John 5:24

Ver. 24. “ Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth him that sent me, hath eternal life; and he cometh not into judgment, but is passed from death into life. ”

Divine things are present to the mind of Jesus; He speaks that which He sees (John 3:11); hence this energetic affirmation: “ Verily, verily, I say unto you ” (John 5:24-25). These words set forth, at the same time, the greatness of the fact announced. It is really unheard of: For him who receives with confidence His word, the two decisive acts of the eschatological drama, the resurrection and the judgment, are completed things. The simple word of Jesus received with faith has accomplished everything.

This fact is indeed the proof of the qualities of life-giver and judge which Jesus ascribed to Himself (John 5:21-22). ᾿Ακούειν, to hear, denotes not, as Weiss thinks, the outward hearing only, in contrast to the inward reception, which would come afterwards (and believeth...); it is the spiritual bearing, at the same time with the physical, in the sense of Matthew 13:43. For the verb believe has a new object (Keil); it is the Father as the one who has sent the Son. To surrender oneself to the word of Jesus in faith in the divine character of His being and word, is to render homage not only to the Son. but also to the Father. The meaning of ἔχει ζωήν, has life, can be fully rendered here only by saying “has life already. ” It is the proof of John 5:21: “The Son makes alive.” Is it not, indeed, His word which works this miracle? Καί, and, signifies: and in consequence. The exemption from judgment follows naturally from the entrance into life. The place of judgment is at the threshold of life and death. ῎Ερχεται, comes, is the present of idea.

The word judgment is by no means equivalent to condemnation, κατάκρισις, as Meyer will have it and as Ostervald translates. A judgment deciding on eternal destiny, says Weiss, is no longer possible with regard to the man who has in fact already obtained salvation. By the word of Jesus, received into the inner man, the believer undergoes this moral judgment here on earth to which unbelievers will be subjected at the last day. The revelation of the hidden things (1 Corinthians 4:5) is made in the inner forum of his conscience, where everything is condemned in succession which will be condemned for the rest before the tribunal at the last judgment. The judgment, is thus for him, an accomplished thing. If therefore the word received with faith frees the believer from the judgment, it is because it anticipates it; comp. John 12:48, where it is said that the judge, at the last day, will be no other than this same word. What a feeling of the absolute holiness and of the perfection of His word do not such expressions imply in the consciousness of Jesus! The reconciliation of this passage with Romans 14:10 and 2 Corinthians 5:10 has been given at John 3:18. The last words: But he hath passed from death unto life, contrast (but) the condition of him who has entered into life with the fate of the one who will have to pass through the judgment. The terms death and life are taken in the spiritual sense. Westcott thinks that, in this verse, the idea of the physical resurrection is still united with that of the spiritual resurrection. The combination of these two ideas seems to me impossible. The question is of the effects of the word of Jesus in the sense of His word of teaching. It is altogether arbitrary to explain the μεταβέβηκεν, with Baumlein, in the sense of “ has the pledge of being able to pass from death to life.”