Peservering Because Preserved

PERSEVERING BECAUSE PRESERVED

All of God’s elect will undoubtedly persevere unto the end. Yet when we say that, we are not talking about them improving, becoming more holy or more righteous. In Job we read those words which are used often to state this truth: “The righteous also shall hold on his way, and he that hath clean hands shall be stronger and stronger.” (Job 17:9).

Those spoken of in this verse are not righteous in themselves. There is “none righteous…no not one.” These are called righteous because they have been made the righteousness of God in Christ. He is the Lord our Righteousness. But they “shall hold on his way.” Their way is Christ who is “the way.” These sinners saved by grace will surely fail and sometimes fall. They will sin again and again. They will have fits of unbelief and seasons of unfaithfulness. But they will never become apostate and they will never finally fall away. They will never sin away the favor and blessing of God in Christ. They will persevere because He will keep them. They are “kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.“ (1 Peter 1:5). None shall pluck them out of the Father’s hand. God has given them eternal life and they shall never perish. God gives them the gift of faith and more faith and they increase in that strength. They "grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ" and therefore all are brought to confess of Christ, "To him be glory both now and forever.” (2 Peter 3:18). They glory not in their perseverance but in Christ’s preserving them by His unchanging power and grace. Nothing in God’s salvation depends on them and the keeping of the sheep is the responsibility and glory of the Shepherd. It is His blood that cleanses us from all sin. Their continuing is not the condition of their salvation but the consequence of it! These sinners, reconciled through the body of Christ’s death, will be presented holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight; Paul writes on, ”if ( seeing that) ye continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which ye have heard, and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven; whereof I Paul am made a minister” (Colossians 1:22-23). Christ alone is the hope of the gospel and He alone is all their Hope!

- Gary Shepard, pastor of Sovereign Grace Baptist Church in Jacksonville, North Carolina

 

Jude 1:24 Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy.

God's elect can never lose their salvation.

A few examples:

Read about Samson - I would not want to live his lifestyle, yet he is listed in the faith's "Hall of Fame" in Hebrews chapter 11.

Noah was rescued from the flood, and then he grows grapes and gets drunk and naked.

Abraham lied about his wife, not once, but twice.

Lot got drunk and committed incest, not once, but twice.

Jacob was a deceiver.

David committed adultery, and then tried to cover it up with murder.

Peter denied Christ, not once, not twice, but three times - even after being warned about it not long before.

Paul was an accessory to murder and threw Christians into jail.

So, we all need to be really careful about saying that a child of God would never (fill in the blank).