tuliP
Remember,
this is our last theology week together. Next week is just me serving you
breakfast so if anyone that wants to add anything to breakfast casserole next
week is a-okay with me – juice, bread, donuts, coffee, milk.
If you can
remember back however many months ago, we began talking about some Reformation
Biographies: Jan Hus, John Wycliffe, John Calvin & my hero, Martin Luther.
Then we
looked at the theological battle between the Reformers & Rome in the form
of the 5 Solas: Sola Gratia, Sola Fide, Sola Scriptura, Solus Christus, Soli
Deo Gloria.
And then we
moved on to the debate between the Arminans (not Armenians) & the Reformed
Churches on Salvation & God’s role in Salvation in TULIP: total depravity,
unconditional election, limited atonement, irresistible grace & today is
perseverance of the saints.
This topic
has to do with the Eternal Security of the Believer. This is sometimes dumbed
down the slogan to “once saved always saved.”
The idea is
once the Holy Spirit converts a person from an unbeliever to a believer; that
person is kept forever by the Holy Spirit (or Preserved) (Eph. 1:13-14). The
person may sin but will ultimately never abandon the faith totally (Philippians
1:6).
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The understanding of this doctrine
really comes from understanding the unique and special love that God has for
His children. Romans 8:28-39 tells us that 1) no one can
bring a charge against God’s elect; 2) nothing can separate the elect from the
love of Christ; 3) God makes everything work together for the good of the
elect; and 4) all whom God saves will be glorified. God loves His children (the
elect) so much that nothing can separate them from Him. Of course this same
truth is seen in many other passages of Scripture as well. In John 10:27-30, Jesus says, “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. My
Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to
snatch them out of the Father's hand. I and the Father are one." Again, in
John 6:37-47, we see Jesus stating that
everyone that the Father gives to the Son will come to Him and He will raise
all of them up at the last day.
Another evidence from Scripture of the eternal security of a believer is found
in John 5:24, where Jesus says, “Truly, truly, I
say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal
life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life.”
Notice that eternal life is not something we get in the future but is something
that we have once we believe. By its very nature, eternal life must last
forever, or it could not be eternal. This passage says that, if we believe the
gospel, we have eternal life and will not come into judgment; therefore, it can
be said we are eternally secure.
Argument # 1 - Many people know someone who at one
time expressed faith in Christ and who might have appeared to be a genuine
Christian who later departed from the faith and now wants to have nothing to do
with Christ or His church. These people might even deny the very existence of
God. For those who do not want to accept what the Bible says about the security
of the believer, these types of people are proof that the doctrine of eternal
security cannot be right. However, the Bible indicates otherwise, and it
teaches that people such as those who profess Christ as Savior at one time only
to later walk away and deny Christ were never truly saved in the first place.
For example, 1 John 2:19 says, "They went out from us,
but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have remained
with us; but they went out from us, in order that it might be made manifest
that they all are not truly of us." The Bible is also clear that not everyone
who professes to be a Christian truly is. Jesus Himself says that not everyone
who says, “Lord, Lord,” will enter the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 7:21-22). Rather than proving we can
lose our salvation, those people who profess Christ and fall away simply
reinforces the importance of testing our salvation to make sure we are in the
faith (2 Corinthians 13:5) and making our calling and
election sure by continually examining our lives to make sure we are growing in
godliness (2 Peter 1:10).
Argument # 2 - If someone is truly saved, he has
been made alive by the Holy Spirit and has a new heart with new desires. There
is no way that one that has been “born again” can later be “unborn.” Because of
His unique love for His children, God will keep all of His children safe from
harm, and Jesus has promised that He would lose none of His sheep. The doctrine
of the perseverance of the saints recognizes that true Christians will always
persevere and are eternally secure because God keeps them that way. It is based
on the fact that Jesus, the “author and perfecter of faith” (Hebrews 12:2), is able to completely save
those whom the Father has given Him (Hebrews 7:25) and to keep them saved through
all eternity.
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Arminian
P - The Arminian view is that it is possible for true Christians to turn away
from God and not persevere. This is consistent with the concept of salvation
which has man’s “free will” at the center of it. It is logically consistent
that, if man’s “free will” choice is the determining factor of his salvation,
then it would also be possible for that man to later choose to reject God and
thereby lose his salvation.
Puritan Quotations on
Perseverance of the Saints: “God’
s decree is the very pillar and basis on which the saints’ perseverance
depends. That decree ties the knot of adoption so fast, that neither sin,
death, nor hell [or sin], can break it asunder.” Thomas Watson
“In our first paradise in Eden there was a
way to go out but no way to go in again. But as for the heavenly paradise,
there is a way to go in, but not a way to go out.” Richard Baxter
“”It may be that we are sinful; but God did
not love us for our goodness, neither will he cast us off for our wickedness.
Yet this is no encouragement to licentiousness, for God knows how to put us to
anguishes and straits and crosses, and yet to reserve everlasting life for us.
” John Cotton
“Though Christians be not kept altogether
from falling, yet they are kept from falling altogether.” William Secker.
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Charles
Spurgeon on Preserving Grace - The truth of preserving grace, Spurgeon
testified, was the enticing bait that drew him to Christ. Before he was saved,
Spurgeon observed others who appeared to fall away from their profession. These
apparent examples of apostasy made him hesitant to commit his life to Christ.
He said: “Whatever good resolutions I might make, the possibilities were that
they would be good for nothing when temptation assailed me. I might be like
those of whom it has been said, ‘They see the devil’s hook and yet cannot help
nibbling at his bait.’ But, that I should morally disgrace myself, as some had
done whom I had known and heard of, was a hazard from the very thought of which
I shrunk with horror.” The thought that he might start the journey to heaven
but fail to complete it terrified Spurgeon. As a result, he remained paralyzed
in unbelief.
But then Spurgeon heard the marvelous truth that
all who truly start the Christian life surely complete it. At that point, he
could not resist entrusting his life to Christ: “When I heard and read with
wondering eyes that whosoever believed in Christ Jesus should be saved, the
truth came to my heart with a welcome I cannot describe to you. The doctrine
that He would keep the feet of His saints had a charm indeed for me.” He
testified elsewhere:
I must confess that the doctrine of the final
preservation of the saints was a bait that my soul could not resist. I thought
it was a sort of life insurance—an insurance of my character, an insurance of
my soul, an insurance of my eternal destiny. I knew that I could not keep
myself, but if Christ promised to keep me, then I should be safe for ever; and
I longed and prayed to find Christ, because I knew that, if I found Him, He
would not give me a temporary salvation, such as some preach, but eternal life
which could never be lost.
This important doctrine became a key component of
Spurgeon’s gospel focus. Without it, he claimed, he would not be able to
preach: “If anybody could possibly convince me that final perseverance is not a
truth of the Bible, I should never preach again, for I feel I should have
nothing worth preaching.”
“The doctrine of the final perseverance of
believers seems to me to be written as with a beam of sunlight throughout the
whole of Scripture. If that is not true, there is nothing at all in the Bible
that is true. It is impossible to understand the Bible at all if it is not so.”
He added: “If there is anything taught in Scripture for certain, it is the
doctrine of the final perseverance of the saints. I am as sure that doctrine is
as plainly taught as the doctrine of the deity of Christ.”
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These are the last 3 things I’ll leave
you with:
1 – what is faith? A work, a gift, a 3rd
category not mentioned in scripture? This will determine if you are Catholic,
Reformed or Arminian.
2 – Read through Romans 8 & 9 and all of
John 6 with our TULIP categories in mind. If those don’t convince you that BOTH
the Apostles & Christ himself were Reformed in their understanding of
Salvation then NO theological argument will win you over.
3 – Consider Judas, either he was a man that
used his “free-will” to convert to Christianity & was a Christian for a
time & then used his “free-will” to fall away OR he was always a hanger-on
but ultimately unconverted & destined to be Christ’s betrayer
