The Eternal Security of the Christian Believer
The following article is an excerpt from "A Book of Bible Study"
by Joseph F. Harwood.
The book may be downloaded in PDF format by clicking on the “Download” button below.
The question sometimes arises as to whether someone who has come to faith in Christ can lose their salvation. As with any question that we may have regarding our faith and the Christian life, we always go to the word of God to find our answers. There are several passages in the Bible that speak to the degree of certainty we have regarding our salvation, and to what extent our perseverance or continuance in this state of grace depends upon our own actions after we are saved.
We may have some questions for which there are no direct answers in the Scriptures; there are some things that we will not understand until we are finally together with the Lord in Heaven. However, the issue of our eternal security and perseverance in the faith is not one of those things that we will have to wait to understand, because the Bible speaks to this issue extensively in several passages. Let us now look at what God reveals through His word about the eternal certainty and security of the salvation that He has provided for us as His people through the atoning death of His Son, Jesus Christ.
There can be no better place to begin than to look first at the words of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Recorded in John 6, Jesus said:
“All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out. For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me. This is the will of Him who sent Me, that of all that He has given Me I lose nothing, but raise it up on the last day. For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him will have eternal life, and I Myself will raise him up on the last day.” (John 6:37-40, emphasis added).
This passage speaks very clearly to the issue of the eternal security of the believer. Jesus said that all of those who have been given to Him by the Father, or God’s elect, will in fact come to Him. Then in the same verse Jesus said regarding those who do come to Him, that He will certainly not cast them out, and He said this with no mention of any added conditions whatsoever, or any mention of their performance after they are saved.
Jesus emphasized the same point again in the following two verses when He said that He had come down from Heaven not to do His own will, but the will of His Father who had sent Him. Jesus then revealed that it is the will of His Father that He would lose none of those who had been given to Him, but He would raise them up at the last day. So here is the same teaching of the eternal security of the believer given again in this same passage, in clear language.
In the final verse of this passage Jesus reiterates this same message of the eternal security of the believer yet a third time, when He said that everyone who looks to Him and believes in Him will have eternal life together with Him in Heaven. Let us notice in this verse that Jesus did not say that some of those who to look to Him and believe in Him will have eternal life, depending on what they may do after they are saved. However, He did say clearly, and with no added conditions or any mention of a believer’s performance after they are saved, that everyone who looks to Him and believes in Him will have eternal life; He will raise them up at the last day. So, we see that three times in this passage of John 6:37-40, Jesus emphasized that our salvation in Him is an eternal certainty.
Going just a few verses further in John 6, we will consider once again a teaching that we studied previously when we discussed predestination and the effectual calling of God. Here Jesus said: “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day.” (John 6:44).
In the first part of this verse, Jesus taught that no one is able to come to Him unless the Father draws them, or calls them. Then in the second part of the verse, Jesus taught that those individuals whom God does call will be raised up at the last day. There is no condition at all attached to His statement. Jesus stated clearly that those whom God draws, or calls, will be raised up at the last day, meaning that all who receive God’s calling to faith in His Son will be saved, and none will be lost. Jesus also communicated this same truth in clear, unambiguous language in John 6:39.
In John 10, Jesus again spoke of the eternal certainty and security of our salvation when He said: “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.” (John 10:27-30).
Those whom Jesus referred to as His sheep are those whom the Father has given to Him. These are the elect, whom God foreknew from before the creation of the world. God’s elect have already, or will at some point in time, be called by Him to faith in Christ, and they manifest in their lives the calling of God by their belief in Christ and their love for other believers. Speaking of these, Jesus said that they will never perish. Jesus did not say that they will never perish unless they disobey to some degree after they are saved, but He did say succinctly, and without any added conditions at all, that they will never perish.
Jesus then continued in this passage to teach that no one is able to snatch one of His sheep out of His hand, or His Father’s hand. Neither we ourselves, by our own actions or failings, nor any other created being, is able to snatch any believer out of God’s hand.
In conclusion, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ Himself told us in clear language that all of those whom the Father has given to Him (His sheep, or the elect) will come to Him. He also said that whoever comes to Him, He will never drive away. Jesus then said that He did not come to do His own will, but His Father’s will. And then He said that it was His Father’s will that He would lose none of those who had been given to Him, but they would all be raised up at the last day. (John 6:37-40).
Jesus also taught us that as His sheep, we are known by Him. He said that He gives us eternal life, and we will never perish. Jesus said further that no one can snatch us out of His hand or His Father’s hand (John 10:27-30). And no one means that not even we are able to snatch ourselves out of God’s hand through any transgression of our own.
Paul taught us that there is no power in all of creation that is able to separate believers from the love of God, which is ours in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 8:31-39). Paul taught us again in Romans 8 that our salvation is God’s own doing from beginning to end (Romans 8:29-30). And he also taught us clearly that the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable (Romans 11:29).
We also see from the Scriptures that we are not kept safe by our own power and ability to obey God, but we are kept safe by the power of God, and He is the One who will preserve us in our faith to the end (1 Peter 1:4-5, 1 Corinthians 1:8-9, 1 Thessalonians 5:23-24). Let us therefore be fully and completely confident, as Paul was when he assured us: “He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 1:6).
God Himself began the work of salvation within us, and God Himself will carry our salvation through to its completion. Let us rejoice and give thanks to God the Father of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, because He has guaranteed our salvation from beginning to end, and He has left none of it in our own hands.