Two “P’s” in a Christian.
In reformed theology we sometimes speak about the Doctrines of Grace, often referred to by the acronym T.U.L.I.P. Since all the readers of this meditation know what the letters stand for, I will only mention them for those who are perhaps struggling: Total Depravity; Unconditional election; Limited Atonement; Irresistible grace, and Perseverance of the saints.
It is the Perseverance of the Saints which is the focus of this meditation. Recently I have heard a little about a man called Joshua Harris. Joshua Harris was a very prominent Christian writer and author of the book “I kissed dating Goodbye” which sold 1.2 million copies in 1997. He has also written other books with similar subjects. Joshua Harris was also lead pastor of a Maryland mega Church in 2004 till 2015. By all accounts, he was a Christian and very well known in some circles, particularly the home-schooling circles.
Sadly, in July 2019, Joshua Harris and his wife Shannon, announced jointly via their Instagram post that they had separated (and since divorced). And then a few days later, Joshua stated that he can no longer could define himself as a Christian and even apologised to various groups including the LGBTQ+ of his Christian teachings concerning marriage. I guess he is not the first and he won’t be the last to deny the Christian faith, but I still find it sad.
But it raises a very important question. Can believers lose their faith? Can one ultimately fall away from God’s saving hands if one was genuinely regenerate? (John 10:28ff). The Bible’s answer is unequivocally ‘No”. Once a person has been regenerated by the power of Christ, through the gracious work of the Holy Spirit and has been grafted into Christ and has become a genuine Christian, then they cannot be separated from Christ. Even their sin will not cause them to be separated from Christ eternally. I have sometimes referred to this as being “Saved and forever safe.”
This is not to say that after regeneration, no one sins, they do and so do we. We may even sin grievously and injure loved ones or the wider church and cause the name of Christ dishonour. Yet, it is impossible for one who has been truly regenerated to then fall away from Christ and to be severed from him. Someone may even deny Christ for a while, if not by their words then actions, but if they ever were genuinely Christian, they will return by repentance at some point, and that is a gospel promise. That’s true for Joshua Harris too and we pray it may happen for others we know too!
Of course if people continue to reject and deny the faith they once professed, then we have to remember the text 1 John 2:19, where we are told that, “They went out from us, because they were not of us,” which is to say they never were truly Christians. They were pretend believers and Scripture warns about such people (Heb 6).
When I teach Catechism, I always highlight ‘two P’s” when it comes to the ‘P’ in TULIP. God Preserves us so that we can Persevere. That we remain true to the Christian faith, is because our faithful God is keeping us, preserving us in the faith, so that we can persevere in the faith when the difficult times come, and they will come. When we look at the “P” in TULIP in this way, it avoids boasting and ensures that all glory goes to our God. JZ.