Until the End

06.19.10
J.A. Matteson

“…by which also you are saved, if you hold fast the word which I preached to you, unless you believed in vain.” 1 Corinthians 15:2

The message of the Gospel is effectual upon the hearts of the elect, vessels of honor foreknown to the Father from the beginning, drawing them to faith in Christ and conforming them to His image. Justification and sanctification are two sides of the same spiritual coin and cannot be separated, both are indicative of the supernatural transformative power of grace upon the heart; both are necessary and inseparably wedded together.

One cannot realize a state of sanctification without first benefiting from justification; likewise, one cannot be justified and not be in Christ (positional sanctification), and those in Christ cannot be utterly void of spiritual fruit to the glory of God, “even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus” (Eph. 2:5f). As moisture cannot be separated from water, nor heat from fire, nor darkness from night, nor light from day, neither can sanctification be separated from justification. Those whom the Lord has made to be free shall be free indeed.

Recipients of divine justification enjoy first positional sanctification in Christ and the subsequent practical sanctification of being conformed to His image, “For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren” (Rom. 8:29). One distinguishing mark of the justified/sanctified in Christ is a remarkable steadfastness in faith, and it is this unique characteristic of perseverance in the face of hardship and persecution by which they are known, “For we have become partakers of Christ, if we hold fast the beginning of our assurance firm until the end” (Heb. 3:6). In chapter 11 the writer to the Hebrews cites numerous examples of Old Testament saints who, in the midst of continual adversity, never surrendered their faith, “All these died in faith, without receiving the promises, but having seen them and having welcomed them from a distance, and having confessed that they were strangers and exiles on the earth” (Heb. 11:13).

Therefore, being mindful of the deceitfulness of sin the Apostle Paul states to his readers in Corinth, “if you hold fast the word which I preached to you”, for it is possible to be self-deceived into believing one is in a state of grace when in due season their bogus “faith” will give way to the bitter fruit of unbelief; perseverance is a cornerstone mark of genuine faith wrought by the Spirit of God as a result of regeneration and conversion, and if a man has not been circumcised in the heart by the Spirit of God his “faith” is counterfeit, guaranteeing his future apostasy when the winds of adversity howl, or when the temptations of the world beckon to overcome him, “They went out from us, but they were not really of us; for if they had been of us, they would have remained with us; but they went out, so that it would be shown that they all are not of us” (1 Jn. 2:19).

Let us, therefore, hold fast to our confession until the end, demonstrating first to ourselves, and to world, that we are legitimate children of God in the likeness of the faith of Abraham “who are of faith are blessed with Abraham, the believer” (Gal. 3:7) who, as the Apostle noted, was saved by faith and not in the keeping of the the Mosaic Law, and who remained in a state of faith until the end.

Copyright (c) 2010 Immutable Word Ministries (“…the word of our God stands forever.” Isa. 40:8).