Eternal Life

I consider the perseverence of the saints to be a Biblical position that is undeniable. THere are many many evidences of this in the Bible that speak specifically to the subject, (look at Wayne Grudem's chapter in Systematic Theology for a plethora of references,) but there is one really simple concept that I have pondered many times before, and it doesn't make any sense at all if a believer can lose his or her salvation. That concept is eternal life.

"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life." - John 3:16 [ESV]

Here in perhaps the most famous verse in the entire Bible we see a reference to eternal life. Perhaps a more explict reference to eternal life is found later in John's gospel.

"My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand."
-John 10:27-29

Christ says, I give them eternal life and they will never perish. Those who would say that you can lose your salvation through apostasy are saying that you were given eternal life, (because if you weren't you were never saved,) and then when you lost your salvation, you lost the gift of eternal life. Therefore, your life will not be eternal.

Now, does this seem kinda weird to anyone else? How is it possible to lose the gift of eternal life? If you lose this gift, then your life obviously has a beginning and an end, and therefore is not eternal. But since eternal life by its own defintion has no end, you cannot be given this gift and then lose it. If you lose the gift of eternal life, you most certainly were not ever given the gift of eternal life. If you were given eternal life, you could not have lost it, for losing this gift means you never possessed it in the first place.

The only rebuttal that I can think of (again, I'm not exactly doing all the theological homework required to comment on a subject like this, all this is coming entirely from my head, so there is a good chance that there is a very intelligent theologian out there that has dealt with this explicitly, and would consider my perceptions of the ideas of the opposing position ludicrous. But, I am by a computer by myself, so I only have myself at the moment, and want to egage in this little internal discourse, of which you are reading at the moment for reasons unknown to me.) well, getting back to what I was saying, the only rebuttal that I can think of is that Christ when he justifies a person here on the earth, he gives them a promise of eternal life, and not actually eternal life itself. Therefore, the promise of eternal life is then removed when the believer commits apostasy.

I don't think that this is possible based on the passages of scripture that deal with justification. The first of these would actually be John 10:27-29 which was quoted above. Christ specifically says, "I give them eternal life." This is a gift. By the nature of this gift it cannot be rescinded, or it most certainly was never given. In John 3:16, those who believe in Christ have eternal life. This gift of eternal life doesn't seem to be a conditional promise for those who believe on Christ, (or are of the elect as Romans 8:29-30 would state,) but rather an effectual gift.

This is not the only reason I have for believing that the saints will persevere to the end, that is supported by many places in scripture other than the two passages that i have quoted here. Nonetheless, I have always found this line of thought interesting, and can't comprehend losing eternal life.

My first post

Hello world that is probably not reading this, my name is Paul and I just created a blog. Will I ever write or say anything significant? Probably not. Should you waste your precious time in the utterly banal task of reading my atrocities, I should hope not. But, if my attempt to dissuade you from reading this was unsuccessful you might come around later expecting me to actually update this thing. Perhaps I will, perhaps I will not. That remains to be seen. But, untill then, have a nice life, and I hope that you will spend the rest of your day meditating on the grace of God shown forth in the gospel.

~paul