Gaining Life by Endurance

After Jesus ascended to heaven, the early church suffered much persecution. New Testament books, including Hebrews, James, 1 Peter, and Revelation, testify to Christians’ suffering at the hands of civil authorities and to the betrayal and rejection that many believers experienced from their non-Christian friends and family members. This suffering represented an initial fulfillment of Jesus’ words in the Olivet Discourse when He predicted how the world would treat His people (Luke 21:12–17).

These early believers could cling to Jesus’ promise that not a hair of their heads would perish in this persecution (v. 18). Of course, Jesus did not mean that none of them would lose their physical lives. In context, He also said that at least some of them would be executed (v. 16). His pledge refers to ultimate destruction, that believers will not suffer the final condemnation of hell but that they will live on past the grave and one day receive resurrected bodies to live with God forever in a new heaven and earth (Rev. 20:1–22:5). This promise, of course, extends not only to the earliest followers of Jesus but also to every professing Christian until Jesus makes His final return to consummate His kingdom.

As we reflect on this glorious promise, however, we dare not forget Jesus’ words in today’s passage: “By your endurance you will gain your lives” (Luke 21:19). The hope of eternal life belongs not to everyone who professes to believe in Jesus but only to those who possess faith in Christ until the end. Not all those who say that they believe in Jesus truly believe in Jesus. Some have not exercised true saving faith and will fall away from the church and from a profession of faith, never to return (1 John 2:19).

Jesus is calling attention to the doctrine of the perseverance of the saints. True saving faith in Jesus involves not a one-time decision for Christ but daily trusting in Him and bearing the fruits of repentance. We cannot earn our salvation, and we do not merit even the faith by which we receive Jesus and eternal life (Eph. 2:8–9). Still, we have a role to play in persevering in faith in that we are responsible to continually believe in Jesus. All those who have exercised true saving faith will persevere, for redemption cannot be lost. God works in His children to will and to work out their salvation, but only those who persevere to the end have exercised true saving faith (John 6:37; Phil. 2:12–13).