Is it impossible to really believe you need to persevere in order to inherit the promises if you already believe you are united to Christ?

The answer has to be no. The Bible pastorally warns us to persevere without denying that we are united to Christ.
Hebrews 10.32-39:

But recall the former days when, after you were enlightened, you endured a hard struggle with sufferings, sometimes being publicly exposed to reproach and affliction, and sometimes being partners with those so treated. For you had compassion on those in prison, and you joyfully accepted the plundering of your property, since you knew that you yourselves had a better possession and an abiding one. Therefore do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised. For,

Yet a little while,
and the coming one will come and will not delay;
but my righteous one shall live by faith,
and if he shrinks back,
my soul has no pleasure in him.

But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls.

Colossians 1.11-14, 21-23:

May you be strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy, giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins… And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him, if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard.

Thus, Biblical Protestants have typically maintained that those who are united to Christ must persevere in order to inherit the promises that are theirs in Christ. Zacharias Ursinus, the primary author of the Heidelberg Catechism writes that the promises of the gospel are made upon the condition “of faith in Christ and the commencement of new obedience” (Commentary on the Heidleberg Catechism, p. 3).

The Westminster Confession of Faith is careful to affirm that true saving faith can (and sometimes should) include “trembling at the threatenings” contained in God’s Word. In context, it is pretty clear that these warnings are both “for this life, and that which is to come” (WCF ch 14, para. 2).  But even if not, questions and answers from the Larger and Shorter Catechisms leave no doubt that believers are to have requirements for escaping God’s wrath set before them (LC 153, 154, SC 85-88).

One thought on “Is it impossible to really believe you need to persevere in order to inherit the promises if you already believe you are united to Christ?

  1. pentamom

    My husband filled the pulpit in church yesterday, and preached on Acts 27. While he didn’t make reference to this particular issue, it came out during his sermon that Paul absolutely believed that he was going to make it to Rome, and nevertheless knew that certain actions had to be taken or refrained from in order for him to actually get there in one piece. It’s a good illustration of the principle that assurance of the ultimate outcome doesn’t conflict with the need to strive to make it.

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