Eternal Security

“Therefore my heart is glad, and my whole being rejoices; my flesh also dwells secure.” Psalm 16:9 teaches eternal security for believers.

There are various theological themes that continually pop up in the Bible and eternal security for God’s people is one of them. Here is what Psalm 16 verses 9 through 11 tells us about it. 

 

Therefore my heart is glad, and my whole being rejoices;
my flesh also dwells secure.
For you will not abandon my soul to Sheol,
or let your holy one see corruption.
You make known to me the path of life;
in your presence there is fullness of joy;
at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.

While verse 10 is a direct prophecy fulfilled by Jesus’ resurrection after his death and burial, we can see that everything else applies to God’s saints.

We can have gladness and joy knowing that we are secure in our salvation. We don’t have to sweat if we are going to heaven or not when we have put our complete trust in Jesus Christ alone for our salvation. We are secure now!

We can be sure that when we die, we will not be abandoned to hell. We also know that even after our bodies have decomposed or are cremated, we have a promise of everlasting resurrected life in heaven.

Through Jesus Christ we have the right path of life for now and the only one that leads to eternal life with joy in the presence of God the Father, Jesus Christ the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

If you want to know Jesus, and have security for eternity, then watch my video on YouTube, "The Gospel" It will tell you how to repent and be saved forever.

May God Bless you!

JOHN 19:31-42 NIV, PROOF OF DEATH

 

31 Now it was the day of Preparation, and the next day was to be a special Sabbath. Because the Jews did not want the bodies left on the crosses during the Sabbath, they asked Pilate to have the legs broken and the bodies taken down. 32 The soldiers therefore came and broke the legs of the first man who had been crucified with Jesus, and then those of the other. 33 But when they came to Jesus and found that he was already dead, they did not break his legs.

The day of Preparation and the beginning of Passover and the next day being a special Sabbath are all confusing to us who are not Jewish. Jesus met with his disciples to eat the Passover on Thursday and we naturally think of that day as the start of the Passover week. But Jewish days started around 6:00 PM at sundown. So I would think that Jesus was actually crucified on the first day of Passover which would end at 6:00 PM on Friday. Yet, here it is called a day of Preparation. This is the day when, at 3:00 PM everything ground to a halt so people could prepare for the Sabbath, Saturday. And this special Sabbath would be the Passover Sabbath. Confused? Perhaps this commentary helps:

How then could it be that was the preparation day? Amid conflicting views, I can only give what seems to me the best solution: (1) It is certain that Christ ate a meal the evening before in the Upper Room which was called a passover. (2) It is certain from John 18:28 that the Jews had not eaten the passover at that time. (3) It seems clear to me that Christ, anxious to eat this passover (see Luke 22:15), ate it in advance of the usual time, in order that he, the true Paschal Lamb, "Our Passover" might be offered on the same day that the passover was eaten. The priests hurried the trial and execution of Jesus so that they might proceed to the preparation for the passover that evening. As the Lord's supper was anticipatory of the suffering on the cross, so was the Lord's last passover. The question has difficulties, but this view has fewer than any other.[1]

Special Sabbath or not, the Jews didn’t want bodies left on crosses during the Sabbath. So they asked Pilate to make sure Jesus and the two criminals were dead. Since crucifixion usually took several days to kill a person, breaking the legs would cause them to suffocate because they couldn’t raise themselves to catch a breath while hanging from their arms. That’s the gruesome technicality that explains why they would break the legs of people already being tortured.

34 Instead, one of the soldiers pierced Jesus' side with a spear, bringing a sudden flow of blood and water. 35 The man who saw it has given testimony, and his testimony is true. He knows that he tells the truth, and he testifies so that you also may believe. 36 These things happened so that the scripture would be fulfilled: "Not one of his bones will be broken," 37 and, as another scripture says, "They will look on the one they have pierced."

The prophecy that not one of Jesus’ bones was to be broken had to be fulfilled according to Psalm 34:20. Had he been still alive when the soldiers came to break the legs of the two criminals, Jesus would have had his legs broken also. This also led to the Roman soldier piercing his side to make sure Jesus was dead. Here was a Roman soldier just doing his job not knowing that his action fulfilled the prophecy of Zecheriah 12:10:

And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and pleas for mercy, so that, when they look on me, on him whom they have pierced, they shall mourn for him, as one mourns for an only child, and weep bitterly over him, as one weeps over a firstborn.

It seems ironic that the very thing that proved Jesus’ death on the cross will be the one thing that will cause all Israel to be saved.

People who claim that Jesus didn’t really die on the cross but just “swooned” really have no understanding of history or medical science. From a historical standpoint, these Roman soldiers knew what they were doing. Letting a living person come down from a cross would have gotten them crucified. When a prisoner escaped, the custom to kill the guard was known way back in 1 Kings 20:39-42 when the Lord passed this judgment on Ahab for releasing his enemy, Ben-hadad. It was also described in Acts 12:19 when an angel released Peter from prison and Herod had his guards executed. These soldiers would not risk having Jesus being alive when he was taken off the cross.

So, this soldier does a postmortem test by piercing Jesus’ side. The object isn’t to kill Jesus, but a test to make sure he is dead. The evidence of water and blood coming out was proof. According to cardiologist, Dr. Anthony Sava, when a person has been beaten and suffered the trauma on the cross as Jesus was, there would be an accumulation of blood between the ribcage and lung. After death, the blood would separate into dark red cells at the bottom and a lighter pale-yellow layer above. The spear penetrating beneath the rib cage would puncture the cavity releasing “blood and water.”[2] This is conclusive proof that Jesus was actually dead on the cross. It refutes all “swoon” theories or other theories claiming that Jesus was resuscitated after he was removed from the cross.

But there’s more!

38 Later, Joseph of Arimathea asked Pilate for the body of Jesus. Now Joseph was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly because he feared the Jews. With Pilate's permission, he came and took the body away. 39 He was accompanied by Nicodemus, the man who earlier had visited Jesus at night. Nicodemus brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about seventy-five pounds. 40 Taking Jesus' body, the two of them wrapped it, with the spices, in strips of linen. This was in accordance with Jewish burial customs. 41 At the place where Jesus was crucified, there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb, in which no one had ever been laid. 42 Because it was the Jewish day of Preparation and since the tomb was nearby, they laid Jesus there.

Joseph of Arimathea is an enigma. His first mention in this text is bold and courageous. Just a few hours earlier, the chief priests and leaders had badgered Pilate into crucifying Jesus. Now, one of their members comes and asks for Jesus’ body. He risked the ire of Pilate and the rebuke and condemnation from his fellow Jews. On the other hand, he had been a secret disciple of Jesus because he feared the Jews. Now, he makes his allegiance clear risking his life and reputation.

The enigma doesn’t stop there as Matthew 27:60 says that Jesus was laid in Joseph’s tomb, one which had not been used. Warren Wiersbe remarks that this tomb was close to the place of the crucifixion. What wealthy Jew would carve out a tomb so near a place of brutal executions?[3] I also wonder why someone from Arimathea would want his tomb outside of Jerusalem instead of inside or in his hometown. Nicodemus is also factored into the equation, who just happened to have seventy-five pounds of burial spice available to him on Preparation Day. We’ve already seen the progress of Nicodemus from a spiritually clueless leader of Israel to his attempt to sway the Jews away from arresting Jesus in John 7:50-51. They quickly turned on Nicodemus.

Wiersbe further speculates that Joseph was not just a secret disciple because of his fear, but also because he was God’s spy inside the Sanhedrin. He goes on to consider that Joseph and Nicodemus must have studied the Scriptures together and found that the Messiah had to be buried in a rich man’s tomb (Is 53:9). Joseph may have had this tomb prepared not for himself, but for Jesus. Nicodemus must have already been ready with the spices. They may have even been waiting at the tomb during Jesus’ crucifixion and as soon as Jesus died, Joseph hurried to Pilate since they had such little time to prepare Jesus for burial. They were not concerned with becoming unclean for the Passover because they had found “the Lamb of God.”[4]

Jesus’ burial is more proof that Jesus must have been dead when he was buried. Reading this account in John, you would expect that John, Joseph and Nicodemus were the only disciples who observed Jesus’ death. However, Mark 15:40 records, “There were also women looking on from a distance, among whom were Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James the younger and of Joses, and Salome.” Then Matthew 27:61 records, “Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were there, sitting opposite the tomb.” These women observed Jesus being wrapped in linen with layers of spices. If Jesus had revived, they and John would have certainly prevented Jesus burial.

While these spices have healing properties, we must remember they weighed seventy-five pounds. Jesus was wrapped in linen. It is impossible to imagine Jesus reviving in the tomb after his heart stopped and maybe even punctured and having the strength to get up and unwrap himself then sneak out of a tomb with a heavy stone over the entrance and past guards. Oh, also he would have had to retore the seals put on the tomb by the chief priests and Pharisees (Matt 27:62-66).

John was an eyewitness to all this. No one at the time refuted his testimony. He declares that it is the truth. Anyone who refutes this testimony centuries later simply has an ax to grind because their acceptance of the truth would mean they would have to admit that Jesus really died and the he was really resurrected from the DEAD. And that would lead to all the other truth claims of Jesus and the Bible being right such as our need for a Savior from our sins.

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[1] Barton Warren Johnson, The People’s New Testament. (Seattle, WA: Biblesoft, 2014), John 19:1.

[2] A. F. Sava, “THE WOUND IN THE SIDE OF CHRIST,” The Catholic Biblical Quarterly 19, no. 3 (1957): 343–46, http://www.jstor.org/stable/43710428.

[3] Wiersbe, John 19:31-34.

[4] Ibid.