Amen, amen. The repeated asseveration indicates the solemn importance of the declaration about to be made, namely, that he who accepts the teaching of Christ, and thereby the testimony of the Father testifying to Christ as His Son, has eternal life. We take “death” and “life” of this verse of the death of sin and the life of grace, and understand “has passed” in reference to the justification of the sinner. See 1 John iii. 14, and what we have said on [i. 13].

25. Amen, amen dico vobis, quia venit hora, et nunc est, quando mortui audient vocem Filii Dei: et qui audierint, vivent.25. Amen, amen, I say unto you, that the hour cometh and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall live.

25. Having stated parenthetically the effect of dishonouring and honouring Himself, Christ returns to the proof of His divine power. There is the same difference of opinion here regarding the life and death meant, as in verse 21.

The words, And now is, favour the view that there is question of a spiritual resurrection that had already begun.

And they that hear, shall live. These words, too, suggest that there is question of a spiritual resurrection, a resurrection in which all those that hear and believe are to share.

26. Sicut enim Pater habet vitam in semetipso: sic dedit et Filio habere vitam in semetipso:26. For as the Father hath life in himself; so he hath given to the Son also to have life in himself:

26. For the Son is essential [pg 101] Life like the Father, and being in Himself the source of life can therefore impart it to others.

27. Et potestatem dedit ei iudicium facere, quia Filius hominis est.27. And he hath given him power to do judgment, because he is the son of man.

27. The meaning is, that as it was ordained from all eternity, that the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity should become man, so it was ordained that He, as God-man should judge all men without exception in the general judgment, and all who die after the incarnation, in the particular judgment.

28. Nolite mirari hoc, quia venit hora in qua omnes qui in monumentis sunt, audient vocem Filii Dei:28. Wonder not at this, for the hour cometh wherein all that are in the graves shall hear the voice of the Son of God.