A Believer Shall Never Perish
“My sheep hear My voice, and I know them and they follow Me. And I give them eternal life, and they shall NEVER PERISH; NEITHER SHALL ANYONE snatch them out of My hand.” (John 10:27,28 KJV)
Jesus said nobody will take believers out of His hand and they will never perish. The truth is right from Jesus that believers in Him are eternally secure and no one can snatch them out of His hand. This ‘anyone’ includes ourselves. This is very clear.
A Believer Has Eternal Life From The Moment Of Belief On Christ For Righteousness
“And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: That WHOSOEVER BELIEVETH IN HIM should NOT PERISH, but have ETERNAL LIFE. For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that WHOSOEVER BELIEVETH IN HIM should NOT PERISH, but have EVERLASTING LIFE. For God sent NOT his Son into the world TO CONDEMN the world; but that the world THROUGH HIM might be saved. He that BELIEVETH ON HIM is NOT CONDEMNED: but he that BELIEVETH NOT is condemned already, because he hath NOT BELIEVED in the name of the only begotten Son of God.” (John 3:14-18 KJV)
Jesus emphasizes belief in Him as Messiah, the foretold Christ as how a person is BORN AGAIN in the Spirit (John 3:5-6). No other REQUIREMENT is mentioned by Jesus regarding our justification in salvation. Jesus did not mention Law following nor never again having a sin. Jesus was asked directed and answered directly and clearly. The promise of eternal life is not true if it can be lost and what is the definition of ‘eternal’ and ‘everlasting’? They are both defined as FOREVER! There is no conditional statement here other than to BELIEVE ON CHRIST.
We see Jesus do this again in John 6,
“But I said unto you, That ye also have seen me, and BELIEVE NOT. All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will IN NO WISE CAST OUT. For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the WILL OF HIM THAT SENT ME. And this is the Father’s will which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me I SHOULD LOSE NOTHING, but should raise it up again at the last day. And this is the WILL OF HIM THAT SENT ME, that every one which seeth the Son, and BELIEVETH ON HIM, may have EVERLASTING LIFE: and I will raise him up at the last day.” (John 6:36-40 KJV)
Apostle Paul wrote in Ephesians that a believer is sealed in Salvation from the moment of BELIEF in Christ,
“In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also AFTER THAT YE BELIEVED, YE WERE SEALED with that holy Spirit of PROMISE, Which is the EARNEST of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory.” (Ephesians 1:13-14 KJV)
“And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby YE ARE SEALED unto the day of redemption.” (Ephesians 4:30 KJV)
Salvation Is Not Future Based On Our Performance. It Is Ever Present With A Believer.
“I tell you the truth, whoever hears My word and BELIEVES HIM who sent Me HAS ETERNAL LIFE and will NOT BE CONDEMNED; he has CROSSED OVER from death to life.” (John 5:24 KJV)
Salvation is secure forever once a person believes on Christ and trusts in HIS finished work on the cross. The BELIEF must be real though. An alter call or just a prayer does not have any power to save a person unless they believe and KNOW Christ.
“Now this IS ETERNAL LIFE: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.” (John 17:3 KJV)
Nothing Separates A Believer From God. Nothing!
“Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril or sword . . . For I am persuaded that NEITHER death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:35, 38,39 KJV)
What is the definition of the word NEITHER in this passage? Strongs Greek is the word G3777, ‘oute’, and is defined as “none, nor (yet), (no, yet) not, nothing”.
Essentially NOTHING AT ALL. NOT ANYTHING. A believer is never separated from God’s love as God has purchased us (Ephesians 1:14) forever as children of God by belief on Christ. We cannot even separate ourselves from God. We already died with Christ on the cross in the Spirit and we already rose again with Christ on the cross in the Spirit. Our old Spirit DIED on the cross WITH CHRIST and we are now forever IN CHRIST. Our sins will never separate us from God because all our sins have ALREADY been PAID IN FULL and God no longer views our sin as a stumbling block to be with Him forever. God will not judge that which has already been paid for by Christ.
Believers Do Not Keep Themselves Saved
“TO HIM WHO IS ABLE to keep you from falling and to present you before His glorious presence WITHOUT FAULT and with great joy.” (Jude 24 KJV)
“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy HE HAS GIVEN US A NEW BIRTH into a living hope THROUGH THE resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can NEVER PERISH, spoil or fade – KEPT IN HEAVEN FOR YOU, who THROUGH FAITH are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.” (1 Peter 1:3-5 KJV)
“He that BELIEVETH ON HIM IS NOT CONDEMNED: but he that BELIEVETH NOT is condemned ALREADY, because he hath NOT BELIEVED in the name of the only begotten Son of God.” (John 3:18 KJV)
It is not believers who keep themselves saved. It is Christ who promised and keeps a believer eternally saved because He gave us a newly created Spirit of God and our Old Spirit if Adam was put to death on the cross with Christ.
A believer is IN CHRIST eternally because Jesus will live forever and we are IN Christ and so we will also live forever. Jesus put it like this in prayer for us,
“Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall BELIEVE ON ME through their word; That they all MAY BE ONE; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that THEY ALSO BE ONE IN US: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. And the glory which thou gavest me I HAVE GIVEN THEM; that they may BE ONE, EVEN AS WE ARE ONE: I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me. Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me: for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world.” (John 17:20-24 KJV)
Believers Are Right Now Already Glorified In The Spirit, Waiting For Our Bodily Resurrection Glorification
“And those He predestined, He also called; those He called, He also justified; those He justified, He also glorified.” (Romans 8:30 KJV)
Notice the ‘ed’ at the end of the words JustifiED, glorifiED. It is PAST TENSE and so we are present tense justified and glorified in the Spirit. We are already risen with Christ in the Spirit as Apostle Paul stated in Colossians 2,
“Buried with him in baptism, wherein also YE ARE RISEN WITH HIM through the faith of THE OPERATION OF GOD, who hath raised him from the dead. And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together WITH HIM, having FORGIVEN YOU ALL TRESPASSES; BLOTTING OUT the handwriting of ordinances that WAS against us, which WAS contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross;” (Colossians 2: 12-14 KJV)
“And raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.” (Ephesians 2:6 KJV)
Believers are PRESENT TENSE ‘risen with Christ’ and it is past tense (WAS) forgiven all our sins on the cross.
All Sins Of The Whole World Were Paid For By Christ On The Cross And Presented To A Person As A Gift
“And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins OF THE WHOLE WORLD.” (1 John 2:2 KJV)
This ‘propitiation’ is defined as “the means of appeasing”. It is not our works nor deeds that will appease God regarding our sins. Only Christ’s finished work on the cross was sufficient to save us.
“For by ONE OFFERING He has PERFECTED FOREVER those who are being sanctified.” (Hebrews 10:14 KJV)
Nothing we do can replace this offering of Christ to the Father in payment of our sins! It is CHRIST who has perfected us! His blood atoning sacrifice for the sins of the world was ONCE FOR ALL (Hebrews 10:10) and whosoever believeth on Him has eternal life (John 3:14-18).
A gift is never worked for nor earned. A GIFT can only be accepted or rejected. A gift is not something we pay for nor work to gain, it is something another has worked for and purchased for us.
“But not as the offence, so also is the FREE GIFT. For if through the offence of one many be dead, much more the grace of God, and the GIFT BY GRACE, which IS BY ONE MAN, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many. And not as it was by one that sinned, so is THE GIFT: for the judgment was by one to condemnation, but the FREE GIFT is of many offences unto justification. For if by one man’s offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of THE GIFT OF RIGHTEOUSNESS shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ.)” (Romans 5: 15-17 KJV)
“For BY GRACE are ye saved THROUGH FAITH; and that not of yourselves: it is the GIFT OF GOD: NOT OF WORKS, lest any man should BOAST.” (Ephesians 2:8-9 KJV)
The word FAITH here is a NOUN and not a VERB. It is defined ‘believe’. It is not an action word of doing deeds.It is a FREE GIFT of God’s Grace through the cross of Christ. Our works have NOTHING to do with our salvation and righteousness. We do good works FROM our new Spirit because we have been CREATED IN CHRIST JESUS in our inner Spirit but the works do not save us nor keep us saved. Only Christ’s finished work on the cross did that.
“Being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ (Philippians 1:6 KJV)
Jesus will keep us saved!
“For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive by the Spirit.” (1 Peter 3:18 KJV)
Jesus died for our sins and paid the FULL penalty for them. Jesus blood atoning sacrifice was not a partial payment for the sins of the world; it was a FULL PAYMENT! The Father already judged ALL OUR life SINS on Christ. Now paid, our sins will never be judged for condemnation ever again.
“This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them; And their sins and iniquities will I REMEMBER NO MORE.” (Hebrews 10:16-17 KJV)
Believers Know They Are Heaven Bound
“I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that YOU MAY KNOW that you have ETERNAL LIFE.” (1 John 5:13 KJV)
If salvation can be lost why does Apostle John state this very clearly? Because it is truth! This idea of God saved us but if we commit a sin, that God somehow we lose salvation and then we repent and then God gives us back salvation; back and forth is non sense. It goes against the complete sufficiency of Christ’s blood sacrifice for us! It is actually unbelief and that is a scary place to be.
Committing a sin as a believer can affect our fellowship with God but it is not God turning away from us. It is not God kicking us our of the family. It affects our fellowship because we feel guilty before God and ashamed. It is at these times we need to NOT ignore God but we should RUN TO GOD and confess our sin and thank Him that He already paid for it on the cross and to pray to God to help us do better next time we are tempted. Now that is prayer based on Scripture and truth! That is a prayer God will surely answer given how much Jesus paid for us in unconditional love while we were yet His enemies.
I Am In No Manner Saying We Can Just Go And Sin All We Want Because Jesus Paid For Our Sins
NO! That is a horrible attitude given what Christ went through to save us! We need to be THANKFUL and GRATEFUL! To be clear, as believers we SHOULD STRIVE TO NOT SIN! It is wrong! It is hurtful! There are consequences in life for our sins as believers! The point is our justification and salvation do not rely on our deeds because Jesus paid for all our sins.
“What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein? Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection: Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. For he that is dead is freed from sin. Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him: Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him. For in that he died, he died unto sin once: but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God. Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.” (Romans 6:1-11 KJV)
