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GUEST BLOGGER - Scotty Park: The Perseverance of a Saint

by guest-blogger Scotty Park 

I had by far the best grandma on the planet. One of my favourite stories about her was when I was about five years old. I’m not sure what kind of trouble I was getting into, but I do remember my grandma saying, “I’ll give you a licking!”. Having no idea what on earth that was, I started laughing at the mental image of my grandma licking me all over. I quickly and painfully found out what a licking was and that my grandma’s jokes weren’t as funny as I thought. Having grown up next door to her and my grandpa, I became well acquainted with grandma’s lickings over the years.

Don’t get me wrong, I have a lot of fond memories of her; like when she would read me bedtime stories at sleepovers or when she would be way too generous as she would pay me for work around her yard. None, however, make me smile and laugh to myself more than the day I discovered what a licking was. 

Not only was my grandma a seasoned disciplinarian (no doubt due to all the practice she had while raising my dad), she was also a faithful follower of Christ.

This July marked two years since she passed away and although her funeral was quite sad, there was an underlying feeling of comfort and joy knowing that she was a faithful believer until the very end. Praise God for the beautiful truth that when she put her trust in Christ’s work on the cross, she was sealed for His kingdom, and nothing could separate her from the love of Christ. 

Praise God for the Perseverance of the Saints.

If the phrase Perseverance of the Saints is unfamiliar to you, I will look to Wayne Grudem’s definition for clarification. “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 who persevere until the end have been truly born again.” [1] You’ll notice that this definition has two parts, 1) that all true believers will be sustained by God’s power and will persevere to the end and 2) that those who appear to be believers but do not persevere until the end were never truly born again. You may have also heard it simplified to “once saved, always saved.”

This is at times a controversial topic within the church; however, it is one that I believe is heavily supported in scripture and ultimately gives God all the glory. First, we will look at some passages supporting this and then we will look at two common objections and if scripture has anything to offer in response to them.

Jesus teaches that those who have believed in him have received eternal life and will never perish.

In John 5:24 Jesus says “truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment but has passed from death to life.” 

Notice how Christ uses the present tense to indicate that those who believe in him have eternal life, not “will have eternal life eventually” but currently now possess eternal life. He also goes further and uses the past tense to describe those in him having already “passed from death to life.” 

Later in John 10:27-28 Jesus says “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.”

He again uses the present tense saying, “I give them eternal life” not “I will give them eternal life later”. He then makes two guarantees that they “will never perish” and “no one will snatch them out of my hand”. Notice how concrete this is, when will they perish? Never. Who can snatch them out of his hand? No one. 

God saves us and sustains us… for his glory.

In Ephesians 1:13-14 we read “In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.” 

When we believe in Christ for our salvation, we are indwelt with the Holy Spirit which is a seal that guarantees our future inheritance. God does this ultimately “to the praise of his glory”. 

Probably one of the most comforting passages in all of scripture for the believer is Romans 8:28-39 which reads “and we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined, he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.”

Here we read that God is working in us through all stages of salvation; before the foundations of the world he predestines us to adoption, he calls us and justifies us in our lives and ultimately glorifies us in heaven through death.

On this passage, John Piper writes “The point of this golden chain is this: no link breaks. Nobody falls out. Every foreknown one becomes a predestined one. Every predestined one becomes a justified one. Every justified one becomes a glorified one. Few things could be clearer or more glorious.”[2]

As we read further there is no vulnerability here for anything to separate us from God’s love.

“Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? … No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Look at how exhaustive this list is. Paul uses words that occupy both ends of large spectrums and in doing this he leaves no room for the possibility that something can separate us from the love of God. “…neither death nor life…nor things present nor things to come… nor height nor depth…” and just in case anything may have been left out he concludes with “nor anything else in all creation” to solidify this statement. 

1 Peter 1:3-5 says “Blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.” 

Here again we read that God has caused us to be born again and guards us by his power to ensure that we receive our inheritance in Christ which is imperishable. Ultimately, he does this not because of any merit on our part but, “according to his great mercy.” 

In Philippians 1:6 we read “and I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.” 

Rest assured; what God starts - he finishes.

What about people who make professions of faith but then turn away?

One common objection to this doctrine is to look at people within the church who appeared to have genuine faith and have later fallen away. In response to this, we can go back to the second part of our definition where we said that those who do not persevere to the end were never truly born again.

1 John 2:19 speaks to this as it reads “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.”

The key here is that there are people who appear to have genuine faith however ultimately as John states “they were not of us”. They may have spent time with the flock and showed external signs of conversion but were never truly amongst Christ’s sheep.

Further to this, In Matthew 7:21-23 Jesus says, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’” 

Only those who do the will of the Father by putting their faith and trust in Christ’s work on the cross will be preserved until the end.

If God causes us to persevere in the faith, what’s the point in working toward our sanctification?

Another common objection to this doctrine we’ll look at is that it will lead to the ‘carnal Christian’ or people who do not work toward being sanctified. They make a profession of faith and continue living as they did before, because it is God who preserves the believer to the end. While it is true that the Bible teaches that God does indeed cause the elect to persevere to the end, the Bible also calls us to “work out our salvation with fear and trembling” Philippians 2:12 and to “be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election” 2 Peter 1:10. 

Paul seems to answer this very objection in Romans 6:1-2 when he writes “What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?” 

The Bible is full of commands for us to turn from our sin and “walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called” Ephesians 4:1. 

Motivated by God’s faithfulness

“[Christ] will sustain you to the end, guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.” 1 Corinthians 1:8-9

While studying this doctrine I came across another interesting quote from John Piper that I think helps to really drive home the point that it is God who is faithful, and God who deserves all the glory with respect to our persevering in the faith.

Speaking on Romans 8:28-39

“Everything hangs on God… If God is not faithful to the promises made here, we will perish. Our perseverance in faith, our conformity to Christ, and our final glorification depend on whether God is faithful, day by day and forever. 

I often ask people; how do you know you will wake up a Christian tomorrow morning? The bottom-line answer is that God will cause you to wake up a Christian, or you won’t. God will be faithful. God will keep you. Everything hangs on the faithfulness of God to his promise ‘those whom he called…he also glorified.’ ”[3]

The amount of comfort I feel knowing that my perseverance as a Christian is fully dependant on God’s faithfulness to his promise and not on my own works is indescribable. I can guarantee you this: if it were possible for me to lose my salvation, I would. I am so aware of my own depravity and inability to sustain my own faith that I am overwhelmed by the reality that God has secured my salvation eternally. 

This eternal security built on God’s faithfulness should motivate us for good works and to live in obedience to God. Obviously, we do not continue to work in order to gain favour with God or earn our salvation in any way. However, when we meditate on the reality of our hopelessness in sin and the beautiful truth that God not only caused our faith in him but also sustains us by his power, our response should be to humble ourselves in gratefulness and live our lives in order to bring him glory. 

Now, back to Grandma Park. If it seems like in this article, I have attributed all the praise to God for her perseverance then I have succeeded in my goal. As I said before, there is always an underlying feeling of comfort and joy in the funeral of the believer. This is not because we know they earned their place in God’s kingdom, but because the fact that they persevered in the faith until the end proves that God truly did save them and sustain them. Praise God that because of his sovereign grace, she ran the good race, she persevered to the end, and she heard those precious words; “well done, good and faithful servant.” 

How Firm a Foundation

The last two verses of the hymn ‘How Firm a Foundation’ I think summarize what I’ve said quite well. 

            “Even down to old age all My people shall prove

            My Sovereign, eternal, unchangeable love;

            And then, when grey hairs shall their temples adorn,

            Like lambs they shall still in my bosom be born.

            The soul that on Jesus hath leaned for repose,

            I will not I will not desert to his foes;

            That soul though all hell should endeavor to shake,

            I’ll never, no never, no never forsake!”[4]

In loving memory of (Annetta) Pauline Park
April 22^nd, 1935 – July 23^rd, 2022