(The following is the April 18 devotional from my Next Step Devotions book. Before reading it, I suggest you read John 10 and pay close attention to verses 22-30.)
Perhaps you have heard some of these phrases: “once saved, always saved,” “eternal security of the believer,” or “perseverance of the saints.”
Different Christian traditions may teach conflicting doctrines regarding the above phrases. The first two mean that if someone is a true believer in Christ and has been saved by God, they can never lose that salvation. According to Wayne Grudem, the perseverance of the saints “means that all those who are truly born again will be kept by God’s power and will persevere as Christians until the end of their lives and that only those who persevere until the end have been truly born again.” *
Books on the subject haven’t settled the theological debate across centuries and denominations, and one page here won’t resolve it either. However, Jesus’ words in John 10 should encourage us regarding the security of our faith: “My sheep hear my voice, I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all. No one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand” (vv. 27-29).
These words assure us that God, who saved us, will hold on to us forever. If we are true (not false) converts and saved today, we can’t be unsaved tomorrow. Neither Satan nor any human enemy of Christ can snatch us out of the Father’s hand. Neither can we wiggle out ourselves. Just as parents hold children tightly in dangerous situations, our heavenly Father has us with a grip that will never let go.
Next Step:
Read the following passages for a more thorough look at knowing if we are born again and remaining a Christian: Matt. 7:21-23; 10:22; Mark 4:16-17; John 3:36; 5:24; 6:38-40,47; 8:31-32; 15:1-7; Rom. 8:1,28-30; Gal. 5:19-24; Eph. 1:13-14; Phil. 1:6; Col. 1:22-23; Heb. 3:14; 6:4-8; 1 Pet. 1:5; 2 Pet. 1:5-11; 1 John 2:3-5,19; 5:13.
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* Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology: An Introduction to Biblical Doctrine, 2nd ed., (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Academic, 2020), 970.
