Liberty Unto Perseverance
Kevin Hartley
A perusal of the historical and current documents dealing with the doctrine of the Perseverance of the Saints, leaves the reader uninformed and less than certain as to the historical agreement between reformed theologians on this crucial point. It appears the most reliable writers of the past have held to the necessity of consistently lived obedience to Christ in the believer’s life, but they have hedged in the areas of assurance and failed to agree wholly on the manner of life one must live. Current trends in Evangelicalism, taking a road apart from the men of the past, have succeeded in the development of such faulty doctrines as ‘eternal security’ and ‘carnal Christianity.’ In doing so, they have done a great disservice to the biblical doctrine of the Perseverance of the Saints, which has resulted in misplaced assurances and false hopes of salvation.
Clearly these new doctrines have done nothing more than foster a godless and mindless mentality of ‘once saved always saved, though I go and live like the devil.’ We are not at all suggesting that this mentality was the conscious goal of these new doctrines but an honest evaluation of the present situation must admit it has been the result. Having replaced the ‘wait and see’ mentality of the reformers with the anxious seat of a man named Finney, these doctrines promise absolute assurance to the most godless and irreverent of professing believers. Easy believism has woefully diminished the word of Paul in Philippians, "work out your salvation with fear and trembling, knowing that it is the Lord who works in you both to will and to do" (Phil 2:12). There is little trembling and little godly fear among evangelical believers of our day, for to them salvation has but a passing importance to this life; it is an insurance policy put away until death’s grip comes. How troubling it is to know that many cannot find their "paperwork" when life’s last breath is drawn. Know this, the eternal God of salvation, who calls, justifies, and glorifies, is not glorified in this error of our day.
In an attempt to recover the lost art of godly living in our day, many have zealously labored to deny the professor his feigned assurance by yoking him with a facet of traditions and rules as his grounds for assurance. In somewhat of a backlash against the easy believism of the past few decades, fundamentalism has flourished to counteract the rampant liberalism and flood of mindless professions. The effects of this movement are widespread in our day. Many have taken the seekers from the front of the altar and have led them into the backroom, where they are given a list of rules to follow and are told that lasting assurance of their faith is found in obeying these rules. How many have left the altar confident of their profession, only to be led to despair by sincere advocates of the crafted rules of men who are deeply concerned about "examining yourself?" The message of these brethren is always filled with words of discouragement. It is not long before the confident professor becomes the well-dressed Pharisee, whose salvation no longer is found in an anxious seat, but in his orthodox doctrine and moral living. It does seem that a great many in our day are looking far and wide for assurance of their salvation, but as the old tune goes, they are "lookin’ for love in all the wrong places." They will not find their assurance at an altar; they will not find it in a moment of emotional ecstasy; nor will they find it in restrictive living. Assurance is found in Jesus Christ alone and not in any other source. The fruits of sanctification can never furnish the grounds of assurance of justification.
So where does a man, in this day and age, turn for assurance? If the doctrines of ‘eternal security’ and ‘carnal Christianity’ are false, and if the way we live remains important to proving whom we claim to be, where can we turn to find assurance? Some have turned to Moses and returned to Mount Sinai to gain confidence and to assure their troubled consciences of their eternally secure position. For them, Christianity becomes synonymous with the obedience to the law, or the old covenant. Their righteousness and daily comfort is found in their obedience to the various statutes and moral laws of the Old Covenant economy. Ask a man how he knows he is of the Lord and what evidence does he show? Does he bring you to his home, on the Lord’s Day, and there show you his reverence for a declared Sabbath? Where does he turn for his confidence and assurance? Like the fundamentalist, his assurance is oft bound up in his living, but where the fundamentalist uses traditions to construct his babbling tower, in similar fashion the lawman uses the statutes to bind up his troubled conscience. Together, both the fundamentalist and the proponent of the law of Moses constrain the conscience of the believer, as the fruits of sanctification are made to be the grounds of their assurance of justification.
Dear Christian, let me assure you that Mount Sinai is not the place to go for assurance, nor is it the place for the Christian to learn the doctrine of the Perseverance of the Saints. Israel learned neither perseverance nor lasting assurance from Moses at Mount Sinai. We must go to Christ if we are to gain both lasting assurances in our lives and an impetus to live godly lives. Moses never eased a man’s conscience from sin and law, nor did He ever produce a people of obedience; he was the mediator for an apostate people, a people who perished in unbelief. Unlike Moses, however, Christ the Lord is the Master of an obedient and persevering people. The doctrine of the Perseverance of the Saints is a doctrine found in Jesus Christ the Lord.
The basic assumption of this article is simple: Perseverance is a term synonymous with Christian liberty. Perseverance is hinged upon our liberty in Christ, and that liberty is the ground for every believer’s assurance. Assurance then can be found solely in the labors of Christ. Yet the way we live is not unimportant to the confidence of our salvation. We agree that our assurance is greatly affected by the way we live and in our obedience to the law. However, this is not to say, as many do, that our obedience to the law is the bedrock of confidence and assurance for the believer. This would hold assurance hostage to the Christian’s works and effectively destroy the power of grace. Those who are saved must, and will, persevere in love, for the rule of the New Covenant believer’s life is this chief and governing commandment taught to us by our Lord, "and this is His commandment, that we should believe on the name of His Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, as He gave us commandment" (I John 3:23). Let us, therefore, seek to understand the doctrine of the Perseverance of the Saints as it relates to our liberty in Christ.
The doctrine of the Perseverance of the Saints has been defined in the Westminster Confession of Faith as, "They whom God hath accepted in His beloved, effectually called and sanctified by His Spirit, can neither totally nor finally fall away from the state of grace; but shall certainly persevere to the end and be eternally saved" (WCF, Chapter XVII, Article I). But the nagging question in every Christian’s mind is, ‘how then will I persevere?’ Will it be in carnality, legalisms, or freedom? Simply asked, ‘What will be my manner of living?’ To this we answer: they who persevere to the end as eternally saved, are those who persevere, first, apart from the world, second, apart from the law, and third, abiding as sons in the household of God. Let us examine each. These people no longer deal with God as a Judge but with God as their Father. First,
- Perseverance is assured those set at liberty from the world
- Perseverance is attained through liberty. In order for a man to persevere, he must first have liberty from the bondage of sin and death. Lasting perseverance is obtained for all that are by sovereign grace called forth from this world. Thus Paul writes in Romans,
We were buried therefore with him through baptism unto death: that like as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we also might walk in newness of life. For if we have become united with him in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection; knowing this, that our old man was crucified with him, that the body of sin might be done away, that so we should no longer be in bondage to sin; for he that hath died is justified from sin. But if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him; knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death no more hath dominion over him. For the death that he died, he died unto sin once: but the life that he liveth, he liveth unto God. (Romans 6: 4–9)
The Apostle is not talking about promises that we claim by faith but about facts that are true of every believer.
- Perseverance is assured for regenerate saints because God has effectuated their separation from this world. "…if the Son sets you free, you shall be free indeed" (John 8:36, NIV). Sin no longer has dominion over the child of God, and death no longer holds him captive. The saints of God are at liberty from the bondage of sin and its effects, and the death that once held them in chains.
- Perseverance is assured for the truly regenerate man because of the new birth that has separated him from this world. He is born anew, apart from the bondage that once held him captive to sin. There is a change of nature and heart for the believer and an emancipation of the bound will. Paul in Romans declares, "But thanks be to God, that, whereas ye were servants of sin, ye became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching whereunto ye were delivered; and being made free from sin, ye became servants of righteousness" (Rom. 6:17). The heart’s deadness has been removed, life has been instilled, and the law of righteousness reigns in the heart. When we were held in bondage to sin, Paul declares, "for when ye were servants of sin, ye were free in regard of righteousness" (Rom. 6:20, ASV). Thus, while in bondage to sin, we were at liberty from righteousness. But now, the regenerate saint is at liberty from sin and given over to righteousness. It is the cross of Christ that has become the instrument of our liberty.
The concept of lordship and dominion plays into the doctrine of the saints’ perseverance. For the slave who is bound to a master serves in accordance with the master’s will. When men abide in this world apart from regeneration, they are slaves to the master of this world. Christ then emancipates the slave from sin, delivering him from its bondage, its effects, and its taskmaster, and sets the saint at liberty from the bonds that held him fast. He then conducts himself in accordance with the righteousness and gracious character of his Lord. Note how Paul assures the liberated man of his perseverance, declaring, "but now being made free from sin and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto sanctification, and the end eternal life. For the wages of sin is death; but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Rom. 6:22–23).
When Israel crossed through the Red Sea on account of the redemptive might of the Lord, she was set at liberty from the cruel bondage to Pharaoh, her taskmaster. Her perseverance in liberty from Pharaoh was established upon God’s utter end to Pharaoh’s pursuit, her separation from the land of Egypt by a vast body of water, and the faithful promise of the Lord her God. In type then, we see a similar portrait of the redeemed man’s assured perseverance. Satan shall no longer have dominion over the Lord’s own nor shall the Lord fail to finally deliver his own. Christian liberty begins with our freedom from sin, Satan, and death and assures us of a prosperous end. Yet our liberty is not solely bound up in this singular freedom. For perseverance has another cause for its surety, our second point,
- Perseverance is assured those at liberty from the law
Yoked atop the shoulders of a particular group of Adam’s descendant’s, those already burdened by ‘original sin,’ was the law given at Mount Sinai. As though the encumbrance of sin and death were not enough, placed down upon the shoulders of men was the load of God’s unbearable law. Chain upon chain, precept upon precept, here a little, there a little, greatly the weight of an omnipotent, holy God crushed the frail and sinful flesh of vile men. Thus Paul in Romans 7, turning from the declaration of our deliverance from sin, next undertakes an estimation of the need for separation from the law. For though men are delivered from Adam’s bondage, the demands of a righteous God are unattainable in the flesh. Paul writes, "for when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions, which were through the law, wrought in our members to bring forth fruit unto death" (Rom. 7:5). Perseverance is only attainable for those who have been set free from the yoke of the law. Thus Paul declares, "but now we have been discharged from the law, having died to that wherein we were held; so that we serve in newness of the spirit, and not in oldness of the letter" (Rom. 7:6). Again, liberty is the issue in which perseverance is assured. Romans 7:4 states, "Wherefore, my brethren, ye also were made dead to the law through the body of Christ; that ye should be joined to another, even to him who was raised from the dead, that we might bring forth fruit unto God."
What might we then say is the purpose of our liberty? Is it that we might be set free to sin and sin more abundantly in lawlessness? Nay, rather, we are set at liberty to bring forth the fruit of righteousness unto God, an end that the law of Mount Sinai could never produce. Therefore, in order for a man to persevere, he must also be free from the encumbrance of the law. Israel, held captive by the law of God, could not, in the flesh, continue therein. Thus, those who are the saints of the living God are set at liberty not only from sin and death but from the binding statues of Mount Sinai as well. No man lives without a master. No man is his own lord. Every soul that walks the face of this earth is bound by one master; it is either the master of this world, whose servants bear the weight of the chains of sin, death, and the law, or it is the Lord Jesus Christ, whose yoke is easy and whose burden is light. No man then is a lawless man, for he either serves the law of sin and death or the law of Christ, and the demands of one law produce fruit unto death even as the demands of the other law produce fruit unto God. Liberty is the ground of assurance and the certain guarantee of perseverance. It should be very evident that the doctrine of the Perseverance of the Saints is intricately related to our freedom—freedom from sin, death, and the law. Those at liberty, then, are made alive unto God and live, assured of this promise; "There is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus made me free from the law of sin and of death" (Rom. 8:1–2). How then do true Christians persevere? In this manner, they persevere as sons of liberty in the house of God. Thus our third point,
- Perseverance is assured the sons who dwell in the Lord’s house
Paul, in an intricate discussion of the saints’ assurance and confidence, declares,
So then, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh: for if ye live after the flesh, ye must die; but if by the Spirit ye put to death the deeds of the body, ye shall live. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. For ye received not the spirit of bondage again unto fear; but ye received the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit himself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are children of God. (Rom. 8:12–16)
The son of the bondwoman shall be cast out of the home, but the sons of the Lord shall never be cast out. The sons of God live as freemen. They are obedient because they are loved of the Father; they are righteous because they are as their Father above. The liberty of the sons of God, who dwell as free men in His house, assures their lasting perseverance.
How then is a Christian to live? How do we know a man who perseveres in grace?
First, he lives as a free man. Paul writes in Galatians 5:1, "…stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage." The Perseverance of the Saints is first demonstrated in liberty. They live as free men, free from the encumbrances of the law and the bondage of sin and death. They prove their freedom from the law by being free from the works of flesh engendered by the law (cf. Gal. 5:18–21) and by manifesting the fruits of the Spirit engendered by grace (cf. Gal. 5:22–23).
Next, they trust not in the flesh nor seek assurance in it, but live by faith. Thus Paul declares in Galatians 5:6, "…for in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision; but faith which worketh by love."
Last, they are freed unto lawful living. What law do they serve? Not the law of the flesh, but the law of the Spirit. Thus Paul declares, "…for, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another. For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself" (Gal. 5: 13–14). The law and rule of the Christians’ life is found in the love and commandment of Christ. Thus, John, speaking of our assurance writes,
We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren. He that loveth not his brother abideth in death, and, my little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth. And hereby we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before him. (I John 3:14; 18–19)
The sons of God abide in love and in this do we find our hearts’ assurance.
Conclusion
The two questions upon every professing Christian’s mind continues to be, ‘how do I know I am saved,’ and, ‘how do I know that my salvation is to last?’ The answer is simple and bound up in the doctrine of the Perseverance of the Saints. We have absolute assurance that every regenerate child of God, born by the sovereign electing and calling power of God, shall surely persevere and endure unto the end. We know with certainty none shall be lost. We know all the Father calls will come and find rest unto their souls. How do we know this? We know this because God has declared it; thus we do not doubt the certain end of God’s redemption through His Son. Thus Paul can declare:
I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Rom. 8:38–39)
Eternal salvation is absolutely assured from a heavenly perspective, as the Lord knows who are His and none of them shall perish.
In this life, though, is uncertainty, for many who say "Lord, Lord," shall one day hear our Lord declare, "I never knew you." (cf. Matthew 7:22–23). Is it because the doctrine of the Perseverance of the Saints fails? No. Rather, it is the nature of this world that many impostors, apostates, and false professors shall ever fill our midst. Where the wheat grows, there are also tares. How then, in this life, can a man know of his certain hope? By trusting in Christ alone, by living at liberty in Him and by persevering and enduring in the Lord until the end. Those who fall away and are lost were never of us; though many go after the world; and though some go after the flesh, know that all that are the Lord’s are led to a place of lasting rest. We, then, learn well the comforting yet troubling words of Paul, "…work out your salvation with fear and trembling, knowing that it is God who works in you both to will and to do…" (Phil. 2:12–13). We learn to trust wholly upon grace, upon the faithfulness of our God, and upon the merits of our Lord Jesus Christ. Yet, we never presume upon the grace of our Father, as no son should ever trample upon his father’s love. Thus we desire and will to love Him, and we know that we love Him because we love one another, that is, because He first loved us and has set us at liberty in Christ our Lord. I have spoken of the dilemma of this doctrine, a doctrine aptly summarized by Luther in his commentary on Galatians:
Paradoxically, a Christian is both right and wrong, holy and profane, an enemy of God and a child of God. These contradictions no person can harmonize who does not understand the true way of salvation…A Christian is beloved of God and a sinner. How can these two contradictions be harmonized: I am a sinner and deserve God’s wrath and punishment, and yet the Father loves me? Christ alone can harmonize these contradictions. He is the Mediator. (Luther, Commentary on Galatians, Chapter 3:6)
May our confidence rest solely in Christ, and may we never be found lacking in the love that arrested our souls, saying always, to God alone the glory.