Our preservation is particularly necessary in days of apostasy, which this book speaks of. Some prefer the term perseverance of the saints and do not like to speak of the preservation of the saints as if it suggests something too passive. Certainly we must understand the part we play and that it is only he who endures to the end that will be saved, but the marvel of God’s preserving power is that among other things, it preserves us in our good works. It does not just preserve us like fruit in a jar, something set aside to be used later, but it preserves us in all our Christian duties, in love for one another, in obedience to God, as well as preserving us for heaven and for ultimate complete salvation.
But does not Christ say, ‘no longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made know to you’ (John 15:15). These words do not deny the fact that we are still Christ’s servants. In the same passage, He goes on to refer to them as his servants shortly afterwards, ‘a servant is not greater than his master’. The relationship of servant is not dissolved, especially while we are in this world, but at the marriage supper of the lamb, Christ has told us that we shall sit and he will serve us.