Eternal Security and John 10:27-29
“My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, 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.”
This beautiful passage is an affirmation of the deity of Christ. Jesus states that he gives eternal life and that He is the Son of God. Of course, most of the Jews denied these facts about Jesus (vv.19-24). It is unfortunate that such a powerful statement about Jesus’s divine nature is often used as a “proof-text” for the “Once Saved, Always Saved” doctrine.
Preachers who take the position that one can never fall from grace often stress that Jesus “gives eternal life.” It is then asserted that if Jesus gives “eternal” life, then it can never be lost. What the preacher fails to mention is that Jesus also explained that eternal life is “in the world to come” (Mark 10:30). If eternal life is received in the “world to come,” then the “sheep” must not possess it in its fullness now. There must be more to “eternal life” than what we have right now.
Further, preachers who teach that we can never fall from grace fail to preach that the “sheep” live “in hope of eternal life” (Titus 1:2). But if we live in “hope” of it, then we do not currently possess eternal life in all its fullness.
In addition, preachers who teach that we can never fall from grace fail to stress that eternal life is a “promise.” “And this is the promise that he hath promised us, even eternal life” (I John 2:25). But if we are waiting for the promise to be fulfilled, then we do not possess eternal life in the same way that eternal life will be enjoyed in heaven.
The truth is that Christians do have eternal life in the form of a promise, a promise that God will keep. Eternal life is what we long for “in the world to come.” This is our “hope.”
But sheep can go astray (Luke 15:1-7); sheep can cease listening to the shepherd (John 8:31); no man can “pluck” the sheep out of the Lord’s hand, but sheep have free will and can choose to leave the Lord (Galatians 1:6). This is why Christians are warned that children of God can fall from grace: “Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace” (Galatians 5:4). If “sheep” (followers of Christ) can never fall from grace, then why did Paul warn that some had “fallen from grace”?
The good news is that Christians do not have to fall from grace. Rather, God’s people can keep on listening to the voice of the shepherd and reap eternal life in heaven (Galatians 6:7-8).
