John 10:28-29
I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. 29 My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’ s hand.
The reward of being among Jesus sheep is that he gives his sheep eternal life and they will never perish and no one will snatch them out of his hand. Now I want us to look at this closely, reason being that there are people that think that once saved, a born again Christian can loose his salvation. I am going to show you using this verse that once saved always saved. A born again Christian will never loose his salvation. Let’s us look at the verbs used in verse 28:
1. I “give” them eternal life. The word used here in Greek is “didomi”. This word is used is in an indicative mood. Now the indicative mood in Greek makes an assertion of fact and is used with all six Greek tenses. Jesus used this specific word in this specific mood to indicate a fact. Therefore a Greek person listening to Jesus would understand that Jesus is stating a fact when he says “I give them eternal life and they will never perish and no one will snatch them out of my hand”. This is a fact that was stated by Jesus.
2. And they will “never” perish. The word in Greek is “ou me”, negative expression consisting of the word “ou” which means “not” and “me” which also means “not”. A double negative strengthening the denial, meaning not at all, no never. This word is in an emphatic future negative. The Emphatic Future Negative is indicated by the negative particles ou, “not,” and me, “not,” which are used together to emphasize the negation. A Greek person listening to Jesus would understand this as a fact that he/she cannot and will never be snatched out of Jesus’s hand, now or in future. This clearly shows then that they will never loose their salvation.
So when Jesus speaking in Greek to a Greek person made this statement “I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand“, this was understood by a Greek person as Jesus stating a fact and indicating that a born again Christian will never, never, never loose his salvation. The choice of words here in Greek makes it very clear that once saved, always saved.
Then Jesus went on to say that it is God his Father, who has given him his sheep and since God is greater than all, no one is able to snatch them out of his hand as well. Here Jesus giving further assurance to believers that it is not only him that will protect the believers from loosing their salvation I but also God who is greater than all, also protect the believers.