The doctrine of the perseverance of the saints asserts that a true believer will continue in faith (persevere) until his death and will not lose his/her salvation.  The doctrine is often known as “the security of the believer.”  A better term would be the preservation of the saints, based on God’s promise that His people shall indeed all be saved.  The doctrine is also referred to as “once saved, always saved,” usually by those who do not accept it and believe that a saved person can sin in such a way as to lose eternally his or her salvation.

Although there are many passages that could be cited appearing to support either side, each passage should be studied in its context, and difficult passages should always be interpreted in light of clear ones.  These clear passages, or epitomizing scriptures, should always be employed to illuminate and clarify the others.

For instance, Jesus’ statement in John 10:27-29 (“My sheep listen to my voice; I know them and they follow me.  I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand” is clear.  The believer is securely enfolded in the hand of the Son and the hand of the Father, and Jesus guarantees that he shall never perish.  Jesus also taught clearly in John 6:37-39 “All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away.  For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me.  And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all that he has given me, but raise them up at the last day.” If any of those given by the Father to the Son is lost, the Son shall have failed to do the Father’s will, and that is an impossibility.  Paul wrote in Rom. 8:38-39, “For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”  To these epitomizing passages could be added many more.

Those who believe that a true believer can lose his salvation suggest that although no external force can separate him from God, he can separate himself by his unbelief.  Yet unbelief is a sin paid for by Christ, and the believer is in creation and therefore included in the category of forces that cannot separate us. Further, the loss of one given by the Father to the Son, for whatever reason, would render Christ’s work a failure.

But what of all the warnings?  Throughout Scripture God gave warnings to His people to divert them from the dangers that could destroy them.  Thus we are warned, and if we are truly the sheep of Christ, we shall hear His voice and heed the warnings.

But do not Christians sin grievously?  Indeed they do.  We still battle a sinful nature and we may sin terribly.  Peter, for instance, denied Christ.  But God’s rich promise is that a true child of His shall never sin fatally or finally.  God will bring his elect to repentance, for it is not His sovereign will that any of us, His elect, shall perish (2 Pet. 3:9)!

But can Christians just go on sinning continually knowing that they cannot lose their salvation?  Of course not.  When we sin, we are grieved and we repent in time.  John tells us that “No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God’s seed remains in him; he cannot go on sinning because he has been born of God” (1 John 3:9).

What about people who appeared to be true Christians and then defected, never to return?  We must understand that God does not teach that everyone who ever professes faith in Christ has the promise of eternal life, but only those who come to Christ in genuine faith and repentance.  John explains, “They went out from us, but they did not really belong to us.  For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us; but their going showed that none of them belonged to us” (1 John 2:19).  Only God knows the heart, for either He has chosen and regenerated the person or He has not.  We do not know, but if we see someone leave Christ permanently, we may rightly conclude that he or she was never truly saved.

Scripture teaches that everyone has the responsibility to persevere in faith and obedience, and it is true that if we do not, we shall not be saved.  But at the same time we must understand and affirm the twin truth revealed by God that He promises to preserve to eternal life all those He has given to the Son, who have come to the Son in faith and repentance and continue to pursue a life of obedience to the Lord.

(For further study on this subject we recommend you order the audio series Assurance by Danny Hale and/or the series Jesus and His Sheep from Engedi Ministries.  You may also consult a companion short article on this web site comparing the doctrines of preservation and perseverance.)