seems somewhat out of place. As a result many theologians in the reformed tradition have preferred to use the word preservation. This puts the onus on God who preserves His elect. When we look at all the reasons why Christians are secure in their salvation all of them point to God’s preserving power and none of them in their ability to persevere. Calling this doctrine the Preservation of the Saints rightly places the redemption of sinners solely on the shoulders of God. And this alone brings true assurance and rest to the saint. Now we must quickly add that calling it by the name Preservation of the Saints does not negate the participation of the creature in persevering. Preservation does not imply human passivity. One might know that a certain species of animal will be preserved, but there still must be human effort to effect the preservation. The doctrine of the preservation of the saints guarantees the end result of the believer’s destiny but does not discount the efforts of the human will to get there. This paradox is expressed in Paul’s letter to the Philippians. He commands the saints there to “work out their own salvation with fear and trembling.” There is a lot of blood, sweat and tears in this verse. But Paul does not say that one’s striving is the basis of one’s salvation. That is why he follows up this exhortation by reminding the church of God’s gracious work that underlies their striving saying, “For it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.” According to Paul perseverance is a necessary element to salvation, but it rests on God’s working in the believer’s heart.
This does not mean the Doctrines of Grace are teaching what is commonly called ‘eternal security.’ This idea is summarized with the ditty ‘once saved always saved.’ In a certain sense this statement is true. Yet it leaves the door open for a Christianity that eliminates the persevering element. In its radical form this view can lead to what is called Easy Believism or Notionalism. [4] This will be discussed in the next chapter. The reformed doctrine holds a beautiful balance between God’s sovereign work in preserving the saints to the end, and man’s vigorous participation in that salvation in a process known as sanctification.
SCRIPTURAL PROOF
Combining the emphases of the Perseverance of the Saints with the Preservation of the Saints gives us a balanced perspective on this doctrine. To be sure, of all the Doctrines of Grace this one labors the hardest to reconcile God’s monergistic grace with the believer’s will. That God works by grace and yet man chooses are truths everywhere found in the word of God but understanding this mystery does not come easily. In the doctrine of the Perseverance of the Saints the divine will and the human will find a long, common border. How we find peace on that border is a goal to which we now proceed.
That God preserves all His elect without losing one of them is a doctrine so clear in the Scripture as to defy extensive proof texting. Jesus said, “This is the will of the Father who sent Me, that of all He has given Me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day” (Jn 6:39). There is a one to one correspondence between those whom the Father gave the Son and those who will be eternally saved. Not one given to the Son will be lost, not one of God’s elect will miss the mark. Later on in the same book, Jesus speaks fondly of His people, whom He calls ‘sheep.’ He is their all-powerful and loving Shepherd. He will care for them. He will “give them eternal life and they shall never perish,” neither can anyone snatch them out of His hand or the Father’s hand. No true Christian can ever perish. Not because they have an intrinsic staying power, (they have none), but because they are securely held by a double divine omnipotence, the Father and the Son (John 10:28-30). Who or what can take anyone away from Jesus Christ and the Father? Can tribulation and suffering? Let’s look at that for a moment. It would be easy to think that extensive suffering in this life could cause someone to sever themselves from Christ. A Christian who undergoes unusual hardship could come to question the love of Christ and begin to feel bitterness in his soul. But the truth is that the elect draw closer to God in the midst of suffering. God extends a special hand of grace to His children who are in the fire. In fact, He walks through the fire with them as He did with those three Jewish youths in the Book of Daniel. Writing to the suffering saints across the empire Peter writes,
“But may the God of all grace who called us to His eternal glory by Christ Jesus after you have suffered a while perfect, establish, strengthen and settle you” (1 Peter 5:10).
Peter is encouraging these saints with a promise. God will come to them in their suffering and preserve them in their faith by perfecting them, establishing them, strengthening them and settling their hearts. All four verbs are in the future tense. This is not a typical benediction where the author wishes something for his audience, but a promise that God will do certain things. [5] Paul is stating that God will actually make them stronger and more established in the faith, not in spite of their suffering, but because of it. Another example of this strengthening in trial is seen in the book of Job. This man was a strong believer by his day’s standards. Yet when we come to the end of the book he is a broken vessel who now draws close to the Lord in repentance. This pattern is normative for all Christians who suffer.
Paul will ask the same question is Romans 8 having completed his section on the great work of salvation. He asks,
“Who can separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril or sword?”
Paul answers that rhetorical question quite passionately.
“For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth nor any other created thing shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:35, 38-39).
Suffering cannot sever the believer from Christ; rather it draws the believer closer to Him.
Some say that sin can separate us from Christ. After all, Romans 8 says nothing about believers being more than conquerors over their sins. Can the temptations of the world and the devil steal our faith? How about one’s own determination to run away like Jonah? What of one’s besetting sin?
These questions are clearly answered in the Bible. Many of God’s children have fallen into the pit of sin, but God has always lifted them back up and carried them home. Neither suffering nor sin can change the covenant God has made for His elect. He is able, as Jude says, “to keep you from falling.” This falling does not mean falling into sin, but a permanent falling away from God called apostasy. Psalm 37 chronicles the history of the redeemed man.
“The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord
And He delights in His way. Though he fall he shall not be utterly cast down
For the Lord upholds him with His hand.”
Proverbs 24:16 adds that “a righteous man may fall seven times and rise again.” Indeed, the one in whom God delights will fall often on the journey of faith. Pious men or women will be overtaken by sin. The goal is always not to sin, but the fact remains that the saints will sin and often egregiously. The Confession rightly states,
“True believers may have the assurance of their salvation divers ways shaken, diminished, and intermitted; as, by negligence in preserving of it; by falling into some special sin, which wounds the conscience, and grieves the Spirit; by some sudden or vehement temptation; by God’s withdrawing the light of his countenance, and suffering even such as fear him to walk in darkness and to have no light: yet are they never utterly destitute of that seed of God, and life of faith, that love of Christ and the brethren, that sincerity of heart and conscience of duty, out of which, by the operation of the Spirit, this assurance may in due time be revived, and by the which, in the meantime, they are supported from utter despair.” [6]
Though sin may erode the confidence of the believer and shake his faith to the foundations, the fact remains that his salvation rests on the preserving hand of God and not on his own ability to hang on. The tension here is that while God gives us every possible means of grace to prevent us from sinning, the presence of indwelling sin remains a strong opponent to holiness all the days of the believer’s life. And by failing to apply those means of grace the believer stumbles. John gets at the heart of the matter in his first epistle. He writes to his Christian audience so that “you may not sin.” But this statement follows his assertion that “if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us” (1:8). The Bible is a street-wise book and acknowledges that sin will at times gain the ascendancy over the true believer. So while the Christian is expected to engage the means of grace there will be times when he will not and sin shall overcome him. And in these cases the preserving strength of God will keep them from ‘utter despair.’
Here the Christian must consider the heart of Christ. What did Christ think of each of us before we were saved? Surely we were God-hating rebels before God gave us a new heart. Surely we detested God’s gospel, God’s people and God’s church. In fact there was nothing winsome about us before we were saved. And what did Christ do? He moved toward us in love. What attracted Him to us were not our good intentions, our holy lives, or our charismatic personalities. What attracted Him to us was our pitiful condition, yes, our sin. If this is what caused Jesus to save us when we were unsaved then will He abandon us when we sin as one of His children? Perish the thought! How can the Good Shepherd who seeks out tax collectors and publicans ever think of casting away one of His own sheep? Has not Christ “loved us with an everlasting love” (Jer 31:3)? Did He not love His disciples to the end, knowing they would betray and deny Him (John 13:1)? Could this tenderhearted Master ever cast away one of His struggling servants? Romans chapter 5 makes it clear that God saved us when we entangled in all kinds of sin. One author commenting on Romans 5:6-10 says it well,
“Jesus didn’t die for us once we became strong, He didn’t die for us once we started to overcome our sinfulness, God did not reconcile us to himself once we became friendly toward Him. God didn’t meet us halfway.”
He goes on to say,
“We will be less sinful in the next life than we are now, but we will not be any more secure in the next life than we are now.” [7]
These words by Ortlund merely echo the poem by Toplady entitled A Debtor to Mercy Alone. It closes with this memorable verse:
“My name from the palms of His hands, eternity will not erase
Impressed on His heart it remains in marks of indelible grace.
Yes! I to the end shall endure
As sure as the earnest is giv’n;
More happy, but not more secure, the glorified spirits in heaven.”
Those of us who continue to fight here on earth are as secure in their salvation as those who have already entered glory. This truth has comforted the hearts of Christians throughout the centuries. Isaac Watts echoes this truth in a hymn entitled “Firm as the Earth Thy Gospel Stands.” It goes:
“Firm as the earth thy gospel stands, My Lord, my hope, my trust;
If I am found in Jesus' hands, my soul can ne'er be lost.
His honor is engaged to save the meanest of his sheep; all that his heav'nly Father gave, His hands securely keep.
Nor death nor hell shall e'er remove His favorites from his breast; in the dear bosom of his love, They must forever rest.”
Those of us who continue to fight here on earth are as secure in their salvation as those who have already entered glory.
That God will never abandon His child is proven not by the child’s obedience or his ability to rejuvenate his own spiritual life, but on the immutable love of God. Perseverance rests on a divine love which never waivers. Dabney says it well. The quote is long but well worth the reading.
“The perseverance of believers follows from the free and unchangeable love of God the Father which was the ground of their being chosen unto salvation. The Scriptures make it plain that the reason why God ever determined to save any man was not His seeing in him anything good, attractive or extenuating, but something without, known to His wisdom, which was to God a good and wise reason to bestow His eternal love on that particular sinner. The effect is, the constant and communication of grace to the believer in whom God has begun a good work. God was not induced to bestow His renewing grace in the first instance by anything which He saw, meritorious or attractive, in the repenting sinner; and therefore the subsequent absence of everything good in him would be no new motive to God for withdrawing His grace. When he first bestowed that grace, He knew that the sinner on whom He bestowed it was totally depraved, and wholly and only hateful in himself to the divine holiness; and therefore no new instance of ingratitude or unfaithfulness of which the sinner many become guilty after his conversion can be any provocation to God. To change His mind and wholly withdraw His sustaining grace.’ [8]
This is a truth that has comforted the hearts of Christians throughout the centuries. The salvation of God’s elect rests on God’s covenant love promised in His word. It does not and never has rested upon their performance. This means that God’s honor is at stake to preserve the salvation of all His children. If He would lose one of the sheep for whom He died hell would immediately break out in wild celebration. But God has never lost one of His children, no, not one.
Of course this wonderful truth leaves itself open to abuse. Whenever we preach that God’s salvation is totally free and the completion of it rests on God’s initiative many take that as a warrant to sin with impunity. The apostle makes known that many in his day were turning the grace of God into lasciviousness (Jude 4). In doing this they wounded their souls on God’s kindness. But the potential for abuse must never cause us to harden our view of God’s sovereign grace. If we love grace we shall encounter critics who will accuse us of taking obedience lightly. Even the great preacher of grace, the apostle Paul, was slanderously accused of promoting evil (see Romans 3:8). The true Christian, however, will never look at God’s grace this way. Believers are so smitten by the love of Christ and His sacrificial work on the cross that they are deeply saddened to do things that injure their gracious Savior. The believer is no longer motivated to obey from sheer legal duty but by heartfelt gratitude. This helps us to understand what the reformed church meant by the doctrine of the Preservation of the Saints. They taught this truth assuming that the Perseverance of the Saints was equally true. The former says that Christians will be kept by the grace of God, while the latter says that God’s role of keeping the saints will operate by a change in the redeemed heart. We might say that God preserves believers by working in them a life of love and gratitude. That is, the believer will gladly and joyfully employ all the means afforded him to avoid sinning because he so loves his Master. He will persevere because of his relationship to the One who “loved him and gave Himself for him.” No doubt this perseverance is guided by the numerous exhortations in Scripture that teach the Christian how to show forth his love for Christ. But these exhortations have no power in themselves to produce obedience. It is the Spirit’s manifesting the beauty of Christ to the soul that keeps the saints on the pathway of perseverance. Thus in the garden, Jesus warned His disciples, “Watch and wait that you fall not into temptation.” [9] Yet despite Christ’s warning they fell asleep. They were preserved by Christ’s work for them on the cross and His work in them via His Spirit.
We have now come face to face with the great truth of Christian sanctification. The saint is preserved and shall never fall away because of the immutable love of God. This gives the saint peace, rest and assurance. But peace, rest and assurance do not preclude the saint’s active participation to live into these realities. Isaiah notes that those who ‘wait on the Lord’ do not sit back and let things happen to them. Rather they run and do not grow weary, they walk and do not faint (Is 40:31). The believer will actively show his love to the beautiful One who died for him and washed his sin away. This will always translate into the saint’s striving to leave a life pleasing to the Lord (see Col 1:10).
Holding in careful balance the two sides of this doctrine prevents the saint from passively standing apart from the struggle and letting God do all the work. It also prevents one from legalistically striving to be holy in order to earn God’s favor. Both approaches will do serious spiritual damage to the believer.
THE CASE OF PETER AND JUDAS.
How God preserves his elect while letting the non-elect freely go down the path of destruction is illustrated in the lives of Peter and Judas. Both men were disciples of the Lord and walked with him for over three years. Both heard His gracious words, sweet admonitions and riveting teaching. And, as we know, both sinned horribly against Jesus. The difference between the two men was not their upbringing, their sinful proclivities, or their moral qualities. What separated them was their election by God. That alone determined their respective destinies so that “the purpose of God according to election might stand” (Rom 9:11).
Externally all seemed the same between the two men. Both men were called by God. Judas heard the outward call as did Peter. Yet Judas saw Jesus as a political savior and being a man motivated by self-aggrandizement he hitched himself to that rising star. When Mary washed Jesus’ feet with an expensive perfume, Judas objected. To cover his true motives he complained that the money should have been given to the poor. John adds the comment “this he said not that he cared for the poor but because he was a thief and had the money box and he used to take what was put in it” (Jn 12:6). In other words Judas heeded Christ’s outward call but never obeyed the inward call of faith for the forgiveness of sins. His allegiance was rooted in a benefit that Jesus never promised to give, material gain. The proof that Judas was never a true follower of Christ is seen in his defective faith and self-focused motives.
Judas’ case is unique in that God reveals His secret will for just a moment in order to show us that behind every apostasy there is a divine decree. [10] During his high priestly prayer Jesus notes that He has lost none of His sheep. The only one lost from among the twelve was “the son of perdition.” Judas’ defection had been long ago predicted by the prophets. He simply was not one of God’s elect. [11] Judas’ betrayal was merely the consummation of a decree made in eternity. Let us remember, however, that Judas’ decision to betray the Lord came from his own free choice. God never worked unbelief in Judas’ soul, never coerced Judas to sin. He simply allowed Judas to follow the course of his wicked heart. Thus, Judas’ condemnation is both a result of his own doing and God’s decree.
The restoration of Peter was just as certain as Judas’ condemnation. Like Judas, Peter heard the external call of Christ and responded. But unlike Judas he also heard the inward call of the Spirit and came as an empty sinner in need of grace. By all accounts Peter was a roughhewn fisherman with many bosom sins. Yet he belonged to Christ. Like Judas, he was also the object of divine prophecy. One day on the road to Caesarea Philippi Peter confessed that Jesus was “the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Mt 16:16). Jesus notes that this response could only have come from God. He then affirms that Peter would be given the keys to the kingdom, that is, he would be the one to open up the door of the gospel to the nations. [12] That simple but true faith, would one day blossom. Peter would prove to be a great servant of the King. But he had major sin issues. Right after the great confession mentioned above, Peter tried to prevent Jesus from going to the cross and was soundly rebuked and accused of playing stooge to Satan (Mt 16:22-23). His greatest sin was when he denied his Lord on three occasions, even cursing in his denial (See Mt 26:74). Truly it is hard to imagine a greater sin against the loving and vulnerable Jesus. But we note two things that show both the human and divine reasons why Peter never fell away. From the divine perspective, Peter did not fall away because he belonged to Christ from eternity past. He was held fast by the love of Christ’s covenant love.
From the human side, Peter did not fall away because his sin was not the sin of unbelief. As his confession at Caesarea Philippi showed, Peter knew who Jesus was in the depth of his humanity and trusted Him. We see him in Luke 5:8 acknowledging his sinful nature. Later on he cries out to Jesus, “To whom shall we go, you have the words of eternal life” (John 6:68). Peter was a man who trusted the Savior and put no hope in himself.
But wasn’t Peter at risk when his faith grew weak? We all know that our faith flags at times, even to the point where we don’t seem to trust God at all. In those cases how does God ensure that the struggling sinner, in this case Peter, does not fall away? The answer is that God always works for His elect even in their weakest and most dire times. Peter had a divine Intercessor praying for him. Notice carefully how Jesus interceded for Peter even as the fisherman stood at the cusp of his great sin.
“And the Lord said, ‘Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat: But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not: and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren’” (Luke 22:31-32).
Note first that Jesus knew that Peter would be tempted by the devil. Note also that Jesus does nothing to prevent it. Once again we are brought face to face with the fact that God ordains sin in our lives without being complicit in it. For purposes higher than our reason can comprehend, Jesus ordained the denial of Peter. But here is the grand truth. Instead of preventing the sin, Christ invokes His priestly ministry to pray for Peter during the sin. As the final High Priest of God, Christ’s only desire is that Peter won’t apostatize. And what does the pleading look like? Christ pleads that Peter’s ‘faith does not fail.’ The curtain has been ripped open again and we see how the intercession of Christ works. He allows, even ordains, sin in the life of His child but never allows sin to destroy His child. The focus of the High Priestly prayer was to guard Peter’s faith. Herein lay the great battle. Every apostate who ever lived, died without faith. Faith is the one indispensable grace that one must have to be saved for “without faith it is impossible to please God.” Peter drifted from Christ; Peter was spiritually complacent. Peter even lost his first love, but Peter never lost his faith.
But the story gets better. Not only did Christ ordain Peter’s sin but He turned around and used it for a grander purpose than anyone could imagine. Jesus says to Peter, “When you are converted (gk: epistrephó; turn around) strengthen your brethren.” Now we see that Christ’s promise to give Peter the keys of the kingdom is being fulfilled before our eyes. In John chapter 21, post resurrection, Jesus purposely goes to the Sea of Galilee to find Peter and restore him. We all remember that famous interchange when Christ asks Peter three times ‘do you love me?’ Peter of course still trusts and loves Christ, yet his soul is deeply wounded by sin. So the ‘Author and Finisher’ of faith comes to restore Peter. The apostle must be restored in order to ‘strengthen his brethren.’ The first twelves chapters of the Book of Acts is an historical testimony to his restoration and his role as the bearer of the keys. He is the one who brings the message of Christ crucified to the world. Yes, the very one who denied the Savior three times.
The difference between the elect and the non-elect is simple. It’s not that one group does not sin and the other does. It is that the sin of the elect is turned by God for good and is used for God’s purposes and for the saint’s sanctification. With the unbeliever, however, his sins only harden him into unbelief and, at the last, proves he never belonged to Christ in the first place.
All this is to prove that neither trouble nor transgression can sever the Christian from Christ. Rather, in a most remarkable way, both serve to magnify the name of the Savior in the believer’s life. This is proven in the life of Peter. And the lack of this kind of saving influence caused Judas to continue down the road of apostasy.
PERSEVERANCE AND ASSURANCE
Though the doctrine of God’s preservation is certain in the life of the believer, experiential knowledge of this assurance is often lacking. This reminds us that assurance of salvation is not a necessary condition for a person to be saved. As we have said before, being in the house of salvation is not the same as knowing you are in the house. Unfortunately many believers live out their Christian lives unsure of their interest in Christ. Much of this doubt comes from a pervasive Semi-Pelagianism that dominates modern evangelicalism. [13] However, another big reason for a believer’s lack of assurance comes from a defective view of the Perseverance of the Saints.
The Confession assures us that a correct understanding of this doctrine goes a long way in bolstering one’s assurance.
“Although hypocrites and other unregenerate men may vainly deceive themselves with false hopes and carnal presumptions of being in the favor of God and estate of salvation, which hope of theirs shall perish: yet such as truly believe in the Lord Jesus, and love him in sincerity, endeavoring to walk in all good conscience before him, may in this life be certainly assured that they are in a state of grace, and may rejoice in the hope of the glory of God, which hope shall never make them ashamed.” [14]
There is such a thing as false assurance. Sin has a way of masking the true state of one’s soul. But a true understanding of the twin concepts of preservation and perseverance will not only keep one from falling into a false assurance (see Mt 7:21-23) but will go a long way of helping the true believer enjoy the liberating light of true assurance.
The reality is that true believers may for a season have their assurance ‘shaken, diminished, and intermitted.’ [15] Many a good Christian has walked in the horrible place of darkness where they see no light. Their need at that moment is to simply hold on and trust the Lord (see Isaiah 50:10). Of course certain things can be done by the Christian to brighten his spiritual perspective. Among these are a recommitment to the truths we have been discussing, preservation and perseverance.
How does the doctrine of the preservation of the believer help the Christian who doubts his assurance? We dare not forget that this doctrine rests upon the truth that God employs His omnipotent power to keep the believer from finally falling away. By its very nature it turns the gaze of the doubting one from performance to what God has done in the covenant of redemption and is doing in the ongoing intercessory work of Christ by the Spirit. The Confession says it this way,
“This certainty is not a bare conjectural and probable persuasion, grounded upon a fallible hope; but an infallible assurance of faith, founded upon the divine truth of the promises of salvation, the inward evidence of those graces unto which these promises are made, the testimony of the Spirit of adoption witnessing with our spirits that we are the children of God: which Spirit is the earnest of our inheritance, whereby we are sealed to the day of redemption.”[16]
The divines noted that there are real, substantial reasons why a Christian can have the assurance of salvation which endures to the end. The more a Christian meditates upon these truths, the better chance he will have a healthy assurance in the Lord.
Many however look at these foundational truths and still doubt their salvation; they still walk in the darkness. The primary reason for this is rooted in a faulty understanding of the doctrine of perseverance. Many look at this doctrine as an alternate way of saying the Christian is to live a holy life. Perseverance is looked at as a spiritual striving to do what is right. This understanding of perseverance is saturated with a legal spirit that binds one’s soul to the Old Covenant. And as all legalism does, it leads to an erosion of one’s assurance and eventually death (see 2 Cor 3:6). To put the onus of perseverance on the saint is to put the believer under a new set of laws. Suddenly his salvation no longer rests on the finished work of Christ but on his own performance.
How then are we to look at the doctrine of perseverance? The Bible is not mute on this point. It teaches that we are to make our ‘election and calling sure.’ That is, believers must analyze their lives to see whether they be in the faith (2 Cor 13:5). The question is, what does this analysis look like?
Second Peter helps with this. The Apostle Peter, who knew much about declension in the Christian life, shows that assurance is made more certain when one sees the progression of the graces in one’s life. Peter exhorts believers to ‘give all diligence’ to add to one’s faith, virtue, and to virtue knowledge, and to knowledge self-control and to self-control perseverance and to perseverance godliness and to godliness brotherly kindness and to brotherly kindness love. Here true Christian experience is not presented as a static life of obedience vs. disobedience. Rather Peter shows it to be a living process of development which bears more and more fruit over time. But the growth is always rooted in faith and faith alone. How do we know that? Because in verse nine Peter pinpoints the spiritual root of not growing in the faith as one being forgetful ‘that he was cleansed from his old sins.’ That is to say, the root of spiritual declension is not a lack of holiness, per se, but a failure to look at and trust in the completed work of Jesus Christ on the cross. This is another way of saying that living a blessed Christian life is not by checking the boxes of one’s righteous progress but by constantly strengthening one’s faith by looking at the place where that perfect righteousness was accomplished, the cross.
Looking at one’s performance or looking at one’s sin, will undoubtedly work in the believer an angst that will manifest itself in many deleterious ways. Looking in any direction but Christ crucified puts one back under the law. But when a Christian follows Peter’s advice and increases in the knowledge of Christ, that is, all that Christ has done, he at once begins to feel liberation in his soul. To sum up, Peter teaches that the Christian life does not progress by one’s attention to anything inside him but in the movement of his soul toward the Lord Jesus. Or, to say it according to David’s testimony of Psalm 51, he will no longer look at his many acts of sacrifice in order to please God but will instead give God the one acceptable sacrifice of a “broken and contrite spirit” (see Psalm 51:17).
Here, then, we find the key to Christian assurance. It is not attained by those who think they are pleasing God with their fine deeds. It is the possession of those who lament over their failures to love God and look to Calvary for their righteousness in Christ. This is the nature of faith, and from its soil comes that good fruit described in Second Peter 1:5-11.
CONCLUSION
We have tried to show that this fifth doctrine of grace can be accurately defined as both the preservation of the saints and their perseverance in the faith. Both conspire to give us the true picture of the outworking of the Christian life. A believer who trusts in Jesus Christ can never be lost for his security rests not on his own feeble efforts to maintain his status but on God’s immutable decree. He is buttressed by the continual pleading of his High Priest along with the Spirit sealing Him to the day of redemption. The result of this is that the saint will - must - persevere to the end. This does not necessarily mean he will live a ‘victorious Christian life’ or live above the scourge of remaining sin. Rather it means he will always come back to the gospel in periods of declension and find sweet peace in the gospel. This means that all who believe in Christ can attain to a strong assurance of faith. But alas, due to the ravages of remaining sin in the Christian’s life, assurance can be a fleeting reality. Quite often assurance only comes to those who apply the doctrine of preservation correctly. When one turns his gaze on the preserving work of God rather than one’s own performance, assurance will quickly fill the soul. Paul is a good example of an assured Christian who knew ‘in whom I have believed.’ [17] This perspective is the only way one may be assured of his salvation as he perseveres to the end.
In the next installment we will interact with common objections to this doctrine.
NOTES:
[1] Westminster Confession. XVII.1
[2] See Ephesians 4:1. The derivative meaning of the word ‘hagios’ always takes on a nuance of purity. This sense is clearly seen in the verse, ‘be ye holy for I am holy.’ If one is set apart for God, then one will make it a point to live differently from the world. Moral purity is the natural outgrowth of one’s knowing his privileged status as God’s elect.
[3] ‘Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says: “Today, if you will hear His voice, Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, In the day of trial in the wilderness, Where your fathers tested Me, tried Me, And saw My works forty years. Therefore I was angry with that generation, And said, ‘They always go astray in their heart, And they have not known My ways.’”’ Hebrews 3:7-10
[4] We see this kind of ‘faith’ in people like Simon Magus Acts 8:13 and the ‘disciples’ in John 6:66. True faith strives, fights, mortifies, serves, loves and denies self, not perfectly, but in some degree. James adds that ‘faith without works is dead.’
[5] See discussion, The Doctrines of Grace, Boice and Ryken. Pages 163-64
[6] Westminster Confession of Faith. XVIII.4
[7] Ortlund, Dane. Gentle and Lowly. Crossway, Wheaton Ill, 2020. Pgs 191, 195.
[8] Dabney, Robert. Discourses in Systematic Theology. Zondervan. Pg 690
[9] Phil 2:12; 1 Tim 6:12; 1 Peter 5:8; Matthew 26:41
[10] God never allows us to see the eternal state of a person. He allows it in the case of Judas (I believe) in order to help us understand the doctrine of perseverance.
[11] See John 17:12; Judas’ betrayal fulfills the prophecy of Psalm 41:9; ‘Even my own familiar friend in whom I trusted who ate my bread, has lifted up his heel against me.’
[12] This was fulfilled in Acts 2, Acts 8, and Acts 10 when Peter brought the gospel to the Jews, Samaritans and Gentiles.
[13] That is, the human will is responsible for one’s continuance in salvation leading to doubt.
[14] Westminster Confession XVIII.1
[15] Ibis XVII.3
[16] Ibid XVIII.2
[17] 2 Tim 1:12