ANNOUNCER: Are you sure about your salvation? What does the Gospel of John say about it? Stay tuned, we will talk about it today. This is Grace in Focus. Thank you, friend, for joining us. Grace in Focus is the radio broadcast and podcast ministry of the Grace Evangelical Society. You can learn more about us at our website, faithalone.org. There you will find our daily blogs. They come out regularly, they’re right there for you on our website, and don’t miss our YouTube short videos, YouTube Grace Evangelical Society. Now with today’s discussion about assurance of salvation, Bob Wilkin and Bob Vacendak. 

BOB W: Bob, we’re talking about assurance of everlasting life, the topic of your dissertation at Liberty University was assurance of the essence of saving faith. That is assurance is necessary in order to have everlasting life. We’ve been talking about assurance in the Gospel of John, and you said there were six passages in the Gospel of John that are the “never” passages. So maybe we could begin by talking about assurance in these “never” passages. 

BOB V: What we have in the Gospel of John are these passages that use the English word never. Last time we talked about the Greek phrase, ou me, this highly emphatic phrase. And John tells us that Jesus’ promise to people was that whoever believes in Him for eternal life will never thirst, John 4:14 and John 6:35; never hunger, John 6:35; never be cast out, John 6:37; never die spiritually, John 8:51, John 11:26; and then in John 10, they will never perish/be snatched out of his hand. 

So we have all these verses one after another implicit in the word “never” is the irrevocable and irreversible promise of God Himself. 

BOB W: I like that irrevocable and what was the other word? 

BOB V: Irreversible. 

BOB W: Irreversible. So once a person has everlasting life, it’s never going to be revoked and it’s never going to be reversed. So basically once you’ve got everlasting life, you’re stuck with it. And if you don’t want to end up with the Lord and his kingdom too bad, yeah, because you’re stuck, you can’t go back. 

BOB V: No, because then God would have to break His promise. And we’re told over and over again, God cannot lie. He cannot go back on His promise. What He promises will be brought to pass. 

BOB W: Okay. Now we’re not probably going to get into it in this episode, but maybe in the next show, we’re going to talk about some practical ramifications of assurance being of the essence of saving faith. And one of the things we need to deal with is the objection that some people have, and they say, well, if I believe that, I’d go out and live like the devil. If I believe that I’d be an alcoholic or I’d be a cocaine addict or I’d be on heroin or I’d be an immoral person or whatever it is. Well, I found the opposite to be true in terms of motivation, but we can talk about that in the next episode. But let’s go through those six “never” passages. Now, what was the first one you said? 

BOB V: Well, this is the one that Jesus, the promise Jesus gives to the woman at the well, John 4:14. 

BOB W: Okay. And He says, it’s going to spring up. If you drink this water of life, it will spring up in you into everlasting life. And didn’t He also say that you’ll never have to drink again? 

BOB V: Yeah, whoever drinks of the water in this well will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never thirst. 

BOB W: And didn’t then, the woman say, okay, give me this water. So I don’t have to come here again to drink. So she gets the fact that it’s, what were your words irreversible and irrevocable? She gets that. Unfortunately, like Nicodemus in John 3, she’s thinking in physical terms, she’s thinking of a literal water and literal coming and drawing, just like Nicodemus was thinking of literally being born again and entering his mother’s womb. Both of them, Jesus had to bring around to the fact that I’m talking about something spiritual here. But you’re right, that verse 4:14 has to be saying then that it can’t be lost or revoked under any circumstances. 

BOB V: And it won’t be. And that’s Jesus’s ironclad promise to those who believe in him for the gift of everlasting life. 

BOB W: You see, you know, some people say, well, ho pisteuon, the Greek for “the one who believes” refers to continuous lifelong belief. And so therefore, you know, John 3:16 means if you keep on believing from the time you come to faith till the time you die, then you’ll get everlasting life when you die. The problem with that is John 4:14 says, the moment you drink this living water, you’ll never thirst again. It’s not like I keep drinking my whole life in order to eventually get everlasting life, right? Isn’t His point the moment you drink it, your thirst is quenched forever. 

BOB V: Yeah. And even more than that, Bob, in the dissertation, I wrote a section on the Greek word, ek. And again, we won’t get into that in depth. But he says, 

BOB W: ek basically in English, but it means like “from” or “out from.” 

BOB V: And Jesus said to the woman at the well, whoever drinks of the water in the well will get thirsty again, but whoever drinks of, ek, whoever drinks of the water, that I will give him will never thirst, of the water. So what Jesus is saying, one sip of this water, of the water. He doesn’t mean “continually” drinks it. He doesn’t mean, you know, necessarily drinks it a large quantity of it. “Of” is a very special word there. And it’s used many times. And it’s talking about drinking of the water. 

If a person, if I’ve got a bottle of water right here, if I take a sip of this water, if somebody says, did you drink that water? I didn’t drink the whole bottle, but I drank of the water. I’d say I drank the water. Okay. So it’s an amazing thing that even in that minutia there, Jesus is actually painting a picture of everlasting life, that it’s not a continuous thing. And it doesn’t mean that it’s just this gigantic amount that you’ve got to have or something like that. No. One moment of faith is sufficient to have everlasting life. 

ANNOUNCER: The Grace Evangelical Society’s recently published Old Testament Commentary, Volume One is now available. Find it at faithalone.org/store. It’s where you can also find Bob Wilkin’s latest book, The Gospel is Still Under Siege, as well as many other titles by Grace Evangelical Society authors. Please come by and have a look today. You’ll find the GES store at our website, faithalone.org. That’s faithalone.org/store. Now back to today’s topic.

BOB W: Bob Bryant gave a talk at our conference on John 4:10. If you knew the gift of God and who it is says to you, give me a drink, you’d ask Him and He’d give you living water, which then in verse 14 is that which springs up into everlasting life. And His basic point is you need to believe in the giver for the gift. The giver is the Messiah, which is where it ends up. She says, we know Messiah is coming. And Jesus says, I who speak to you am he. At that point, she comes to believe in Him. 

And you’ve got to believe in the gift, which is everlasting life, which is irrevocable and what was you said, irreversible. So it’s something that’s permanent. And until you believe that, you’ve not yet drunk the living water. But once you drink it, well, then nothing can reverse that. All right, so what’s another passage? 

BOB V: And you know what? Every single person should thank God Almighty for that as well. Because if it ever was put on our backs at all, if it was ever due to our deeds or our laws, yeah, there’s no way we would enter God would have a heaven with nobody in it.

BOB W: Yeah. It’d be the Lord Jesus and no other humans. Right. 

BOB V: So we’ve got never thirst. We’ve got never hunger in John 6:35. His promise.

BOB W: You eat the bread of life. The moment you partake of it, you never hunger. And that’s also ou me again? 

BOB V: Yes. And so you’ve got these word pictures for believing, drinking water, is a symbol of belief in Christ. Eating the bread of life, whoever eats this bread will live forever. Never hunger. You’ll never hunger for it. So then in John 6:37, he says they’ll never be cast out, never be cast away, never again. Where is apostasy and being cast away from God’s family? 

BOB W: Even if a person stopped believing, they can’t be cast out. Even if they ended up a person that was completely out of fellowship with God and hadn’t been to church in years, once they believe in Jesus, they have everlasting life. Now, when we get to the section on practical ramifications, I can hear people thinking, yes, but wouldn’t that encourage people to go out and sin? No, knowing for sure that we have everlasting life is highly motivating to live for God. And we’ll talk about this more in the next one. Okay. So what’s one of the other “never” passages? 

BOB V: Well, when you get to John 8 and John 11, of course, the famous passage in John 11:25-27.

BOB W: But He’s the resurrection and the life he tells Martha. And then as the resurrection says, he who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. promise of resurrection and glorified bodies and that. But then as the life, he says, he who lives and believes in Me, shall never die. Now, is that also ou me again, shall never ever die? 

BOB V: Yes. He’ll never die spiritually. 

BOB W: Yeah, because He said in the previous verse, He who believes me though, he may die physically yet He shall live physically. But now He’s saying, but he who lives, you find the living human being who believes in me shall never die spiritually. 

BOB V: That’s right. They’ll never be put in the lake of fire. That’s an impossibility. They can’t experience the second death because they’ve been born again. They have life, which is eternal. 

BOB W: I don’t understand why everybody wouldn’t recognize this as good news. Why would some people say, like Pope Gregory, you said in an earlier broadcast that this is a horrible teaching, that this is going to mess people up? No, it’s a wonderful teaching that changes people’s lives, because when we know we have everlasting life, it’s not a guarantee that we’re going to live like we should, but it’s sure a push in the right direction. And if we’re well taught, then we’re people who are most likely going to persevere in the faith because we’re abiding in His word. Jesus talked a lot about abiding in Him in His word. Now, what are the other “never” passages? 

BOB V: Well, the last one in the Gospel of John is John 10:28 where He’s the shepherd of the sheep. They hear My voice. They follow Me, which is and again, following Christ is another word picture for believing in Him. Jesus says in John 10:27-28, My sheep hear My voice and I know them and they follow Me and I give unto them eternal life and they will never perish. Neither shall anyone pluck them out of my hand. So you have two things there, never perish and never be plucked out of his hand. 

BOB W: Or plucked out of the Father’s hand in the next passage. 

BOB V: That’s right. And so once again, we’re given this irrevocable, irreversible promise from Jesus through the word ‘never’ that this cannot happen. 

BOB W: And don’t we call this certainly of our destiny, assurance? And so when we say assurance is of the essence of saving faith, what we’re saying is when we believe the promise of everlasting life, we’re believing the promise of everlasting life, that’s irreversible and irrevocable. We’re never going to hunger. We’re never going to die. We’re never going to perish. We’re never going to be cast out. But we are eternally secure. 

Well, thank you, Bob. And we’ll see you next time. And in the meantime, keep grace in focus. 

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On the next episode: what are the practical ramifications of assurance of salvation? Please join us and until then, let’s keep grace in focus.