perseverance of the Saints (2)
Jesus Will Save the Elect
Some Warning Passages
A Better Understanding
Berkouwer insightfully remarks on the subject. “We will never be able to understand these words if we see the divine preservation and our preservation of ourselves as mutually exclusive or as in a synthetic cooperation. Preserving ourselves is not an independent thing that is added paradoxically to the divine preservation. God’s preservation and our self-preservation do not stand in mere coordination, but in a marvellous way they are in correlation. One can formulate it best in this way: our preservation of ourselves is entirely oriented to God’s preservation of us” (Faith and Perseverance, 104). He also claims, “Preserving ourselves does not imply that we contribute our part and that God contributes His. Our preserving is oriented to His, and it is included in it. Faith can never say, and will never say, ‘This is our part’