Eternal Security or Perseverance of the Saints?

About 5 years ago Keith A. Mathison, in his book Dispensationalism: Rightly Dividing the People of God?, called my attention to the fact that there are those who confuse the doctrine of perseverance of the saints with eternal security. (At this point I would like to add a brief word about my respect for the dispensational position. I am a graduate of the Moody Bible Institute, which is committed to dispensationalism. I was well taught by many brilliant and godly men who held to this position. They have my respect, admiration, and gratitude. Still, I disagree with them on this point. I think Mathison makes some good arguments, but I do not think he is as charitable as he should be.)

In order to demonstrate this error I must first present the correct doctrine of perseverance of the saints. I’ll begin as I often do, quoting Wayne Grudem from his Systematic Theology, "The perseverance of the saints means that all those who are truly born again will be kept by God’s power and will persevere as Christians until the end of their lives, and that only those persevere until the end have been truly born again" (788). This is the position that Mathison holds to as well (75).

Two authors who make the error are Paul Enns (The Moody Handbook of Theology) and Peter Jeffery (Christian Handbook). I am sure that there are better and more prominent examples, but these two sources have come up in Bible studies I was involved with. Jeffery writes, "Eternal security means that we are not only saved, but we are also safe. The Christian can never lose the salvation that he has in the Lord Jesus Christ. He can backslide (and so lose the joy and sense of reality of his salvation), but he can never fall from grace (that is, lose his salvation)" (176). This idea of "backsliding" is where the difference lies. A Calvinist would not deny that a genuinely converted person can sin (indeed we all do) nor that he could sin grievously, even denying the faith (as Peter did). But, according to the doctrine of perseverance of the saints, such a person would at some point repent and reaffirm faith in Christ alone, and must continue in the faith all their life. So I would not deny that there are lapses on the part of genuine believers. I do disagree, however, with the conclusion that a person could repent, believe, and be saved, and then deny the faith and persist in a life of sin and still be considered saved. Such is the conclusion of eternal security. Mathison sums it up well: "Eternal security is the view that the new life, given by the Holy Spirit in regeneration, may or may not be lived out by the Christian and that the security of his salvation is in no way affected by his failure to live a new life" (75-76). Seeking to avoid one error, understanding such a person to have lost their salvation, they fall into another, rather than accepting that the person was never truly converted.

Enns can sound a lot like a Calvinist: "when a person has genuinely believed in Christ as his Savior from sin he is forever secured by God by His keeping power" (340). However, a closer look reveals that he holds to the same position as Jeffery. Enns writes, "This doctrine does not suggest that the believer will never backslide or sin." And he explicitly states that these two different doctrines are the same. Writing of eternal security he says, "This doctrine is sometimes called ‘perseverance of the saints,’ which is not a proper title since it places the emphasis on man’s ability to persevere rather than on God’s ability to keep the believer." As to his comment that perseverance of the saints is an improper title, it should be evident from Grudem’s definition above that rather than emphasize man’s ability, Calvinists stress the necessity of God’s keeping power. The traditional title is most appropriate because those saved by God do persist in belief, they do persevere in faith. Even though faith is a gift of God and perseverance is the work of God, the believer must do the believing as God enables him. This does not deny that it is God’s working in them. Enns himself admits this later in the work already cited: "However, perseverance also has an important emphasis, namely, that the Christian perseveres in believing. Although the term perseverance seems to suggest that continuance in the faith depends on the believer, that is not the stress of the doctrine. Continuance in the faith is dependent on God" (485). Enns does not seem to be clear or consistent. At the end he seems to affirm the Calvinist doctrine, but I believe he has tipped his hand and revealed that he believes, as Mathison explains eternal security, that a person could turn to a life of sin and still be considered saved because at one point that person made a profession of faith. At the very least Enns fails to maintain the important distinctions between these two doctrines.

I now wish to demonstrate from several Scriptures the doctrine of perseverance of the saints. Many verses that teach perseverance of the saints are those used by Arminians to teach that a Christian can lose there salvation. So before we look at these verses we will first establish that truth which eternal security has right, that a Christian cannot lose their salvation. Then we will rightly understand the warnings of Scripture.

There are a couple of verses from John’s gospel that my personal favorites for demonstrating that one cannot lose their salvation. Please see John 6:37-40. Verse 40 says, "For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him will have eternal life, and I Myself will raise him up on the last day." You always let the clear teachings of Scripture guide your understanding of the more difficult or obscure passages. The doctrine of inerrancy says, "When all the facts are known the Scriptures, in their original autographs and properly interpreted, will be shown to be wholly true in everything they affirm, whether that has to do with doctrine or morality or with social, physical, or life sciences" (Feinberg, quoted by Dr. Finkbeiner in Systematic Theology at Moody Bible Institute). This passage is crystal clear. Hear are the words of Jesus leaving no room for the possibility of someone losing their salvation. The other passage from John that I would like to appeal to is John 10:27-29. I’ll quote verses 27 and 28: "My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand."

I would also have you consider Romans chapter 8. Verse 1 says, "Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." To lose one’s salvation is to be condemned, but those who are in Christ, those who are genuinely saved, cannot be condemned. Paul goes on later in the same chapter to give us the "golden chain of redemption." Every step of our salvation described in verse 29 and 30 is a link in the chain of our salvation. God is the one who performs each action, and they all necessarily lead to the next, and so the chain is unbreakable. Our salvation, from our predestination to our glorification, is spoken of as a completed action, because it cannot fail. "For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren; and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and those whom He justified, He also glorified" (Romans 8:29-30).

So then, what do we say of those who have "come to faith in Christ" and then left the faith to live the rest of their lives denying Christ? They did not lose their salvation, for salvation is not something you can lose. We must conclude they never had it. The following verse will demonstrate that true saving faith always produces perseverance in the faith. So perseverance of the saints teaches that perseverance in the faith is a mark of the truly converted.
Hebrews provides us with a couple of important passages in this regard. The first that should be considered is chapter 3 verse 12 through 19. Verse 14 says, "For we have become partakers of Christ, if we holdfast the beginning of our assurance firm until the end." Only those who hold firm to the end prove to be Christians. Hebrews chapter 6, especially verses 4 through 12, is the other passage I would call your attention to. First we read about those who "have once been enlightened" (v.4), and then who "have fallen away" (v. 6). Who is this speaking of? Believers? No! Certainly these have come near to the kingdom. It probably speaks of those who have come into the church, but we see in verse 9 that they were never truly converted, because here they are contrasted with those who have been, "But, beloved, we are convinced of better things concerning you, and things that accompany salvation." We see in the remaining text the truth of Matthew 7:20, "So then, you will know them by their fruits." Those who are converted bear fruit in keeping with their new, eternal life, including perseverance in the faith. Grudem says of Paul purpose here, "he wants [true Christians] to gain assurance of salvation through their continuing in faith, and thereby implies that if they fall away it would show that they never were Christ’s people in the first place" (800).

The first 11 verses of second Peter provide another example. After describing the Christian life Peter says in verses 10 and 11, "Therefore, brethren, be all the more diligent to make certain about His calling and choosing of you; for as long as you practice these things, you will never stumble; for in this way the entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be abundantly supplied to you." People have seen in this verse evidence that if one does not do these things they will lose their salvation. But that is not what the verse says, and that would contradict other verses we have already looked at. Rather the verse states the positive, that if you do these things you will be saved. It is not that one is saved by doing these things, but that the doing of these things accompanies salvation, it is part of our salvation. We are saved from hell and also from a futile, sinful way of life, and now posses a different kind of life, eternal life. Paul identifies the proper place of works in the Christian life, "For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them" (Ephesians 2:8-10).

One last verse to prove my point, Romans 11:22. In Romans 11 Paul is dealing with the "problem of Israel." Paul argues for God’s faithfulness and the assurance of God’s promises in Romans. In chapter 10 verse 13 he quotes Joel 2:32 saying, "for ‘whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved.’" What then of Israel, God’s people. If salvation by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone is a sure thing, how do you explain God’s rejection of Israel? As Paul said in Romans 9:6, "But it is not as though the word of God has failed. For they are not all Israel who are descended from Israel." God’s people are those who have the faith of Abraham, not those who have physically descended from him, but spiritually. And so in Romans 11:1 Paul concludes that God has not rejected Israel. He uses the metaphor of a tree to explain what is going on. God’s people (and those whom you assume to be) are the branches. Those who do not believe, the Israel who are not Israel, (unbelieving Jews), are cut of so that believing Gentiles maybe grafted in. And to them Paul says, "Behold then the kindness and severity of God; to those who fell, severity, but to you, God’s kindness, if you continue in His kindness; otherwise you also will be cut off" (Romans 11:22). Moo explains Paul’s purpose in his commentary, "Paul’s main purpose in this verse appears at its end: to repeat his warning to the Gentile believer who may presume on God’s goodness. For the goodness of God is not simply a past act or automatic benefit on which the believer can rest secure; it is also a continuing relationship in which the believer must remain . . . the person who ceases to believe forfeits any hope of salvation" (707).

Eternal security and perseverance of the saints are not the same. I agree with "once saved always saved," but not that a genuine believer could live life in persistent sin and unbelief. Perseverance of the saints includes "once saved always saved," but it recognizes that once saved you will persevere in faith. Those who do not were never really converted. So "be all the more diligent to make certain about His calling and choosing of you" (2 Peter 1:10). And, "work out your salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure" (Philippians 2:12b-13). May these commands and the above warnings not discourage us, but encourage us and motivate us to pursue Christ and at the end to be found in Him.