The Preservation of God and the Perseverance of the Saints

Personal assurance is not as simple as “once saved always saved,” although that is certainly true. An individual truly converted by the redeeming grace of God can never be lost to the clutches of sin and death. However, the security of salvation does not automatically grant assurance that we are saved—it only guarantees that those who believe in Christ will be fully and finally saved. There is a difference between the doctrine of eternal security and the reality of assurance in the life of a believer. Eternal security teaches that salvation is eternally secure for the one who believes in Christ. This security rests on the promise of God’s faithfulness, the securing power of God’s grace, and the sovereign glory of God in salvation. Assurance, on the other hand, is the firm conviction that God’s grace has saved you, which grows with Christian faithfulness, manifests itself by increasing holiness, can be shaken by a violated conscience, and will wane with patterns of neglect and rebellion. 

From a theological perspective, the security of the believer and personal assurance are best understood as the difference between the preservation of God and the perseverance of the saints. The Scriptures repeatedly and clearly call the believer to a faithful obedience and an enduring devotion to Christ. Behind such a call, however, is the related but distinct promise of God’s preservation of the saints. On the one hand, believers are commanded to strive in obedience if they want to enjoy the comforts of full assurance, yet security is never ultimately grounded in personal effort, but rather in God’s gracious work. God is the One who secures salvation, and, by His grace, saints are empowered to persevere in salvation. Thus, the grounds of personal assurance rest on both divine preservation (objective) and diligent perseverance (subjective).

Adapted from Free to Be Holy: The Liberating Grace of Walking by Faith by Jerry Wragg and Paul Shirley