John 18:8-9
“Jesus answered, ‘I told you that I am he. So, if you seek me, let these men go.’ This was to fulfill the word that he had spoken: ‘Of those whom you gave me I have lost not one.’
Precious and sweet assurance of salvation! Even now, facing what He was, His concern is for the disciples that were too tired to pray. Yes, those disciples. The fragile ones who kept letting Him down but that He loved so much to die for.
Are you living in an emotional hell? Are you heartbroken? Is your world crumbling? Think on this, Christian, for in it you find the answer. Jesus won’t lose you…He won’t. The promise isn’t of ease, but security in faith. If He is trusted to save your eternal soul, how much more will He carry you through this trial? Think on this! You must because the trials will come on and on and, if not tonight, then some night, you’ll be standing there in the garden, in all that dark, wondering where He went.
But you’re never alone and never, never forgotten. When you’re feeling lost, remember His words: “Of those whom you gave me I have not lost one.”
Have you doubted God’s kindness and forbearance towards you? Do you think that after a while His fires would grow cold and you’d be left in the winter of your soul’s fate? Do you gauge the Lord’s faithfulness according to the hurts your heavy heart has endured in the past when others failed you…or left you?
Or do you fear deep in your soul that your tumults and failures, your imperfect worship and frail praise have made Him think twice? Do you fear deep down that once He sees you as you are, or after the salvation honeymoon is over, that His love will fizzle like other loves in your past? Well, perish those pathetic accusations of the enemy! Jesus will not leave or forsake you. Ever. He will not lose any of us that are given to Him by the Father.
His care for his disciples even here ought to reassure us in our travails and our weak faith. There will be moments when our emotions have run low, when we’re depressed, alone, and full of spiritual dread and unease. Perhaps the enemy has put in our hearts that we’re not one of those special ones that God really saves. Or, perhaps, we’ve been caught up in some sin or another. In such times we hear dark whispers of ruination from within our disquieted hearts. But we shouldn’t hesitate to repent and turn to God in wonderful prayer. We cry out to the Father in our pitiful state with great, unwavering confidence, because Scripture reminds us boldly of Jesus’ preserving mission. We will not be left behind though He goes to the agony of the cross. Even at this horrible moment the Savior is our protector. He will not let us down despite our sins.
No Christian will walk long before they stumble. The disciples were here on this night as pictures of us. They fell asleep when they should have prayed. Next, they’ll scatter when the Shepard is struck. We’re awash with luxury and ease compared to those men and yet we abandon Him still. No soldiers or tyrannical priests stalk us and yet we consistently dance with sin and fear. We take heart, though, that God has given us such a new high priest as Jesus. He will not lose a single one of us.
So, should we discover ourselves in this sin or that, or if our hearts have grown cold and we dread God’s reproach when we turn again to Him, remember well the Lord’s concern for His disciples on that fateful night. And run to Him. You aren’t saved because you’re better today than yesterday; the love of God doesn’t reside upon you because your conduct is more Christian now than it was then. You’re a Christian because of Jesus Christ and Him alone. Let Him wash your feet if He has already made you clean (John 13) and let no circumstances keep you from the sweet forgiveness and restoration that is yours in Christ Jesus. No matter your troubles, nothing can separate you from the love of God – neither height, nor depth, nor angels or rulers, nor anything else in all creation! At the root of all Christian depression is this basic error: forgetting who God is and that He is our salvation. Our performance isn’t what saved us and yet now, in gratitude to the inestimable gift of grace we’ve received, our behavior is transformed in love. The love of God is poured into our hearts and we begin more and more to obey Him because of all that love and the gratitude that fills our hearts. This makes all the difference. Christians stumble but can’t fall. They can’t fall because Jesus won’t let them fall.
We will be preserved until the last. We who are righteous by faith will live by this faith and this is the central truth upon which that faith resides. And upon that faith we will know the love of God in Christ, with it poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, we will grow in leaps and bounds, in fits and starts, fast, then slow – but we will grow because that love compels us. And that love wasn’t cheap; it cost God His Son and when we see that we won’t live cheap. So, God’s love for us transforms us, not the law – for the law is weakened by the flesh. But that love, when reflected back at Him, finds us fulfilling the law without trying to because to love God is to obey Him and to obey Him is to believe on His Son and we find Him – Christ – at the cross and only there. We cannot meet Him anywhere else.
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