NOTES for Joh 5:24

"What do these words mean? " What means "hath everlasting life" and " is passed from death unto life "? In any case, it is not about a deliverance from physical death - because all the apostles, and John the Evangelist himself are dead also, and it is exactly their faith and observation of the word that we take for standards! How's like that "shall not come into condemnation"? It is in fact said that: " it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment" (Heb 9:27). The word "life" can probably help here. Life is not a fait accompli, but a fact which is been carried out. That's why life does not belong to those who listened to the word, but to those who listen to it; as well as faith is a dynamic notion: there is a distance of a colossal dimension between the faith in the existence of God and the faith in Christ's death and resurrection. Thus, a listener and believer is someone who is engaged in the way of life, the way of growth, someone who departs from the way of degradation and disappearance. But what about the judgment? Let us think about such an interpretation: the believer doesn't come to the forthcoming judgment, because he is already under judgment - indeed, " judgment consists of the fact that light came into the world " ( see Jn3:19), Christ is this light, and the believer " walks in the light ", that is before the face of the One, to Whom the Father gave judgment. Every split second the Face of the Judge is turned upon us.