An honest look at the scriptures makes us aware that there is a ferocious battle for our hearts and souls going on, and that the enemy would like nothing more than to devour us! (1 Pet. 5:8) The danger is real and the stakes are eternal. We can drift away (Heb. 2:1). We can “reject” our salvation just like the people in Jesus’ parable who refused his invitation to the wedding feast (Heb. 2.3 and Matt. 22:5 both use the same word). Our hearts can become “evil and unbelieving” and “hardened by the deceitfulness of sin” (Heb. 3:12-13). Jesus warns that we can “believe for a while” and then “fall away.”(Luke 8:13). We can thrust away faith and good conscience and, as far as “the faith” goes, end up shipwrecked (1 Tim.1:19). And Peter warns
that we can end up worse than before we heard the Gospel (2 Pet 2:20-21). So we dare not pretend that things are otherwise.BUT the other side of the coin is God’s protection. Jesus promises to those who keep listening to His voice and keep following Him, that nothing can snatch them from either his hand or His Father’s. We are safe if we stay close to the Shepherd.
People don’t “lose” their salvation like misplacing their car keys. And they don’t get snatched from the protection of the Shepherd. Those who do turn away, do so because they have chosen to leave. But this can lead us to a distorted picture. Jesus does not simply leave us on our own to sink or swim. Once we belong to Christ, He is more earnest that ever for us to have eternal life in the age to come. A good example of the Savior’s heart is in Luke’s account of the Last Supper.
Jesus predicts that all of His disciples will desert him. And Peter, being the kind of man that he is, insists he would never be a deserter, to which Jesus responds:
31“Simon, Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you, that he might sift you like wheat, 32but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned again, strengthen your brothers.” (Luke 22:31–32)
Peter himself is unaware of the danger. Peter is unaware of the intensity of Satan’s coming assault on his faith. And more important, he is unaware that Jesus has been praying for him that his faith may not fail him. Get that? Peter’s faith actually could fail him, but the Lord is personally looking out for him. He is interceding over dangers that are unknown to Peter himself.
The apostle Paul touches on this very attitude of the Lord’s heart when he writes:
6For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. 7For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— 8but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 9Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. 10For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. 11More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation. (Romans 5:6–11)
Notice verse 10. “If while we were enemies. . .much more now that we are reconciled. ..” If the Jesus, the Good Shepherd, left the ninety-nine to find us, how much more will he now seek to keep us from going astray. The danger of apostasy is real, but the Lord doesn’t just save us and then leave us on our own. He keeps calling us back. He keeps correcting our path and, if we can judge from Peter’s example, He keeps praying for us that our faith may not fail.
No wonder He’s called “the Good Shepherd.”