Perseverance of the saints is a phrase that describes
a doctrine of the church. I say the
church as in all believers of every age. When we say “which church” we
mean the “brands” we’ve developed, Presbyterian, Baptist, Roman Catholic,
Methodist, etc. When a Presbyterian
refers to the perseverance of the saints,
she is saying something quite different in meaning than what a Methodist might
say.
A phrase that is not found
in Scripture is “once saved, always saved”; it is a term that refers to one
pivotal issue in the doctrine of perseverance of the saints. That issue is the question: can a Christian cease to be a Christian, or, as it might be otherwise stated, can a person who has been saved ever be
lost?
This morning I do not intend
to “pick this bone clean” on this doctrine.
There is enough in print for you to study deeply and come to your own
conclusion. It is a comprehensive and
complicated issue; yet it is not unintelligible. But there is too much for a sermon or even a
series of sermons (unless it takes us clean through Advent…..2015!).
What we hope to accomplish
today is threefold:
1.
Describe the basic differences between United Methodist Doctrine and
that of Calvinist teaching, which includes Presbyterians and many free forms of
Protestant believers – Baptists and more.
I will suggest some resources that you may use for further study,
including remarks quoted from John Wesley’s sermon on “The Perseverance of the
Saints”
and some comments from the United Methodist Church’s General Board Of
Discipleship website.
2.
Share a few observations of where I (personally) stand in this issue,
and why I choose to do so.
3.
Point us beyond the endless debate over can you or can’t you to a better way.
The first
position – that a Christian can never cease being a Christian – even by his own
choice, is the Calvinist child of the Synod of Dort (1618-1619). The classic Calvinist quotes “T.U.L.I.P., an
acronym for:
Total Depravity:
Humankind has been utterly ruined by the Fall to the point that there is no
good and no possibility for redemption anywhere in us. We merit and can merit
nothing but wrath and destruction. This means that only a Sovereign God acting
in Sovereignty can deliver us from an eternal destiny in Hell. There is
absolutely nothing we can do ourselves to contribute to or take away from God’s
activity to save us.
Unconditional Election:
As such, God’s decision to save us can be and is based on no conditions we can
or could ever generate. God has chosen, based on God’s own criteria, whom to
save and whom not to save, long before we were ever born.
Limited
Atonement:
God created the means to deliver us from the merited consequences of our total
depravity through the death of Jesus, his Son, on the cross. On the cross,
Jesus suffered the consequences of God’s just wrath and judgment on behalf of
all whom God had elected for salvation, but only for these. [emphasis
mine]
Irresistible
Grace: Just as there is nothing humanity can to do change our depraved state,
there is also nothing those who have been elect can do to resist the gracious
initiative and power of God to bring them to salvation through what God had
accomplished for them in the atonement.
Perseverance
of the Saints: The result of all the above is that those whom God has elected
to salvation and acted to save in the atonement and in the ongoing and
irresistible work of the Spirit cannot but actually “persevere unto the end,”
that is, those who are elect cannot help but be faithful and thus experience
the promised salvation.
Of course that last issue –
that God will keep the saved elect person faithful – is close to what
Methodists hold, except that the typical interpretation among Calvinists is
that the outcome is set in stone, no matter how you behave – even if you
declare your rejection of God and Christ….saved is saved!
The other (opposite) position is from the
United Methodist Church website:
Do United Methodists believe "once saved, always
saved" or can we "lose our salvation"?
Answer: …our
Church teaches we can end up “losing” the salvation God has begun in us, and the
consequence of this in the age to come is our eternal destruction in Hell. God
freely grants us new birth and initiates us into the body of Christ in baptism.
The profession of our faith and growth in holiness are necessary for God’s
saving grace to continue its work in us, and both of these are things we must
do for our love to be genuine and not compelled. We thus remain free to resist
God’s grace, [my emphasis added]
to revert to spiritual torpor, and possibly experience spiritual death and Hell
as its consequence.
United Methodist theology
follows John Wesley’s doctrinal interpretation which is based upon Jacob
Arminius’ teaching. In the 17th
century, Arminius’ growing influence was the main reason the Synod of Dort was
called. That meeting reaffirmed John
Calvin’s teachings and declared Arminius a heretic. (He was already dead so they couldn’t burn
him at the stake or something worse.)
Generally either Calvinism
or Arminian teaching is held today by most of Christendom. But they are both generally modified and
watered-down. For instance, once saved/always saved is generally
watered-down to an insurance policy against punishment for sin. As long as you can point to a time when you
said some prayer of contrition and repentance, you’re good…..from then on – no
harm, no foul; you can live the way you want to, and you will still go to
heaven.
In Arminian (Wesleyan)
circles, the modified understanding of salvation’s requirement of growing in
the faith towards perfection has people so buried under a pile of good works
that they’re keeping themselves saved instead of trusting in Christ.
Satan’s specialty is
deception; whatever true doctrine is taught will one day be watered-down,
modified and retro-fitted to suit what we want.
This is actually a kind of proof of being able to lose your salvation –
as one of my “Pastor’s Partners” wrote to me this week, why would Satan bother
tempting Christians if there was no chance of getting them to fall? Those are the two positions – Arminianism and
Calvinism, and now….
Two
Observations on the Two Positions
Observation #1. God
is NOT playing parlor games with our salvation
God is not
playing “Now you have it – Now you don’t” with our eternal state. A consistent argument Calvinists make against
Wesleyan Arminianism goes something like….if you sin and forget to repent, even
after living a great Christian life, you’ll go to hell for that one sin. “Oh, I forgot to tithe last week” or “Oh man,
I forgot to confess that cussword I said when I hit my finger with the
hammer”…and, just my luck, I forget to confess it before the truck hits me and
takes me out. Oops…sorry….off to hell
with you!
That was not Arminius’, nor
Wesley’s doctrine, and it is not the doctrine of the United Methodist
Church. A UMC scholar, Scott J. Jones,
has written extensively on what our doctrine is, and how it is applied. In his book entitled “United Methodist
Doctrine” (imagine that) he wrote: Believers
should be aware that they can lose their salvation and backslide into unbelief.
There’s the rub –unbelief is where the line is crossed. Methodists sin! Methodists sin often! So do all other believers. But it’s in the rebellion of unbelief, when
we are willfully refusing to repent, that we find the salvation we once enjoyed
in jeopardy.
For if we willfully persist in
sin after having received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a
sacrifice for sins, but a fearful prospect of
judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries. Anyone who has violated the law of Moses dies without mercy “on
the testimony of two or three witnesses.” How much
worse punishment do you think will be deserved by those who have spurned the
Son of God, profaned the blood of the covenant by which they were sanctified,
and outraged the Spirit of grace?
Hebrews 10:26 - 29 (NRSV)
The key phrase is “willfully
persist”. God is not waiting like an
assassin with a machete to hack you to pieces if you mess-up. But neither is He willing to accept our
unwillingness to honor the sacrifice of his son, Jesus. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands
of an angry God!
One of my Pastor's Partners sent me a
personal testimony of her Great Uncle who grew up in church, got married and
they had a daughter. Sometime later the
child died; the uncle grieved so much he despaired and got angry. Grief is a natural part of that experience;
Wesley would call it the “heaviness of life”.
But instead of allowing his faith to carry him through the heaviness of
grief, the uncle turned towards the “Wilderness State” – that which is seen in
the rebellion of the children of Israel in their desert wanderings. It led to outright rejection of faith and
God. Hear my friend’s description:
From that moment Uncle Curtis was angry with God. He never
darkened the doors of a church again, totally renouncing his former faith.
He was more eager to denounce God than a Christian was to give a good witness
for the opposite side.
Maybe you could make a case that his original conversion was not
genuine. I’m sure he felt it was at the time. My take on it was
that he had faith until trouble came, and then he went the opposite way.
Although his final end was not up to me, I felt sure he was headed for
Hell. Unless he had a deathbed reconversion, I’m convinced he is not with
God at this moment.
My
friends, God is not playing parlor games with our salvation; in fact He’s not
playing games at all. Sin and rejection
of God lead to eternal separation from him; it leads to hell.
Observation #2. You CAN sin-away the
grace that saved you.
Scripture
(in many places) teaches us that “turning-away” from God puts us in the
category of “unrighteous” or guilty sinners.
But when the righteous turn away
from their righteousness and commit iniquity and do the same abominable things
that the wicked do, shall they live? None
of the righteous deeds that they have done shall be remembered; for the
treachery of which they are guilty and the sin they have committed, they shall
die. Ezekiel 18:24 (NRSV)
For it is impossible to restore again to repentance those
who have once been enlightened, and have tasted the heavenly gift, and have
shared in the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the goodness of the word of God
and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen
away, since on their own they are crucifying again the Son of God and are
holding him up to contempt. Hebrews
6:4 - 6 (NRSV)
One
of my Pastor’s Partners also shed some great light on this. If a person robs a bank, gets caught and goes
to jail, and then is released, pardoned, he is free. He is no longer a wanted person. However, should he refuse to live a
law-abiding life, struts back down to the bank to make a withdrawal at the end
of a .44 caliber handgun, that previous pardon won’t do him a bit of good! It makes a difference how you live after
you’ve been saved!
God’s prevenient grace calls
us to him starting from the day we’re born.
And we were given the gift of free will to choose him or reject
him. Once we’ve chosen to give our allegiance
to Christ God does not remove our free will; we can still choose to walk away.
There are far less people who do this than just those who fail to
go to church, read their Bible, give their tithes and pray... But those
who harden their hearts/necks risk crossing that line. Even most
people who have stayed out of church for many years, held back tithes and
never witnessed to even a dog would be quick to tell you they still
believe in Christ, and that they should get back in church, but their
actions convince me more than their words. We choose with our life (not
our lips), whom we will follow.
Wesley preached a special “Call to Backsliders” – those who
had forsaken the way of meeting for worship, progressing in holiness. Listen to what he said about treating your
salvation from holy God so lightly:
Presumption is one grand snare of the devil, in which many
of the children of men are taken. They
so presume upon the mercy of God as utterly to forget his justice. Although he has expressly declared, Without holiness no man shall see the Lord, yet
they flatter themselves, that in the end God will be better than his word. They imagine they may live and die in their
sins, and nevertheless escape the
damnation of hell.
Grace is NOT irresistible as
the Calvinist T.U.L.I.P. suggests…we can sin it away…and the Father is not
ready to force it down our throats. If
you recall, Jesus gave the parable of the prodigal, whom the Father allowed to
go away from him. The father did not
chase after the son, did not force him to stay at home against his will. That parable was about the heavenly father
and those of us who would turn our backs on every good and holy thing he’s done
for us, starting with life itself, and the gift of eternal life on the cross!
Now…enough of the debate
over whether you can lose your salvation or not. Let’s talk about…
There's an old sermon illustration about the count that lived on a
high mountain in Eastern Europe. He wanted to hire a new driver to take
his children by horse-drawn carriage down the winding mountain road each day to
school. He interviewed three drivers with the same question - "How
close to the edge of that road can you come and still keep my children safe?"
The first driver's answer: "Sire I am skilled - I can
come within a foot of the cliff, and your children will be absolutely
safe."
The second driver: "Sire, I am highly skilled - I can
dance within two inches of the cliff and your children will come home safe and
sound every day."
The third driver: "Sire, your children are too precious
to take chances with their lives; I would stay as far from that cliff as is
humanly possible."
Which driver did he hire?
The analogy ends with this - It's not a point to be embraced about
whether salvation's line can be crossed back-over, and become enemies with God
again....we just have no business being near the line at all.
·
Our business is going on to perfection, striving in holiness and good
works.
·
Our business is yielding every day to the Holy Spirit of God, putting
ourselves, our days, our tasks at His disposal, under His control.
·
Our business is to grow up into the love which the Father has created
us for.
·
Our business is in building up the body of Christ until we all come
into the fullness of His Spirit.
We may have the doctrine
right or wrong – God will eventually sort it all out and point us in the right
direction. But there is a better way to
stay away from that dangerous line, and here it is, gift-wrapped by the Spirit
of God, handed down to us by the pen of St. Paul. Stand with me and recite how we may keep the
faith:
If I speak in
the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong
or a clanging cymbal.
And if I have
prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have
all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.
If I give
away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do
not have love, I gain nothing.
Love is
patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or
resentful; it does not rejoice in
wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth.
It bears all
things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
Love never
ends.
But as for
prophecies, they will come to an end; as for tongues, they will cease; as for
knowledge, it will come to an end. For we know only in part, and we
prophesy only in part; but when the complete comes, the
partial will come to an end.
When I was a
child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child;
when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways. 12For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to
face. Now I know only in part; then I
will know fully, even as I have been fully known.
And now
faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love. 1
Corinthians 13:1 - 13 (NRSV)
And may it be with us that the greatest is indeed love…not
doctrine!
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