They Shall Never Perish
The Lord Jesus Christ affirms that he gives to his sheep “eternal life; and they shall never perish.” Nothing could be clearer.
• 9 September 2019 • 10 minutes read
Our Lord Jesus Christ himself proclaimed, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).
This promise is exceedingly great and precious to the Christian. All our hope rests here.
Can a Christian lose his or her salvation? Some Arminians say “yes” and some say “no.” Those who say “yes” argue as follows: “Your salvation is dependent upon your faith (i.e. upon your believing in Christ). Therefore, if you stop believing that the Lord Jesus Christ has saved you, then you lose your salvation. You must keep the faith in order to remain saved.” Other Arminians sincerely believe in what they call eternal security, by which they mean essentially the same thing as Calvinists mean when we speak of the preservation of the saints. Same as we do, they rest all their hope upon God’s gospel promises of the Bible, that say Christians shall not perish but have everlasting life, because the Saviour has saved them.
Those people whom Jesus has saved cannot lose their salvation. We affirm that this keeping of Christians in the state of salvation is God’s work, and so we speak of God’s preservation of his saints. “Once saved always saved”, as the saying goes. I think Thomas Boston’s saying is better: “Once in Christ, ever in Him.”1
Any belief system that teaches that a person’s own faith is (partly or wholly) their own work, and that therefore their salvation depends upon their faith, has the tendency to weaken people’s faith in Christ, to remove their assurance of salvation, and to prevent them trusting and hoping in Christ alone.
“I Give Unto Them Eternal Life”
The Lord Jesus Christ affirms that he gives to his sheep “eternal life; and they shall never perish” (John 10:28). Nothing could be clearer. In Jesus’s illustration, those people who are his “sheep” are those who hear his voice and follow him (v.27). Yes we know, sadly, how many times we, Christ’s sheep, stray from those “paths of righteousness” (Psalm 23:3) which he leads us in; and so our Lord must “turn us again” (Psalm 80:3,7,19) until we have returned to following him; and he must lift us out of all manner of snares, thickets, miry clay and pits—wherever our sins have carried us, in order to keep us safe. But with such a Good Shepherd as our Saviour is, not one of his sheep will perish!
Christ immediately adds to this magnificent declaration of the truth of salvation, two magnificent promises: “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. I and my Father are one” (John 10:28-30). Again, nothing could be clearer.
Once a person has been saved by the Saviour, he or she will always remain saved—or salvation is not salvation! Those who are truly converted cannot be lost again. They have been given eternal life, and they shall never perish. This is what Christ himself has said. This is what we should believe.
We Shall Always Continue To Be His Sheep
But eternal-security deniers argue, “It is only those of Christ’s sheep who continue to listen to his voice (in the Bible), and who continue to follow him, who will never perish. But if they fail to do this, then they cease to be Christ’s sheep, and they will perish.”
In other words, they assert that you, Christian, cannot entirely trust upon Christ’s promises that you have been given eternal life, and that you shall never perish, and that you are kept secure, saved, safe in both Christ’s and the Father’s hand. They are saying, “While it is true that no-one can pluck you out of Christ’s and the Father’s hands, yet you can let go, or you can pluck yourself out of their hands, and so you may perish in the end.”
But the Lord Jesus has proclaimed: “For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me. And this is the Father’s will which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day. And this is the will of him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day” (John 6:38-40).
Immediately here, the deniers interject, “Ah, but what if we later fail to continue believing? Christ may not lose any who believe in him, but whoever stops believing in him will be lost.”
No. Christ says that he loses none of those whom the Father gives to him in the covenant of redemption: “…of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing” (John 6:39).
There is Hope For Us
Genuine Christians can and do go through times of doubt, down-heartedness and lack of assurance. For some of us, these seasons may be very deep and very long—all the while we are looking at our own sinful unworthiness, so that Christ becomes eclipsed for a dark season.
“There is no hope for me,” we may be telling ourselves, and telling anyone else we dare to let into our heart. We may fall into the dreadful state of not daring to hope that Christ died “for me.” We may be tormented by many false ideas and false teachings.
While going through these times of despondency we crave assurance of salvation, fearing for our own souls because we know that we deserve hell. But we should not fear—because the Father has given us to his Son, who is now our Good Shepherd, and he will never lose us. The Holy Spirit will bring us again to know that we have everlasting life, and that our Triune God will never leave us nor forsake us (Hebrews 13:5).
The apostle Peter teaches us that those for people who are the “Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ”:
- They are truly “begotten…again” Christians;
- They already possess “an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven” for them;
- They themselves are “kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation;” and
- The fullest manifestation of their salvation waiting to be revealed in their future—“ready to be revealed in the last time”
(all in 1 Peter 1:2-5).
We Don’t Keep Ourselves Saved
This is precisely what Calvinists believe. Whereas deniers of this doctrine think that they are only “kept by the power of God” so long as they, of themselves, continue to believe in Christ. They argue, “Can’t you see that you are missing Peter’s point in this passage? He says ‘kept by the power of God through faith…’ So, if we lose our faith, we are lost.”
Deniers of God’s preservation of his saints have no hope to hold out to Christians who are struggling with lack of assurance. They distort this gloriously encouraging doctrine about being kept by the power of the Almighty God, into their false doctrine that we have to keep ourselves saved, so long as we can, through our continuing to have faith. It is they, not we, who have missed Peter’s point.
Besides, we read elsewhere in the Bible that God gave us our faith. For the true Christian, faith in the gospel is not somehow self-generated; it is an integral part of “the gift of God” to us (Ephesians 2:8). And such a God-given faith, although we may neglect to remind ourselves of it, or we may be distracted from it, or we may lack assurance many times—such a God-given faith cannot be lost or destroyed, same as the Christian’s salvation cannot be lost or destroyed.
Of course, it is we who believe. And of course, we must endeavour to “continue in faith” (Acts 14:22; Colossians 1:23). But this faith is not self-generated, and this continuation is not self-maintained.
To assert that, “If you lose your faith, you lose your salvation” is to fail to understand that true, Triune God-wrought salvation can never be broken or undone—and to fail to understand that God never takes back the faith in Christ that he gives those whom he saves.
All thanks be to God—for every part of our salvation comes from our Triune God alone. Salvation is soli Deo gloria—to the glory of God alone.
Appendix
The Canons of Dort, Head 1 Articles 3, 14, and 15 .
Article 3
By reason of these remains of indwelling sin, and the temptations of sin and of the world, those who are converted could not persevere in a state of grace if left to their own strength. But God is faithful, who having conferred grace, mercifully confirms and powerfully preserves them therein, even to the end.Article 14
And as it hath pleased God, by the preaching of the gospel, to begin this work of grace in us, so He preserves, continues, and perfects it by the hearing and reading of His Word, by meditation thereon, and by the exhortations, threatenings, and promises thereof, as well as by the use of the sacraments.Article 15
The carnal mind is unable to comprehend this doctrine of the perseverance of the saints and the certainty thereof, which God hath most abundantly revealed in His Word, for the glory of His Name, and the consolation of pious souls, and which He impresses upon the hearts of the faithful. Satan abhors it; the world ridicules it; the ignorant and hypocrite abuse, and heretics oppose it; but the spouse of Christ hath always most tenderly loved and constantly defended it as an inestimable treasure; and God, against whom neither counsel nor strength can prevail, will dispose her to continue this conduct to the end. Now, to this one God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, be honor and glory forever. Amen.
Thomas Boston, Human Nature in its Fourfold State, Part 3, Section 2. [Additional reference provided in square brackets.]
It is an indissoluble union. Once in Christ, ever in Him. Having taken up His habitation in the heart, He never removes. None can untie this happy knot. Who will dissolve this union? Will He Himself? No, He will not; we have His word for it, “I will not turn away from them” (Jeremiah 32:40). But perhaps the sinner will do this mischief to himself? No, he shall not; “they shall not depart from me,” says their God [also in Jeremiah 32:40]. Can devils do it? No, unless they be stronger than Christ and His Father too; “Neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand,” says our Lord (John 10:28). “And none is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand” (John 10:29). But what say you of death, which parts husband and wife; yea, separates the soul from the body? Will not death do it? No: the apostle (Romans 8:38-39) is “persuaded that neither death,” terrible as it is, “nor life,” desirable as it is; “nor” devils, those evil “angels, nor” the devil’s persecuting agents, though they be “principalities, or powers” on earth; “nor” evil “things present,” already lying on us; “nor” evil “things to come” on us; “nor” the “height” of worldly felicity; “nor depth” of worldly misery; “nor any other creature,” good or evil, “shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” As death separated Christ’s soul from His body, but could not separate either His soul or body from His divine nature; so, though the saints should be separated from their nearest relations in the world, and from all their earthly enjoyments; yea, though their souls should be separated from their bodies, and their bodies separated in a thousand pieces, their bones scattered, “as one cutteth or cleaveth wood;” (Psalm 141:7) yet soul and body shall remain united to the Lord Christ, for even in death, “they sleep in Jesus” (1 Thessalonians 4:14); and “He keepeth all their bones” (Psalm 34:20). Union with Christ is “the grace wherein we stand,” firm and stable, “as Mount Zion, which cannot be removed.”