Juan 5:24

Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth him that sent me, hath eternal life, and cometh not into judgment, but hath passed out of death into life.

Heareth my word and believeth him that sent me ... Hearing and believing Christ's word are equivalent to believing God who sent him. Believing Jesus is believing God! Thus, here is another skillful advocacy of his deity.

Hath eternal life ... This focuses upon the true mission of our Lord's coming into the world, to bring men eternal life. The Pharisees, had they been the type of persons who are interested in such a blessing, might have been convinced by such a promise; but they were too busy with their earthly concerns to pay any attention to the great hope held out in these words. Eternal life is here spoken of as a present possession of the recipient; but that present possession must be understood as a title deed in the form of God's own promise of a state of bliss following the resurrection of the dead. Such an inheritance, though in a sense only prospective, creates such a profound change in the life of the possessor, coloring his entire life, transforming even sorrows and hardships, and providing the motivation of a higher life-style - so vast a change, in fact, that, in the sense intended here, the believer truly HAS eternal life.

Cometh not into judgment ... This is the secret of how eternal life is made available to human beings. The great corollary underlying the promise of eternal life is that so great a blessing is inseparable from absolute perfection and holiness. It is inconceivable that God would perpetuate throughout eternity anything imperfect or unholy; and this clause furnishes the clue to the manner in which absolute perfection and holiness can become actual qualifies of them that are destined to eternal life. If people should come into judgment in their own names, standing in their righteousness alone, pleading their own identity and worthiness, none shall be able to stand. Every person who ever lived will fail in such a judgment as that - hence the profound promise of Jesus here that the saved "cometh not into judgment!"

How can this be? Will not God judge of all men? Yes, of course; but those who believe and are baptized into Christ, and continue to be united with him, being found at last "in him" those persons shall not come into judgment in their own identity at all, but AS CHRIST! No one shall ever be saved upon the basis of his own personal merit or righteousness; but in Christ, and as Christ, all who are truly united with the Lord shall be saved, the grounds of their justification and redemption being nothing less than the perfect faith and obedience of the Son of God himself. See full discussion of this in my Commentary on Romans, pp. 108-111.

But hath passed out of death into life ... Not having perfect identity with Christ, in Christ, and as Christ is a state of death; because, apart from Christ, the entire race of men is in a state of utmost condemnation. On the other hand, eternal life is in Christ. Thus, the soul that receives Jesus Christ as Lord passes out of death into life.