Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy, to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen. | Jude 24-25
This Sunday we looked at the doctrine of Perseverance of the Saints. This is the biblical concept that those who belong to God will continue to the end based on the continued work of the Holy Spirit. The most frequent question this brings up is: how does what we do matter? If God is going to save those He saves, then why should I obey?
I attempted to answer this question by showing how God’s work of keeping us and our acts of obedience are not distinct from one another; how God fulfills His promise through our efforts of perseverance. Thomas Schreiner gives the following example from scripture of how these two things work synergistically to accomplish God’s will:
But perhaps it will help if we illustrate such a theme from a text which is not soteriological in nature. The shipwreck story in Acts 27 is one of the most colorful in the scriptures. The storm struck with such fury that all aboard despaired of living (Acts 27:13-19). Paul, however, received a word from the Lord that every single person on the ship would be saved, i.e., every single person’s life would be preserved (27:20-26). The word that all aboard the ship would live was a divine promise, pledging safety for all. Some of us might be inclined to relax and “take it easy” after receiving such a promise. Paul, on the other hand, did not think that such a promise ruled out the need for admonitions and warnings. This is clear as we read on in the narrative. The sailors feigned that they were merely lowering anchors, when actually they intended to lower the lifeboat and escape the ship (27:29-32). Paul responded by warning the centurion that if the sailors left the ship the lives of those on board would not be preserved. Why would Paul even bother to admonish the centurion about the scheme of the sailors? After all, he already had received a promise from an angel that everyone on the boat would escape with their lives. Paul did not reason the way many of us do today, “God has promised that the lives of all will be saved, therefore, any warning is superfluous.” No, the urgent warning was the very means by which the promise was secured. The promise did not come to pass apart from the warning but through it. This same approach should be applied to the promises and threats in the scriptures regarding our salvation. It is by means of taking the warnings seriously that the promise of our salvation is secured.
If Paul had used his assurance as an excuse to sit idly by, the work that saved the crew would not have been done. Likewise, if we take God’s promises to us as a reason to avoid His commands and warnings, we have missed the point entirely. God’s assurance is the motivation to keep going when it seems the world is against you. His promise to bring you to the end is what you need when you come to the end of yourself. You are not kept so that you can be safe; you are kept so that you can have the confidence to risk.
God gives us the Perseverance of the Saints as a way to keep salvation from being ‘all about us.’ If He gives it, keeps it, and completes it, then we just need to keep doing whatever we can to pursue Him, not based on fluctuating levels of relevance and effectiveness, but based on HIM.
To Him be glory forever and ever. Amen.