- The Scriptures' testimony...

3. The Scriptures’ Testimony on the Perseverance of the Saints

Hear the confession of God’s people. Did God keep them in faith and holiness by His power, or did God keep them in the state of grace despite all their evil and unfaithfulness? Please read Nehemiah 9:25b-32a., “And [they] delighted themselves in Your great goodness. Nevertheless they were disobedient and rebelled against You, cast Your law behind their backs and killed Your prophets, who testified against them to turn them to Yourself; and they worked great provocations. Therefore You delivered them into the hand of their enemies, who oppressed them; and in the time of their trouble, when they cried to You, You heard from heaven; and according to Your abundant mercies You gave them deliverers who saved them from the hand of their enemies. But after they had rest, they again did evil before You. Therefore You left them in the hand of their enemies, so that they had dominion over them; yet when they returned and cried out to You, You heard from heaven; and many times You delivered them according to Your mercies, and testified against them, that You might bring them back to Your law. Yet they acted proudly, and did not heed Your commandments, but sinned against Your judgments, ‘Which if a man does, he shall live by them.’ And they shrugged their shoulders, stiffened their necks, and would not hear. Yet for many years You had patience with them, and testified against them by Your Spirit in Your prophets. Yet they would not listen; therefore You gave them into the hand of the peoples of the lands. Nevertheless in Your great mercy You did not utterly consume them nor forsake them; For You are God, gracious and merciful. “Now therefore, our God, The great, the mighty, and awesome God, Who keeps covenant and mercy… You have dealt faithfully, but we have dealt wickedly.”

Where, may I ask, is the divine power that keeps these chosen people in faith and holiness? What is conspicuously noted is the covenant mercy of God. He did not utterly consume a people who were constant covenant breakers. Behold, how God perseveres to preserve His redeemed people who deserved to be utterly consumed many times over! Some would be quick to retort, ‘O these are not spiritual people. They are not true believers.’ Read the Scriptures again, please. I believe it takes grace and great spirituality to say, “You have dealt faithfully, but we have dealt wickedly.”

And what about the saints in the NT churches? Read the letters to the Corinthian believers. Read some of the letters addressed to the seven churches in the Book of Revelation. What do we see? Is there divine power to keep His people in faith and holiness? Did the power of God fail in those circumstances? Do the lives of the believers in our churches bear any resemblance to the claim that the divine power of God keeps every one of His elect in a life of faith and holiness? Perhaps the believers in our churches who do not exhibit a life of faith and holiness need to be consigned to the category of the non-elect in order to make the presumptuous claim to be true! Are the lives of believers in the other non ‘standard reformed position’ churches marked by less faith and holiness? Is the power of God operating less in their lives to keep them faithful and holy to the end?

As we consider a subject like this, are we not bound to the Holy Spirit’s choice of words? Should not man live by every word of God (Luke 4:4)? Should not we ministers hold fast the form of sound words (2Tim 1:13)? If so, then we should realize that perseverance (the object acting) is used only once to describe continuing in prayer (Eph 6:18). We should then realize that preservation (the object being acted upon) is used several times to describe God’s work in keeping His elect from losing their eternal salvation (1Thess 5:23-24; 2Tim 4:18; Jude 1).

God perseveres, i.e., God’s steadfast faithfulness to the covenant of redemption in the face of covenant unfaithfulness – to preserve His people in the state of grace. However, when we say that the ‘perseverance of the saints’ refers to God’s perseverance to preserve the saints in the state of grace, we are not diminishing one iota the biblical command and exhortation to the saints to fight the good fight of faith to continue in a life of faith and holiness. We need to be clear what constitutes the biblical and historic meaning of the perseverance of the saints, and not impose our own novel man-centered idea upon the historic theological term.