Lesson 3526

 (Lesson 3526)(08-29-21) John 5:16-24

    “And therefore did the Jews persecute Jesus, and sought to slay him, because he had done these things on the sabbath day. But Jesus answered them, My Father worketh hitherto, and I work.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. 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. For the Father loveth the Son, and sheweth him all things that himself doeth: and he will shew him greater works than these, that ye may marvel. For as the Father raiseth up the dead, and quickeneth them; even so the Son quickeneth whom he will. For the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son: That all men should honour the Son, even as they honour the Father. He that honoureth not the Son honoureth not the Father which hath sent him. Verily, verily, I say unto you, 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.”

    The first part of today’s quote relates how the Jews set about to kill Jesus because they thought He had broken the Sabbath by healing a lame man and because Jesus also professed that He is the Son of God and that He alone on earth has the power of God over all things. 

    The last part of the quote contains a very special promise from the Son of God to usward. In the last verse of the quote, Jesus said, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, 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.”

    It is important to pay attention to the tenses that are applied in what Jesus said. The application of those tenses very effectively rebut the contention that a person can at one time be born again, then later be lost again.

    A person who has already attained “everlasting life”, cannot lose that life else it would not be “everlasting”.  A person who “shall not come into condemnation”, CANNOT, ever, be condemned. A person who “is passed from death unto life” CANNOT be dead again.~