John
5:24 Verily,
verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent
me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed
from death unto life.
Background:
Verses
1-17 of the 5th chapter of the Gospel of St John feature the following:
A specific question:
Wilt thou be made whole?
An authoritative instruction:
Rise, take up thy bed, and walk.
A serious admonition:
Behold,
thou art made whole: sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee.
A revealing piece of information:
My father worketh hitherto, and I work.
Verse
18 shows that this piece of information did not escape the notice of the Jews.
Verses
19-29 depict the authority of the Son
And
right in the midst of these 11 verses we have this nugget of truth.
John
5:24 Verily,
verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent
me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed
from death unto life.
Note
with me the four following considerations:
1. A Challenge Issued
2. A Condition Required
3. A Confidence
Inspired
4. A Contrast Depicted
Note
too the two-fold aspect that accompanies each point.
A Challenge Issued:
Two-fold:
The seriousness of the challenge
The source of the challenge
Verily, verily…
This
word verily is found 140 times in the Bible.
The four Gospels account for 103 of them. On every occasion in the Gospels, it is Jesus
who used this word. Something of serious
import always followed whenever Jesus used this word. In the case before us there is no difference.
The source of the challenge
I say unto you…
Jesus,
the Son of God is the one who is presenting the challenge.
When
Jesus speaks it pays to pay attention.
The
following references serve to bear out the critical aspect this fact.
Ye
have heard that it was said by them of old…
Matthew
5:28 But I say unto you, that
whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her
already in his heart.
Ye
have heard that it hath been said…
Matthew
5:39 But I
say unto you, that ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy
right cheek, turn to him the other also.
Or
have ye not read in the Law…
Matthew
12:6 But I
say unto you, that in this place is one
greater than the temple.
Jesus
never wastes words. Any challenge from
him to us ought to be taken seriously.
Truly, truly
Jesus says to us. His word is truth for
he is the truth. This challenge this
morning is worthy of acceptance. It is
worthy in terms of its truth and it is reliable because of its source. When Jesus spoke he spoke the word for he
indeed was and still is the word.
A Condition Required:
Two-fold:
He that heareth
He that believeth
He that heareth my word…
Romans
10:17 So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
Hearing
is the facility of faith.
Mark 4:9 And
he said unto them, He that hath ears to hear, let
him hear.
This
word is to all them that have ears. This
is includes you and me. Let none of us
respond like them in the time of Zechariah as noted in the 7th
chapter and the 11th verse.
But
they refused to hearken, and pulled away their shoulder, and stopped their
ears, that they should not hear.
It
doesn’t stop at hearing as the facility but more importantly it targets hearing
as the response. It continues: and
hearing the word of God. The heeding of
the word of God opens up or initiates our faith. Brothers and sisters, even our faith to
respond to the word of God is a gift from God.
That is why salvation is all of God and none of us. We cannot stake the slightest claim on our
salvation. Even the very faith we used
to lay hold on salvation has been given to us by God. What James calls on us to do is to exercise
it.
So
that it is not only he that heareth, condition part (a) but he that:
…believeth on him that sent me, condition part (b).
Regarding our salvation:
God initiates.
Jesus executes.
The Holy Spirit implements.
Condition two-fold: he that hears or heeds and also believes.
How do we know that we have met this two-fold
condition?
Jesus himself supplied the answer at John
8:47.
He that is of God heareth God's words: ye therefore hear
them not,
because ye are not of God.
A word to the wise is sufficient.
A Challenge Issued
A Condition Required
A Confidence Inspired:
Two-fold:
The certainty of eternal life
The certainty of escape
Hath everlasting life
And shall not come into condemnation
Medical
science is obsessed with the prolongation of life. Those with the means and even some without
are spending all that they could access to prolong the life of their loved
ones. Some of these loved ones remain on
life support system for months and even years with the hope that the solution
to their affliction would be found. Many
of them are supported with the prayers of born again believers in search of a
miracle. And as time passes confidence
decreases. Inspiration ebbs away.
This
word this morning is confidence inspiring.
There is no maybe in this matter.
Has everlasting life indicates a present possession guaranteed by the
Triune God Himself.
This
concept proved a very difficult one for Mary, the sister of Lazarus, to
conceive
John
11:25 Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection,
and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live:
John
11:26 And whosoever liveth and believeth in me
shall never die. Believest thou this?
Shall
never die was the challenge. How can
this be, we ask. Jesus was speaking
about everlasting life. He was
suggesting to Mary that there is a life that is far more important than the one
with which we have a certain obsession.
This material life, like its name implies, is temporal. But we can have the assurance here and now of
a life that is everlasting, that is eternal, that is forever. This offer from Jesus truly inspires
confidence.
Let
us wrap our minds around this scriptural gold nugget.
1John 5:20 And
we know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding, that
we may know him that is true, and we are in him that is true, even in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true
God, and eternal life.
Two
unmistakable facts are enshrined here.
1.
Jesus is the true God.
2.
Jesus is eternal life.
The
next piece of inspiration is the source of many debates and discussions. Theologians great and small argue incessantly
on its meaning and implications. We will
not go into that this morning but we will draw to your attention just one
Scriptural reference that I believe speak to this matter.
John 3:18 He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that
believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of
the only begotten Son of God.
John 3:19 And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the
world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.
Escaping
the judgment of God is certainly for me another source of inspiration. Are you confident this morning that you not
only possess eternal life but that you also have escaped the condemnation of
God?
A Challenge Issued
A Condition Required
A Confidence Inspired
And
finally…
A Contrast Depicted
Two-fold
Mercy offered
Grace supplied
Note with me the
following: but
is passed from death unto life.
“Is
passed” is referred to as the present perfect tense. It refers to some action done in the past
that continues in the present. But there
is more. Strain your minds with me for a
moment. Is passed from life unto death
strongly suggests a futuristic implication.
Certainly if the action is in the continuous present, that augers well
for the future. Hence, the eternity of
God ensures that “is passed from death to life” is indicative of an action that
is past, is present, is future and is eternal.
No such tense has been identified by our grammarians for the simple
reason that tense is about time but God transcends time. He is eternity. No wonder one of His names is the “I AM that
I AM”. As we continue to reflect on the
word of the “I AM” consider with me therefore the two-fold aspect of mercy and
grace.
John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only
begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish (mercy), but have everlasting life (grace).
Romans 6:23 For
the wages of sin is death (justice); but the gift of God is
eternal life (grace) through Jesus Christ our Lord.
But is passed from death
represents God’s mercy. Justice demanded
the death penalty. Justice was what we deserved (eternal death) but mercy denied
it. Mercy
is not getting what we deserved. The
debt for our sin was so huge that only God Himself could pay it. I am still trying to fully comprehend the
implications of the following scripture.
Acts
20:28 Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which
the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath
purchased with his own blood.
Unto life is
indicative of God’s grace. From
spiritual death (God’s mercy) to everlasting, abundant life is the
manifestation of God’s grace as extended to every born again believer. Grace
is getting what we did not deserve.
So
then for us eternal death would have satisfied God’s justice.
Life
for us is God’s mercy.
Abundant
life for us is God’s grace.
One
final question: How does God’s mercy and grace operate and yet His justice is still
satisfied?
We
are the recipients of His mercy and grace but just Jesus was the recipient of
His justice. Jesus bore the full brunt
of God’s justice. In our law courts
justice is sometimes tempered with mercy.
Hence the full weight of justice is suspended.
However,
in the case of our salvation, Jesus carried the full weight of the judgment of
God. The benefit to all who hears Jesus’
word and believes on Him that sent Jesus is everlasting life and they will not
come into condemnation but are passed from death to life.
Romans
8:1 There is
therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not
after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
John 10:10 The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and
to destroy: I am come that they might have life (mercy), and that they might have life more
abundantly (grace).
What
a challenge! Verily, verily I say unto you…
What
a condition! He that hears my word and believes on him that sent me…
What
a confidence! Has everlasting life and shall not come into
condemnation…
What
a contrast! But has passed from death unto life.
What an offer! From Death to Life
Stewart Russell: 2015-04-26
