Day 230

Of Perseverance of the Saints.

Chapter 17, Paragraph 3.

“And though they may through the temptation of Satan and of the world, the prevalency of corruption remaining in them, and the neglect of means of their preservation fall into grievous sins, and for a time continue therein; whereby they incur God’s displeasure, and grieve his holy Spirit,…”

Scripture Lookup

Matthew 26:70,72,74

Isaiah 64:5,9

Ephesians 4:30

Reflection

Perseverance of the saints doesn’t make you perfect. Perfection does not happen until we are in glory. The elect sin. We tend to understand this – after all, nobody’s perfect, right? Sometimes the elect sin badly. This one is harder to understand. Our fellow believers are supposed to be joyful, loving brothers and sisters in Christ. Many times they are. Yet sometimes our fellow believers fall into grievous sin, and we are shocked and saddened. How could this happen, we wonder, forgetting the remaining corruption that lurks within all the elect.

Forgetting the strength of our remaining sinful flesh is a main reason why believers fall into sin, or “backslide”.  Sometimes we think we can do this Christian walk just fine on our own.  We lessen our reliance on Jesus, assenting with our minds that “He’s got this”, while our hearts are drawn towards the world. We fail to heed His commands, including the means He has given for strengthening us. Neglecting His word, neglecting prayer and the assembling of the saints leave us vulnerable to the siren call of the world, flesh, and devil.

Seeing brothers and sisters in Christ fall into grievous sin should cause us to respond fearfully and humbly. If it can happen to them, it can happen to us. Cling to Christ. Take full advantage of His provisions for growth in godliness.

Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed that he does not fall.

– 1 Corinthians 10:12 

Questions to Consider

• Are you neglecting the means given for perseverance?