Saved today, and lost tomorrow? (Part 2)

By Charles E. Wigg

I am sure that my brothers and sisters would agree that the words of the Lord Jesus Christ are a very firm and solid foundation on which to base our faith and doctrines. After all, He said, “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but My word shall not pass away”. (Matthew 24:35). Please note that this statement is made three times in the Gospel records as if to provide the safest and surest foundation for our faith. With this in mind, let us turn to the Gospel of John 10:3-30. In this chapter the Lord Jesus settles forever the question of the Eternal Security of the Believer. If we rest on His holy words in this respect, then we should never have a cause to worry. Because what He said is more reliable than both Heaven and earth; they will pass away before His Word can fail.

He begins by calling Himself, “The Good Shepherd”, (a truly comforting and assuring title). But He goes on to say that the Good Shepherd gives His life for the sheep. If He loved the sheep sufficiently so as to lay down His life for them, then it is reasonable to assume, that they cost Him so much and therefore He would never give them up, or let them go. From the very beginning, we are given to realize that our security is based on His love for us, (not on our love for Him). He goes on to say that His sacrifice was not out of necessity, but willingly. Though men treated Him brutally and murdered Him, yet it was He who allowed Himself to be laid down His life. This does not excuse men for what they did to Him, but it just magnifies His wondrous act of self-sacrificing love. In so doing, He gave the Father, another reason for loving Him. (verses 17 and 18).

Though this may be true, yet there lies another problem in the fact that He refers to those to whom He was speaking as “sheep”, yet they were not of His flock. Though He had the same love for all “sheep”, yet there were some that had obviously given themselves and their allegiance to another. How then are we to distinguish between those sheep that are His, and those that are not His? The short answer to this question is, “By examining their ways, their actions, and their re-actions”. In verses 3 and 4, Christ makes it plain that His sheep do certain things. First they are called, (by name), and they hear his voice, and they follow Him.
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