Foundations: What Every Christian Ought to Know

How to Be Sure You’re Eternally Secure

 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.  I give them eternal life, 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. – John 10:27-29 (ESV)

Ivan IV was the first Czar of all Russia. He was such a cruel man that they called him “Ivan The Terrible.” He married 7 wives and abused them all. He was immoral and violent. He used to throw animals off the Kremlin Walls just to watch them die. But when he died in 1584, historians record that they shaved his head and dressed him for burial in the robes of a monk, hoping that God would think that Ivan the Terrible was a monk, and thus allow him into heaven.

Disguising yourself as a monk and hoping God mistakes who you are is not what get’s you into heaven. Pastor Jim reminded us there is a lot of confusion about salvation and eternal security. In John 10:27 God knows His sheep and His sheep know Him. At the moment of salvation, we become Jesus’ sheep. Because we are Christ’s sheep it is His duty to care for us as a Shepherd. To say that Christ is the Good Shepherd and that He can’t hold on to His sheep for eternity is to blaspheme the person of Christ. 

Reflection

Can you imagine a child who has to wonder day to day if his parents love him or not? As Christians, we are God’s children. He never wants us to wonder if He loves us or if He will abandon us someday.

Praise/Prayer

Praise God as the Good Shepherd who laid down His life to claim you as His own. Ask God to settle any confusion or worry you may have concerning whether or not you belong to Him.

God’s Plan for Eternal Security

My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. – John 10:27-28 (ESV)

Once someone was talking to a great scholar about a younger man. He said, “So and so tells me that he was one of your students.” The teacher answered devastatingly, “He may have attended my lectures, but he was not one of my students.” There is a world of difference between attending lectures and being a student. It is one of the supreme handicaps of the Church that in the Church there are so many distant followers of Jesus and so few real disciples. (William Barclay)

In John 10:27 Jesus promises eternal life to the sheep who hear His voice, are known by Him, and follow Him. This is God’s plan for discipleship. In verse 26 Jesus said the sheep that are not His do not believe. God’s plan is that we hear about Jesus, believe in Jesus, and follow Jesus. Someone asked Melvin Trotter, who was a hopeless alcoholic before his conversion, “How do you know you are a Christian?” Trotter replied, “I was there when it happened!”

Reflection

Living a changed life is evidence that we have believed in Jesus. The changed life doesn’t save us but it should reassure us that we have been saved. How has your life been different as a result of your faith in Jesus?

Praise/Prayer

Praise God for giving you the ability to sense His calling in your life and the privilege of following Jesus. Ask God to continue to grow the life-changing evidence of salvation in your life.

God’s Promise for Eternal Security

My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, 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. – John 10:27-29 (ESV)

A college man walked into a photography studio with a picture of his girlfriend. He wanted the picture duplicated. The owner of the store noticed the inscription on the back of the picture, it said, “My dearest Tom, I love you with all my heart. I love you more and more each day. I will love you forever and ever. I am yours for all eternity.” It was signed “Diane,” and it contained a P.S., “If we ever break up, I want this picture back.”

It’s not eternal it’s not forever. There is no “P.S.” when Jesus promises to give us eternal life. To say that eternal life can end is a contradiction. It is hard for our minds to comprehend eternity but it’s not hard for God. Once, after many of Jesus’ disciples had turned away from following Him, “Jesus asked the twelve apostles, ‘Will you too go away?’ And Simon Peter answered him, ‘Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life”‘ (John 6:67, 68).

Reflection

Pastor Jim cited Romans 8 in His sermon when he talked about the promise of eternal life. Read Romans 8. What are some of the promises that mean the most to you?

Praise/Prayer

Thank God for His eternal commitment to you and His unfailing promises. Ask God to help you rest in His promises and choose Him above all others.

God’s Provision for Eternal Security

My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.  I give them eternal life, 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. – John 10:27-29 (ESV)

Someone has said, “Living life is building a bridge into eternity.” The world’s religions require mankind to build his own bridge with its own resources. Christianity, on the other hand, provides the bridge. Jesus builds the bridge through His death in our place. Not only that, the Builder of that bridge will journey with you to ensure that you get to your eternal home safely.

God provides salvation and eternal life as a gift. It is not something that we build or do to earn our way into heaven. It is not something we work for. If you did not earn eternal life you can’t unearn eternal life. It was a gift from the beginning. His gift of eternal life wasn’t because you deserved eternal life it was because God choose to extend mercy and grace to you.

Reflection

Ephesians 2:8-9 says, “For by grace are you saved through faith and not of yourselves it is a gift of God. Not of works lest any man should boast.” How is the verse different from what traditional religion teaches us about being saved?

Praise/Prayer

Thank God that your salvation is secure because He is the one providing it. Ask God to help you live a life that shows how grateful you are for the gift He has given you.

God’s Power for Eternal Security

My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, 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. –  John 10:27-29 (ESV)

Bertrand Russell was an outspoken atheist. He wrote a book called “Why I Am Not A Christian.” When Russell was 81 years old, he was interviewed on a British Broadcasting Corporation radio talk show. The interviewer asked him what he had to hang onto when death was obviously so close. Russell responded, “I have nothing to hang onto but grim, unyielding despair.”

Jesus used the picture of God the Father holding our hands. Jesus taught the we would “never perish” because “no one is able to snatch” us out of the Father’s hand. It’s not that we are strong enough to hold onto God, it’s that God is strong enough to hold on to us. God has the power to give us eternal life because nothing and no one else is strong enough to take us out of His hand.

Reflection

What’s the difference between a child holding their parent’s hand and the parent holding the child’s hand? What’s the difference between you holding God’s hand and God holding your hand?

Praise/Prayer

Praise God for the promise of Jude 1:24-25, “Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy,  To the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen.”