John 5:24-25 "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. (25) Verily, verily, I say unto you, The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live."
I realize daily devotions normally are nice sayings that encourage and give
some direction as to how we can live our lives to honour God. I also realize it
is an impossibility to study through any book of the Bible without getting into
the doctrinal issues. Today's verses bring us to such a place. The Jews, in
their way of thinking, had just made an accusation against Jesus. He had said
God is His Father. They accused Him of making Himself to be the Son of God.
This accusation will come up again when Pilate brings Jesus before the
multitude. I'm sure I will repeat at that time this same thought: Jesus did not
make Himself to be the Son of God. He is the Son of God. They did not believe
Him.
In answer to this, we hear Jesus making a statement of fact.
"Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and
believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life." These are the words
of our blessed Lord. Notice the tense of the verbs that He spoke. I realize not
everyone is a KJV fan, so I will now say it in our modern day English. Of
course, we all know what "verily" means. Everything that came out of
the mouth of Jesus is truth, but here He is emphasizing what He is about to
say. "Verily, I say unto you." These are the words of the Son of God;
therefore, they are not up for debate. Can we all agree on that? Then
Jesus went on to say, 'He that hears my word and believes on him that sent me,
has everlasting life." I'm not an English scholar, but I do remember the
verb tenses. Each verb that is in this sentence is present tense. If I
can hear the Lord speaking to me through His Holy Word by His Holy Spirit and I
have the ability to believe what I hear, THEN I (already) have eternal life.
Hearing and believing are not conditions to be met; rather, they are evidence
of what is already in place.
In verse 25, we see the work of regeneration, or being born again. At that
moment when Jesus was speaking and in this present moment that we now live, the
Spirit of God is working to bring God's people to the state of having eternal
life. The Holy Spirit still is speaking the voice of Jesus into the hearts of
those who are dead in trespasses and sins. This action brought you and me from
that state of being separated from God to the place of having new, or eternal,
life. It is an impossibility for man to cause the dead to hear. We shall see
that when we get to chapter 11 at the tomb of Lazarus. It is an impossibility
for a mortal man to cause one who is dead in trespasses and sins to hear and
understand the Gospel of Jesus Christ. But once the Holy Spirit has spoken the
voice of Jesus Christ into the heart, we ARE alive in Christ Jesus and have
been given that ability.
Have you ever been brought to the place where you were able to rejoice as you
read your Bible or heard a message being preached that touched your heart? I
say to you that was the direct result of the voice of the Son of God speaking
directly to you. Rejoice!! Rejoice in the Lord!! You are one of
His.