We are admonished to persevere on the way to holiness. Not all Christians do that and consequently limit their spiritual growth or even rescind it. The Lord Jesus said, “Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned” (John 15:4-6).
Our salvation is on the level of imputed righteousness. This is a gift that is received through faith and cannot be earned by works of any kind. Paul says, “By grace you have been saved through faith… not of works, lest anyone should boast” (Eph. 2:8-9). However, in the next verse works are commanded as an integral part of our lives after salvation: “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.” We must work for our sanctification as it is on the level of co-operative righteousness. As saved people we are God’s fellow-workers through Jesus Christ (1 Cor. 3:9). The Lord endues us through the Holy Spirit to live holy, but we should actively and resolutely walk in the Spirit and do works of dedication to bear fruits worthy of repentance (Matt. 3:8).
What is asked of us to persevere in holiness?
Before I can persevere in holiness it must first be imparted to me. To be able to receive this blessing I have to repent of my old, sinful nature and surrender it to be crucified. I must trust the Lord to cleanse my heart and life with the blood of the Lamb and to fill me with His Holy Spirit. After this, I am engaged in a life-long process of growth in holiness in which I have to dedicate and commit myself to bear fruit for the kingdom of heaven. In the parable of the sower, the Lord Jesus says: “But the ones that fell on the good ground are those who, having heard the word with a noble and good heart, keep it and bear fruit with patience” (Luke 8:15).
After your heart has been cleansed and filled with the love of Christ by the Holy Spirit, you can actively start serving the Lord. But He warns you that it won’t be easy as you will have to serve Him under difficult and demanding circumstances. Much dedication and perseverance will be needed from you.
The Lord Jesus said, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me” (Luke 9:23). That is a daily process of dedication and rededication to the Lord. Why must the cross of self-denial continuously be taken up? The flesh should remain crucified, as he will ever be looking for the opportunity to get off the cross, be revived, and again take control of your life. If you offer him this opportunity he will resist the work of the Holy Spirit in your life and draw you back to the world. The Galatians were guilty of this. Paul said to them: “O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you that you should not obey the truth? … Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh?” (Gal. 3:1-3). Disobedience to the Word of God has set in among them because they listened to false prophets who proclaimed lies.
Apart from people’s own inclination towards disobedience there are also various external factors which influence you to deviate from the way of holiness and dedication to the Lord. Wrong friends without sound principles and strong biblical convictions is one of the important reasons why certain Christians start doubting and losing direction. Peter says, “Beware lest you also fall from your own steadfastness, being led away with the error of the wicked” (2 Pet. 3:17). The solution to this problem is to stand firm in the faith and to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ (2 Pet. 3:18).
Never allow bad friends or false teachers who are intent on spreading lies, to ruin your Christian witness. Paul said to the Colossians: “You [must] continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and not [be] moved away from the hope of the gospel” (Col. 1:23). Perseverance is needed on the way of the Lord. Paul said to the Hebrews: “We have become partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end” (Heb. 3:14; cf. 3:6). We should strongly commit ourselves to this principle.
Timothy is also exhorted to persevere. Paul says that he must have “faith and a good conscience, which some having rejected, concerning the faith have suffered shipwreck” (1 Tim. 1:19). Paul mentions the name of one of these spiritually shipwrecked persons, i.e. Hymenaeus, and says of such people: “Their message will spread like cancer… [they] have strayed concerning the truth, saying that the resurrection is already past; and they overthrow the faith of some” (2 Tim. 2:17-18). Today there are also many theologians who spread heretical teachings on the resurrection of Christ and the saints, thereby overthrowing the faith of many people. Not all Christians persevere on the right way to the end!
In Luke 15, the entire chapter is devoted to three parables – the lost sheep, the lost coin and the lost son – in which our responsibility towards backslidden believers is indicated. All three have to be found and restored to where they belong. The lost son yielded to the love of the world, as was also the case with Paul’s friend, Demas (2 Tim. 4:10). The lost son turned his back upon his father and ended his relationship with him. However, during his wanderings he came to his senses when everything turned against him. When he arrived back home his elder brother was annoyed because the father had organised a joyful feast to welcome the younger brother. The father justified his action: “It was right that we should make merry and be glad, for your brother was dead and is alive again, and was lost and is found” (Luke 15:32).
During his wandering the younger brother was dead in his sins and trespasses, but he became alive again as in the beginning before his serious backsliding. He became lost because of his own decisions and actions, but was spiritually completely restored after he repented. According to Luke 15, we should reach out spiritually to backsliders. Do not abandon them and leave them to their own fate by writing them off. They are still important to the Lord and every effort must be taken to find the lost sheep and assist them to return to the flock.
What do you do with people who stumble spiritually? Do you accuse and reject them? Paul says, “Brethren, if a man is overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual restore such a person in a spirit of gentleness, considering yourself lest you also be tempted” (Gal. 6:1). “Let him who think he stands take heed lest he fall” (1 Cor. 10:12). Backsliders should be exhorted with love but also in a very definite and serious way. Sin has the ability to weaken a person’s faith. If this process is not resisted and countered a person even stands to lose his faith completely and become spiritually hardened.
A few years ago I was in Estonia where, among others, I preached in a small church in Rakvere in the north of the country. The pastor had two groups of members in his congregation, the one Estonian and the other Russian-speaking. On that morning there was also a visiting Swedish businessman in the church. After the morning service there was a meal for the congregation and he came and sat next to me. He could speak English very well and told me that he and his ex-wife lived in Canada for a long time. They were active members of a local evangelical church.
After a time his wife became involved with another man, they divorced and his wife left with her new friend. Because of this, they have both backslidden spiritually and complete lost contact with their church as well as the Christian community. They were disillusioned by the Christians who openly ignored them, and returned to the world and worldly friends. After a time he listened to a tape-recorded message on how the Lord can and indeed wants to restore backsliders. Like the lost son he returned to the Lord. He also sent the cassette to his former wife but she hardened herself against religion and refused to listen to it.
This man then told me how the Lord gave him a ministry among backsliders. He meets many such people on his business trips, and in most cases other believers do not take any notice of them and do not try to win them back. He said we should be aware that such people often experienced severe shocks, bitter disappointments and intense trauma, and that some of them even blame God for allowing these things to happen to them. Christians should gain their confidence and instil hope in them on spiritual restoration. The Amplified Bible says: “Exercise foresight and be on the watch to look [after one another], to see that no one falls back from and fails to secure God’s grace, in order that no root of resentment (bitterness or hatred) shoot forth and cause trouble and bitter torment, and by this many become contaminated and defiled by it” (Heb. 12:15).
The devil often attacks these backsliders by instilling the idea in their minds that they have committed unpardonable sins and that the Lord will not forgive them and restore them to His favour. This is a lie, because the vast majority of backsliders have not blasphemed the Holy Spirit or trampled the Son of God underfoot by counting the blood by which they have been sanctified a common thing (cf. Heb. 6 and 10). Like the lost son, they were overcome by temptations and unbridled emotions, or they may have been brought down by major disappointments. We should take note, in an early stage, if a person starts backsliding and sinning again. Such people often join worldly parties where they use alcohol and conduct dishonourable conversations. They should be seriously admonished because a little leaven leavens the whole lump.
Paul warned the carnal Hebrew believers as follows: “Beware, brethren, lest there may be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God; but exhort one another daily… lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. For we have become partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end” (Heb. 3:12-14). We either make progress in our spiritual lives, or we stagnate and start backsliding. If we don’t experience spiritual growth towards maturity we may, after a time, even lose our assurance of faith and then need to repent and come to faith again. The Hebrew believers were in this situation:
“For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God; and you have come to need milk and not solid food. For everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe. But solid food belongs to those who are of full age, that is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil. Therefore, leaving the discussion of the elementary principles of Christ, let us go on to perfection, not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith towards God” (Heb. 5:12–6:1).
We should make progress in our spiritual lives, while always persevering in holiness. Guard particularly against becoming uninvolved with the work of the Lord, as that is a sure way of growing cold in our love towards Him. We have all been commissioned to proclaim the gospel of Christ, and in one way or another we must all contribute to the execution of this major task. Every tree is known by its own fruit. If our lives do not yield any fruit for God’s kingdom we do not comply with our calling. For this reason Paul says: “I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified” (1 Cor. 9:27). The Living Bible strikingly paraphrases this verse as follows: “Like an athlete I punish my body, treating it roughly, training it to do what it should, not what it wants to. Otherwise I fear that after enlisting others for the race, I myself might be declared unfit and ordered to stand aside.” To Timothy he said that he must exercise himself in godliness (1 Tim. 4:7). To the Galatians he said: “Let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart” (Gal. 6:9). The devil induces people to abandon their work for the Lord.
The bearing of much fruit will only happen if we remain in Christ, are daily cleansed by Him and filled by His Holy Spirit. That is the abiding life. The branch that abides in Christ is pruned that it may bear more fruit. The branch which does not abide in Him becomes withered and is eventually cast out. It is destined for the fire. The apostle John often refers to the abiding life: “He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked” (1 John 2:6). If we abide in Him and observe His law of love we can confidently look forward to His second coming: “And now, little children, abide in Him, that when He appears, we may have confidence and not be ashamed before Him at His coming” (1 John 2:28).
In Revelation, John refers to the Christians as overcomers if they persevere on the way to holiness. The Lord Jesus says the following about them:
· “He who overcomes, and keeps My works until the end, to him I will give power over the nations” (Rev. 2:26). The perseverance of the saints is needed to keep the works of the Lord to the end.
· “He who overcomes shall be clothed in white garments, and I will not blot out his name from the book of life” (Rev. 3:5). There will unfortunately also be those who did not overcome but changed and distorted the Word of God to their own ruin. According to Rev. 22:18-19 they will not inherit God’s kingdom if they do such things.
· “To him who overcomes I will grant to sit with Me on My throne” (Rev. 3:21). They will be co-rulers with Christ in His reign of peace.
· “He who overcomes shall inherit all things, and I will be his God and he shall be My son” (Rev. 21:7). It is important how we start the race, but just as important how we finish it.
“Therefore, since we also are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of God. For consider Him who endured such hostility from sinners against Himself, lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls. You have not yet resisted to bloodshed, striving against sin” (Heb. 12:1-4).
Brothers and sisters let us persevere on the way of the Lord and lay down the sin which so easily ensnares us, as well as others things that are weighing us down. The latter may not be sins but things that demand so much of our time, energy and money that they keep us away from serving the Lord. Do not be discouraged by opposition; in this dispensation we are following a Christ who is rejected by the world at large. But if we suffer with Him we will also be glorified with Him (Rom. 8:17). Paul says to Timothy: “If we endure, we shall also reign with Him. If we deny Him, He also will deny us” (2 Tim. 2:12). The Lord Jesus says that His sheep hear His voice and follow Him (John 10:27). They will never be ashamed because they remain on the right path – in sunshine and also in the shadows of affliction and persecution. Trust the Lord to deliver you from Satan.