By Dr. Curtis Hutson
(1934-1995)Nearly everywhere I go I find people troubled because they do not know that they are secure. They think that because of their sins, their negligence, their failing to endure to the end, or some other reason, they may lose their salvation.
Those who think they are saved now but could lose their salvation later have one of two problems: First, they are trusting to some degree in their works to save them; or second, they do not understand that by trusting Jesus Christ as Savior their destiny is in the hands of God.
Perhaps they have taken the word of someone whom they trust. Or they have not studied the Bible carefully and do not realize that God has determined that all who believe on Him have everlasting life and will go to Heaven when they die.
The first group, those who believe that leading a poor Christian life will result in the loss of their salvation, actually needs to have the plan of salvation made clear to them. Somehow they have not completely understood that Jesus Christ fully paid for all our sins when He died on the cross and that our conduct or good works have nothing to do with salvation.
Of course, we ought to live good; and God has ways of dealing with disobedient children. But we are saved by trusting Jesus Christ as Savior. John 3:36 says, "He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life. . . ." It is a clear-cut problem of "grace or works." Ephesians 2:8,9 makes it plain: "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.
The second group needs to study carefully what the Bible says about the security of the believer. With that in mind, let me share with you several thoughts.
1. GOD PROMISED AND GOD PRODUCED ETERNAL LIFE
John 3:14-16 says:
"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. "
Again, in Titus 1, verse 2, we read: "In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began." First John 2:25 says, "And this is the promise that he hath promised us, even eternal life."
Now when God promises something, He is bound by His honor to produce. If He did not produce what He promised, He would sacrifice His honor and integrity. But what God promised He produced.
The Bible says in I John 5:10,11:
"He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself. he that believeth not God hath made him a liar, because he believeth not the record that God gave of his Son. And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this is in his Son. "
John 10:27-29 says:
"My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand. "
And we read in Romans 6:23: "For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." God promised and God produced eternal life for the believer.
II. THE BELIEVER HAS EXACTLY WHAT GOD PROMISED AND PRODUCED
Many Scriptures make it unmistakably plain that the man who is trusting Jesus Christ as Savior has eternal life. John 5:24 says, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life. . . ." Notice the Bible does not say, "He that believes on the Son will have. . . ." It says, "hath." That is present tense. That means the man who is trusting Jesus Christ completely for salvation has everlasting life now. It is not something that God promised him, provided he meets certain additional conditions. It is something he has the moment he believes on Christ.
But notice that Jesus goes a little further than saying we have everlasting life. He makes it doubly sure in John 5:24, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life."
In addition to saying that the believer has everlasting life the moment he believes, Jesus adds the promise that he shall not come into condemnation; that is, the sentence of sin will never be put on the believer again.
The condemned criminal is the man who has been arrested, tried and had sentence passed upon him. He is under the sentence. He is condemned. The sentence for sin is death. Romans 6:23 says, "The wages of sin is death. . . ." That death is described in the Bible as the second death, the lake of fire. Revelation 20:14: "Death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death."
But now Jesus says the man who believes on Christ not only has had the sentence lifted, he is not condemned; but He further promises that "he shall not come into condemnation. . . ." The sentence of sin will never again be placed on the believer.
He goes even further in John 5:24 and says, ". . . but is passed from death unto life." Not that he is going to pass from death to life. The man who believes on the Lord Jesus Christ has already passed from death unto life. John 3:36 says, "He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life. Here again you have the word "hath." This is present tense. The man who believes on the Son has everlasting life now. Everlasting life is not something God promises in the future, but it is the present possession of every believer.
Now the words "everlasting" and "eternal" do not mean a short duration. They do not mean life for a day, a week, a month, a year, nor even a hundred years. But they mean life for all time and all eternity.
The word "everlasting" in John 5:24 and John 3:36 which describes the life of the believer is the same word "everlasting" in Romans 16:26 that describes the duration of God, ". . according to the commandment of the everlasting God." If God Himself is everlasting, then the life of the believer is everlasting.
More than forty-five times the terms "eternal life" and "everlasting life" are used in the Bible. If the believer has anything, he has everlasting life; for that is precisely what God promised and God produced.
III. GOD NOT ONLY GIVES
ETERNAL LIFE, BUT PROMISES THAT THE BELIEVER WILL NEVER PERISHJohn 10:28 says, "And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand."
When you look up the word
"never" which occurs in John 10:28 in the Strong's Concordance, on
page 715, you find that it comes from four different Greek words, which
spelled in English letters are OUME, EIS, HO, and AION. Looking up each of
these words in turn in the Strong's Concordance you find that OUME
(#3364) means, "not at all, by no means, in no case, never." EIS (#1519)
means, 44place, time, purpose." HO Q3588) means "male, female, or (even)
neuter." AION Q165) means,
"perpetually, eternally."
Put the meanings of all these root words together; and you find that when Christ said "never" here in this verse, it carries with it very powerful assurance-more than one word "never" ordinarily carries with it in our minds.
Looking at John 10:28 with this additional light we could write it this way and give it the emphasis Christ did when He spoke it: "And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall NOT AT ALL, BY ANY MEANS, IN ANY CASE, IN ANY PLACE, AT ANY TIME, FOR ANY PURPOSE, WHETHER THEY ARE MALE OR FEMALE, PERPETUALLY AND ETERNALLY, ever perish. . . ."
IV. BELIEVERS ARE KEPT BY GOD, THEY DO NOT KEEP THEMSELVES
The Bible makes it plain again and again that the believer is kept by God. If we had to keep ourselves, I would admit that we could be lost again and probably would be. In one of Spurgeon's sermons he said, "If it should ever come to pass that sheep of God could fall away, alas my fickle, feeble soul would fall ten thousand times a day."
No, we cannot keep ourselves. Thank God, we are kept by God Himself! In H Timothy 1:12 Paul said, "For I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day." Here the apostle says, "I am persuaded [that is, I am thoroughly convinced] that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him."
It is my business to trust Jesus Christ as Savior. It is His business to keep me. First Peter 1:3-5 says:
"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection
of Jesus Christ from the dead, To an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you, Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time."In these verses we are told that the inheritance is reserved for us and we are reserved or kept for the inheritance. The Bible says, "To an inheritance incorruptible. . . ." That means that it will not corrupt, will not decay. It will last. It will be there when we get there. Peter continues, "To an in heritance incorruptible and undefiled, that fadeth not away. . . "
There have been occasions on earth when men have received a great inheritance; but when the lawyers, the courts and the state were finished, the majority of the inheritance had faded away. But here the Bible says our inheritance "fadeth not away." Then he continues:
". . reserved in heaven for you." It is reserved. No one can take it. It is yours if you have trusted Jesus Christ as Savior.But not only is the inheritance reserved in Heaven for you; but the Bible says, "Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation . . . ." The word "salvation" here denotes our final redemption, when we are saved from the very presence of sin, that is, when Jesus Christ comes for us and we see Him and are made exactly like Him.
No, the believer does not and could not keep himself. He is kept by God. John 10:28 says, "And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand." The believer is in the hand of God. And the Bible says that no man can pluck him out.
Several years ago I was discussing eternal security with another preacher. In the course of the conversation I read John 10:28, ". . neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand."
The preacher interrupted and said, "Yes. But the Bible does not say that we cannot get out of His hand."
I responded, "You do not build doctrine on what the Bible doesn't say. Rather, you build it on what the Bible does say." I continued, "The Bible says, 'neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.' You are a man, aren't you?"
"Why, yes," he said.
"In that case, you could not pluck yourself out of His hand either because the Bible says 'any man.'
1)John 6:39 says, "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." It is God's will that no saved person will ever be lost. He says He will "lose nothing." And since we are at least something, this means that we can never be lost again.
Colossians 3:3 says, "For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God." According to this verse, the believer is under double lock and key.
I heard an old preacher illustrate this verse by saying, "Suppose you had three barrels-a big barrel, a medium-sized barrel and a little barrel. You take the little barrel, and put it into the medium sized barrel, then put the medium-sized barrel into the big barrel. Then in order to get to the little barrel you would have to tear open the big barrel and the medium-sized barrel." He continued by saying, "God is the big barrel. Jesus is the medium-sized barrel, and I'm the little barrel. My life is hid with Christ in God." And he shouted, "Before the Devil could get to me, he would have to tear away the big barrel and the medium-sized barrel. And before he could ever do that, I would have already slipped away to Glory!"
V. JESUS IS THE SAVIOR
