Preservation of the Saints

Andy Woods

Soteriology - Lordship Salvation, Part 3 (John 5:24)

Must we make Jesus Lord of our life to be saved?

Edited by Jerry Teets with a different quote from John Piper

We teach something called preservation of the saints, where God preserves us based on His promises, and that’s called eternal security. But that’s not what Lordship salvation means by the “P”, when they use the word “P” they mean it’s Perseverance in good works, as evidence of saving faith (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q5Xsf55OB2A). And if that’s what you believe you can really never know you’re a Christian. Why is that? Because perseverance in good works is never objectively defined. How many good works do I have to do? How consistent do those good works have to be? How fast do they have to come? How frequent are they? What good works are you talking about?

And because those questions are never answered with precision people that believe in the perseverance of the saints idea never really know that they’re saved. And you see, Lordship salvation goes right hand in glove with this because what they’re saying is you’re not a Christian at all unless you’ve totally surrendered your life to Christ. So therefore all Christians must be persevering Christians and if you are not a persevering Christian then there’s always a doubt in your mind, maybe you were never saved to begin with.

But Lordship salvation people have no such assurance. And when you talk to Lordship salvation people and you actually start getting into their minds, you’ll see that they’re haunted by this issue: maybe I’m not saved.

Notice what John Piper says:

Look at your people with tears in your eyes, and look at those who are worldly and are drifting into sin or completely consumed with the media that they’re all watching every night, and plead with them, “Don’t throw away your confidence, which has great reward.” That’s a warning. Pursue holiness, because if you don’t, you won’t see the Lord. Tear your eye out to avoid lust, because if you don’t, you’re going to go to hell with both eyes. That’s the way preachers should preach and small groups should talk to each other.

Those warnings are in the Bible, not to destroy assurance, but to prevent false assurance. People who think that they are on their way to heaven, but who don’t hate their sin and fight it, are deluded; they should not have assurance. The warnings are a life-giving, soul-saving litmus test to help us born-again people hear the warnings. They tremble. They turn to Christ for forgiveness and for the power to kill sin.

Does John Piper Deny Personal Assurance?

Episode 1479 May 29, 2020

(W)e must...own up to the fact that our final salvation is made contingent upon the subsequent obedience which comes from faith. The way these two truths fit together is that those who do not lead a life of faith with its inevitable fruit of obedience simply bear witness to the fact that their first act of faith was not genuine.

What We Believe About the Five Points of Calvinism This explanation, compiled by John Piper and the Council of Elders, represents the doctrinal position of Bethlehem Baptist Church.

Now this is an evangelical that’s talking this way. One of the things that sort of shocking to me is why don’t more people look at that and say that’s not the gospel of grace at all, that’s works is what that is. But that is what this doctrine, the perseverance of the saints in works does to you. It takes away the joy that the Lord would have you to experience because you’re His child.

And so a lot of people look at the doctrine of the assurance of salvation sort of like the weather report, you know, there’s a 70% chance of rain today, there’s an 80% chance of sunshine tomorrow or whatever, and we’re always given these percentages of probabilities and a lot of people look at their salvation that way. So you ask them if they’re saved—oh, I’m about 70% sure I’m saved. The week after that they may have had a down week, well, today it’s down to about 60-65% chance that I’m saved.

Look at this promise here from John 5:24, Jesus says, “Truly, truly I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life.” So notice the promise from Christ, who cannot lie, he who believes in “Him who sent Me, has” present tense, that’s in the present tense there, “eternal life.” If you believed in Christ, trusted in His provision, then the promise from Christ to you, not based on you and what you do, based on what He’s promised is that you already possess eternal life.

And you listen to a lot of Christians and they say I can’t wait to die and go to heaven so I can have eternal life. Well, that’s not the biblical teaching; the biblical teaching is you have to have eternal life now, it’s a present tense possession. You say well, I don’t feel like I have it. Well, what does feelings have to do with anything? It’s an objective promise from God. And that’s how you live your life as a Christian, you don’t live based on feelings. I have emotions too, sometimes I feel very good, sometimes I feel very bad, but I don’t live my life based on my emotions in any given circumstance. I live based on what Jesus, who cannot lie, has said to me.

So the Word of God teaches people, not some but everybody, that the moment they take Christ as their Savior by faith alone is the moment they can be assured of their salvation. Why? Because their assurance doesn’t come from their own worthiness or fitness; it comes from the object of the written Word of God, passages like John 5:24, from God who cannot lie. [John 5:24 “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life.”]

And I can’t tell you what a big issue this is when you get into the minds of people through counselling. Christians everywhere who are under a very strong dose of Lordship salvation, whether it be from Calvinism which teaches you must persevere to prove you’re saved, or Arminianism which teaches you must persevere or you’ll lose your salvation. You see a heavy dose of Calvinism or Arminianism will lead you to a loss of assurance of salvation. Arminius says you lost it; Calvin and his followers will say you never had it. So either way, if I backslide and so into sin, if I’m under Calvinism I’ll think well, I need to get saved again because I never had it in the first place, not again but I need to get saved the first time. Arminius will say you lost it and you need to get it again, you need to get saved again.

See, I’ve been in churches where people get saved every single week, the same people. I’ve been in churches where people give altar calls and I’ve watched the people that go forward in these altar calls and a lot of times it’s the exact same people. And I say well wait a minute, Sister So and So, or Brother So and So got saved last week, why are they “getting saved” again? Well, the reason is they don’t have any real teaching on the assurance of salvation. So what happened is they had a down time during the week, and they don’t understand the doctrine of the assurance of salvation so they think to themselves well, I guess I lost my salvation if they’re under Arminianism, or I guess I never had salvation to begin with if I’m under Calvinism so I’ll go forward again. When in reality what’s happened to them is they’re saved is they are God’s child, they’re saved, they fell into sin, their saved condition is not in jeopardy but they’ve fallen out of fellowship with God. See that? Their position is the same, it’s unalterable but the moment by moment fellowship has been broken.

So you lose a way to control people once you start teaching on the assurance of salvation. And a lot of spiritual leaders aren’t willing to relinquish that control because dangling hell over everybody’s lap week after week, sermon after sermon is a tremendous motivational tool. And a lot of spiritual leaders think well, if I teach the assurance of salvation then I’m going to lose control over these people when in reality there isn’t a greater more motivating force in a person’s life, in terms of service, once they discover the doctrine of assurance of salvation. Do you know why? Because now they are showing up to Wednesday night Bible study and giving in the offering, not out of fear but out of gratitude and worship for what God has done.

And if Satan can get you distracted in anything he wants you to be worried about whether you’re saved because if your mental energies are focused on whether you’re saved or whether you’re not saved your mind is divided and your mind is not being channeled into the productivity that God has for it because the Bible, as you know, speaks against a divided mind.