"All true believers endure to the end. Those whom God has accepted in Christ, and sanctified by His Spirit, will never fall away from the state of grace, but shall persevere to the end. Believers may fall into sin through neglect and temptation, whereby they grieve the Spirit, impair their graces and comforts, and bring reproach on the cause of Christ and temporal judgments on themselves, yet they shall be kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation" (Baptist Faith and Message, 2000, Article V).
No Christian is above temptation nor falling into sin. When that happens, true believers realize their need to confess their sins and receive fresh cleansing through Christ (1 John 1:7-9). If a true believer should persist in sin, God's discipline is administered (Hebrews 12:5-11). God will not allow His children to go without needed correction. This involves temporal judgments.
The true believer does not need to live in constant fear of losing his salvation in Christ. The God who saves us is the same God who keeps us that we may endure to the end. Every believer may testify: "I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep what I have committed to Him until that Day" (2 Timothy 1:12).
Charles Spurgeon wrote: "Temporary Christians are no Christians. Only the believer who continues to believe will enter heaven. When a city has been captured in war, those who formerly possessed it seek to win it back again, but the king who captured it sends an army to live within the walls. He says to the captain, 'Take care of this city that I have conquered, and do not let the enemy take it again.' So, the Holy Spirit is the army of God within our redeemed humanity, and He will keep us to the end" (Charles Spurgeon, Holy Spirit Power, New Kensington, PA: Whitaker House, 1996) 128.
True believers are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation. The power of God is manifested through the Holy Spirit. The evidence is an abiding faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit works three abiding gifts in every child of God. They are faith, hope, and love (1 Corinthians 13:13). The true believer abides in faith as a gift of the Holy Spirit in order to endure to the end.
