The Pulpit Commentary — John — Volume 1 — Section 365

life is hid with Christ in God" (Col. iii. 3). 2. The ,·ewlt of thi~ knowledge and faith. (1) Positively: eternal lifo. (a) It is a present possession. He "bath eternal life." (b) He bllS & right and c!Rim to it by virtue of Christ's work, as in,·olving n justification to life. (~) He has meetness for it and the earnest of it in the Holy Ghost (2 Cor. i. 22). (2) Negatively: "He cometh not into condemnation, but is passed from dcaLh unto life." (a) He is not condemned for original sin, though judgment did pass upon all men fo condemnation for it. (b) Nor for actual transgression; for" there is no condemnation to him that is in Christ Jesus" (Rom. viii. 1). (c) But is "pnsscd from death unto life." (u) He has escaped from spiritual death; (/3) from the second death; (-y) for he hes become alive to God through Jesus Christ onr Lord. II. Tm;: EPOCH OF THIS srmITUAL RESURRECTION. "The hour is coming nnd now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear' shall lil'e." 1. His words, which were spirit and life, were already preparing the way for Pentecost. 2. The coming hoor ef abounding blessing was to date from Pentecost. 3. The blessing of the epoch. (1) The persons included in the bl~ini::. "The dead." (ii) The spiritually dead, alienated from the life of God, dead to all spiritual good• (b) who hear the voice of the Son of God; to whom the Word comes in power, and work~ effectually in them, receiving, believin:;:, obeying it, (2) The saving voice. "The voice of the Son of God." (a) It is & voice of love, grace, mercy, righteousness, peace, and salvation; (b) it is a voice of power, because it is the voice of the Son of God. (3) The blessinf,!;. "They shall live." (a) It will be a life of faith; (b) a life of communion with God; (c) it will be eternal in its duration. Ill. THE GROUND OF THIS srmITUAL RESURBECTI-ON. "For as the Father hath life in himself, so bath he given to the Son to have life i11 himself." 1. The Son has a sel,f-sufficunt life, essentially and originally like the Father, 2. But he has a life given of the Father, in virtue of which it is divinely secuxed for those whom the Father has given him (1 John v. 11). Eternal life is what the one gives and the other receives in the economy of Divine salvation. 3. There is thus a double security for eternal life. IV. THE JUDGMENT IN THE RANDS OF THE SoN OF lllAN. "And hath given him anthority to execute jadgment also, because he is the Son of man." 1. T/1e judgment implia O'fTllll,iscience, perfect holiness, perject justice, and all other Divine perfections. 2. It is committed to the Son of man as a sharer of the nature that is to be judged for the deed,; done in the body. V. THE FINAL RESURRECTION AND THE FINAL JUDGlllENT. "As by man came death, so by man shall come the resurrection of the dead." It was a marvellous truth to proclaim to the Jews, that he who addressed them would raise up the dead and judge them at the :final assize. 1. Mark the certainty and the universality of the resurrection. "The hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice." 2. The means by which the resurrection shall be accomplished. " 'l'he voice of the Son of man." (1) Sinners may shut their ears to that voice on earth, but it will be heard in the jud,,.crment-day. (2) It is a voice which, re-echoed by the voice of the archangel and the last trump, will have power to awake all the dead withont exception. 3. The two- fold end ef the resurrectwn. " They shall come forth ; they that have done good, to the resnrrection of life· and they that have done evil, to the resurrection of judgment." (1) There will be a j11d.gment of all as surely as a resurrection of all. Believers must appear before the judgment-seat of Christ as well as unbel\evers, ~o recei-..:e according to the deeds done in the body (2 Cor. v. 10). But they will receive the Judgment of acquittal in virtue of their union with Christ in righteousness and life, while their rewards will be proportioned to" the deeds done in the body.'' (2) The judgment will proceed upon a test practically applicable to the whole human race-" the deeds done in the body," whether they shall be the deeds of the righteous, issuing out of faith in Christ; or the deeds of the unrighteous, issuing out of an evil heart of unbelief. (3) There will be a final division of the human race into two classes. There will be the sheep and the goats, the saved aud the lost, saints and sinners. VL THE OONCLUSION OF THE WHOLE lllA TTEB. " I can of mina own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and my judgment is just; because I seek not mine own will, but the will of him that sent me." Our Lord carries the Jews back to the starting-point of his discourn: "My Father worketh hitherto, and I work.• He has now justified his VII, V, 1-47,] TllE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. JOHN. 229