Must Faith Endure for Salvation to be Secure

This series of articles has sought to provide a strictly Biblical response to the question of whether your faith in Christ must persevere and be fruitful to either maintain your eternal salvation (Romanism and Arminianism) or prove that you truly possess it (Calvinism). According to Scripture, once a person has been regenerated by God's grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone, that saint will never be in danger of God's condemnation or loss of salvation but is kept eternally secure solely by God's grace and power, not due to any faithfulness or fruitfulness on the part of the individual saint. The Bible actually teaches that genuine faith in Christ may not persevere to the end or be fruitful, and yet the saint is still eternally secure because of the Savior's perseverance and grace. This article will examine two more passages which use the term "faith" and which further substantiate this conclusion.

The Bible actually teaches that it is possible for one who is eternally saved by God's grace 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)

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

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

7) …stray from the faith. (1 Timothy 1:5-6)

8) …shipwreck faith. (1 Timothy 1:18-20)

9) …fall away from the faith. (1 Timothy 4:1-3)

10) …deny the faith. (1 Timothy 5:8)

11) …cast off initial faith and follow Satan. (1 Timothy 5:12-15)

12) …stray from the faith by loving money. (1 Timothy 6:9-10)

13) …stray from the faith by professing false doctrine. (1 Timothy 6:20-21)

14) …deny Christ and be faithless. (2 Tim. 2:11-13)

15) …have faith overthrown. (2 Timothy 2:14-18)

Remind them of these things, charging them before the Lord not to strive about words to no profit, to the ruin of the hearers. Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. But shun profane and idle babblings, for they will increase to more ungodliness. And their message will spread like cancer. Hymenaeus and Philetus are of this sort, who have strayed concerning the truth, saying that the resurrection is already past; and they overthrow the faith of some. (2 Tim. 2:14-18, NKJV)

This passage clearly shows that a person's faith may be overthrown through the fatal effects of false teaching. An unbiased reader of this passage would never come away with the impression that the faith of God's elect will certainly and necessarily persevere, as Calvinism teaches. Do we not have here another clear warning that the endurance of our faith is not guaranteed?

While Calvinism has historically taught that genuine Christians may falter and even fall in their walk of faith, they also have taught that a genuine Christian will never fall completely and finally into sin and unbelief. According to the Synod of Dort where the five points of Calvinism were first delineated, a genuine saint may be "carried away by the flesh, and the world, and Satan, unto grievous and atrocious sins . . . which the mournful falls of David and Peter . . . demonstrate,"[1] but they cannot "totally fall from faith . . . nor finally continue in their falls."[2] This is supposedly guaranteed because God "…assuredly and efficaciously renews them to repentance…" so that they "…finally work out their salvation more earnestly with fear and trembling."[3]

Is this how we are to understand the "overthrow" of one's faith in 2 Timothy 2:18? Is Paul merely warning about a temporary, partial, and incomplete lapse of faith?

As we will see, this Calvinistic doctrine cannot be reconciled with either the Biblical terminology employed or the contextual sense of finality and completeness in 2:14-18. The Greek word for "overthrow" in 2:18 is "anatrepo." The most popular Greek-English lexicon in use today defines this word to mean, "cause to fall, overturn, destroy."[4] Thayer's lexicon defines it, "to overthrow, overturn, destroy."[5] Louw and Nida's lexicon says "anatrepo" means "to cause something to be completely overturned."[6] Yet another standard lexicon includes the English translation "ruin" within this word's range of meaning and usage.[7] To have one's faith completely overturned, destroyed, or ruined indicates a complete reversal or negation of faith.

"Anatrepo" is also used just two other times in the Greek New Testament. In John 2:15 it is used of Christ violently overturning the corrupt money-changers' tables and driving them out of the temple. Secondly, it is used in Titus 1:11 of "whole houses" being overturned by false teachers. In both occurrences of "anatrepo" outside of 2 Timothy 2:18 there is nothing partial or incomplete about the "overthrow."

The definition and usage of "anatrepo" as a complete overthrow is also consistent with its contextual meaning and usage in 2 Timothy 2:18. In 2:14, Paul warns about "the ruin of the hearers." The Greek word for "ruin" is "katastrophe" which transliterates into our English word catastrophe.[8] In 2:16, Paul warns that a failure to separate from false doctrine will "increase to more ungodliness." This is certainly no guarantee of a "progressive sanctification" for all the redeemed, which is another tenet of Calvinism. In 2:17, Paul warns that false teaching will eat at believers like "cancer" (NKJV). The term in Greek is "gaggraina" which is literally "gangrene." The disease of gangrene cannot be dealt with partially or incompletely. It must be dealt with immediately and decisively. The deadly infection must be completely stopped in its tracks, with the infected bodily tissues completely removed (often through amputation), or the result will be certain death. Left untreated, the victim of gangrene will develop a shock-like syndrome with decreased blood pressure, kidney failure, coma, and finally death.

The apostle Paul was fully aware of the effects of "gaggraina" in his day and intentionally employed this term under the direction of the Holy Spirit as a very fitting metaphor of what will happen in the spiritual life of a believer who treats false doctrine casually. If the Word of God is not accurately interpreted and taught (vv14-15) and false doctrine is not separated from (vv16-17), the Lord warns us here in 2 Timothy 2:14-18 that our faith can actually be overthrown.[9]

16) …have a dead faith. (James 2:17, 20)

What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him? If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, and one of you says to them, "Depart in peace, be warmed and filled," but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit? Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. But someone will say, "You have faith, and I have works." Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe — and tremble! But do you want to know, O foolish man, that faith without works is dead? Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered Isaac his son on the altar? Do you see that faith was working together with his works, and by works faith was made perfect? And the Scripture was fulfilled which says, "Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness." And he was called the friend of God. You see then that a man is justified by works, and not by faith only. Likewise, was not Rahab the harlot also justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out another way? For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also. (James 2:14-26, NKJV)

Few passages in all the Word of God have been as misunderstood and misapplied as this one. Roman Catholicism has used it to teach that our works have a part in eternally saving us. Protestants have typically understood James here to teach that "faith alone" eternally saves, but the "kind" of faith that saves is never alone; it will of necessity have good works.[10] Thus even many Protestants have subtly and indirectly made works a requirement for eternal salvation.[11] So if James is not teaching that the condition for eternal salvation is faith plus works, or a "working faith" as some would say, then what is his point? James 2:14-26 was written to those who were already born again and eternally saved through faith in Christ in order to show that good works are the necessary and inevitable result of a genuine walk of faith in the Christian life.

In order to properly interpret and apply this passage, we must first correctly identify the audience to whom James was writing. Did James wonder if his readers had ever truly been born again? Were they mere professors but not possessors of eternal salvation? Did he write to test the reality of their regeneration and eternal salvation on the basis of whether they had a "working faith" or not? Or did he believe they were already born again and eternally saved but was writing to test the reality of their "second tense" salvation and walk of faith? The entire epistle of James indicates it is the latter.

First, consider James' use of the term "brethren." In 2:14 he begins this section by calling them "my brethren." While some New Testament passages use the term "brethren" to describe ethnic brothers who were merely fellow Jews (Acts 13:26, 23:6; Rom. 9:3), James uses this term throughout his epistle to describe genuine brothers in Christ. In 1:2-4, the very first use of "brethren" in his epistle, James assumes they have "faith" which will undergo trials for the divine purpose of their growth and maturation. In 2:1, he clearly assumes his brethren have "the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ." In 3:1, he instructs his brethren that there shouldn't be many teachers among them, a strange thing to tell unregenerate ethnic brothers! In 5:7-9 he instructs his brethren to be patient in waiting for the coming of the Lord, something which you'd never tell an unregenerate person. He also refers to them not merely as "brethren" but as "my beloved brethren" (1:16, 19, 2:5). There is every reason to believe that James considered his audience already eternally saved. This is also substantiated when we consider his use of the term "saved."

In 2:14, it is commonly assumed that James' use of the word "save" ("Can faith save him?") is in reference to eternal salvation. However, neither the immediate context of 2:14-26, nor the four other occurrences of "save" (Gr. sozo) in James warrants such an assumption. The first occurrence of this term is in James 1:21 where he instructs his readers to "…receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls." In the immediately preceding verses (1:17-18) he indicated that these same individuals had already received the divine gift of regeneration. So in what sense would these children of God need their souls saved? The use of "save" in 1:21 must be in reference to "second tense" salvation, salvation from sin's power and damaging effects in our Christian life which we often call "practical sanctification," not eternal salvation. In fact in the very next verse, 1:22, James commands his readers to be "doers of the word," something which only an eternally saved, regenerated individual is capable of fulfilling. In addition, James' three other uses of "save" (Gr. sozo) outside of 2:14 all seem consistent only with a temporal deliverance in this life rather than eternal life (4:12, 5:15, 20).

In James 2:14-26, he is not denying the reality of their initial faith in Christ for eternal salvation. He is not saying, "You claim to born again, but since you don't have good works as the proof of regeneration, you must never have had genuine, saving faith in Christ." Is it possible for one who's been genuinely born again, and is a genuine saint, to have a dead faith (2:17, 20)? Yes, and that is why James addresses such a problem for Christians in 2:14-26. Death in the Bible never means "non-existence." Rather, it means "separation." At death, there is a separation of the spirit from the body (2:26). When faith is "by itself" (2:17) and separated from works, it is "dead." That does not mean it never existed or was never genuine. You would never say at a funeral while looking at a corpse in a casket, "that must have never been a genuine person." On the contrary, the corpse in the casket is proof that the person was once really alive and a genuine person!

However, James is testing his regenerated readers to see whether their faith is ongoing, living, and active, as evidenced by their works. Starting in 2:14, he is testing a profession of faith without works when he says, "What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works?" Such an inactive, dead faith on the part of a genuine saint doesn't "save" (2:14c) the Christian in the sense of practical sanctification, nor does it benefit or profit others (2:15-16). Good works do not save us,[12] but they are part of God's plan for our Christian life after we're saved (Eph. 2:8-10; Ti. 3:5-8). So is a walk of faith (2 Cor. 5:7; Gal. 2:20; Col. 2:5-6) in newness of life (Rom. 6:4-6) and the Holy Spirit (Rom. 8:4).

James is consistent here with what Paul and John wrote elsewhere. Regarding a test for our Christian lives, Paul wrote to the saved but often carnal Corinthians, "test yourselves whether you are in the faith" (2 Cor. 13:5). He would also say you cannot be walking by means of the Spirit while manifesting the works of the flesh (Gal. 5:16-26). He would agree with James that our faith should be working through love (Gal. 5:6). The apostle John would say that we cannot claim to have fellowship with God while walking in sin (1 Jn. 1:6), or that we truly know God if we do not keep His commandments and walk as He walked (1 Jn. 2:3-6). However, if these things are true of us as children of God, we can be regarded as the friends of God (Jn. 15:14), just as James indicates with the example of Abraham (2:23c).

If we as believers will walk by faith, the result will be practical sanctification and good works beneficial to others, and also a justification before men. Abraham was justified, or declared righteous, before God by faith alone (Rom. 4:2-3; Gal. 3:6-11). James 2:23 refers to this moment in the life of Abraham by quoting from Gen. 15:6. Abraham was justified in a second sense, before men, by faith plus works when some forty years later (Gen. 22) he trusted God enough to do the work of offering Isaac (2:21). As a result of his faith working together with his deed (2:22; Heb. 11:17-19), he has been declared righteous by men. James 2:14-26 is not a lesson in how to be justified before God, as many have wrongly assumed, rather it indicates there are two types of justification.[13]

Though the Bible teaches that our faith in Christ may be dead at times, and even overthrown, we will never lose our salvation because it depends on the faithful perseverance of the Savior, not the saints. All thanks be to Christ! g

Part Ten in this series will examine the question of why every saint in Christ should persevere in faith and good works.

[1] Thomas Scott, The Articles of the Synod of Dort, (Harrisonburg, VA: Sprinkle Publications, 1993), p. 316. (ellipsis added)

[2] Ibid, p. 318. (ellipsis added)

[3] Ibid, p. 317. (ellipsis added)

[4] W. Bauer, A Greek -English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, translated by W.F. Arndt and F.W. Gingrich; revised and augmented by F.W. Danker, (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1979), p. 62.

[5] J.H. Thayer, The New Thayer's Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament, (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1981), p. 43.

[6] Johannes P. Louw and Eugene Nida, eds. Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament Based on Semantic Domains, Vol. 1, (New York: United Bible Societies, 1988), p. 214.

[7] H.G. Liddell and R. Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, rev. and augmented by H.S. Jones and R. McKenzie, with a Revised Supplement by P.G.W. Glare and A.A. Thompson, (New York: Oxford University Press, 1996), p. 124.

[8] Interestingly, the only other occurrence of the noun "katastrophe" in the Greek New Testament is in the Majority Text of 2 Peter 2:6, where it is used to describe God's judgment upon Sodom and Gomorrah. It was complete, not partial, devastation.

[9] One Calvinist author, perhaps recognizing the predicament for his theology, concludes that those who had their faith overthrown must not have been truly saved. He writes, "Anatrepo (to upset) carries the idea of overturning or overthrowing, indicating that the faith held by some of those who listened to false teachers was not saving faith, which cannot be overthrown or destroyed. Those hearers apparently had heard the gospel and been attracted to Christianity as a possible answer to their religious quest. But because they had not placed their faith in Christ as Savior and Lord and were exposed to deception, they fell prey to corrupt teaching and remained lost." John MacArthur, The MacArthur New Testament Commentary, 2 Timothy (Chicago: Moody Press, 1995), p. 81. When passages such as 2 Tim. 2:18 seem to conflict with their theology, perseverance advocates often resort to their standard reply that though the text says they had "faith," it must not have been "real" faith. This begs the question, why then does Scripture actually say they had "faith"? Why didn't the writer of Scripture actually say they had "false faith" or "non-saving faith" etc. and just make it clear? The answer is because he didn't have to; the passage is clear enough on the face of it. It is only unclear to those whose theology it contradicts. The only way someone can have their faith overthrown is if they had a genuine faith to be overthrown. You cannot overthrow something which doesn't genuinely exist. Tables in the temple (Jn. 2:15) and households (Ti. 1:11) were overthrown because they were genuine tables and households! At this point, some may object that either the false teachers (2:16-17) or those who were affected by the false teachers (2:18) did not have "genuine" faith based on what follows in 2 Tim. 2:19 and 2:25-26. Yet in 2:19, Paul quotes from Num. 16:5 and an incident in which the question wasn't about the Lord knowing who was regenerated and who wasn't. Rather, as the context shows in Num. 16 with rebellious Korah and here in 2 Tim. 2 with false teachers Hymenaeus and Philetus, the issue was God knowing who were His duly appointed leaders and spokesmen truly ministering on His behalf versus those who were not. The reference in 2 Tim. 2:25-26 to those (presumably Hymenaeus and Philetus) who needed repentance, being in the devil's "snare," is most likely describing the condition of genuine, but fallen saints, since Paul had previously warned about this specific possibility for a "new convert" in regards to the qualifications for an overseer in 1 Tim. 3:6-7.

[10] "Faith in this context is clearly saving faith (v. 1). James is speaking of eternal salvation. He has referred to "the word implanted, which is able to save your souls" in 1:21. Here he has the same salvation in view. He is not disputing whether faith saves. Rather, he is opposing the notion that faith can be a passive, fruitless, intellectual exercise and still save. Where there are no works, we must assume no faith exists either." John MacArthur, Faith Works, (Dallas: Word Publishing, 1993), p. 149.

[11] "Nevertheless, we must also own up to the fact that our final salvation is made contingent upon the subsequent obedience which comes from faith." John Piper and Pastoral Staff, What We Believe About the Five Points of Calvinism (Minneapolis: Bethlehem Baptist Church document, 1998). “The question is not whether good works are necessary for salvation, but in what way are they necessary. As the inevitable outworking of saving faith, they are necessary for salvation.” John H. Gerstner, Wrongly Dividing the Word of Truth, (Brentwood, TN: Wolgemuth & Hyatt, 1991), p. 210.

[12] Neither are we saved by good works in 2nd tense salvation. We are sanctified by God's grace and the Spirit's power through a walk of faith resulting in good works. Just as faith without works is a "dead faith," so works without faith are simply "dead works." Work done without faith is simply legalism and cannot please God (Heb. 11:6). The analogy of James 2:26 should not be pressed so far as to mean that works give life to faith, as Hiebert writes, "…the one point in the analogy is the fact that the absence of the second member means sure death, and that it is the aim of James to establish that faith and works are inseparable." D. Edmond Hiebert, The Epistle of James, (Chicago: Moody Press, 1979), p. 200.

[13] James 2:24 should be understood with "only" (Gr. monon) being adverbial, modifying "justified" rather than adjectivally, modifying "faith." "You see then that a man is justified by works, and not only (justified) by faith."