Daily Thanksgiving: So Great a Salvation | Day 9 - Preservation and Perseverance of the Saints
The Endurance of Our Salvation
Here I sojourn as a stranger in a land that’s not my own,
To that fair and better country, to my rest and final home.
Through the valley, toward the promise, let Your word alight my way;
When I wander guard my steps, Lord, never let me go astray.
Oh Christ my guide stands at my side,
Praise the Lord, He’s won the night!
Our blessed hope will keep his own
To the end, so we wait for Him alone.
- Kenwood, “Here I SojournTake care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end. - Hebrews 3:12-14
Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted. - Hebrews 12:1-3
All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out. For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.” - John 6:37-40
How Can I Keep Going?
“I’m done,” I said to my pastor with tears in my eyes. I’ve been here before multiple times; this was another moment of shame and despair. “I’m just numb and jaded about trying to obey Jesus when I just keep failing. What’s the point of trying to grow in godliness when you're just going to keep screwing up?” With prayer-filled, God-given patience and love, my pastor only listened, and then when I went silent, he said, “Joseph, trust in God’s grace. He still loves you and never stops loving you. Nothing is wasted in your life by him. Come back to the good news of the Gospel. Christ is enough. He is your worth. Keep going and keep coming to Jesus.”
I’ve experienced this pattern so many times—I would strive to walk with Jesus only to choose temptation and sin but then be met by Gospel-empowered encouragement to get back up again. So often I’ve thought, “How can I keep going when this life is so hard and I’m not where I want to be?” Yet, as I look back, even though in every single one of those instances I felt like I was done with walking with Jesus, I’m so glad Jesus is never done with me and will keep me to the end.
It’s a miracle that Christians keep getting back up to persevere to the end because it is ultimately God who preserves them.
God Preserves Us Through Our Perseverance
If Sanctification or gradual growth in godly character is the rhythm of the Christian life, then the Preservation and Perseverance of the Saints is its dynamic melody. When learning theology, we often learn about the perseverance of the saints which means Christians will continue to believe the gospel and live for God. However, what is often missed is that the reason why saints can persevere is because God will keep or preserve his people to the end. This makes sense in light of the previous aspects of salvation:
God chose by his sovereign grace and glory sinners to be united with Christ (Election and Union with Christ).
God calls his elect through the gospel and draws them by his saving grace (Effectual Calling).
God the Holy Spirit indwells and imparts new life to the sinner transforming him or her into a saint (Regeneration).
By repentance from sin and faith in Jesus Christ, believers are declared righteous before God based on the complete work of Christ (Justification).
Because of regeneration, Christians are humans who are now able to live holy lives thus waging war against sin and growing in godliness (Sanctification).
We see that all of salvation is primarily God’s work in our lives, but that doesn’t mean life is easy. In fact, as John Newton wrote in “Amazing Grace,” Christians will live lives that go “through many dangers, toils, and snares,” and so often we see many once-professing Christians later on reject Jesus and renounce the faith they confessed. How do God’s preservation and the Christian’s perseverance actually play out?
To start, we must acknowledge that God commands Christians to persevere or else they will fall away. Throughout the New Testament, the biblical authors give warnings and commands calling fellow Christians to “pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it” (Heb. 2:1), “Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God” (Heb. 3:12), or “be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election” (2 Pet. 1:10). Christians must take seriously these warnings by taking ownership of their personal holiness or else they will fall away and face judgment. Therefore, we don’t just grow in godliness for a short season like a sprint; we grow in godliness like running a marathon. Plus, we persevere not only through our personal spiritual disciplines like regular Bible intake and prayer but also through faithful corporate assembly with our local churches (Heb. 10:24-25).
“But wait?” you might say, “Didn’t you say God chose whom he would save by predestination and unconditional election? How can you hold to God’s election and at the same time say that Christians will fall away?” The reason is that God uses these commands and warnings as the means by which Christians will persevere in their walks with him.1 Furthermore, God preserves his people by enabling them to do so by his grace through the Holy Spirit. We can heed the warning and obey his commands because we have new life by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit (see John 14:16-17, 26-27; 16:7-15, 26). In addition, God the Father has given his elect to the Son, and the elect are those who come to Jesus. This sounds like a contradiction, but when you reflect on it more, this brings massive encouragement to us to keep living lives of repentance and faith. If we are in Christ, he will never cast us out; therefore, we can keep getting up from every sin and failure and grow in godliness (see John 6:37-40).
Christ—Our Anchor and Confidence—Will Hold Us Fast
We can easily assent to God’s preservation and our perseverance, but living them out is harder. I wonder if you’ve experienced the same pit of despair that I’ve found myself in and the looming thoughts that accompany it:
“You suck! What makes you think you can change after you just nuked your life again for the hundreth time?”
“Wow! So mature Christian you are. How many years have you been walking with Jesus? And yet you can’t still be (fill in the blank)?
“You really think God still loves you after that? You really think you’re his?”
“You can’t be a truly mature Christian until you’ve read this book. Until then, you’re pitiful.”
How do we escape the depths of woe that paralyze us as we press onward in our pilgrimage? The answer is not by looking at ourselves—our performance, achievements, and even our sanctification—but to our all-sufficient savior, Jesus Christ. As Dane Ortlund writes in Gentle and Lowly, “In order for you to fall short of loving embrace into the heart of Christ both now and into eternity, Christ himself would have to be pulled down out of heaven and put back in the grace. His death and resurrection make it just for Christ never to cast out his own, no matter how often they fall.”2
In short, David wrote “The steps of a man are established by the LORD, when he delights in his way; though he fall, he shall not be cast headlong, for the LORD upholds his hand” (Ps. 37:23-24). As we stumble towards the coming consummation of the kingdom of God, let us fall into our loving savior’s arms because he alone can give us rest for our weary souls (Matt. 11:28-30) and empower us to keep going no matter how we feel or our circumstances. Because we are in Christ, he will keep us and thus we can persevere to the end.
I don’t know what lies ahead
What if I fail again
You are my confidence
You’ll keep me to the end
I’m leaving my fears behind me now
The old is gone, the new has come
What You complete is completely done
We’re heirs with Christ, the victory won
What You complete is completely done
- Sovereign Grace Music, “Completely Done”Christ the sure and steady Anchor
Through the floods of unbelief
Hopeless somehow, O my soul, now
Lift your eyes to Calvary
This my ballast of assurance
See His love forever proved
I will hold fast to the Anchor
It shall never be removed
- Matt Boswell and Matt Papa, “Christ the Sure and Steady Anchor”When I fear my faith will fail
Christ will hold me fast
When the tempter would prevail
He will hold me fastI could never keep my hold
Through life's fearful path
For my love is often cold
He must hold me fastHe will hold me fast
He will hold me fast
For my Saviour loves me so
He will hold me fast
- Ada R. Habershon, “He Will Hold Me Fast”
Father, thank you so much for uniting me with Christ so that I am as secure as he is. Thank you, Jesus, that you will keep your promise by keeping me to everlasting life. Forgive me for my sins which I commit daily, but remind me that because I am indwelt by your Holy Spirit, you empower me to repent, flee from sin, and obey better than before. Remind me that you will keep me through working in my perseverance. Help me to not lose heart when trials, temptations, and tribulations spring up in or around me. But when I do sin and fail, renew me again with the same gospel that saved me from the beginning and you will never stop loving your church, which includes me. In Jesus’ name, I pray. Amen.
For more on understanding God’s Warning and Exhortations as his “Means of Salvation,” see Thomas R. Schreiner, Commentary on Hebrews (Nashville: B&H Publishing Group, 2015), 480-491. This is also found in the new publication: Thomas R. Schreiner, Hebrews: Evangelical Biblical Theology Commentary (Lexham Press, 2021).
Dane Ortlund, Gentle and Lowly: The Heart of Christ for Sinners and Sufferers, 66.