John 5:24
“Most certainly I tell you, he who hears my word, and believes him who sent me, has eternal life, and doesn’t come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life.”
Where this sits
Spoken after Jesus healed a man at the pool on a Sabbath and was challenged for it. He is defending his authority to the religious leaders.
Reflection
Three verbs describe the present, and all of them are already settled.
Has eternal life — present tense, in possession. Doesn't come into judgment — a legal term, meaning the case does not proceed to trial. And has passed out of death into life — a completed movement, described as finished.
That last phrase is the one to sit with. Passed is in a tense denoting an action already accomplished with results that continue. Not will pass, at the end. Whatever John means here, he is placing the crossing in the past for someone who is still alive and listening.
And the condition is unusually modest: he who hears my word and believes him who sent me. Two verbs, both receptive. Nothing is required that a person could fail at through incompetence.
Notice also the object of the believing. Not believes me — believes him who sent me. Jesus consistently deflects in this Gospel; the whole chapter is an argument that he does nothing on his own initiative.
Most certainly I tell you translates a doubled Hebrew word that has come into English as amen. He is using it as an opening rather than a closing — a signature placed at the front, marking what follows as something he will stand behind.
- Theme:
- Salvation
- Book:
- John