Hear and Believe

John 5:24 – “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life.”
Typically, when I want to make sure the kids are listening, I’ll say something like “OK, guys, listen up. Really, pay attention.” I get the idea that when Jesus said “Truly, truly”, that He meant business. He was and is serious. Yeah, I know, He’s God, and everything He said was and is still true. Yet, the Master Teacher knew how to draw emphasis when He needed to. The “truly, truly” kind of breaks up the speaking to cause a physical change to one’s listening, and what follows is more certain to get into the listener’s brain.

Jesus is emphasizing His plan of salvation. Hear His Word. Believe Him. Earlier in the chapter we find out just why His opponents wanted to kill Him. By Him claiming to be the Son of God actually equated Him with God! If they had heard Him correctly, He was saying He is God. But they could not believe that. That was too much to accept.

I feel as though today at times the opposite is true. It is an easy thing to state belief in Jesus. More and more people will answer “yes” to “Do you believe in Jesus?” or so it may seem. Yet how many people have truly heard His Word? How many have truly heard what Jesus actually states about salvation, about following Him, about true repentance? James 2:19 tells us that even the demons “believe”, and where does that get them? Even there, James was responding to people who claimed to believe in God.

Let’s take that belief, and pair it with God’s Word, and make sure that we take Jesus’ “truly, truly” emphasis to heart. As we also read in this chapter, Jesus wishes to grant salvation to those very people. Those who will hear and accept.

To further His claim, He cites witnesses, using a framework understood by the legal system of the day. Two or more witnesses made a legal claim worthy of acceptance. Jesus cites four in support of who He is. He cites John the Baptist, He cites His own works/miracles, He points to the Father as a witness, and finally Scripture, His Word. His point? Accept Christ for who He says He is, God Himself. And by doing so, eternal life is a sure hope. Those accepting Him have passed out of death and into life. The language makes it clear, this is a done deal.

So, do you “truly, truly” believe?
So, let’s go help others hear that very same truth, God’s Word.