=24. Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth me and hath faith on him that sent me, hath eternal life, and comes not into judgment, but has passed out of the death into the life.= The meaning of this declaration is not obscure, though it has been sometimes obscured by unbelief. To _hear the word of Christ_ is to hear it with the spiritual ear, not merely with the physical ear. Thus those may be included who have never heard of the historic Christ; for as he is the Light of the world, who lighteth _every man_ who cometh into the world (ch. 1:9, note), so those who, without the literal hearing of his words, do hear and attend to the message which he speaks to the soul, in the inner experience, are to be included among those who hear his words. To _have faith on him that sent me_, is not merely to believe his written word, nor to believe that he has sent Christ into the world, nor to believe any specific dogma respecting Christ, however important, but to have faith in an unseen divinity, in contrast to faith in either one’s self or in any human helper. It is to direct faith toward this unseen God that Christ came into the world; and to have faith in Christ is to have faith in the Father who sent him, in order that he might bring all unto the Father, and present all to him (ch. 17:8, 21, 24). _Cometh not into judgment_ is mistranslated in our English version, _Shall not come into condemnation_. The verb is not future, and the noun is judgment, not condemnation. “There can be no good reason why the word (κρίσις, _krisis_) should be rendered _judgment_ in the 22d verse, and _condemnation_ in the 24th. But from a fear, I suppose, lest the one should seem to contradict the other--lest the Son should be thought not to execute the judgment that had been committed to him--they (the translators) were unfaithful to the letter, perhaps even more unfaithful to the spirit, of the passage.”--(_Maurice._) The promise is one fulfilled in this life, a promise of present not merely future deliverance, and of a deliverance not merely from condemnation, but from judgment. If the Christian comes into judgment, he would also inevitably come into condemnation (1 John 1:8, 10). The meaning of this verse then is, that when the soul has accepted Christ as its Master, hearing his words, and following him, for spiritual hearing involves following (ch. 10:3, 4) so as to live by faith in God (Gal. 2:20), he is no longer subject to divine judgment; there is no more condemnation to them who are thus in Christ Jesus (Rom. 8:1). With this is involved the further truth that there will be no true judgment for them in the last day. “The reckoning which ends with ‘Well done, good and faithful servant,’ is not judgment; the reward is of free grace. In this sense the believers in Christ will not be judged according to their works; they are justified before God by faith, and by God.”--(_Alford._) Finally, the last clause of the verse, _but hath passed out of death into life_,