Stop Striving, Start Believing
By Dr. Brandon Steenbock, Family Minister
John 5:24 – Very truly I tell you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be judged but has crossed over from death to life.
Correct grammar and verb tenses are very important. Unless you’re like me, you probably don’t think about that very often, but you should. It should be just as important to you as it is to me.
Let me demonstrate with a real-life example:
My wife: “Hey, did you unload the dishwasher as I requested?”
Me: “I… am going to unload the dishwasher…”
My wife: “<Pauses>… You are going to, or you already did?”
Me: “<Pauses>… I will have done so by the time you get home.”
My wife: “So you haven’t yet?”
Me: “By the time you arrive, it will have been done as if it had been done before we spoke.”
My wife: “What are you even talking about?”
I think you get the picture. We use verb tenses unconsciously most of the time, but they impact the truth we tell and how we relate to each other. Verb tenses matter.
They matter a lot in Scripture. Greek, the language God used for the New Testament, is very specific in its verb forms, so God is very specific in his truth and how we relate to him.
Notice the verb tenses in Jesus’ words in this passage:
“I tell you” (Present tense) – Jesus’ words are true right now
“Hears… believes” (Present) – Jesus’ words impact you from the moment you hear and believe them.
“Has eternal life” (Present) – Eternal life is something you already possess when you hear and believe Jesus’ words
“Will not be judged” (Ambiguous) – The best translation is, “Does not come into judgment.” If you believe Jesus’ words, you are not judged now, you are not judged later, you are not judged at all.
“Has crossed over from death to life” (Perfect) – A completed action with present and lasting results. When you believe Jesus’ words, your passing from death to life is a completed event, which currently places you in the eternal life of Jesus.
We usually think of “life” and “death” as relating to our physical existence – “life” is breathing, moving, thinking, etc., while “death” is the ceasing of those bodily functions. But there is such a thing as spiritual life and spiritual death, so what does that mean?
In biblical terms, “life” and “death” refer to blessings and curses. In Deuteronomy 30:19, Moses says, “I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses.” The parallelism is the key: Life is to enjoy God’s blessings, death is to be under sin’s curse. Physical life is enjoying God’s physical blessing of bodily function, while physical death is to have your body fall under the curse of sin, which brings destruction and decay. Spiritual life is to enjoy God’s spiritual blessings – joy, peace, security, relationship with him. Spiritual death is to suffer under the curse of being separated from God for eternity, with no hope, no peace, no comfort.
With all that in mind, the question this verse poses to us is simple yet disruptive: Do you believe Jesus? Do you believe everything Jesus says? When you look at his words, do you take them as true and worth believing? Even when he tells you that you cannot find life in yourself? That you are more sinful than you realize? That you need God even just to have daily breath, let alone to have a hope and a future?
Jesus says all that and more. Look at the Sermon on the Mount and how deeply convicting it is. How it puts God’s standards so high above our behavior that we all have to stop and say, “I get it, Lord… I’m not enough.”
That’s the point at which we flee to find life somewhere else. Some of us turn to doing good, expecting God to reward our sincerity. Others to indulgence – entertainment, food, sex – anything to feel alive now. And if you’ve tried this, you know how dissolving it is. How it leaves you empty-handed and wanting more. This is why Jesus offers something better, something real. Actual life, life that never ends.
This is the comfort in his invitation to believe his words. Look past the hard words and lean into the beauty. He offers fullness of life. You are more loved than you can imagine. God does give us daily breath, daily bread, daily forgiveness, daily strength to meet all trials, temptations, griefs, and pains. Believe Jesus when he says that he came to give you eternal life – and you already have it.
This is the present tense, perfect promise in Jesus’ words. Believe them, and you already have eternal life, you have already crossed over from death to life. There’s no struggle and striving for life on your own, it is a done deal. An event that has already happened in your life, with an impact that lasts forever.
This is Jesus’ invitation: “Believe me, and have life.”