John 10:28 Commentary and Bible Study

Here is another theme: the doctrine of the perseverance of the saints. Some people prefer the term the preservation of the saints, and you might think that is plainer for us today – the great promise of Christ and of God that those who were truly saved will never be lost. They will surely be preserved by God, if truly saved, to the end of life and for all eternity, because the grace of Christ once received will never be forfeited, never be lost.So why did our forebears label this doctrine, the perseverance of the saints? Ah, the reason is because that is how God preserves us – by causing us to desire to persevere. He gives us this inner determination to keep our hold on the Lord. And if Satan comes, and tries to take away our assurance, and suggest to us by various means that we are not saved, and to lure us back into the world; by the power of God we are brought to our senses. And we see and lay hold on the promises of God, and we know we are his. And if we sin, and the Spirit of God is grieved, and we are left to our devices as a punishment, and we drift further away from God to a period of backsliding and a lost, selfish sinful condition, are we going to remain like that? Not if we are saved, because God by his mighty power will intervene. Somehow, whatever method that he chooses, he will melt us down, whether by discipline, whether by punishment, whether by shock to bring us to our senses. But in his kindness, he will cause us to feel again our desperate need of Christ, and to love him and long for him and to return to him, and we will know renewed communion with Christ so that we shall surely persevere to the end. The Saviour does not give eternal life which turns out to be so fragile that we may lose it, and it may disintegrate and disappear. It is eternal life. We shall never be lost.‘Neither shall any man pluck them.’ The word ‘pluck’ is too gentle, I think. The word in the Greek is more like ‘seize them’. ‘Pluck’? Well maybe in the days of our translation it was as strong. I do not know. But it suggests a gentle action. The devil’s attempts to pluck us out of the hands of Christ; no, to seize us, to drag us from him. There are strong temptations and problems arising from within and from without. But none of them will ever take us away finally from Christ, even if we have to be disciplined to be brought back.