“Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life.”

This verse echoes the themes of last week, concerning belief or faith, and eternal life through Jesus, which are captured in John 3:16, “whoever believes in Him [Jesus] should not perish but have everlasting life.”
But there are two new elements here:
1) Judgment – the person who believes will not come into judgment;
2) Timing – the person who believes has everlasting life, and has already passed from death into life.

On Judgment

Paul talks at great length in his letters about the futility of choosing to rely on our works, while Jesus has won our salvation through His death on the cross, as a free gift in God’s grace. Those who reject His gift will be judged according to their works, and the outcome is certain.
To the one who asks, “How could a God of love condemn people to eternal judgment?”, Jesus gives the answer in verse 40, where He clearly states to the Pharisees that responsibility for judgement rests alone on the person who rejects His gift of salvation. He says, “But you are not willing to come to Me that you may have life.”

On Timing

As God is the creator and sustainer of all life, when man and woman chose to separate themselves from God, we were separated from His provision of life; so death and decay entered the world. We were left with an emptiness and a craving for things eternal, for that true life from God, which the things of this earth can never satisfy. And the awareness of our mortality ultimately makes all of our earthly achievements meaningless. Our fear of the death that Satan persuaded us to choose is used by him to influence what we do, it is one of the means by which he gains power over us, and in 1 Cor 15:26 we learn, “The last enemy that will be destroyed is death.”

When we receive the free gift of salvation and reconciliation to God which Jesus won for all mankind, we are freed from that torment and slavery to decay, freed to live each day being filled by His Spirit to know His presence, guidance, and provision, aspects of the true life He gives which will never die.
It reminds me of 1 Corinthians 13, where Paul explains that all of our knowledge and writings and doctrines are due to our limited understanding in this earthly life, and these will all pass away like rubbish, but what will always remain are the everlasting aspects of life in Jesus, of faith, hope, and love.

Personal Application

The joy of this true life which we receive each day as Jesus lives within us may be overcast at times by the remains of our earthly trappings; chronic pain can wear us down, as I well recall from a few years ago when I was waiting for surgery for three months. But the vital difference is we do not despair, the true life He gives sustains us, and will never fade, and my favourite verse from that time awaiting surgery was from Psalm 17:15b (GNT), “and when I awake, your presence will fill me with joy.”

Praise God for his free gift of true life in Jesus.

“You will keep him in perfect peace,
Whose mind is stayed on You,
Because he trusts in You.”
Q’: What does it mean to have our mind stayed on God?

He trusts in You

Isaiah speaks of the person who trusts in the Lord, who lives by unshakeable faith.
It’s not about theological knowledge of who God is, or understanding of the bible, although these may be helpful. It’s about a lived experience of relationship with God, of completely relying on Him for everything each day.

This contrasts to the previous chapter 25, where verse 7, talks of “the surface of the covering cast over all people” and “the veil that is spread over all nations”, which leads in verse 8 to the presence of death and suffering due to sin. This veil or covering is a blindness to God due to mankind’s choice of sin, initially in the Garden of Eden, and then growing worse with each successive generation’s choice to turn away from God. It’s a blindness we see today, that makes people believe good and evil are subjective products of our imagination, that our world and all life is purely a random accident without any meaning, and believe that we can dream up our own gods and our own realities.

In contrast, we have every reason to trust in God and remove that veil of unbelief, such as:

• The goodness and beauty of Creation;
• The history of God speaking to his people and guiding them through the leaders and prophets of Israel. And our own history of God guiding us;
• God speaking to us through his word in the bible;
• The life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, who freed us from bondage to sin and death;
• The Holy Spirit who brings God’s presence and guidance into our lives.

Whose mind is stayed on You

This phrase has faith as its cause, but it has an additional element.

For when we are open to receiving God’s revelation of himself, we come to know Him as our almighty creator — infinite in power and wisdom, beyond space and time, and beyond our limited human understanding. And that awareness moves our focus away from ourselves and our needs. Instead, we focus on his wonderful nature, and his transforming presence in this world and in our lives, and our mind is preoccupied with Him.

That changes who we are and our wants; we no longer focus on just our physical needs, we find we need to enjoy an awareness of His presence, to know the joy of praising Him, to spend time in his word and in prayer, to know His guidance and purpose for our lives each day, and to feel Him lift us when we fall.

As Jesus said in Luke 4:4, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.”

Perfect Peace

This does not refer to our external circumstances, such as the absence of military hostility and social unrest, or personal circumstances concerning wealth and good health. This refers to the deep calm which God gives to carry us through all of life’s difficult circumstances.

Even while believers may suffer with a decaying body in the end times of this earthly life, their inner calm can be one of life’s great testimonies to God’s presence. As a well-meaning visitor, I have experienced the blessing of this calm in elderly believers whose faith was unshakeable. And sadly, I have also seen the turmoil and distress of non-believers who have been devastated by life’s challenges.

May we all be blessed by God’s perfect peace.