MUST FAITH ENDURE FOR SALVATION TO BE SURE? (Pt. 5)

by Tom Stegall

 

Must your faith endure and your life be spiritually fruitful in order for your eternal salvation to be sure?  Does God require "faithfulness" toward Christ or simple "faith" in Christ to be eternally saved?  This current series has examined these questions in the light of the Bible's teaching.  The following article will examine more passages which address the question of whether the child of God must persevere in faith and holiness to the end of his or her earthly life to be guaranteed everlasting life, as is required by the traditional Calvinistic doctrine of the "Perseverance of the Saints."  

 

The Bible actually teaches that it is possible for one who has been genuinely saved to …

 

1) …commit idolatry and apostasy.  (1 Kgs 11:1-10)

 

2) …believe only for a while.  (Luke 8:13)

 

3) …not continue in the Word of Christ.  (Jn. 8:31)

 

4) …not abide in Christ.  (John 15:1-8)

 

"I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman.  Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit.  Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you.  Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me.  I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.  If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned.  If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.  Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples." (John 15:1-8)

 

This passage is similar to the discipleship passage of John 8:30-32.  Here the emphasis is on continuing in fellowship with Christ as the source of spiritual life which will result in fruitfulness and evidence of being Christ's disciple.  John 15:1-8 is yet another biblical passage which shows that a genuinely redeemed child of God may not persevere in faith and fellowship with Christ to the end of his or her earthly life. 

 

Not surprisingly however, many commentators misunderstand Christ here to be issuing a warning to this effect, "Bear fruit or perish forever!"  Some Arminian commentators have misinterpreted Christ as saying that salvation can be lost if Christians don't abide or stay connected with Christ.  On the other hand, those of the Calvinistic persuasion who do not believe salvation can be "lost" typically interpret this passage as presenting a test of the reality of one's faith in Christ.  If your faith is genuine, they say, it will be proven by a fruitful, persevering, or abiding faith.   Their doctrine of the perseverance of the saints seems to necessitate this interpretation. 

 

J. Carl Laney represents this view.  He writes regarding John 15:1-6, "…the fruitless branches represent disciples who have had an external association with Christ that is not matched by an internal, spiritual union entered into by personal faith and regeneration."[1]  Laney continues, "The gospel of John also presents the reader with an enigma of "belief" that is not belief.  In the progress of belief there is a stage that falls short of genuine or consummated faith resulting in salvation (2:23-25; 7:31; 8:31, 40, 45-46; 12:11, 37).  Tenney refers to the "belief" that falls short of genuine faith as "superficial."  Morris calls it "transitory belief" that is not saving faith.  Many were inclined to believe something about Jesus but were not willing to yield their allegiance to Him or trust Him as their personal sin-bearer."[2]

 

But do the branches in John 15:1-6 which are unfruitful and which do not abide in Christ represent the unsaved, unbelievers who only have a pseudo-faith in Christ?  Or can genuine believers be capable of not abiding in Christ and thus be spiritually unfruitful?  Before any theological or doctrinal conclusions can be reached, we must first examine carefully what this passage is saying and what it is not saying.

 

In the context of John 13-17, the Lord Jesus was preparing His disciples for spiritual service in an unbelieving, hostile world following His imminent departure.  He would leave His disciples in this world, but that was no reason for the disciples to abandon their faith in Him.  In the historical context, Christ was specifically addressing only the eleven, saved, believing disciples who would form the apostolic foundation of Christ's universal church (Eph. 2:20) and through whom God would change the world forever by the preaching of the gospel.  Judas Iscariot, the unsaved, unbelieving disciple had previously departed from their company (13:30).  Consequently, Christ was not concerned here with testing the genuineness of the salvation of His eleven remaining disciples; but instead, He instructed them in the new spiritual relationships they would have with Him, the Holy Spirit, each other, and the world following His ascension to the Father and the descent of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost.  Christ's purpose here was to encourage His disciples through the analogy of a vinedresser nurturing the branches of a vine.  His purpose was not to admonish the disciples to test the genuineness of their profession and thereby warn them of possible divine judgment.

 

In v1, Christ is the true Vine, and the Father is the vinedresser.  In v2, believers are represented by branches.  While there is universal agreement among commentators that the fruitful branches represent regenerated believers in Christ, there is great difference of opinion regarding the identity of the unfruitful branches and the implications of the Greek word "airei" in v2, translated "He takes away" (KJV).  This word can be translated variously as either "He takes away," "He lifts up," "He picks up," "He carries away," or "He removes."[3] 

 

Perseverance advocates and Lordship Salvationists interpret "airei" negatively as a warning, meaning that God "takes away" unbelieving professors in eternal judgment.  However this passage can also be interpreted positively as an encouragement to fallen branches that God the Father, as the heavenly vinedresser, will tenderly care for His vineyard and "lift them up" to be in a location where they can be exposed to the Sun and have the potential to be more fruitful.  This interpretation is consistent with the actual viticultural practices of 1st century vinedressers.[4] 

 

In contrast, the "takes away in judgment" view has several problems.  First, it doesn't accord with the flow of the passage.  There is a progression in this passage from branches which "bear not fruit" (v2) to branches which "bear fruit" (v2) to branches which "bring forth more fruit" (v2) to branches which "bring forth much fruit" (v5).   This progression clearly indicates that it is the Father's objective as our heavenly vinedresser to foster greater growth and productivity, not to stymie potential growth with a fatal act of condemnation.  Most plant life in the natural realm actually begins life without fruit, until it has grown sufficiently enough to sustain fruit.  It would seem absurd for the Father to "cut off" all branches in His eternal judgment that were not bearing fruit; otherwise few branches in Christ would ever even begin bearing fruit!

 

Another major problem which the "takes away in judgment" view faces is the actual description of the unfruitful branches in v2.  Christ describes them as "Every branch in Me that bears not fruit…"   If such unfruitful branches represent unsaved professors whose pseudo-faith is revealed by their unfruitfulness and failure to abide in Christ, then in what sense were these mere professors ever "in Christ," if they were never saved to begin with?!  It will not suffice to use the example of Judas Iscariot, as one commentator does,[5] claiming that Judas represents a branch which had "real contact with Jesus" and thus fulfilled Christ's description of a "branch in Me that bears not fruit" (v2).  Nor is it convincing to cite similar examples of people who had “…some degree of connection with Jesus, or with the Christian church…"[6]  

 

The prepositional phrase "in Me" is found 16x in the Gospel of John, and it is only used to describe a true spiritual relationship which Christ has with someone, such as the Father or believers.   Not once does this phrase refer to someone who merely professed or appeared to be in right spiritual relationship with Christ.[7]

 

Finally, the "takes away in judgment" view creates a logical conundrum whereby believers are commanded to do what will certainly be true of them anyway.  The disciples are commanded by Christ to "Abide in Me" [8] (v4), even though according to the doctrine of the perseverance of the saints, it is already guaranteed that they will abide in Christ since the disciples possessed true, "saving" faith. 

 

However, with the conditional "if" statements in vv6-7, abiding in Christ is presented as only a possibility, not a certainty![9]  If abiding in fellowship with Jesus Christ was not guaranteed for the eleven Apostles, then it is certainly not guaranteed for you and me as Christians today.

 

But perhaps you're wondering at this point about the consequence for not abiding in Christ as stated in v6, "If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned" (KJV).  Is this a reference to judgment in Hell as many commentators assume?  Among commentators, there are at least four different interpretations of this verse.

 

First, some interpret this to be a reference to judgment in Hell for believers who lose their salvation because they don't abide in Christ.[10]  However, this interpretation would contradict Christ's previous affirmations of eternal security in John 5:24, 6:37, 10:28, as well as the entire doctrine of salvation by grace. 

 

The second view is held by many advocates of the Calvinistic doctrine of perseverance.[11]  This view also interprets burning and fire in v6 as a reference to judgment in Hell, but instead of a believer losing his or her salvation, these branches represent those who were never saved in the first place, because they didn't have a true "saving" faith which is fruitful and enduring. 

 

However, it is unlikely that the reference in v6 to being "gathered" and "cast into the fire" is a reference to God's judgment of unbelievers in Hell.  Five observations must be noted from the actual words and grammar of the passage which argue against this erroneous interpretation.  

 

First, it is not God who does the gathering, casting, and burning of unfruitful branches; it is men. [12] Secondly, the timing of these activities is in the present, not the future, since all three verbs (gather, cast, burned) are in the present tense.[13]  Thirdly, it is technically not people which are said to be gathered for burning, but branches.[14]  Fourthly, if the casting forth of fruitless branches and their being cast into the fire represents God's eternal judgment of unbelievers in Hell, then there is no adequate explanation for the process of withering or drying up also mentioned in v6.  The withering occurs after being cast forth but before being gathered for the fire.   Are proponents of the "judgment in Hell" view really prepared to accept the conclusion that God first passes eternal judgment upon fruitless branches in this lifetime, with the result that this causes them to wither while they are yet alive upon the earth, and then after they die He casts them into Hell?!  This is the required order of events in John 15:6.  According to this "judgment in Hell" view, the reference in v6 to withering as a branch seems unnecessary and even out of place.  Fifthly, when the term "fire" is used in Scripture as a reference to eternal judgment in Hell, it is normally accompanied by some modifying word or words in the immediate context to indicate this, such as "unquenchable fire," or "everlasting fire," or "lake of fire."[15]

 

For these reasons, the first two interpretations of John 15:6 — the loss of salvation in Hell view and the judgment of unsaved professors in Hell view — cannot be correct.

 

A third major view of John 15:6 interprets the phrase "cast forth" to be a reference to temporal judgment upon a genuine but disobedient believer as part of God's earthly discipline rather than as a reference to eternal judgment in Hell.  According to this view, God's discipline may lead to a premature physical death, but the child of God will still enter heaven eternally saved.[16]  Others modify this view somewhat, believing that the branches in v6 are disciplined by God, but not necessarily to the point of physical death.[17]  This view sees the "burning" of v6 as a reference to the burning of believers' works at the judgment seat of Christ (1 Cor. 3:10-15) in which they will lose potential reward but not their salvation. 

 

The fourth view, and I believe the correct view, is a modification of the third view.  This view acknowledges that a genuine believer can be like a branch that is "cast forth," spiritually "withers," and becomes unfruitful in the Christian life.  However, instead of viewing the reference to being "burned" in v6 as something which God does as an act of judgment upon people (such as causing sickness or even physical death), it is simply a concluding statement regarding what human vinedressers in the 1st century were doing with unfruitful, unproductive, useless branches. [18] 

 

Humanly speaking, such branches were no longer good for anything except to be used as kindling for fire.  This is likely the reason why v6 ends with men, not God, gathering the unfruitful branches and casting them into the fire.  This also explains the consistent use of the present tense for the verbs gather, cast, and burn, namely that it was a human process presently occurring in Jesus' day.  This also best explains why in v6 the withering occurs after being cast forth and yet before being burned.  If v6 was describing God's eternal judgment of unbelievers in Hell, or even God's temporal chastening of believers to the point of physical death, then the withering would occur before being cut off and cast forth as a branch.  Finally, this interpretation also best explains why Christ doesn't actually say that it is people who are cast into the fire but branches.  In John 15:6, Christ is not warning "professors" with pseudo-faith about divine judgment, rather He is cautioning genuine believers about the possibility of not abiding in fellowship with Him and the consequent result of becoming spiritually fruitless and useless for the Lord.  

 

What John 15:1-8 is teaching, along with John 8:30-32, is that we who are genuine believers in Christ may not abide in a relationship of communion or fellowship with Christ, if we do not walk in daily dependence upon the Lord.  Nevertheless, a believer's union with Christ (v2) is permanent and eternally secure.   But, if we fail to abide in fellowship with Christ, the result will be unfruitfulness and spiritual uselessness (vv4-6).  Though it's true that this may be accompanied by divine discipline and loss of potential reward, as other Scripture passages reveal, that is not the point of Christ's vine and branch illustration in John 15.

 

 

5) …become disqualified in the race of the Christian life.  (1 Corinthians 9:24-27)

 

"Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain.  And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible.  I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air:  But I keep my body under, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway." (1 Corinthians 9:24-27)

 

The Scriptures reveal that it is possible for a genuinely saved child of God to not continue in Christ's word as His disciple (John 8:30-32), to not abide in Christ and be spiritually fruitful (John 15:1-8), and also to become disqualified in the race of the Christian life.

 

If genuine faith always, of necessity, perseveres to the end, then why did Paul in 1 Corinthians 9:24-27 even entertain the notion that he himself, an apostle and genuine believer, might be a "castaway" (v27)?  The underlying Greek term for "castaway" in the KJV is "adokimos."  This term essentially means "not standing the test"[19] and hence it is sometimes translated "unapproved" or "disqualified" or "reprobate" (KJV).  It is sometimes used in reference to the unsaved (Rom. 1:28; 2 Tim. 3:8; possibly Titus 1:16). 

However, Paul was not concerned here about persevering in order to maintain his salvation, as Arminians views this passage. [20]  Nor was he endeavoring to prove the genuineness of his salvation, as some Calvinists interpret this passage.[21]  He knew he had already received God's gift of salvation (1 Cor. 1:18); but he didn't know if he would be faithful to the end of his Christian life as a disciplined witness for Christ, so as to receive a reward, a "prize" (v24, brabeion), or a "crown" (v25, stephanon; cf. 1 Cor. 3:10-15; 4:1-5).  Crowns for believers invariably speak of reward for faithful service rendered to the Lord (2 Tim. 4:8; 1 Pt. 5:4; Rev. 3:11, 4:4, 4:10).  They are never used to describe God's grace-gift of salvation.  This passage teaches us that if it was possible for none other than the Apostle Paul to become "disqualified" or "reprobate" in the race of the Christian life, then it is also a possibility for every regenerated soul who does not persevere in the faith and follow the course God has prescribed.

 

 

6) …resist God's chastening and correction unto the point of physical death.  (1 Cor. 11:30-32)

 

"For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep.  For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged.  But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world."

(1 Corinthians 11:30-32)

 

The Corinthian believers were experiencing physical chastening from the Lord as a result of their continued, willful carnality.  Earlier in             1 Corinthians 3:2-3 Paul stated that they had a continual pattern of carnality, and their manner of life made them appear virtually indistinguishable from the unsaved.   In the immediate context of chapter 11, these Corinthians were making a mockery of the Lord's Supper in their carnality (vv17-22).  They refused to examine their own hearts before the Lord and confess their sin to Him.  As a result, God had to progressively "ratchet-up" His discipline upon these disobedient children.  Initially, He caused weakness and sickness among them, and then eventually "sleep" (v30), which is a New Testament metaphor for physical death.  God was chastening His disobedient children here for the purpose of restoring them to fellowship with Himself.  When God's efforts at restoration are met with such persistent resistance, He may call His children home by an early death; and like a parent to a disobedient child, He may say in effect, "You're grounded!"

 

But there is a difference between God's treatment of disobedient unbelievers and disobedient believers.  Verse 32 indicates that His own children receive His chastening (paideuo), while the unsaved children of the world receive condemnation (katakrino).  Yet the Holy Spirit testifies that even these carnal, chastened Corinthians were genuinely saved (1 Cor. 1:2). 

 

This passage presents a serious dilemma for the doctrine of the "perseverance of the saints."  Obviously, these Corinthians who were chastened to the point of physical death by the Lord did not persevere in faith and/or holiness to the end of their lives, and yet they were genuinely saved from eternal condemnation because of God's grace and the substitutionary work of Christ.  The doctrine of the "perseverance of the saints" as espoused in Calvinism and Lordship Salvation has no adequate explanation for the Scriptural teaching that a genuine believer may commit sin leading to physical death (Acts 5:1-11; 1 Cor. 5:1-5; 1 John 5:16-17; Rev. 2:20-23).  g

 

Part six of this series on perseverance will examine more N.T. passages which show that a genuine child of God may not necessarily persevere in faith, though God in His great grace and faithfulness always perseveres in keeping His saints eternally saved.