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The Daily Word of Righteousness
Judgment and Rewards, #2
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. (John 5:24)
We misunderstand this verse because:
We perceive "heareth my word" to mean someone has explained to us theological facts concerning Christ's atoning death and bodily resurrection.
We perceive "believeth on him that sent me" to mean we believe there is a God.
We perceive "everlasting life" to mean we go to Heaven when we die.
We perceive "shall not come unto condemnation" to mean God will ignore our behavior because He sees us only as clothed with Christ's righteousness.
We perceive "is passed from death to life" to mean once we give mental assent and make a correct theological statement concerning Christ we have from that point been "saved to go to Heaven when we die."
We assume the Lord Jesus is giving us a formula to which we can subscribe. It seems to follow that no matter how we live we will go to Heaven when we die. We view the "life" of which He is speaking as meaning that when we die we will go to live in Paradise in joy and peace forever. We will escape all trouble and go to live in Heaven by making a profession of belief in Christ.
But Christ is not giving us a theological formula in John 5:24, nor is the life He is presenting that of going to Paradise to live in joy and peace forever.
Christ is not giving us information that we can believe and have Divine judgment waived as a result. We are not free to do as we will, being certain we will meet with God's approval when we die. We are not dealing here with a profession of belief in doctrinal truth.
Jesus Himself is the Resurrection. Jesus Himself is the Life.
Jesus has come to a spiritually dead mankind in order to bring the incorruptible Divine Life that Christ, the Tree of Life, actually is.
What Jesus is saying is:
"I am eternal, incorruptible, resurrection Life, the Life from God that casts out sin and death, healing that which has been destroyed by the devil.
"I am presenting to you the power that God has provided to free you from the bondage of corruption. If you can `hear' the Word of Life in your spiritual being, and will place your trust in the Father, you now have passed from death to life. You will not be judged guilty. Your sentence is freedom from sin and death because you have believed on Him whom God has sent."
This does not mean because we have accepted what Christ has said as being true we will go to Paradise when we die.
It means right now if we can "hear" the Word of eternal life and believe in God we will receive into our personality the life substance and force of the Tree of Life. It always is now. Salvation is not an assent to truth that we gave at some point in time past. The life Substance is Christ. It never shall be found guilty of breaking the moral law of God. The Divine Life keeps the law of God by its nature. No condemnation rests on the individual who is walking in the Spirit of life. When we are walking in the Holy Spirit we do not fulfill the lusts of our flesh (Galatians 5:16).
To be continued.