True Christians must persevere because what keeps them true to God is not the strength of their own faith, their own wills, or their own hearts, but they are “kept by the power of God through faith for salvation,” (1 Pet. 1:5). We might be fooled by false believers but Jesus never is.  On Judgment Day many professing Christians claiming all sorts of powerful acts of service will be shown to have never really known Jesus (Mat. 7:21-23). 

The doctrine of the perseverance of the saints means if a person is truly saved he cannot lose his salvation.  Roman Catholicism and some strands of Protestant theology, such as traditional Arminianism, Methodism, and Pentecostalism reject this final point of Calvinism.  They instead hold that a truly saved person can fall away from the faith and actually lose his salvation.  But it gets more complicated than that. Often the rejection of perseverance runs hand in hand with a legitimate concern over an antinomian gospel of salvation apart from any good works. Accordingly, some of those rejecting perseverance see this point of Calvinism advocating a “once saved always saved” position, allowing a person to go to heaven after “living like the devil.”  But here their concern truly does miss the point!  Perseverance of the saints does not teach that a person can live like the devil and still be saved; it does not say “salvation” perseveres no matter what.  It teaches that the “saint” perseveres. The word “saint” means holy one. Believers in Christ are called saints because at conversion they receive new natures that are by faith united to Jesus, the Holy One.  A truly converted person has a new nature from God that believes in Christ, and loves and pursues holiness.

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