For while we were yet weak, in due season Christ died for the ungodly. Rom. 5,6

 

He holds me!

   My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; and I give eternal life to them, 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

   This Jesus says about His sheep, that is, those who have taken their refuge to Him, or as He expresses it in this coherence: «Those who hear My voice!»
   But what is it exactly to hear His voice? - Am I among those who hear or am I only deceiving myself, by my faith?
   It is written about Jesus effect on His surroundings, among other things: «Now all the tax collectors and the sinners were coming near Him to listen to Him.» (Luke 15:1).
   So it was not first of all His looks or behaviour, signs and wonders, that draw them to Him, but His voice, and then not the sound of it, but what He preached, and they heard!
   It was in other words the message they heard, that caused that they draw near to Him.
   And this is also your situation? - It is what you have heard of and about Jesus, that also gives you boldness to come to Him, despite all misery and sin you recognise with yourself?
   This is His sheep! - And listen to what He says about them - about you!: «And I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish!»
   Think - what a gift and assurance to get! First the assurance about the gift itself, the eternal life, and then the assurance that it can never ever be taken away from you again! Because - as He adds - the one who has come to Him because of the Word they have heard, they have also come to the Father, - yes, «their life is hidden with Christ in God.» (Col. 3:3). And no one takes anything from Him!
   The only danger now left, is that you yourself choose to go away, that you let yourself be tempted by something else, like Paul complains of his friend: «Demas, having loved this present world, has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica.» (2 Tim. 4:10).
   Let us pray to God about this danger today. - He is also powerful enough to keep us from it!

E.K.

Holy Bible New American Standard Version
Translator: E.K.

 

 

11 jan.