Jesus said: “51 Very truly, I tell you, whoever keeps my word will never see death.” 52 The Jews said to him, “Now we know that you have a demon. Abraham died, and so did the prophets, yet you say, ‘Whoever keeps my word will never taste death.’ 53 Are you greater than our father Abraham, who died? The prophets also died. Who do you claim to be?” 54 Jesus answered, “If I glorify myself, my glory is nothing. It is my Father who glorifies me, he of whom you say, ‘He is our God,’ 55 though you do not know him. But I know him; if I would say that I do not know him, I would be a liar like you. But I do know him, and I keep his word. 56 Your ancestor Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day; he saw it and was glad.” 57 Then the Jews said to him, “You are not yet fifty years old, and have you seen Abraham?” 58 Jesus said to them, “Very truly, I tell you, before Abraham was, I am.” 59 So they picked up stones to throw at him, but Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple” John 8:51-59.
Here Jesus speaks to His listeners, a group that includes you and me, when He says: “51 Very truly, I tell you, whoever keeps My Word will never see death” John 8:51. This also speaks about the purpose of His coming and of all that He has to say about the salvation of His hearers. Jesus isn’t promoting Himself here. Instead He says with the strongest assertion possible: “I speak the truth! If someone keeps my Word, if you believe My Word, cleave to it, obey it and live by My Word, you will never see death!” Now we shouldn’t be surprised by this incredible assertion, because, after all, Jesus has the words of Eternal Life! Jesus said earlier in John’s Gospel: “63 It is the Spirit that gives life; the flesh is useless. The words that I have spoken to you are Spirit and Life…68 Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom can we go? You have the words of Eternal Life. 69 We have come to believe and know that you are the Holy One of God” John 6:63 and 68. This assurance of Jesus that whoever believes in His Word will never see death relates to life that physical death cannot extinguish. And so, through the Spirit of Life, the believer receives Eternal Life, the Life of the Kingdom of God, over which death has no power and which is destined for resurrection.
“To taste death” and “to see death” simply means to die, to experience death. The Jews did not understand what Jesus was saying because they were thinking strictly on the level of physical, literal, and physical death, to which Jesus simply replied that Jesus’ Word is superior to what Abraham and the prophets mediated to others. And so Jesus says that all who keep Jesus’ Word shall never taste death.
So contemplate your own death in light of what Jesus says in today’s text. We will all experience physical death, but not eternal death, for eternal life is ours - thanks to the death of Jesus on Good Friday and His resurrection of Easter Sunday! Keep and believe in His Word!Abide by His Word!
Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God, have mercy on me a sinner!
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