Eternal Security: Vaccination or Therapy?
00:00:00.000 | [Music]
00:00:05.000 | A listener named Kevin writes in to ask this, "Pastor John, what does Jesus mean when he says in John 16, 1,
00:00:11.000 | 'I have said all these things to you to keep you from falling away'?"
00:00:15.000 | Jesus said, just like Kevin pointed out, John 16, 1,
00:00:21.000 | "I have said these things to you to keep you from falling away."
00:00:27.000 | And in the next verses, he says that suffering is coming,
00:00:34.000 | and really perplexing suffering. Verse 2, "You will be put out of the synagogues.
00:00:40.000 | Indeed, the hour is coming when whoever kills you will think he's serving God."
00:00:48.000 | Now, in those kind of situations, we can easily feel like, "God, where are you? Have you forsaken me?"
00:00:59.000 | And he's already said, Jesus already said in verse, I mean, chapter 15, "Remember," this is 1520,
00:01:08.000 | "Remember the word that I said to you, 'A servant is not greater than his master.'
00:01:11.000 | If they persecuted me, they will persecute you."
00:01:14.000 | So what Jesus is saying is that his words, my words, his warnings, his promises,
00:01:20.000 | are his means of preserving our faith in these painful situations.
00:01:27.000 | For example, he said in verse 13, just before chapter 16 started, 15, 13,
00:01:33.000 | "Greater love has no one than this, than that someone lay down his life for his friends.
00:01:38.000 | You are my friends if you do what I command you.
00:01:41.000 | No longer do I call you servants, for the servant doesn't know what his master's doing,
00:01:46.000 | but I have called you friends for all that I have heard from my Father I've made known to you."
00:01:52.000 | So when we enter persecution, we're supposed to remember his words.
00:01:57.000 | "I loved you. I gave myself for you. This is the greatest love I could possibly show for you.
00:02:03.000 | I died for you. You are my friend. You are not a slave.
00:02:08.000 | I have taken you into the inner councils of the Godhead."
00:02:12.000 | When we're persecuted, we're supposed to remember these things,
00:02:15.000 | and in remembering these things, he keeps us from falling away.
00:02:21.000 | So it will not be easy to believe in the midst of persecution
00:02:26.000 | that God loves us when we're being tortured for his name.
00:02:31.000 | It won't be easy to feel loved when you languish in prison.
00:02:35.000 | It won't be easy to feel loved when you're abandoned by friends.
00:02:39.000 | But Jesus says, "I have spoken to you to help you keep your faith.
00:02:46.000 | So may my words sustain you. May my words be the ropes by which I bind you to myself."
00:02:55.000 | So here's where Kevin may be stumbling.
00:02:59.000 | He may have the idea that eternal security means we don't need to fight the fight of faith.
00:03:09.000 | Or he may think that eternal security may mean that Jesus has made us secure
00:03:15.000 | and doesn't need to do anything more to keep us secure.
00:03:19.000 | Now, I think both of those ideas are mistaken.
00:03:23.000 | We are eternally secure as his children.
00:03:27.000 | But the way we are eternally secure is that Jesus has promised to keep us secure.
00:03:35.000 | His present and future keeping are as important as any past purchase of us.
00:03:43.000 | And the way he keeps us is by bringing his words to mind
00:03:48.000 | and helping us see them as true and beautiful and trustworthy and sufficient for all our needs.
00:03:55.000 | So eternal security then is not like a vaccination that we received when we were six
00:04:05.000 | and don't have anything to do with now.
00:04:08.000 | No, it's like an ongoing therapy regimen.
00:04:12.000 | And our doctor, Jesus, promises never, never, never to leave us,
00:04:19.000 | but always to help us and to keep us.
00:04:23.000 | And thus our therapy, our ongoing daily therapy,
00:04:27.000 | is the means by which we are preserved and kept.
00:04:32.000 | And his words are an essential part of that.
00:04:35.000 | So our part is to trust him every day that he knows what he's doing in this sometimes very painful therapy.
00:04:44.000 | And he has spoken to us so that we have promises to trust and warnings to heed.
00:04:51.000 | So, Kevin, we are secure, but we are as secure as the promises of God,
00:05:00.000 | as sure as they are true and as sure as they are secure.
00:05:06.000 | And Jesus is faithful to us today and forever.
00:05:09.000 | That's what our security lies in,
00:05:12.000 | the ongoing keeping of Jesus, applying his word to our life and holding on to us with them.
00:05:19.000 | Thank you, Pastor John. And thank you, Kevin, for the excellent question.
00:05:22.000 | Related to this topic is episode number 102, which is titled, "Can a Born-Again Christian Lose Salvation?"
00:05:29.000 | Check that out. That's episode number 102.
00:05:32.000 | Well, Monday, we will return to this topic of eternal security and ask,
00:05:35.000 | "How can eternal security be both certain and also conditional at the same time?
00:05:41.000 | Can it be both?" You won't want to miss that episode.
00:05:44.000 | Until then, like Kevin did, email your questions to us at askpastorjohn@desiringgod.org
00:05:49.000 | and visit us online at desiringgod.org to find thousands of books, articles, sermons, and other resources,
00:05:54.000 | all free of charge from John Piper and all intended to help explain why God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him.
00:06:03.000 | I'm your host, Tony Reinke. Have a great weekend.
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