Preserved to Persevere

Do you ever struggle with your call to salvation? Do you ever fall into sin and wonder how one who is saved could possibly not lose their greatest gift? Does God ever become so angry with us that he takes back what we thought he irrevocably gave to us? These questions bring the words of Paul to mind when he told the Philippian church to continue to work out their salvation with fear and trembling.

Reformed believers are often accused of a false sense of security. Arminians are accused of a man centered religion that involves no security at all. I remember talking with a person that might be considered as an extreme Arminian--a Perfectionist. In a nutshell he believes that the Bible teaches that man can become perfect in this life once recieving Christ. Not only so, but these same Christians must remain perfect until the day that they die or they must become saved all over again.

The Scriptures are clear (as we will dive into this Sunday) that God preserves all of his people. Those that he gives to Jesus will be guarded and preserved until the last day (Phil. 1:6, John 6:44 etc). This is all the work of God. Just as election, redemption and calling are the work of the Triune God so preservation continues to be the work of God in salvation. However, man is called to persevere. We are called to holiness, to faith, to abide in Christ to "fight the good fight" if you will. Perseverance is man's responsibility. In fact I would argue that we should add a 6th point to "Calvinism" called "Preservation" and this point should come before perseverance (for reasons I don't have space to get into right now).

God preserves his people and his people persevere. In other words Faith alone saves us but faith is never alone. By the very fact that God preserves his people secures his people unto salvation. None of them will be lost.

But what about those who profess faith in Christ and absolutely fall away and die in their sin? Simple and sad to be sure...they were never under grace in the first place. Jesus promises his people that not one of them will be lost--not one. If you are truly saved, you can be confident that the promises of God will always be yours.