[John 10:27-30] 

Besides discouragement, Satan has another edge on his sword: doubt. Do you know that he wants you to doubt your salvation? He is good at that. Most people suffer a lack of assurance at some point in their Christian life. After you have sinned, Satan will say, “You’re not a Christian. Why would the Lord ever save you? You’ll never make it—you’re not good enough. You don’t deserve to be saved.”

Some people say you can lose your salvation. Others believe no one can really be certain he is saved until he meets the Lord. Unbiblical teaching like that causes people to live in a constant state of insecurity. What a horrible existence! That would be opposite of 1 John 1:4: “These things write we . . . that your joy may be full” (KJV). Or 5:13, “These things I have written to you who believe . . . in order that you may know that you have eternal life” (emphasis added).

Some people believe a Christian loses his salvation every time he or she sins. On a supposedly Christian call-in program, I heard a caller ask, “If you sin as a Christian, but forget to confess it before Christ comes, what happens?”  The host responded, “You’ll go to hell.”  Can you imagine living under that kind of fear?

Why does Satan want us to doubt our salvation? Because he wants us to doubt God’s promises. He wants us to believe that God doesn’t keep His Word. He wants us to believe that God won’t hold onto us forever. He wants us to deny God’s power and think that God’s a liar. He knows that, in effect, if we doubt our salvation, we have removed our helmet.

Please don’t misunderstand—there is a place for legitimate self-examination. Paul wrote, “Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves! Or do you not recognize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you—unless indeed you fail the test?”  (2 Cor. 13:5) Peter likewise wrote, “Therefore, brethren, be all the more diligent to make certain about His calling and choosing you” (2 Peter 1:10). We’re commanded to examine ourselves every time we partake of the Lord’s Table (1 Cor. 11:28). But the purpose of that self-examination is not to revel in doubt, but to “know . . . that we are of the truth, and . . . assure our heart before Him” (cf. 1 John 3:19)—another way of saying “put on the helmet.”

As we have seen, our salvation has past, present, and future implications. Paul wrote, “I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you [past aspect of salvation] will perfect it [present aspect] until the day of Christ Jesus [future aspect]” (Phil. 1:6). Christ Himself said in John 6: “All that the Father gives Me shall come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out” (v. 37). Surely those promises are enough to ward off the enemy’s blows of discouragement and doubt!

We who know Christ are gifts from the Father to the Son—tokens of the Father’s love. The Son securely holds those the Father gives to Him. Under no circumstances will Christ give them up or turn them away, for He said,

I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me. And 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 (vv. 38–39).

God’s calling cannot be revoked, His inheritance cannot be defiled, His foundation cannot be shaken, and His seal cannot be broken. Because that is so, there’s no need for believers to fear Satan’s assaults. Our future glorification is divinely assured.

In John 10:27–29 Christ gives this picture of the believer’s eternal security:

My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; and I give eternal life to them, and they shall never perish; and no one shall 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.

Those verses describe seven strands in a heavenly rope that bind us eternally to Christ. What are they?

The first is the character of the Shepherd. Since we belong to Him, it’s His duty as a Shepherd to protect and care for us. If He were to lose us, He would violate His divine character and ability.

Another strand is the character of the sheep. In verse 27, He said His sheep follow Him without exception. They will not listen to strangers; they will listen only to Him. Although they occasionally stumble and sin, they know whom to follow.

Another strand is the definition of eternal life. In verse 28, Christ said, “I give eternal life to them.”  How long does eternal life last? Forever. To speak of it as ending is a contradiction in terms. We are secure by the very definition of eternal life.

Still another strand is that eternal life is a gift. We didn’t do anything to earn eternal life, and we can’t do anything to keep it. It is a gift.

Verse 28 continues, “They shall never perish.”  That’s the strand of Christ’s truthfulness. If believers were to perish, that would make Christ a liar. But God cannot lie (Titus 1:2). What He says is trustworthy.

Another strand is the power of Christ. Christ said, “No one shall snatch them out of My hand” (John 10:28). Leon Morris well pointed out:

It is one of the precious things about the Christian faith that our continuance in eternal life depends not on our feeble hold on Christ, but on His firm grip on us (The Gospel According to John [Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1971], p. 521).

The final strand is the power of the Father. Christ said, “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”  (v. 29). Notice that in verse 28 Christ said “My hand” and in verse 29 “the Father’s hand.”  Now that’s double protection!

What was Christ saying? That nothing or no one can rescind God’s salvation or snatch you from His shepherding hand. Paul expressed the same thing:

I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord (Rom. 8:38–39).

If you are a genuine believer, don’t allow Satan to plague you with doubts. Your salvation, which includes future glory, is eternally secure in Christ. Wear that as your helmet!

--MacArthur, J. How to meet the enemy.