Perseverance is just as important as conversion
Feb 15th, 2008 by Nathan White
A short time ago I posted an article that essentially asked the question, “Why are we so quick to abandon the truth that salvation and eternal life is granted only to those who endure until the end?”
From it I received some encouraging feedback, despite the fact that it was but a brief blurb, containing few of the many scriptures on the subject of perseverance. Certainly, the issue could be fleshed out in much greater detail.
But along the same lines as this previous post, I recently read John Piper quoting Jonathan Edwards on this very issue, and his words are definitely worth repeating here:
“There is as much need of persons exercising care and diligence to persevere in order to their salvation, as there is of their attention and care to repent and be converted.” - Edwards, Miscellaneous Remarks Concerning Perseverance of the Saints, quoted by John Piper is The Supremacy of God in Preaching
I must admit, as much as I agree with Edwards, reading this comment somewhat shocked me. It is blunt and straight to the point. Did you get what he just said?? He said that persevering in the faith is *just* as important as our initial conversion and faith in Christ! Now there is a message that you don’t hear every day!
I’m afraid that many of the presuppositions within today’s church completely undermine this all important truth. You see, so many are convinced that scripture speaks of conversion as a one-time decision that one makes for Christ. Salvation (conversion) is treated as a decision, as an act of the human will, as an ‘accepting Jesus’, ’saying yes to Jesus’, as ‘asking Him into your heart’, etc. Once this decision is made, so the teaching goes, you are to *never* doubt that decision, because it is impossible to lose salvation!
How awful is this type of teaching! How contrary to scripture! Oh, how many are lost and deceived week in and week out by this kind of teaching! Of course, it goes without saying that it is impossible to fall away from the faith once a person has true faith in Christ, but the apostle John makes it clear that apostasy is the indicator that true faith never existed:
“They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us.” - 1 John 2:19
Conclusion:
Thus, if we are to confirm our faith, if we are to ‘make our calling and election sure’, as scripture warns us to do, then we are to place just as much emphasis on persevering in the faith, week in and week out, as we did the moment the terrors of hell entered our hearts and we realized that we were under the judgment of God and needed to be redeemed. Oh, how this should transform our worship, our prayer life, our listening, our attention, and our application of the preached word! We live under an ever-dangerous cloud of apostasy, but for the grace, mercy, and sustaining power of God! Let us look to Christ for our salvation –whether we’ve been saved 5 minutes or 50 years!
The ‘best’ day of your life, the day that you placed initial faith in Christ, will certainly turn into the worst day of your existence if you ever abandon the faith, as it will prove to be the initial, outward acceptance of Christ before the apostasy, which will drastically increase your condemnation on the Final Day. Pay attention to God’s means of grace! Do not neglect them! Let us ever seek His presence in prayer, in the Word, under the preaching of the Word, partaking of the Bread and Wine, singing of songs to the Lord, and the communing with the saints! These are gracious gifts the Lord has given us to assist in our persevering until the end.
“…we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it. For since the message declared by angels proved to be reliable, and every transgression or disobedience received a just retribution, how shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation? It was declared at first by the Lord, and it was attested to us by those who heard, while God also bore witness by signs and wonders and various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will.” - Heb 2
(For more on Perseverance of the Saints, see this article by my friend Steve Camp)
There was a discussion at Centurion’s blog on Piper. I am convinced that Piper was quite correct. Our tendency is to neglect our salvation. We slip so subtly, almost unconciously into flippancy. We can be quite dedicated to the form but not the substance or the power of the Gospel. Or, we can even abandon the form, yet hold by machinations of equivocation to our confession. I like this, and the consideration that is in Chapter 18. There is no sense in which a believer can op-out of the diligence that true faith requires. The grace-filled thing is that God does not allow us to continue in the neglect comfortably. In fact, if someone is comfortable in not making their election and calling sure, it may be a sign that there is a deeper problem.
Whoops, that link was to Chapter 17, I thought.
TT,
The Piper quotes over at Cent’s blog are very good. Thanks for the link, as well as the reference to my beloved confession.
Very good post. As was said , this needs to be heard and preached. For those who have not yet read it, Matthew Meade’s book, Almost Christian Discovered is an excellent book to read to test if you have true faith. It will test the true believer in a profound manner and I believe, expose the unbeliever.
That’s a pretty strong quote by Edwards. I think one important thing to reaffirm is the neccessity of persevearance in Faith, not Works. There are too many reformers now a days emphasizing a perseverance in works, which to me, is far too close to Rome.
Davide,
I’m curious as to how you would define pursuing perseverance in works. Doesn’t perseverance necessitate some standard of obedience?
Or, if I understand you correctly, our works in which we persevere in are not our grounds for perseverance, but rather our fruit of perseverance, correct?
Of course, affirming works is contrary to reformation theology, and so that would undermine the term reformed. But we do see men like Douglas Wilson who have gone down this path while still hanging onto the label.
Nathan,
Right. I see works as the inevitable fruit of persevering faith. The overwhelming emphasis. however. in James, Hebrews and other epistles is making sure one continues in fath not works
BTW.
I do believe that the way we test if we are persevering in true faith, is by the fruit of holiness, but the remedy for a lack holiness is not doing works but exercising true faith.
Davide,
Out of curiosity, what do you mean by exercising true faith. Did not James say that a faith that does not work is a dead faith? We do not work to have faith , for it is a gift of God, but true faith produces good works of righteousness and holiness. So to exercise that true faith we naturally work out our salvation. To just say we exercise faith without a work, is to make faith an ethereal thing only and that was James argument. It is not just that, but it works.
Fred,
Exercising true faith and repentance, I believe, is evinced by a regular heart attitude of contrition over sin and an awareness of one’s desparate need for Christ’s righteousness. A true Christian who exercises truth faith is one who is constantly looking to Christ, depending on Christ, hoping in Christ for His righteousness and mercy for his sins.
With that said, I totally agree that this heart felt attitude of faith and repentance will result in change of actions, but the actions themselves are not the basis of our justification/salvation. Our only basis is Christ’s righteousness and atoning work on the cross.
Davide,
Would you say, using some of your wording, that, exercising true faith and repentance, is evinced by a regular heart attitude of contrition over sin and an awareness of one’s desparate need for Christ’s righteousness. A true Christian who exercises truth faith is one who is constantly looking to Christ, depending on Christ, hoping in Christ for His righteousness and mercy for his sins
and his evidenced by his works, not apart from justification, but rather that is part and parcel of justification in that we are never justified apart from being sanctified. To see this as not a wholly work of God, is to see God as possibly being the God of justification , but not Lord over the justified. Though we understand faith in theological segments, justification, sanctification, conversion etc, they are all part of one. They can not be separated. Thus by grace alone , through faith alone is a work of God who by grace gives faith, the conduit, which is evidenced by works, the evidence of faith. Take out any part or separate them and you do not have true salvation. We are saved through faith alone but not a faith that is alone.
I think I agree with you. Maybe you could simplify/clarify the last part
Davide,
I am not quite sure what part you are asking me to clarify, but I will try. The issue is perseverance in the faith. You said we need to make sure it is a perseverance in faith not in works. My point is that the perseverance we need is one that shows sanctification, a setting apart to the holiness which is in Christ given to us. Our faith is shown or demonstrated by works of obedience. If we do not have those, then our faith is worthless for what were we saved unto? We were not saved just to get to heaven. We were saved from our sins unto righteousness and that is demonstrated by works. “If you say you have faith without works , I will show you my faith with works.” The point is this. To persevere in the faith is to be continuously examining ourselves by our works of faith , not faith without works, to see if we are indeed in the faith. If our lives do not show works of obedience, then what spirit is living in us?
I am not saying we do not sin. But our lives must show a constant move towards a practical sanctification , which demonstrates our actual sanctification, or in other words , our setting apart, calling by God. If we truly have faith, we are justified by the merits of Christ, UNTO good works. Without the good works of obedience, and the persevering in them, there is no justification that has been wrought. We can not separate the two. I hope this helps.
What I understood in your original post is that you make faith some kind of ethereal commodity only in which we add works to afterwords. I am saying that the faith we have is one that works of necessity, not option. If we make it optional , then we must question if we are indeed in the faith. So when we say persevering in the faith , we mean making sure that we are obedient unto Christ, not for justification, but because of justification. They are all part of the same work and to rend them apart makes obedience optional. To me this is where the Lordship Controversy question lies.
I dont know if I simplified anything or not.
Fred
I think I agree with you for the most part. I think a lot of this may be semantics, but nonetheless, its important to clarify. (Nathan, feel free to add any thoughts). Here’s where I think we can agree:
1. Faith and works are inseparable.
2. Faith is evinced by works.
Here’s where I think it is important to clarify. If a person professes to know Christ, yet does not have bear any fruit, our warning to him must not be, “Faith without works is dead, so you had better persevere in good works, or else.” Rather, I think our warning should be, “Faith without works is dead, so take heed to exercise true faith and repentance, or else.”
See the difference? Faith is prescriptive; works are descriptive. Faith/repentance is the remedy, not works.
Davide,
Yes , I can now see where you are coming from. Clarification noted. Thanks.
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