Grace That Preserves

Preserve me, O God, for in you I take refuge.

Psalm 16:1

During this Advent season, there are many things for which to be grateful. There are the blessings of family, friends, and opportunities to give gifts. We have the privilege of remembering the birth of Jesus Christ and celebrating the light that has come into the world. Could an infant in a manger really save His people from their sins? Could this little baby boy really bring salvation to the world?

We can now look back on Jesus’ birth with warm affection because that little baby answered those questions with an emphatic “Yes!” The day had arrived. The King had come! What a gift our God gave to the world on that day when Mary wrapped that babe in swaddling cloths.

Recently, God has reminded me that not only did Jesus come into the world to provide salvation, but He came to gather a people to Himself and keep them until He returns. Without the ongoing sustaining power of Jesus Christ, we would be at risk of shrinking back from this great salvation.

I can remember for years and years feeling as if I couldn’t possibly be a Christian because I hadn’t been good enough. Even though I believed that Jesus Christ died for my sins, I didn’t live as if that reality defined my life. Instead, I lived with tremendous shame knowing that God would eventually punish me for the way that I was living. I fully expected to spend eternity in Hell because I hadn’t lived up to God’s standard, even though Jesus lived that standard perfectly for my sake.

I hope this sounds silly to you. I hope this wasn’t a similar experience for you. It was a type of darkness that I wouldn’t wish upon anyone. And at the same time, I am so thankful that I went through over half of my life thinking that way. Because I was so good at condemning myself, once I realized that Jesus Christ died so that I would not be condemned, it was as if the flood lights had been turned on and pointed right at my heart. For the first time, I was seeing grace as grace and not just as a promise to remove punishment if I was good enough to please God after He gave His Son.

God wasn’t mad at me. All of His anger and wrath was turned towards Christ. All of the depression that I experienced was not because of God’s anger. It was because I failed to realize and understand that God was pleased with me because of Christ. Nothing I could ever do would change that. Amazing grace. And it began to reign in my life. Grace changes everything.

And grace preserves always.

What I want to do is give you the basis for my stance on the doctrine of the preservation of the saints as Calvin puts it. Simply stated, it means that God will keep those who are in Christ and ensure that they enter Heaven in glory. He will never allow them to “fall away” from salvation. After giving you an understanding of why I believe this is the teaching of Scripture, I will briefly highlight some verses that support it. My hope is that (if you’re still even reading this) you are reminded of God’s amazing grace and take a moment to worship Him who bore our sins in His body on the tree.

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.

2 Corinthians 5:17

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to His great mercy, He has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead…

1 Peter 1:3

In John 3, Jesus tells Nicodemus that in order to have eternal life, one must be born again. Nicodemus marvels at this, but Jesus does not waiver and repeats Himself. Spiritual life requires spiritual birth, which is only possible by the Spirit of God. Once a birth happens, you cannot be “unbirthed”! Nicodemus knew this. He asked Jesus how a man when he was old could return to his mother’s womb to be born again. Of course, Jesus wasn’t talking about a second natural birth. The birth He was speaking of was not of flesh but of spirit.

In the same way that one cannot reenter the womb, one cannot be unborn after being born of the Spirit of God. True spiritual birth can never be undone. We become new creations. Our hope is a living hope ensured through Jesus’ resurrection.

How sweet it is to know that if I am truly born again that I will never perish but have eternal life! This is God’s promise. Let’s see it in Scripture.

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…

Jude 24

Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful; He will surely do it.

1 Thessalonians 5:23-24

He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

Colossians 1:13-14

Notice the past tense “delivered” and “transferred.” This has already happened for those in Christ.

And I am sure of this, that He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.

Philippians 1:6

I could keep going and reference John 6 when Jesus says that all that the Father has given Him will never be cast out. Or John 10 when Jesus again says that no one can snatch His sheep out of the Father’s hand. And we didn’t even get to Paul’s great discourse in Romans 8 where he says that no one and nothing can ever separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus.

To wrap up, I don’t want to pretend as if I am overlooking verses that speak of falling away from salvation (ie. Hebrews 6) or tell us of our responsibility in preserving our souls (ie. Colossians 1:23). In his first epistle, John tells us that those who fall away prove that they were never truly born again (1 John 2:19).

In a similar way, as we practice righteousness, we prove that we are truly born again. However, our works have no more ability to preserve our salvation than our good works are able to save us from our sins in the first place! We are saved to good works that prove the regeneration and new birth we have in Jesus Christ. And this is Good News!

Now, if you don’t find yourself desiring to do good and grow in fellowship with Jesus, you have reason to question your faith. Best case scenario, your love has grown dull because this world full of weeds is choking it out. Worst case scenario, you are walking around confident of a hope that comes from a Savior that you don’t actually know.

Delight in good works so that you may never fall. Stand in awe of God’s grace that preserves your soul! Take refuge in Him for He is faithful and will surely finish the good work that He has begun in causing you to be born again to a living hope.