When we speak of the eternal security of the believer, what do we mean? We mean that
once a poor sinner has been regenerated by the Word and the Spirit of God, once he
has received a new life and a new nature, has been made partaker of the divine nature,
once he has been justified from every charge before the throne of God, it is absolutely
impossible that that man should ever again be a lost soul. The Lord Jesus speaks of His
own in John 10:27-30:"My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow
Me:and I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any
man pluck them out of My hand. My Father, which gave them Me, is greater than all;
and no man is able to pluck them out of My Father’s hand. I and My Father are one."

In connection with this, the following question is often asked:"Suppose a man who
professed to be saved, who for a number of years was an active Christian worker, turns
his back on it all, returns to the world, and utterly repudiates Christianity and now
denies totally the gospel he once professed. How does that square with your doctrine of
the eternal security of the believer?" That does not touch the matter at all. The apostle
John tells us how we are to understand a case like that:"They went out from us, but
they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued
with us:but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of
us" (1 John 2:19). That is, it is possible to make a Christian profession, to observe
Christian ordinances, to teach and to preach, and yet never be born again.

When we say that the believer in the Lord Jesus is eternally secure, we base it upon a
number of lines of scriptural testimony. In the first place, we rest it upon the perfection
of Christ’s one offering upon the cross. Those who deny the doctrine of the eternal
security of the believer do not realize that in so doing they are putting a slight upon the
finished work of Christ. They are reducing the sacrifice of Christ practically to the
level of the offerings of bulls and goats in the Old Testament dispensation, which
sacrifices could never take away sin but simply covered sin for the time being.

When one puts his trust in the Lord Jesus, not only are all his sins up to the day of his
conversion forgiven, but all his sins are put away for eternity.

A lady came to me one day and said, "I can quite understand that Christ died for the
sins I committed up to the night of my conversion, but do you mean to tell me that
Christ died for my future sins?"

I replied, "How many of your sins were in the past when Christ died on the cross?"

She looked puzzled for a moment, and then the light broke in, and she said, "How
foolish I have been! Of course they were ^all future when Jesus died for me."

In the second place, we base the doctrine of the eternal security of the believer upon the
perseverance and omnipotent power of the Holy Spirit of God. The apostle Paul writes

to the Philippian saints, "Being confident of this very thing, that He which hath begun a
good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ" (Phil. 1:6). Do you see
that? Who began the good work in you if you are a believer in the Lord Jesus? The
Holy Spirit of God. It was He who convicted you of sin, it was He who led you to put
your trust in Christ, it was He who through the Word gave you the witness that you
were saved, it is He who has been conforming you to Christ since you first trusted the
Lord Jesus. Having thus taken you up in grace, the Holy Spirit has a definite purpose in
view. He is going eventually to conform you fully to the image of the Lord Jesus
Christ, and He never begins a work that He does not intend to finish.

In the third place, we base the doctrine of the eternal security of the believer upon the
fact of the new creation. "So if any one be in Christ, there is a new creation; the old
things have passed away; behold all things have become new" (2 Cor. 5:17 JND). Each
one of us was born into the world a member of the old creation of which Adam was the
head, and every child of Adam’s race comes into the world lost and under sentence of
death. But now see what has happened. Our Lord Jesus Christ came into the world and
He was the sinless One. He saw men lost and under the sentence of death, and at the
cross He went down into death, down to where man was, and came up in grace from
death. But He did not come up alone, for God has quickened us together with Christ,
so that all who believe in Him are brought up from that place of death. So just as
formerly we were made partakers of Adam’s race, so now we are made partakers of a
new creation. We formerly were lost because the head of the old creation failed and we
went down with him. But now, as believers, we can never be lost unless the Head of
the new creation falls. But thank God He remains on the throne where God Himself has
put Him, in token of His perfect satisfaction in the work He accomplished.

In the last place, we rest the truth of the doctrine of the eternal security of the believer
upon the fact that the believer is the present possessor of eternal Me. Adam’s life was
forfeitable life:he lost his life because of sin. Eternal life is non-forfeitable life;
otherwise, it would not be eternal. Everlasting Me is Me that lasts forever, and we
have it now. "Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth My Word, and believeth
on Him that sent Me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but
is passed from death unto life" (John 5:24; read also John 3:14-16, 36).

People say, "If you preach this doctrine of the eternal security of the believer, men will
say, ‘Well, then it doesn’t make any difference what I do, I will get to heaven anyway.’
"It makes a tremendous difference what you do. If you do not behave yourself, if you
have no desire to do what is right according to God’s Word, it shows that you may not
be a real Christian. I know that a real Christian may fail, but the difference can be seen
in Peter and Judas. Peter failed, and failed terribly, but he was genuine, and one look
from Jesus sent him out weeping bitterly; his heart was broken to think that he had so
dishonored his Lord. But Judas companied with the Lord over three years, and was a
devil all the time (John 6:70); he was a thief, and was seeking his own interest. At last
remorse overtook him, not genuine repentance, and what was the result? He went and
hanged himself. He was never a child of God. There is a great difference between a

true, born again Christian and a false professor.