John 10.28-29 28 I give them eternal life, and they will
never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. 29 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. (ESV)
Jesus was good at remarkable statements. He was/is the
Son of God so it is no surprise that He would say things that would make one
stop in his tracks and listen.
I give them eternal
life, and they will never perish… The gift of Jesus Christ is life.
Primarily. The cost and the pain of sin is death – eternal. The unrepentant will
not see life beyond this one because the great separator of life and death is
sin. However, the great Separator, the Lord Jesus Christ, gives eternal life to
those who believe and they are safely held by Him and no one will snatch them
out of [His] hand. No one. Not even ourselves. (Though sometimes we try.)
So Jesus’ gift is life. The Father’s Gift is us to Christ. We, who believe, are given to Jesus by the Father. For
God foreknew who would believe. And no one, not even ourselves, can snatch us
out of the Father’s hand. We are safely – eternally – held there.
Remarkable. Not because there is weakness or arrogance
(which is a form of weakness) in the Godhead, but that we don’t always live as
if we believe such remarkable statements. The remarkableness of Jesus’ words
are simply (and powerfully) that there is no room for wiggle. There is no room
for equivocation: 1. In Christ, we have eternal life, we shall never perish,
and no one can take that away. 2. We are God’s gift to Christ, God is greater
than all, and no one can take that away. Period. Done deal.
Today my purpose is to live in the light of these
remarkable words. It’s easy for me to read John 10 where they are found, and to
look down my nose at the unbelieving Jews and somehow think of them poorly
because they chose to argue rather than believe. But in my arrogance I then go
and live my days thinking about non-important things that try to rob the
remarkability of Jesus’ words from me. In this case it is truly an either/or: either what Jesus said is completely
true, or it’s not: I must choose to
live in one light or the other.
What I also must do is quit living as if I had the
strength or wherewithal to snatch myself out of God’s hand; no one includes me.
I think what this boils down to today is belief and
thinking clearly; and a sharp, sharp reminder of the Bible says to me about me:
I am one of God’s sheep, given eternal
life by the Only One who can give that, and no one can take that from me.
The Bible says I am safe in the Father’s hand and no one, not even me, can take
me away or take that truth away.
And this all is a firm reminder of why I read God’s word
and communicate with Him: I tend to fool myself at times that there are other options
of truth out there…there aren’t. I try to fool myself that I am vulnerable…I am
not. But sticking with God is not an on-again/off-again thing – it’s a done
deal and I need routinely and regularly to remind myself I’m irremovably stuck...
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