Friday, April 11, 2014

John 5:24

“Let me make this perfectly clear to you: Anyone who hears the words I speak and as a result places his or her faith in the Father who sent me has eternal life and will no longer be under condemnation.  These people pass over from looming eternal death into the realm of everlasting life.”  John 5:24 EFP

Though the claims of Christianity are stunning, the salvation described in the core of Christianity is even more stunning.  Jesus states it here succinctly: Believe and live.  Believe and pass from an inevitable and final death to a glorious reality of perfect and perpetual life.

It’s so simple!  And it’s at the core of Christianity.  There are no loopholes.  No escape clauses.  No qualifiers.  Believe and receive the gift of eternal life—now.  Your sentence of death is removed and the promise of eternal life is put in its place.  It’s almost as if at times I am afraid of how permissive this sounds that I am tempted to explain it away or qualify it somehow.  But the statement stands firmly as a concise salvific declaration of Jesus.  Help me believe, Lord!

What happens after this moment may be up for debate, but this truth remains in all its beauty. Let it stand!

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