Once Saved Always Saved?
Why Christian Perseverance is Biblical & Critical
There is a cherished phrase within my denomination (SBC): “Once saved, always saved.” It’s intended to point us to the glorious truth of the eternal security of the believer. That is to say, when someone genuinely becomes a Christian, they are saved eternally. The Lord is the kind of God, thankfully, who does not participate in taksies backsies. When you are His, you are His forever. We see this truth in passages such as John 6:37, where Jesus says, “All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out.”
The point of this verse is that if we come to Christ for salvation, then we can know that the Father has sovereignly given us to the Son. And if we have been given to the Son by the Father, then we need never worry that we’ll be lost.1
The same sentiment occurs later on in the John’s Gospel. Specially, in 10:27-30 where Jesus says,
My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand. I and the Father are one.”
This doctrine is gloriously true! And yet at the very same time, the Scriptures also teach that we are called to persevere in our faith if we hope to be saved. Feels like there’s a tension between these ideas, doesn’t it?
But before we relieve that tension, let’s first take a look at a sampling of passages from the New Testament that have perseverance in view. I have pulled examples from all parts of the New Testament canon so that you can see that this idea of Christian perseverance is a deeply biblical notion.
What the Bible Teaches About Perseverance
The Gospels
Matthew 13:1-23
Matthew 13 contains the famous parable of the sower. And it’s about how a man went out one day to sow some seed. As he did so, the seed fell into various types of soil. Two are of particular interest to us.
In verses 5-7, Jesus says that some seed fell on rocky soil. The result was that the seed sprang up quickly, but then got scorched by the sun because it didn’t have sufficient roots. Other seed, Jesus says in verse 7, fell among thorns and was choked by them. So what was Jesus’s point here? He goes on to explain in verses 20-22:
The seed falling on rocky ground refers to someone who hears the word and at once receives it with joy. But since they have no root, they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away. The seed falling among the thorns refers to someone who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke the word, making it unfruitful.
Implicit in this parable is the idea that seed which falls on good soil will take root and grow, even amidst the trials of persecution or the temptations of the world. Or to put it differently, genuine Christians are those who persevere in their faith.
Jesus’s concern that disciples persevere over the long haul can be seen in the cautions he issues to those who think they might want to follow Him.
Luke 14:26-33
Listen to His sobering words in this passage…
“If anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, even their own life—such a person cannot be my disciple. And whoever does not carry their cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.
“Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Won’t you first sit down and estimate the cost to see if you have enough money to complete it? 29 For if you lay the foundation and are not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule you, saying, ‘This person began to build and wasn’t able to finish.’
“Or suppose a king is about to go to war against another king. Won’t he first sit down and consider whether he is able with ten thousand men to oppose the one coming against him with twenty thousand? If he is not able, he will send a delegation while the other is still a long way off and will ask for terms of peace. In the same way, those of you who do not give up everything you have cannot be my disciples.
Carry. Follow. Complete. Finish. This is the language of persevering to the end. If discipleship is like building a tower, those who decide to begin, must realize that the project isn’t done until the work is finished.
John 2:23-25, 6:60-66
A key theme in the Gospel of John is the nature of true discipleship. And early on, there’s a very interesting passage at the end of chapter 2.
Now while he was in Jerusalem at the Passover Festival, many people saw the signs he was performing and believed in his name. But Jesus would not entrust himself to them, for he knew all people. He did not need any testimony about mankind, for he knew what was in each person.
From a worldly perspective, it looked like Jesus’s ministry was off to a great start. Many believed. They raised their hand. Walked the aisle. Filled out the card. There were many “salvations.”
Jesus’s response? Not impressed. John tells us that He already knew what was in each person and whether their faith was genuine or if they simply enjoyed watching Jesus do cool stuff.
This same idea of Jesus knowing the genuineness of one’s faith pops up again in John 6. This time, Jesus has just finished giving some lengthy teaching about how He was (is) the Bread of Life which came down from heaven. This caused a huge group of supposed “disciples” to grumble because they didn’t like that teaching (John 6:60).
Jesus responds to their belly-aching with these words:
Aware that his disciples were grumbling about this, Jesus said to them, “Does this offend you? Then what if you see the Son of Man ascend to where he was before! The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you—they are full of the Spirit and life. Yet there are some of you who do not believe.” For Jesus had known from the beginning which of them did not believe and who would betray him. He went on to say, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless the Father has enabled them.”
Similar to the earlier episode in chapter 2, Jesus knew who was really there to follow Him and who just wanted to use Him for His miracles. And what do the latter do after Jesus calls their bluff? Verse 66 tells us: “From this time many of His disciples turned back and no longer followed Him.”
Or, we might say, they didn’t persevere in their discipleship. When Jesus’s teaching offended them, they turned and walked away.
These references in the Gospels reveal that Jesus taught in many ways on the importance of Christian perseverance. And the apostles upheld His teaching when they began forming churches all across the Roman empire as recorded in the Book of Acts.
Acts
Acts 14:21-22
Before I cite the passage, here’s a bit of context: Paul and Barnabas are on their first missionary joinery, after being sent out by the church in Antioch (Acts 13:1-3). And through dealing with much persecution themselves, they preached the Gospel and gathered those who believed into churches. And look at what they front load in their teaching to these young believers:
Then they returned to Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch, strengthening the disciples and encouraging them to remain true to the faith. “We must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God,” they said.
Again, the idea of perseverance is hard to miss. The point of the apostles’ encouragement was to urge the believers to remain true to their faith. And they did so by being honest about the nature of authentic Christianity. Those who enter the kingdom of God — those who are saved — enter on the road of suffering.
As it turns out, this remained a key ministry strategy for the apostle Paul.
Paul’s Letters
In this section, I want to quickly look at a few key references in Paul’s letters to get a feel for how he conceived of the nature of the Christian life. We’ll consider sections from Romans, Philippians, and Colossians.
Romans 6:1-4
What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.
In Romans 6 Paul is taking on a charge that if we believe the Gospel then that means we get to live however we want. Nonsense! says Paul. God’s purpose in saving us was to free us from sin’s power so that we “may live a new life.” While this is perhaps only tangentially related to perseverance, the message is still clear: Following our conversion, the Gospel transforms the way we live our lives for the remainder of our lives.
In his letter to the Philippian church, Paul likewise urges the believers to stay the course by offering himself as a model to follow.
Philippians 3:12-14
Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.
Straining toward what is ahead. Pressing on toward the goal. Notice that Paul is persevering in his faith so that he might win the prize toward which God had already called him. This idea will be important when we seek to explain the relationship between eternal security and perseverance. And we can also see it a bit in two references from Colossians.
Colossians 1:21-23, 2:6-7
Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation— if you continue in your faith, established and firm, and do not move from the hope held out in the gospel.
Notice the word I emboldened: if. We have been reconciled to God through the work of Christ… if.
If what?
If we continue in our faith.
The corollary here is that those who don’t continue in their faith have no grounds to assume that they’re saved. The same idea occurs just one chapter over in Colossians 2:
So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.
The evidence that we have truly received Christ, according to Paul, is by continuing to live in Christ!
This kind of conditional language also shows up prominently in Hebrews 3.
Hebrews
Hebrew 3:12-13
See to it, brothers and sisters, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called “Today,” so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness.
According to this passage, there is a danger facing every Christian. That danger is that we may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. So what does the writer say Christians should do to avoid it? We should encourage one another daily. In other words, Christians are a people who remain vigilant after their initial conversion. And together we encourage one another every day to keep following after Christ.
As we round the corner from Hebrews to Revelation, we’ll see that yet again the theme of perseverance is present.
Revelation
Revelation 2:7, 11b, 17b, 26-27, 3:5-6, 12, 21, 13:10b, 14:12
Throughout Jesus’s message to the churches in Asia in Revelation 2-3, He exhorts them to obedience by reminding them that it is those who conquer or overcome who will one day be with Him forever in the new heavens and new earth. 13:10 and 14:12 chime in toward the middle of the book and state the case explicitly: “This calls for patient endurance on the part of the people of God who keep his commands and remain faithful to Jesus.”
Notice again the key terms: patient endurance. Keep. Remain. All three point us toward the necessity of Christian perseverance.
As I said earlier, the point of this exercise has been to show that throughout the New Testament — from Matthew to Revelation — the theme of Christian perseverance is prevalent.
But how does perseverance relate to eternal security? It seems that the one would rule out the other, doesn’t it? Well, not necessarily. Not so long as we understand that perseverance is a fruit of conversion, not the cause of it.
How Does Perseverance Relate to Eternal Security?
Based on everything we’ve said thus far, there seems to be a tension. Once we are converted, are we saved forever or is our salvation based upon our perseverance?
The answer to this question lies in correctly understanding which causes which. To find that answer, let’s take a look at 1 Peter 2:1-3…
So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander. Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation— if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.
Here Peter exhorts his readers to put away sin and instead develop a craving for godly teaching. But notice what he says is the necessary precondition. In the very last phrase he says they are to do this if they have tasted and seen that the Lord is good. The power to live a life that is pleasing to God begins with genuine conversion. Tasting God’s goodness and finding our satisfaction in Him. The same idea can be found in Colossians 3:1-2…
If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.
Before one can seek the things above — which is defined a few verses later as putting off vices and putting on virtues — one must have first been raised with Christ. That is, converted.
Even in the Hebrews 3 passage cited above we see the same pattern in verse 14: For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end.
Perseverance is the fruit that our lives produce after we have truly come to share in Christ. Perseverance in our faith is in itself a sign that the Lord has wrought spiritual life in us. Those who are lost are not concerned about persevering in a faith they don’t have.
So at the danger of being repetitive, let me say it one more time: Perseverance is not the cause of our salvation, but the fruit of it.
But why does all of this matter? Why do we need to understand the biblical necessity of Christian perseverance? Well, it has a lot to do with our evangelistic methods and the health of our churches.
Why Does This Doctrine Matter?
Some evangelistic methods in recent history have sometimes placed a heavy emphasis on making a one-time decision for Christ. And in some ways, this is a good thing. We are supposed to invite people to repent and believe.
But when making that invitation, we must ensure that the people with whom we are talking understand that we are inviting them into a decision which will then ripple throughout the rest of their lives. That a genuine response to the Gospel will result in walking in newness of life (Rom. 6:1-4). And that the genuineness of their conversion won’t be seen in their level of emotion when they first repent and believe, but in their continuing to abide in Jesus’s teaching for the long haul (Jn. 6:60-66).
Having a robust understanding of Christian perseverance would also do much for the health of our churches. When we understand (per Hebrews 3) that the church is designed by the Lord to be a people who help each other persevere, then we recognize that there’s much more at stake in our church membership than what we may have first imagined. The church is a family of faith where each member takes responsibility for one another’s spiritual well-being.
To borrow Bunyan’s imagery, we are pilgrims who are helping each other make it to the Celestial City. And the fact that we’re engaged in that pursuit is actually the evidence that we already are citizens of that city.
While we don’t have space in this article to discuss all the intricacies of the doctrine of election, suffice it to say that the Scriptures make two truths quite plain: (1) we are responsible to repent and believe the Gospel for salvation and (2) God is totally sovereign in salvation. Our inability to explain fully the compatibility between these two ideas is because, well, God is God. And His ways are higher than our ways and His thoughts higher than our thoughts (Isa. 55:8-9). It’s worth pointing out though that as was seen in John 6:37, the doctrine of the eternal security of the believer is true because — and only because — God is sovereign. Or as I heard a pastor put it one time, if you could lose your salvation, you would.
Very insightful and helpful!
Fantastic post.