eternal life Archives - Page 4 of 10

Have you ever wondered if you can be blotted out of the book of life? Many people have this fear.

The reason that some people wonder if they can be blotted out of the book of life is because there are a few verses in the Bible which seem to indicate that this is a distinct possibility.

However, when you understand what the Book of Life actually is, you will also come to understand what these tricky Bible passages mean.

This article is a summary of what people in my discipleship group learn when they take my online course, The Gospel Dictionary. The lesson on the book of life defines the term and looks at several key Bible passages which teach about it.

This post defines the term and looks at just one passage: Revelation 3:5. Let us begin with defining the term “book of life.”

What is the Book of Life?

The Book of Life is a translation from the Greek phrase tō biblō tēs zōēs. The phrase “the Book of Life” or “the Book of the Living” are fine translations for this phrase.

What matters more than the translation, however, is the nature of this book. What is this book? Why was it written? What does it mean to have your name written in the book? Can your name be removed from the book? If so, how does this happen and what does it mean?

All these questions must be answered as we seek to understand the Book of Life in Scripture.

Three Ways the Book of Life is mentioned in the Bible

There are three main ways the Book of Life is mentioned in the Bible. There is the Book of the Living (Ps 69:28), the Book of Life (Php 4:3; Rev 3:5; 20:12, 15), and the Lamb’s Book of Life (Rev 13:8; 21:27).

Generally speaking, it appears that the first two phrases refer to a book which contains the names of every person who has physical life upon the earth.

The third phrase, the Lamb’s Book of Life, refers to a book which contains the names of every person who has eternal life in Jesus Christ.

There are numerous questions about the Book of Life. For example, some wonder whether or not these books actually exist, or if they symbolize some sort of divine mental list about who has life and who does not. And then there is the debate about how many books there are. Is it one, two, or three books? But such a debate hardly matters.

Whether Scripture is talking about keeping your name in the one Book of Life or having it transferred from the Book of Life to the Lamb’s Book of Life, the point remains the same: Whoever has their name written in the Book of Life (whether it is one book or two) is still alive. More importantly, there is a way to keep your name written in the Book of Life, even after you die.

One common view (which I held for many years) is that there are two books, the Book of Life, which contains the list of everyone who is alive, and the Lamb’s Book of Life, which contains the list of everyone who has eternal life in Jesus.

The alternative view, which is the view I now hold, is that there is only one Book of Life. When people die, their names are removed from the Book of Life. However, those who have everlasting life in Jesus Christ can never have their names removed from this book.

When a person believes in Jesus, their name, which had been written in “erasable” pencil, is now copied over with the permanent ink of the Blood the Lamb. Once this happens, it can never be removed or erased.

Therefore, eventually, at the end of human history, the Book of Life will contain only the names of people who have eternal life in Jesus. At this point, the Book of Life becomes known as the Lamb’s Book of Life, for it contains the list of everyone who has life in Jesus, the Lamb of God.

Whichever approach you choose, it is important to note that while Scripture does teach about getting blotted out of the Book of Life, this does not ever refer to losing eternal life. While a person might get their “penciled” name erased from the Book of Life when they die, once a person’s name is written in permanent ink, it cannot ever be blotted out.

However, lots of people struggle with various passages in the Bible which seem to indicate that a person can lose their eternal life by being blotted out of the book of life. Revelation 3:5 is one such text.

Being blotted out of the book of Life in Revelation 3:5

Revelation 3:5 says this:

He who overcomes shall be clothed in white garments, and I will not blot out his name from the Book of Life; but I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels.

Revelation 3:5 has caused a lot of angst among Christians over the years, for it seems to imply that Jesus might, in fact, blot their names out of the Book of Life.

This verse appears in the Letter to the church in Sardis, and Jesus says that if they overcome, they will be clothed in white garments and will not be blotted out of the Book of Life.

To be an overcomer, one must not just live their life as a Christian, but must faithfully love, serve, and honor Jesus throughout their Christian life (Overcomer is another term I discuss in the Gospel Dictionary online course).

Some take from this, therefore, that those who fail to faithfully love, serve, and honor Jesus throughout their life will in the end have their name blotted out of the Book of Life, thus losing their eternal life.

Due to such teaching about this verse, many Christians live in fear of losing their eternal life if they do not follow and obey Jesus faithfully.

But this is not what Revelation 3:5 is teaching.

Citizenship Rosters in Sardis

The first thing to recognize is that numerous towns in John’s had citizenship rosters which contained the names of citizens. When a person died, they were removed from the roster.

But if a person brought great shame upon the town through committing various crimes, this also might lead to being removed from the roster. There are records of this happening to various citizens in Sardis.

Notice that Jesus says that He will never remove the name of an overcome from the roster. Quite the contrary, Jesus promises to praise their name in the heavenly courts, before God and the angels. This is a great honor that Jesus promises to those who faithfully serve and obey Him.

Jesus says there are a few names in Sardis who are on track for receiving this great honor (Rev 3:4). But what about those who fail to overcome? What about those who have defiled their garments and who have brought shame upon Jesus and His church?

The answer is that Jesus says nothing about them. Just because Jesus says He will greatly honor those who overcome, this does not mean that He will shame or dishonor those who do not.

He says he will come like a thief in the night (Rev 3:3), but this does not mean that He will come to kill them or take away their eternal life. Jesus says that unfaithful servants will not be honored the same way that faithful servants will be, but He is not saying that unfaithful servants will be cast out, killed, or have eternal life removed from them.

Litotes in Revelation 3:5

Support for this approach is found in the fact that John is using a figure of speech called litotes. Litotes is when we state a positive as a negative as a way of emphasizing the positive.

We use this figure of speech all the time.

Let us say that your favorite football team is having a fantastic year and have gone undefeated. This coming Sunday, they are facing a team that so far has not won a single game. If I ask you whether you think your team will win, you could simply say “Yes, they are certainly going to win,” but you might also say, “If they play like they’ve been playing, they will definitely not lose.”

In that second statement, do you see how a positive is stated in a negative way? When you state that they will definitely not lose, you are using a negative to emphasize the almost certain fact that they will indeed win.

But notice something interesting about litotes. Although you use a negative to emphasize the positive, this does not mean that the opposite is true.

Take your undefeated football team again. Let us say that instead of playing as they have been playing all year, they instead play the worst game of the season. The quarterback throws interceptions. There are numerous fumbles and penalties. The defense never really gets going. They play an absolutely terrible game.

But even so, does this mean that they will automatically lose the game? Not necessarily. Even though they play poorly, they might still win the game. It might not be the absolute blowout that it could have been, but they might still squeak through with a victory.

Maybe another example of litotes will help.

What you think if you overheard a man say, “If my wife makes me an apple pie, I will not stop loving her”?

Would you assume from that statement that if this man’s wife did not make me an apple pie that he would stop loving her? No, probably not.

Instead, you would understand that he does love her, and that if she makes him an apple pie, he would love the pie, and would show great appreciation to his wife.

This is also how to understand Revelation 3:5.

One of the blessings pronounced on overcomers is that they will not be blotted out of the Book of Life. When we understand this as litotes, we understand that Jesus is saying that those who overcome will not only keep their name in the Book of Life because they are believers, but will receive greater blessings from God and greater experience of life with God. They will receive white robes and will receive special recognition before God and the host of angels.

Notice, of course, that just as with the football and apple pie examples, the opposite of the Revelation 3:5 litotes is not true.

Many pastors and teachers say that if someone does not overcome, then their name will be blotted out of the Book of Life. But Revelation 3:5 doesn’t say that at all. Revelation 3:5 does not say that those who fail to overcome will be blotted out of the Book of Life.

Even if your football team does not play up to their ability, this does not necessarily mean they will lose the game this weekend.

Even if a man’s wife does not make apple pie, this does not mean that he will stop loving her.

Even if a Christian fails to overcome, this does not mean that their name will get blotted out of the Book of Life.

So no Christian can Ever be Blotted out of the Book of Life

The Book of Life can be understood simply as the roster of the living. It is a list, or register, of all living people. When a person dies, their name is removed from this list.

However, when a person receives everlasting life from Jesus, their name remains in the Book of Life, for even though they die, they will live again, and will live forever.

At the end of time, when the only people who remain are those who have eternal life in Jesus, the Book of Life becomes known as the Lamb’s Book of Life, for the only names that will remain in the book are those written in the permanent ink of the blood of the Lamb.

Do you have further questions or comments about the book of Life? Leave them in the comment section below, or (better yet) join my online discipleship group and take the lesson on this important word from the Bible. See you there!

Understanding the Gospel requires us to properly understand the key words and terms of the Gospel. Take my course, "The Gospel Dictionary" to learn about the 52 key words of the Gospel, and hundreds of Bible passages that use these words.

This course costs $297, but when you join the Discipleship group, you can to take the entire course for free.

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Does 1 Corinthians 9:27 teach that you can lose your salvation?

By Jeremy Myers

41 Comments

In 1 Corinthians 9:27, Paul writes about his fear of being disqualified by God. Does this mean that Paul thought that he could lose his eternal life?

When I was in High School, I had a teacher who read 1 Corinthians 9:27 in class (I attended a Christian school), and said that all of us need to be careful how we live our lives, or else we could end up in hell if we disobeyed God.

She said, “Look at Paul! He was an apostle. He wrote a large amount of the New Testament. He was the greatest missionary the world has ever seen! But even Paul was afraid that if he sinned, he would go to hell when he died. We should all be concerned about the same thing!”

Is this right? Is this really what Paul is saying in 1 Corinthians 9:27? Here is what he wrote:

But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified (1 Corinthians 9:27).

So was Paul afraid that although he had loved and served Jesus for many years, if he messed up late in life, he might end up being eternally separated from God?

The short answer is No. Let me explain why.

(Note: The following article is drawn from what I teach in my “Gospel Dictionary” online course. This comes from the lesson that looks at the word “approved.”

The key term in 1 Corinthians 9:27 is “disqualified”

The key term in 1 Corinthians 9:27 is the word “disqualified” which is the opposite of the word “qualified” or “approved.”

The Greek word used in the biblical texts which use this word is dokimos. The word approved is a good translation of this Greek word, but it can also be translated as acceptable or pleasing.

What is most important is that the word was often used in connection with money. The ancient world did not have paper money, but used coins as currency. The precious metals used for these coins were melted down and poured into molds. Once the metal cooled, the coins would be put into circulation. Some people, however, would shave the edges off these coins so they could take the shavings and make additional coins.

But since the coins were valued based on weight, such a practice would reduce the value of the coins that had been shaved. This was such a problem that during one year in Athens, over 80 laws were passed to try and stop the practice of coin shaving.

Not surprisingly, there were people who had the job of examining coins to make sure they had the proper weight. If you were selling something for 10 silver coins, and you suspected that you were getting paid with shaved coins, you could take your coins to this person and have them weigh the coins to make sure that they were the proper weight.

You didn’t want to get cheated by being paid with coins that contained less silver than they were supposed to. This person who examined and weighed the coins was called a dokimos, an approver. A dokimos made sure that only coins of the proper weight were kept in circulation (cf. Gen 23:16; Zech 11:13).

This helps us understand several of the New Testament texts where God is described as the dokimos of men.

God is the weigher of men, the one who make sure that we are not cutting corners, taking shortcuts, or cheating others.

The problem with this word as it relates to the gospel is that some people teach that God’s approval has something to do with whether or not we receive eternal life from God.

They teach that if God does not approve of someone, this means that God does not give them eternal life.

But this is not what the word means at all.

The approval of God has nothing to do with whether or not a person has eternal life, but instead has to do with whether or not God’s finds a person useful and honest in their dealings with others.

Due to this, “useful” is a good synonym for the Greek word dokimos.

So what was Paul teaching in 1 Corinthians 9:27?

First Corinthians 9:27 is sometimes quoted to show that not even Paul was certain that he would go to heaven when he died. Paul writes that he keeps close watch over his body so that he does not end up disqualified (adokimos).

I remember listening to a sermon not long ago in which the pastor said that if even the Apostle Paul could not know for sure that he had eternal life, it was the height of arrogance to believe that we had it. All we can do, this pastor taught, was try our hardest and hope that when we stood before God, we discovered that we had done enough.

Thankfully, that hopeless message is not what Paul is teaching at all.

In context, Paul compares his ministry to that of a runner who seeks to obtain a prize. The prize that people compete for in a game is a perishable crown, but we seek an imperishable crown. Toward this end, Paul runs with certainty, not with uncertainty (1 Corinthians 9:23-26).

In the following context, Paul gives the example of people who were disqualified. He writes about some of the Israelites who had all the same blessings and benefits as everyone else, but who died in the wilderness (1 Corinthians 10:1-12).

The point in the entire context is not about receiving eternal life or going to heaven when Paul dies, but is instead about being faithful and useful to God in what God wants to accomplish in Paul’s life. The prize is not eternal life, for eternal life is a free gift of God.

The prize, or the crown, is significance in the Kingdom of God, blessing in his life and ministry, and praise from God when he stands before Him for a life well-lived in His service.

So Paul is not concerned with losing his eternal life, but is very much concerned with being disqualified for ministry.

Since Paul desires to continue his ministry, and to run in a way that is pleasing and honoring to God, he runs with care and perseverance.

The same thing is true for your life. Being disqualified does not mean losing eternal life, but losing your ministry, or your opportunity to serve God in this life. It is these things Paul could lose, and which any of us can lose as well if we fail to love, follow, and obey God.

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3 More Reasons Good Works Do Not Prove that You are a Christian

By Jeremy Myers

8 Comments

Last week I wrote that good works are not the necessary result of justification. Many Christians say that if you are truly a Christian, you will have the good works to prove it. I argued in last week’s post that this is not true.

Let me provide three more reasons that good works do not prove that we are a Christian (and that the lack of good works do not prove that we are NOT a Christian).

1. Good Works might not be evident

Some people in the comments of last week’s post noted that Christians “good works” often get defined by those in charge. This is true. If we are looking for “good works” in the life of a person to determine whether or not they are a Christian, what good works should we be looking for?

Usually, the good works we look for include things like attending church, daily Bible reading and prayer, tithing to the church, and not using bad words.

But where did this list come from? It seems to have been cherry-picked from various verses in the Bible. Why are these often the types of good works people look for in others? Because these are the types of good works that pastors and church leaders want in the people who attend their church.

Yet the good works that God wants might be completely different than the good works your pastor wants.

The good works that religious leaders tell us to perform might not be the good works that God Himself thinks are important. In fact, the good works that God wants might not be all that beneficial to the ministry that takes place on Sunday morning in the brick building on the corner. For example, James tells us that God wants us to take care of orphans and widows and keep oneself from being polluted by the world (Jas 1:27). Ministry to orphans and widows is not often the first and most important ministry that a local church decides to take on. The same goes for ministry to the poor and homeless.

But beyond this, it is quite possible that the good works that we do perform might not be all that evident to others (or even to ourselves). We may not even realize we are doing good works.

In Matthew 25:31-46, for example, the people who served the hungry, the poor, the sick, and the imprisoned did not realize that they were doing anything “good” for Jesus at all. Their actions and behavior didn’t “count” on the checklist of approved religious good works. But Jesus said that their “good works” were the most important of all, for in serving these other people, they were serving Him.

When we stand before Jesus in His glory, I believe the things we credit to ourselves as being “good works” will be things that receive almost no praise or glory from Him, whereas the things that He praises us for will be those things we didn’t even know we were doing.

The mother who gets up every day and feeds her family and cleans her house without thanks or praise from anyone will likely be among the most honored people in heaven, even though nobody in this world would give her credit for doing anything notable or newsworthy. She may not even have the energy to read her Bible, pray, evangelize, or get involved in a local ministry, but she faithfully serves “the least of these” her children, and God sees what nobody else does, and will honor and praise her in eternity.

And it not just mothers.

Most who truly serve God in the ways that really matter to God serve in obscurity, doing things that nobody notices (including themselves).

2. Sin becomes more obvious as we mature

Another we must be careful about looking to good works as evidence for faith and regeneration is because the closer to God we get, the more aware of our sin we become.

If we are looking at our life and to our good works for evidence that we truly have eternal life, the natural progression of the Christian life will ultimately lead a person to believe that they do not have eternal life.

The more you mature as a child of God, the more you recognize how far from God you truly are.

If you are looking to your good works as evidence that you have eternal life, you are likely to become less sure about it the closer you get to God, rather than more sure.

I always find it interesting that early in Paul’s ministry, he referred to himself as the least of the apostles (1 Cor 15:9). Later, he referred to himself as the least of all the saints (Eph 3:8). Finally, near the end of his life, he called himself the chief of sinners (1 Tim 1:15).

If Paul were looking to his own good works as evidence of whether or not he had eternal life, as he became more and more aware of his sin he would have become less and less sure that he was truly a Christian. But because Paul knew that he had eternal life through the promises of God alone, Paul was able to increasingly glorify God and praise God with every passing year because he knew that each and every sin was covered and forgiven by God.

If you depend on God’s promises in Scripture, and the faithfulness of Jesus to finish in you what He started, then you will never get tripped up or afraid by the sin in your life, for you will know that God always loves you and always forgives. When you sin, you will be able to shrug it off and keep moving forward with God.

3. Good Works are part of sanctification

When a person first believes in Jesus for eternal life, they are justified. They are declared righteous by God. From that moment on, the process of sanctification begins, which only ends with our death and final glorification in heaven.

It is a very possible that a person can believe in Jesus for eternal life and then not come to understand many of the sanctification truths that are necessary to understand in order to make progress in the Christians life.

So if a person has believed in Jesus for eternal life, but they continue to live like the devil, the proper response is not to challenge the validity of their faith, but rather to come alongside them an disciple them into some of the truths of what it means to follow Jesus.

When a Christian lives like the devil, they do not need their faith challenged; they need their faith grown.

They need someone to teach them the Scriptures, to show them what is true of them now that they are members of the family of God.

They need to come to an understanding of their new identity in Jesus.

Good works come from an understanding of these truths. In this way, we can say that good works are a result of understanding these truths, and therefore also a condition for further sanctification.

If a person hears these truths and says they understand them, but they continue to disobey and rebel, then we can say that they are living in rebellion or have failed to understand the truths they have been taught, but one thing we cannot say is that they didn’t really believe in the first place.

Maybe they need someone to come alongside them and show them how damaging and destructive sin truly is. They might need someone to say, “Yes, you can go sin all you want … but when you understand what sin does to you, why would you want to sin?”

Many Christians have the false idea that God is a cosmic killjoy out to ruin their fun and keep them from enjoying life. Some good teaching corrects this idea, and shows that far from ruining our lives, God wants us to enjoy our life to the fullest extent possible. The reason He tells us not to sin is because He loves us and doesn’t want to see us get hurt by sin.

So when a person doesn’t have good works, they don’t need to be told that maybe they aren’t a Christian after all; maybe they need to be shown the destructive nature of sin and the life-giving power of following God’s instructions.

If a person claims to be a Christian but lives like the devil, my response to them is not to tell them they are not really a Christian, but rather to engage them in conversation about how they became a Christian and what this means for their life now.

If, in the course of this conversation, I discover that the only reason they think they are a Christian is because they grew up in a Christian family and went to church a few times growing up, then I get to introduce them to the central gospel truth about how eternal life is by faith alone in Jesus Christ alone.

But if, in the course of this conversation, they express the idea that they have eternal life because God gave it to them as a free gift when they believed in Jesus, I will not challenge the validity or reality of such faith, but will instead begin to address sanctification issues with this person.

The person who has been justified but who is not being sanctified doesn’t need to be told they were not justified. They need to be instructed, encouraged, and befriended by someone who can lead them further down the path of sanctification.

Good works, or the lack thereof, do nothing to prove whether or not a person has eternal life. They do, however, help us know where a person might be at in understanding Scripture and how to live as a child of God. They do help us gauge the process of sanctification and how we can partner with others to encourage them in this process.

Want to learn more about the gospel? Take my new course, "The Gospel According to Scripture."

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Are good works necessary for eternal life?

By Jeremy Myers

15 Comments

Lots of people wonder about the role of good works in the life of the believer. While I agree that good works are important, I do not believe that good works are the necessary result of faith, nor do I believe that good works are necessary to gain entrance into heaven.

What Happens if You Don’t Have Good Works?

Some claim that while good works do not help a person gain eternal life, if a person does not have good works, then this proves that they never had eternal life in the first place and will not enter heaven with God in eternity. (To see some quotes from people who believe and teach this, check out the lesson “Good Works Cannot Prove Eternal Life” in my online course on the Gospel.)

But this is the same thing as saying that good works are a necessary condition for entering heaven.

When good works are a necessary result of faith and justification, then good works become a condition for glorification and entrance into the eternal kingdom.

If someone has faith in Jesus, but they do not have the good works that some people think are necessary, then according to some systems of theology, those people will not enter into glorification.

In such a system, human effort and good works have entered into the chain of events so that if a person does not have the necessary good works, that person will not be glorified.

It is obvious that the only real difference between a person who has faith and good works and a person who has faith without good works is the good works.

If Good Works are a Necessary Result of Justification, then they are a Condition for Glorification

If someone teaches that only those who have both faith and good works will end up in heaven, this means that they see good works as a condition for entering into heaven and final glorification. In such theology, the chain of events is this:

Justification → Good Works → Glorification

In such thinking, if a person does not have the necessary good works, the entire chain unravels. The person will not get glorified because they apparently were not justified.

So the logical conclusion is that if good works are a necessary result of justification, then this makes good works a condition for glorification.

The following logical syllogism may help clarify this further.

1. If a, then always b (where b is something a believer is responsible for).
2. If a and b, then g.
3. Not b.
4. Therefore, neither a nor g.

If good works are a necessary result of justification, this syllogism would be read this way:

1. If one is justified (a), then one will perform good works in life (b).
2. If one is justified (a) and it has been proved by works (b), then one can be sure that one will get to heaven (g).
3. One does not have the necessary works (not b).
4. Therefore, one is neither justified (a) nor is going to heaven (g).

According to this logic, if a person does not have good works, he or she will not make it to heaven. And if a person does not make it to heaven, then he or she was not justified. So, a person who does not have good works is not going to heaven.

Logically then, the belief that good works are a necessary result of justification is equivalent to the belief that good works are a condition for entrance into heaven and glorification.

Yes, Good Works are Important!

None of this means that good works have no place in the life of the believer. As I point out in my online course on the Gospel, good works are essential in the life of the believer for many things. But good works are not necessary to gain glorification into heaven, or to prove that we have truly been justified.

If we want to maintain the gospel truth that eternal life is by faith alone in Jesus Christ alone, then we must hold to the biblical truth that good works do nothing to help earn, keep, or prove eternal life.

Want to learn more about the gospel? Take my new course, "The Gospel According to Scripture."

The entire course is free for those who join my online Discipleship group here on RedeemingGod.com. I can't wait to see you inside the course!

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Jesus does not lie to you about eternal life

By Jeremy Myers

10 Comments

In my “Gospel According to Scripture” online discipleship course, one of the lessons presents 10 reasons you can know that you have eternal life in Jesus Christ. Following this, the course also looks as numerous texts from the Gospel of John in which Jesus promises eternal life to those who believe in Him for it (cf. John 1:12-13; 3:14-16; 5:24; 6:35-40; 10:27-30; 11:25-26).

After we look at these texts in the course, I ask if Jesus lies. He doesn’t, of course. So if Jesus does not lie, and Jesus promises eternal life to those who believe in Him for it, and eternal life (by definition) is eternal, then … if you believe in Jesus for eternal life … you have it. Jesus guarantees it!

Here is a small section from my online course:

Jesus Does Not Lie

The bottom line truth about eternal security from the Gospel of John is this: Do we think Jesus was telling the truth or lying? If eternal life can be lost, then we must say that Jesus was hiding the truth. But since Jesus does not lie, we can know Jesus is telling the truth in the Gospel of John when He promises eternal life to all who believe in Him for it.

J. Wilbur Chapman was a 19th century American evangelist who was greatly used by God to spread the good news of eternal life through faith in Jesus Christ. Here is what he wrote about how D. L. Moody used John 5:24 to show him that he could be sure he had eternal life through faith in Jesus Christ:

I was studying for the ministry, and I heard that D. L. Moody was to preach in Chicago. I went to hear him. Finally I got into his aftermeeting. I shall never forget the thrill that went through me when he came and sat down beside me as an inquirer. He asked me if I was a Christian. I said, “Mr. Moody, I am not sure whether I am a Christian or not.”

He very kindly took his Bible and opened it to the fifth chapter of John, and the twenty-fourth verse, which reads as follows: “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.”

Suppose you had read it through for the first time, wouldn’t you think it was wonderful? I read it through, and he said, “Do you believe it?”

I said, “Yes.”

“Do you accept it?”

I said, “Yes.”

“Well, are you a Christian?”

“Mr. Moody, I sometimes think I am, and sometimes I am afraid I am not.”

He very kindly said, “Read it again.”

So I read it again, “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.”

Then he said, “Do you believe it?”

I said, “Yes.”

“Do you receive Him?”

I said, “Yes.”

“Well,” he said, “are you a Christian?”

I just started to say over again that sometimes I was afraid I was not, when the only time in all the years I knew him and loved him, he was sharp with me. He turned on me with his eyes flashing and said, “See here, whom are you doubting?” Then I saw it for the first time, that when I was afraid I was not a Christian I was doubting [a promise of Jesus Himself!] I read it again with my eyes overflowing with tears. Since that day I have had many sorrows and many joys, but never have I doubted for a moment that I was a Christian, because God said it.

Jesus does not lie. And since Jesus says over and over in the Gospel of John that those who believe in Him will have everlasting life and will not perish, will not die, will not ever thirst, and will not ever be taken out of God’s hand, we must either agree with what Jesus says, or doubt His word and believe that we know better. As for myself, I believe that Jesus was speaking the truth and that I have eternal life through faith in Him, no matter what. We are eternally secure in the hands of God.

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