Verily, verily, I say unto you, If a man keep my saying, he shall never see death.
The promise was spoken in the court of the temple as part of the teaching in which Jesus declared Himself the light of the world, connected with the services of the Feast of Tabernacles. To keep His saying is to receive and practice His words, and the one who does so has eternal life already in him because he is in Christ. This was made possible because Christ laid aside His royal position and joined divinity with humanity to open the way for man to reach heaven and stand on vantage ground with God, and His holiness fills the life of everyone who eats the bread of life and drinks the water of salvation.
Never to see death means the keeper will not experience death as final or permanent loss, for to the believer death is a small matter of little moment, only a brief sleep, a moment of silence and darkness, because his life is hidden with Christ in God. God's faithful may still die while serving, but to die is only to sleep until Jesus awakens them to share eternal glory. The promise is fulfilled when Christ who is the life appears and believers appear with Him in glory, brought with Him and raised by the same power that raised Christ to come forth from their graves to glorious immortal life at His second coming.
Abraham illustrates the promise, for his faith in obeying God's command to offer Isaac opened before him the promise of the coming Just One, the Lamb slain for human sin, and by faith he saw the incarnate Saviour and rejoiced.
The promise was spoken in the court of the temple as part of the teaching in which Jesus declared Himself the light of the world, connected with the services of the Feast of Tabernacles. To keep His saying is to receive and practice His words, and the one who does so has eternal life already in him because he is in Christ. This was made possible because Christ laid aside His royal position and joined divinity with humanity to open the way for man to reach heaven and stand on vantage ground with God, and His holiness fills the life of everyone who eats the bread of life and drinks the water of salvation.
Never to see death means the keeper will not experience death as final or permanent loss, for to the believer death is a small matter of little moment, only a brief sleep, a moment of silence and darkness, because his life is hidden with Christ in God. God's faithful may still die while serving, but to die is only to sleep until Jesus awakens them to share eternal glory. The promise is fulfilled when Christ who is the life appears and believers appear with Him in glory, brought with Him and raised by the same power that raised Christ to come forth from their graves to glorious immortal life at His second coming.
Abraham illustrates the promise, for his faith in obeying God's command to offer Isaac opened before him the promise of the coming Just One, the Lamb slain for human sin, and by faith he saw the incarnate Saviour and rejoiced.