The Perseverance of the Saints: A Meditation on Hebrews 3

I’m sure we all know someone who has mused about this subject, whether they knew much about the formal doctrine, or not.  I’ve heard the question posed as, “How do I know I’m one of the elect?” or, “Am I still a Christian if I’ve blown it regarding (fill-in-the-blank)?” or, “Do I really have enough faith, and is my commitment to Christ enough to really be saved?”  At some point in our Christian lives, I think most of us have grappled with this kind of question.  Somewhere near the root of that concern, is whether or not Jesus has really saved me… or, if I’m just deluding myself, and God has already given up on me… or, I think my salvation is hanging by a thread, and I’m afraid that if I goof up just one more time, God will cut His losses on me.

                If it gives any comfort, Christians have worried about these same things, from the time of the Apostles forward.  In the reading from Hebrews 3, St. Paul might even be seen to bait this question, when he points to the ancient Israelites as an example of those to whom the promise of God had come, but who abandoned their faith in God’s promise, and therefore were cut off from that same promise.  It makes one wonder, just what is necessary on my part, to keep God from cutting ME off?  What is the awful thing that I must avoid, so that God doesn’t leave me to die in the desert, like He did an entire generation of Hebrews?

                Like everything with St. Paul, the whole matter comes down to faith and grace… because, at root, salvation isn’t about what we do or don’t do, but rather what Christ does for us.  This was the same rule that God put in place from the very beginning, and it was the rule of salvation to the ancient Hebrews:  the just shall live by faith.  When the Hebrews were called out of their slavery in Egypt, it was God who did the calling and the delivering—the people simply had to believe and trust in God their Savior.  When Christ comes to fulfill the Law, and to save us from sin, death, and the devil, it is He who does the calling and the saving—ours is simply to believe and trust the promise of God in Jesus Christ.  With such faith comes grace, which is the forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation.  With such faith, comes our triumph over fear, over the devil, and over every evil thing.  With such faith, everything that Jesus won for the world as He hung dead on that Cross, is delivered to us, so that not only have we died with Him, but also our new lives are hidden with Him forever.  The author of Life and Salvation becomes our Live and our Salvation through faith in His loving work of redemption for us.  What we cannot earn, He earns, and gives to us freely.

                So, if Christ has done all to call us and save us, where should we look for the promise of our perseverance to the end?  Where should we look for the assurance that we, too, shall join the ranks of the saints and angels in heaven, eventually to be resurrected unto life everlasting in the New Heaven and the New Earth?  Again, and forever, it is Jesus.  He is the author and the perfector of our faith, and it is He who both began this good work of salvation in us, and shall complete His good work in the time He has appointed.  If we have been saved by grace through faith in the Son of God, why should we look to anyone other than Jesus for our perseverance?  And if we continue to look to Jesus, why should we look to Him with anything but faith and trust?  And if we believe and trust the promise of God in Jesus Christ, why should we expect anything other than grace, which forgives and preserves us unto life everlasting?

                In the formal doctrine of the Perseverance of the Saints, we remember the simple truth, that Jesus not only saves us now, but He saves us forever, using the same divine means He established from the foundation of the world:  the just shall live by faith.  Will some stop believing, and find themselves cut off from grace?  Perhaps.  But the same Gospel is preached to those who have fallen, as it is to those who stand:  believe on the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved.  Salvation, from Justification through Sanctification and eventually Glorification, is all the work of our Savior, Jesus Christ.  Believe Him when He says to you, that He has come into the world not to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through Him.  He has come for you—not to torment or trick or toy with you—but to save you.  Believe Him, and live.  Amen.