Eternal life is the free gift of God in Christ. Romans 6:23b tells us, “The free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” First John 5:11 says, “God gave to us eternal life,” the life that is in His Son. Therefore, the divine life has been given to us as the free gift of God in Christ. Because this gift of God is a present, it requires no work in return. The gift of eternal life from God was given to us in Christ Jesus. Because God put His life in Christ Jesus to be given to us, our receiving of the Lord Jesus is the receiving of the gift of eternal life that is in Him.
As believers in Christ, we have received eternal life by faith (John 3:16, 36; 6:47; 5:24). In John 6:47 the Lord Jesus says, “He who believes in Me has eternal life.” Literally, the Greek word translated “in” means into. To believe into the Lord Jesus is not the same as to believe Him (John 6:30). To believe Him means to believe that He is true and real, but to believe into Him means to receive Him and be united with Him as one. It is by believing into Him that the believers have eternal life.
The words of the Lord Jesus in John 3:16, 36 and 6:47 emphasize the fact that the way for us to have eternal life is simply to believe in Christ. Having eternal life is absolutely a matter of faith. No matter how much we can work or how good our work may be, we cannot have eternal life by our work. Our work does not count in this matter—only faith counts. It is by faith, by believing in the Lord Jesus, that we receive eternal life, the life of God, for our regeneration. The Lord Jesus has done everything necessary for us to have eternal life. We do not need to do anything except believe in Him and in what He has accomplished.
After passing through death and entering into resurrection, the Lord has become the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45b). Now, in resurrection, He is the Spirit of life, with all the virtue of His redemptive work, waiting for us to believe in Him. Once we believe in Him, we receive the Spirit of life, that is, the Lord Himself, with the eternal life of God. Therefore, it is by believing in the Lord with His all-inclusive work that we receive eternal life, God’s life, and are born of Him to be His children.
Our having eternal life is assured by the Word of God. First John 5:13 says, “I write these things to you that you may know that you have eternal life, to you who believe in the name of the Son of God.” The written words of the Scriptures are the assurance to the believers, who believe in the name of the Son of God, that they have eternal life. Our believing to receive eternal life is the fact; the words of the Holy Writings are the assurance concerning this fact. They are the title deed of our eternal salvation. We are assured and have the pledge by them that because we believe in the name of the Son of God we have eternal life.
The word of the Bible is the pledge of eternal life. The Bible is also the title deed of our salvation. This is why the Bible is called a covenant or testament. We not only have the fact of eternal life; we also have the pledge, the guarantee, the title deed, to prove that we have eternal life. We thank the Lord that we have eternal life and also the title deed to prove it.
Having the eternal life, the believers shall by no means perish forever. In John 10:28 and 29 the Lord Jesus says, “I give to them eternal life, and they shall by no means perish forever, and no one shall snatch them out of My hand. My Father who has given them to Me is greater than all, and no one can snatch them out of My Father’s hand.” The eternal life is for the believers’ living. Both the Son’s hand as the hand of power and the Father’s hand as the hand of love are for the believers’ protection. Eternal life will never run out, and the hands of the Son and the Father will never fail. Therefore, the believers are eternally secured, and they will never perish.
As long as we have eternal life, we have eternal security. Not only do we have eternal life, but we have two hands— the Son’s hand of power and the Father’s hand of love. These hands embrace us, and Satan is not able to snatch us away. We are eternally secured by the divine life and by these two divine hands.
Our salvation is eternally secured by the life of God. Do you believe that the eternal life can be recalled once it has been given to us? To say that once we are saved we can be lost again means that the eternal life which has been given to us can be called back. This is illogical. Once we have eternal life, we shall never perish.
Among Christians today, there are two main schools of theology regarding salvation. One school, Calvinism, says that salvation is eternal. According to Calvinism, once we have been saved, we are saved eternally. Salvation can never be lost. The second school, Arminianism, claims that if we are not careful after being saved, we might be lost again. Arminianism teaches that a person may be saved and lost again and again. According to the Scriptures, and in particular according to John 10:28 and 29, it is altogether wrong to say that after a person has been saved he can lose his salvation. Because the believers have received eternal life, they cannot lose their eternal salvation.
Nevertheless, the truth concerning eternal salvation needs to be balanced by the truth concerning dispensational reward or punishment during the coming age of the kingdom. It is absolutely correct that God has chosen us and predestinated us for eternal salvation and that our salvation cannot be lost. After we have been saved, however, we need to bear an amount of responsibility by God’s sufficient grace and by our cooperation with Him through the enjoyment of His grace. Otherwise, during the coming kingdom age we shall have dispensational punishment instead of dispensational reward. In the book of Hebrews there are five warnings related to the dispensational punishment of the kingdom (2:1-4; 3:7—4:13; 5:11—6:20; 10:19-39; 12:1-29). The Arminians wrongly apply these warnings to eternal perdition, claiming that these portions of Hebrews indicate that a believer may lose his salvation. The believers have eternal life and will never perish. However, the believers need to be warned by the words of the Lord Jesus (Matt. 24:51; 25:30) and Paul (1 Cor. 3:13-15) concerning the coming kingdom age, which will be a reward to the faithful believers and a punishment to the unfaithful ones.