I think I hear some reader saying, “Ah! It is all very well, but there are a number of difficult texts that seem to me to show that a believer can be lost after all.”
My dear friend, this all arises through not understanding their right meaning. Many persons are well versed in texts that seem at first sight to imply a doubt, and lose sight of scores which, if believed simply, would give assurance and peace to the soul. Those who talk about losing eternal life are not sure that they have it. If they were sure that they have it, they could not talk about losing it. A life that you could lose would be a temporal life, and not eternal.
“The gift of God is eternal life.”
We have not space here to seek to expound the meaning of such texts, but if you examine carefully the whole context, you will find that they either refer directly to mere professors, or are brought in as a salutary warning, lest any should turn the grace of God into lasciviousness (Jude 44For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ. (Jude 4)), continuing in sin, that grace may abound (Rom. 6:1, 21What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? 2God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein? (Romans 6:1‑2)). For, “He that saith, I know Him, and keepeth not His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him” (1 John 2:44He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. (1 John 2:4)).
You would find it very establishing to the soul to look out all the passages where the Scripture speaks positively of the believer’s eternal salvation, and, being assured of your own, then ask some fellow-Christian, taught in the Word, to explain to you the true meaning of those passages where you find a difficulty. The Christian cost too much ever to be lost.
The cost — Christ’s precious blood.
“You can slip out of Christ’s hand,” said one.
“I am one of His fingers,” was the ready reply, based on His everlasting Word, “We are members of His body, of His flesh, and of His bones” (Eph. 5:3030For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones. (Ephesians 5:30)).