“My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.” There’s an addendum to this among many today. It’s that while nothing can “snatch” you out of God’s hands that you can always, “Choose to walk out.” This addition is not sound. When people we know who claim to be Christians fall away from God into various things and give up their profession of faith we question the Bible, but we shouldn’t. We should only question them.
What Christ is said to come with when a person is born again is eternal life. Eternal life. Question: if the life received in Him is by nature a probationary thing then how can it ever be called eternal? Some would say it can’t be until we die. I say that’s false. It’s eternal from the very start. If it’s another type of life we have in Christ right now in this life that’s not eternal then please show me that term in the Scriptures.
The question that I think this boils down to can be articulated as a two-fold one: 1) by whose strength is the relationship maintained between God and His child? And 2) is salvation anything other than God’s rescue mission of those numbered He came to save, His elect? The answer to the second part of this shapes the first. I believe that God came to save His elect. There’s nothing willy-nilly or random about it. If your answer to the first part is any sort of cooperative effort then you don’t believe the second aright and therefore, yes, perhaps you may be lost in the end. Perhaps you’re even lost now. Who knows? The right answer, however, is to trust the God who does nothing in half-measure. God keeps His sheep close to Him…especially in their sin. We are sheep in the pasture of the Chief Shepherd, 1 Peter 5:4. Our relationship with Him is based on His power, not ours. Big revelation coming: nothing can snatch you away in the Greek means that nothing can snatch you away. No sin, so suffering, no devil. Romans 8:31-39. God is stronger than us and He holds us tight. Remember, He’s out for His glory in you too and He will not surrender it. He doesn’t start to build towers without the means and materials to finish the job. No one will mock His works. Now inevitably the unlearned will immediately begin to conjure up images of profligate sinners depending on a grace they’ve no love for if such things are true. That’s not what I’d argue for at all. We must be changed. We are not idle if we’re in Christ. We who died to sin can live no longer in it. Romans 6:1-2. How could we?
The ultimate assurance for the answer is in what we know about God. He is not short-sighted and He doesn’t give eternal life on a temporary basis. He saves with the end in mind from before the start. He will change us and make us disciples if we’re His. We’ll follow Him. He keeps us through an active and vibrant never surrendering faith. We love Him because He first loved us. It is His power that we rely on. We will never perish! He said so.
Thanks again for the blog post.Thanks Again. Fantastic.