Wednesday, October 23, 2019

Perseverance in the Good Hands of Jesus

I have discovered that there are people who will fight against the doctrine of perseverance with every ounce of energy they can generate. Frankly, I just don't get it. The doctrine that they are fighting is security in the hands of Jesus. But, in its place, they defend a Christian life of terror, the belief that you can fall from grace at any moment. They believe that you might be saved today, but you can know nothing about tomorrow. How is that better?

No matter what they might claim, the Bible says no such thing. It presents a Christian life of peace with God, though in conflict with the world. This is all over the Bible. The strongest assertions of it are in the words of Jesus in John 10:27-30: "My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. I and the Father are one." And in the words of Paul in Romans 8:38-39: "I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord."

But, in addition to these prosaic promises, we have beautiful poetic expressions of security in the Psalms. 

Psalm 37:28, "The LORD loves justice; He will not forsake His saints. They are preserved forever, but the children of the wicked shall be cut off."

Psalm 97:10, "O you who love the LORD, hate evil! He preserves the lives of His saints; He delivers them from the hand of the wicked."

Psalm 145:20, "The LORD preserves all who love Him, but all the wicked He will destroy."

In these and so many other beautiful words, the Bible tells us that the saved man can never fall permanently back into unbelief. Never.


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