The Preservation of the Saints

The phrase is Biblical.  “The Lord shall … preserve me unto his heavenly kingdom” (2 Tim 4:18); “I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Thess 5:23).

The title is related to the much mentioned Calvinistic doctrine of The Perseverance of the Saints (Eternal Security).  That caption, strangely enough, emphasizes the human responsibility to “keep yourselves in the love of God,” while the Armenian title, The Preservation of the Saints, emphasizes God’s power and faithfulness—a clear illustration that titles do not always convey exactly what either Calvinists or Armenians wish them to convey.

There is strong Bible teaching about the preservation of the saints.  God purposes to keep for Himself those won from the ways of sin. In John 17 Jesus recognizes the eleven as His own and then prays, “Keep them.”  God does not purpose or will to lose a single believer.

Furthermore, God has given to each believer “exceeding great and precious promises.”  God promises to see the believer through—all the way through—this life to heaven:  “He that hath begun … will perform it” (Phil 1:6).

Finally, God’s power is able to keep us from falling (Jude 24).  Each believer may be securely “kept by the power of God” (1 Pet 1:5).

The divine resources and assistance are adequate.  There need be no falling from grace or serious defections from duty, for with God is both the initiative of grace and the dispensation of grace.

God has entered into a partnership agreement with man.  And this agreement necessitates man’s responses to God’s grace and the cultivation of positive desires for God and His will throughout life.  All Calvinists concede that sanctification as a state is ideally progressive; it therefore depends in part on the co-operation of men.

Of course, we admit that even human co-operation with God’s grace is divinely induced and supported, but we maintain that God allows man some freedom of response to those overtures of grace.  God does not make our choices for us.

We might admit that the sanctification of the whole of life invariably results from a close and continuing fellowship with God, but we cannot believe that the salvation of the soul, apart from man’s active and continuing assent, is maintained through all of life’s vicissitudes and possible failures.

The Biblical warnings against sin in Christians are raised for two purposes: (1) the toleration of or the commission of sin hinders the progress of our sanctification—as viewed in a continuing life of separation from evil and dedication to God; (2) the introduction of sin inserts an element of danger in a person’s standing before God.  Both Calvinist and Armenian agrees on the first statement, and it seems that Bible truth is just as unequivocal regarding the second.

Saints are certainly not to be preserved in sin, but from sin.  Their whole heart’s cry is for freedom, for deliverance from sin, its power and its pollution even from its presence.  No true believer wants a security that allows him the privilege of sinning against his Lord.

On the other hand, every true believer needs constant access to the throne of grace where he may obtain mercy from unintended wrongs and grace to strengthen him against similar failures in the future.  Our High Priest now offers forgiveness and assistance.  And while we are receiving the free flow of benefits from Calvary we are being preserved unto the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.

To the strongly worded assertion of theologian A. H. Strong we heartily agree:  “The only conclusive evidence of perseverance is a present experience of Christ’s presence and indwelling, corroborated by active service and purity of life.”

--George Failing