“This is why it is perhaps helpful to speak of the preservation of the Christian by God before speaking of the Christian’s perseverance. Yet, even as we do this we need to be clear about what the Christian is persevering in doing. Put another way, what does God’s preservation of his covenant people, the bride of Christ, the Church, result in them continuing to do throughout this lifetime?”

“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” God is life. There is no life apart from God. For life to be, God must give it and sustain it. There is no such thing as life that God does not give or sustain. Among the many things this means, perhaps one of the most monumental is this: our choosing does not create or sustain our being; God’s choosing creates and sustains our being. Our being never occupies a realm of reality outside of God’s sovereign sustaining. God must sustain the life he gives or it dies. In salvation from sin the sinner is given eternal life by God (John 3:16; 17:3). What a glorious truth!

God is not merely the source of life, he is its sustainer and savior. As Paul clarifies regarding the Lord Jesus in Col. 1:16-18: “For by him all things were created both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things and in him all things hold together. He is also head of the body, the church; and he is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that he himself will come to have first place in everything.” Jesus is the Source, Sustainer and Savior of life.

This is why it is perhaps helpful to speak of the preservation of the Christian by God before speaking of the Christian’s perseverance. Yet, even as we do this we need to be clear about what the Christian is persevering in doing. Put another way, what does God’s preservation of his covenant people, the bride of Christ, the Church, result in them continuing to do throughout this lifetime? God’s preservation of his children means they persist in trusting in Jesus so that they mature and remain in obedience to Jesus, or God’s Word.

Jesus said, “If you remain in my word, you are truly my disciples and you will know the truth and the truth will set you free” (John 8:31-32). When you note the verbs in the original Greek, as well as the very nature of salvation in Jesus as eternal life, you recognize that there is an ongoing condition that Jesus’ true disciples meet and it has a particular result. Remaining in Jesus’ word results in knowing the truth that sets us free from sin. The verses immediately following John 8:32 bear this out.

When the Jews to whom Jesus spoke heard him speak of freedom they expressed dismay over their apparent slavery. They had missed Jesus’ point so Jesus clarified: “Truly, truly I say to you, everyone who commits sin is the slave of sin. The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever. So if the Son makes you free you will be free indeed.”

Using the illustration of a Jewish household and the place of slaves in it, Jesus affirmed that the slave differed from the father’s children. Slaves did not have a permanent place in the household, but children did. But sin makes us all slaves. All creation is God’s house. God is king over all the earth and heaven. Sin saddles us with slavery. But Jesus, the Son of God, sets some sinners free from sin. “If the Son sets you free you will be free indeed.” Note the condition and the necessary and rather obvious implication, especially in light of the rest of John 8 alone.

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