Ø To believe in Jesus Christ, implying
complete and continuous obedience (John 10:26)
This expresses
an act and a continuous process. One act of faith at inception of the Christian
experience and having no more of it will not save the soul of any man. The faith
that saves is an ever present and active faith. It cannot cease and still be
yielding results.
Therefore, a believer must always live by faith to maintain
his salvation and be saved. In the Parable of the Sower, the seed that fell on
stony ground is the believer who heard the gospel and believed for a while but
fell away during temptation. Also 1Timothy 4:1 tells about believers who fell
from the faith and believe doctrines of demons.
Other Bible
verses that emphasize continuous faith and the penalty for departing from the faith
include (2 Timothy 2:11-13) (Hebrew 3:6; 12-14) (Hebrews 4:11; 10:23-28) (Jude
v5).
Those who believe in the doctrines of unconditional eternal security and
salvation by good works have no claim to eternal life because these doctrines
are not supported by the Bible.
Ø Hearing His voice, and not be a
hearer only but also a doer of the Word (John 10:27)
Jesus said
that all those who hear His voice and do not obey Him are not His sheep. All those
who hear His voice and obey Him are His sheep.
Jesus knows His sheep that
follow and obey Him daily. To all those who follow and are obedient to Him, He
gives eternal life, and they shall never perish nor be plucked from His hands
(John 10:25-29).
The only
thing one must do is to come to God through free moral agency and to permit His
salvation and keeping power to be manifested. God cannot keep anyone contrary to
his will any more than He kept Adam and Eve who willed to sin (Romans 5:12-21).
Ø Follow Jesus Christ (John 10:27)
Following Jesus
Christ is not only at the beginning of a Christian life but must be a daily occurrence
and throughout life (Mark 8:34). Claiming eternal life without following Jesus
is like those Pharisees who claimed to know God and have eternal life which
Jesus said was not true (John 8:55).
Ayodele Adegbulugbe.
Lagos, Nigeria.
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