Weekly Pastoral Message prepared by Rev. Murray Adamthwaite
for Sunday 21st September 1997

From the Pastor: Perseverance IV

I once saw a letter in the newspaper in regard to giving up smoking. The upshot of the letter was to insist that one could achieve it merely by being assertive, and always resisting that temptation "to light up". Significantly, the letter was signed, "Strong-willed person"! It reminds me of the quip by George Bernard Shaw, "Giving up smoking is easy; I've done it hundreds of times!" That is, the smoker always returns to his habit. This can be related to the issue of perseverance. With all the warnings about casualties, dangers, temptations, falling away and so on, is there any hope at all? Is salvation in the end "all up to me", a matter of will power, of being assertive and the like? Here we may answer with a decisive affirmation: the saints will persevere! Salvation is not by man's will power but by the power of God (1 Peter 1:5). Two distinct words are helpful at this point: perseverance emphasizes our duty to heed the warnings and continue in faith and obedience; preservation emphasizes God's grace and firm resolve to save His own. The former is about our perseverance with the Lord, the latter about God's perseverance with us. There are two mighty affirmations of this truth in the Scriptures, one from our Lord, and the other from the apostle Paul. Christ affirms that his mission is that He should lose nothing of all that the Father had given Him, but raise it up at the last Day (John 6:39). Paul raises a whole host of possible contenders which might conceivably separate us from the saving love of Christ, only to sweep them all away: nothing in all creation shall separate us from His love (Romans 8:38-9). Is this hope a pretext for licence? Not at all, for "he who has this hope purifies himself as He is pure', (1 John 3:3).