The width and greatness of this promise are very remarkable. Ever since the day of Adam's fall death has been man's peculiar enemy. Man has found the truth of the sentence, " In the day thou eatest thou shalt surely die." (Gen. ii. 27.) But our Lord boldly and opeuly proclaims that in keeping His saying there is complete deliverance from death. In fact, He pro- claims Himself the One greater than death. None could say this but a Redeemer who was very God.
Augustine says : " The death from which our Lord came to deliver us was the second death, eternal death, the death of hell, the death of damnation with the devil and his angels. That is indeed death; for this death of ours is only a migration. What is it but a putting off a heavy load, provided there be not another load carried, by which the man shall be cast headlong into hell. This is the death of which the Lord says, * He shall not see death.' "
Let us note the breadth and fulness of this promise. It is for any one who keeps Christ's sayings. " If a man," or rather it should be rendered, " If any man," etc.
Let us beware of putting a meaning on this promise which it was not intended to convey. The idea of some that it means " believers shall be so completely delivered from death that they shall neither feel bodily pain nor mental conflict," is one that cannot be supported. It is not borne out by other pas- sages of Scripture, and, as a matter of fact, it is contradicted by experience. The Gospel delivers believers from that " fear of death " which unbelievers feel, no doubt. (Heb. ii. 15.) But we have no right to expect believers to have no bodily conflict, no convulsion, no struggle, and no suffering. Flesh and blood must and will feel. " I groan," said holy Baxter on his death- bed, "but I do not grumble." Death is a serious thing, even though the sting is taken away.
Parkhurst thinks the expression here is like Luke ii. 26, where it was said of Simeon that he should not " see death." But the Greek for "see" is there a different word, and the phrase there seems to mean nothing more than " die," which does not come up to the full promise here. He also quotes Psalms xlix. 9; lxxxix. 49. But neither of these places seem parallel.
The Greek word rendered "see" is so peculiar that one might almost think the phrase meant, " he shall not gaze upon and behold death forever to all eternity, as the wicked shall." But I prefer the threefold sense already given.
52.— [The?i said the Jews, etc.] The argument of the Jews in this verse seems to be as follows : " We know now by Thy own words that Thou art mad and hast a devil. Our great father Abraham and the prophets, holy and good as they all were, are all dead, and yet Thou presumest to say that if a man keep Thy