Verily verily, I say unto you
Who am the Amen, the true and faithful witness:
he that heareth my word;
by which is meant the Gospel, and is so called, both because it
is spoken by Christ, and first began to be spoken by him; and
because he is spoken of in it; his person, office, and work,
peace, pardon, righteousness, life, and salvation by him, being
the sum and substance of it: and by "hearing" it is meant, not a
bare external hearing it; for so it may be heard, and not
understood; and it may be understood in a notional and
speculative way, and yet the consequences hereafter mentioned may
not follow: but an internal hearing it is here designed, so as to
understand it spiritually, or to have an experimental knowledge
of it; so as to approve of it, love, and like it; to distinguish
it from that which is not his doctrine, and to feel the power of
it on the heart, and yield the obedience of faith unto it: for
faith in Christ himself, the sum and substance of the word of the
Gospel, is hereby expressed; to which is joined faith in God his
Father, they being equally the object of it; and which is
introduced as a further proof of the equality in nature which is
between them; see ( John 14:1 ) ;
and believeth on him that sent me;
he does not say that believes on me, which might have been
expected from him; but that believes on him that sent me, that
is, on the Father; for as he that rejects Christ, and receives
not his words, rejects and receives not him that sent him; so he
that hears Christ's words, and receives him, and believes in him,
receives and believes in him that sent him; and the same effects
and consequences follow upon the one as on the other, upon
hearing the word of Christ, as upon believing on the Father of
Christ; and which is no inconsiderable proof of their perfect
equality: for such a person that hears the one, and believes on
the other,
hath everlasting life;
not only in the purpose of God, and in the covenant of his grace,
and in the hands of Christ, and in faith and hope; but he has a
right unto it, and a claim of it, according to the declaration of
the Gospel; and besides, has the principle of it in himself, the
grace of God, which springs up into, is the beginning of, and
issues in eternal life; he has also a meetness for it, and has
the pledge and earnest of it, the Spirit of God, and shall
certainly enjoy it:
and shall not come into condemnation;
neither for original sin, though judgment has passed upon all men
unto condemnation for it; nor for actual sins and transgressions:
for though everyone deserves condemnation, yet were there as many
sentences of condemnation issued out as sins committed, not one
of them could be executed on such who are in Christ Jesus, as he
that believes in him is openly and manifestatively in him: the
reason is, because the death of Christ is a security against all
condemnation; and whoever believes in him shall not be condemned,
but saved; and though he may come into judgment, yet not into
condemnation: he shall stand in judgment, and be acquitted by the
righteousness of Christ, which he, by faith, receives as his
justifying righteousness.
But is passed from death unto life;
both from a moral death to a spiritual life, being quickened, who
before was dead in trespasses and sins; and from under a sentence
of condemnation, and eternal death, which as a descendant of
Adam, and according to the tenor of the law of works, he was
subject to, to an open state of justification, according to the
tenor of the covenant of grace; the righteousness of Christ being
revealed to him, and received by faith, and the sentence of
justification passed upon his conscience by the Spirit; so that
he who before, in his own apprehension, was a dead man in a law
sense, is now alive to God, and secure from the second death, and
being hurt by it.