Relative to the Christian believer’s security, the bible indicates that there is indeed security for every child of God—a security that is conditioned upon the right choices by that believer to determine a life of obedience to scripture as we are led by the Spirit to overcome.
Let’s look at scriptures which teach this. The conditioning word, “if” will testify to the need to live a life in such a way as to ensure our high calling and election as per 2 Peter 1:10: Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election, for if you practice these qualities, you will never fall.
The word “if” occurs 592 times in the New Testament often to show the conditions upon which our Christian standing depends. The following looks at 7 of these conditional statements.
- In John 8:31, Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” Later in the same conversation, He said in verse 5:1: “Truly, truly, I say to you, if anyone keeps my word, he will never see death.”
- In John 15:6-7 there is that sobering repetition of the word: “If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you”. Again, in verse 10: “If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love.”
- Look at the conditioning word “if” as Paul uses it in writing to the gentile Christians in Rome: Romans 11:17-23: “But if some of the branches were broken off, and you, although a wild olive shoot, were grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing root of the olive tree, do not be arrogant toward the branches. If you are, remember it is not you who support the root, but the root that supports you. Then you will say, “Branches were broken off so that I might be grafted in.” That is true. They were broken off because of their unbelief, but you stand fast through faith. So do not become proud, but fear. For if God did not spare the natural branches, neither will he spare you. Note then the kindness and the severity of God: severity toward those who have fallen, but God’s kindness to you, provided you continue in his kindness. Otherwise you too will be cut off. And even they, if they do not continue in their unbelief, will be grafted in, for God has the power to graft them in again.”
- Consider Colossians 1:21-23: “And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him, if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, became a minister.”
- Paul makes a solid appeal to the Thessalonian Christians in 1 Thessalonians 3:8: “For now we live, if you are standing fast in the Lord,” which grew out of the concern which he manifested in verse 5: “For this reason, when I could bear it no longer, I sent to learn about your faith, for fear that somehow the tempter had tempted you and our labour would be in vain.”
- There are two striking appearances of this little word in Hebrews 2:1 in the appeal which grew out of the author’s earnest exhortation that “Therefore we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it.” In Hebrews 3:6, he shows that Christ is better than Moses, who was a faithful servant in his house: “Christ is faithful over God’s house as a son. And we are his house, if indeed we hold fast our confidence and our boasting in our hope.” Then in verse 12 and following, “Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end.”
- Further Peter uses this little conditioning word in the first chapter of his second letter, where, after exhorting his hearers to the development of all the Christian graces, he summarizes by saying in 2 Peter 1:8-11: “For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins. Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election, for if you practice these qualities, you will never fall. For in this way there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.”
Why the conditional “if” in the teaching of the apostles? It is because God is Holy, and he calls us to live holy lives while on this earth. In fact he empowers and leads us to achieve this: “prepare your minds for action and exercise self-control. Put all your hope in the gracious salvation that will come to you when Jesus Christ is revealed to the world. So you must live as God’s obedient children. Don’t slip back into your old ways of living to satisfy your own desires. You didn’t know any better then. But now you must be holy in everything you do, just as God who chose you is holy. For the Scriptures say, “You must be holy because I am holy.” 1 Peter 1:13.16
John, wrote this in 1 John 1:9: “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” If you are human you realize that sin is lurking close by “if” we are not careful to remain faithfully obedient to scripture at all times. We live in this mortal flesh and will be tempted which brings us to the need to confess. Confess your sins, asking to overcome sin, and the Lord will enable you to overcome Satan. “No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.” Note that John admonishes us in verses 1 John 1:5-7: “God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin”
We aim higher daily, yet Paul admitted that he had not yet reached entire holy perfection: “Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Let those of us who are mature think this way, and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that also to you. Only let us hold true to what we have attained.”
The above is taught by Armenians such as the Wesleyans beginning with the Methodist Church founded by John Wesley. He followed the works of Jacobus Arminius, who contended with Calvin’s doctrine. I have learned a good deal from studying: Further Insights into Holiness, edited by Geiger, Publisher Beacon Hill.