Monday, August 15, 2011

Bible Truth #204 - 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.

Who is he that heareth God’s Word? Jesus said, “He that heareth my word...” According to Jesus in John 8:43 it sure isn’t the lost. Why? Because they BELONG to their father the devil (John 8:44). If they were saved and ONLY if they were saved, they would hear God’s Words (John 8:47). It should be enough that Jesus said it but John wrote the same thing in 1 John 4:6 (Bible Truth #157) - whoever is NOT from God does NOT listen to those who witness Christ. How many times must God say anything for it to be true forever?

OK, let’s continue “...and believeth on him that sent me...”
Who will believe on God? The one who believes in decisional salvation will say anyone can believe. Unfortunately Jesus disagrees with them when He said that belief is a work of God in a man (John 6:29) and is reaffirmed by Paul in his letter to the Philippians when he wrote that belief is given to us (Philippians 1:29). Not to mention the sinful nature of man precludes any ability to accomplish the spiritual act of believing in God when he is spiritually dead (Ephesians 2:1, 2:5; Colossians 2:13).

Continuing: “... hath everlasting life...”
The syntax of the sentence is telling us that everlasting life was a condition that preexisted hearing or believing. “He who hears my word and believes on God HAS everlasting life.” This is easy to understand if you accept the fact that we were chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world (Ephesians 1:4). We received everlasting life THEN! We simply had to reach the point in the historical timeline when God saved us.

...but is passed from death to life.
Again, the syntax of this phrase is very important. It is past tense, it has already happened. This is like my Eagles and Cardinals football game example from Bible Truth #92. Who will wear a green jersey? Only an Eagle. Who will believe? Only those who have passed from death to life - because a man with a dead spirit can’t understand (1 Corinthians 2:14), can’t please God (Romans 8:8), can’t repent (2 Timothy 2:25), won’t come into the Light (John 3:20), and CAN’T believe. Only those in whom God has worked will believe (John 6:29) because belief is GIVEN to us by God (Philippians 1:29), it is not something a lost man can just decide to do.

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