Doctrine of Salvation

Doctrine of Salvation ST505 LESSON 21 of 24 Roger R. Nicole, Ph.D. Professor, Reformed Theological Seminary Corresponding Editor, Christianity Today Let us pray. O God, our Father, we are moved when we think of the stern warnings which the Scripture contains concerning the need to be careful lest we should fall and admonishing us to persevere and keep ourselves in your love. We pray that we may be sensitive to these warnings and that as a result by virtue of your grace toward us we may indeed persevere to the end. This we ask in the name of Christ, our Lord. Amen. I have one or two remarks that are yet to be made concerning the passage in Hebrews, and the first one concerns the example of the Pharisees to whom Jesus was speaking in Matthew 12 and who had alleged that it was by Satan or Beelzebub, the prince of demons, that Jesus was chasing demons. It would appear that most of the characterizations that are present in Hebrews 6 and 10 were, in fact, describing the benefits which these people had received, for they had been exposed to the light that the Word of God provides, they had tasted the gift of God in the presence of Jesus Christ, they were spectators of the work of the Holy Spirit in that notable healing that had been performed, they were confronted by the Word of God presented in an unforgettable way by the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, and they had tasted of the powers of the world to come. In that sense, too, we would say they had been exposed to the knowledge of the truth. What is not so clear is that they had, indeed, repented and that they had claimed the blood of the covenant to sanctify them. These two expressions do not find a necessary counterpart in the lives of those Pharisees, although some of them might have been receptive to the ministry of John the Baptist, which was a ministry of repentance and was also an introduction to the ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ. 1 of 10

In the matter of counting the blood of the covenant as an unholy thing whereby they were sanctified, this would apply more clearly to people who belong to the Christian community and who would have partaken of the Lord s Supper in an unworthy manner, claiming, in a sense, to be sanctified by the blood of the covenant and yet at the same time not acting and living in a way that is compatible with the governance of grace. The parable of the sower, as it is called, which is really a discussion by Jesus of the various kinds of soils into which the seed is cast, does mention two types of soil in which a certain promise of harvest seems to be implied. This is true of the rocky soil where there is no depth. It is true also of the soil in which you have thorns and thistles which squelch in due course the good seed and prevent a harvest. In Hebrews 6 it would appear that the author has a reference to this matter since he says that land that produces thorns and thistles is worthless and is in danger of being cursed. In the end it will be burned. And so the analogy between Matthew 13 and Hebrews 6 is fairly apparent. In the case of Judas, again we might see in a very peculiarly strong manner the combination of all the characterizations that are made in Hebrews 6 and 10. And yet it would appear that Judas was never born again and that as Jesus said, it would have been better for him not to have born, something that would not be said of someone who is saved or who will be saved. In Hebrews 6 the author indicates immediately in verse 9 that he s confident that this grievous situation does not apply to those to whom the letter is addressed, for he says, We are confident of better things in your case, things that accompany salvation. One could draw from this that the description given in verses 4 through 6 is not one of saved people, but rather of people who, while making a pretense of belonging to the people of God, have never experienced the reality of salvation. It s interesting that those people who do quote these passages as implying that one may lose salvation do not ordinarily consider that the loss of salvation is irremediable but would want to have people return to the Lord and renew their vows to Him and thus receive salvation all over again. This is surely what Hebrews 6 and 10 do not countenance, for the emphasis of these passages is to a situation from which there is no recovery. We can be pleased that people who deal with those whom they consider to have lost salvation is such that once again they are exposed to preaching and admonished to turn to the Lord, for indeed this is in most cases what needs to be done with human 2 of 10

beings unless there is clear evidence that the sin against the Holy Spirit has been committed from which no recovery is possible. In pressing people to return to the Lord and experience salvation anew, the ones who do not believe in perseverance manifest that they are not taking Hebrews 6 and 10 seriously but fortunately continue to press the blessings of God upon the attention of people who are in need of turning to the Lord, repenting of their sins, and finding in Christ redemption and peace. In Hebrews 10:38 we have a reference to the prophet Habakkuk, a reference which emphasizes the principle of faith as the means whereby the blessings of God are appropriated. When people turn back, they indicate that the faith that they alleged or that they claimed was not a living faith, and therefore, indeed, God s soul does not find pleasure in them, as Habakkuk had put it. Now we continue with our discussion of individual passages. I quote James 1:12: Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial because, when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him. So indeed, once again, perseverance must be the manifestation of true faith, and when there is trial and rejection of God that would indicate that a person has not been saved rather than that salvation has been lost. In 2 Peter 1:9 11, we read as follows: If anyone does not have the qualities that are mentioned earlier is nearsighted and blind and has forgotten that he has been cleansed from his past sins. Therefore, my brothers, be all the more eager to make your calling and election sure. For if you do these things, you will never fall and you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Once again in 1 Peter we have a contrast between people who have made a superficial commitment to the gospel of salvation but would then not manifest the fruits that inevitably must be borne by those who are indeed saved. And when this fruit is manifest, this is a confirmation of the reality of the sovereign call of God and of His election, as the apostle indicates. Here there is no suggestion that people who truly were born again would fail at this point and, therefore, lose the salvation that was conferred. In 2 John 8 9, we read as follows: Watch out that you do not lose what you have worked for, but that you may be rewarded fully. Anyone who runs ahead and does not continue in the teaching of Christ does not have God; whoever continues in the teaching has 3 of 10

both the Father and the Son. Here again, perseverance is shown as the fruit of the true renewal by the second birth, and those who do not persevere and do not continue to show fruit raise a question as to the legitimacy and the reality of their original claim to have found grace in Jesus Christ. The epistle of Jude is replete with warnings, and it gives quite a number of examples of people who had a good promise at first and have then gone in the way of rejection and have ended in a miserable manner. This is true of the examples drawn from the Old Testament, the example of certain Israelites who had participated in the exodus and who died in the desert, certain angels who did not maintain their original stand but were rejected in due course, those who were punished in the case of Sodom and Gomorrah, cities that were very advantageous for the raising of cattle and were close to the holy land that God had promised to Abraham but which in spite of all of the advantages that had been given by God were steeped in iniquity and deserved the very severe judgment which God visited upon them. And then again, particularly the case of Cain and of Balaam and of Korah, all people who had peculiarly blessings and could have been the object of peculiarly high expectations and who in rebellion in the end ended in a miserable manner. Not only are these examples drawn from the Old Testament, but a number of descriptions are given in Jude about people of this kind who, failing to persevere, have received a severe judgment from God and will inevitably be lost in the condemnation that awaits those who do not trust in God. The ones whom Jude addresses are once again accepted of that: You dear friends, build yourself up in your most holy faith. Keep yourself in God s love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life. And here we have a distinction that is made between those to whom the letter is addressed and those apostates who are being castigated from verse 3 through verse 16. Jude, in fact, ends his epistle with that strong affirmation that God is able to keep from falling those who trust in him, and he will present them faultless in the presence of his glory with exceeding joy. And so the passage surely refers to people who have shipwrecked according to the faith and who in this matter, while giving an expectation at first of a life that will be committed the Lord, have proven in their rejection that they had not made truly the experience of salvation. 4 of 10

In the book of Revelation, there are a number of passages which emphasize perseverance, but they do not suggest that the Christian who is born again may fail to persevere. I want to quote Revelation 2:5, where it says, Remember the height from which you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place. This is addressed to a church at large rather than to an individual, but even if it is to an individual, it would show that there are possibilities of renewal so that this would not be a case analogous to Hebrews 6. In Revelation 2:16 we read: Repent, otherwise I will soon come to you and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth. And so, here again, the temporary allegiance to the [gospel] is not the characteristic of the whole church, and the possibility of no repentance is maintained. Revelation 3:5 says, He who overcomes will be dressed in white. I will never blot his name from the book of life, but will acknowledge his name before my Father and his angels. The passage here indicates that the name will not be blotted out from the Book of Life. God does not need to make erasures in the Book of Life because He knows in advance and has determined in advance who will be inscribed there. In Revelation 3:11 we read: Hold on to what you have, so that no one will take your crown. Here again the admonition is not there to suggest that there are people who will lose what they have and therefore lose the crown, but rather that God in presenting this warning will secure obedience on the part of those who are addressed. And finally in Revelation 22:19 we read as follows: If anyone takes words away from this book of prophecy, God will take away from him his share in the tree of life and in the Holy City, which are described in this book. Here there is not a suggestion that people had a share and then thereafter find it removed from them because of a lack of faithfulness to the Scripture, but the point is that those who are despising the divine authority of the book will not get any share. They may have expected to have a share in the Book of Life and in the city, and it will be show that as an effect of this severe disobedience, there is no proper expectation of any participation in the blessings that God promises. 5 of 10

Here are, therefore, the passages which suggest that some people who have been saved may lose the benefits which they had received by virtue of salvation, but the emphasis here, I think, may be in Scripture that God by these admonitions encourages those who belong to Him to persevere by showing to them what would be the dreadful consequences of a failure to remain in allegiance to the Lord. And so the passages do not of necessity imply that people who had true possession of salvation will, in fact, lose it. Now we come to the second major argument that is advanced by those who raise objections to the doctrine of perseverance, and that is the argument that there are examples in Scripture which show us people who participated in the blessings of God and who did not, in fact, continue in the faith and were, therefore, ultimately lost. People of that type who may be mentioned are King Saul, then Judas Iscariot, the apostle, Hymenaeus and Alexander mentioned by the apostle Paul in the epistle to Timothy. In connection with such people, there are two possibilities that are open and which would involve a maintenance of the doctrine of perseverance in spite of the unfortunate developments mentioned in Scripture. The first possibility would be that these people did not, in fact, truly accept and share in the blessing of the new birth, so that the reference is to people who professed to be Christians but were not in reality and proved this by their failure to persevere, as we saw in a number of cases in the previous list of passages. Another possibility is that these people did not, in fact, forfeit salvation but were guilty of serious infractions to the law of God which would undoubtedly cause them to receive chastisement even in this earth, but which in the end would not forfeit their salvation, but be a time of backsliding even as David experienced and ultimately that they would be or have been reclaimed by God in spite of their sin. The same kind of reasoning may apply to people that we know and who had given in terms of their attitudes every promise to be true Christians, every expectation that by virtue of the salvation that they confessed, they had indeed been engrafted in Jesus Christ and who later on seemed to have abandoned the faith, abandoned the church, abandoned any desire to live a life of obedience to God and who have turned their backs, so to speak, to the blessings that they have received. As long as these people live, it is possible to think that they are in a position of temporary backsliding rather than a total apostasy and, therefore, they should be admonished to repent and to return to what they had known earlier. If they die in unbelief and with a lack of repentance, 6 of 10

possibly the conclusion may develop that their original witness to the faith was spurious and that while they and we may have thought that they were born again, this was not, in fact, the case. Such examples are very disturbing since they may suggest to us that our own allegiance to the Lord may also be superficial and, therefore, it is necessary for the Christian to be very watchful at this point lest there be a rejection of the Lord that would then lose all the benefits that we were counting to receive through the work of salvation. There are passages in Scripture that deal with situations of this kind and which we need to consider briefly. There is Matthew 7:21 23, where our Lord indicates that at the last judgment there will be people who will say to Him, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in your name and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles? And it will be said to them, I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers! Here the indication is that their profession and even their claims to accomplish work in the name of Christ was spurious, for Jesus said, I never knew you. He does not say, I knew you for a while and then I rejected you because you did not persevere. But these people in question, even though they gave the impression of being Christians, in fact were never united with Jesus Christ in a proper way. Similarly in Matthew 18 we have the case of the servant who is rejected and that we considered already earlier. He is in the end subject to condemnation because, indeed, his lack of the principle of forgiveness exhibits the failure to be truly renewed by the grace of God. In Matthew 24:12 13, Jesus says that the love of most will grow cold, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved. There are, therefore, those whose love does not represent a true commitment and, therefore, it may cool off and ultimately will lead to perdition, but those whose love is genuine will persevere to the end and be saved. In Matthew 25:12 13, we find that some of the virgins were not admitted to the banquet of the Lord. Here again, the Lord says to them, I tell you the truth, I don t know you, which indicates that these are people who are not in fellowship with the Lord. Further in Matthew 25:28 30, you have one of the servants of the master who is unfaithful, and he is cast out into darkness where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth, but this servant manifests by his attitude that while he was enlisted in the service of the master, he never was in fellowship with him, and, therefore, it is difficult to think that the one who had the one talent and kept it 7 of 10

in the ground represents a person who is truly born again. John 15:2 represents a passage which raises a real difficulty in my judgment, for there Jesus says that every branch in Him that does not bear fruit is being cut off, and then later on in verses 6, If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. Here, therefore, the expectation is that salvation is not, in fact, experienced at the end, but the analogy in vegetable life seems to imply that there was a time where real communication was present, for, indeed, no branch exists who was not originally in touch with the tree and with the roots, and therefore a branch that withers and that is cut off because it is unproductive would be an example of someone who had a real contact with Christ and who in the course of life lost it. The passage in question may be read, every branch that does not bear fruit in me, for, indeed, it is in Christ, by our union with Christ, that any fruit is forthcoming. It is not necessary to insist that the analogy of vegetable life should be carried out to the point of saying like a branch does not exist without being at first in contact with the roots and the source of life in the tree. There is no one that can be cut off from the vine unless that person had been, in fact, in actual fellowship with Jesus Christ. The reference could very well be for people who have an external allegiance that gives impression that they belonged to the vine but who would not, in fact, have experienced the reality of the new birth. In Romans 14:15 the apostle warns that we should not cause him to perish for whom Christ died and if your brother s distressed of what you eat, you are no longer acting in love. Do not by your eating destroy your brother for whom Christ died. This passage is alleviated by the fact that in Romans 14:4, the apostle says, Who are you to judge someone else s servant? To his own master, he stands or falls, and he will stand, for the Lord is able to make him stand, and so the truth of perseverance, even for someone who has weakness, is asserted here. What the apostle objects to is the careless attitude of some people who claim to be Christians and who have no consideration of the damage done to the life and the conscience of weaker Christians who think there might be a sin in participating or partaking of meat that has been offered to idols and who, therefore, by acting against their conscience would be led into sin by the example of people who understand that idols are nothing and that therefore the meat is by itself not damaged by virtue of its use in heathen worship. 8 of 10

In Galatians 5:4, we read the passage that is often quoted that they have fallen from grace. You who are trying to be justified by law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace. Here the emphasis is that in their teaching they have renounced the grace of God, which is the foundation for salvation, and the work of Christ, which is the only source for justification, by attempting to suggest that our works and our obedience to the law are, in fact, the foundation for our acceptance with Christ. This is not so much a case of an individual abandonment of the way of salvation, but rather a condemnation against the attitude of people who do despite to the gospel of grace by proclaiming a salvation through the work of the law. In Colossians 2:19 we read that he has lost connection with the head, from whom the whole body, supported and held together by its ligaments and sinews, grows as God causes it to grow. And here we are dealing again with people who are teaching false doctrines, a special worship of angels, and have a false humility. These people by their false teaching show that they do not have a right relationship with Jesus Christ and even what they claim to have is considered to be spurious and, therefore, they are not to be viewed as saved. In 1 Timothy 1:6 [and following] we read that some have wandered away from a good conscience, a pure heart, and a sincere faith, and have turn to meaningless talk and they want to be teachers of the law, but they do not know what they are talking about or what they so confidently affirm. This again is a warning against false teachers, and it does not discuss the matter of a personal loss of salvation. In 1 Timothy 1:19 we read, Holding on to faith and a good conscience, some have rejected these and so have shipwrecked their faith. Here, indeed, there would be an emphasis upon the manifestation of failure on the part of a claim to faith which is not grounded in the true renewal. In 1 Timothy 4:1 we read, The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons. Once more, we find that those who are responsive to false teaching of this kind manifest that they do not have the lively connection with Christ from which salvation issues. First Timothy 5:15 says, Some have in fact already turned away to follow Satan. Once again, it shows the apostasy of some people who had only a temporary connection with the church. In 1 Timothy 6:9 10 we read that people who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful 9 of 10

desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs. Here, once more, I think we would see that the love of money is a rival to the love of God; you cannot serve God and mammon, and therefore you do have a situation where those who manifest an inordinate amount of greed show also that they do not have a true perception of the grace of God as given in salvation. First Timothy 6:20 21 says, Turn away from godless chatter and the opposing ideas of what is falsely called knowledge, which some have professed and in so doing have wandered from the faith. Once again, it s the danger of apostasy that is presented, and even those who are members of the church need to take caution not to be misled in such manner since it is a manifestation of the power of Satan to be erring into false doctrines. We will finish our presentation in the next record. Christ-Centered Learning Anytime, Anywhere 10 of 10