Know ye not that they
which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain.
And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now
they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible. I therefore
so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air: But I
keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when
I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway. (1 Cor 9:24-27)
This pericope has caused no end of
headaches for those who hold to some form of eternal security, including the
reformed “Perseverance of the Saints” (the “P” of TULIP). In this text, even
Paul himself believes that, if he does not endure, he will become “castaway” or,
in Greek, αδοκιμος, which means “reprobate.” Notice the other instances of this term being
used in the Pauline corpus:
And even a they did
not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate
(αδοκιμος) mind, to do those things which are not convenient. (Rom 1:28)
Examine yourselves,
whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your selves, how
that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates (αδοκιμος)? But I trust
that ye shall know that we are not reprobates (αδοκιμος). Now I pray to God
that ye do no evil; not that we should appear approved, but that ye should do
that which is honest, though we be as reprobates. (αδοκιμος) (2 Cor 13:5-7)
Now as Jannes and
Jambres withstood Moses, so do these also resist the truth: men of corrupt
minds, reprobate (αδοκιμος) concerning the faith. (2 Tim 3:8)
They profess that
they know God; but in works they deny him, being abominable, and disobedient,
and unto every good work reprobate (αδοκιμος). (Tit 1:16)
One Evangelical Protestant wrote the
following, admitting that Paul is not speaking of eschatological rewards or the
forfeiture thereof, but whether or not one is saved or damned:
This “crown” is the
same as the “prize” of vv. 24, 27, which one fails to receive if one is “disqualified”
(adokimos). Paul is not concerned to compare first place with second or
third but to contrast finishing the race with not finishing at all. In the
words of Gordon Fee, the crown “is not some specific aspect of the goal but the
eschatological victory itself” (G.D. Fee, The First Epistle to the
Corinthians [Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1987], 437). Being declared “approved”
(dokimos) or “not approved” (adokimos) is also the imagery of
pottery fired in kilns to see if it will survive or not. Eternal life and
death are at stake here, not gradations of reward. (Craig L. Blomberg, “Degrees
of Reward in the Kingdom of Heaven?” JBL 35/2 [June 1992]:159-172,
here, p. 163)
Of course, holding to a Reformed
soteriology, Blomberg desperately tries to wiggle out of this with the
following comment:
A too simplistic
understanding of “eternal security” has probably led many Christians to doubt
that Paul could have seriously considered “making it to heaven.” But true
Reformed doctrine recognizes that saints are those who persevere. No Biblical
text offers assurance of salvation for people who flagrantly repudiate Christ
without subsequent repentance. (Ibid.)
This may sound reasonable, but there is
one problem: in Reformed theology, one cannot lose their justification. If one
has been justified, as Paul was, he will persevere. Blomberg is trying to put
the Calvinist cart before the horse, if you will. The fact Paul genuinely
believed he could be damned if he did not continue to fight the fight of faith
means he (1) did not have 100% objective confidence in his being saved (see
this article for a response to the abuse of 1 John 5:13 among many Protestants)
and (2) he did not believe that one who has been justified (who correspond 1-to-1
to the elect in Blomberg’s theology, as no “non-elect” person will ever be in a
saved/justified state) is guaranteed to go to heaven.
That Blomberg and others
who hold to Reformed theology, as well as others who hold to variations of
eternal security, are preaching anti-biblical heresy can be seen in the next
chapter of First Corinthians itself. In 1 Cor 10:12, the apostle Paul warned the
Corinthian congregation that they would fall from salvation:
So if you think you
are standing, watch out that you do not fall (NRSV)
Responding to various
attempts to get around the plain meaning of this passage, B.J. Oropeza
responded thusly:
There are at least two important considerations which make this interpretation untenable. First, Paul begins 10:1-13 with the metaphors of salvation through the concepts of election and baptism-initiation in the Spirit and water (10:1-4). Elsewhere in 1 Corinthians those whom Paul addresses are considered to be saints, called, saved, cleansed, justified, sanctified, members of the body of Christ, and operating in the Spirit (e.g., 10:1, 6, 11 cf. 1:1-9, 18, 32; 4:15; 6:6, 11, 19f; 12:13). Paul stresses the solidarity of "all" of the Israelites who were called into these divine privileges indicating the genuine nature of these experiences. In Israel's tradition-history which Paul adopts, both Caleb (who made it through the journey) and Korah (who did not make it) participated in the "same" (το αυτο) exodus/wilderness experiences. Paul thus implies a common election that was experienced by all. Moreover, Paul calls the Israelites "our fathers" and transfers the salvific language of this passage to the Corinthians whom he believes are Christians. In his discourse on idol meats, Paul's language assumes the strong are genuine believers: 1) they, along with Paul, find their life through the same God and Lord (8:5-6); 2) they are not to offend the weaker αδελφος who belongs to Christ (8:11f); 3) they became Christians directly through Paul's effort (9:1ff); 4) they participate in spiritual matters and the new era (9:11, 24ff); and 5) they are members of the body of Christ (10:16ff).
Second, Paul's binary usage of the words "stand" (ιστημι) and "fall" (πιπτω) in 10:12 reinforce an interpretation that a genuine standing in grace and a real danger of falling into apostasy is at stake. Paul uses the perfect tense of ιστημι here as in Romans 11:20-22 where he gives another warning in the milieu of apostasy and high-mindedness. He also uses the word elsewhere in relation to apostasy and perseverance (Gal. 5:1ff; cf. 2 Thes. 2:14). Related to this usage is Paul’s understanding of ιστημι as denoting the idea of one’s standing in faith and grace or in the message of the Gospel (1 Cor. 15:1f; 16:13; 2 Cor. 1:24; Rom. 5:2; 11:20; Phil. 4:1; cf. 1 Pet. 5:12) . . . The idea of standing in faith might have as its basis the ancient Jewish concept of one establishing or standing on the word of the covenant (cf. Psa. 104:8-10 LXX). In the Deuteronomic tradition, standing in the covenant is set in contrast with departing from it (Deut. 29:13-18). In a broad sense, then, Paul may have understood this nuance of “stand” as pointing to the new eschatological covenant of the Christians. Hence, the converse of standing in a new covenant would be to fall away from it . . . Paul himself associates the terms “stand”/”fall” and “beware” with apostasy in some of his other letters. If the Galatian Christians stand in the liberty of Christ, they could escape falling from grace which occurs by attempting to be justified through the law (Gal. 5:1-4). Paul warns that those among them who are seeking to be justified by the law are “cut off” from Christian and “fallen from grace” (5:4: κατηργήθητε ἀπὸ Χριστοῦ, οἵτινες ἐν νόμῳ δικαιοῦσθε, τῆς χάριτος ἐξεπέσατε.). In this letter, Paul is anxious that the Galatians will fall back into confining ritual and social practises; hence, he fears that the original gospel of liberty through the Spirit they received may have been in vain (3:4; 4:11; cf. 2:2; 2 Cor. 6:1; 1 Cor. 15:2) . . Particularly significant is that the Corinthian argument of Paul in 10:1-13 is perfectly consistent with what he does in other letters. Similar to the Corinthian situation, the Galatian warning (βλεπετε μη—Gal. 5:15 cf. 1 Cor. 10:12) is set in the situation of falling away from grace (Gal. 5:1, 4 cf. 1 Cor. 10:5, 12), being hindered from running a course (Gal. 5:7 cf. 1 Cor. 9:24ff), ad being severed from Christ (Gal. 5:5; 4:30 cf. 1 Cor. 5:5; 10:4-10). Paul also mentions leaven as a negative influence on the believers in both letters (Gal. 5:9; cf. 1 Cor. 5:7) and a condemnation on those who practise vices such as discord, dissensions, and factions. Such works of the flesh prevent one from entering the kingdom of God (Gal. 5:19-21; 6:7-8 cf. 1 Cor. 5:8f; 6:9-10; 10:7-10; Rom. 8:12-13). In relation to apostasy, the essential difference between the two letters is that the Corinthian warning focuses on the danger of apostatising through the abuse of liberty. In Galatians the congregations were erring in the opposite extreme—they were entangled by the works of the law and needed more liberty in Christ (Gal. 3-5). For Paul, those who taught another Gospel that hindered one’s liberty in Christ were accursed and their message was a perversion and desertion or turning away (μετατιθημι) from the true Gospel (Gal. 1:6-9 c. 1 Cor. 16:22). (B.J. Oropeza, Paul and Apostasy: Eschatology, Perseverance, and Falling Away in the Corinthian Congregation [Eugene, Oreg.: Wipf & Stock, 2007], 194-95, 196-97)
Even if one were to limit themselves to the so-called "Proto-Pauline" corpus (Romans; 1-2 Corinthians; Galatians; Philippians; 1 Thessalonians; Philemon), Paul explicitly teaches a truly justified believer can fall from salvation. Consider Gal 5:4:
Christ is become of
no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen
from grace.
Some have tried to downplay this text by arguing that Paul is addressing unregenerate people in the Galatian congregation, not truly justified believers, so it is not a valid proof-text to use against various formulations of eternal security. Notwithstanding, as Keener notes, Paul is actually teaching true believers can lose their salvation:
Cut off (καταργεω, katargeō) is the language of annulling something (as in 3:17) or rendering it ineffective (as in 5:11). It follows naturally from the idea of Christ no longer being of benefit to them (5:2) . . . it would seem special pleading to take Paul’s warnings of apostasy as something less than a real possibility. Paul elsewhere warns gentile believers that if they fall from faith, they too will be cut off as were Jewish people who failed to believe (Rom. 11:22; cf. 8:13). Paul disciplines himself in order to avoid being disqualified (αδοκιμος, adokimos, 1 Cor. 9:27), going on to warn the Corinthians that despite their spiritual resources, they could be struck down as were many Israelites in the wilderness (10:1-11); they must stand and avoid falling (10:12). They must examine themselves to make sure that they remain in the faith and are not disqualified (αδοκιμος, 2 Cor. 13:5-6). Had persecution moved the Thessalonians to abandon faith in Christ, Paul’s labor among them would have been in vain (1 Thess. 3:5). Colossian believers would be presented blameless before God, provided they continued in the faith (Col. 1:23). Paul’s concern was their ultimate salvation; he does not address the question of some individuals falling away, yet later returning, since the conditions that facilitated their falling to begin with usually precluded their interest in returning. Gentile sources do reveal that many who had become Christians reconverted back to paganism afterward.
Already in Scripture, if the righteous turn to the way of sin, their righteousness will be forgotten (Ezek. 18:24, 27; 33:12-13, 18), but if the wicked turn to righteousness, they will live (33:14-16, 19). Jewish people lamented apostasy (1 Macc. 1:41-51), with some Jewish sects believing that even members of other Jewish sects had abandoned righteousness (e.g., 1QpHab 8.9). Some expected apostasy as one of the tragic signs of the end time (e.g., 1 En. 9:17; T. Iss. 6:1; T. Naph. 4:1; 3 En. 48A:5-6; m. Soṭah 9:15; Pesiq. Rab Kah. 5:9; Pesiq. Rab. 15:14/15; cf. 4 Ezra 5:1-2; 14:16-18) as under previous persecutions. Early Judaism divided regarding whether apostates would be forgiven if they repented. Paul probably also envisioned the prophesied end-time apostasy (Mark 13:12-13; Matt. 24:12) as already occurring in his day (cf. 2 Thess. 2:3). Subsequent centuries of Christian thought also required perseverance in the faith.
Corinthians’ sexual sin contradicted Christian faith (1 Cor. 6:9-20), but Galatians were in danger of abandoning faith in Christ no less by adding to (and thus subtracting from) the faith. Like baptism, circumcision functioned as a demarcation, a rite of passage into a given community (in this case, of ethnicity; in the case of Christian baptism, of faith). By going under the law as if their baptism was inadequate, they would essentially deny the efficacy of their baptism. Paul certainly did not teach the popular doctrine today of “once saved, always saved”; a convert does not regularly move in and out of the saved community, but a convert who deconverts is again a nonbeliever. (Craig S. Kenner, Galatians: A Commentary [Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker Academic, 2019], 453, 454-56)
Commenting on this text, Don Garlington, a New Testament scholar and leading advocate for the New Perspective on Paul, wrote the following which supports this thesis that this passage refutes eternal security:
Paul is worried not about circumcision as an isolated act or as a thing in itself, but rather what it will lead to: the endeavor to be justified “in the law.” The most emphatic element of the verse is placed forward into the clause: “You have been severed from Christ” (NASB). The verb translated “severed” (katargeō) frequently means to make ineffective or nullify (BDAG, 525). In the present case, it signifies the dissolution of a relationship, namely the Galatians’ former (covenant) relationship to Christ. But commentators point out that the verb can mean “cut off.” If this usage was in Paul’s mind at all, then there would be a deliberate play on circumcision: those who “cut” the flesh are “cut off” from Christ. A formal commitment to the Torah through circumcision is equivalent to ending the relationship with the Christ of Paul’s gospel . . . If those who want to be justified in the law have severed their relationship with Christ, they have, but the nature of the case, “fallen away from grace.” The verb “fall away” (ekpiptō) is used of a withering flower falling from its stem to the ground (Jas 1:11; 1 Pet 1:24) or of a ship failing to hold its course (Acts 27:26, 29). “God’s grace in Christ . . . is like the stem which supports the flower and through which the life-sustaining sustenance flows. Or like the channel which leads to safety between the rocks of disaster, a course from which they were in danger of being driven, by dangerous currents and cross winds” (Dunn, Galatians, 268-69). (Don Garlington, An Exposition of Galatians: A Reading from the New Perspective [Eugene, Oreg.: Wipf & Stock, 2007], 299-300)
In both its immediate context, and in light of Pauline soteriology as a whole, 1 Cor 9:24-27 clearly refutes the P of TULIP as well as other theologies affirming "eternal security."
Further Reading
