December 22
“My sheep listen to My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; and I give them eternal life, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of my hand.”
John 10:27-28 (NASB)
Even though we live in a very insecure world, Christmas offers the security of eternal life.
During the Feast of Dedication, Jesus was walking in the Temple and was asked if He was the Messiah (John 10:24). His answer brings great security to those who believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the true Shepherd of Israel.
The Feast of Dedication (10:22), also known as Hanukkah, is when the Jewish people celebrate the rededication of the Temple after Antiochus Epiphanes (164 BC) profaned it with the sacrifice of swine in the worship of foreign gods. Hanukkah continues to be an eight-day Festival of Lights in memory of the menorah that burned in the Holy Place during the rededication.¹ The Maccabees are those who rededicated the Temple and liberated Israel, and they ruled until 63 BC. Many in Israel thought that the Maccabees would fulfill their hopes for the Messiah; however, the Maccabees were false shepherds and became corrupt priests/kings. Their dynasty lasted only one hundred years, and the Jews very soon began hoping for a true Messiah to establish a lasting righteous kingdom.
John 10 explains that Jesus is the true Shepherd of Israel (see Ezekiel 34:12; Zechariah 11:16), and those who believe and follow Him as His sheep have eternal life (John 10:28). Jesus is our eternal Savior. He gives eternal life to all who believe that He was the God-Man who died on the cross to receive upon Himself the wrath of God for the sins of humanity and that He rose again victorious over sin and death.
Those who believe and follow Jesus have an eternal secure salvation held fast by the triune God. The entire Trinity holds us secure: we are in the secure hand of Jesus (God, the Son) (10:28); we are held firmly within the all-powerful hand of God, the Father (10:29); and we have the eternal presence of the Holy Spirit (God, the Spirit) (14:16-17). Since the entire Trinity as One (10:30) holds us secure within His all-powerful “hand,” there exists nothing with sufficient power to remove us from eternal salvation.
There is little that is secure in this present world. But what a comfort Christmas brings when we celebrate the birth of the true Shepherd who promises a secure eternal life held sure by the entire Triune Godhead: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
¹ See 1 Maccabees 1-4.