Notice -

I. ITS NATURE AND IMPORT.

1. It is the spiritual life of the soul. It is called "eternal life," not merely as distinguished from temporal and fading, but also from material and carnal. The soul by sin has lost its spiritual life, its primitive purity, harmony and happiness arising from the peace and friendship of God. The soul left God like an erratic star from its central sun, and is truly described as being dead - dead to God and its highest interest. This life is the life of God within. His Law written in the heart, and his image restored in the soul. A life having its roots in God, its vitality from him, germinating and budding in the genial soil of his peace and friendship, growing and blooming in the sunshine of his love, and under the reviving dew of his presence and influence. This is the highest life of which the soul is capable. It is its true life - real, and not a mere form.

2. This life is in and through Christ. Having lost our spiritual life by sin, it is evident that we must have it from a Divine source, and through a Divine medium, and under a new and Divine arrangement. Christ is this Source and Medium. He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. "I am come that they might have life," etc. As we derive our natural life from Adam, we derive our spiritual life from Christ, the second Adam.

3. This life is a blessing to be attainted. It comes not with us into the world. We have many things in consequence of birth. We are here with all the privileges of manhood; but not with eternal life. This we must attain, and to attain it is the chief end of life. If we had eternal life simply as men, we would not be urged to get it, seek it, and make every effort to lay hold of it.

4. It is to be had on certain conditions. These conditions are as set forth here - knowledge of and faith in the Divine Father and the Son: "He that heareth my word," etc. Every life from the lowest to the highest has its conditions, and these must be complied with ere that life can be enjoyed. Eternal life has its conditions. To know and believe the Author, the Source, and the Giver of this life is essential to its enjoyment. This natural, reasonable, and gracious as the conditions are suitable, easy, and within the reach of all.

5. It is to be had on these condition,'s now. As soon as its conditions are complied with, eternal life is begun in the soul. "Hath eternal life." Some speak of it as if it were entirely future, whereas it must be had in the present or never. This world is the only birthplace, and the season of salvation is the only birthday of eternal life. All those who enjoy it in heaven found it on earth.

6. It can only be fully enjoyed in the future. Being eternal, it must have eternity to develop itself fully. What is eternal in duration cannot reach maturity in time; what is spiritual in nature cannot be fully enjoyed under material conditions. All terrestrial life reaches a climax under terrestrial laws and circumstances; but spiritual life requires spiritual conditions, and naturally demands eternity in its full length to expand and develop its beauty, fruition, and happiness.

7. It is a life without end. "Eternal life." Every life here has an end, but one - spiritual life - Christ-life in the soul. This is eternal, and worthy of being so. The life of the body has an end: and when we consider its vanity, emptiness, privations, and sufferings, we are glad that it has. There is nothing in it, as a whole, to make endlessness desirable. There is no life, but that of God in the soul, worthy of being qualified by the word "eternal;" this has all the elements to make it worthy of eternal continuance. Eternity in the possession of this life will make up the sum of all the happiness man is capable of.

II. ITS BLESSED RESULTS.

1. There is a wonderful immunity. "Shall not come into judgment." Much of the blessings of redemption consist, not in what we shall enjoy, but in what we shall evade; and this will be a great evasion. "Shall not come," etc. And why? Because it is passed. Eternal life and judgment are opposed to each other, and are respectively the results of faith and no faith in Christ. Judgment is in the region of death, but the believer has come out of that. There can be no real judgment for the possessor of life. "Who can lay anything to the charge of God's elect?" in this case the final examination is in the preliminary. Pass this, and you pass all.

2. There is a wonderful transition. "From death unto life."

(1) This transition is wonderfully great. Death and life are diametrically opposed. The moral distance between them is immeasurable; the change involved is, therefore, great. There is a change of nature, of condition, of sphere, of character, of prospects, of world. The passage from death unto life is morally long, and the transition wonderful.

(2) The transition is Divine. Every one who undergoes this transition must undergo a Divine process. The voice of God alone can make the dead in trespasses and sins hear. His power alone can bring them back to life. His infinite love can warm and quicken the soul into spiritual vitality; cause the heart to beat, and the blood to course so as to result in a new and Divine life. What is human in the process is lost when compared with the Divine, and God is all in all.

(3) The transition is real. It is not a passing dream, but a glorious reality; a genuine passage of the soul from a state of spiritual death to that of spiritual life. That it is real is evidenced:

(a) By the believer's experience and consciousness; He does not feel the same man. And he is right; for he is a new man. "I live, but not I," etc. His experience is quite different. "Who was before a blasphemer," etc.

(b) There are the ordinary proofs of life. It is not very difficult to distinguish between a dead and a living body, and not much more difficult is it to distinguish between a dead and a living soul. Mark the difference in the man - in his habits, his temper, his character, his language; they are unmistakable evidence of the transition.

(c) The emphatic testimony of Christ. "Verily, verily," etc.

(4) The transition is free. It cost infinitely to God. Before a single soul could be transmitted from death unto life, God's only begotten Son bad to suffer the most ignominious death. But what we have to do in the transition is only to believe and submit; only to jump on board the ship of life, and the passage is free.

(5) The transition, though great, is quickly made. We hear of quick passages made across the oceans, but they are all physical distance. To the moral distance between death and life, they are the moral poles of the universe; but the passage is quickly made. Only believe in Christ. The quickest passage, perhaps, on record is that of the thief on the cross. In the morning and even at midday he was in the empire of death and one of its extreme regions; but by an act of faith in Christ he was, before the close of that day, with Christ in one of the regions of life - in Paradise.

(6) The transition is a most happy one. "From death," etc.

(a) The happiness of the greatest deliverance.

(b) The happiness of the highest promotion.

(c) The happiness of perfect safety.

(d) The happiness of an ever-increasing enjoyment - the enjoyment of a holy, spiritual, and ever-young and growing life.

(e) The happiness of a never-ending gratitude. - B.T.

We are here taught —

I. THE NEED OF HEARING THE GOSPEL OF CHRIST; and that not with the ears of the body only, but with the heart, the will, the affections of man. "He that heareth My word."

II. BELIEF IN THE EVER-BLESSED TRINITY, in the Father and the Son, which is the gift of the Holy Spirit. "He that... believeth on Him that sent Me."

III. THE SINFUL ESTATE OF MANKIND, the fall through sin into spiritual death, and the consequent condemnation of the whole race of Adam, who through the sin of the first man have come into condemnation.

IV. THE NEED WHICH WE ALL HAVE OF A REDEEMER AND MEDIATOR, through whose passion, death, and resurrection we pass from death unto life.

V. THE HAPPINESS WHICH IS GIVEN TO THOSE WHO BELIEVE IN AND WHO OBEY GOD IN THIS LIFE, and in obeying Him possess Him who is everlasting life.

VI. THAT ETERNAL LIFE which after the death of the body IS THE HOPE AND THE REWARD OF THE RIGHTEOUS, and which is assured to those who in resisting temptation and in overcoming sin here have passed from death unto life.

(W. Denton, M. A.)

I. THE PREACHER.

1. The dignity of His Person.

(1)The Son of God,

(2)The ambassador of the Father.

(3)The faithful witness.

2. The solemnity of His manner. As became one who spoke with

(1)Full knowledge.

(2)Absolute authority.

(3)Tender sympathy.

(4)Personal directness.

II. THE DISCOURSE.

1. The meaning of salvation.

(1)Eternal life.

(2)No condemnation.

(3)Fulness of existence.

2. The way of salvation.

(1)Hearing Christ's word.

(2)Believing Christ's Father.

III. THE AUDIENCE.

1. Their persons — men.

2. Their characters — dead.

3. Their numbers — whosoever.

4. Their responsibilities — involved in their ability to hear and believe. Lesson: Take heed how ye hear.

(T. Whitelaw, D. D.)

Life is of many degrees — lowest in the sponge, then in the oyster, and higher still in the worm. Through a long and beautifully graduated series we come to man, partly material, partly spiritual; the link between earth and heaven. Life is absolutely perfect in God only; the great source of life to all created beings. "This is life eternal," etc. (John 17:3). This life in its fulness implies —

I. FREEDOM FROM SIN.

1. Its guilt.

2. Its pollution.

3. Its attendant evils.

II. THE POSSESSION OF ALL GOOD.

1. Perfect love.

2. Perfect purity.

3. Perfect youth.

4. Perfect activity.

5. Perfect blessedness.

(W. H. Van Doren, D. D.)

You will observe here that everlasting life is a thing which a man is declared, on certain conditions, to have in this world, that the death which is its contradictory is said to be escaped in this world, and in the very act of passing over into life; and that the condition of escaping the one and having the other is faith in God through Jesus. Now what I wish to do, is to point out the dignity and the joy of this true life of the soul, this everlasting life of faith; and if we can know the secret of its blessedness here, we shall know what its blessedness shall be hereafter.

I. And first, TO THE JUSTIFIED SOUL THERE IS THE JOY OF LIVING ITS TRUE LIFE. In all life there is joy; much more in the soul's true life. In the free exercise of its noblest faculties; in the free use of its noblest powers; in the free apprehension of Divine truth, the free choosing of the right, the unselfish loving of the beautiful and the good; it is a joy even now and here so to live the true life of the soul. And when we come to analyze this joy, we find that in all its details it is a life of blessedness.

1. For, first, there is the joy of triumph, the guadiam certaminis that courts and enjoys the well-won victory. Worldly and carnal pleasures woo the soul's affections from their true and worthy objects. To resist these is conflict worthy of heroic souls; to stand steadfast, to be true to truth, to goodness, to righteousness, this is victory, and the joy of it is bliss to the struggling, conquering soul. And when the soul's victorious inner life is translated into worthy outward action, that outward life becomes heroic too, the life of a knightly soul that proves its knighthood and receives its reward in scattering error, in righting wrong, in helping the weak, in relieving the oppressed, and in doing his duty to God and all the world.

2. And then there is the joy of progress. For the soul s true life is a progress from the less to the greater, from the partial to the more perfect good. There is growth in humility, and so there is no more galling and fretting of pride. There is growth in meekness, and so the burden of resentment is laid aside. There is growth in faith, and so the unseen things are seen with more and more distinctness to be the great thing. There is growth in hope, and so the soul grows glad and young as it lays hold on the hope of eternal life. There is growth in love — in the blissful love that never faileth, that suffereth long and is kind, etc.

3. And then there is the joy of self-sacrifice. Man had forgotten the great truth, that self-sacrifice for duty and for love is the very joy of the soul's true life. But God revealed it in Jesus. And revealing it He showed not only the Divine wisdom and power, but also the Divine blessedness. Who does not understand something of this! Who are the great and happy souls of earth? Not those, assuredly, who look for base ease, or sordid gain, or selfish advantage, or guilty pleasure; but the pure and strong and lofty souls, who in loving the unseen and following lofty ideals gladly sacrifice themselves for what they love. The patriot who goes at his country's summons to battle; the father and husband who scorns delight and lives laborious days for wife and children; the mother who turns away from all delights to bend in yearning tenderness above the couch of her sick or afflicted child; the Christian man or woman who in loving, dutiful deeds of brotherly love and goodwill, delight to help the unfortunate and make the wretched happy — these are the great and happy, souls, and in their self-sacrifice they find the highest joy of their soul's true life. In a word, then, the soul's true life in this world is the life of faith, of hope, and of love. In the victory of its faith, the progress of its hope, the glad self-sacrifice of its love, its joy consists. And this brings me to my concluding thought. We have seen what the soul's true life in this world is.

II. WHAT SHALL IT BE IN THE NEXT WORLD BUT THE SAME IN KIND, THOUGH IN FULLER, LARGER MEASURE? The only difference shall be that the limitations of sin, the hindrances of earthliness, shall be removed. Unfettered and free, the soul shall expand in the perpetual delight of life and love and peace — the delight of growing knowledge, the delight of more and more adequate utterance, the security and pea-e of more perfect self-consecration, the deep and tender joy of more entire self-sacrifice. How this shall be, I cannot tell. It is enough for me to know this one thing — that the soul's true life, the eternal life, begun here, shall continue after death substantially the same, and that its joys shall be the same, only fuller, larger, richer. Oh, then, let me ask myself this question: Am I living now the soul's true life — the everlasting life of faith and hope and love — and am I finding now and here the joy and the blessedness of that life? If not, then even heaven itself would be a hell to my untutored soul. But if I do know the joy and peace of believing, then eternal life is mine already.

(Bishop S. S. Harris.)

Notice the smallness of the conditions, and the magnificence of the offer. The salvation of a man's soul is simply a matter of capitulation, and the terms of the capitulation are, "Hear the messenger and believe the mission."

I. THE UNDERTAKING WHICH THE ALMIGHTY HAS MADE OF WHAT HE WILL DO TO THOSE WHO GIVE UP AT DISCRETION.

1. Look a moment at our position. We have provoked God and attacked His rights, and therefore have separated ourselves from God. Therefore we do not deserve to die, nor sure to die, but we are dead. For death is not annihilation. Separation of soul from body is physical death: separation of soul and body from God is physical death. People abhor the thought of eternal punishment or eternal death; but what if that means separation prolonged through eternity. Is there anything in that inconsistent with God? But that would be hell enough.

2. Christ comes and offers union with Himself, that is, nearness to God which is life.(1) The nature of this life.(a) Physical life of a higher order because consecrated.(b) Intellectual life — a life of latent thoughts, energies and affections which, but for this, would sleep on for ever.(c) A life of true satisfying service.(2) Its characteristics.(a) A present possession. The moment you believe in Christ you live; you have done with death for ever. What is coming and is called death will not be death to you, because no separation.(b) A lasting life. In the old life nothing was very lasting; either the thing passed away, or the power to enjoy it. The new life has its hidden springs in God, and will last for ever.(c) A life free from condemnation. There is nothing now behind, and no future to be afraid of. Your sins were condemned and punished in Christ, and there shall be no resurrection of forgiven sin.

II. WHAT ARE THE TERMS?

1. "Hear My word."(1) Do not you all hear it? Not with the inward ear.(2) But what word. If you receive any word, you will receive all. Take this one, "Come unto Me," etc.

2. "Believe on Him that sent Me." Not in Me. Some object to vicarious atonement on the ground that it does not put the Father in His right place. But Christ here, as elsewhere, traces it all to the Father and His love. It is part of your salvation to take worthy views of the Father.

(J. Vaughan, M. A.)

I. THE STATE FROM WHICH EVERY BELIEVER IS DELIVERED.

1. Its nature. A threefold death has befallen man. The body dies, everlasting death is threatened, spiritual death is inflicted. This latter is the death here, and is not simply the absence of what constituted life, but the presence also of the opposite.(1) Man's knowledge was a part of his life, but it has gone and he is ignorant and misrepresents the truth.(2) This flow of holiness is staunched, and he is defiled.(3) His innocency is blotted out, and he is guilty.(4) His title to heaven is gone, and he is exposed to hell.

2. Its forms. It does not always take the same shape.(1) A man's circumstances will do something to curb the tendencies of his nature. Your life may be chaste and outwardly religious, but with all this there is a defiled nature seen by the eye of God.(2) In other cases there is a complete contrast, and depravity knows no shame.

3. Its extent; total(1) as regards the individual.(a) The human form once so noble and symmetrical and undying has become enervated by disease, and falls into the grave.(b) The mind has not escaped its blight. Go to the lunatic asylum where the mind is gone, and to the cultured atheist whose vast intellectual powers are perverted.(c) The soul is dead, not that it has ceased to be immortal, but lives on in death.(2) As regards the race. However employed and wherever found man is the impersonation, of death.

4. Its cause. Not God. Look at the proofs of Divine benevolence in the beauties of nature, and ask, Is God the cause of death? Look at the monstrosities of nature — the drunkard, e.g., and ask, Is that God's handiworks?

II. THE CONDITION TO WHICH, BY THE MERCY OF GOD, EVERY BELIEVER HAS BEEN BROUGHT: from death to life.

1. What is this life?(1) Life is a series of relationships. In vegetable life there is a relationship of dependence; in animal life of the senses: in rational life of consciousness; in spiritual life to God in Christ.(2) Life has its developments. This could not be predicated of a stone. In vegetables you see it at its lowest, in reptiles higher, in beasts higher still, in man highest; and in rational life you have the babe, the child, and the man, and so in spiritual.(3) Spiritual life is knowledge. Mark the contrast between men of large intellectual powers and a man half-witted, who knows God is his Father and Christ his Saviour. They are dead; he lives.(4) It is purity.(5) It is love.

2. Whence comes it?(1) Not from self; a corpse cannot raise itself.(2) Not from another; a corpse cannot raise others.(3) From God the fountain of life, through Christ, the resurrection and the life.

III. THE PROCESS FROM THE ONE TO THE OTHER.

1. Its character a purely spiritual process, illustrated by the transformation of the caterpillar into the butterfly; the change from winter to spring; the resurrection of the dead.

2. Its means. The gospel embraced by faith.

3. Its Agent, the Holy Spirit.

(Gervase Smith, D. D.)

I.From a death of UNBELIEF to a life of FAITH.

II.From a death of FALSEHOOD to a life of TRUTH.

III.From a death of SIN to a life of RIGHTEOUSNESS.

IV.From a death of MISERY to a life of BLESSEDNESS.

(W. H. Van Doren, D. D.)

We are saved by believing

C. H. Spurgeon.

A small matter may suffice to shape the destiny of an immortal soul. In those ill times when there were slaves across the Atlantic, a lady went down to one of our ships accompanied by a servant. The lady remarked to the captain that if she were to go to England and take this black woman with her, she would become free as soon as she landed. The captain replied, "Madam, she is free already! The moment she came on board a British vessel she was free." When the woman knew this do you think she went on shore with her mistress? By no means; she chose to keep her liberty. How slight the change of place, but how great the difference involved: marvel not that faith involves such great things.

(C. H. Spurgeon.)

We must believe or perish

C. H. Spurgeon.

If a man will not do that which is necessary to a certain end, I do not see how he can expect to gain that end. You have taken poison, and the physician brings an antidote, and says, "Take it quickly, or you will die. If you take it quickly I will guarantee that the poison will be neutralized." But you say, "No, doctor, I do not believe it; let everything take its course; let every tub stand on its own bottom; I will have nothing to do with you, doctor." "Well, sir, you will die, and when the coroner's inquest is held on your body the verdict will be, 'Served him right.'" So it will be with you, if, having heard the Gospel of Jesus Christ, you say, "Pooh-pooh! I am too much of a common-sense man to have anything to do with that, and I shall not attend to it." Then, when you perish, the verdict given by your conscience, which will set upon the King's quest at last, will be a verdict of felo-de-se. He destroyed himself.

(C. H. Spurgeon.)

Faith must lay hold on Christ

D. L. Moody.

One night, when preaching in Philadelphia, right down by the side of the pulpit, there was a young lady whose eyes were riveted on me, as if she were drink- ing in every word. I got interested in her, and after I had done talking I went and spoke to her. "Are you a Christian?" "No; I wish I was. I have been seeking Jesus for three years." I said, "There must be some mistake." She looked strangely at me, and said, "Don't you believe me?" "Well, no doubt you thought you were seeking Jesus; but it don't take an anxious sinner three years to meet a willing Saviour." "What am I to do, then?" "The matter is, you are trying to do something; you must just believe on the Lord Jesus Christ." "Oh, I am sick and tired of the word, 'Believe, believe, believe! I don't know what it is." "Well," I said, "we'll change the word; take 'trust.'" "If I say, 'I'll trust Him,' will He save me?" "No; I don't say that. You may say a thousand things, but He will if you do trust Him." "Well," she said, "I do trust Him; but," she added in the same breath, "I don't feel any better." "Ah, I've got it now! You've been looking for feelings for three years, instead of for Jesus."

(D. L. Moody.)

People

Jesus, John

Places

Bethesda, Jerusalem, Sheep Gate

Topics

Age-during, Ages, Believes, Believeth, Believing, Certainly, Condemnation, Condemned, Crossed, Death, Doesn't, Ears, Eternal, Everlasting, Faith, Heareth, Hearing, Hears, Judged, Judgement, Judgment, Listens, Open, Passed, Solemn, Teaching, Truly, Truth, Verily

Outline

1. Jesus on the Sabbath day cures him who was diseased thirty-eight years.
10. The Jews therefore object, and persecute him for it.
17. He answers for himself, and reproves them, showing by the testimony of his Father,
31. of John,
36. of his works,
39. and of the Scriptures, who he is.

Dictionary of Bible Themes

John 5:24

     1140   God, the eternal
     2021   Christ, faithfulness
     4018   life, spiritual
     5627   word
     6028   sin, deliverance from
     6029   sin, forgiveness
     6125   condemnation, divine
     6646   eternal life, gift
     6647   eternal life, experience
     8022   faith, basis of salvation
     8023   faith, necessity
     8106   assurance, nature of
     9023   death, unbelievers
     9105   last things
     9240   last judgment

John 5:17-24

     2363   Christ, preaching and teaching

John 5:20-26

     2078   Christ, sonship of

John 5:22-27

     2069   Christ, pre-eminence

John 5:23-24

     7707   apostles, designation

John 5:24-25

     1462   truth, in NT
     2324   Christ, as Saviour
     5159   hearing
     9024   death, spiritual
     9315   resurrection, of believers

John 5:24-26

     9313   resurrection, spiritual

John 5:24-29

     5006   human race, destiny

Library

Conversion
TEXT: "And said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven."--Matt. 18:3. Jesus Christ was the world's greatest teacher and preacher. Multitudes followed him because he taught them, not as the scribes, but as one having authority. He came to them with the deepest truth of God, but couched in such familiar expressions, and told in such a fascinating way, that all men heard him and went their way rejoicing that so …
J. Wilbur Chapman—And Judas Iscariot

May 12 Morning
Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and everyone that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God.--I JOHN 4:7. The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost, which is given unto us.--Ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God.--He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself. In this …
Anonymous—Daily Light on the Daily Path

July 2 Evening
[Jesus] prayed the third time, saying the same words.--MATT. 26:44. Who in the days of his flesh . . . offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death. Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the Lord.--Continuing instant in prayer.--Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication.--By prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known …
Anonymous—Daily Light on the Daily Path

September 29 Evening
What things soever the Father doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise.--JOHN 5:19. The Lord giveth wisdom: out of his mouth cometh knowledge and understanding.--I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which all your adversaries shall not be able to gainsay nor resist. Wait on the Lord: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart.--My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Them that are sanctified by God the Father.--He that sanctifieth and they who are …
Anonymous—Daily Light on the Daily Path

June 22 Morning
Ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.--COL. 3:3. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?--I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live; yet not I but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.--He died for all, that they which live should not live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them and rose again.--If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature; old …
Anonymous—Daily Light on the Daily Path

February 27 Morning
Reckon ye yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.--ROM. 6:11. 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.--I through the law am dead to the law, that I might live unto God. I am crucified with Christ; nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, …
Anonymous—Daily Light on the Daily Path

July 25 Morning
We know that we have passed from death unto life.--I JOHN 3:14. 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.--He that hath the Son hath life, and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. He which stablisheth us with you in Christ and hath anointed us, is God; who hath also sealed us, and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts.--Hereby we know that we are of the truth and shall …
Anonymous—Daily Light on the Daily Path

May 18 Morning
As the Father hath life in himself; so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself.--JOHN 5:26. Our Saviour Jesus Christ, . . . hath abolished death, and hath brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.--I am the resurrection, and the life.--Because I live, ye shall live also.--We are made partakers of Christ.--Partakers of the Holy Ghost.--Partakers of the divine nature.--The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit.--Behold, I shew you …
Anonymous—Daily Light on the Daily Path

February 25 Morning
Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.--JAS. 4:7. When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against him.--Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve. Then the devil leaveth him, and, behold, angels came and ministered unto him. Be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might. Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.--And …
Anonymous—Daily Light on the Daily Path

February 24 Morning
Thus saith the Lord God, I will yet for this be enquired of.--EZEK. 36:37. Ye have not, because ye ask not. Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: for every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.--This is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask anything according to his will, he heareth us: and if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions …
Anonymous—Daily Light on the Daily Path

July 8 Evening
Shall the throne of iniquity have fellowship with thee?--PSA. 94:20. Truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ.--Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure. The prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me.--An high priest . . . holy, harmless, undefiled. …
Anonymous—Daily Light on the Daily Path

December 23 Evening
God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.--I JOHN 5:11. As the Father hath life in himself; so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself. As the Father raiseth up the dead, and quickeneth them; even so the Son quickeneth whom he will. I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die.--I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. I lay …
Anonymous—Daily Light on the Daily Path

Sunday after Easter
Text: First John 5, 4-12. 4 For whatsoever is begotten of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that hath overcome the world, even our faith. 5 And who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God? 6 This is he that came by water and blood, even Jesus Christ; not with the water only, but with the water and with the blood. 7 And it is the Spirit that beareth witness, because the Spirit is the truth. 8 For there are three who bear witness, the Spirit, …
Martin Luther—Epistle Sermons, Vol. II

The Third Miracle in John's Gospel
'Jesus saith unto him, Rise, take up thy bed, and walk.'--JOHN v.8 This third of the miracles recorded in John's Gospel finds a place there, as it would appear, for two reasons: first, because it marks the beginning of the angry unbelief on the part of the Jewish rulers, the development of which it is one part of the purpose of this Gospel to trace; second, because it is the occasion for that great utterance of our Lord about His Sonship and His divine working as the Father also works, which occupies …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

The Life-Giver and Judge
'But Jesus answered them, My Father worketh hitherto, and I work. 18. Therefore the Jews sought the more to kill Him, because He not only had broken the Sabbath, but said also that God was His Father, making Himself equal with God. 19. Then answered Jesus and said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He seeth the Father do: for what things soever He doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise. 20. For the Father loveth the Son, and sheweth Him all things …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

July the Twenty-Seventh the Work of Faith
1 JOHN v. 1-13. And so by belief I find life. I do not obtain the vitalizing air through controversy, or clamour, or idle lamentation, but by opening the window! Faith opens the door and window of the soul to the Son of God. It can be done without tears, it can be done without sensationalism. "If any man will open the door, I will come in." "And he that hath the Son hath the life." And by belief I gain my victories. "Who is he that overcometh ... but he that believeth?" It is not by flashing …
John Henry Jowett—My Daily Meditation for the Circling Year

September the Twenty-Ninth the Fountain
1 JOHN v. 9-21. My Lord is "the fountain of life." "This life is in His Son." The springs are nowhere else--not in elaborate theologies, or in ethical ideals, or in literary masterpieces, or in music or art. "In Him was life." It is so easy to forget the medicinal spring amid the distractions of the fashionable spa. There are some healing waters at Scarborough, but they have been almost "crowded out" by bands and entertainments. It is possible that the secondary ministries of the Church may crowd …
John Henry Jowett—My Daily Meditation for the Circling Year

Attendance on Holy Communion.
"Ye will not come to Me, that ye might have life."--John v. 40. St. John tells us in to-day's Epistle[1] that "God hath given unto us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He that hath the Son hath life, and he that hath not the Son hath not life." Yet in the text the Son Himself, our Saviour, sorrowfully and solemnly expostulates with His own brethren, "Ye will not come to Me, that ye might have life." "He came unto His own, and His own received Him not." We know from history, as a matter …
John Henry Newman—Parochial and Plain Sermons, Vol. VII

Victory Over the World through Faith
"For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith."-1 John 5:4. THE discussion of this text naturally leads us to make four inquiries I. What is it to overcome the world? II. Who are they that overcome? III. Why do they overcome the world? IV. How do they do it? These are the natural questions which a serious mind would ask upon reading this text. I. What is it to overcome the world? 1. It is to get above the spirit of covetousness …
Charles G. Finney—Sermons on Gospel Themes

On the Words of the Gospel, John v. 19, "The Son Can do Nothing of Himself, but what He Seeth the Father Doing. "
1. The mysteries and secrets of the kingdom of God first seek for believing men, that they may make them understanding. For faith is understanding's step; and understanding faith's attainment. [3739] This the Prophet expressly says to all who prematurely and in undue order look for understanding, and neglect faith. For he says, "Unless ye believe, ye shall not understand." [3740] Faith itself then also hath a certain light of its own in the Scriptures, in Prophecy, in the Gospel, in the Lessons of …
Saint Augustine—sermons on selected lessons of the new testament

On the Words of the Gospel, John v. 2, "Now There is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a Pool," Etc.
1. The lesson of the Gospel has just sounded in our ears, and made us intent to know what is the meaning of what has been read. This, I suppose, is looked for from me, this I promise, by the Lord's assistance, to explain as well as I can. For without doubt it is not without a meaning, that those miracles were done, and something they figured out to us bearing on eternal saving [3677] health. For the health of the body which was restored to this man, of how long duration was it? "For what is your …
Saint Augustine—sermons on selected lessons of the new testament

Again in John v. 2, Etc. , on the Five Porches, Where Lay a Great Multitude of Impotent Folk, and of the Pool of Siloa.
1. Subjects strange neither to your ears nor hearts are now repeated: yet do they revive the affections of the hearer, and by repetition in some sort renew us: nor is it wearisome to hear what is well known already, for the words of the Lord are always sweet. The exposition of the sacred Scriptures is as the sacred Scriptures themselves: though they be well known, yet are they read to impress the remembrance of them. And so the exposition of them, though it be well known, is nevertheless to be repeated, …
Saint Augustine—sermons on selected lessons of the new testament

On the Words of the Gospel, John v. 25,"Verily, Verily, I Say unto You, the Hour Cometh, and Now Is, when the Dead Shall Hear The
1. Our hope, Brethren, is not of this present time, nor of this world, nor in that happiness whereby men are blinded that forget God. This ought we above all things to know, and in a Christian heart hold fast, that we were not made Christians for the good things of the present time, but for something else which God at once promiseth, and man doth not yet comprehend. For of this good it is said, "That eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man, what things God …
Saint Augustine—sermons on selected lessons of the new testament

On the Words of the Gospel, John v. 31,"If I Bear Witness of Myself," Etc. ; and on the Words of the Apostle, Galatians v. 16, "Walk
1. We have heard the words of the holy Gospel; and this that the Lord Jesus saith, "If I bear witness of Myself, My witness is not true," [3814] may perplex some. How then is not the witness of the Truth true? Is it not Himself who hath said, "I am the Way, and the Truth, and the Life"? [3815] Whom then are we to believe, if we must not believe the Truth? For of a surety he is minded to believe nothing but falsehood, who does not choose to believe the truth. So then this was spoken on their principles, …
Saint Augustine—sermons on selected lessons of the new testament

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