6. Nobody can override your freedom.
I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand. {John 10:28}
I love these words of Jesus—nobody can snatch us out of His hand. What this means is that no other person, no other entity, no third party can come along and destroy you. Nobody else can take away your freedom.
God is the all-powerful, all-sovereign Creator of the universe, yet He created us with the ability to totally reject Him. He created us in freedom, for freedom. And if our freedom is so important to Him that He is unwilling to override it, you can be sure that He’s not going to let anybody else override it either!
To put it in familiar religious terms, nobody else can decide whether you’ll be saved or lost. Nobody can choose for you. Nobody can ask you to choose for them. Nobody can deceive you into being lost. Nobody can torture you into being lost. Nobody but you can ultimately choose for or against God.
In Ezekiel 18, God said clearly that our decisions in this realm are always and only made as individuals. The person who does right is responsible for his own goodness, and the person who does evil is responsible for his own evil. God has paid a high price to give us the freedom to choose for ourselves. And He won’t let anybody else interfere with that power.
If you want to dig deeper—
Deuteronomy 30:19-20
Joshua 24:15
Psalm 49:7
Ezekiel 18:20, 30-32
Romans 8:35
Galatians 5:1