1. Elect and Secure
A Study of the Doctrine of the Perseverance of the Believer

2. Unconditional Security
The Child of God cannot/will not sin so as to be lost
The child of God can sin so as to be lost
Based upon “corporate” election
Based upon the Doctrine of Unconditional Election
Requires the Believer to choose faith
Requires Irresistible Grace
Overlooks any actions on the part of the recipient
Requires continued faith and obedience
State of an individual’s soul cannot be determined or changed
State of an individual’s soul can be determined and changed

3. The question then becomes who is predestined?
Who are the Predestined of Romans 8?
The Glorification of the predestined is so certain that this future event is spoken of as if it already occurred
29 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; 30 and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified.
Romans 8:29–30 (NASB95)
The question then becomes who is predestined?

4. Who are the Predestined of Romans 8?
It is those who are “in Christ” who have no fear of condemnation
1 Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus…
Romans 8:1–4 (NASB95)
“in Christ” describes a class of people who have demonstrated faith in the Gospel
This elect class will absolutely be saved

5. Contrast between the Old and New Law
Who are the Predestined of Romans 8?
1 Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death…
Romans 8:1–4 (NASB95)
The Gospel
Contrast between the Old and New Law
The Old Law

6. Who are the Predestined of Romans 8?
3 …For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, 4 so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
Romans 8:1–4 (NASB95)
Flesh = self reliance of the Law
Spirit = Grace of the Gospel

7. Who are the Predestined of Romans 8?
A class of people who reject the call of the Gospel
5 For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. 6 For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace,
Romans 8:5–6 (NASB95)
A class of people who respond to the call of the Gospel

8. Who are the Predestined of Romans 8?
It is those who respond to the call of the Gospel that are “conformed to the image of His Son”
29 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;
Romans 8:29 (NASB95)
This group becomes “many brethren” or “the body of Christ” (Eph 1:12-13, 23-23)
Refers to those who are “holy and blameless before Him” (Rom 12:1-2; Eph 1:4)

9. The Plea of Romans 8 Romans 8 is written to suffering Christians
17 and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him.
Romans 8:17 (NASB95)
Due to this suffering some might turn away from the faith (vs )
However, suffering is seen in this passage as a condition of glorification

10. The Plea of Romans 8
Paul pleads with the justified man to honor his obligation to remain faithful to the Gospel Call
12 So then, brethren, we are under obligation, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh— 13 for if you are living according to the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live.
Romans 8:12–13 (NASB95)

11. The Plea of Galatians
The Galatian Christians were facing the same challenge
1 You foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified? 2 This is the only thing I want to find out from you: did you receive the Spirit by the works of the Law, or by hearing with faith? 3 Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh? 4 Did you suffer so many things in vain—if indeed it was in vain?
Galatians 3:1–4 (NASB95)
They were saved by “hearing with faith”
They are being tempted to return to the flesh

12. The Plea of Galatians
The Galatian Christians were facing the same challenge
9 But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how is it that you turn back again to the weak and worthless elemental things, to which you desire to be enslaved all over again? 10 You observe days and months and seasons and years. 11 I fear for you, that perhaps I have labored over you in vain.
Galatians 4:9–11 (NASB95)
They were in danger of returning to the “worthless things”
Such would make Paul’s labor “vain”

13. The Plea of Galatians
Those who returned to the Old Law would be subject to slavery
1 It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery. 2 Behold I, Paul, say to you that if you receive circumcision, Christ will be of no benefit to you. 3 And I testify again to every man who receives circumcision, that he is under obligation to keep the whole Law. 4 You have been severed from Christ, you who are seeking to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace.
Galatians 5:1–4 (NASB95)
Christ would be of no benefit to them
They would be “severed from Christ” and “fallen from grace”

14. The Plea of Hebrews
4 For in the case of those who have once been enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift and have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit, 5 and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, 6 and then have fallen away, it is impossible to renew them again to repentance, since they again crucify to themselves the Son of God and put Him to open shame.
Hebrews 6:4–6 (NASB95)
“enlightened” “tasted the heavenly gift” “partakers of the Holy Spirit”
“fallen away” – to fail to follow through on a commitment, commit apostasy (BDAG)

15. “willfully” – deliberately, intentionally (BDAG)
The Plea of Hebrews
The passage exhorts us to “hold fast the confession of our hope” (vs. 23)
26 For if we go on sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, 27 but a terrifying expectation of judgment and the fury of a fire which will consume the adversaries.
Hebrews 10:26–27 (NASB95)
“willfully” – deliberately, intentionally (BDAG)
“knowledge” – precise and correct knowledge; used in the N.T. of the knowledge of things ethical and divine (Thayer)

16. The Plea of Peter
These men had at one point escaped the “defilements of the world”
20 For if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world by the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and are overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first.
2 Peter 2:20 (NASB95)
Yet they are “entangled again and overcome”
“better not to have known the way of righteousness”

17. Eternal Security??
“All true believers endure to the end. Those whom God has accepted in Christ, and sanctified by His Spirit, will never fall away from the state of grace, but shall persevere to the end. Believers may fall into sin through neglect and temptation, whereby they grieve the Spirit, impair their graces and comforts, and bring reproach on the cause of Christ and temporal judgments on themselves; yet they shall be kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation.” (Baptist Faith and Message,

18. Eternal Security??
“Christ's present intercessory prayers assure that genuine believers will be saved to the uttermost. This is the doctrine of the perseverance of the saints. Those with true faith will not lead perfect lives, though some have attributed such a claim to proponents of working-faith salvation. The teaching of "once saved, always saved" may carry the false implication that after "accepting Christ" a person may live any kind of life and still be saved. That leaves out the doctrine of perseverance, which carries with it the need for a holy life.” (Perseverance of the Saints John MacArthur, The Master's Seminary Journal Spring 1993 pp.5-24)

19. Eternal Security??
“They, whom God hath accepted in His Beloved, effectually called and sanctified by His Spirit, can neither totally nor finally fall away from the state of grace; but shall certainly persevere therein to the end, and be eternally saved...Nevertheless, they may, through the temptations of Satan and of the world, the prevalency of corruption remaining in them, and the neglect of the 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, come to be deprived of some measure of their graces and comforts; have their hearts hardened, and their consciences wounded; hurt and scandalize others, and bring temporal judgments upon themselves.” (Westminster Confession of Faith)

20. (Westminster Confession of Faith)
Eternal Security??
“…By the decree of God, for the manifestation of His glory, some men and angels are predestinated unto everlasting life, and others foreordained to everlasting death...These angels and men, thus predestinated and foreordained, are particularly and unchangeably designed; and their number so certain and definite, that it cannot be either increased or diminished... Those of mankind that are predestinated unto life, God, before the foundation of the world was laid, according to His eternal and immutable purpose, and the secret counsel and good pleasure of His will, hath chosen in Christ unto everlasting glory, out of His mere free grace and love, without any foresight of faith or good works, or perseverance in either of them, or any other thing in the creature, as conditions, or causes moving Him thereunto; and all to the praise of His glorious grace…”
(Westminster Confession of Faith)

21. Eternal Security??
“…This perseverance of the saints depends not upon their own free will, but upon the immutability of the decree of election, flowing from the free and unchangeable love of God the Father…” (Westminster Confession of Faith)

22. (Sam Norris “Do a Christians Sins Damn His Soul?”)
Eternal Security??
“We take the position that a Christian’s sins do not damn his soul. The way a Christian lives, what he says his conduct or his attitude toward other people have nothing whatever to do with the salvation of his soul…All the prayers a man may pray, all the Bible he may read, all the churches he may belong to, all the services he may attend, all the sermons he may practice, all the debts he may pay, all the ordinances he may observe, all the laws he may keep, all the benevolent acts he may perform, will not make his soul one whit safer, and all the sins he may commit from idolatry to murder will not make his soul in any more danger.”
(Sam Norris “Do a Christians Sins Damn His Soul?”)

23. (Westminster Confession of Faith)
Eternal Security??
“By the decree of God, for the manifestation of His glory, some men and angels are predestinated unto everlasting life, and others foreordained to everlasting death… their number so certain and definite, that it cannot be either increased or diminished…” (Westminster Confession of Faith)
“This perseverance of the saints depends not upon their own free will, but upon the immutability of the decree of election, flowing from the free and unchangeable love of God the Father”
(Westminster Confession of Faith)
Perseverance of the Saints requires the doctrine of unconditional election in order to stand. Within this doctrine how does one know that they are saved in the this moment so that they might have security in the future?