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. 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.
Whoever hears Christ's word and believes in the One who sent Him already possesses everlasting life now, stands free from condemnation, and has crossed from death into life. God declares such a believing sinner righteous, crediting Christ's righteousness to him while laying his sins upon Christ as representative, substitute and surety. This passing from death to life is both a present spiritual raising of those dead in trespasses and sins and a pledge of the future bodily resurrection of all the righteous at the last day. It is wrought by the Holy Spirit as an inward cleansing and transformation that gives a new mind, a changed character, and a life of obedience, love and good works. The faith that receives it is living and active, feeding on Christ's word, sharing its light, and striving to live as Christ lived in harmony with God.
Setting and Speaker
The saying belongs to the instruction given at the second Passover after the healing of the paralytic at Bethesda on the Sabbath, following the accusation that the Sabbath had been broken. It was uttered amid uproar in the court of the temple and controversy over the true claims of the Sabbath law. There the claim was made that the Father works and the Son works, asserting equal rights with God in doing a work sacred and of the same character as the Father's, while also declaring that nothing could be done of Himself apart from what was seen the Father do, thus teaching inseparable union with the heavenly Parent and faithful stewardship under God.
It was spoken with kingly majesty to the rulers of the Jews and the listening multitude who accused Him and sought to prescribe His works of mercy, revealing Him as the Son of God equal with the Creator.
The verse presents God as the One who sent Christ, showing God to be a spirit and yet a personal being whom people can believe in. It presents Christ's words as the testimony of a divine Witness sent from the Father, to be accepted as truth.
Promise of Everlasting Life
Whoever hears Christ's word and believes in Him who sent Him already possesses everlasting life in the present, does not come into condemnation or judgment, and has passed from death to life. The promise belongs to sinners who repent, turn to Christ, receive Him by faith, and accept pardon for their sins, and to all who so receive Him is given power to become children of God. It gives believers assurance of salvation through Christ, who has authority to forgive sin and whom the Father has appointed to judge. This life is found through knowing Christ in God's word, studying its meaning, and bringing its principles into the heart and life, and that saving knowledge enlarges and transforms the mind and character. It requires daily bracing the soul in Christ and carrying the burden for souls without giving others occasion for doubt, it makes Christ the eternal delight of the Christian heart, and it shows abundant proof of God's love that calls for thankfulness.
This is the believer's justification, in which God declares the sinner righteous and credits Christ's righteousness to that person, while laying the believer's sins on Christ, who stands as representative, substitute, and surety for those who confess Him by faith. Hearing Christ's word and believing on Him who sent Him is what eating Christ's flesh and drinking His blood means. God's word carries God's life and power, so receiving it by faith means receiving God's life and character. Christ is presented as the giver of life whose word is to be received in faith, as a complete Saviour, with salvation coming through believing His word and trusting the sacrifice made on the sinner's behalf.
Christ came as the Father appointed Him, giving Himself as a full sacrifice to save every repentant soul, and though guiltless He bore sinners' guilt, the just suffering for the unjust. His words are to be practiced with strong faith that holds firm under trial. Everlasting life comes through belief in Christ and connects believing in the Son with the life sought for every soul, for immortality is found in Christ alone, who pardons transgressions and must be received as a personal Saviour. Gaining everlasting life requires accepting the Word of God as verity and truth, and many who claim to be Christians will fail of it because they do not so accept it.
Judge and Redeemer
The declaration to which the verse belongs gives the Son authority over life and judgment, for the Father has committed all judgment to the Son, all men are responsible to Him, and from His decision there is no appeal. He who so judges is also humanity's Advocate and Redeemer, having taken humanity to save men from sin and its consequences. Having tasted human affliction and temptation and victoriously withstood Satan, He judges human frailty and sin wisely, justly, graciously, and all-wise.
This judgeship is fitting because by personal experience He knows the warfare between good and evil carried on since Adam's fall. He overcame the enemy for every created intelligence, and by His mediation throws protection around all who accept the provision made, so that none who accept Him need be vanquished. He is the one mediator between God and men, and the Way, the Truth, and the Life by whom alone anyone can enter the kingdom, and He is the Rock rent on purpose that every tried, tempted soul may find a sure hiding place. His mission is salvation, not condemnation, and the promise gives the future life long hoped for and shines light on the grave, though self-will and attachment to human traditions can keep people from believing.
Jesus Himself is the resurrection and the life and the author of the resurrection, with right and power to give eternal life to everyone who hears and believes. Though soon to die on the cross, He stands as conqueror of the grave with the keys of death. His own resurrection establishes His testimony to the resurrection of everyone who believes. Passing from death to life means faith fixed directly on Him now and sharing in the general resurrection of all the righteous at the last day, of which the raising of Lazarus was a representation.
Passing From Death to Life
Giving life to the dead carries two meanings, raising those who are physically dead and, with deeper meaning, raising to spiritual life those dead in trespasses and sins. By nature there is no love for God and no thought for heavenly things, for humanity is sunk so low under a broken law that spiritual life seems impossible, with hearts palsied by transgression. Christ came to reveal the Father and to restore to life those dead in sin, rousing them by the work of the Holy Spirit and creating new tastes and new motives. To arouse the spiritually dead requires as great an outlay of power as to raise one from physical death, and converting the sinner from the error of his ways is indeed giving life to the dead, which Christ is able to do because He came to destroy the works of the enemy.
Passing from death to life is a real experience of salvation and divine work of redemption, received when the soul surrenders to the Lord by faith. Then Christ lifts the burden of sin and bondage and frees the soul, bringing deliverance and joy in place of sadness. This change is the inward work of grace by which the Holy Spirit invisibly cleanses and transforms the unregenerate heart, giving a new mind, purifying the life, and changing the character. Though the divine work itself cannot be seen or fully explained by human knowledge and its mystery is beyond human understanding, its effects are seen in renounced sin and in love, peace, humility, joy, true holiness, and actions that make the soul fit for eternal life and God's kingdom.
Faith in the Son transforms a person from a child of wrath into a child of God and carries that person from death to life, bringing pardon through His sacrifice, righteousness that can stand before God, victory over the enemy, and eternal life and joy. Eternal life begins in this world and its beginning can be experienced here while its results extend through the eternal ages, for those who hear Christ's word and believe have Christ's life in them now, and that life is eternal life. Receiving and practicing Christ's words brings eternal life because the believer is in Christ and Christ's life is in the believer, and Christ's holiness enters the life of those who partake of the bread of life and the water of salvation. Receiving eternal life means passing from spiritual death to spiritual life through knowing God and Christ, marked by obedience to God, growing knowledge of heavenly things, sanctification, and a character conformed to God's will.
This change is not produced by human goodness, for it is God who brings the sinner to repentance and to Christ through grace and pardon, and the new life is expressed in service to Christ and a life filled with good works. Passing from death to life is evident in a changed life, where genuine repentance brings reformation, including restoring what was taken or promised, confessing sin, and loving God and others, and these changes give assurance of having passed from death to life.
Living Faith and Obedience
The hearing and believing that bring everlasting life are a living and working faith, not an inactive one. That active faith makes its possessors successful laborers together with God and fellow workers with Him in His service.
This life is found through knowing Christ in God's word, studying its meaning, and bringing its principles into the heart and life. Such saving knowledge enlarges the mind and changes the character. Contemplating the Word, when it is received and appreciated, insures eternal life to the receiver, and the Bible above all other books is worthy to be studied.
Christ's words are to be practiced with a strong faith that holds firm under trial. The light received through Christ does not save when it is merely possessed; it must be appreciated and shared with others. He came as the Father appointed Him, giving Himself as a full sacrifice to save every repentant soul, and though guiltless He bore sinners' guilt, the just suffering for the unjust.
The promise is a plain message of peace, love, and mercy. It makes Christ the eternal delight of the Christian heart and shows abundant proof of God's love that calls for thankfulness. It requires daily bracing the soul in Christ and carrying the burden for souls without giving others occasion to doubt it.
These words provide comfort and strength and give day-by-day assurance of God's love to the one who hears Christ's word and believes in the Father who sent Him. Salvation is thereby presented to all and given as God's gift to those who believe. Believers become Christ's own because He bought them with a price beyond computation, bringing them as light out of darkness to take the water of life freely.
Eternal life begins in this world, for those who hear and believe have Christ's life in them now, and that life is eternal life. Having His life means living the life Christ lived, acting in harmony with God's character, sincerely striving to obey God at any cost, and refusing to live in conformity to the world. God heals the spiritual infirmities of all who so strive to obey, and only those who live this life will enter through the gates into the city of God.