4. By insisting on continuance in well-doing. It is not how a person commences but how he ends which is the all-important matter. We certainly do not believe that one who has been born of God can perish, but one of the marks of regeneration is its permanent effects, and therefore I must produce those permanent fruits if my profession is to be credited. Both Scripture and observation testify to the fact that there are those who appear to run well for a season and then drop out of the race. Not only are there numbers induced to “come forward” and “join the church” under the high-pressure methods used by the professional evangelists who quickly return to their former manner of life, but there are not a few who enter upon a religious profession more soberly and wear longer. Some seem to be genuinely converted: they separate from ungodly companions, seek fellowship with God’s people, manifest an earnest desire to know more of the Word, become quite intelligent in the Scriptures, and for a number of years give every outward sign of being Christians. But gradually their zeal abates, or they are offended at some wrong done them, and ultimately they go right back again into the world.

We read of a certain class “who for a while believed, and in time of temptation fall away” (Luke 8:13). There were those who followed Christ for a season, yet of them we read, “From that time many of His disciples went back and walked no more with Him” (John 6:66). There have been many such in every age. All is not gold that glitters, and not everyone who makes a promising start in the race reaches the goal. It is therefore incumbent upon us to take note of those passages which press upon us the necessity of continuance for they constitute another of those safeguards which God has placed around the doctrine of the security of His saints. On a certain occasion “many believed on Him” (John 8:30), but so far from Christ assuring them that Heaven was now their settled portion, we are told, “Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on Him, IF ye continue in MY word then are ye My disciples indeed” (v. 31). Unless we abide in subjection to Christ, unless we walk in obedience to Him unto the end of our earthly course, we are but disciples in name and semblance.

We read of certain men who, “when they were come to Antioch, spake unto the Grecians, preaching the Lord Jesus.” The power of God accompanied them and richly blessed their efforts, for, “The hand of the Lord was with them: and a great number believed and turned unto the Lord” (Acts 11:20, 21). Tidings of this reached the church at Jerusalem, and mark well their response: they sent Barnabas to them, “who, when he came and had seen the grace of God, was glad, and exhorted them all that with purpose of heart they would cleave unto the Lord” (vv. 22, 23). Barnabas was not one of those fatalistic hyper-Calvinists who argued that since God has begun a good work in them all would be well-that the Holy Spirit will care for, instruct, and guard them, whether or not they be furnished with ministerial nurses and teachers. Instead, he recognized and discharged his own Christian responsibility, dealt with them as accountable agents, addressed to them suitable exhortations, pressed upon them the indispensable duty of their cleaving to the Lord. Alas that there are so few like Barnabas today.

At a later date we find that Barnabas returned to Antioch accompanied by Paul, and while there they were engaged in “confirming the souls of the disciples, exhorting them to continue in the faith” and warning them that “we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God” (Acts 14:22). How far were they from believing in a mechanical salvation, reasoning that if these people had been genuinely converted they would necessarily “continue in the faith”! Writing to the Corinthians, the Apostle reminded them of the Gospel he had preached unto them and which they had received, yet failing not to add, “By which also ye are saved IF ye hold fast that which I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain” (1 Cor. 15:2). In like manner he reminded the Colossians that they were reconciled to God and would be preserved unblameable and unreproveable “IF ye continue in the faith, grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the Gospel” (l:23). There are those who dare to say there is no “if” about it, but such people are taking direct issue with Holy Writ.

Even when writing to a minister of the Gospel, his own “son in the faith,” Paul hesitated not to exhort him, “Take heed unto thyself and unto the doctrine; continue in them,” adding, “for in doing this thou shalt both save thyself (from apostasy) and them that hear thee” (1 Tim. 4:16). To the Hebrews he said, “But Christ as a Son over His own house, whose house are we, IF we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end” (3:6). And again, “For we are made partakers of Christ IF we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto the end” (3:14). How dishonestly has the Word of God been handled by many! Such passages as these are never heard from many pulpits from one year’s end to another. It is much to be feared that many pastors of “Calvinistic” churches are afraid to quote such verses lest their people should charge them with Arminianism. Such will yet have to face the Divine indictment “Ye have not kept My ways, but have been partial in the Law” or Word (Mal. 2:9).

We find precisely the same thing in the writings of another Apostle. James though addressing those whom he terms, “my beloved brethren,” calls upon his readers, “But be ye doers of the Word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. For if any be a hearer of the Word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass: for he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was (that is, nothing but a superficial and fleeting effect is produced upon him). But whoso looketh into the perfect Law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed” (1:22-25). The word for “beholdeth” is a metaphor taken from those who not only glance at a thing but bend their bodies towards it that they may carefully scrutinize it-used in Luke 24:12, and 1 Peter 1:12; denoting earnestness of desire, and diligent enquiry. To “continue therein” signifies a persevering study of the Truth, and abiding in the belief of and obedience to the same, thereby evidencing our love for it. Many have a brief taste for it, but their appetite is quickly quenched again by the things of this world.

It is perfectly true, blessedly true, that there is no “if,” no uncertainty, from the Divine side in connection with the Christian’s reaching Heaven: everyone who has been justified by God shall without fail be glorified. Those who have been Divinely quickened will most assuredly continue in the faith and persevere in holiness unto the end of their earthly course. This is clear from 1 John 2:19, where the Apostle alludes to some in his day who had apostatized, “They went out from us, but they were not of us”-they belonged not to the family of God, though for awhile they had fraternized with some of its members.

“For” adds the Apostle, “if they had been of us (had they really been one in a personal experience of the regenerating power of the Spirit) they would have continued with us”-nothing could have induced them to heed the siren voice of their seducers. “But they went out from us that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us”-but merely temporary professors, stony-ground hearers, nominal Christians, members of a totally different family. Previously they had every appearance of being the genuine article, but by their defection they were exposed as counterfeits. No, there is no “if” from the Divine side.

Nevertheless, there is an “if” from the human side of things, from the standpoint of our responsibility, in connection with my making sure that I am one of those whom God has promised to preserve unto His heavenly kingdom. Continuance in the faith, in the path of obedience, in denying self and following Christ, is not simply desirable but indispensable. No matter how excellent a beginning I have made, if I do not continue to press forward I shall be lost. Yes, lost, and not merely miss some particular crown or millennial honours as the deluded dispensationalists teach. It is persevere or perish: it is final perseverance or perish eternally-there is no other alternative. Romans 11:22 makes that unmistakably clear: “Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God: on them that fell (the unbelieving Jews) severity: but toward thee (saved Gentiles, v. 11), goodness, IF thou continue in His goodness: otherwise thou also shalt be cut off.” The issue is plainly drawn: continuance in God’s goodness or being “cut off.” To continue in God’s goodness is the opposite of returning to our badness. The evidence that we are the recipients of God’s goodness is that we continue in the faith and obedience of the Gospel. The end cannot be reached apart from the appointed means.

But I cannot see the consistency between what has been set forth in the last two paragraphs, some will exclaim. What of it: who are you? who am I? Merely short-sighted creatures of yesterday, upon whom God has written “folly and vanity.” Shall human ignorance set itself against Divine wisdom? Does any reader dare call into question the practice of Christ and His Apostles: they pressed the “if” and insisted upon the needs-be for this “continuing”; and those ministers who fail to do so-no matter what their standing or reputation-are no servants of God. Can you see the consistency between the Apostle affirming so positively of those who have received the Holy Spirit from Christ “ye shall abide (“continue”-the same Greek word as in all the above passages) in Him,” and then in the very next breath exhorting them, “And now, little children, abide (“continue”) in Him” (1 John 2:27, 28)-if you cannot it must be because of theological blinkers. Can you see the consistency of David asserting so confidently, “The LORD will perfect that which concerneth me: Thy mercy O LORD, endureth forever,” and then immediately after praying, “forsake not the works of Thine own hands” (Psa. 138:8)-if you cannot then this writer places a big question-mark against your religious profession.

5. By insisting that there are dangers to guard against. Here again there will be those who object against the use of this term in such a connection. What sort of dangers, they will ask: dangers of the Christian’s severing his fellowship with God, losing his peace, spoiling his usefulness, rendering himself unfruitful?-granted, but not of missing Heaven itself. They will point out that safety and danger are opposites and that one who is secure in Christ cannot be in any peril of perishing. However plausible, logical, and apparently Christ-honouring that may sound, we would ask, Is that how Scripture represents the case? Do the Epistles picture the saints as being in no danger of apostasy? Or, to state it less baldly: are there no sins warned against, no evils denounced, no paths of unrighteousness described, which if persisted in do not certainly terminate in destruction? And is there no responsibility resting on me in connection therewith? Apostasy is not reached at a single bound, but is the final culmination of an evil process, and it is against those things which have a tendency unto apostasy against which the saints are repeatedly and most solemnly warned.

One who is now experiencing good health is in no immediate danger of dying from tuberculosis, nevertheless if he recklessly exposes himself to the wet and cold, if he refrains from taking sufficient nourishing food which supplies strength to resist disease, or if he incurs a heavy cough on his chest and makes no effort to break it up, he is most likely to fall a victim to consumption. So while the Christian remains spiritually healthy he is in no danger of apostatizing, but if he starts to keep company with the wicked and recklessly exposes himself to temptation, if he fails to use the means of grace, if he experiences a sad fall, and repents not of it and returns to his first works, he is deliberately heading for disaster. The seed of eternal death is still in the Christian: that seed is sin, and it is only as Divine grace is diligently and constantly sought for the thwarting of its inclinations and suppressing of its activities, that it is hindered from developing to a fatal end. A small leak which is neglected will sink a ship just as effectually as the most boisterous sea. And as Spurgeon said on Psalm 19:13, “Secret sin is a stepping stone to presumptuous sin, and that is the vestibule of ‘the sin which is unto death’ ” (Treasury of David).

Did no dangers menace Israel after Jehovah brought them out of Egypt with a high hand and by His mighty arm conducted them safely through the Red Sea? Did all who entered upon the journey to Canaan actually arrive at the promised land? Perhaps some one replies, They were under the old covenant and therefore supply no analogy to the case of Christians today. What says the Word? This, they “were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea; and did all eat the same spiritual meat, and did all drink the same spiritual drink, for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them, and that Rock was Christ” (1 Cor. 10:2-4). What analogy could be closer than that? Yet the passage goes on to say, “But with many of them God was not well pleased: for they were overthrown in the wilderness” (v. 5). And what is the use which the Apostle makes of this solemn history? Does he say that it has no application unto us? The very reverse: “Now these things were our examples, to the intent that we should not lust after evil things as they also lusted . . . neither let us tempt Christ, as some of them also tempted and were destroyed of serpents” (vv. 6-9). Here is a most deadly danger for us to guard against.

Nor did the Apostle leave it at that. He was still more definite, saying, “Neither murmur ye as some of them also murmured, and were destroyed of the Destroyer. Now all these things happened unto them for examples, and they are written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the world are come,” making this specific application unto Christians, “Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall” (vv. 10-12). Paul was no fatalist but one who ever enforced moral responsibility. He inculcated no mechanical salvation, but one which must be worked out “with fear and trembling.” Charles Hodge of Princeton was a very strong Calvinist, yet on 1 Corinthians 10:12 he failed not to say: “There is perpetual danger of falling. No degree of progress we have already made, no amount of privileges which we may have enjoyed, can justify the want of caution. ‘Let him that thinketh he standeth,’ that is, who thinketh himself secure . . . neither the members of the church nor the elect can be saved unless they persevere in holiness, and they cannot persevere in holiness without continual watchfulness and effort,” i.e., against the dangers menacing them.

The above is not the only instance when the Apostle made use of the case of those Israelites who perished on their way to Canaan to warn New Testament saints of their danger. After affirming that God was grieved with that generation, saying, “They do alway err in their heart and they have not known (loved) My ways, so I sware in My wrath, They shall not enter into My rest,” Paul added, “Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God. But exhort one another daily, while it is called Today, lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin” (Heb. 3:12, 13). We are not here warned against an imaginary peril but a real one. “Take heed” signifies watch against carelessness and sloth, be on the alert as a soldier who knows the enemy is near, lest you fall an easy prey. Those here exhorted are specifically addressed as “brethren” to intimate there are times when the best of saints need to be cautioned against the worst of evils. An “evil heart of unbelief” is a heart which dislikes the strictness of obedience and universality of holiness which God requires of us.

After referring again to those “whose carcasses fell in the wilderness” to whom God sware, “they shall not enter into My rest, because of their unbelief” or “disobedience” (3:16, 19), the Apostle said, “Let us therefore fear lest a promise being left us of entering into His rest, any of you should seem to come short of it” (Heb. 4:1). “Fear” is as truly a Christian grace as is faith, peace or joy. The Christian is to fear temptations, the dangers which menace him, the sin which indwells him, the warnings pointed by others who have made shipwreck of the faith and the severity of God in His dealings with such. He is to fear the threats of God against sin and those who indulge themselves in it. It was because Noah was “moved with fear” at the warning he had received from God that he took precautions against the impending flood (Heb. 11:7). God has plainly announced the awful doom of all who continue in allowed sin, and fear of that doom will inspire caution and circumspection, and will preserve from carnal security and presumption. And therefore are we counselled, “passing the time of your sojourn here in fear” (1 Peter l:17)-not only in exceptional seasons, but the whole of our time here.

We can barely glance at a few more of the solemn cautions addressed not merely to formal professors but to those who are recognized as genuine saints. “Be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary the Devil, as a roaring lion walketh about seeking whom he may devour. Whom resist steadfast in the faith” (1 Peter 5:8, 9). Obviously such a warning would be meaningless if the Christian were not threatened with a most deadly danger. “Ye therefore, beloved, seeing ye know these things before, beware lest ye also, being led away with the error of the wicked, fall from your own steadfastness” (2 Peter 3:17). This warning looks back to the false prophets of (2:1, 2)-and what is said of them in verses 18-22? The “error of the wicked” here cautioned against includes both doctrinal and practical, especially the latter-forsaking of the “narrow way” the highway of holiness which alone leads to Heaven. “Hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown” (Rev. 3:11)-cling tenaciously to the Truth you have received, the faith which has been planted in your heart, in the measure of grace given you.

But how do you reconcile the Christian’s danger with his safety? There is nothing to reconcile, for there is no antagonism. Enemies and not friends need reconciling, and warnings are the Christian’s friend, one of the safeguards which God has placed around the Truth of the security of His people, preventing them from wresting it to their destruction. By revealing the certain consequences of total apostasy Christians are thereby cautioned and kept from the same: a holy fear moves their hearts and so becomes the means of preventing the very evil they denounce. A lighthouse is to warn against recklessness as mariners near the coast so that they will steer away from the fatal rocks. A fence before a precipice is not superfluous, but is designed to call to an halt those journeying in that direction. When the driver of a train sees the signals change to red he shuts off steam, thereby preserving the passengers under his care. The danger signals of Scripture to which we have called attention are heeded by the regenerate and therefore are among the very means appointed by God for the preservation of His people, for it is only by attending to the same they are kept from destroying themselves.

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Provided by Eternal Life Ministries (hyperlink)