And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day John 6:39-40.

It always raises a lot of questions when we hear that someone has turned his back to the Lord. How did it get this far? Could we have seen it coming? Did we do enough to prevent it? What can we still do once the break with the church has occurred? What does this mean in terms of the salvation of this particular person, and his or her (future) children?

Leaving the church can also cause uncertainty with church members about their own salvation. How do I know that this will never happen to me? Right now I am quite convinced, but is this perhaps subject to change at any time? I really did not expect this from him or her!

Can you actually ever be certain about your eternal salvation?

God’s Eternal Counsel⤒🔗

The Lord Jesus says, “I am the bread of (eternal) life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst” (John 6:35). But he also tells the Jews around him, “You have seen me, yet you not believe in me.”

It is a sharp accusation from Jesus’ mouth. The Jews were following the Lord because of the miracles he performed, because of the bread that he multiplied and where so many people were fed. They followed him not because they recognized in him the bread that has come down from heaven. He must first come with proof...of course, through a miracle that will profit them!

The Lord Jesus meets with such rock-hard unbelief. Yet it does not wreak havoc with God’s counsel. The Father is not left powerless. He does not have to wait anxiously to see how many will still believe in his Son. “What he has given to me,” says the Lord Jesus, “no one can stop. All those he has foreknown, he calls, he justifies and he glorifies them. The counsel of the LORD stands forever and the thoughts of his heart from generation to generation.”

The Lord Jesus finds his comfort in God’s counsel. But it is exactly this confession of God’s eternal plan that has often raised much opposition from people.

If the LORD, from before the foundation of the world, has already chosen and rejected a set number of people, then everything is decided beforehand. Then our faith or our lack of faith no longer matters. You can believe all you want, but if you do not belong to the chosen ones it does not help you in any way. And if you do belong, you can sin as much as you like, because you will get there! You are either chosen or rejected, that is the crux of it!

Besides, it all seems highly unfair. For if you have been rejected, you cannot help it that you do not believe, can you? If God withholds faith, is it then not his fault that I do not believe?

No published list←⤒🔗

Scripture teaches us to speak of God’s eternal plan. From before the foundation of the world God already chose a set number of people, and passed by others.

However, this was not the only thing that God had intended. His intent incorporated so much more than two lists of names. He also established the way in which his eternal counsel would be realized (Canons of Dordt I, 7). And by doing this he gives us our own responsibility, for the full one hundred percent. To our human mind these two things seem to contradict each other: God’s election and our responsibility. But in God’s eternal counsel the two go together.

For the LORD has chosen not to publish the list of his chosen ones; to be read out in each century. He does not circulate a list of names in various places of the world so that people can read whether he or she is chosen or not. If he had done so, yes, then our responsibility would no longer apply.

But the LORD chose a different way to work this out and to make his election known. He did not come to us with a list to announce who were chosen. Instead he came to us in his only and dear Son. He gave his Son so that we would be reconciled to God. He comes to us with the promise that whoever believes in the crucified Christ should not perish, but have eternal life. He demands from each one who hears of this promise that he would repent and believe; that he would believe in the Son of God. That is the way the LORD has chosen, and with this the Lord makes all the hearers responsible for their actions. There is no other way to be saved but through faith in the Son. And you are not judged for all eternity without having rejected Christ in your own unbelief!

The Lord does not act in a mysterious way. He does not dangle the eternal election above our world, like a mysterious sword of Damocles. He makes known to us the way of salvation. All who believe in the Son are given eternal life: that is plain and clear language.

We can fully rely on it. The LORD does not and cannot lie. He is not trying to hoodwink us with his promises. There is no hidden agenda, or a double set of books. This is the complete truth, without any reservations: everyone who believes in the Son is not condemned, but has eternal life. This promise is so certain that everyone who rejects it will be condemned because of it.

The demand comes to each and everyone to believe. In the same way, anyone who refuses to believe is personally responsible for it.

A Trustworthy Gospel←⤒🔗

In John 6 we hear our Saviour saying it in so many words. He speaks about the will of his Father. At that occasion he does not sum up a number of names of people who will be saved and those who will be rejected. No — he points to the fact that the Father has sent him, and that it is the will of his Father that everyone who looks to the Son, everyone who believes in him, will receive eternal life and will be raised from the dead on the last day.

The Jews who do not believe in Christ cannot hide behind him. They cannot say that they cannot help it that they do not believe, that it is all pre-ordained by God’s decree. “No”, says the Lord Jesus in verse 36, “you have seen and heard me, but yet you have not believed in me. You cannot hide behind my Father. You do not believe! You do not believe in him whom the Father has sent to you.”

It is outright slander when people fault the LORD for their unbelief. No one may ever hide their lack of faith behind the idea of the eternal counsel.

When the gospel is proclaimed to us it is not a matter of pretension or deception. The LORD does not have any hidden reservations. We can depend on his promises, for he means them. Everyone who believes in the Son will be saved and share in life eternal! Everyone, no matter into which sins he or she has fallen. However far we may feel estranged from God at this moment, whoever comes to Christ will in no way be rejected!

God’s Gift←⤒🔗

Let no one be so brash and defiant as to hold the Lord responsible for his or her unbelief. That is not how the Lord operates. On the contrary, he is the God of faith. The Lord Jesus points emphatically to this in John 6.

We must believe in the Son. All who believe in the Son are the ones whom the Lord Jesus calls “all whom the Father has given me”. In all those who were given him, Christ confesses a gift of his Father who has given them to his Son. That is the way it is!

Who of us, dead in our trespasses and sins, would be able to give us faith? Of ourselves, we are totally incapable to believe. That is not because of God. That is because of our sin. We have thrown ourselves off the cliff, so to speak, we have fallen from the high position in which God had created us.

It is the Father who has to grant us faith. And he does so, through his gospel that is a power unto salvation. With it the Spirit brings the dead to life and unbelievers to faith. In this gospel lies the power we need in order to believe.

As to how this works exactly, we who believe cannot understand or describe it. But the Lord himself says that his gospel is a power for salvation, the seed of regeneration. The Spirit comes to us with this gospel. He penetrates into our closed hearts, he does it so powerfully and effectively that we who believe can only confess afterward that we could do nothing else but believe. That is not because of us, but it is God who opened our heart so that we would believe. Our faith is fruit of rebirth, given from above.

If we know the LORD in this way, we will stop blaming him for any remaining unbelief. It is not his fault. He is precisely the God to whom we owe our faith. He is the God who comes to us in his gospel. The gospel — which is not an elusive entity, but it is the power unto salvation.

He who hears this gospel and who knows the Lord from the gospel, knows himself more and more bound to a life of gratitude. What would have happened to me, Lord, if I had never come to faith? How could I have ever come to the Son if you had not drawn me? To you be all the glory, both now and for all eternity!

In Christ←⤒🔗

The Father has ordained that all who believe in the Son would have eternal life. They have to be kept until the last day. Yes, even longer than that. The Father wants them to have eternal life. Imagine: while we are still sinners with an immeasurable guilt that needs to be paid.

Two things need to happen: atonement for our guilt, and keeping us unto eternal life.

God appeals to the Son for both of these, and the Son declares himself ready and prepared to do so: in the eternal counsel of peace, and from before the foundation of this world.

The Father gives us his Son. He sends him into the world to give his life as a ransom for many. O depth of wisdom and grace! And the LORD gives the believers to his Son. Not only does Christ have to ransom them, he also needs to keep them. He is responsible for their protection and resurrection on the last day.

Our election and our eternal salvation are therefore inseparable from Christ. He is the Lamb that was known by God already from before the foundation of the world. We are “the chosen”, in him. Without him and outside of him the Father has not chosen us, and the Father will not grant eternal salvation any other way.

Atonement and Preservation←⤒🔗

Christ is the pivotal point in God’s plan and in God’s work. The Father knows what he is doing when he gives his Son to us, and when he entrusts us to his Son. He knows his Son is fully obedient. The Son does not strive for his own goals. On the way, he does not quickly go into a side street in order to manage something for himself. He is completely at the disposal of his Father. “I have come down from heaven,” he says in John verse 38, “not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me.”

The Father can rely on him entirely. The Father has sent him into the world and he has fulfilled his task. He has paid for the guilt of all whom the Father had given him, all who believe in him. His sacrifice is sufficient. Even if all the people of the world would come to him with their guilt — which they will not do — but if all would knock at his door, even then he would not have to say “No.” His sacrifice was more than sufficient to atone for the sins of the entire world.

Now he is in heaven. From there he keeps us and preserves us. No one needs to worry or be afraid that it would become too much for him, or that it would last too long. He does not run out of energy. He does not have to stop prematurely because he can no longer keep it up, or because he would lose power. All whom the Father has given him he will keep until the last day. Yes even more: on the last day he will be there to raise up in his power all those whom his Father has entrusted to his care.

We are used to the expression, “perseverance of the saints”. That should not cause us to think incorrectly that it is an achievement on the part of the saints. It centres on the work that Christ is doing: on his preservation of all whom the Father has given him. This is not an achievement by the saints, but rather a gift to them; to all who believe in the Son.

I am Christ’s←⤒🔗

Will I persevere until the end? When I look at myself, my courage and confidence will fail me. Why would someone else not reach the finish line, and why should I step over it? Why would another drop out prematurely, and not I? I am no better than they are, right? Am I stronger perhaps, or more daring...?

No. But the ground of my certainty is not found in myself. Instead I may look to Christ. When he says he is the guarantee for my preservation, than this gives me peace and certainty. I am his liability. And he is a mighty Saviour who will not let go of any who are given to him and who come to him. Behind all of this stands God’s eternal counsel, the sovereign pleasure of the Almighty and unchangeable God. There rests the anchor of my soul.

When I read about persecution and the horrible torture of Christians, my heart can be very afraid. Would I be able to persevere in such circumstances? I cannot imagine what all they might do to me! But even then the Lord Jesus will be there to carry out the Father’s eternal decree, just as he was with Stephen, with Paul, with John Hus at the stake, and with Guido de Brès on the scaffold.

When I hear of periods of struggle and reformation in the church, the doubt may arise: will I choose the right side? So often I already find it difficult to recognize a wrong teaching. But even then, the Lord Jesus will be there, according to the eternal will of the Father. He is there, as the Good Shepherd, and I will recognize his voice. Just as throughout the ages the sheep have known the voice of the Shepherd, and followed him.

Indeed, my only comfort is that I belong to Jesus Christ who bought me and paid for me with his precious blood. Now he preserves me too, until the last day! And even longer than that, for through his Spirit he gives me the assurance of eternal life.

Assurance of Faith←⤒🔗

God did not chose to publish at some central locations of the world a list with all the names, addresses, and birth dates of all his chosen ones. That is not how the LORD acts. He causes the gospel of Christ to be proclaimed to us, and he calls us to believe in the Son.

God did not choose to present us all with a ticket, printed with the objective information that we are chosen and therefore sure of eternal salvation.

It is simply not how God has ordained it. He does not hand us a ticket with which we can subsequently go and meander as far from him and from his Son as we would like. He does not want us to immerse ourselves in sin, and then put our consciences to rest because we have a ticket in our pocket; guaranteed for eternal salvation. On the contrary, he wants to keep us close to him and to Christ.

Our certainty does not reside in a ticket with some information printed on it. Our certainty lies in the gospel, in the promise of God’s covenant. This covenant demands faith in Christ. That assurance we experience only in faith, in the living connectedness with Christ. As long as we are not looking for a ticket, but to the gospel, to our baptism, to Christ! And as long as we do not acknowledge some information, but only if we accept the gospel, if we use our baptism faithfully, and believe in Christ.

That is also how Jesus says it in John 6, “This is the will of my Father, that all who look to the Son and who believe in him, will have eternal life.”

Our assurance rests in Christ. That is why it is always a certainty of faith, enjoyed only under Christ’s wings!

‘What do you Think about Christ?’ ←⤒🔗

The perseverance of the saints is not a license or an automatism. I cannot say, “I believe at this moment, so my dues are paid and for the rest I can keep doing my own thing.” If you believe, you will remain in Christ’s word, and you will continue to seek protection under the Lord’s wings. In that way, in sticking close to Christ, by looking to him and expecting all things in faith, there is preservation and certainty; eternal assurance, according to the father’s sovereign will!

So the final question remains, “What do you think about Christ? Do you truly love him?” Then you are blessed for whoever is preserved by him, is preserved well; forever and always!