Another cause of stumbling at eternal life being now the actual possession of the redeemed man, is that many who claimed to have had eternal life, also claim to have lost it; and if it had been actually _eternal_ life it could not have stopped; for then eternal would not be really eternal; hence, it must have been simply the _promise_ of eternal life that they had, and they therefore only lost the _promise_ and not really eternal life itself. But Jesus, foreseeing this class of professing Christians, said that they were never really redeemed, never really had eternal life: "Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out demons? and in thy name done many wonderful works? and then will I profess unto them, I never knew you,"--Matt. 7:22, 23, not "you were redeemed, you did have eternal life, but you lost it; it stopped"; but "I never knew you," and John teaches the same thing in 1 John 2:19, "They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us; but they went out that they might be made manifest that they all are not of us." (R. V.) "There is no such thing as partly saved and partly lost; partly justified and partly guilty; partly alive and partly dead; partly born of God and partly not. There are but two states, and we must be in either the one or the other."--_Wm. Reid, in "The Blood of Jesus."_ To many earnest men it seems dangerous to teach men that when they are redeemed from the curse of the law (Gal. 3:13), and adopted as God's children (Gal. 4:3-7), they then really have as an actual possession _eternal_ life, and that they shall never perish, "_hath_ everlasting life, and shall not come unto condemnation,"--John 5:24; "I give unto them _eternal_ life, and they shall never perish,"--John 10:28; they think that such a belief will be a temptation to sin; that it is liable to lead to presumptuous, wilful sinning. They think it much safer for men to believe that they have not really the eternal life itself as an actual present possession, but only the promise of it; and that by their sinning hereafter they may forfeit that promise and be lost. They think that this fear of being lost will act as a check, a safeguard, a restraining power. To the extent that it does, it produces service from the motive of fear of Hell, fear of losing Heaven, and not from the motive of love to Christ for having redeemed them from all iniquity (Titus 2:14). But God's word on this point is clear: "The love of Christ [_not_ the fear of Hell, nor the fear of losing Heaven] constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then all died; and he died for all that they who live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him who died for them, and rose again."--2 Cor. 5:14, 15.