John 8:51

John 8:51. Verily, verily, I say unto you, If a man have kept my word, he shall never behold death. The solemn introductory words indicate that the discourse is taking a higher strain: once before they have been used in this chapter, in John 8:34 (but to a part only of ‘the Jews'), and once again we shall meet with them (John 8:58). In John 8:34 Jesus is speaking of slavery from which He frees; here of death which He abolishes (2 Timothy 1:10). In the former case the means of deliverance is continuing in the word of Jesus and knowing the truth (see John 8:32); here He gives the promise to him that has ‘kept His word,' has received it, hidden it in his heart, and observed it in his life (see John 8:37, also chap. John 14:15, etc.). The thought here is substantially the same as in chap. John 6:50 (compare also chap. John 4:14; John 5:24; John 6:51), where we read of the living bread given that a man may eat of it and not die. That passage presents one side of the condition, the close fellowship of the believer with Jesus Himself, of which eating is the symbol; this presents another side, the believing reception of His word (which reveals Himself), and the practical and continued observance of the precepts therein contained. In chap. John 6:50, the words ‘may not die' do not seem to have been misunderstood, possibly because so near the promise of ‘eternal life,' which suggested a figurative meaning, possibly because of a difference in the mood and disposition of the hearers. In neither place did Jesus promise that they who are His shall not pass through the grave, but that to them death shall not be death, in death itself they shall live (see chap. John 11:26).