February 26 Daily Devotional

Bible Reading

John 10:19-42:

¹⁹There was a division therefore again among the Jews for these sayings.
²⁰And many of them said, He hath a devil, and is mad; why hear ye him?
²¹Others said, These are not the words of him that hath a devil. Can a devil open the eyes of the blind?
²²And it was at Jerusalem the feast of the dedication, and it was winter.
²³And Jesus walked in the temple in Solomon's porch.
²⁴Then came the Jews round about him, and said unto him, How long dost thou make us to doubt? If thou be the Christ, tell us plainly.
²⁵Jesus answered them, I told you, and ye believed not: the works that I do in my Father's name, they bear witness of me.
²⁶But ye believe not, because ye are not of my sheep, as I said unto you.
²⁷My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me:
²⁸And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.
²⁹My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand.
³⁰I and my Father are one.
³¹Then the Jews took up stones again to stone him.
³²Jesus answered them, Many good works have I shewed you from my Father; for which of those works do ye stone me?
³³The Jews answered him, saying, For a good work we stone thee not; but for blasphemy; and because that thou, being a man, makest thyself God.
³⁴Jesus answered them, Is it not written in your law, I said, Ye are gods?
³⁵If he called them gods, unto whom the word of God came, and the scripture cannot be broken;
³⁶Say ye of him, whom the Father hath sanctified, and sent into the world, Thou blasphemest; because I said, I am the Son of God?
³⁷If I do not the works of my Father, believe me not.
³⁸But if I do, though ye believe not me, believe the works: that ye may know, and believe, that the Father is in me, and I in him.
³⁹Therefore they sought again to take him: but he escaped out of their hand,
⁴⁰And went away again beyond Jordan into the place where John at first baptized; and there he abode.
⁴¹And many resorted unto him, and said, John did no miracle: but all things that John spake of this man were true.
⁴²And many believed on him there.

Devotional

Some Christians are fearful that they might have fallen from grace and salvation. Or, in morbid and unwholesome introspection, they may be terrorized by the thought that they might have committed a "sin unto death" for which there can be no pardon.

There is a danger of misinterpreting and misapplying passages of the Bible that give solemn warnings while ignoring or not appropriating passages that should give comfort and assurance. But the Bible clearly teaches, as the Westminster Confession of Faith expresses it, that God's people "can neither totally nor finally fall away from the state of grace; but shall certainly persevere therein to the end, and be eternally saved" (XVII:i).

To hold that Christ's sheep can be lost is to deny that He gives them eternal life, is to deny His word that they shall never perish, and is to deny that He spoke the truth when He said that no man can pluck them out of His or the Father's hands.

All who are called to everlasting salvation should in gratitude and adoration echo the words of Peter:

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed at the last time.

Welcome to "Think on These Things," a twelve-week daily devotional prepared by the late Dr. John H. Skilton, an ordained minister in the Orthodox Presbyterian Church and for many years Chairman of the New Testament Department at Westminster Theological Seminary, Philadelphia.

We are indebted to P & R Publishing and Skilton House Ministries for permission to use this copyrighted material on the OPC Web site. (P & R held the copyright from 1975 to 2005, at which time they reassigned the copyright to Skilton House.)