Truly, truly, I say to you, if anyone keeps my word, he will never see death.”
Genesis tells us that our first parents were warned not to eat the fruit of the forbidden tree—if they did, they would die. But they ate anyway, and they died. And that has become the common experience of humanity since then. Death and the grave take us all in the end.
But Jesus promises here, and elsewhere in the gospel of John, that there is an escape from death. He tells us that the one who obeys, who keeps his word, will never die. In John 5:24, He said that “whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He… has passed from death to life.” And in John 11:24-25, Jesus told Martha, “Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die.”
Physical Death Is Not the End
As appealing as it might be to escape from physical death, that is not what Jesus is referring to here. Death here is contrasted with eternal life. It is the fate that awaits those who do not believe in Jesus and keep His word. It is the second death (Rev. 2:11, 20:6).
Those who believe in Jesus and keep His word will still experience physical death. But that death is not the end. It ushers us into God’s presence and the life that He has been preparing us for. It is like a child being born, leaving the known and comfortable womb, and entering into a much bigger world of wonder.
This promise is for those who believe in Jesus and keep His word. It is not a ‘get out of jail free’ card that you can play when you stand at the judgment. It is for those who have been obedient to Jesus’ words. Those who have walked with Him in this life, who have denied self, taken up their cross, and followed Him (Matt. 16:24). They will walk with Him in the life to come. And they will not be hurt at all by the second death (Rev. 2:11).
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