Preservation of Saints and Holding on to God

 Preservation of Saints

In this blog we talk about the preservation of saints. When we are in Christ, we have a certain amount of certainty about our salvation unto the end. Paul tells us:

[Rom 8:35-39 NKJV] 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? [Shall] tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 36 As it is written: "For Your sake we are killed all day long; We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter." 37 Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. 38 For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, 39 nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Nothing can separate us from the love of Christ. Nothing can come in between. Jesus Himself says:

[Jhn 10:28 NKJV] 28 "And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand.

Paul even goes as far as to say to the Corinthians:

[1Co 1:8 NKJV] 8 who will also confirm you to the end, [that you may be] blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Thus, we are confirmed to the end in Christ. This promise is given to us. Nothing can snatch us out of His hand.

We may think that Satan or our flesh is able to snatch us out of His hand, but they have no power to do so. They cannot do it. All his legal claims have turned out to be false. He has no right.

This, however, does not mean we ourselves cannot separate from Him. Even though nothing can come in between and the promise is certain in Christ by faith, we can still separate ourselves from the One who will confirm us to the end. In that case, the promise is not applicable anymore.

Israel, who serves as an example for us, serves as a good example for this. When they went out of Egypt, the people had faith:

[Heb 11:29 NKJV] 29 By faith they passed through the Red Sea as by dry [land], [whereas] the Egyptians, attempting to do so, were drowned.

[Exo 14:31 NKJV] 31 Thus Israel saw the great work which the LORD had done in Egypt; so the people feared the LORD, and believed the LORD and His servant Moses.

They had seen many great things. They were freed from Egypt by a powerful hand. They believed God, they had faith, they feared God, glorified Him, sang to Him, yet they fell. They constantly fell into disbelief.

The reader can go and read their story. In the desert, they murmured, sinned, rebelled, and even said that God led them out of Egypt to die in the desert, even though God had promised to bring them to Canaan. Only Joshua and Caleb actually entered Canaan, but all the others died in unbelief (with the exception of Moses).

Joshua talks about their disobedience:

[Jos 5:6 NKJV] 6 For the children of Israel walked forty years in the wilderness, till all the people [who were] men of war, who came out of Egypt, were consumed, because they did not obey the voice of the LORD--to whom the LORD swore that He would not show them the land which the LORD had sworn to their fathers that He would give us, "a land flowing with milk and honey."

And Paul tells us this about the Hebrews when he’s talking about the rest we have in Christ:

[Heb 3:16-19 NKJV] 16 For who, having heard, rebelled? Indeed, [was it] not all who came out of Egypt, [led] by Moses? 17 Now with whom was He angry forty years? [Was it] not with those who sinned, whose corpses fell in the wilderness? 18 And to whom did He swear that they would not enter His rest, but to those who did not obey? 19 So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.

And Hebrews quotes this as an example for us today:

[Heb 4:1-2 NKJV] 1 Therefore, since a promise remains of entering His rest, let us fear lest any of you seem to have come short of it. 2 For indeed the gospel was preached to us as well as to them; but the word which they heard did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in those who heard [it].

This means we must work with fear and be very careful. We must make sure our faith and trust stands. If this falls, we fall. If we start murmuring to God like the Israelites that He will not preserve us till the promised land of heaven or that He does not really love us, we should cease such patterns of thought. If we do not trust Him, then we will not reach it.

But God will preserve us, and He does love us. But we have to humbly trust Him. This is the reason why Hebrews gives many warnings to not fall away:

[Heb 12:15-17 NKJV] 15 looking carefully lest anyone fall short of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up cause trouble, and by this many become defiled; 16 lest there [be] any fornicator or profane person like Esau, who for one morsel of food sold his birthright. 17 For you know that afterward, when he wanted to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no place for repentance, though he sought it diligently with tears.

[Heb 10:38-39 NKJV] 38 Now the just shall live by faith; But if [anyone] draws back, My soul has no pleasure in him." 39 But we are not of those who draw back to perdition, but of those who believe to the saving of the soul.

And Ezekiel says:

[Eze 33:13 NKJV] 13 "When I say to the righteous [that] he shall surely live, but he trusts in his own righteousness and commits iniquity, none of his righteous works shall be remembered; but because of the iniquity that he has committed, he shall die.

And Paul and Peter tell us in what way we will be preserved unto the end and what we must do:

[1Pe 1:5 NKJV] 5 who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

[Col 1:21-23 NKJV] 21 And you, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled 22 in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight-- 23 if indeed you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and are not moved away from the hope of the gospel which you heard, which was preached to every creature under heaven, of which I, Paul, became a minister.

Thus, we are preserved by faith in Christ by the power of God and not by our own power, but by a simple faith and patience in the power and love of God by which we inherit the promises. And just like Adam fell in sinless flesh, so we can also fall.

Let the possibility of falling not bring us to despair, however. We have a powerful God and His grace is sufficient. Only lay hold on it. He loves us and wants us to succeed and we will succeed if we have faith, just like the Israelites succeeded in Canaan once they did actually rely on God.

But on the other hand, be very careful and do not be presumptuous, thinking you cannot fall at all. The example of Saul is a perfect warning for those who are presumptuous. When Samuel the prophet told Saul to destroy all the Amalekites, Saul left a few alive. But when Samuel admonished him, he acted as if he had done what he had to do. He deceived himself, even though he was filled with the Holy Spirit before. In the end, he fell into sorcery.

This is why we are admonished to do this:

[Heb 3:12-14 NKJV] 12 Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God; 13 but exhort one another daily, while it is called "Today," lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. 14 For we have become partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end,