Who are the saints who persevere to the end?

The first paragraph of the 17th chapter of the 1689 Baptist Confession, “Of the Perseverance of the Saints,” says:

Those whom God has accepted in the Beloved, effectually called and sanctified by his Spirit, and given the precious faith of his elect, can neither totally nor finally fall from the state of grace. They shall certainly persevere in it to the end and be eternally saved. This is because the gifts and callings of God are without repentance. Therefore, he continues to beget and nourish in them faith, repentance, love, joy, hope, and all the graces of the Spirit that lead to immortality. Though many storms and floods arise and beat against them, they shall never be able to take them off that foundation and rock which by faith they are fastened upon. Even though, through unbelief and temptations, the sight and sense of the light and love of God may be clouded and obscured for a time, yet God is still the same. They shall be sure to be kept by the power of God unto salvation, where they shall enjoy their purchased possession, for they are engraved upon the palms of his hands, and their names have been written in the book of life from all eternity.

Today, we’ll focus on the first two sentences of this paragraph, which divide naturally into two parts. First, we’ll consider the subjects of perseverance. Who are the people who will persevere? Second, we’ll consider the promise to them. What is the reward of persevering?

Accepted in the Beloved

This chapter begins, “Those whom God has accepted in the Beloved.”

At first, this may seem like a surprising way for the framers of the Confession to begin. In a chapter on perseverance, we might expect an opening like, “Those who persevere to the end.” We might expect them to echo Jesus, who said, “The one who endures to the end will be saved” (Mt 24:13). After all, Scripture gives many such warnings and promises. Hebrews 3:14 says, “For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end.” Paul writes in 2 Timothy 2:12, “If we endure, we will also reign with [Christ Jesus].”

When we think about perseverance, it is natural to picture active endurance. After all, the chapter is titled, “Of the Perseverance of the Saints.” Yet the Confession begins not with the saint’s action, but with God’s: “Those whom God has accepted.”

This is deliberate. The Christian life is not first grounded in what we do for God, but in what God has done for us. He has accepted us. That is the language of divine favor. He has received, welcomed, and reconciled us to himself. To understand the perseverance of the saints, we must first grasp that no one perseveres without first being accepted by God.

That naturally raises a question: On what grounds does God accept anyone? This is not universal. If it were, Scripture would have nothing to say about hell, eternal judgment, or the wrath of God. In Matthew 25, Jesus speaks of his return, when he will divide the sheep from the goats—two distinct groups. To the sheep he will say, “Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world” (Mt 25:34). But to the goats he will say, “Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels” (Mt 25:41).

Our culture often promotes the idea that we are all God’s children and that he loves everyone equally. Whether intentional or not, this notion drifts toward a subtle universalism. If everyone is God’s child and equally loved, most people conclude that everyone must be saved—except, perhaps, the truly monstrous, like Hitler. But that is not what God’s Word teaches.

We are not accepted by default. Paul writes in Ephesians 2:

And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. (Ephephians 2:1–3)

We were “by nature children of wrath” (Eph 2:3). Elsewhere, Paul says we were “alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds” (Col 1:21). In Romans 5, he writes that we begin life under “the wrath of God” as his “enemies” (Ro 5:9–10). Psalm 130:3 asks, “If you, O LORD, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand?” We do not start in a position of acceptance—quite the opposite.

So how, then, does God accept us? We are “accepted in the Beloved.” But what does that mean?

First, notice the preposition: we are accepted in. In what? Not in ourselves, but in the Beloved. And who is the Beloved? For that, turn to Ephesians 1.

The framers of the Confession borrow directly from the King James Version here, though I’ll quote from the ESV. Paul writes:

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. (Ephesians 1:3–6)

The KJV renders it, “Wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved” (Eph 1:6). We could also read the phrase as, “He accepted us in the One whom he loves.”

Do you remember what God the Father said of his Son at his baptism? “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased” (Mt 3:17). At the transfiguration, he said the same: “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased” (Mt 17:5).

When Paul refers to the Beloved, he speaks very specifically of the Lord Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God, the second Person of the Trinity.

Notice the precision of both Paul and the Confession: sinners are accepted by God only in Jesus Christ, the Beloved, not through or by, but in.

It is easy to miss, but this is one of Paul’s favorite ways to describe believers. Across his epistles, he repeatedly speaks of Christians as being “in Christ” or “in him.” This is his shorthand for the believer’s union with Christ—a profoundly intimate relationship in which every saving benefit of redemption becomes ours.

John Calvin captured this truth well: “As long as Christ remains outside of us, and we are separated from Him, all that He has suffered and done for the salvation of the human race remains useless and of no value to us.”

It is not enough that Christ was incarnate. It is not enough that he lived a sinless life, or that he died, or even that he rose again. For his incarnation, life, death, and resurrection to benefit us, we must be united to him. Only by being joined to Christ do the blessings he secured become ours personally.

Put another way, his righteousness must become our righteousness. His death must become our death. His resurrection must become our resurrection. Only in him does his inheritance become our inheritance. This is what we call federal headship. Consider Romans 5:19: “For as by the one man’s disobedience [Adam] the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience [Jesus] the many will be made righteous.”

We are born in Adam, which is why we are “by nature children of wrath” (Eph 2:3). But if we are united to Christ, if we are in Christ, then “by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous” (Ro 5:19).

The obvious question is: how are we united to Christ? Look again at Ephesians 1.

God blesses us in Christ by choosing us before the foundation of the world, predestining us for adoption into his family. He accepts us not based on our merit, but based on Christ’s merit. God accepts us only because he accepts his perfect Son. And by his sovereign decree, he joins us to his Son in a vital, eternal union. How?

In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory. In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory. (Ephesians 1:11–13)

Belief, faith, is God’s ordained means for bringing his elect into union with the Beloved. Faith is how we are joined to Christ. And once we are joined to him, he becomes ours. Everything that is his becomes ours—his righteousness, his death, his resurrection, his inheritance. That is why Paul can write, “If children [of God], then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ” (Ro 8:17). His history becomes our history, and his future becomes our future.

Without this union with Christ and without God accepting us in his Son, there is no perseverance. You cannot finish a race you have not begun. That is why the chapter begins this way. Following Paul’s teaching in Ephesians 1, the framers of the Confession emphasize God’s role in this union before the saint’s role because Paul does the same.

God blessed us. God chose us. God predestined us. God’s grace provided the means of forgiveness. It was all according to God’s purpose. It was God’s plan. Paul even repeats these truths before mentioning, almost in passing, “when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him—” (Eph 1:13). Of course, the believer is involved in this union. Still, the priority is clear: if not for God’s blessing, choosing, predestining, and grace, there would be no believers accepted in his Son.

That is why this chapter of the Confession begins as it does. A careful study of the Confession reveals that it is far more saturated with Scripture than the few footnotes might suggest. The chapter begins with God, not with the saints who persevere, because Scripture itself begins with God. There are no persevering saints apart from God’s work to make us accepted in the Beloved.

As a side note, if you ever struggle with assurance of salvation, don’t look to yourself. Paul writes, “[Nothing] will be able to separate us from the love of God” (Ro 8:39). Why? Because “the love of God,” he says, is “in Christ Jesus our Lord.” God loves us not because we are inherently lovable, but because he loves his Son, and we are united to his Son. When doubts or fears arise, the surest remedy is to look outward to Jesus, who has eternally secured God’s love for us.

What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? (Romans 8:31–35)

Always look to Christ.

Effectually called

Next, the Confession elaborates on “those whom God has accepted in the Beloved.” Once again, the saints, God’s people, are the subjects, but the framers continue to emphasize God’s work: “Those whom God has accepted in the Beloved, effectually called—”

You’ll notice that the Confession provides no Bible references for this opening line. There are none for “accepted in the Beloved,” “effectually called,” “sanctified by the Spirit,” or “given the precious faith of the elect.” That’s because these doctrines were already covered in earlier chapters. We are starting in chapter 17, but chapters 1–16 lay the groundwork, with each of these topics treated in detail and supported with Scripture.

What does “effectually called” mean? Fortunately, the Confession explains in its chapter on effectual calling:

Those whom God has predestinated to life, he is pleased, in his appointed and accepted time, effectually to call by his Word and Spirit out of that state of sin and death in which they are by nature. He calls them to grace and salvation by Jesus Christ. He enlightens their minds spiritually and savingly to understand the things of God. He takes away their heart of stone and gives them a heart of flesh. He renews their wills and by his almighty power determines them to that which is good. He effectually draws them to Jesus Christ, yet in such a way that they come most freely, being made willing by his grace.

By using the word effectual, the Confession highlights two key truths. First, this call of God is unfailingly effective. It always accomplishes what God intends. That is what effectual means. Second, it distinguishes God’s effectual call from his general call.

Consider Matthew 22, where Jesus tells the parable of the wedding feast: “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding feast for his son, and sent his servants to call those who were invited to the wedding feast, but they would not come” (Mt 22:2–3).

The king sends out more servants, yet the invited guests still refuse to come. Skipping over the details, the king finally commands, “Go therefore to the main roads and invite to the wedding feast as many as you find,” and some come (Mt 22:9). Jesus concludes, “For many are called, but few are chosen” (Mt 22:14).

If we were to preach the gospel to a random crowd, calling them to repent, believe, and follow Christ, how many would respond with saving faith? Some? None? All?

Experience and Scripture alike teach that a general gospel call does not inevitably produce faith. The Lord himself preached, “Whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life” (Jn 5:24). Yet John reflects on Christ’s ministry and writes, “He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him” (Jn 1:11).

Yet Scripture makes it clear that there is a call that is always effective—an effectual call. It is a divine summons from God that unfailingly brings about what it commands.

We see this in Romans 8: “Those whom [God] predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified” (Ro 8:30).

The calling Paul mentions must be effectual because it inevitably leads to justification and, ultimately, glorification. It cannot refer to the general gospel call because not everyone who hears the gospel believes and is justified.

Many people mistakenly think God leaves the initiative for salvation entirely with us, as if he simply waits for us to come to him. But the truth is, we would never go to him unless he first compelled us through his effectual call.

Jesus said, “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him” (Jn 6:44).

To be clear, that word draw does not mean merely to invite. This is not the general call of the gospel, which goes broadly to the world. Draw implies forceful action, like pulling or dragging. It is the same word used for fishermen hauling their heavy nets to shore. It conveys power, not mere persuasion.

The entire verse makes this unmistakable: “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day” (Jn 6:44).

As in Romans 8, this call leads to a definitive conclusion. Paul says the call inevitably results in glorification. Jesus says the one drawn by the Father will be raised on the last day. In other words, to be effectually called is to be utterly and finally saved. Neither Jesus nor Paul leaves room for a scenario where someone is called yet not resurrected and glorified.

Think of Lazarus. He had been dead four days when Jesus arrived at his tomb. Jesus stood outside and commanded, “Lazarus, come out” (Jn 11:43). And Lazarus came out. It was an effectual call, a divine command that could not fail.

Someone might object, “That’s not the same thing. Jesus performed a miracle by bringing a dead man to life. When he calls sinners to repentance and faith, we’re not dead. We’re walking, talking, breathing human beings. It’s different.”

Oh, but it is the same. There is a reason God must draw us before we come to Christ: we are spiritually dead until he speaks. Until God says, “Sinner, come out,” we remain in the grave. We need his miraculous power just as much as Lazarus did. Paul writes in Ephesians 2:

And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked … But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— (Ephesians 2:1, 4–5)

We were dead, utterly without life. While God works through the general call of the gospel, an invitation alone cannot raise the dead. Unless God issues a divine summons for the sinner to come out of the spiritual tomb, he will not come. He cannot come. But if God does issue that summons, he will come without fail.

This is the crucial difference between the general call and the effectual call. The general call can be resisted. The effectual call is never rejected. When the same God who said, “Let there be light,” says, “Let there be faith,” there is faith.

In John 10, Jesus told some of the Jews:

I told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in my Father’s name bear witness about me, but you do not believe because you are not among my sheep. My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. (John 10:25–28)

They asked him to speak plainly, and I am not sure he could have spoken more plainly than that.

This is what theologians call monergism, the work of one. God alone initiates salvation. God alone brings the dead sinner to life. God alone draws us to Christ. That is what Paul meant when he wrote, “[God] saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our works but because of his own purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began” (2Ti 1:9).

That leaves no room for the notion that we take the first step toward salvation. God purposed to call us before we had faith, before we drew our first breath, even before time began.

Returning to the topic of perseverance, the Confession makes a twofold point: those who persevere have been effectually called by God, and those who have been effectually called by God will persevere. One cannot finish a race that has never begun—that is, unless God first calls him to life. At the same time, God will not leave his redemptive work unfinished. He will not call a sinner to life and then allow that life to be lost. As Philippians 1:6 declares, “He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion.”

Sanctified by the Spirit

Next, the Confession reminds us that those “accepted in the Beloved” are not only “effectually called,” but also “sanctified by his Spirit.”

The word sanctified comes from the Latin sanctus, meaning holy. To sanctify is to make holy or to set someone or something apart for God. In the Old Testament, temple vessels and priestly garments were sanctified. Even the entire nation of Israel was sanctified, set apart from every other nation unto the Lord.

Under the new covenant, however, God’s sanctifying work goes far beyond external rituals or ceremonial separation. He sanctifies hearts, minds, and souls. He changes his people from the inside out. Consider the promise of the new covenant given through Ezekiel:

I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules. (Ezekiel 36:26–27)

After generation upon generation failed to keep themselves holy—set apart from the ungodly world—God promised to address the problem at its root. He would change his people’s hearts. When he sanctifies the very core of a person by his Spirit, that person becomes new in every way. He will walk in God’s statutes and be careful to obey, something he could never do on his own.

When God saves someone, he does not walk away saying, “All right, I’ll see you in heaven. Bide your time. Hopefully, you’ll live in a way that honors me, but if not, my hands are tied. You’re already chosen, my Son died for you, and you said you believed. Once saved, always saved.”

Given the church’s ongoing debates over perseverance, often reduced to the slogan “once saved, always saved,” this point is critical. It is also why the Confession’s reference to sanctification is so helpful. Let’s look back at the Confession’s chapter on sanctification.

Here’s how the Confession describes sanctification:

Those who are united to Christ, effectually called, and regenerated, having a new heart and a new spirit created in them through the virtue of Christ’s death and resurrection, are also further sanctified in a real and personal way. This sanctification is through the same power by his Word and Spirit dwelling in them. The dominion of the whole body of sin is destroyed, and the various evil desires that arise from it are more and more weakened and put to death. At the same time, the graces that accompany salvation are more and more strengthened and developed, leading to true holiness. Without this holiness, no one will see the Lord.

This sanctification extends to every part of man, yet it remains incomplete in this life. Some remnants of corruption remain in every part, and from this arises a continual and irreconcilable war—the flesh warring against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh.

In this war, the remaining corruption may for a time prevail. Yet through the continual supply of strength from the sanctifying Spirit of Christ, the regenerate part overcomes. Therefore, the saints grow in grace, perfecting holiness in the fear of God, pressing on to a heavenly life in obedience to all the commands which Christ as Head and King has given them in his Word.

Notice that the Confession does not suggest God’s indwelling Spirit eradicates sin in this life. Instead, it says, “The dominion of … sin is destroyed.” As a result, the evil desires of the flesh are progressively weakened, while our desire to grow in grace and holiness is strengthened. Sanctification does not mean we suddenly stop sinning altogether, but it does mean we are no longer slaves to sin.

Paul writes:

Thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness. (Romans 6:17–18)

Before conversion and the Spirit’s sanctifying work, we had no choice. Sin was our master. We were its slaves. Even now, we continue to struggle, but as the Confession reminds us, “Yet through the continual supply of strength from the sanctifying Spirit of Christ, the regenerate part overcomes.” Though the flesh wars against the Spirit within us, the Spirit will ultimately prevail.

Sadly, many Christians—and many Baptists, in particular—have held on to some essential doctrines of their Protestant heritage while abandoning others. For example, they may still affirm justification by faith alone, yet deny the ongoing, progressive sanctification of God’s people. This is why they favor terminology like “eternal security” or “once saved, always saved” rather than “perseverance of the saints.” They retain the biblical truth that God will not lose a single one of his people. Still, they reject the necessity of sanctification, implying that someone may profess faith without repentance or any growth in holiness.

Yet sanctification is one of the explicit purposes for which God saves:

For those whom [God] foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified. (Romans 8:29–30)

Among all the reasons Scripture gives for why God saves, this is one: that we might be conformed to the image of Christ. In a word, that is sanctification—being set apart to God, made holy, and transformed to reflect Christ.

Sanctification is not optional for the believer; it defines the believer. If there is no evidence of sanctification in our lives, a profession of faith alone cannot give assurance of salvation. Paul writes, “Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all … are being transformed into the same image [of Christ] from one degree of glory to another” (2Co 3:17–18).

If God has accepted us in the Beloved and effectually called us, he will sanctify us. Paul says in 1 Thessalonians 4:7, “For God has not called us for impurity, but in holiness.”

Let me connect this back to perseverance. Jesus said, “The one who endures to the end will be saved” (Mt 24:13). Paul adds, “If we endure, we will also reign with [Christ]” (2Ti 2:12).

In short, enduring to the end necessarily entails sanctification because perseverance implies an ongoing, active walk with Christ—that is, a life of faith and holiness.

I’ll pick up where I left off next week.