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1st of all, in John 10:27-28 we find the words, My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall anyone pluck them out of my hand.
This of course is to be interpreted by Matthew 7:23, where Jesus says, And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.
Also in Matthew 13:41-42 we find the words, The Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity: And shall cast them into the furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth.
In these scriptures we find that those who have eternal life and shall never perish and cannot be removed from Jesus' hand, are known by Jesus; but of course Jesus never knew them which do or work iniquity. Therefore the promise of eternal security in John 10:28 is for those who don't do or work iniquity.
This is substantiated by a comparison of 1 John 2:17, which also speaks of eternal security, and 1 John 3:6. I quote them below:
1 John 2:17, And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.
1 John 3:6, Whosoever abideth in him sinneth not: whosoever sinneth hath not seen him, neither known him.
This indicates to me that those who are abiding in the vine, Jesus Christ (see John 15:1-8), will abide for ever (and this is eternal security); but that those who abide in Jesus sin not: and since I do not want to argue here the idea of entire sanctification (sometimes slandered by the misnomer sinless perfection), we will say that what this means is that there will be a radical life change in the heart and life of all those who are truly born again: we have made a 180-degree turn; we were once walking in the direction of sin, hell, and death: now we are walking in the direction of righteousness, heaven, and life; as a matter of fact we have life: and that abundant (John 10:10) and eternal/everlasting (John 3:14-16, John 5:24, John 6:47, etc.).
Now the second point I want to make in this thread is that the fear of falling away is one of the reasons by which anyone might be eternally secure in the Lord. Consider:
Jeremiah 32:38-40, And they shall be my people, and I will be their God. And I will give them one heart, and one way, that they may fear me for ever, for the good of them, and of their children after them.: And I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from them, to do them good; but I will put my fear in their hearts, that they shall not depart from me.
This scripture tells us that there is a group of people who will be the people of God; and God will be their God. They will fear Him for ever; that is, their fear of Him will never have an end. He will make a covenant with them that will last for ever, and will not turn away from doing them good for ever. And finally, they will not depart from Him because of His fear in their hearts; while He previously said they would fear Him for ever. So they will fear Him for ever; and this fear that will last for ever will keep them from departing from Him.
Now it has been argued that this scripture is given only to Israel, and if you want to argue that as a Gentile, that is fine with me. You are excluding yourself from this promise of eternal security in your own thinking; and I will not try to dissuade you from believing that which will harm you in the long run. I will only mention that in 2 Timothy 2:25 and elsewhere, the Bible speaks of that group of people who oppose themselves; and gives ministers of the word the instruction not to argue with them but to gently instruct them in the spirit of meekness.
I will point out that in Romans 11, there is the doctrine that the Gentiles are now graffed in to the olive tree that in scripture represents the people of Israel; and how the seed of Jacob has been cut off from that olive tree so that we as wild olive branches might be graffed in. Now I am not saying that Replacement Theology is true; because I believe that the promises of God to Israel apply to the seed of Jacob; but I will say this: that according to Romans 11 we can obtain the promises that are mentioned in the Old Testament; and if they are given to Israel, we can also partake of them (see Hebrews 11:33, 2 Peter 1:3-4, 2 Corinthians 1:20): because as born again believers we also are governed by God.
So I wanted to mention one last thing about the fear of falling away in scripture, though there is probably much more to say on the issue:
In Romans 11:19-22 there are the following statements:
Thou wilt say then, The branches were broken off, that I might be graffed in. Well; because of unbelief they were broken off, and thou standest by faith. Be not highminded, but fear: For if God spared not the natural branches, take heed lest he also spare not thee. Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God: on them which fell, severity: but toward thee, goodness, if thou continue in his goodness: otherwise thou also shalt be cut off.
Here we find a few things. We stand by faith and by continuing in His goodness according to this scripture. There is the possibility that we will not be saved if we do not continue in His goodness and faith; He will not spare us just as He did not spare certain of the Jewish people who departed from Him because of unbelief (note that Jeremiah 32:38-40, as pertains to the Jewish people, refers to the last days, and not to those who fell away because of unbelief at the time that the Gentiles were graffed in). He will be good to us as long as we continue to be good. Of course no one is good but God, if you take Luke 18:19 at face value. However this was spoken by Jesus before the Cross, and the Holy Spirit was not yet given, His blood not yet shed for our sins. Not only does His blood cleanse us from all sin (1 John 1:7, Psalms 51:7), but His Holy Spirit comes in and produces the fruit of goodness in our lives (Galatians 5:22-23). He sheds abroad His love in our hearts (Romans 5:5), which is the fulfilling of the law (Romans 13:8-10, Romans 8:4). So by faith in Jesus Christ we obtain the goodness of God which we live by as true Christians. Barnabas was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and faith (Acts of the Apostles 11:22-24).
Here I will not argue whether the person who walks in His goodness for a season and is later cut off was never saved in the first place: to me it is something of a moot point. This scripture is an exhortation to fear the Lord and to continue in His goodness; and this fear of the Lord would indeed be the fear of falling away from faith in Him.
As a final note I want to add what it says in Philippians 1:6,
Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.
Therefore confident faith is not a bad thing; but it is highminded confidence, or presumption, that we are to look out for, and seek to eradicate from our thinking. In Philippians 1:6 it is given as an exhortation that we ought to be confident; while in Romans 11:19-22 the exhortation is to not be highminded but fear.
In Hebrews 11:29 we have the answer: By faith they passed through the Red sea as by dry land: which the Egyptians assaying to do were drowned.
If you have a living and saving faith in Jesus Christ, you can confidently traverse the depths of the Red sea as though it were dry land (in the allegorical sense); but woe to the person who thinks they can do the same because someone else did or because they think they have faith when they really don't, i.e. they assay to do something that they don't really have faith for, out of presumption.
Now faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God; so if I have a diet of reading the word of God and really hearing in my heart its message, and receiving it, I will have faith. But if at any time my heart gets hardened and I reject any portion of what God is trying to say to me, I am in danger of walking down a path that I eventually may never be able to return from. It says in Hebrews 3:12-15,
Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God. but exhort one another daily, while it is called To day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end. While it is said, To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation.
This is written to the brethren, and warns that even as believers we might be hardened in our hearts through the deceitfulness of sin, and end up departing from our living God because of an evil heart of unbelief. We are made partakers of Christ (that is, we are saved), if we keep our confidence and faith stedfast unto the end. This indicates that if my faith does not persevere to the end, I was never a partaker of Christ (saved).
So we ought to believe in and fear the Lord for ever as a motivation to never depart or fall away from God. I believe that as long as we fear falling away, this will keep us within the boundaries of where we ought to be, and we will not depart. We will have eternal life, we shall never perish, and neither shall anyone be able to pluck us out of Jesus' hand.
This of course is to be interpreted by Matthew 7:23, where Jesus says, And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.
Also in Matthew 13:41-42 we find the words, The Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity: And shall cast them into the furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth.
In these scriptures we find that those who have eternal life and shall never perish and cannot be removed from Jesus' hand, are known by Jesus; but of course Jesus never knew them which do or work iniquity. Therefore the promise of eternal security in John 10:28 is for those who don't do or work iniquity.
This is substantiated by a comparison of 1 John 2:17, which also speaks of eternal security, and 1 John 3:6. I quote them below:
1 John 2:17, And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.
1 John 3:6, Whosoever abideth in him sinneth not: whosoever sinneth hath not seen him, neither known him.
This indicates to me that those who are abiding in the vine, Jesus Christ (see John 15:1-8), will abide for ever (and this is eternal security); but that those who abide in Jesus sin not: and since I do not want to argue here the idea of entire sanctification (sometimes slandered by the misnomer sinless perfection), we will say that what this means is that there will be a radical life change in the heart and life of all those who are truly born again: we have made a 180-degree turn; we were once walking in the direction of sin, hell, and death: now we are walking in the direction of righteousness, heaven, and life; as a matter of fact we have life: and that abundant (John 10:10) and eternal/everlasting (John 3:14-16, John 5:24, John 6:47, etc.).
Now the second point I want to make in this thread is that the fear of falling away is one of the reasons by which anyone might be eternally secure in the Lord. Consider:
Jeremiah 32:38-40, And they shall be my people, and I will be their God. And I will give them one heart, and one way, that they may fear me for ever, for the good of them, and of their children after them.: And I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from them, to do them good; but I will put my fear in their hearts, that they shall not depart from me.
This scripture tells us that there is a group of people who will be the people of God; and God will be their God. They will fear Him for ever; that is, their fear of Him will never have an end. He will make a covenant with them that will last for ever, and will not turn away from doing them good for ever. And finally, they will not depart from Him because of His fear in their hearts; while He previously said they would fear Him for ever. So they will fear Him for ever; and this fear that will last for ever will keep them from departing from Him.
Now it has been argued that this scripture is given only to Israel, and if you want to argue that as a Gentile, that is fine with me. You are excluding yourself from this promise of eternal security in your own thinking; and I will not try to dissuade you from believing that which will harm you in the long run. I will only mention that in 2 Timothy 2:25 and elsewhere, the Bible speaks of that group of people who oppose themselves; and gives ministers of the word the instruction not to argue with them but to gently instruct them in the spirit of meekness.
I will point out that in Romans 11, there is the doctrine that the Gentiles are now graffed in to the olive tree that in scripture represents the people of Israel; and how the seed of Jacob has been cut off from that olive tree so that we as wild olive branches might be graffed in. Now I am not saying that Replacement Theology is true; because I believe that the promises of God to Israel apply to the seed of Jacob; but I will say this: that according to Romans 11 we can obtain the promises that are mentioned in the Old Testament; and if they are given to Israel, we can also partake of them (see Hebrews 11:33, 2 Peter 1:3-4, 2 Corinthians 1:20): because as born again believers we also are governed by God.
So I wanted to mention one last thing about the fear of falling away in scripture, though there is probably much more to say on the issue:
In Romans 11:19-22 there are the following statements:
Thou wilt say then, The branches were broken off, that I might be graffed in. Well; because of unbelief they were broken off, and thou standest by faith. Be not highminded, but fear: For if God spared not the natural branches, take heed lest he also spare not thee. Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God: on them which fell, severity: but toward thee, goodness, if thou continue in his goodness: otherwise thou also shalt be cut off.
Here we find a few things. We stand by faith and by continuing in His goodness according to this scripture. There is the possibility that we will not be saved if we do not continue in His goodness and faith; He will not spare us just as He did not spare certain of the Jewish people who departed from Him because of unbelief (note that Jeremiah 32:38-40, as pertains to the Jewish people, refers to the last days, and not to those who fell away because of unbelief at the time that the Gentiles were graffed in). He will be good to us as long as we continue to be good. Of course no one is good but God, if you take Luke 18:19 at face value. However this was spoken by Jesus before the Cross, and the Holy Spirit was not yet given, His blood not yet shed for our sins. Not only does His blood cleanse us from all sin (1 John 1:7, Psalms 51:7), but His Holy Spirit comes in and produces the fruit of goodness in our lives (Galatians 5:22-23). He sheds abroad His love in our hearts (Romans 5:5), which is the fulfilling of the law (Romans 13:8-10, Romans 8:4). So by faith in Jesus Christ we obtain the goodness of God which we live by as true Christians. Barnabas was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and faith (Acts of the Apostles 11:22-24).
Here I will not argue whether the person who walks in His goodness for a season and is later cut off was never saved in the first place: to me it is something of a moot point. This scripture is an exhortation to fear the Lord and to continue in His goodness; and this fear of the Lord would indeed be the fear of falling away from faith in Him.
As a final note I want to add what it says in Philippians 1:6,
Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.
Therefore confident faith is not a bad thing; but it is highminded confidence, or presumption, that we are to look out for, and seek to eradicate from our thinking. In Philippians 1:6 it is given as an exhortation that we ought to be confident; while in Romans 11:19-22 the exhortation is to not be highminded but fear.
In Hebrews 11:29 we have the answer: By faith they passed through the Red sea as by dry land: which the Egyptians assaying to do were drowned.
If you have a living and saving faith in Jesus Christ, you can confidently traverse the depths of the Red sea as though it were dry land (in the allegorical sense); but woe to the person who thinks they can do the same because someone else did or because they think they have faith when they really don't, i.e. they assay to do something that they don't really have faith for, out of presumption.
Now faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God; so if I have a diet of reading the word of God and really hearing in my heart its message, and receiving it, I will have faith. But if at any time my heart gets hardened and I reject any portion of what God is trying to say to me, I am in danger of walking down a path that I eventually may never be able to return from. It says in Hebrews 3:12-15,
Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God. but exhort one another daily, while it is called To day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end. While it is said, To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation.
This is written to the brethren, and warns that even as believers we might be hardened in our hearts through the deceitfulness of sin, and end up departing from our living God because of an evil heart of unbelief. We are made partakers of Christ (that is, we are saved), if we keep our confidence and faith stedfast unto the end. This indicates that if my faith does not persevere to the end, I was never a partaker of Christ (saved).
So we ought to believe in and fear the Lord for ever as a motivation to never depart or fall away from God. I believe that as long as we fear falling away, this will keep us within the boundaries of where we ought to be, and we will not depart. We will have eternal life, we shall never perish, and neither shall anyone be able to pluck us out of Jesus' hand.
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