Finishing Well

I have heard people say that in the Christian life how you finish is everything. I want to finish well. What a tragedy it would be for a well respected man of God to come to the end of his life and "mess up." There would be a blemish on his testimony that all would remember. Over the last two days I have listened to the Desiring God National Conference audio. The theme this year was a call to stand, focusing on the endurance (or perseverance if you like that word better) of the saints.

We would all agree (those of us who believe in eternal security) that we are kept by the power of God (I Peter 1:5; John 10:27-29; John 17:11; Jude 24) but we must remember that there are warnings in the Bible against falling away and there are commands that tell us what we are to do to keep from falling away.

This balance is shown in Philippians 2:12-13. we are told to "...work out your own salvation with fear and trembling." Then in the very next verse we are told "For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure." We are to work it out because God is working in us. I Peter 1:5 also agrees to this. We are told that we "...are kept by the power of God through faith..."

There are two major areas concerning our eternal security. The first is that we can lose our salvation. This means my perseverance is in the end what keeps me saved. On the other hand there are those who would continue in sin because they know that they can never lose their salvation. "God forbid," Paul would say.

(Answering error#1)The perseverance of the saints must first be understood as the preservation of the saints. We are kept by the power of God, it is God Who works in us, no man can pluck us out of the Father's hand, and Jesus prayed that we would be kept. We are preserved in Christ. Therefore all of our persevering comes as a result of our being preserved. If your struggling in your pursuit of holiness, know that God is the One Who keeps you.

(Answering error#2)After it is understood that we are preserved, we can then seek to persevere. We now serve in the strength that God supplies and He alone gets the glory. Here comes the other part of I Peter 1:5 (through faith) and Philippians 2:12-13 (work out your own salvation). God preserves us by granting us faith. The Lord prayed that Peter's faith would not utterly fail. Faith is the how we don't become unbelievers. We persevere in faith. Faith is a gift from God (Ephesians 2:8-9). The two go hand in hand.
Working out your own salvation could be what Randy Alcorn called at the DG National Conference, spiritual disciplines. There are things we can do everyday to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling. Jonathan Edwards is a good example of one who lived by spiritual disciplines. Don Whitney has written a book with just that title. Paul tells Timothy in I Timothy chapter four what he should do until Paul would come. He is told to exercise, or train, himself unto godliness. In verse 16 he is told to take heed to these things he has been told to do and to continue in them. There are some things we can on our part to persevere instead of just occupying our spot on the pew or sitting back and expecting to persevere while we love the world and let them entertain us to death. Daily prayer, reading of Scripture, witnessing, and meditation are a few things that come to mind that take daily discipline. Paul then tells Timothy at the end of verse 16 that if he continues in the things that Paul has told him to do, he will both save himself and those who hear him.

Now of course the prophet of grace was not suggesting that Timothy could be saved by his works, but these disciplines would cause him to persevere. It takes discipline to be what Paul told him to be in verse 12; "...an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity."

Let us know that we are preserved by the grace of our God; but let us do all we can to persevere to the end. To sum it all up I will just say this. The end is that is that all believers are eternally secure and will end up in Heaven. The means God uses to keep us is our perseverance in faith and spiritual disciplines.

Persevering in the strength God supplies in preserving us,
Josh