The statement of our Lord Jesus Christ, recorded in John 5:24, should certainly give assurance to any one whose trust is in the Word of God, whose hope is in the redemptive work of God’s only begotten Son. God said: “this is My beloved Son: hear ye Him”. Now hear Him:

“Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth My Word, and believeth on Him that sent Me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.” John 5:24.

The believer has eternal life. The believer shall not come into judgment. The believer has passed out of death into life.

Most certainly God wants believers to have a positive “know so” salvation, the real assurance of salvation. Hear God’s own Word:

“These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may KNOW that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the Son of God.” I John 5: 13 The Greek word, translated “know” is “iedo” and the other definition in the Greek dictionary is “perceive” and “to be sure”. Can you not see then that God wants you to know, “to be sure”, that you have eternal life; because you believe unto the salvation of your soul. You did not obtain your salvation by earning it or by laboring for it. Neither do you retain it because you are paying for it with your good works.

Eternal life is God’s free gift to the believing sinner. The believing sinner is not saved because he is worthy; but because he believes. He believes God and he believes that Jesus Christ is God’s Worthy One. Christ, on the tree, suffered for sins once, the just for the unjust that He might bring us to God. I Peter 3:18. It is Christ’s work, and not ours, that brings us to God. Christ’s work was a perfect work. “God, which cannot lie, promised us eternal life before the world began.” Titus 1:2. Not according to our works but according to His grace and purpose which was given us in Christ Jesus.” II Timothy 1:9. Christ’s perfect work makes sinners perfect and complete. Hebrews 10:14. Colossians 2:10. Reverently speaking, God can do nothing but save the sinner who comes to Him by the way of His Son by the way of His cross.

“If our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: in whom the God of this age hath blinded the minds of them that believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, Who is the image of God, should shine unto them.” II Corinthians 4:3 and 4.

The god of this age is very clever. He is called “Satan”, that “old devil”, who has deceived the whole world. Revelation 12:11. This is the crime with which he is charged. We are warned against him. He is like a roaring lion walking about seeking whom he may devour. In Eden he beguiled Eve through his subtlety. We are not to be ignorant of his devices. II Corinthians 11:3; II Corinthians 2:20; Ephesians 6:11. We are told that he is transformed into an angel of light, that he has religious servants who are ministers of righteousness, and, who do their work by imitating the servants of Christ. II Corinthians 11:13 to 15.

There are millions of religious people, identified with some Satanic cult, who have a peace that is not genuine, who have a false security, a hopeless hope, but withal complacent and completely satisfied with their delusion. They are headed, with all their religion, for the sorrows of the second death. They have done the very thing that God’s Word declares leads to that fearful vengeance described in Hebrews 10:25 to 30. They have treated Christ’s shed blood as an unholy thing and have despised the grace of God. This is the sure way to God’s vengeance. God’s grace is available and altogether sufficient for sinners. Christ’s shed blood is the only way to eternal life, the sinner’s only hope, God’s only remedy for sin. Remember, God’s controversy with fallen humanity is sin and death. Christ put away sin by dying and then He abolished death.

Thus we see that this great adversary deludes millions of religious people and gives to them a sense of security, corrupting their minds from the simplicity that is “in Christ”. He causes them to so misinterpret and so misapply the plain teaching of the Word of God, that they reject the gospel of the grace of God and redemption through the shed blood of the Son of God, following the fallacy of some self-appointed religious prophet for whom the followers claim special inspiration, visions or revelations. These different false prophets differ much in their various interpretations, but each claims to have the true Bible religion and the sure way to the Bible heaven, and the peace of God, while enroute to their final reward.

Think of the multitude in Christian Science, Unity, New Thought, Modernism, Unitarianism, Russellism, Mormonism and other “isms”; twice dead, plucked up by the roots, calmed into the sleep of death by the devil’s religious opiate, which is something far more serious than “another gospel”, “the perverted gospel”, in the days of Paul. Galatians 1:6 to 10. The messengers, who give forth this message of death, use Christian phraseology and corrupt the Christian’s Bible, to carry on their soul-damning work; for their master is transformed into an angel of light. II Corinthians 11:13 to 15.

Let us never minimize or discount the work of Satan.

While the devil gives this false security to these lost religious victims, he fills the hearts of many truly redeemed sinners, God’s own children, with doubt and fear, and sometimes with despair. They trust much in their feelings or in their religious activities and experiences. wondering whether they will really reach heaven. They sum up their good works to see if the total is enough to keep them in God’s favor or get them into God’s heaven. Others strive for sinless perfection, agonizing to reach a state of holiness that will fit them for glory. Many of the redeemed of the Lord hesitate to say, “I know I am saved.” To them that would be presumptuous or boasting. They are not properly taught in God’s Word. No true believer will glory in himself or in his works or worthiness. The Bible-taught child of God has no confidence in the flesh. He should endeavor, sincerely, every day, to give the Lord the very best service that is possible, by His grace; but he will not depend upon that faithful service for his eternal security.

For more articles by Pastor J. C. O'Hair, visit the J. C. O'Hair Online Library.