The Bible has a lot to say about
perseverance
in several different contexts.
Clearly,
the
Scriptures teach that those
who “overcome”
and
persevere in the faith
will
inherit eternal life
(Revelation 2:7).
This truth
is also expressed in Colossians 1:23 where we
see that people will be
holy,
blameless,
and
above reproach
“if they continue
in the
faith, grounded and steadfast,
and are not moved away
from the
hope of the gospel.”
So all Christians
should be in agreement that
those who are ultimately saved
are those who do
persevere and continue to
believe the gospel.
There are two very
distinct views on the issue of
perseverance of the saints among Christians.
The first is the Arminian view that it is possible for
true Christians
to turn away from God
and not persevere.
This is consistent with the concept of salvation which has man’s “free will” at the center of it. It is logically consistent that, if man’s “free will” choice is the determining factor of his salvation, then it would also be possible for that man to later choose to reject God and thereby lose his salvation.
However, the Bible clearly teaches that we are “born again” by the Holy Spirit, which results in our coming to faith in Christ. All who have been “born again” do have eternal security and will persevere. The doctrine of the perseverance of the saints is founded in the promise that “he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ” (Philippians 1:6) and Jesus’ declaration that “all that the Father gives me will come to me” and “I shall lose none of them that he has given me” (John 6:37, 39).
Beyond the concept of
perseverance in regard to salvation,
there are biblical exhortations to
persevere in the Christian life.
In his pastoral epistles to Timothy, the apostle Paul
reminds the young
pastor to “watch your life and doctrine closely.
Persevere in them,
because if you do, you will save
both yourself and your hearers”
1 Timothy 4:16
Timothy’s character was that of a godly man,
and his doctrine was sound and scriptural.
Paul warned him to watch them both closely
and persevere in them because—and this
is a warning to all Christians--
perseverance
in godly living and believing
the truth
always
accompany genuine conversion
(John 8:31; Romans 2:7).
Further exhortations to persevere in the
Christian life
come from James, who warns
us to be “doers of the word and
not hearers only” because those who hear but
do not do are “deceiving themselves.”
“But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it [perseveres]…this one will be blessed in what he does” (James 1:22-24). The sense here is that the Christian who perseveres in godliness and the spiritual disciplines will be blessed in the very act of persevering.
The more we persevere in the Christian life,
the more
God grants His blessings upon us,
thereby enabling us to continue to persevere.
The psalmist reminds us that there is
great reward in persevering
in the Christian life.
In keeping God’s commandments, there
is “great reward” for our souls (Psalm 19:11),
peace of mind, a clear conscience,
and a witness to the
world more eloquent than many words.
James also exhorts us to
persevere “under trials”
because those who do will
be blessed
and will receive
the
“crown of life”
which
God has promised
(James 1:12).
Just as the true
believer
will be eternally secure in his salvation,
his faith
will also persevere
in
affliction, sickness, persecution,
and the other
trials of life
that
befall all believers.
If we desire to live godly
lives in Christ,
we will suffer persecution
(2 Timothy 3:12),
but the faithful will persevere,
kept by the
power of the Holy Spirit
who is the
guarantee of our salvation
and who will
keep us “strong to the end,”
persevering so
we will
be “blameless on the day
of our
Lord Jesus Christ”
(1 Corinthians 1:8).
2 TIMOTHY 1:12–14
“for I KNOW WHOM I have believed,
and
I AM CONVINCED
that he is able to guard
until that Day
what
has been ENTRUSTED to me”
First-century
Rome
was driven by honor and shame,
and few things were more shameful
than imprisonment.
Prisoners
were ashamed of their chains,
but the apostle Paul
saw his suffering
as a
badge of honor even though,
from a
cultural perspective,
he should
have found it shameful to
glory in such things.
Paul was not ashamed,
he tells us in 2 Timothy 1:12b,
because he suffered
for the sake
of
Christ and His GOSPEL
He knew that to trust in Jesus
was to trust in the one,
TRUE
Lord of all,
and therefore that the
Creator would
vindicate
the apostle before all those
who dishonored him
on account of the Savior
(Ps. 135:14).
CONVINCED that God
would guard that which
was ENTRUSTED to him --
his life
and
APOSTLISTIC MINISTRY —
until
the day of judgment
(2 Tim. 1:12b),
Paul understood that
the Almighty would
PRESERVE his LIFE
even in death under Nero,
finally VINDICATING him
through the
RESURRECTION of the dead upon
Jesus’ RETURN
If Paul
was not ashamed to
SUFFER for JESUS,
neither
should we be ashamed.
Likewise,
we are to follow
the
pattern of TEACHING
we
receive from Paul in
his EPISTLES
“in the
FAITH and LOVE
that are in
CHRIST Jesus”
“faith and love must go together;
it is not enough to
believe the sound words,
but we must love them, believe
their truth
and love their goodness.”
Christian faith
is not
revealed in intellectual assent
to biblical doctrine alone
but also
in a true love
for what God has spoken.
The teachings of Paul and the other
Apostles are the
“GOOD DEPOSIT”
we are told to guard by the
Power of the Holy Spirit
(v. 14)
Imitating the Lord who guards the
deposit of our lives till the
last day,
we too must guard the
gospel He has entrusted to us.
Only if we rely
on His Spirit can we fulfill this task.