Saving Benefits and the Non-Elect, Pt. 2
Challenging the Common Reading of WCF 3.6
In the previous article, we examined the proof texts annexed to Westminster Confession of Faith (3.6) to see if they support the reading that only the elect ever receive saving benefits from Christ. We found that while those texts affirm the certainty of final salvation for the elect, none of them exclude the possibility that others—those not predestined to eternal life—may nevertheless receive real, though temporary, gifts of saving grace.
In this second article, we will begin to make a positive case for that possibility. We aim to show from Scripture that certain individuals, though ultimately lost, nevertheless experienced what Scripture calls salvation. They believed. They rejoiced. They repented. They received the word. They were even said to be “saved.” And yet they did not continue. They fell away.
This is not a denial of God’s sovereignty. On the contrary, it is a testimony to the mystery of divine providence—how God ordains real experiences of saving grace, even for those not predestined to final glory.
A Three-Way Debate: Who Is in the Covenant?
The historic Reformed world has long debated how to understand covenant membership in relation to election and salvation. Broadly speaking, three views can be distinguished:
The Reformed Baptist View insists that everyone in the New Covenant is saved, and therefore elect. Covenant membership is coextensive with salvation, which is coextensive with election.
The Reformed Presbyterian View holds that a person may be in the New Covenant and yet not be saved—hence, not elect. Covenant membership is broader than salvation, though salvation remains coextensive with election. Only the elect are ever saved, and they form a subset of those in the covenant.
The Reformed Augustinian View is a combination of the two previous positions. It holds that those in the New Covenant are rightly called saved—in the sense that they are united to Christ and recipients of saving grace—yet they are not necessarily elect unto final perseverance. Covenant membership is ideally coextensive with salvation, but always broader than eternal election. Thus, the elect are a subset of the saved, who are the members of the New Covenant.
In my opinion, the third view is the most consistent with the totality of the biblical data. It accounts for the full range of what the Scriptures say about those who come to Christ and fall away. It affirms the reality of their participation, and the seriousness of their apostasy. And it preserves both the necessity of perseverance and the sovereignty of God’s eternal decree.
To understand this, we cannot look merely at systems of thought, but at what Scripture says about the end—final salvation. For while there are only two eternal outcomes, there are multiple biblical paths that lead to them. Scripture shows at least five distinct trajectories, and only two of them end in glory.
Two Who Are Saved
1. The One Who Believes and Perseveres
“Because you have kept My command to persevere, I also will keep you from the hour of trial which shall come upon the whole world.” —Revelation 3:10
Here is the ideal picture of the elect: one who hears the gospel, believes it, and keeps the word of Christ to the end. His perseverance is not the ground of his election, but is its necessary fruit. He receives saving grace, and he abides in it. His faith does not wither. His hope does not fail. This, the Confession rightly affirms.
2. The One Who Believes, Falls, but Is Restored
“It was right that we should make merry and be glad, for your brother was dead and is alive again, and was lost and is found.” —Luke 15:32
Here is another image—often neglected: the prodigal son. Though once alive in his father’s house, he departed into ruin and death. Yet his return was real repentance, and his restoration was full and joyful. Christ does not say merely that he was in danger of death, or metaphorically lost. He says, “this son of mine was dead and is alive again (ἀναζάω)” (Luke 15:24).
The verb ἀναζάω means “to come to life again.” This is not the language of first-time regeneration, but of restoration—revivification. He had once lived, then died, and was now made alive again. If this does not describe the loss and recovery of real saving grace, then Christ's words lose all coherence. The prodigal was truly alive, departed from that life, and was made alive once more.
This may also shed light on Jude’s language about apostates as “twice dead (δὶς ἀποθανόντα) pulled up by the roots” (Jude 12). Such men were not merely dead from the outset—they had, in some sense, lived for a time, but then died a second time. The implication is sobering: theirs is a double-deadness, following a real but temporary participation in the life of God.
The point here, however, is that God’s elect will not remain in spiritual death. Like the prodigal son, they may die—but they will be made alive again.
Three Who Perish
3. The One Who Never Hears
“How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard?” —Romans 10:14
Some perish because the gospel never reaches them. They live and die in ignorance of the truth, having never heard the word of Christ. This has been the condition of many throughout history—those outside the reach of gospel preaching, and for whom God employs no extraordinary means. Though they are judged justly, their condemnation underscores the necessity of the Gospel. This is one path to destruction: perishing in unbelief due to the absence of the saving message.
4. The One Who Hears and Rejects
“Then Paul and Barnabas grew bold and said, ‘It was necessary that the word of God should be spoken to you first; but since you reject it, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, behold, we turn to the Gentiles.’” —Acts 13:46
Others hear the gospel and never accept it. They do not merely fail to understand—they willfully despise the grace offered. They judge themselves unworthy of everlasting life, and thus cut themselves off from the only means by which they might be saved.
5. The One Who Hears, Believes, and Falls Away
“But the ones on the rock are those who, when they hear, receive the word with joy; and these have no root, who believe for a while and in time of temptation fall away.” —Luke 8:13
Herein lies the real challenge to the modern Calvinist: those who believe for a while. Jesus does not say they were deceiving themselves. He says they believed. They received the word. They rejoiced. But they did not continue. The faith was real—but temporary. This is not hypothetical. Jesus declares this as a real category.
Nor is this an isolated case. In John 8:31, we read:
“Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed in Him, ‘If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed.’”
Then, only moments later, He says to these same people:
“But now you seek to kill Me, a Man who has told you the truth” (v. 40).
These men are explicitly said to believe in Jesus—not in a vague or superficial sense, but in the very terms the Gospel of John uses to describe true discipleship. The wording is τοὺς πεπιστευκότας αὐτῷ—“who believed in Him” (John 8:31)—the same type of wording used throughout John’s Gospel to describe those who are united to Christ by faith (cf. John 1:12; 3:16, 18; 6:35, 40; 7:38; 11:25–26; 12:44; 17:20). In other words, there is no grammatical downgrade or lesser term for faith used here.
And yet, interpreters often treat the faith of these men like a recipe with a missing ingredient: it had notitia (knowledge), assensus (assent), but not fiducia (trust), and therefore it must not have been “saving.”
But John does not speak this way, and neither does Jesus. Christ does not challenge the quality or composition of their faith—He challenges them to abide. “If you continue in My word, then are you My disciples indeed.” He does not call them to greater sincerity, but to perseverance. The issue is not what their faith lacked at the start, but that it did not endure.
The same is true of Simon Magus in Acts 8:13:
“Then Simon himself also believed; and when he was baptized he continued with Philip, and was amazed, seeing the miracles and signs which were done.”
And yet not long after, Peter rebukes him sharply:
“Your heart is not right in the sight of God. Repent therefore of this your wickedness… for I see that you are poisoned by bitterness and bound by iniquity” (vv. 21–23).
As M.F. Sadler writes in The Second Adam and the New Birth:
“The case of Simon is a difficult one, not at all with reference to the efficacy of his baptism, but with respect to the nature and efficacy of his faith; for St. Luke mentions, not only that he ‘was baptized,’ but that he ‘believed.’ (‘Simon himself believed also,’ v. 13.) He showed certainly some fruits of genuine faith, for it is expressly asserted that he ‘clave stedfastly to Philip’ (ἦν προσκαρτερῶν). The word is the same which is used to express the steadfastness of the Pentecostal Christians (Acts 2:42). He could not have done this unless he had given up for the time his magical arts.”
(Sadler, pp. 183–184)
Simon’s belief was not feigned. It had real effects. He believed. He cleaved. He was baptized. Yet he did not persevere in the grace he had received.
This is exactly what Luke 8:13 describes: those who believe for a time, yet fall away. And if we are unwilling to acknowledge such belief as real, we end up denying the Lord’s own words.
The categories are not ours to redefine. They are His.
Is This a Denial of Predestination?
Not in the least.
While human experience shows great variety in the response to grace, Scripture is equally clear that all such outcomes fall within God's sovereign plan. Some believe and persevere. Others believe and fall away. Still others reject the truth outright. None of this surprises God. No apostasy derails His decree. Every case—every belief, every rejection, every return—is encompassed within His eternal purpose.
From these scriptural considerations, we can say that in terms of human experience, salvation is dynamic—but in terms of the divine plan, all variations of that human experience are predetermined, for they each proceed from God's eternal decree.
“The preparations of the heart belong to man, but the answer of the tongue is from the Lord.”
—Proverbs 16:1“A man’s heart plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps.”
—Proverbs 16:9“The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the Lord.”
—Proverbs 16:33“Those whom You gave Me I have kept; and none of them is lost except the son of perdition, that the Scripture might be fulfilled.”
—John 17:12
From beginning to end, salvation is of the Lord. So is apostasy. Not as if God causes unbelief in the same way He causes faith—but He ordains both as parts of His larger plan. No soul is lost by accident. No one falls through a hole in the net. Every branch that is broken off was known and included in the wisdom of His decree.
Conclusion: Rethinking the Boundaries of Grace
The Westminster Confession teaches that only the elect are ever justified, adopted, sanctified, or saved. But perhaps this claim goes further than the biblical evidence allows. When we listen closely to the language of Scripture, we find examples of those who believe, rejoice, and even walk as disciples—yet do not continue to the end.
Rather than forcing every category of grace into the framework of final perseverance, we do well to acknowledge the variety of ways in which God, in His wisdom, distributes gifts—some enduring, others temporary. Not all who fall away were strangers to grace. Some knew it intimately, though not enduringly.
In the next part, we will explore this further, considering how Scripture describes the non-elect as receiving—for a time—real benefits such as calling, justification, and sanctification. These graces may not result in final glory, but they are nonetheless spoken of as real.