To: Hebraic-Foundations@yahoogroups.com
From: "Pastor Buddy Martin" <Bro.Buddy@ChristianChallenge.org>
Date sent: Mon, 15 Apr 2002 17:36:51 -0500
Subject: Bible Study HF060 - They Will Never Perish
Hebraics,
This study involves an issue of the security for believers. As a
backdrop let's consider this one statement made by the Lord. Jesus
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." (John 10:27,28)
This is Bible Study HF060 - They Will Never Perish.
In the chronology of the gospels it is the accepted that John's
gospel was the last to be written. It appears that each gospel was
written to a different mind set. Matthew was written primarily for the
Hebrew thinking people. It is the gospel of the kingdom. Mark was
written for a wider audience, primarily the Roman peoples. This is
why you find short, directed sentences. And Luke was addressed to
the Greek world. It has its flow of wisdom. (Written to "Most
excellent Theophilus", i.e., 'friend of God.')
John's gospel is very different. It was written with the Church
entirely in view. An ancient tradition says John wrote the gospel
representatively of the other disciples. This may be the case. In the
concluding part of the book, John says, "This is the disciple who is
testifying to these things and wrote these things, and WE know that
his testimony is true." (John 21:24) The WE indicates other
witnesses.
The gospel of John provides spiritual insights into salvation that are
intended for believers only. Beginning with chapter 13, and reading
through chapter 17, the believer finds himself drawn to the heart of
God. But the entire book is a flow of realities. This is because
John's gospel has a purpose in that it intends to provide a sense of
security for the believer. It was during the time of John that the
Church was under one of her most intense persecutions.
Here are some samplings of the security aspect of John's gospel, as
they apply to believers:
"For of His fullness we have all received, and grace upon
grace."
(John 1:16)
"As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must
the
Son of Man be lifted up; so that whoever believes will in Him have
eternal life." (John 3:14,15)
"For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son,
that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal
life."
(John 3:16)
"Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes
Him
who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but
has passed out of death into life." (John 5:24)
"I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me will not hunger, and
he
who believes in Me will never thirst." (John 6:35)
"All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who
comes to Me I will certainly not cast out." (John 6:37)
"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 6:39,40)
"Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father, comes to
Me." (John 6:45)
"Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes has eternal
life." (John
6:47)
"He who believes in Me, as the Scriptures said, 'From his
innermost
being will flow rivers of living water!" (John 7:38)
"Truly, truly, I say to you, if anyone keeps My word he will never
see
death." (John 8:51)
"My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow
Me..."
(John 10:27)
I'll leave off the quotations for now. If you follow through the
remainder of this gospel, you will see how the sense of security
intensifies. One other high point is where Jesus says, "They are not
of the world, even as I am not of the world." (John 17:16) This
statement carries the heart of our salvation.
The reason such security flows through the gospel of John has to do
with how our salvation works. When a person is born from above,
there is a merging of the believer's life with the life of Jesus. Thus
the believer and the Lord become perfectly one in life. Jesus
became what we were, so that we could become what He is. This is
why Paul said, "But the one who joins himself to the Lord is one
spirit with Him." (1Co6:17)
This merging takes place on two levels. On the positional side,
Jesus Christ represents every believer in the heavenly sphere, that
is, every believer has Jesus as his or her personal representative
before the throne of God. In this case, a believer cannot be
separated from Jesus. John said, "As He [Christ] is, so also are we
in this world." This is our oneness of identification.
Therefore, a believer's life cannot be separated from the life of
Christ. His righteousness becomes our righteousness. His seat in
heaven becomes our seat. His future is our future, and so on. A
shortened way of saying this is that in God's redemption program,
God so identifies the believer with Jesus Christ, that He never sees
the believer aside from Christ.
On the experiential side, the life of Jesus is poured out into the
hearts of believers at the the moment of the heavenly birth. This is
why the believer undergoes a nature change. We have a perfect
blending of our life with the life of Christ. No one can be born again
and not know it. If this were the case, then a person could lose the
life of Christ and never miss it. But because it is the Spirit of Christ
that is poured out within our hearts, again we have perfect
identification, but this time we identify with Him by experience. (The
Bible says that our life is hidden with God in Christ. Cf. Col3:3)
All this will help us understand the statement Jesus made
concerning His sheep. He said, "I give eternal life to them, and they
will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of My hand."
(John 10:28) Notice Jesus said it that it was He Himself who gives
eternal life to His sheep. But we miss the point if we don't
understand what eternal life is. Eternal life is found only in the Son.
It is not in religion. It is His life that is given to each believer.
John explains in one of his other writings that eternal life is the
life
of Jesus. He says, "He who has the Son has the life; he who does
not have the Son of God does not have the life." (1John5:12)
Where Jesus says, "And they will never perish," this simply
means
that a believers salvation is in the hands of Jesus. The only way a
believer could be lost is if Jesus casts them away. But He said this
could not happen. 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." (John 6:37)
The great apostle Paul added to this is saying that nothing can
separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Our salvation is a work of God's love. We are saved because He
first loved us. We are kept because of His love. Our daily salvation
is a work of God's love. All our deliverances from our sins and
failings are a result of His love.
To hasten this study to a close, I want to qualify a statement I've
used throughout the study. I've not used a platitude as 'Once saved,
always saved.' This is not a good term in describing Biblical
salvation. What the Bible teaches is the 'security of the believer.'
But the Bible also teaches that a believer's salvation is the
outworking of God Himself. Paul said, "For it is God who is at work
in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure." (Phil2:13)
Our English word believe doesn't carry the weight for the Greek
word 'pisteuo.' We think of believing as a mental activity. While
the
Greek term doesn't set that aside, that in itself is not its focus for the
word
believe in the Bible. In the Bible, believing is a thing of the heart. The
heart
represents the deepest part of the human makeup.
When Jesus says, "He who believes has eternal life," the
emphasis
is on something that has transpired in a believer. This 'something' is
a possession. In believing there is a transposition or transformation
of life. To believe in the Bible sense means to receive. Paul said
that with the heart a person believes unto righteousness. Therefore
righteousness is a heart issue. The miracle of the new birth is in
believing. Jesus said, 'He who believes, has.'
Part of the problem in dealing with a study of this nature is that
many Christians have been so entrenched with the idea of failings
and fears that they lack any sense of security in their salvation
experience.
There is much more to be said but I'll leave the study open. Please
feel free to ask questions or offer your thoughts. Let's talk about it.
Blessings,
Buddy
Lawrence E. (Buddy) Martin, HF Host
email: Bro.Buddy@ChristianChallenge.org
Web: http://www.ChristianChallenge.org
"See to it that no one comes short of the grace
of God; that no root of bitterness springing up
causes trouble, and by it many be defiled." (Heb12:15)