O. Different Conclusions: Perseverance
O. Different Conclusions: Perseverance
Given Newman’s insistence on efficacious grace that leads to divine indwelling, one might expect him to have a place for perseverance. Such an expectation is potentially reinforced when Newman makes statements such as the following: “Righteousness then, considered as the state of being God’s temple, cannot be increased; but, considered as the divine glory which that state implies, it can be increased.”1019 But for Newman there is no guarantee of perseverance. Because the glory of the Spirit in and through a Christian fluctuates in growth, justification itself is also thought to grow (or decline). In like manner, this pneumatic state of being also admits the possibility that one may fall from grace, that is, lose one’s justification. In other words, just as possessing the Spirit amounts to justification, losing the Spirit means that one has jeopardized justification. So Newman insists the following in one of his Parochial and Plain Sermons:
There is no such person under the Gospel as a “justified sinner,” to use a phrase which is sometimes to be heard. If he is justified and accepted, he has ceased to be a sinner. The Gospel only knows of justified saints; if a saint sins, he ceases to be justified, and becomes a condemned sinner. Some persons, I repeat, speak as if men might go on sinning ever so grossly, yet without falling from grace, without the necessity of taking direct and formal means to get back again. They can get back, praised be God, but still they have to get back, and the error I am speaking of is forgetfulness that they have fallen, and have to return.1020
By contrast, Vermigli upholds a doctrine of perseverance.1021 In keeping with the conviction that man is unable to secure divine favor by performing good works, Peter Martyr asserts that one who is truly regenerate can do nothing to forfeit his justification.
In general, it may be stated that faith cannot be completely extinguished because serious sins are committed by the justified and those destined to salvation. In such cases, faith is lulled to sleep and lies hidden and does not burst forth into action unless awakened again by the Holy Spirit. In such fallen ones, the seed of God remains, although for a time it produces no fruit.1022
Vermigli believes that when a regenerate person falls into sin—even sin of a serious nature—his/her justification remains secure (“the seed of God remains”). Martyr acknowledges that “true faith,” sometimes “slips” or is “lulled to sleep,” but is not lost.1023 Given his emphasis on the gratuitous and persevering nature of salvation, it is easy for Martyr to say that “those who seek God, to be justified by him through faith, as the apostle teaches, attain what they desire; but those who would be justified by works fall away from justification.”1024 The doctrine of perseverance reveals that for all of their similarities, the variation between Newman and Vermigli is significant.