Perseverence

The church is the true body of believers (I Cor 12:12) and Christ is the head (Col 1:18).  The church is the bride and Christ is the bridegroom (John 3:29). The church is a building and Christ is the cornerstone (Eph 2:20).  The church walks in love because Christ first loved the church and gave himself for it (Eph 5:2,25).

No matter how stringent a church membership process might be, there is no guarantee that each member of a local church is genuinely born again.  Pastors must be very careful to examine prospective members for a credible profession of faith but they cannot see the true condition of the heart.  This is why a distinction has been made between the visible and the invisible church. 

The visible church is made up of all those who have made credible professions of faith and are in good standing with a local assembly.  Because this process by necessity involves the acknowledgement of a profession of faith by finite men, it’s prone to error.  For this reason, the visible church is made up of both genuine Christians and non-Christians.  Pastors and genuine church members must be constantly vigilant and prayerful to wisely handle false teachings and teachers that will creep into the church and deal with them biblically in order to keep the church pure.

The invisible church, on the other hand, is the true church.  2 Timothy 2:19 say’s, “the Lord knows those who are his.”  It certainly should be visible but it’s only truly visible to God.  On the great day of judgment in the future God will divide the wheat from the weeds.  The wheat will be gathered into his barn and the weeds will be burned.  Those who have been truly born again will enter into glory and unbelievers will experience eternal damnation.

These ideas are directly related to the perseverance of the saints.  Those who have been truly born again will persevere in faith and repentance until the end.  These people would be considered the invisible church.  On the other hand, others have made professions of faith but they do not persevere in faith and repentance.  These people may be or have been members of the visible church but not the invisible church.

Pastors have the responsibility according to 1 Peter 5:1-2 to tend the flock of God that is under their charge.  Hebrews 13:17 speaks of the pastors responsibility to watch over the souls of the members of the church because he will give an account.  A steady diet of expository preaching and the proper exercise of church discipline will go a long way in purifying the church.  Acts 17:30-31 says, “the times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.”  All those that the Father foreordained and the Son died for will be called to repentance by the Spirit and persevere until the end.

Pelagianism

Pelagianism seems to be nothing more than sinful man’s natural default position from the beginning of time.   It lends itself to a diminished view of God and an elevated view of man.  This view, throughout human history, has appealed to fallen man’s desire to be like God and to have God on his own terms.  This line of thinking is opposite from the Bible’s clear teachings on original sin, total depravity, and salvation by grace alone.  Pelagianism is a serious theological error that has plagued the church from the beginning.  Over the centuries it has taken on many different titles and forms but at its core it is nothing more than a wrong view of God and man.

            Pelagianism begins with a wrong view of original sin.  It asserts that man is born morally neutral and has a freewill to choose to sin or not to sin.  Pelagius taught that Adam sinned only for himself.  However these teachings are totally at odds with Scripture.  Romans 5:12 says, “Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned.”  The “one man” in this verse is Adam.  Adam was our representative in the Garden of Eden during his time of testing.  Because Adam sinned, we are all born sinners by nature and we inherit Adamic guilt which results in death.  Therefore, from Romans 5 alone we can see clearly that men are not born morally neutral as Pelagius taught.

            Pelagius’ false view of original sin naturally led to a false view of man’s spiritual condition after the fall.  Because he thought Adam’s sin to be his alone and that man was born morally neutral he concluded that he was able to choose good or evil in varying degrees based on his environmental influences.  This teaching again is totally at odds with the Bible.  The Bible teaches that man is totally depraved and unable to choose good.  Because man is in his very nature sinful he can only make sinful choices.  The Bible is full of passages that affirm this.  Romans 3:23 says, “All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.”  Romans 3:10-18 says “…none is righteous, no not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God…no one does good, not even one…”  Sin has permeated every part of man’s being: Our words, thoughts, actions, feelings, consciences, memories, bodies, desires, emotions, will…  Therefore, the biblical understanding is total depravity.  Because all are in Adam, sin is imputed to all men. Because sin is imputed to all men, none are able to choose good.

With a false view of original sin and total depravity it naturally follows that Pelagians have a false view of conversion.  They teach that since man is morally neutral he is free to choose good or evil.  However, Scripture teaches that man is spiritually dead in trespasses and sins in Adam and in desperate need of God’s saving grace.  Salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone.  According to Romans 8:29-30, our sovereign God foreknew all his children and “predestined them to be conformed to the image of his Son.  And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.”  To complete the picture from Romans 5 previously discussed, Paul says in verse 19, “For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous.”  So all those in Adam are sinners and all those in Christ are righteous.  God displays his favor toward men in many different ways but none more profoundly than when Jesus died on the cross to save undeserving sinners.  Man’s response is God given faith.  We once were slaves to sin but in Christ we have been set free and are now willing slaves of righteousness.

The biblical truth that salvation is of God alone goes against our natural intuition.  We are independent by nature and feel that we can do everything ourselves.  This natural inclination of the fallen man is what has made Palagianism and it’s counterparts so popular over the years.  Thankfully, God has given us his Word that when accompanied by the Spirits working calls sinners to repentance and faith.