John 5:24

“In very truth I tell you, he who hears my word and believes him who sent me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment but has passed from death to life'.

He goes on to add that because He has been given the power to raise men at the last day He is able to offer life and certainty now. Those who hear His word (which means hear in the sense of responding to it fully), and believe Him Who sent Him, something which will be shown by their response to Jesus (v. 23), will immediately have the life of the coming age, eternal life, the life of the Spirit. They do not have to wait for it, it can be theirs now, courtesy of both Father and Son. For such there will be no Judgment Day needed to determine their destiny, they will have already passed from death to life.

That this ‘having eternal life' does not only mean ‘has potentially' is confirmed by 1 John 5:11. It has in mind the ‘birth from above' of John 3:3, the ‘begetting again' of 1 Peter 1:3; 1 Peter 1:23 and the ‘partaking of the divine nature' of 2 Peter 1:4.

The Scribes and Pharisees earnestly sought eternal life. They believed that it could be theirs by strict obedience to the Laws and proved participation in the covenant community before God. And yet they were conscious that they always failed. So they strove harder, and still they failed. But Jesus was now offering to free them from the daily grind of hopeless striving. Let them now believe God as He speaks through the activities of His Son. Let them respond to His words. Then they will receive eternal life now. They will already have passed from death to life.

‘Hears My words -- and believes Him Who sent Me.' Notice how the implication is that His words are God's words, that His words can be seen as the very words of God. They need to believe His words because they are not only His but are the Father's, so that their attitude to His words demonstrates whether they are willing to believe the Father..