Security

“My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me." "My sheep hear"—they have ears to hear; "They follow Me"—they have feet to walk, and "I give unto them eternal life." Do not think that only means "safety"; it is life forever. "They shall never perish," none shall "pluck them out of My hand," and "My Father, which gave them Me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of My Father's hand" are eternal security. We learn that Father and Son are both engaged in holding us. "I and My Father are one." All this is indeed blessed security. We received life in the beginning when born of God, and now we are believers in Christ.
This life now in us is the same life that is in Christ (John 12:24); it is communicated to us (John 17:3); it is a life by which we can enjoy and know God as our Father. This life "more abundantly" is found in Christ as the fountain, and flows in us as the stream. In John 20:19, Jesus stood in the midst of His disciples and said unto them, "Peace be unto you"; He says it again in verse 21, "Peace be unto you: as My Father hath sent Me, even so send I you." Notice who is breathing on the disciples here; it is the same Jesus, but He has died and risen again here, Head of God's new creation. God breathes into Adam and he becomes a living soul. Through sin he forfeited life, and death enters, but here in this new life, death can never enter. "For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death." Rom. 8:2. The life in Christ Jesus is not only a risen life, but life in the power of the Holy Spirit; I have, and act under the power of the Spirit of God.
Then consider John's Epistle and see the contrast between the unconverted man and the Christian. So much is said here about eternal life. How wonderful to find it in the believer as in Christ, only in us the flesh hinders, while the Lord Jesus did the will of God. In Him this life was seen in all of its perfection. He walked in obedience to God, so the measure in which a Christian walks and allows the divine nature to be seen in him, in that measure is seen the divine life.
We read in 1 John 2:7: "I write no new commandment unto you, but an old commandment which ye had from the beginning." This is seen in Christ Himself. Notice 1 John 1: "From the beginning," was when Christ was made flesh, as in John 1:14. They saw, handled, and contemplated it in the person of Christ. There is one peculiar thing about the Epistle of John. This life is called a "new commandment." Moses says, "Thou shalt" and "Thou shalt not." 1 John 2:7 gives us no new commandment, not an order to do something, but a life communicated.