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TRUE BELIEVERS ARE SAFE IN HIS HANDS END TIMES AND BEYOND |
Why is this page of the website site entitled “True Believers are Safe in His Hands”? Because only true believers are guaranteed eternal life. “For this is the will of My Father: that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day" (John 6:40 HCSB). So before we look at verses and passages that reveal the assurance of eternal life, let’s look at what characterizes a true believer. A short time after Jesus rose from the dead, the church was born. The newborn church consisted of those who accepted the message about Jesus and, thus, were baptized by Jesus with the Holy Spirit (Mark 1:8). As a result, “they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer” (Acts 2:42 NIV). As it was then, it is today. Those who believe receive the gift of the Holy Spirit the moment they believe and hence become new creations. They know the Lord and have eternal life. They devote themselves to different things. “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away, and look, new things have come” (2 Corinthians 5:17 HCSB). They are made new creations for the purpose of doing good works. “For we are His creation, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared ahead of time so that we should walk in them” (Ephesian 2:10 HCSB). God starts the good work in them and will lovingly continue the work until the day Jesus returns. “I am sure of this, that He who started a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus” (Philippians 1:6 HCSB). These works don’t save us. They are accomplished by the power of the Holy Spirit and are evidence that we are saved. True believers bear these hallmarks, among others:
1 JOHN 4:13 Hereby know we that we dwell in him, and he in us, because he hath given us of his Spirit. KJV ROMANS 8:9 1 JOHN 5:13 JOHN 17:3 JOHN 10:27-28 1 CORINTHIANS 2:12 1 JOHN 5:20 JOHN 8:31-36 JOHN 8:12 1 JOHN 3:14 1 JOHN 2:9 EPHESIANS 5:8-10 [Jesus said,] “I am the vine; you are the branches. The one who remains in me – and I in him – bears much fruit, because apart from me you can accomplish nothing. If anyone does not remain in me, he is thrown out like a branch, and dries up; and such branches are gathered up and thrown into the fire, and are burned up.If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you want, and it will be done for you. My Father is honored by this, that you bear much fruit and show that you are my disciples.” NET COLOSSIANS 2:13-14He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross. NIV 1 JOHN 1:9-10 ACTS 1:8 For the ground that has soaked up the rain that frequently falls on it and yields useful vegetation for those who tend it receives a blessing from God. But if it produces thorns and thistles, it is useless and about to be cursed; its fate is to be burned. But in your case, dear friends, even though we speak like this, we are convinced of better things relating to salvation. For God is not unjust so as to forget your work and the love you have demonstrated for his name, in having served and continuing to serve the saints. But we passionately want each of you to demonstrate the same eagerness for the fulfillment of your hope until the end, so that you may not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and perseverance inherit the promises. NET PHILIPPIANS 3:20-21 1 JOHN 2:19 Now that we have looked at verses and passages that reveal the things that characterize a true believer, we can look at the assurance of eternal life a believe has. We truly are safe in our Lord’s hands! If you are not sure you are a true believer, read these pages (find links in the left column) and believe what you read:
JOHN 5:24 And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. The one who has the Son has this eternal life; the one who does not have the Son of God does not have this eternal life. I have written these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life. NET HEBREWS 10:14-18 For by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy. The Holy Spirit also testifies to us about this. First he says: "This is the covenant I will make with them after that time, says the Lord. I will put my laws in their hearts, and I will write them on their minds." Then he adds: "Their sins and lawless acts I will remember no more." And where these have been forgiven, sacrifice for sin is no longer necessary. NIV JOHN 10:29-30 ROMANS 6:8-11 EPHESIANS 4:30 JOHN 6:35 [Jesus said,] “For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him will have eternal life, and I Myself will raise him up on the last day.” NIV JOHN 6:47 [Jesus said,] “I tell you the solemn truth, the one who believes has eternal life.” NET 1 CORINTHIANS 1:8-9 He will also strengthen you to the end, so that you will be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful, by whom you were called into fellowship with his son, Jesus Christ our Lord. NET PHILIPPIANS 1:6 For I am sure of this very thing, that the one who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus. NET HEBREWS 2:14-15 Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, he likewise shared in their humanity, so that through death he could destroy the one who holds the power of death (that is, the devil), and set free those who were held in slavery all their lives by their fear of death. NET 2 CORINTHIANS 1:21-22 But it is God who establishes us together with you in Christ and who anointed us, who also sealed us and gave us the Spirit in our hearts as a down payment. NET JOHN 6:37 And we know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose, because those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that his Son would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. And those he predestined, he also called; and those he called, he also justified; and those he justified, he also glorified. What then shall we say about these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? Indeed, he who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all – how will he not also, along with him, freely give us all things? Who will bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is the one who will condemn? Christ is the one who died (and more than that, he was raised), who is at the right hand of God, and who also is interceding for us. Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will trouble, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written, “For your sake we encounter death all day long; we were considered as sheep to be slaughtered.” No, in all these things we have complete victory through him who loved us! For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor heavenly rulers, nor things that are present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. NET ROMANS 8:1-4 There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the life-giving Spirit in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death. For God achieved what the law could not do because it was weakened through the flesh. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and concerning sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, so that the righteous requirement of the law may be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. NET 2 TIMOTHY 1:10-12 2 TIMOTHY 2:11 1 PETER 1:3-9 HEBREWS 10:39 LUKE 22:31-32 |