John 10:28–29

Now notice the security of Christ's sheep. First, they have everlasting life. "I give them eternal life." This is His gift. It is in no way earned or deserved. No. "For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." Eternal life, then, comes to us as a gift. Christ does not give less. It is not life for a day or a year, but for ever — eternal life.

He gives them eternal life, eternal security, and assures them of divine care. Already the Lord has said that He came to give life to the sheep, and to give it abundantly. Now we learn that the life He gives is "eternal life" — the life that was with the Father and shown in the Person of the Son on earth. The sheep have this life in Christ. It is to be shown in them and enjoyed now, even if they only enter into its fulness when they are with Christ in life's eternal home.

First of all, the life is everlasting. But then it is not merely that the thing itself is eternal — they shall never perish. For it might be claimed that although the life lasts for ever, this depends on something in those who receive it. No: "they will never perish" — the sheep themselves. So not only the life, but those who have it by grace in Christ, shall never perish. Last of all, and crowning everything, their security answers the question of any hostile power… There was no inward source of weakness that could endanger the life, and so there should be no outward power to cause anxiety.

Some say that He said "no one can snatch them out of His hand", but we can do it ourselves by living in sin, and so on. The correct rendering of His words answers this fully: "they will never perish." It means literally, "they shall in no way ever perish." This is absolute; it covers everything.

"I give them eternal life." It is a life that is eternal, not a life to be taken away again… Christ must give eternal life; for if one of His sheep could perish, Christ must perish. And it must be a holy life too that He gives, for the same reason. What Christ gives must be holy, for He is holy. "They will never perish." A sheep is a perishing thing; but His sheep do not perish. There are two points to this security. First, Christ is in them, as their life. Second, they are in His hand… You must find someone more powerful than God, if you can be snatched out of His hand.

As sheep, our security is the responsibility of our Shepherd. Of each saved sheep it is written, "And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing." The struggle of the sheep would not be to keep on, but to get off. We are not saved by our "holding on". Sheep have no hands to hold on by… So the eternal safety of every sheep is the blessed Lord's own personal responsibility and care.

These words of our Lord Jesus give us full assurance that His sheep cannot perish. But one must be a sheep — a true believer in Jesus Christ. Someone who claims to be a Christian but has little or no thought for God's claims on his life may not be a sheep at all… His sheep have eternal life.

Nothing could answer the Jews' objection about Jesus' rights to the sheep more completely than this: the Father had given them to Him. It is this that makes us so precious to Him that He will never let us perish.

We have heard in the sixth chapter of the Father's gift to His Son. Reminded of that here, we learn how secure the sheep must be if His hand keeps them. It also shows how precious they must be to the Father. He will never drop them, or let anyone snatch even one of them out of His hand. And the Father and the Son can never differ in counsel or will about the security of the sheep, now or in the end, for He and the Father are one.

The remaining three things are these. (5) They have the assurance that they will never perish. (6) The Lord's own hand protects them. (7) Anyone trying to take them would have to reckon first with the Father, who "is greater than all," and whose hand covers them too.

But there was indeed a great secret between Him and His Father, stated here. "My Father, who has given them to me" — and that means not the sheep alone, but the whole work, plan, counsel, and glory. He "is greater than all," yes, greater than all things. And "no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand." Before, the point He had stated was that no one will; here it is that no one is able.

"No one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand." We are in the hand of the Son (v. 28), and in the hand of the Father (v. 29). "Kept by the power of God." 1 Peter 1:5. Our eternal security is in other and more powerful hands than our own.

What is the good of saying, "no one will snatch them out of my hand" (John 10:28)? Because we are in danger of being snatched. "Snatches" is the same word: "the wolf snatches them and scatters them." I have perfect security in the Lord's faithfulness, not in my own, and from this I get dependence on Him.

Here is a security that cannot be overturned. No failure inside them and no force outside them could put their life at risk. The Father and the Son keep that life, and they were no more truly one in divine nature than they were one in loving care for the sheep.