Law / Gospel Distinction: Sermon 7 (the Preservation of the Saints)

In this video, Presbyterian author Monty Collier preaches on the preservation of the saints, and how a denial of God's promise to preserve His saints is a mixing of Law and Gospel.

The justified have had their judicial status before God permanently changed from condemned to acquitted—once and for all—the very moment they believed the Gospel of Jesus Christ. When God justifies a sinner, then all of the sinner's sins are forgiven—past, present, and future—and so it is impossible for those who believe the Gospel to forfeit their salvation.

God has promised throughout His infallible Word that those He justifies He also preserves, so in no way can they be separated from His saving love. They may backslide for a time, but they can never fall away for good. As the Good Shepherd, Almighty Jehovah can lose none of the sheep He has saved. God cannot lie and He cannot fail to accomplish His eternal purposes.

The notion that a believer in the Gospel can lose his or her salvation logically implies that the believer has not been justified, but that the believer is merely on probation—and that final salvation will be granted upon completion of a life of obedience and avoidance of sin. That believers are on probation, rather than being justified before God, logically implies that justification is a process of inward sanctification (this is, when it is all said and done, the old Roman Catholic teaching known as double-justification, Fides Formata, or, put simply, justification by faith and works). Those who deny the preservation of the saints have confused justification with sanctification. We are justified by the outward and imputed righteousness of Jesus Christ alone, not by an inward and infused righteousness.

Therefore, the teaching that one can lose salvation is a terrible mixing of Law and Gospel. It ignores the basic Bible truth that all who are justified are also adopted—and because God is now their Father—the Lord will NOT allow His children to live like the devil in this life, but God will lovingly chastise His children to put them back on the right path, to make them into better Christians, to strengthen their faith, and to develop their patience. Those who claim Christians can cancel their salvation have no doctrine of divine chastisement.

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