WHY SAINTS PERSEVERE
THE HOPE which filled the heart of Paul concerning the
Corinthian brethren we have already seen to be full of comfort to
those who trembled as to their future. But why was it that he
believed that the brethren would be confirmed unto the end?
I want you to notice that he gives his reasons. Here they
are:
God is faithful, by whom ye were called unto the fellowship
of his Son Jesus Christ (1 Cor. 1:9).
The apostle does not say, "You are faithful." Alas! the
faithfulness of man is a very unreliable affair; it is mere
vanity. He does not say, "You have faithful ministers to lead and
guide you, and therefore I trust you will be safe." Oh, no! if we
are kept by men we shall be but ill kept. He puts it, "God is
faithful." If we are found faithful, it will be because God is
faithful. On the faithfulness of our covenant God the whole
burden of our salvation must rest. On this glorious attribute of
God the matter hinges. We are variable as the wind, frail as a
spider's web, weak as water. No dependence can be placed upon our
natural qualities, or our spiritual attainments; but God abideth
faithful. He is faithful in His love; He knows no variableness,
neither shadow of turning. He is faithful to His purpose; He doth
not begin a work and then leave it undone. He is faithful to His
relationships; as a Father He will not renounce His children, as
a friend He will not deny His people, as a Creator He will not
forsake the work of His own hands. He is faithful to His
promises, and will never allow one of them to fail to a single
believer. He is faithful to His covenant, which He has made with
us in Christ Jesus, and ratified with the blood of His sacrifice.
He is faithful to His Son, and will not allow His precious blood
to be spilled in vain. He is faithful to His people to whom He
has promised eternal life, and from whom He will not turn away.
This faithfulness of God is the foundation and cornerstone
of our hope of final perseverance. The saints shall persevere in
holiness, because God perseveres in grace. He perseveres to
bless, and therefore believers persevere in being blessed. He
continues to keep His people, and therefore they continue to keep
His commandments. This is good solid ground to rest upon, and it
is delightfully consistent with the title of this little book,
"all of grace." Thus it is free favor and infinite mercy which
ring in the dawn of salvation, and the same sweet bells sound
melodiously through the whole day of grace.
You see that the only reasons for hoping that we shall be
confirmed to the end, and be found blameless at the last, are
found in our God; but in Him these reasons are exceedingly
abundant.
They lie first, in what God has done. He has gone so far in
blessing us that it is not possible for Him to run back. Paul
reminds us that He has "called us into the fellowship of his Son
Jesus Christ." Has he called us? Then the call cannot be
reversed; for, "the gifts and calling of God are without
repentance." From the effectual call of His grace the Lord never
turns. "Whom he called them he also justified, and whom he
justified them he also glorified:" this is the invariable rule of
the divine procedure. There is a common call, of which it is
said, "Many are called, but few are chosen," but this of which we
are now thinking is another kind of call, which betokens special
love, and necessitates the possession of that to which we are
called. In such a case it is with the called one even as with
Abraham's seed, of whom the Lord said, "I have called thee from
the ends of the earth, and said unto thee, Thou art my servant; I
have chosen thee, and not cast thee away."
In what the Lord has done, we see strong reasons for our
preservation and future glory, because the Lord has called us
into the fellowship of His Son Jesus Christ. It means into
partnership with Jesus Christ, and I would have you carefully
consider what this means. If you are indeed called by divine
grace, you have come into fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ,
so as to be joint-owner with Him in all things. Henceforth you
are one with Him in the sight of the Most High. The Lord Jesus
bare your sins in His own body on the tree, being made a curse
for you; and at the same time He has become your righteousness,
so that you are justified in Him. You are Christ's and Christ is
yours. As Adam stood for his descendants, so does Jesus stand for
all who are in Him. As husband and wife are one, so is Jesus one
with all those who are united to Him by faith; one by a conjugal
union which can never be broken. More than this, believers are
members of the Body of Christ, and so are one with Him by a
loving, living, lasting union. God has called us into this union,
this fellowship, this partnership, and by this very fact He has
given us the token and pledge of our being confirmed to the end.
If we were considered apart from Christ we should be poor
perishable units, soon dissolved and borne away to destruction;
but as one with Jesus we are made partakers of His nature, and
are endowed with His immortal life. Our destiny is linked with
that of our Lord, and until He can be destroyed it is not
possible that we should perish.
Dwell much upon this partnership with the Son of God, unto
which you have been called: for all your hope lies there. You can
never be poor while Jesus is rich, since you are in one firm with
Him. Want can never assail you, since you are joint-proprietor
with Him who is Possessor of Heaven and earth. You can never
fail; for though one of the partners in the firm is as poor as a
church mouse, and in himself an utter bankrupt, who could not pay
even a small amount of his heavy debts, yet the other partner is
inconceivably, inexhaustibly rich. In such partnership you are
raised above the depression of the times, the changes of the
future, and the shock of the end of all things. The Lord has
called you into the fellowship of His Son Jesus Christ, and by
that act and deed He has put you into the place of infallible
safeguard.
If you are indeed a believer you are one with Jesus, and
therefore you are secure. Do you not see that it must be so? You
must be confirmed to the end until the day of His appearing, if
you have indeed been made one with Jesus by the irrevocable act
of God. Christ and the believing sinner are in the same boat:
unless Jesus sinks, the believer will never drown. Jesus has
taken His redeemed into such connection with himself, that He
must first be smitten, overcome, and dishonored, ere the least of
His purchased ones can be injured. His name is at the head of the
firm, and until it can be dishonored we are secure against all
dread of failure.
So, then, with the utmost confidence let us go forward into
the unknown future, linked eternally with Jesus. If the men of
the world should cry, "Who is this that cometh up from the
wilderness, leaning upon her Beloved?" we will joyfully confess
that we do lean on Jesus, and that we mean to lean on Him more
and more. Our faithful God is an everflowing well of delight, and
our fellowship with the Son of God is a full river of joy.
Knowing these glorious things we cannot be discouraged: nay,
rather we cry with the apostle, "Who shall separate us from the
love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord?"
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