September 28, 2010: Remembering Your Sin
My lovely wife asked me how I would respond to the following post from "Paige" in the True Woman blog:
What's wrong when I've confessed my sin(s) to God and asked for forgiveness over and over but still have that nagging feeling that I still need to ask for forgiveness? I have prayed and prayed about this situation and I just can't seem to get past it. Sure, I am active in my church, I read my Bible daily, and I try to make the most of every day and give God the glory. Is this Satan attacking me or is this the Holy Spirit telling me I need to do more?
It's all so confusing to me. It was the worst thing I have ever done in my life and it happened 2 years ago. I just can't seem to "feel" like I have been forgiven. How do I allow this confessed sin to get out of my heart and mind. I am truly sorry for what I did and have completely distanced myself from the one I fell into sin with. What more can I do besides pray about it.
I want a clean slate with God. I want to "feel" like I have been forgiven so I can get completely past what I did.
My response:
God bless you for feeling guilt! Jesus said, "Blessed are they that mourn" (Matthew 5:4), not, "Blessed are they that feel good about themselves." The wretched sinners of Romans 1:18-32 don't feel bad at all about their behavior, past or present - but that is because they have been handed over to it. Saints, however, feel perpetually bad about their sin and perpetually good about Christ. Thus it was and ever will be.
You say that you want to "get completely past" what you did. Don't. Don't ever get past what you did. I mean, yes, get past it in the sense that you don't go back to committing it, but don't get past it in the sense that it ceases to be a horror for you. If you do, you will be tempted to forget how merciful God was to you, how kind he was to an undeserving wretch. If you forget your sin, you will be proud. If you forget your sin, you will give God less glory.
St. Paul never got past his sins. Read 1 Timothy 1:12-17, and see how his vivid recollection of former wickedness (30 years earlier!) caused him to celebrate God's goodness and glory in the present:
12. I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has given me strength, that he considered me faithful, appointing me to his service. 13. Even though I was once a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent man, I was shown mercy because I acted in ignorance and unbelief. 14. The grace of our Lord was poured out on me abundantly, along with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. 15. Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst. 16. But for that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his unlimited patience as an example for those who would believe on him and receive eternal life. 17. Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory for ever and ever. Amen.
The biblical way to think is, "I'm a terrible sinner. Glory to God for his willingness to stoop so low to me."
I'm afraid that a completely opposite mindset is recommended in some Christian circles. For example, in Battlefield Of The Mind, servant of mammon Joyce Meyer writes,
Don't think about how terrible you were before you came to Christ. Instead, think about how you have been made the righteousness of God in Him. Remember: thoughts turn into actions. If you ever want to behave any better, you have to change your thinking first. Keep thinking about how terrible you are, and you will only act worse. Every time a negative, condemning thought comes into your mind, remind yourself that God loves you, that you have been made the righteousness of God in Christ.
There is one statement in Meyer's Bible-hating counsel above that I agree with: thoughts do indeed turn into actions. But the thoughts she recommends are completely wrong! Her counsel "Keep thinking about how terrible you are, and you will only act worse" is ridiculous. St. Paul thought he was the worst of sinners - but he became more and more perfected in the image of Christ. The tax collector in Luke 18:13-14 thought he was so terrible he didn't deserve to go to church - but he went home justified. The thief on the cross next to Jesus in Luke 23:39-43 thought he deserved execution by torture - but he went to be with the Lord.
Jesus himself commanded us to contemplate our badness. Luke 17:10: "So you also, when you have done everything you were told to do, should say, 'We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty.'" If we are unworthy servants when we have done our duty, how much more despicable are we when we have disobeyed!
Paige, I'd advise you to let go of your goal of feeling forgiven, and just focus on the goal of doing right and pleasing Christ. It is possible you will keep feeling guilty and awful for a long time. It is also possible you will find yourself saying, "God, I'm sorry, I'm really really sorry!" much longer than you expected. That is not necessarily a bad thing. After David sinned with Bathsheba, he prayed, "Let me hear joy and gladness," and "Restore to me the joy of your salvation" (Psalm 51:8,12) - but maybe the Lord had a good reason for letting him stew in his remorse for a while. A long while.
Paige, did you know that the world's most guilty conscience produced the world's greatest hymn? I keep in my files a quote from Professor Mark McMinn about the ex slave-trading murderer John Newton: "As Newton's eyes opened more fully with each passing year, he became horrified at his sin. One of his friends later recalled that he never spent 30 minutes with Newton without hearing the former captain's remorse for trading slaves. It was always on his mind, nagging his conscience while reminding him of his utter dependence on God's forgiving grace."
Newton of course was the sinner who wrote,
Amazing grace, how sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me
I once was lost, but now am found
Was blind, but now I see.
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Thursday, September 16, 2010
September 17, 2010: Perseverance Of The Christian And The Analogy Of Marriage
Continuing the question from last week:
Your analogy of marriage seemed to me to indicate that we should not expect Christ to remain married to us if we are unfaithful to him, and yet aren't we often unfaithful to him when other things become more important to us than God?
No. I would not normally use the word "unfaithful" to describe the kind of lapses I think you are referring to.
If we say that a man has been unfaithful to his wife, we don't mean that he spent too much money on golf clubs, or that he has said something a little insensitive, or that he was watching football when he should have been leading family devotions. We mean something more serious - we mean he has been cheating, he has been sleeping with someone else. Similarly, when we say that a man is a faithful husband, we don't mean that he is perfect - who is? - but just that he is loyal and true.
That is the way the Bible itself (with few exceptions) uses the words that we translate "faithful" or "unfaithful." Faithfulness in the Bible does not imply sinless perfection, but loyalty. Here is a short list of men - all sinners! - whom the Bible calls faithful to God.
Abraham. "You found his heart [Abraham's] faithful to you, and you made a covenant with him to give to his descendants the land of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Jebusites and Girgashites. You have kept your promise because you are righteous." (Nehemiah 9:8)
Moses. "But this is not true of my servant Moses; he is faithful in all my house." (Numbers 12:7; see Hebrews 3:2,5)
Samuel. "I will raise up for myself a faithful priest [Samuel], who will do according to what is in my heart and mind." (1 Samuel 2:35)
David. "Solomon answered, 'You have shown great kindness to your servant, my father David, because he was faithful to you and righteous and upright in heart.'" (1 Kings 3:6)
Hezekiah. "This is what Hezekiah did throughout Judah, doing what was good and right and faithful before the Lord his God." (2 Chronicles 31:20)
So the Bible regularly calls people "faithful" even though they're not perfect.
Unfaithfulness in Scripture is usually a matter of having a "sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God." (Hebrews 3:12). The writer of Hebrews assigns such unfaithfulness not to godly-but-imperfect men like Abraham, Moses, Samuel, David and Hezekiah, but to Israelite rebels and idolators who defied God. In the verses just before Hebrews 3:12 the writer says (quoting God), "That is why I was angry with that generation, and I said, 'Their hearts are always going astray, and they have not known my ways.' So I declared on oath in my anger, 'They shall never enter my rest.'" Just as bad Israelites did not enter God's rest, so people with "sinful unbelieving hearts" (elsewhere these people are called "the wicked") will not enter God's kingdom. The Bible affirms this many times. I believe that these are the people to whom it would be best to apply the word "unfaithful". Below are four descriptions of them and their destiny:
1 Corinthians 6:9-10: Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.
Galatians 5:19-21: The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.
Ephesians 5:5-6: For of this you can be sure: No immoral, impure or greedy person—such a man is an idolater—has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of such things God's wrath comes on those who are disobedient.
Revelation 21:8: But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars—their place will be in the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death.
The person who wrote to me asking "aren't we often unfaithful to [God]?" is certainly not a greedy lying adulterous drunk, so she has nothing to fear from these passages. But truly rebellious sinners should read them and fear. As the Psalmist says to God, "Those who are far from you will perish; you destroy all who are unfaithful to you."(Psalm 73:27).
Now, would Christ "divorce" someone who is unfaithful to him in the sense outlined above?
Interestingly enough, divorce is in fact one of the symbols God uses to illustrate what he does to unfaithful people. See Jeremiah 3:8: "I gave faithless Israel her certificate of divorce and sent her away because of all her adulteries." See also Isaiah 50:1: "This is what the Lord says: 'Where is your mother's certificate of divorce with which I sent her away? Or to which of my creditors did I sell you? Because of your sins you were sold; because of your transgressions your mother was sent away.'"
I think that "divorce" is actually an appropriate, stunning, robust, and most important, biblical image to keep in mind concerning what the Lord does to those who are unfaithful to him. Persevering saints, of course, don't have to worry about that. 2 Timothy 2:12 says "If we endure, we will also reign with him" - not "be divorced by him." And Colossians 1:22-23 says, "But now he has reconciled you by Christ's physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation — if you continue in your faith, established and firm, not moved from the hope held out in the gospel." As I like to say, the "if" in those verses must be permitted to stand as written and not twisted by bad theology into "whether or not". We must endure. We must continue in our faith. We must be faithful. Faithfulness is not an option, but a biblical condition for blessedness in the presence of God. Someday Jesus will say to those who persevered, "Well done, good and faithful servant." (Matthew 25:21).
A final thought:
If a man proves unfaithful and God "divorces" him, does that mean that God himself has been unfaithful?
NO! No no no! A thousand times no! The Bible emphasizes that our sin never causes God to sin. For example, if we lie, even if every man on earth is a liar, God is still true. See Romans 3:4: "Let God be true, and every man a liar." If we are unjust toward God, he is never unjust toward us. And regarding faithfulness, "If we are faithless, he will remain faithful, for he cannot disown himself" (2 Timothy 2:13). That is, even if we are sneaky and underhanded and treat God like dirt, he cannot do the same to us. It is not in his nature. (Some interpret 2 Timothy 2:13 instead to mean that God will save apostates - but that interpretation is flatly contradicted by the verse before it: "If we disown him, he will also disown us." Apostates get disowned.)
Here is one way to look at it. Imagine a married man who sleeps around but defends himself by saying: "She cheated on me first! I'm only doing to her what she did to me!" I think we can say that though he is not as bad as a man who cheats on a faithful wife, he's still an adulterer. He is doing something that God would never do: letting another's unfaithfulness goad him into unfaithfulness.
Now imagine another man who has slept with only one woman in his entire life - his wife. (Let's go further and say that he has never kissed or held hands with anyone else either.) But his wife withdraws from him, treats him contemptuously, secretly joins a lesbian group and begins a series of relationships with other women. She leaves him and files for divorce against his will. Despite her behavior he remains faithful to her, refuses to cheat on her, tells her that she can stop the divorce proceedings, return to him, and he will surely take her back.
If she insists on renouncing him even then, the divorce will go through and the relationship will be broken irretrievably. But she has been the unfaithful one, not he. If we are ever similarly "divorced" from God, it will be all our doing, not his. We will not be sent away because of the sins that grieve us and for which we seek pardon, but for the kind of willful rebellion that wants nothing to do with God.
Continuing the question from last week:
Your analogy of marriage seemed to me to indicate that we should not expect Christ to remain married to us if we are unfaithful to him, and yet aren't we often unfaithful to him when other things become more important to us than God?
No. I would not normally use the word "unfaithful" to describe the kind of lapses I think you are referring to.
If we say that a man has been unfaithful to his wife, we don't mean that he spent too much money on golf clubs, or that he has said something a little insensitive, or that he was watching football when he should have been leading family devotions. We mean something more serious - we mean he has been cheating, he has been sleeping with someone else. Similarly, when we say that a man is a faithful husband, we don't mean that he is perfect - who is? - but just that he is loyal and true.
That is the way the Bible itself (with few exceptions) uses the words that we translate "faithful" or "unfaithful." Faithfulness in the Bible does not imply sinless perfection, but loyalty. Here is a short list of men - all sinners! - whom the Bible calls faithful to God.
Abraham. "You found his heart [Abraham's] faithful to you, and you made a covenant with him to give to his descendants the land of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Jebusites and Girgashites. You have kept your promise because you are righteous." (Nehemiah 9:8)
Moses. "But this is not true of my servant Moses; he is faithful in all my house." (Numbers 12:7; see Hebrews 3:2,5)
Samuel. "I will raise up for myself a faithful priest [Samuel], who will do according to what is in my heart and mind." (1 Samuel 2:35)
David. "Solomon answered, 'You have shown great kindness to your servant, my father David, because he was faithful to you and righteous and upright in heart.'" (1 Kings 3:6)
Hezekiah. "This is what Hezekiah did throughout Judah, doing what was good and right and faithful before the Lord his God." (2 Chronicles 31:20)
So the Bible regularly calls people "faithful" even though they're not perfect.
Unfaithfulness in Scripture is usually a matter of having a "sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God." (Hebrews 3:12). The writer of Hebrews assigns such unfaithfulness not to godly-but-imperfect men like Abraham, Moses, Samuel, David and Hezekiah, but to Israelite rebels and idolators who defied God. In the verses just before Hebrews 3:12 the writer says (quoting God), "That is why I was angry with that generation, and I said, 'Their hearts are always going astray, and they have not known my ways.' So I declared on oath in my anger, 'They shall never enter my rest.'" Just as bad Israelites did not enter God's rest, so people with "sinful unbelieving hearts" (elsewhere these people are called "the wicked") will not enter God's kingdom. The Bible affirms this many times. I believe that these are the people to whom it would be best to apply the word "unfaithful". Below are four descriptions of them and their destiny:
1 Corinthians 6:9-10: Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.
Galatians 5:19-21: The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.
Ephesians 5:5-6: For of this you can be sure: No immoral, impure or greedy person—such a man is an idolater—has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of such things God's wrath comes on those who are disobedient.
Revelation 21:8: But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars—their place will be in the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death.
The person who wrote to me asking "aren't we often unfaithful to [God]?" is certainly not a greedy lying adulterous drunk, so she has nothing to fear from these passages. But truly rebellious sinners should read them and fear. As the Psalmist says to God, "Those who are far from you will perish; you destroy all who are unfaithful to you."(Psalm 73:27).
Now, would Christ "divorce" someone who is unfaithful to him in the sense outlined above?
Interestingly enough, divorce is in fact one of the symbols God uses to illustrate what he does to unfaithful people. See Jeremiah 3:8: "I gave faithless Israel her certificate of divorce and sent her away because of all her adulteries." See also Isaiah 50:1: "This is what the Lord says: 'Where is your mother's certificate of divorce with which I sent her away? Or to which of my creditors did I sell you? Because of your sins you were sold; because of your transgressions your mother was sent away.'"
I think that "divorce" is actually an appropriate, stunning, robust, and most important, biblical image to keep in mind concerning what the Lord does to those who are unfaithful to him. Persevering saints, of course, don't have to worry about that. 2 Timothy 2:12 says "If we endure, we will also reign with him" - not "be divorced by him." And Colossians 1:22-23 says, "But now he has reconciled you by Christ's physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation — if you continue in your faith, established and firm, not moved from the hope held out in the gospel." As I like to say, the "if" in those verses must be permitted to stand as written and not twisted by bad theology into "whether or not". We must endure. We must continue in our faith. We must be faithful. Faithfulness is not an option, but a biblical condition for blessedness in the presence of God. Someday Jesus will say to those who persevered, "Well done, good and faithful servant." (Matthew 25:21).
A final thought:
If a man proves unfaithful and God "divorces" him, does that mean that God himself has been unfaithful?
NO! No no no! A thousand times no! The Bible emphasizes that our sin never causes God to sin. For example, if we lie, even if every man on earth is a liar, God is still true. See Romans 3:4: "Let God be true, and every man a liar." If we are unjust toward God, he is never unjust toward us. And regarding faithfulness, "If we are faithless, he will remain faithful, for he cannot disown himself" (2 Timothy 2:13). That is, even if we are sneaky and underhanded and treat God like dirt, he cannot do the same to us. It is not in his nature. (Some interpret 2 Timothy 2:13 instead to mean that God will save apostates - but that interpretation is flatly contradicted by the verse before it: "If we disown him, he will also disown us." Apostates get disowned.)
Here is one way to look at it. Imagine a married man who sleeps around but defends himself by saying: "She cheated on me first! I'm only doing to her what she did to me!" I think we can say that though he is not as bad as a man who cheats on a faithful wife, he's still an adulterer. He is doing something that God would never do: letting another's unfaithfulness goad him into unfaithfulness.
Now imagine another man who has slept with only one woman in his entire life - his wife. (Let's go further and say that he has never kissed or held hands with anyone else either.) But his wife withdraws from him, treats him contemptuously, secretly joins a lesbian group and begins a series of relationships with other women. She leaves him and files for divorce against his will. Despite her behavior he remains faithful to her, refuses to cheat on her, tells her that she can stop the divorce proceedings, return to him, and he will surely take her back.
If she insists on renouncing him even then, the divorce will go through and the relationship will be broken irretrievably. But she has been the unfaithful one, not he. If we are ever similarly "divorced" from God, it will be all our doing, not his. We will not be sent away because of the sins that grieve us and for which we seek pardon, but for the kind of willful rebellion that wants nothing to do with God.
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
September 14, 2010: Questions On Perseverance
I received the following response to last week's post:
Your post mentioned the parable of the sower and the seed that was sown on rocky soil and the seed on good soil. Can you address the seed that fell among the thorns which choked the plant? Are they saints clothed with Christ's righteousness? Have they persevered in their trust in Christ though they live in sin and perhaps have no outward evidence of fruit? Are they repentant, are they trying? Your analogy of marriage seemed to me to indicate that we should not expect Christ to remain married to us if we are unfaithful to him, and yet aren't we often unfaithful to him when other things become more important to us than God?
My answers to each question:
Can you address the seed that fell among thorns which choked the plant?
Jesus said, "The seed that fell among thorns stands for those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by life's worries, riches and pleasures, and they do not mature" (Luke 8:14). I believe this picture represents people who ultimately love sin more than they love Christ. In contrast with the seed that fell on rocky soil, they do not fall away from the faith because of external pressure - the heat of persecution - but because of internal pressure - the lure of corruption. Like Demas, who deserted Paul "because he loved this world" (2 Timothy 4:10), they choose to conform to the world and to their own desires rather than to Christ.
Are they saints clothed with Christ's righteousness?
No. They don't want to be clothed with his righteousness. They find it an ill-fitting garment and cast it off.
In the parable of the seeds Jesus is contrasting those who stay with him and those who don't. The sheep who hear his voice follow him and abide (remain, stay) with him. Those who don't remain with him are of several types. Some don't even get started in the first place - the seed on the path that fails to germinate and is eaten by birds. Others leave because of persecution. Others leave to follow a life of sin.
Jesus never said, "Whoever would come after me may revert to his sinful lifestyle." Instead, he demanded a self-denial so strong that he compared it to carrying a cross to your own execution (Luke 9:23). When he showed mercy to the woman caught in adultery he did not say, "You may now go back to your whoring," but "Leave your life of sin" (John 8:11). When he healed the lame man at Bethesda he did not say, "Even if you keep sinning, you'll still be ok," but rather "Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you" (John 5:14). When a rich man wanted to follow Jesus while hanging on to his greed, Jesus turned him away (Matthew 19:22).
Have they persevered in their trust in Christ though they live in sin and perhaps have no outward evidence of fruit?
No outward evidence of fruit? When Jesus came across a fruitless tree, he cursed it! (Matthew 21:19). That was supposed to be a warning.
When a person lives in sin and gives no outward evidence of fruit, he has in effect denied the faith. Paul confirms this in Titus 1:15-16 when he speaks of those who "claim to know God, but by their actions they deny him." I believe it is very common to deny God with one's actions. Paul gives an example of such behavior in 1 Timothy 5:8: a man who refuses to provide for his family "has denied the faith, and is worse than an unbeliever." Such a man does not actually say "I reject Jesus Christ." He doesn't have to - his behavior does that for him. Words can lie; actions can't. That is why Jesus said, "By their fruit (not by their words) you shall know them" (Matthew 7:16).
Anyone who says "I know God, I've accepted Jesus," while his behavior proves he is "detestable, disobedient and unfit for doing anything good" (Titus 1:16) is simply lying about his faith. Jesus insisted that those who merely call him "Lord" but don't do the will of God will not get into the kingdom of heaven: "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven" (Matthew 7:21).
James concurs regarding the fate of those who "have no outward evidence of fruit." James 2:14: "What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him?" No. The answer to that rhetorical question is no. Faith without works is dead (James 2:17), and dead faith cannot save.
Are they repentant, are they trying?
Well, if they are repentant and trying, I believe that God will certainly show them grace. "A broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise" (Psalm 51:17). No man is so good that he does not need to be in a constant state of bemoaning his sin and repenting of it. The good news is that "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness" (1 John 1:9).
I think it is important though to distinguish between those who are "repentant and trying" and those who are "unrepentant and not trying at all." In my own pastoral ministry, for example, I have been happy to extend words of grace to those who have fallen into sexual sin and who seek the Lord's pardon and restoration. But those who refuse God's transforming grace will not receive it. I have written to two unrepentant (and formerly Christian) adulterers who were both dumping faithful wives in order to pursue sin, "It is important for you to understand that you are going to hell. If you died tonight, you would hear from Jesus the awful words, 'Depart from me. I never knew you.'" (See Matthew 7:23). To this day these men remain impenitent, and I fear their time is running out. I do not say (and would never say) that they are without hope. I do say, however, that they are not now in a state of grace.
Your analogy of marriage seemed to me to indicate that we should not expect Christ to remain married to us if we are unfaithful to him, and yet aren't we often unfaithful to him when other things become more important to us than God?
It all depends on what you mean by "unfaithful." That is a big enough topic to require a separate Pastor's Page, and Lord willing I'll deal with that next week.
I received the following response to last week's post:
Your post mentioned the parable of the sower and the seed that was sown on rocky soil and the seed on good soil. Can you address the seed that fell among the thorns which choked the plant? Are they saints clothed with Christ's righteousness? Have they persevered in their trust in Christ though they live in sin and perhaps have no outward evidence of fruit? Are they repentant, are they trying? Your analogy of marriage seemed to me to indicate that we should not expect Christ to remain married to us if we are unfaithful to him, and yet aren't we often unfaithful to him when other things become more important to us than God?
My answers to each question:
Can you address the seed that fell among thorns which choked the plant?
Jesus said, "The seed that fell among thorns stands for those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by life's worries, riches and pleasures, and they do not mature" (Luke 8:14). I believe this picture represents people who ultimately love sin more than they love Christ. In contrast with the seed that fell on rocky soil, they do not fall away from the faith because of external pressure - the heat of persecution - but because of internal pressure - the lure of corruption. Like Demas, who deserted Paul "because he loved this world" (2 Timothy 4:10), they choose to conform to the world and to their own desires rather than to Christ.
Are they saints clothed with Christ's righteousness?
No. They don't want to be clothed with his righteousness. They find it an ill-fitting garment and cast it off.
In the parable of the seeds Jesus is contrasting those who stay with him and those who don't. The sheep who hear his voice follow him and abide (remain, stay) with him. Those who don't remain with him are of several types. Some don't even get started in the first place - the seed on the path that fails to germinate and is eaten by birds. Others leave because of persecution. Others leave to follow a life of sin.
Jesus never said, "Whoever would come after me may revert to his sinful lifestyle." Instead, he demanded a self-denial so strong that he compared it to carrying a cross to your own execution (Luke 9:23). When he showed mercy to the woman caught in adultery he did not say, "You may now go back to your whoring," but "Leave your life of sin" (John 8:11). When he healed the lame man at Bethesda he did not say, "Even if you keep sinning, you'll still be ok," but rather "Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you" (John 5:14). When a rich man wanted to follow Jesus while hanging on to his greed, Jesus turned him away (Matthew 19:22).
Have they persevered in their trust in Christ though they live in sin and perhaps have no outward evidence of fruit?
No outward evidence of fruit? When Jesus came across a fruitless tree, he cursed it! (Matthew 21:19). That was supposed to be a warning.
When a person lives in sin and gives no outward evidence of fruit, he has in effect denied the faith. Paul confirms this in Titus 1:15-16 when he speaks of those who "claim to know God, but by their actions they deny him." I believe it is very common to deny God with one's actions. Paul gives an example of such behavior in 1 Timothy 5:8: a man who refuses to provide for his family "has denied the faith, and is worse than an unbeliever." Such a man does not actually say "I reject Jesus Christ." He doesn't have to - his behavior does that for him. Words can lie; actions can't. That is why Jesus said, "By their fruit (not by their words) you shall know them" (Matthew 7:16).
Anyone who says "I know God, I've accepted Jesus," while his behavior proves he is "detestable, disobedient and unfit for doing anything good" (Titus 1:16) is simply lying about his faith. Jesus insisted that those who merely call him "Lord" but don't do the will of God will not get into the kingdom of heaven: "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven" (Matthew 7:21).
James concurs regarding the fate of those who "have no outward evidence of fruit." James 2:14: "What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him?" No. The answer to that rhetorical question is no. Faith without works is dead (James 2:17), and dead faith cannot save.
Are they repentant, are they trying?
Well, if they are repentant and trying, I believe that God will certainly show them grace. "A broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise" (Psalm 51:17). No man is so good that he does not need to be in a constant state of bemoaning his sin and repenting of it. The good news is that "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness" (1 John 1:9).
I think it is important though to distinguish between those who are "repentant and trying" and those who are "unrepentant and not trying at all." In my own pastoral ministry, for example, I have been happy to extend words of grace to those who have fallen into sexual sin and who seek the Lord's pardon and restoration. But those who refuse God's transforming grace will not receive it. I have written to two unrepentant (and formerly Christian) adulterers who were both dumping faithful wives in order to pursue sin, "It is important for you to understand that you are going to hell. If you died tonight, you would hear from Jesus the awful words, 'Depart from me. I never knew you.'" (See Matthew 7:23). To this day these men remain impenitent, and I fear their time is running out. I do not say (and would never say) that they are without hope. I do say, however, that they are not now in a state of grace.
Your analogy of marriage seemed to me to indicate that we should not expect Christ to remain married to us if we are unfaithful to him, and yet aren't we often unfaithful to him when other things become more important to us than God?
It all depends on what you mean by "unfaithful." That is a big enough topic to require a separate Pastor's Page, and Lord willing I'll deal with that next week.
Monday, September 6, 2010
September 7, 2010: Perseverance Of The Saints
On three occasions in recent weeks I have found myself having to defend the doctrine of the perseverance of the saints against some energetic opposition. It seemed good to me to write out a defense of this doctrine and have it at the ready should the issue come up again.
Who are the saints? They are the holy ones of God who belong to him by faith and whom he has chosen to inherit eternal life. What does it mean that they persevere? It means that they continue, they endure, they persist in Christ all the way to heaven. None of them is lost. They don't "believe for a while but in time of testing turn away" (Luke 8:13); they endure to the end and are saved (Matthew 24:13). Each of them has a regenerated heart, not a "sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God" (Hebrews 3:12). They do not disown Christ, since the Bible promises "if we disown him, he will disown us" (2 Timothy 3:12) - and saints can never be disowned. They abide (remain, stay, live, persist) in Christ; they do not "go out from us," as John explains, "For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us; but their going showed that none of them belonged to us" (1 John 2:19). They are eternally secure. No one can pluck them out of the hand of the Father (John 10:29). Nothing can separate them from the love of Christ. (Romans 8:38-39).
The doctrine of the perseverance of the saints tends to be undermined today in one of two ways: (1) by denying that it is even necessary for believers to persevere in their faith, and (2) by applying the assurance of salvation not merely to persevering saints, but to unpersevering unbelievers! (Yes, I have seen that done.)
I was challenged the other day concerning whether I would actually tell a convert that he had to persevere, and the answer is "Of course! Yes!" Heaven forbid that instead of proclaiming perseverance we should say to a young Christian, "Just believe in Jesus for a week or so, then if you go back to your atheism or hedonism or whatever you'll still be ok." What a contemptuous disregard for Christ's admonition to endure to the end!
When I tell my son that he must be faithful to his wife, I am not saying, "Son, make sure you honor your vows for a period of time - a few months, maybe a few years - then you can sleep around." No! I'm telling him to be permanently faithful. Temporary fidelity is infidelity; temporary belief is unbelief. Would we earnestly tell men to persevere in their marriages, but shy away from telling them to persevere in Christ? Would we instruct our children on the meaning of "till death do us part," but neglect to teach our children of faith the meaning of "endure to the end"? Is Christ less worthy of our faithfulness than a spouse? Are we perhaps afraid we'll "lose the converts" if we tell them that Christianity is a life-long commitment? That's worse than fearing our sons won't marry if we tell them they must be faithful to their spouses for the rest of their lives!
The doctrine of perseverance, of course, does not depend on any such analogy. It is grounded in the Scriptures. Here are some of the many Bible verses that support it:
Hebrews 3:14: We have come to share in Christ if we hold firmly till the end the confidence we had at first.
Note the "if" in the verse above. It does not say that we have come to share in Christ whether or not we hold our confidence firmly till end, but if. If a person does not hold firmly to the end, then he has not "come to share in Christ." He is not a saint. Again, all saints persevere.
2 Timothy 2:12: If we endure, we will also reign with him. If we disown him, he will also disown us.
This verse does not promise, "If we fail to endure, we will nonetheless reign with him." Reigning with Christ is conditioned on endurance. Those who do not endure will not reign with him, and those disown him will be disowned by him. That is precisely what Jesus promised in Matthew 10:33: "Whoever disowns me before men, I will disown him before my Father in heaven." It will be pointed out that Peter disowned Christ three times and yet remained a saint. True - but it must also be mentioned that he lied about Christ only when he felt threatened with death by torture, that he felt anguished remorse within seconds, that he repented within days, and that he then persevered in Christ until his own crucifixion many years later. Peter's momentary "disowning" can hardly be compared with willful, public, repeated, consistent, to-the-deathbed disavowal of Christ like that shown by (for example) former Billy Graham colleague Charles Templeton.
Matthew 24:13 He who stands firm to the end will be saved.
Nowhere does the Bible promise salvation for those who do not stand firm to the end. This is not a problem for saints, however, because all of them do stand firm in Christ. Again (how many times do we have to say it?), the saints persevere.
But aren't there people who make a temporary commitment to Christ and then revoke it? Oh yes, there are lots of them, and the Bible talks about them in spades and warns us not to be like them. They are not saints, and we should not label them as such. Here are a few texts that speak of those who do not persevere in the Lord.
Luke 8:13: Those on the rock are the ones who receive the word with joy when they hear it, but they have no root. They believe for a while, but in the time of testing they fall away.
Here Jesus is talking about temporary converts. They "receive the word with joy" and "believe for a while," but fall away when things get hard. I know that some evangelicals teach it is not possible to believe in Christ temporarily, but both the words of Jesus and our most casual observations prove that false. Jesus was right. Some people do in fact "believe for a while." They aren't faking it. Their joy is real. But later they change their minds and renounce the faith they once embraced. They are not saints, of course, because saints persevere. The saints in Jesus' parable of the seeds in Luke 8 are those who continue to grow and produce a crop.
2 Peter 2:20-22: If they have escaped the corruption of the world by knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and are again entangled in it and overcome, they are worse off at the end than they were at the beginning. It would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than to have known it and then to turn their backs on the sacred command that was passed on to them. Of them the proverbs are true: "A dog returns to its vomit," and, "A sow that is washed goes back to her wallowing in the mud."
Sobering, isn't it? It is a terrible thing to be a temporary Christian. Peter teaches that lapsed followers of Christ are worse off than those who have never known him. It is much better never to know Christ at all than to know him and turn away.
Hebrews 3:12: See to it, brothers, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God.
The writer of Hebrews is addressing people he calls "brothers." He has seen many former brothers turn away to sinful unbelief, and the whole book of Hebrews can be seen as the author's desperate plea to professing Christians that they persevere in the Lord and beware the apostasy that so many others have fallen into. In 2:1 he writes, "We must pay more careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away." What happens to those who drift away is described in 6:4-6 and 10:26-31:
Hebrews 6:4-6: It is impossible for those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, who have shared in the Holy Spirit, who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the coming age, if they fall away, to be brought back to repentance, because to their loss they are crucifying the Son of God all over again and subjecting him to public disgrace.
Hebrews 10:26-31: If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God. Anyone who rejected the law of Moses died without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. How much more severely do you think a man deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God under foot, who has treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified him, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace? For we know him who said, "It is mine to avenge; I will repay," and again, "The Lord will judge his people." It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
In the Bible, we actually have the names of some people who "crucified the Son of God all over again," "trampled [Him] under foot," "treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant" after they had once professed faith in Christ. They are Judas, Alexander, Hymenaus, and Philetus. See below:
2 Timothy 2:17-18: Their teaching will spread like gangrene. Among them are Hymenaeus and Philetus, who have wandered away from the truth.
1 Timothy 1:19-20: ...holding on to faith and a good conscience. Some have rejected these and so have shipwrecked their faith. Among them are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have handed over to Satan to be taught not to blaspheme.
2 Timothy 4:14-15: Alexander the metalworker did me a great deal of harm. The Lord will repay him for what he has done. You too should be on your guard against him, because he strongly opposed our message.
Matthew 26:24:
The Son of Man will go just as it is written about him. But woe to that man [Judas] who betrays the Son of Man! It would be better for him if he had not been born."
I have found that those who maintain that such non-persevering apostates (or "temporary believers") are still saved despite their apostasy often appeal to John 10:27-29 and Romans 8:35-39. The passage in John quotes Jesus as saying, "No one can pluck them out of my hand," and Paul in Romans says that nothing can separate us from the love of Christ. The full texts are below:
John 10:27-29: My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father's hand.
Romans 8:35-39: Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written: "For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered." No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
These texts are a great comfort to all believers. But applying them to apostate unbelievers is abominable! Please note, in John 10, who the people are who cannot be plucked from the hand of Jesus. They are identified in verse 27 as his sheep: "My sheep listen to my voice, and I know them, and they follow me." And they follow me. Repeat that phrase "and they follow me" a hundred times if necessary to get it stuck in your head. The promise is for sheep who follow Christ! It is not for wolves who abandon him. It is not for apostates who drift away and disown him. All sheep who follow Christ can rest assured that they will never be snatched out of his hand.
Romans 8 makes the same point. "Nothing can separate us from the love of Christ." Who are the "us" to whom this comfort is given? The persevering saints of verses 28 to 30:
Romans 8:28-30: And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.
The "us" of verses 35 and 39 are the "those who love God" of verse 28. A lover of God, called according to his purpose, foreknown and predestined to be conformed to the image of Christ, can never be separated from his love. To qualify for the "no separation from Christ" promise in verse 35, a person must love God back in verse 28. Apostates, who hate God so much that they "believe for a while" (Luke 8:13) and then "return to their spiritual vomit" (2 Peter 2:22) and "trample the Son of God under foot" (Hebrews 10:29) and "subject him to public disgrace" (Hebrews 6:6) and "shipwreck their faith" (1 Timothy 1:19) are neither sheep who follow Christ nor lovers of God who can avail themselves of the promises in John 10 and Romans 8.
Someone texted me the question, "So does 'perseverance of the saints' doctrine mean that no one should feel eternally secure in their salvation?" I texted back, "Of course not. All those who persevere should feel eternally secure. Those who do not persevere should not feel secure."
Perhaps an analogy will help.
Do you feel secure in your marriage? I hope so. I hope that, if you are married, it is to someone who would never leave you nor forsake you.
Now let me ask you to imagine that you are married to someone who is perfect in every way. This mate would not, could not cheat on you. Unfaithfulness is not in his nature - it is completely unthinkable to him. In addition, he is kind. He is also strong and protective - you know that he would prevent any kidnapper or abuser from coming in and snatching you away. If you get sick he will care for you. If others insult you he will not join in their bullying but speak compassionately to you. If you become poor he will not ditch you; instead, he will be poor with you, and will labor to provide what you need. If you become terminally ill, and die, he will be at your bedside holding your hand. Neither life nor death nor sickness nor poverty nor persecution nor anything like that can separate you from his love.
Would you feel secure in such a marriage? Of course you would. Would you fear that your marriage to such a man would end in divorce? Of course not! You'd have every reason for confidence that your marriage to him would last a lifetime.
However, you would have no grounds for such confidence if you're cheating on him. Chronic adulteresses who treat their loving husbands with contempt have no right to an assurance that their marriages will endure. Wives who trample their husbands under foot may expect a divorce just as surely as sinners who "trample the Son of God under foot" may expect a "raging fire that will consume the enemies of God."
Saints persevere, and rest assured that their union with Christ will last forever in the same way that loving wives rest confident that their good husbands will be with them until parted by death. Apostates and adulteresses, however, have no such assurance. They should not rest easy. They should repent, if possible, while there is still time.
On three occasions in recent weeks I have found myself having to defend the doctrine of the perseverance of the saints against some energetic opposition. It seemed good to me to write out a defense of this doctrine and have it at the ready should the issue come up again.
Who are the saints? They are the holy ones of God who belong to him by faith and whom he has chosen to inherit eternal life. What does it mean that they persevere? It means that they continue, they endure, they persist in Christ all the way to heaven. None of them is lost. They don't "believe for a while but in time of testing turn away" (Luke 8:13); they endure to the end and are saved (Matthew 24:13). Each of them has a regenerated heart, not a "sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God" (Hebrews 3:12). They do not disown Christ, since the Bible promises "if we disown him, he will disown us" (2 Timothy 3:12) - and saints can never be disowned. They abide (remain, stay, live, persist) in Christ; they do not "go out from us," as John explains, "For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us; but their going showed that none of them belonged to us" (1 John 2:19). They are eternally secure. No one can pluck them out of the hand of the Father (John 10:29). Nothing can separate them from the love of Christ. (Romans 8:38-39).
The doctrine of the perseverance of the saints tends to be undermined today in one of two ways: (1) by denying that it is even necessary for believers to persevere in their faith, and (2) by applying the assurance of salvation not merely to persevering saints, but to unpersevering unbelievers! (Yes, I have seen that done.)
I was challenged the other day concerning whether I would actually tell a convert that he had to persevere, and the answer is "Of course! Yes!" Heaven forbid that instead of proclaiming perseverance we should say to a young Christian, "Just believe in Jesus for a week or so, then if you go back to your atheism or hedonism or whatever you'll still be ok." What a contemptuous disregard for Christ's admonition to endure to the end!
When I tell my son that he must be faithful to his wife, I am not saying, "Son, make sure you honor your vows for a period of time - a few months, maybe a few years - then you can sleep around." No! I'm telling him to be permanently faithful. Temporary fidelity is infidelity; temporary belief is unbelief. Would we earnestly tell men to persevere in their marriages, but shy away from telling them to persevere in Christ? Would we instruct our children on the meaning of "till death do us part," but neglect to teach our children of faith the meaning of "endure to the end"? Is Christ less worthy of our faithfulness than a spouse? Are we perhaps afraid we'll "lose the converts" if we tell them that Christianity is a life-long commitment? That's worse than fearing our sons won't marry if we tell them they must be faithful to their spouses for the rest of their lives!
The doctrine of perseverance, of course, does not depend on any such analogy. It is grounded in the Scriptures. Here are some of the many Bible verses that support it:
Hebrews 3:14: We have come to share in Christ if we hold firmly till the end the confidence we had at first.
Note the "if" in the verse above. It does not say that we have come to share in Christ whether or not we hold our confidence firmly till end, but if. If a person does not hold firmly to the end, then he has not "come to share in Christ." He is not a saint. Again, all saints persevere.
2 Timothy 2:12: If we endure, we will also reign with him. If we disown him, he will also disown us.
This verse does not promise, "If we fail to endure, we will nonetheless reign with him." Reigning with Christ is conditioned on endurance. Those who do not endure will not reign with him, and those disown him will be disowned by him. That is precisely what Jesus promised in Matthew 10:33: "Whoever disowns me before men, I will disown him before my Father in heaven." It will be pointed out that Peter disowned Christ three times and yet remained a saint. True - but it must also be mentioned that he lied about Christ only when he felt threatened with death by torture, that he felt anguished remorse within seconds, that he repented within days, and that he then persevered in Christ until his own crucifixion many years later. Peter's momentary "disowning" can hardly be compared with willful, public, repeated, consistent, to-the-deathbed disavowal of Christ like that shown by (for example) former Billy Graham colleague Charles Templeton.
Matthew 24:13 He who stands firm to the end will be saved.
Nowhere does the Bible promise salvation for those who do not stand firm to the end. This is not a problem for saints, however, because all of them do stand firm in Christ. Again (how many times do we have to say it?), the saints persevere.
But aren't there people who make a temporary commitment to Christ and then revoke it? Oh yes, there are lots of them, and the Bible talks about them in spades and warns us not to be like them. They are not saints, and we should not label them as such. Here are a few texts that speak of those who do not persevere in the Lord.
Luke 8:13: Those on the rock are the ones who receive the word with joy when they hear it, but they have no root. They believe for a while, but in the time of testing they fall away.
Here Jesus is talking about temporary converts. They "receive the word with joy" and "believe for a while," but fall away when things get hard. I know that some evangelicals teach it is not possible to believe in Christ temporarily, but both the words of Jesus and our most casual observations prove that false. Jesus was right. Some people do in fact "believe for a while." They aren't faking it. Their joy is real. But later they change their minds and renounce the faith they once embraced. They are not saints, of course, because saints persevere. The saints in Jesus' parable of the seeds in Luke 8 are those who continue to grow and produce a crop.
2 Peter 2:20-22: If they have escaped the corruption of the world by knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and are again entangled in it and overcome, they are worse off at the end than they were at the beginning. It would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than to have known it and then to turn their backs on the sacred command that was passed on to them. Of them the proverbs are true: "A dog returns to its vomit," and, "A sow that is washed goes back to her wallowing in the mud."
Sobering, isn't it? It is a terrible thing to be a temporary Christian. Peter teaches that lapsed followers of Christ are worse off than those who have never known him. It is much better never to know Christ at all than to know him and turn away.
Hebrews 3:12: See to it, brothers, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God.
The writer of Hebrews is addressing people he calls "brothers." He has seen many former brothers turn away to sinful unbelief, and the whole book of Hebrews can be seen as the author's desperate plea to professing Christians that they persevere in the Lord and beware the apostasy that so many others have fallen into. In 2:1 he writes, "We must pay more careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away." What happens to those who drift away is described in 6:4-6 and 10:26-31:
Hebrews 6:4-6: It is impossible for those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, who have shared in the Holy Spirit, who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the coming age, if they fall away, to be brought back to repentance, because to their loss they are crucifying the Son of God all over again and subjecting him to public disgrace.
Hebrews 10:26-31: If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God. Anyone who rejected the law of Moses died without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. How much more severely do you think a man deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God under foot, who has treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified him, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace? For we know him who said, "It is mine to avenge; I will repay," and again, "The Lord will judge his people." It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
In the Bible, we actually have the names of some people who "crucified the Son of God all over again," "trampled [Him] under foot," "treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant" after they had once professed faith in Christ. They are Judas, Alexander, Hymenaus, and Philetus. See below:
2 Timothy 2:17-18: Their teaching will spread like gangrene. Among them are Hymenaeus and Philetus, who have wandered away from the truth.
1 Timothy 1:19-20: ...holding on to faith and a good conscience. Some have rejected these and so have shipwrecked their faith. Among them are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have handed over to Satan to be taught not to blaspheme.
2 Timothy 4:14-15: Alexander the metalworker did me a great deal of harm. The Lord will repay him for what he has done. You too should be on your guard against him, because he strongly opposed our message.
Matthew 26:24:
The Son of Man will go just as it is written about him. But woe to that man [Judas] who betrays the Son of Man! It would be better for him if he had not been born."
I have found that those who maintain that such non-persevering apostates (or "temporary believers") are still saved despite their apostasy often appeal to John 10:27-29 and Romans 8:35-39. The passage in John quotes Jesus as saying, "No one can pluck them out of my hand," and Paul in Romans says that nothing can separate us from the love of Christ. The full texts are below:
John 10:27-29: My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father's hand.
Romans 8:35-39: Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written: "For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered." No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
These texts are a great comfort to all believers. But applying them to apostate unbelievers is abominable! Please note, in John 10, who the people are who cannot be plucked from the hand of Jesus. They are identified in verse 27 as his sheep: "My sheep listen to my voice, and I know them, and they follow me." And they follow me. Repeat that phrase "and they follow me" a hundred times if necessary to get it stuck in your head. The promise is for sheep who follow Christ! It is not for wolves who abandon him. It is not for apostates who drift away and disown him. All sheep who follow Christ can rest assured that they will never be snatched out of his hand.
Romans 8 makes the same point. "Nothing can separate us from the love of Christ." Who are the "us" to whom this comfort is given? The persevering saints of verses 28 to 30:
Romans 8:28-30: And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.
The "us" of verses 35 and 39 are the "those who love God" of verse 28. A lover of God, called according to his purpose, foreknown and predestined to be conformed to the image of Christ, can never be separated from his love. To qualify for the "no separation from Christ" promise in verse 35, a person must love God back in verse 28. Apostates, who hate God so much that they "believe for a while" (Luke 8:13) and then "return to their spiritual vomit" (2 Peter 2:22) and "trample the Son of God under foot" (Hebrews 10:29) and "subject him to public disgrace" (Hebrews 6:6) and "shipwreck their faith" (1 Timothy 1:19) are neither sheep who follow Christ nor lovers of God who can avail themselves of the promises in John 10 and Romans 8.
Someone texted me the question, "So does 'perseverance of the saints' doctrine mean that no one should feel eternally secure in their salvation?" I texted back, "Of course not. All those who persevere should feel eternally secure. Those who do not persevere should not feel secure."
Perhaps an analogy will help.
Do you feel secure in your marriage? I hope so. I hope that, if you are married, it is to someone who would never leave you nor forsake you.
Now let me ask you to imagine that you are married to someone who is perfect in every way. This mate would not, could not cheat on you. Unfaithfulness is not in his nature - it is completely unthinkable to him. In addition, he is kind. He is also strong and protective - you know that he would prevent any kidnapper or abuser from coming in and snatching you away. If you get sick he will care for you. If others insult you he will not join in their bullying but speak compassionately to you. If you become poor he will not ditch you; instead, he will be poor with you, and will labor to provide what you need. If you become terminally ill, and die, he will be at your bedside holding your hand. Neither life nor death nor sickness nor poverty nor persecution nor anything like that can separate you from his love.
Would you feel secure in such a marriage? Of course you would. Would you fear that your marriage to such a man would end in divorce? Of course not! You'd have every reason for confidence that your marriage to him would last a lifetime.
However, you would have no grounds for such confidence if you're cheating on him. Chronic adulteresses who treat their loving husbands with contempt have no right to an assurance that their marriages will endure. Wives who trample their husbands under foot may expect a divorce just as surely as sinners who "trample the Son of God under foot" may expect a "raging fire that will consume the enemies of God."
Saints persevere, and rest assured that their union with Christ will last forever in the same way that loving wives rest confident that their good husbands will be with them until parted by death. Apostates and adulteresses, however, have no such assurance. They should not rest easy. They should repent, if possible, while there is still time.
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