The last of the 5 points of Calvinism is “Perseverance of the Saints.” The point here is that those who belong to Christ will persevere to then end but it’s not about our effort. Really, it’s about Christ’s perseverance with us.
This is all about our eternal security. We know that if we belong to Jesus then he:
“…is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy”[1]
Or as Jesus himself puts it in John 6:37,
“All those the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away.”
Both these verses remind us that it is all rooted in God’s goodness and greatness, that the job of keeping us safe into eternity is his alone. This is the reasonable conclusion to the Five Points. If God is the good, sovereign one who is love and who has unconditionally chosen to love and redeem us, if nothing can stop his grace from working in our lives then this gives us assurance that he really has saved us and the security that he isn’t going to lose us and that we cannot and will not lose our salvation.
You see, if God chose to love me when I was a rebel in my sin then he isn’t going to change his mind and stop loving me when I fail and mess up. If his strong and irresistible grace is able to break through the strongest of barriers, pursue me and raise me from death to life, then that same strong grace is able to hold me firm in his loving grasp and not let go. My trust in the one who is stronger than anything and anyone, even my own wayward way that might seek to pluck me from the saviour’s hand.
[1] Jude:24.
Faithroots 