Q&A 0290 – “No one can snatch them out of my hand?”

John 10:28 says "no one can snatch them [Jesus' sheep] out of my hand.'' Could this be teaching the doctrine of "once saved, always saved"?

Look at the passage closely. Jesus is saying that no one can snatch the sheep from his hand. He never says they can't wander away (viz. Luke 15:1-7, the parable of the Lost Sheep). Other people say Romans 8:38-39 supports "once saved, always saved" (also called "eternal security"), because here Paul affirms that nothing can separate us from the love of Christ. And yet, once again, we have our own free will. Jude 21 exhorts us to keep ourselves in God's love.

In short, "once saved, always saved" is not sustainable biblically. We always have a choice.

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