“My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father's hand. I and the Father are one.”
{John 10: 27-30 NIV}
No, there is no reason to worry about being stolen from our Heavenly Father’s pen; but this is not to say that the gate is kept closed{1}. For it would not fulfill our Heavenly Father’s purposes to force anyone to spend all of eternity with Him in His Kingdom of Heaven as an heir unto all that is His in glory against their own desires not to do so{2}.
Therefore: let us want to guard against taking too much for granted. For this is surely a path that leads unto destruction{3}.
A good example of this involves something that I was allowed and enabled to experience first-hand. For I was raised to believe that once a person is saved from eternal damnation through the acceptance of Christ Jesus as truly being their own personal Lord and Savior{4} that they will remain saved—no matter what{5}.
Then I was changed; and it all came into focus for me{6}. For instead of it being like a contract that cannot be altered in any way by either party involved: the absolute truth of the matter truly is that a child of our Heavenly Father’s family remains a member of His family forever{7}.
In other words: it is all about being wanted; and this is something that we can all have faith in. For it truly is as it is written: “All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away. For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all that he has given me, but raise them up at the last day. For my Father's will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.”{8}
No, it does not help matters much that it has been so widely taught that the love of God is nothing personal. For that promotes an image of our Heavenly Father not wanting anyone to perish{9} as being more about keeping score than anything else.
Alas, what a dreadful thing to look forward unto. For who would want to spend all of eternity with someone who could not care less about whether "they" (as in: a unique individual) are really there or not.
Yes, it would be better than being cast into the Lake of Fire{10}; but if you would ask someone who is spending their life in a loveless marriage: I am quite sure that they would be of the opinion that it would not be all that much better. For if spending only twenty years in such a situation can feel like forever: just think what FOREVER AND EVER is going to feel like if the love that our Heavenly Father has for us truly is completely devoid of passion.
[{1}John 10:9; {2}John 1:12-13; {3}Matthew 15:13-14; {4}John 3:16; {5}Psalm 25:3; {6}2Corinthians 5:14-21; {7}John 8:35; {8}John 6:37-40 NIV; {9}Ezekiel 18:32; {10}Revelation 20:10-15]
Most excellent post Jerry! You explained it very well!
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