Matthew 24:13

These words come in His prophetic discourse, recorded in Matthew 24 and Mark 13. They do not tell sinful men how to receive the salvation of their souls. The Lord was not addressing sinners. He was addressing men He had already brought into relationship with Himself — His disciples. At that moment they stood for the chosen remnant of Israel, who will be on earth at the time of the end.

Those whose love cools must be those in whom there was love that could be cooled. So while some will desert and betray, many will become half-hearted, to the grief, no doubt, of the zealous and true. Then follows a text which has troubled the peace of many a Christian. But it really belongs to the Jewish remnant of a future day — "But the one who endures to the end will be saved." It refers to salvation when the Lord appears in judgment.

"The end" here is not the end of one person's life. It is the end of the whole time of persecution, trial and sorrow. The second coming of Christ will bring that time to a close. Endurance is the supreme virtue which is to mark these saints, for their salvation is sure when Christ appears.

We are also quite free to say that salvation in its fullest sense looks on to the final deliverance from the very presence of sin — the consummation in heaven. There is also a governmental and external salvation; such, for instance, as is spoken of in our Lord's prophetic discourse: "he who endures to the end will be saved." This, we need hardly say, does not refer to the salvation of the soul, but the deliverance from the Great Tribulation through which the Jewish remnant will be called to pass, with an indirect application to us also.

The hatred of all men will grow, and it will be far more marked after the Church is gone. The remnant of Israel will suffer badly. In this connection we are told, "the one who endures to the end will be saved." Anyone who bears the suffering of the tribulation and endures to the end would be saved for earthly blessing in the millennium.

"The one who endures to the end will be saved." Some say, Oh! that is said to the Jew. True, it is so: but it is as true of you and of me as of the Jew. There is a present salvation, and there is also a salvation which is future. Who receives that future salvation? Those who prove their reality by continuing, or those who do not? I say, if I remain to the end I shall be saved. Does that disturb me? Not at all. I know God has worked in me, and I know that He will continue to do so. I am quite at rest about it. If, however, a professed believer turns away, and does not endure, but lives in sin, can we say that it is sure to be well with him? Never. The proof of reality is continuance.

The reason he endures to the end is not any perseverance of his own. What I believe in, and what the Word of God clearly teaches, is the perseverance of the Holy Spirit. When He begins a work, He never gives up until it is completed. That is our confidence.

But the one who endures to the end will be saved — whatever the end may be, whether a martyr's death or the coming of Christ to the earth. As ever, the test of reality is continuance. There may, indeed, be failure, and even the love of many growing cold, but those that are real will endure. Peter broke down, but his faith did not fail; he continued to the end.

That is the primary bearing of this passage. But there are, of course, many useful applications we may make for ourselves. Using it to teach that no one can be sure of salvation until death is not one of them.