Do John 10:27-29 1 Peter 1:5, and Romans 8:38-39 Teach Unconditional Security?

John 10:27-29: “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand.”

This might be the most often cited text to claim that the Bible teaches the believer in Christ has unconditional eternal security. But are they right to claim that there are no conditions for preservation and security which are mentioned in these verses?

1 Peter 1:5: “Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.”

This is another often cited text by those who claim that the Bible teaches unconditional eternal security. But are they right to assume that there is not a condition cited within the very verse?

Romans 8:38-39: “For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

These verses are also commonly used to claim that the Bible teaches the believer in Christ has unconditional security. However, are they right to assume that the believer being disobedient to the Lordship of Jesus Christ could not separate them from the love of God in Him?

Let’s analyze these three passages one at a time.

John 10:27-29: It is an incredible thing when someone who is not hearing Jesus’ voice and following Him quotes “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me” to try to validate their claim of possessing unconditional eternal security.

Those who are hearing Jesus’ voice and following Him “shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my (His) hand.” However, the Bible also teaches that those who are not hearing Jesus’ voice and following Him (i.e. not keeping His Word) will indeed perish. It also repeatedly warns of the possibility that those who begin in this can turn away from this.

No one is even hearing Jesus’ voice and following Him who does not believe that they need to hear Jesus’ voice and follow Him. As simplistic and obvious as that sounds, there are multitudes who don’t hear Jesus’ voice and follow Him, and don’t even believe that they need to, who lean on John 10:27-29 for their security. They foolishly do this in spite of the common sense reality that these verses only promise security for those who hear Jesus’ voice and follow Him.

Exodus 19:5-6: “Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine: And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation. These are the words which thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel.”

Not only do these words from God to Israel explain how He eventually disowned the Jewish nation, they also apply to those who would be counted among His people under the New Covenant in the blood of Christ. And if you need proof of that from the Bible, then go to the main verses which preachers cite all the time to try to claim that Christians have unconditional eternal security (which are John 10:27-29).

A one-time act of faith in Christ does not relieve anyone of needing to continue in subjection to His authority. There is no real security in Christ besides the security which is in walking by faith in obedience to His Word. Continuing in this is also not automatic for anyone who begins to do so. The Christian race is not a fixed race. There is freewill after conversion to Christ as well as beforehand.

Psalm 95:6-11: “O come, let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the Lord our maker. For he is our God; and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. To day if ye will hear his voice, Harden not your heart, as in the provocation, and as in the day of temptation in the wilderness: When your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my work. Forty years long was I grieved with this generation, and said, It is a people that do err in their heart, and they have not known my ways: Unto whom I sware in my wrath that they should not enter into my rest.”

The preceding verses are obviously appropriate to cross-reference with John 10:27-29. Those who claim that they don’t apply to Christians under the New Covenant are proven dead wrong due to how holy Christian brethren are given the very same exhortation in Hebrews chapter 3.

1 Peter 1:5: Peter speaks here of obedient Christians being “kept by the power of God through faith.” Those words “through faith” matter.

Peter would go on in his first epistle to instruct Christians on how to continue in faith in Christ so that they can indeed be kept by the power of God. He would even go on to say the following near the end.

1 Peter 5:8-9: “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour: Whom resist steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world.”

Christians believing that God keeps them unconditionally disregard these critical instructions and play right into the devil’s hands.

Peter devoted much of his second epistle to warning about the destructive impact of false teachers who deny Jesus Christ’s Lordship and teach that being under His grace can be reconciled with ungodly living. These deceivers cause Christianity to be evil spoken of through the bad fruit they produce in the name of Christ. They really do cause authentic Christians who heed them to fall away from obedient faith in Christ whereby one is kept by the power of God.

2 Peter 2:18-22 speaks of people who had relational familiarity with Jesus Christ, and were really on His narrow way to life, ending up in a worse state than those who were never in the way of righteousness at all. Did God fail to keep them by His power? No. Was this their fault or God’s fault? It was their fault since they failed to continue in obedient faith in Christ. God never promised to keep anyone by His power who does not do this.

Those who teach unconditional security often accuse those who teach against unconditional security of portraying God as a liar. However, teaching against unconditional security does not portray God as a liar. That is because He never promised unconditional security to anyone. Those who say that He has done so actually portray Him as a liar.

In Hebrews chapter 3, right after the previously quoted Psalm 95 is cited, we read the following.

Hebrews 3:12-15: “Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God. But exhort one another daily, while it is called To day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto the end; While it is said, To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation.”

Holy brethren in Christ who have begun in faith in Him are thus warned about ceasing to be partakers of Christ through unbelief.

You cannot rightfully separate continuing to hear Jesus’ voice and following Him from continuing in faith in Him.

Romans 11:19-23: “Thou wilt say then, The branches were broken off, that I might be grafted in. Well; because of unbelief they were broken off, and thou standest by faith. Be not highminded, but fear: For if God spared not the natural branches, take heed lest he also spare not thee. Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God: on them which fell, severity; but toward thee, goodness, if thou continue in his goodness: otherwise thou also shalt be cut off. And they also, if they abide not still in unbelief, shall be grafted in: for God is able to graft them in again.”

Here we see Christians whose valid conversion was not in doubt being told to fear. They are told to fear because they will indeed be cut off from God’s covenant and cease to continue in His goodness if they fall from faith.

Jews who reject Christ are cut off from God’s people. This truth is the basis for the warning given to Christians which was just seen in Romans 11:19-23. Unconditional security believers often also deny that.

Romans 8:38-39: Do these verses teach that it is impossible for a Christian to be cut off from the love of God? No. Romans 8:38-39 is dealing with adverse circumstances and other creatures being unable to separate one who is walking faithfully under the authority of Christ from the love of God which is in Him.

Consider also here what the Apostle Paul testified to the Corinthians of his own sufferings.

2 Corinthians 11:24-27: “Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one. Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day I have been in the deep; In journeyings often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by mine own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren; In weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness.”

It is no wonder that Paul was persuaded that the things which he cited in Romans 8:38-39 couldn’t separate him from the love of God. Yet these sufferings occurred in the context of him denying himself to walk by faith in doing God’s commandments.

Consistent with what he wrote in Romans 11:19-23, the Apostle Paul also testified the following.

1 Corinthians 9:24-27: “Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain. And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible. I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air: But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.”

Paul obviously ran and fought diligently in order to do what was required for him to continue to hear Jesus’ voice and follow Him (i.e. keep His Word). Paul rightfully feared being a castaway (or, rejected) if he did not continue to do so.

In relation, we read in Hebrews 12:1-2: “Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of faith (my note- that is how the original reads); who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.”

The promise of no separation is conditioned upon entering and continuing in obedient faith in Jesus.

John 14:21-24: “He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him. Judas saith unto him, not Iscariot, Lord, how is it that thou wilt manifest thyself unto us, and not unto the world? Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him. He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings: and the word which ye hear is not mine, but the Father’s which sent me.”

The Bible establishes that many who call Jesus Lord will be told to depart from Him and cast into hell as workers of lawlessness. Denying that He is Lord, the supreme rightful authority over all, is not the solution. It is rather necessary to call Him Lord from the heart and actually walk in accordance with that confession.

Jesus said in John 13:13: “Ye call me Master and Lord: and ye say well; for so I am.”

And He said in Luke 6:46-49: “And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say? Whosoever cometh to me, and heareth my sayings, and doeth them, I will shew you to whom he is like: He is like a man which built an house, and digged deep, and laid the foundation on a rock: and when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently upon that house, and could not shake it: for it was founded upon a rock. But he that heareth, and doeth not, is like a man that without a foundation built an house upon the earth; against which the stream did beat vehemently, and immediately it fell; and the ruin of that house was great.”

On a level of nonsense and stupidity which is similar to unconditional security preachers quoting John 10:27-29 to try to prove their case, many will actually quote Acts 16:31 to try to prove their claim that people can have salvation in Jesus without being under His Lordship.

Acts 16:31: “And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.”

Yes, many use a verse which states “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved” to try to claim that being under Jesus’ Lordship is not necessary for one to be saved. That is illogical and insane. Many also give heed to them due to their itching ears and terrible lack of critical thinking.

Paul established early on in Romans that saving faith in Christ is obedient to Him. It is not God’s will to save people in disobedience to His authority.

Romans 1:1-5: “Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God, (Which he had promised afore by his prophets in the holy scriptures,) Concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh; And declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead: By whom we have received grace and apostleship, for obedience to the faith among all nations, for his name:”

Romans 16:25-27: “Now to him that is of power to stablish you according to my gospel, and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery, which was kept secret since the world began, But now is made manifest, and by the scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the everlasting God, made known to all nations for the obedience of faith: To God only wise, be glory through Jesus Christ for ever. Amen.”

John 10:27-29, 1 Peter 1:5, and Romans 8:38-39 simply do not teach unconditional security.