Life or Death

DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL OF JOHN

LIFE OR DEATH

John 5:24-27

24 "I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life. 25 I tell you the truth, a time is coming and has now come when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live. 26 For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son to have life in himself. 27 And he has given him authority to judge because he is the Son of Man.

NIV

More of the response of Jesus to the Jews who were persecuting him because of his healing the lame man on the Sabbath. It is interesting that Jesus has to tell them he is going to speak the truth to them as if he would lie. Well, maybe they would think he is lying to them, but no, he is going to tell them the truth. Perhaps the reason he makes the point he is going, to tell the truth, is that they seem to not know the truth or live by the truth. If a person hears what Jesus is saying and believes what he says and believes he has been sent from God will have eternal life and will not be condemned. This is an either/or situation, eternal life on one hand and condemnation on the other, which means to be condemned means no eternal life. This is where it gets a little sticky-wicky. What exactly does eternal life and condemned mean in the sense of being condemned is not to live forever? So then what does not living forever mean? It appears we have to go back to chapter three and the sixteenth verse when Jesus says whosoever believes in him will not perish,  but have everlasting life. Would then condemned mean to perish as a result of not have eternal life. Again we have to be careful not to appear to be an annihilationist, which many denominations frown upon. What we have to say is that condemned means to go to hell for eternity and experience everlasting punishment. However, Jesus says the one who believes in him crosses over from death to life. Because Jesus says a time is coming and now has come when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live, he has to mean dead people walking. That is those who are alive in the physical are dead in their spirit and when they believe in Jesus or are born again, and their spirit is now alive in Christ. All mankind are dead men walking because being descendent of Adam and all contain this original sin, which is the cause of our being dead in our spirit. But then we also have our own personal sin that causes death, unless we confess, repent and receive forgiveness and life through Jesus. Life is in Christ, and outside of Christ, there is death. Again, an either/or situation. What is the difference between life and death? It sounds rather simple, but again we have to be careful not to oppose the standard view held by the church if we want to belong to it. Life means to be in the presence of Jesus forever, death means to be in eternal punishment. That sounds reasonable, sort of. At least death appears to mean eternal or everlasting burning in hell, well actually the lake of burning sulfur, as hell is thrown into it on the Last Day. Jesus wants all people to listen to his words and live. God the Father has given Jesus, the Son of God all authority in this matter. He has the authority to judge who gets to live and who gets death. He has that power to give eternal life, all we have to do is believe in him, believe he is the Son of God, that he is God who came down in the flesh and died, atoned for our sin, paid the price, took our place on that cross, took our sin upon himself, accepted the due punishment for it and experienced death. The good news is that he did not remain dead, but was raised from the dead, became alive and lives forever at the right hand of the Father. So then we too have been raised and will be raised from the dead. First, we have been raised from a dead man walking to an alive man, an eternal being, who will live forever. Second, at the conclusion of their physical life, our bodies will also be raised as Jesus’s was and we will ascend into heaven to be at the right hand of the Father, a place of honor. Whether this is at the time some called the rapture or whether it will be the time when we breathe of last, existing their body and entering the presence of the Lord, we will live forever and not be condemned. It is simply a matter of life or death.