#43.

When God's Word is Preached, It Provides the Means to Spiritual Resurrection

John 5:24 Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life. So far, we have seen when God's Word is preached, it is Christ Who speaks through the preacher. Christ Himself is the content of the message, more precisely the free offer of complete forgiveness from sin because of what He has done. We saw that the power of God accompanies true preaching of His Word, and that His Wisdom is to save men and women, young and old through this message that all those in the world regard as foolishness. Because there is much in the Bible concerning the relationship between the preaching of God's Word and salvation, we are going to look at one or two more verses on this topic, beginning with our text this week. Our Savior is speaking and once again, He begins with His solemn and emphatic declaration that what He is about to say is absolute truth, "Amen, Amen, I say to you...." The Son of God, Who is the Way, the Truth and the Life, could not highlight the trustworthiness and reliability of what He is about to say in stronger words than these. He wants us to pay close attention to what He is about to tell us, and it is no surprise, because His subject is our resurrection from spiritual death to eternal life! Some people, He says, have eternal life. They do not come into judgement at the Last Day, since they have passed out of death to life. God warned Adam that he would surely die if he ate the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. When he did eat, the sentence was passed and Adam died in spirit, being cut off from God through his sin and suffering decay and death in his body also. Paul begins the second chapter of his letter to the church at Ephesus (Eph 2:1) with a reminder to them that before God made them alive in Jesus, they had been dead in their trespasses and sins (just like Adam their forefather). To remain in that condition of spiritual death through sin makes us liable to judgment and condemnation to eternal punishment in hell. But Jesus is saying that there is a way for spiritually dead people to rise from the spiritual death of sin and instead to possess eternal life! There is a way, He says, to avoid judgment. How can this happen? Obviously, this is the most important question we can ask - how can I be raised from spiritual death to life? How can I avoid God's just judgment for my sins? Paul told the Ephesians (Eph 2:4-7) that this is something God does. He "makes us alive in Christ, even when [we] are dead in trespasses and sins". It has to be a work of God, since no corpse has the least ability to act or to do anything to make itself live again. So it is God's work through and through, but the question remains, how does God do this work? Look again at the words of Jesus in His solemn declaration above, because He tells us. If we would have eternal life, not come into judgment and pass from death to life, we must hear the word of Jesus and believe God Who sent Him. Essentially, we must rest our whole hope for salvation on the perfect life Jesus lived (which can be regarded by God as our life) and the death He died for sins on the cross (which can be regarded by God as full

payment for the sins we committed). That is all that is necessary for these wonderful blessings to become ours. Note, though, that we must hear the word of Jesus and then believe it (believe God Who sent Him). Where shall we most plainly hear Jesus speaking, if not in the preaching of His Word? So if we would put ourselves into the place where Jesus speaks and God's power to raise the spiritually dead is at work, we must be sit under true preaching of the Word. Considering what is at stake, and the blessings that are on offer, could there be a greater incentive for us?

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