"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. Verily, verily, I say unto you, The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live." (John 5: 24, 25 KJV)
These verses are also used by the Hardshells in order to prove that a person is first saved, born again, or regenerated, before he comes to faith. They also affirm that faith in Christ is not essential for eternal salvation.
But, these words do not teach that one is first born again, and then later comes to faith. The Lord is simply defining and characterizing those who will be blessed to enter the kingdom of God.
His purpose, in these words, is not to establish an ordo salutis, as respects any imagined temporal or causal relationship existing between faith and life. His intention is to characterize those who receive him as the Messiah, who believe in him and his words; And, how does he do this? Is it not by equating believers with those who have been spiritually resurrected, or begotten from the grave of sin?
In earlier chapters (See # 14 & 48) in this book I looked at the whole 5th chapter of John's gospel in view of Hardshellism. I showed how there is so much in this chapter that destroys Hardshell "logic," and presuppositions, and outright falsehoods.
First, let us notice how these words actually teach against Hardshellism.
The Lord teaches that it is the "believer" who has been resurrected from inward spiritual death. He is the one who is alive to God and godly things. Will the Hardshells accept the reverse of this? That the unbeliever is dead, not alive, not born again, not resurrected?
Do they not teach that both believers and unbelievers are "born again" or "spiritually alive"? Clearly Jesus is affirming that all those who do not listen to his words, who do not believe, are they who remain dead in sins. Those who have listened to his words and believed on him are they who are spiritually alive.
The Hardshells divorce the spiritual "life" from "faith." One receives spiritual "life" first, apart from faith, in the Hardshell view. By this understanding of the matter, the "life" is without faith; But, what kind of "life" is it that does not have faith as part of it?
How does Jesus define the spiritually "dead"? They are the same as they who are unbelievers. Who are they who are spiritually alive? They are they who have believed. Who is a believer? He is one who is spiritually alive. Who is the unbeliever? He is the one who is spiritually dead.
Jesus clearly is equating, experientially, the two things. It is similar to how John equated (connected together) two things when he said - "whoever has the Son has life." Here Jesus is saying - "whoever has faith has life," or conversely, "whoever has life has faith."
The Hardshell puts the "hearing" and "believing" after the "coming to life." Thus it is the "living" who "hear" and "believe," and not the "dead." Yet, the latter part of the above citation puts the "coming to life" after the "hearing." Further, it is one who is "dead" who "hears" the "voice" of Christ, and this "hearing" precedes the "coming to life." They hear in order to live, rather than live in order to hear, fundamentally speaking.
Why would Jesus be instructing these unbelievers in an order salutis? Christ's intent is not to indoctrinate them in an order salutis. His intent is not to get them to accept the proposition that says that they must be made alive by him in order for them to believe his words. Is Jesus not saying to these dead unbelieving sinners - "you are dead if you do not believe"?
A "believer" is one who "has passed from" unbelief to belief, and who "has passed from" darkness and ignorance to light and knowledge, and who "has passed from" hardness and impenitence of heart to tenderness and penitence of heart, one who "has passed from death unto life."
To teach that it is not only possible, but actually the case, that most of the elect "pass from death unto life" but that only few "pass from unbelief and impenitence to faith and repentance," is giving a definition to "life" that is nonsensical, besides being unscriptural. The Hardshell description of this experience of "passing" eliminates vital elements of the "life."
Notice also how Christ speaks of justification as well as spiritual regeneration/resurrection when he says that the believer "shall not come into condemnation." I will not address the Hardshell view on "justification," and on "justification by faith," at this time. I will save that for a future separate posting. I have, however, already dealt with the Hardshell view on "faith" in earlier chapters.
But, again, we may ask the same rhetorical questions to every Hardshell, or every Hyperist who insists that Christ here intends, and actually does teach, that life comes before faith.
1. Who does Christ declare justified and safe from future condemnation? Is it not the believer?
2. Does Christ not affirm that every unbeliever is condemned and will come into judgment?
3. Is it not the view of the Hardshells that many unbelievers are spiritually "regenerated" and "alive"? And who is it that "shall not come into condemnation"? Is it not the Hardshell view that many unbelievers are justified?
4. Does Jesus connect together regeneration (spiritual resurrection), not only with coming to him in faith, but also with justification? Is there any clue in these words of Christ that necessitates that one believe, like many of the "Reformed" hyperists, that "regeneration comes before faith but that justification comes after it"?
The Hardshells also argue on this passage in a similar manner as to how they argue on John 1: 12,13 and I John 5:1. They say here, as there, that "hearing" and "believing" are in the present tense, and so means one "who is (continually) hearing and is (continually) believing," but "is passed" is past tense, indicating again (supposedly) that the life preceded and caused the faith.
But again, Jesus, like John, is not denying that it is equally true to say - "he who has believed has passed from death unto life." But, to express it this way would imply that faith, like the birth and the resurrection, is also a one time event. If Jesus wanted to be precise, as the hair-splitting theologians are anxious to be, he perhaps would have said - "He who has believed (and who continues to believe), has passed from death unto life."
"And ye will not come to me, that ye might have life." (vs. 40)
As I said in previous chapters, these words overthrow the Hardshell and neo "Reformed" view or "ordo salutis." If their view were correct, Jesus would have expressed it this way - "and ye will not have life that ye might come unto me." Rather, it has the "coming" before the "life," just as the "hearing" was before the "coming to life." Actually, it is very simple. When one comes to Christ, he comes to life, comes to truth, and comes to the way. To say that one comes to life but does not come to faith is a twist of scripture, nothing but eisogeses.
Notice also how Christ equated his "word" with his "voice." This is important in view of the novel view of the Hardshells on what is meant by hearing the "voice" of Christ as opposed to hearing the word of Christ. That was dealt with in earlier chapters. To hear the gospel, by whomever it is preached, is hearing the voice of Christ, is hearing his word. It is not something "heard" on the subconscious level.
In the next chapter we will look at some verses in John 6 that Hardshells use to defend their hybrid and aberrant soteriological views.
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