Is eternal security biblical?

At the Feast of Dedication, commemorating the cleansing of the Temple and rededication by Judas Maccabaeus after the desecration by Antiochus, (See Daniel 8:9-14) the Lord continued His blessed teaching, ending it once more with a great revelation of Himself. He makes a most blessed addition to His previous instructions concerning Himself and His sheep. "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." Here we have the comforting assurance of the absolute security of every sheep of Christ. Eternal life is a present and personal possession, not something which comes after death. It is therefore an abiding possession and cannot be lost. Then He Who is the Life and the Light, the Way and the Truth, assures us that His sheep shall never perish. Some say that He said "no one can pluck them out of His hand" but we can do it ourselves by living in sin, etc. This is fully answered by the correct rendering of His words, "they shall never perish." It means literally: "they shall in no wise ever perish." This is absolute; it covers everything.

But, besides this, the unbelief of the Jews brings out another thing; that is, the perfect security of the sheep — a very important question, because He was going to die. His death is in view: what will the sheep do then? Would the death of Christ in any way imperil the sheep? The very reverse. The Lord declares this in a most distinct manner. He 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." (Verses 27, 28) First of all, the life is everlasting. But then it is not merely that the thing itself is eternal, but they shall never perish; for it might be pretended, that though the life lasts for ever, this is conditional on something in its recipients. Nay, "they shall never perish" — the sheep themselves. Thus, not merely the life, but those who have it by grace in Christ, shall never perish. To conclude and crown all, as far as their security was concerned, the question is answered as to any hostile power. What about some one external to them? Nay; there again, as there was no internal source of weakness that could jeopard the life, so there should be no external power to cause anxiety. If there was any power that might do so righteously, surely it must be God's own; but, contrariwise, they were in the Father's hand, no less than in the Son's hand — none could pluck them out. Thus the Lord fenced them round even by His death, as well as by that eternal life which was in Him, the superiority of which over death was proved by His authority to take it again in resurrection. This was the life more abundantly which they derived from Him. Why should any one wonder at its power? He was, for the sheep, against all adversaries; and so was the Father. Yea, "I and the Father are one." (Verses 29, 30)

And, again later on, see the full security and extent of blessing they have in virtue of the Shepherd's title and power. "I give unto them eternal life." It is a life that is eternal, not that which is to be taken away again. Whoever has heard Christ's voice has eternal life. It must be eternal life that Christ gives; 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 shall never perish." A sheep is a perishing thing; but His sheep do not perish. We may fall asleep, or we may be changed; but the same life that we have now in Him and with Him we shall have then at His coming. There are two points in which this blessed security consists. First, Christ is in them, as their life; secondly, "None shall pluck them out of my hand." They are in His hand. The Father has given us to Christ, and He is to do the work for us. The Father's love is concerned, and He is able to do it all. You must get some one more powerful than God, if you can be plucked out of His hand. The Father sent the Son and the Son has sent the Spirit, so that all three are concerned in our salvation.

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. One 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. The Shepherd thinks too much of His sheep to lose even one. The Father gave them to His Son and He gave His life for them. They have eternal life. It would not be eternal life if they were saved for only a period of time and then lost again; it would be temporary life!

In the tenth chapter of the gospel by John, the Lord sets forth most perfect assurances of the believer's security. In the 28th verse He says, "I give unto them eternal life" — He Himself, emphatically, gives — the eternal Son of God gives — this is one assurance. His unfailing word is another. "And they shall never perish" they shall not ever — thus the Lord's "not" stands between His sheep and "ever perish," therefore, if one were to perish the word of the Lord would have failed — an utter impossibility, an impossibility so impossible that we may lay us down upon our beds and sleep into eternity, satisfied in its security, depending upon His own character and glory. Yet further, the Lord says, "neither shall any pluck them out of My hand." His own power will keep His own against all enemies; no man, no devil, shall ever catch one of the least out of His keeping. As for the sheep slipping out of His hand, such thoughts are bred and born out of the corruption of self-confidence; they have their origin in the vain presumption that a man can keep himself, and in the denial of scripture, which tells us we are kept by the power of God.

When the Lord Jesus Christ told the proud, empty religionists of His day that He gave His sheep eternal life, and that they should never perish, we read, “Then the Jews took up stones again to stone Him.” Their frigid legality did not like grace. When the Saviour of sinners proclaimed the everlasting blessing of those who accepted His grace, they stooped down, and took up stones to stone the Saviour of sinners. Fancy that! But the human heart is the same today. There are those who do the same thing even now. They won’t take up literal stones, but they oppose the very gospel of God. If we preach “once saved, saved for ever,” they will persecute us, and say we hold dangerous doctrine, and quote a few verses out of their connection to prove that what we say is false. “They shall never perish,” is what the Saviour said, and what we will continue to say by the grace of God. For how long, then, are those who trust in the Lord Jesus Christ saved? For ever. We don’t believe in those people, who say they are in Christ today, and out of Him tomorrow; those who are saved today, and lost tomorrow. The Scriptures know nothing of such a gospel as this. When God picks up a sinner to bless, He saves him eternally. We want no hook-and-eye Christians, those that can be hooked on today and hooked off tomorrow. Jesus has become “the Author of eternal salvation.” Here is a grand text for you, “KEPT by the power of God.”

Nothing comes before us in the New Testament with more clearness than the truth of the eternal security of all who are in Christ. We were chosen in Him before the foundation of the world, and in time called by the gospel and drawn by the Father to Christ, who gave to us His Holy Spirit, thus attaching us to Himself and making us conscious of the love of God, so that we can cry, “Abba! Father!” and by and bye He will change our bodies and glorify us with Himself according to eternal counsel. The rebellion of the creature, be that creature man or devil, could no more alter or interfere with the perfect fulfilment of all this than could a new-born infant with uplifted finger stop the clockwork of the solar system. Our glory with Christ was just as certain when it was planned in the past, before the world was, as it will be when it shall be perfected in the new heaven and new earth, where all things will be of God and where God shall be all in all. We are His workmanship. Our fall or recovery, our faith or unbelief, our weakness or strength, our willing or running, our life or death, has nothing to do with it. God has His counsels concerning His Son, and He is perfectly able, without our assistance, and in spite of our resistance, to carry out these counsels, and He will, “For whom He did foreknow He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the Firstborn among many brethren. Moreover, whom He did predestinate, them He also called: and whom He called, them He also justified: and whom He justified, them He also glorified” (Rom. 8:29-30).

Our inference is that the conditions of ultimate salvation are continuous, extending through probation and not completed in any one act. A careful study of the Greek will convince the student that it is a great mistake to teach that a single act of faith furnishes a person with a paid-up non-forfeitable policy, assuring the holder that he will inherit eternal life, or that a single energy of faith secures a through ticket for heaven, as is taught by the Plymouth Brethren, and by some popular lay evangelists. The Greek tenses show that faith is a state, a habit of mind into which the believer enters at justification.

"If the Son shall make you free ye shall be free indeed." We will look a little into this matter of freedom. It is said some believed on Him, and the Lord says to them, "If ye continue in my word then are ye my disciples indeed." Now that is not the way some of us would have spoken. Some of us are very fond of that expression, "Once saved for ever saved," but it is not a scriptural expression and therefore to be avoided, and, moreover, it has obtained with some a very false idea attached to it. Practically with some it has come to mean that if some time or other, by hook or by crook, you can get yourself to believe or fancy that you believe that you are saved, then you are safe for ever, and no matter what you do nothing will upset this. Well, such an idea as this is certainly not the gospel of God. It is perfectly true that when God begins a work in a soul God will go on with the work in that soul for ever, but the only test of reality is continuance, and if you do not continue, you have no ground for saying you are saved.

"He that endureth to the end, the same shall be saved." Some say, Oh! that is said to the Jew. True, it is so: but it is as true of you and of me as of the Jew. Do you understand scripture so little as not to see that while there is a present salvation there is also a salvation which is future; see, for instance, 1 Thess. 5:8-9. Who are the people who get this? Are they the ones who prove their reality by continuance or the reverse? The passage is as true of me as of the Jew, and I say, If I remain to the end I shall be saved. Does this disturb me? Not at all. I know God has wrought in me, and I know that He will continue to do so. I am quite at rest about it. If, however, a professed believer turns away, and does not endure, but lives in sin, can we say that it is sure to be well with him? Never. The proof of reality is continuance. The proof that it is going to be well with you at the end is that it is well with you to-day. There is every comfort in scripture for the man who is connected with Christ to-day. I believe we do not half enough press the living present reality of God's blessing, but rather try and rest on the past.

Now, mark the security of Christ's sheep. 1st. They have everlasting life. "I give unto them eternal life." This is His gift. It is in no way earned or deserved. No. "The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." Eternal life, then, comes to us in the way of gift. Christ does not give less. It is not life for a day or a year, but for ever — eternal life. Your life is hid with Christ in God. Christ is our life. Christ is the Giver, the sinner the receiver. My dear reader, have you really received this gift of God? Have you eternal life? I trust you will not rest for a moment, till you are certain that you have eternal life. Oh, you must have eternal life, or you will be in everlasting burnings! "He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him." (John 3:36.)