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.