Christianity 101: 20 Basic Christian Beliefs Chapter 15 What Are Sanctification and Perseverance? I. Sanctification: The Gospel and the appropriate response of repentance and faith are not only what saves someone s soul, it is also what progressively sanctifies them throughout their earthly lives a. Sanctification Is a Process: i. What is Sanctification? ii. What does Paul mean when he says Christians are set free from sin (Rom. 6:18) and must consider themselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus for sin will have no dominion over them (Rom. 6:11, 14)? iii. Because we know that we will continue to sin in this life, does it mean that it doesn t matter whether or not a believer continues to be sanctified? b. God s Role in Sanctification: i. What is God s role in the believer s sanctification? And what Bible verse would you use to support your answer? c. Our Role in Sanctification: i. What is the believer s role in their sanctification?
II. Perseverance: The Scriptures are clear that God is sovereign in salvation and as such, once you are truly saved, you will always be truly saved. Or as Dr. Grudem puts it All who are truly Christians will be kept by God s power and will persevere as Christians until the end of their lives. 1 a. What If the Sanctification Process Ends? i. Can someone s progressive sanctification process come to an end? b. The Promise of Jesus: i. If someone was concerned that they had lost their salvation, which promises of Jesus would you take them to in Scripture? c. The Promise of the Holy Spirit: i. What is the promise of the Holy Spirit? d. The Promise in Perseverance: i. What did Dr. Grudem mean when he said While those who are truly Christians will persevere to the end, only those who persevere to the end are truly Christians 2? 1 Wayne A. Grudem, Christian Beliefs: Twenty Basics Every Christian Should Know (ed. Elliot Grudem; Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2005), 102. 2 Wayne A. Grudem, Christian Beliefs: Twenty Basics Every Christian Should Know (ed. Elliot Grudem; Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2005), 104.
e. Assurance of Perseverance: i. What are factors that assure us of our salvation and perseverance? f. Persevering through the Process: i. What are the dangers associated with either being sanctified quickly for a season or being sanctified slowly for a season? III. Questions for Review and Application: a. How is sanctification different from justification 3? b. What is our role in sanctification? What is God s role? What are some specific ways in which you could contribute more to your sanctification in the coming week 4? c. List some passages of Scripture that support the doctrine of perseverance. As you reflect on those passages, how do they make you feel? Why do they make you feel that way 5? 3 Wayne A. Grudem, Christian Beliefs: Twenty Basics Every Christian Should Know (ed. Elliot Grudem; Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2005), 107. 4 Wayne A. Grudem, Christian Beliefs: Twenty Basics Every Christian Should Know (ed. Elliot Grudem; Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2005), 107. 5 Wayne A. Grudem, Christian Beliefs: Twenty Basics Every Christian Should Know (ed. Elliot Grudem; Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2005), 107.
Appendix: The Biblical Doctrine of Perseverance Dr. LARRY PETTEGREW, TH.D. I. Defined: Perseverance means that God will enable the believer to remain in the faith through the remainder of his or her life. It also means that the believer needs to demonstrate salvation through becoming more like Christ (Erickson, 996). II. The Old Testament: The OT does not develop a doctrine of perseverance, but does occasionally teach that God preserves His children (Psalm 37:24; 37:28; 32:40) III. The New Covenant teaches the perseverance of the saints: a. Jesus taught that believers in Him immediately possess eternal life (John 3:15-16; 3:36; 4:14; 6:40; 1 John 5:11-13) i. If eternal life could be forfeited or lost then it would not be eternal. b. True believers will never come into judgment (John 3:18; John 6:39-40; 10:27-29; Hebrews 7:24-25; Romans 8:29-30) c. Christ s love preserves us: Cf. D. Edmond Hiebert, Romans 8:28-29 and the Assurance of the Believer, Bib Sac (April-June, 1991, 170-183). i. Romans 8:28-29 And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren; 1. The Comprehensive Action v. 29 a. Personal relative pronoun, whom, and the triple use of the demonstrative pronoun, these, in v. 30, underlines the truth that God s plan relates to individuals, not merely to the experiences they undergo. b. The two verbs rendered foreknew and predestined indicate that God s plan for the redeemed began in eternity past and reaches into eternity future. c. Note previous study: God foreknew a person. And word carries with it more than just intellectual knowledge also an active and affectionate desire to bless. d. Predestine to mark out or determine the boundaries, to appoint. Used of persons, it means to set out or determine the goal or destiny of those foreknown. 2. The Christ-centered Goal a. To become conformed to the image of His Son b. Greatness of God s love: i. All that comes into their lives, God uses to further this goal. ii. Firstborn among many brothers Involves both His distinctiveness from and identity with the vast redeemed family of God. NOTE: This passage presents a golden chain of salvation that strongly affirms the security of the Christian s salvation. There are a series of aorist verbs that signify past action foreknew, predestined, called, justified, and glorified. These occurrences are so sure and certain that they can be spoken of as if they have already happened. If a person is foreknown and predestined by God it is absolutely certain that he or she will be glorified. c. Nothing in heaven or earth can separate believers from Christ s love (Romans 8:35-39; Philippians 1:6; 2 Corinthians 1:21; 1 Corinthians 1:8)
d. The Holy Spirit s presence in the life of the believer is a deposit or guarantee (2 Corinthians 1:22; Ephesians 1:14; 1 Peter 1:3-5; 1 John 5:18; Jude 24) e. The Christian has a role in perseverance i. Perseverance is ultimately the work of God, yet the Christian has a role to play as well. 1. He must not be overly confidant to the point of neglect (1 Corinthians 10:12) 2. He must be alert and stand firm (1 Corinthians 16:13; 2 Corinthians 1:24) 3. He must work out his salvation with fear and trembling (Philippians 2:12-13) 4. He must endure (Hebrews 10:36) 5. He must finish the course and keep the faith (2 Timothy 4:7) 6. He must remain faithful (2 Timothy 2:12-13; Revelation 2:10) 7. He must keep on believing (John 3:16 uses a present participle: ongoing action). 8. He must produce fruit (John 15:2) 9. He must abide in the teaching of Scripture (2 John 9) ii. True believers may backslide or fall into sin for a season but this falling away is not permanent. 1. For example: Peter denied the Lord iii. Some fall away from the faith permanently because they were never truly converted. 1. Judas (John 6:70; 13:10-11) 2. False teachers (1 John 2:19, 22-23; Jude 1:4) In sum, several NT writers assert that some who profess Christ renounce their profession and actively oppose the faith. They do so because they possessed no more than a superficial belief. These did not fall from grace, because they never were in a state of grace. Apostasy from Christ and the Gospel is a certain sign that the people involved never belonged to Christ (Demarest, 458). iv. The Book of Hebrews warns Christians not to apostatize from their faith. 1. The most debated passage is Hebrews 6:4-6 2. The various interpretation of this passage are: a. True believers can permanently fall away from the faith b. The apostasy described her is hypothetical i. The writer is describing what would be the case if a true believer would fall away, but in reality God makes sure that no true believers permanently fall away. c. The people who are warned in this passage are not truly saved. d. The Jewish people addressed in Hebrews are contemplating going back to Old Covenant worship. 3. The best view seems to be the Jewish professing Christians who were considering going back into Judaism. (Dr. Pettegrew s view) a. The description of these people implies some hope that they had really become Christians. i. They have been enlightened, tasted of the heavenly gift, been made partakers of the Holy Spirit, tasted the good word of God, tasted the powers of the age to come (new covenant power that will be in full existence in the Millennium) b. But there was developing within the Jewish Christian communities some pressure to return to orthodox Judaism with its sacrificial system.
c. If that were to happen, the old covenant sacrificial system in the church age would be making the atoning work of Christ on the cross insignificant. d. In verse 6 the Greek participle translated since is probably temporal rather than causal so you could translate it while, or as long as e. One of the author s arguments against returning to the old covenant is found in 8:7-13 f. If the Jewish professing Christian returned to the old covenant worship, and persisted in it, he probably was not a genuine Christian in the first place. 4. Constructively, then, the teaching on security and the apostatizing warnings combine: a. To provide the believer with assurance. b. To motivate the believer to strive after godliness. The writers of the New Testament wrote their books to people ones who had attached themselves to the church by a profession of faith. They were not so naive as to presume that all who would come into contact with their letters were regenerate individuals. However, they did not question or disparage the professed faith of their readers. The apostles addressed the church according to its profession and in this manner included tests, exhortations, and admonitions to depend solely upon grace, and warnings against apostasy by which the readers could measure their own profession and ascertain their status (Ardel Caneday, Reciprocal Vital Union and the Perseverance of the Saints in Johannine Literature, Unpublished post-grad seminar paper, GTS, March 1977, pp. 1-2). The practical implication of our understanding of the doctrine of perseverance is that believers can rest secure in the assurance that their salvation is permanent; nothing can separate them from the love of God.On the other hand, however, our understanding of the doctrine of perseverance allows no room for indolence or laxity (Erickson, 1007).