All who have truly been born again by grace through faith in Christ will be kept by grace through time into eternity. This is the doctrine of the perseverance of the saints. Saving grace is followed by sanctifying grace and persevering grace — grace to endure, to press on. Though we do sin, though we do face adversity and even persecution, we will not be overcome by sin or adversity or persecution so as to lose our salvation. If our profession of faith is true, we will persevere. This is not because of our ability to hold onto Christ. It due to His choice to hold on to us.
The Apostle Paul, confident of the keeping power of God, said, For this reason I also suffer these things, but I am not ashamed; for I know whom I have believed and I am convinced that He is able to guard what I have entrusted to Him until that day (2 Tim. 1:12).
Paul said, And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren; and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified (Rom. 8:28-30)
He foreknew refers to God’s gracious purpose from eternity past to redeem sinners, as Paul shared in Ephesians 1:4, He chose us in Him (in Christ) before the foundation of the world.
He also called refers to God’s gracious purpose to awaken us to our sin, His judgment and the salvation offered through faith in Christ.
He also justified refers to God’s justifying grace in the lives of all who repent of sin and trust in Christ’s atoning work on our behalf.
He also glorified refers to the day when we will stand before God in the fulfillment of His salvation purpose, perfected in body and soul. This has not happened yet, obviously, but it is so certain that Paul uses a past tense verb to describe it, These whom He justified, He also glorified. Such is the keeping grace of God. We will persevere unto glory by grace.
Therefore He is able also to save forever those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them (Hebr. 7:25). Christ’s purpose to save began in eternity past and because He is eternal, His saving purpose is forever. Because His atoning sacrifice was perfectly complete in its effect, His redeeming grace cannot be overcome. Having been justified by His blood, we will be glorified.
We cannot have eternal life and then not have it. For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life (Jn. 3:16). What kind of life? Eternal, everlasting.
And the testimony is this, that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life. These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life (I Jn. 5:11-13). You have eternal life — present tense verb. We cannot have eternal life in Christ — life that endures forever — and then not have it.
Jesus said, Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life (Jn. 5:24). We cannot pass from death into life and then back into death.
We are not only saved by the grace of God — we are also kept by the grace of God. We press on, we endure, we persevere in our faith because the same God who saved us also preserves us. Just as saving grace is a gift of God, so is persevering grace. Both are examples of the sovereignty of God in salvation.
Let us recall that we are not saved by our own efforts but by the sovereign act of God. Jesus said, All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out (Jn. 6:37). And He said, No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up on the last day (6:44).
Peter said, For the promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off, as many as the Lord our God will call to Himself (Acts 2:39). And the Lord was adding to their number day by day those who were being saved (Acts 2:47).
God chose in eternity past to offer saving grace to humanity. Though we were dead in sin and blind to spiritual truth, incapable of seeking God and unwilling, God met us in time, awakened our dead senses to the reality of His love, our sin and His offer of grace. He granted us grace to turn from our sin, grace to receive the gift of saving faith. He drew us to Himself by grace.
The writer to the Hebrews exhorts us, Fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith (Hebr. 12:2). Jesus is the author of our faith, the beginning point. It is by His grace that we are saved. He promises also to be the perfecter of our faith, completing in eternity what He purposed before time and what He has begun in us in time.
God did not choose us to lose us. How can we lose in time that which God began in eternity past and promises to perfect in eternity future? That’s why Jesus said, And I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand (Jn.10:28). That’s why Paul said, For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus (Phlp. 1:6).
Some say, “The world cannot snatch me out of His hand but I can. I can choose to rebel aganst God and annul the work that He has begun in me.”
Not true. No one can snatch us away from God’s hand. No one includes you and me.
The objection continues, “But I have a free will. I can exercise my will to rebel against God.”
This is false on two counts.
1. God has begun a process of transforming our will so that we are learning to love what He loves and hate what He hates; so that we want to worship Him, learn of Him and please Him. If we are truly redeemed, we do not will to grieve God by rebelling against His grace, by removing ourselves from His grace.
We are new creations in Christ — not perfect creations — we still sin. But we have the capacity now to will not to sin and when we do sin, the Holy Spirit who indwells us shows us our sin and empowers us to repent, to turn from sin and overcome sin.
The Apostle Paul reminds us, It is God who works in us both to will and to do His good pleasure (Phlp. 2:13). To will means we have come to know God’s good purpose and now our will has been brought into alignment with God’s will. We are learning to desire what God desires and the Holy Spirit is energizing us to will what God wills. This is necessary because we must desire or will something before we can do it.
To do means we are now willfully acting to work out God’s good pleasure. Unless God worked in us to change our will and enable our doing, we would neither will nor do His good pleasure. But it is by His grace that He now works in us both to will and to do His good pleasure.
2. God says that He is able to keep us: Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to make you stand in the presence of His glory blameless with great joy (Jude 1:24). If we could lose our salvation we would have but we have not because God is able to keep us through time into eternity, bringing us into the presence of His glory blameless with great joy.
Imagine a little child walking in the forest beside you. Suddenly you notice a poisonous snake on the pathway and you scoop the child up in your arms. The child does not see the snake or maybe he does see it and is curious and struggles to climb back down. Will you allow him to overpower you? Of course not. Neither will God allow us to overpower His will to redeem us and bring us through time into His eternal presence. He does not violate our free will in this. Rather, He is transforming our will so that we don’t want to jump from His care.
Also, we have a Savior who prays for us. The Apostle John reminds us, My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous (I Jn. 2:1). The word Advocate — Paracletos — means counselor, comforter, helper. It is used here in reference to Jesus and in John 14:26 in reference to the Holy Spirit. When we are tempted, tested, when we walk through the valley of the shadow, we have a Savior who prays to the Father on our behalf.
Paul also reminds us, In the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words; (Rom. 8:26). Jesus is praying for us, the Holy Spirit is praying for us. Therefore, Paul is able to testify, And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. (Rom. 8:28). Even in our weakness, even in our trials, the Lord will keep us by His grace.
The objection continues. “What about that man who once served the Lord so faithfully and now is as far from God as he could possibly be? Isn’t it true that he has lost his salvation, jumped from the saving embrace of the Lord?”
No, rather, his life of unrepented sin proves that he never was truly redeemed. The Apostle John says, They went out from us, but they were not really of us; for if they had been of us, they would have remained with us; but they went out, so that it would be shown that they all are not of us (I Jn. 2:19).
People object, saying, “I heard him pray the prayer of salvation, he signed the card, knelt at the altar.” OK, but evidently he was not redeemed. Praying a prayer, signing a card, kneeling at an altar is good but does not necessarily mean that a person has been redeemed. Salvation is an act of God in the heart of someone who truly repents of their sin and places their faith in Jesus the holy Lamb and risen Lord.
Well then, how do we know if the work of saving grace is real? By the way a person perseveres in faith. Saving faith is accompanied by persevering faith, faith that endures.
Jesus said, A tree is identified by its fruit. If a tree is good, its fruit will be good. If a tree is bad, its fruit will be bad (Matt. 12:33). Jesus was referring to the fruit of our life, the way we live our life and the characteristics of that life. What are the characteristics of the redeemed life?
Obviously, it is not sinlessness. The Apostle John said, If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us (I Jn. 1:8). But there are qualities of the redeemed life that we should be able to see in ourselves and others.
1. A truly redeemed person loves the Lord and shows this love through joyful obedience. Jesus said, If you love Me, you will keep My commandments (Jn. 14:15). We don’t keep His commandments perfectly but obedience is our desire, our goal.
2. A truly redeemed person loves to express praise and thanks to the Lord, Through Him then, let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that give thanks to His name (Hebr. 13:15).
3. A truly redeemed person loves God’s word. Peter said, Like newborn babies, long for the pure milk of the word, so that by it you may grow in respect to salvation (I Ptr. 2:2).
4. A truly redeemed person hates his sin and wrestles agains it. Even the Apostle Paul wrestled with a residue of sin in his life, For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want. But if I am doing the very thing I do not want, I am no longer the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me … Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death? (Rom. 7:19,20,24).
Of course, Paul provides the answer, But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ (I Cor. 15:57).
5. A truly redeemed person experiences the gradual destruction of those sinful habits and thought patterns that war against the Spirit. John reminds us, The one who practices sin is of the devil; for the devil has sinned from the beginning. The Son of God appeared for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil (I Jn. 3:8). The practice of unrepented, willful sin reveals a life that never truly surrendered to Christ. But Jesus came to destroy the works of the devil and if we are truly redeemed, our Lord empowers us through the Holy Spirit to gradually overcome, extinguish and destroy the works of the devil. Those works gained a foothold in our life through the traumatic impact of this evil world, through our own sin and the sins of others against us. But if we are truly redeemed, there is a progressive overcoming of sin.
6. A truly redeemed person demonstrates the gradual cultivation of the life of Christ within our life. This is known as the fruit of the Spirit, But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control (Gal. 5:22,23). We don’t manifest these qualities perfectly — of course not. We are still subject to sin. But if we are truly redeemed, we should see a gradual maturing of the fruit of the Spirit.
7. A truly redeemed person grows in the confidence that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus (Phlp. 1:6). We share with Paul this promise, Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful is He who calls you, and He also will bring it to pass (I Thes. 5:23,24).
If our salvation is real, we are not who we once were. The Apostle Paul reminds us, Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come (2 Cor. 5:17). We surely are not perfected new creations but we are not who we once were. We are being transformed and therefore we press on, we persevere.
Saving grace is accompanied by persevering grace which is evident in the way the redeemed live. But let’s say this again — perseverance is not sinlessness. The Apostle John reminds us, If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness (I Jn. 1:8,9). We do commit sins, we do fall short of the high calling of God on our lives. But we don’t wallow in our sin. We confess our sin, we turn from it and the Lord not only forgives us but also cleanses us of sin’s destructive impact. Though we sin, we are not practicing sin, we are practicing righteousness.
Our works reveal the reality of salvation. James writes, I will show you my faith by my works (James 2:18). The life we live demonstrates the truth of saving grace and persevering grace.
However, we need to exercise discernment here. Not everyone who professes faith in Christ is truly redeemed nor is everyone who exercises ministry giftings truly redeemed. Jesus said, Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. “Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness (Matt. 7:21-23).
The reality of salvation is not always revealed in what people say or in spectacular works of power. The lack of true saving grace is revealed in lawlessness, living contrary to the revealed will of God and a refusal to repent of sin.
The reality of true, saving grace is revealed in perseverance, pressing on in a faithful, holy, humble walk with the Lord who saved us by grace and keeps us by grace.
As we said, perseverance is not perfection. Its’s about a direction, an affection, an orientation of our life. We do sin. But even our sin proves our redemption. When a true follower of Christ sins, we go to the Lord, confess our sin and cry out for forgiveness. Our unhappiness with our failure and our desire to turn from sin proves the reality of our salvation. Even in our failure we see the keeping grace of God.
The keeping grace of God includes the providential shepherding of the events of our lives, And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose (Rom. 8:28). This does not erase our responsibility to respond to grace, to walk in grace. But again, It is God who works in us both to will and to do His good pleasure (Phlp. 2:13).
We cannot work out our salvation except God works in us. But because God is at work in us, we can work out our salvation. How? By grace.
God, by a sovereign act of His will, awakens us to grace, draws us to Christ and saves us by grace. This same God keeps us by His grace through time into eternity. By His grace He will raise us up on the last day, blameless with great joy (Jude 1:24).
With the Apostle Peter we celebrate, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are protected (kept, shielded, guarded) by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time (I Peter 1:3-5).
This work of grace is the result of God’s great mercy. Therefore, because it originates with God, it cannot perish, cannot be defiled or polluted, cannot fade away, reserved for all who by grace are kept, shielded, guarded by the power of God through the faith that He gave us.
With the Psalmist we celebrate, My soul clings to You; Your right hand upholds me (Ps. 63:8). We cling to the God who upholds us. All is grace. To God be the glory.
Study Questions:
1. If you are truly redeemed, can you lose your salvation? What does the Bible say?
2. What does this mean, It is God who works in us both to will and to do His good pleasure (Phlp. 2:13).
3. What are some of the characteristics of the redeemed life whereby we know we are redeemed?