Perseverance of the saints, or an even better term to use is preservation of the saints. Means that those who are truly saved by God’s grace will persevere in their faith until the end. This means that genuine believers, once they have been regenerated (born again) and justified by faith, will never fully and finally fall away from their state of grace or lose their salvation.
John 10:28-29
“I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand.”
Jesus promises that those who belong to Him have eternal life and cannot be taken away from Him, emphasizing God’s power to keep believers secure.
Romans 8:38-39
“For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Paul assures believers that nothing in creation can separate them from God’s love, underscoring the permanence of salvation in Christ.
John 6:37-40
“All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away. For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of Him who sent me. And this is the will of Him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all those He has given me, but raise them up at the last day.”
Jesus promises that He will not lose any of those the Father has given Him and that they will be raised up on the last day, affirming security in salvation.
Philippians 1:6
“…being confident of this, that He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”
Paul expresses confidence that God will complete the work of salvation in believers, indicating that God is faithful to finish what He started.
Ephesians 1:13-14
“And you also were included in Christ when you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation. When you believed, you were marked in Him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession—to the praise of His glory.”
Believers are sealed with the Holy Spirit as a guarantee of their inheritance, suggesting that salvation is secure and will be fulfilled.
2 Timothy 1:12
“That is why I am suffering as I am. Yet this is no cause for shame, because I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that He is able to guard what I have entrusted to Him until that day.”
Paul’s confidence is in God’s ability to keep and preserve what has been entrusted to Him, reinforcing the idea of eternal security.
1 Peter 1:3-5
“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In His great mercy He has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.”
Peter describes an inheritance that is “kept in heaven” and “shielded by God’s power,” emphasizing the believer’s secure position.
Hebrews 10:14
“For by one sacrifice He has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.”
This verse highlights the completeness and permanence of Christ’s sacrifice, indicating that those who are in Christ are made perfect forever.
These passages collectively emphasize that:
Believers are kept by God’s power and love.
Salvation is a completed work by Christ that God promises to finish.
Believers are marked with the Holy Spirit as a guarantee.
Now, what if someone converts. Confesses Jesus as their Lord and Savior. Becomes a pastor. 40 years later says he’s decided he doesn’t believe and it’s all “hogwash” and denounces the faith. Did he lose his salvation? No. I would argue he never had salvation to begin with. False conversion. I don’t know why he played along for 40 years. But it wasn’t because he loved Jesus. Or else he would still be with Jesus. He was never saved.
Jesus had more than 12 disciples in the beginning who all claimed to believe that he was the Messiah. Yet, they had left or “fallen away” from the faith. Did they lose their salvation? This is what John had to say about them.
1 John 2:19
“They went out from us, but they did not really belong to us. For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us; but their going showed that none of them belonged to us.”
John is talking about those who appeared to be Christians but later left, revealing that their commitment to Christ and the community was not genuine. This verse suggests that true believers will remain in the faith because of their genuine relationship with Christ.
Someone converts. Confesses Jesus as their Lord and Savior. Very next day go out into the street and murders someone in cold blood. Then die themselves. Do they go to heaven? I would argue again of a false conversion. If God truly calls you to Christ and you are saved the sanctification process begins in that moment. You’ve come to know Christ you’ve come to love Christ. It would be against everything in your heart and soul to kill someone after that. I would argue this person was not truly saved by the grace of God through faith in Jesus Christ.
God’s grace is not an excuse to sin. If you have truly received God’s grace and love Jesus you won’t want to sin.
John 14:15
Jesus says “If you love me, keep my commandments.”
Here, Jesus is linking love for Him with obedience. This statement underscores that true love for Jesus will naturally lead to a desire to follow His teachings and commandments. It’s a call to genuine discipleship, where love is shown through action and obedience.
This however doesn’t mean that we won’t ever sin. We definitely won’t be going out and killing people. But we will slip up with lust and other various sins. But the idea is that the more we grow our relationship with God the more He’s able to change our hearts and minds. When a person is saved that person will start to sin less and less.
1 John 1:8-9
“If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
Our salvation is not in our hands. We didn’t earn it. It was given as a gift from God. If we have grace, which has not been earned. How can we lose it?
If you could lose your salvation you would. How arrogant does a person have to be to believe that it’s possible for them to lose their salvation but they haven’t.
Who do you have to think you are in order to be “I’m a christian and i’m saved and I’m on my way to heaven when I die but there’s a possibility that I can mess this thing up…. but I haven’t.”
You probably just did.
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