The Christian's Eternal Security

August 15th, 2025
by Dr. Lance Waldie

John 10:26-30 “But you do not believe because you are not of My sheep. 27 My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; 28 and I give eternal life to them, 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. 30 I and the Father are one.”

As Jesus had done elsewhere with the Jewish authorities, He told them why they rejected Him as the Messiah: they weren’t His sheep (cf. 5:40; 6:37, 39, 44, 65; 8:44, 47). As Jesus had said previously in 10:3-5, His own sheep hear His voice because He is their Shepherd. Jesus even emphasized the word “My” in v. 27 so as to distinguish His own sheep and the sheep of the false shepherds. Note three things about Jesus’ sheep in v. 27: they hear Jesus’ voice, they are known by Jesus, and they follow Jesus. All the verbs are present tense which speaks of ongoing hearing, knowing, and following. Others may claim to be sheep in Christ’s pasture, as it were, but His true sheep are known by their actions. And although Jesus “knows” all people, He has a special knowledge of His own sheep. As Jesus said, they are “My sheep…”

In v. 28, Jesus expounds on the privileges His sheep enjoy. First, Jesus “gives” them eternal life. Note again the present ongoing tense of what Jesus gives continually to His sheep: life. Second, the subsequent appositional statement in the Greek text is emphatic when it says, “they will never perish,” using a Greek double negative (“no, not”) which shows the passion Jesus likely displayed in teaching this. Third, in order to add even more emphasis, Jesus said, “No one will snatch them out of My hand” (i.e., steal them away from Him). One will not find a more emphatic teaching on the doctrine of eternal security in Christ than here. Therefore, to deny eternal security in Christ is to stand against God and call Him a liar, as all false teachers do.

In v. 29, Jesus speaks of His sheep as those “given” to Him by God the Father. The perfect tense verb points to a past event of God giving these sheep (people) to Jesus. It also points to ongoing results. In other words, when God gave these sheep to His Son, it was not a gift to be put away and forgotten as gifts sometimes are. Rather, God’s gift to His son—His elect sheep—is the gift that keeps on giving. Reflecting back on prior teaching, the Father gives the Elect to the Son (6:37), draws them to the Son (6:44), and grants them salvation (6:65) when they come to Jesus in faith. Since it is the Father who orchestrates the entire process, and since He is “greater than all,” no one is able to steal God’s Elect children from either His hand or the hand of His Son, for they are one (v. 30). Therefore, all of Christ’s true sheep are secure for eternity.

In v. 30, Jesus says of His alliance with the Father who gave Him His sheep, “I and the Father are one.” What this means is that the Son and the Father comprise the One God, along with the Spirit. In the Greek text, “one” is neuter, not masculine, meaning that Jesus is not one in His person with the Father but one in nature… distinct in their person but one in their kind, or type. Both, however, work to protect the sheep who are known by their loyalty to the Shepherd.

Perhaps the reason sheep is the term applied to Christians is that sheep surrender themselves to their Shepherd. These humans, as Calvin has said, have been changed from the fierceness of their wild (sinful) nature, to mild, compliant, and teachable sheep. As Paul taught, these sheep had to first be known by God (Gal. 4:9) before they could know the God who drew them to Christ. These are distinguished from the wolves acting as sheep who look away from God, for they are evident in that they refuse to submit to Jesus who is the Good Shepherd—God in flesh.

Food For Thought
Indeed, we as Christ’s sheep are surrounded by wolves in our present world. There are false teachers everywhere, so there is never a time in our lives that we are not in danger, physically speaking. Yet, it is God who keeps what we have committed to Him (2 Tim. 1:12), spiritually speaking. We are guaranteed by Jesus Christ Himself that no one snatches God’s sheep from Him (John 10:28-29). Once we receive Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, we belong to Him and are eternally secure, able to live knowing for certain that we belong to God through Jesus Christ. Sadly, this is a doctrine the Roman Catholic Church vehemently denies, cursing anyone who would have the gall to believe themselves secure in their Christian faith. Yet we can have such gall! After all, God promised it to us, and He never lies.