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to which Moses added the words that referred to his own times, "and after that". In a
similar manner Moses brings up to date the narrative of several other passages, as in
Gen. 26: 33; 35: 20; and 47: 26, where the name of Beer-sheba, the grave of
Rachel, and the law made by Joseph, are related by Moses to his own day.
In our Lord's own day it was blessedly true that whoever believed Him received life,
but the words "and now is" were specially true when John wrote the record, for the
very purpose for which he selected his material had in view "life through His name".
John 5: 24, 25 is most emphatically true for the day in which we live. Quite independent
of, and outside the dispensation of the mystery, "the hour now is" that whoever believes
that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God, whoever hears His voice and believes in Him that
sent Him, hath everlasting life. For instance, no opposition or objection can override the
blessed fact that the words
"He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life"
were used by God to bring the present writer out of nature's darkness and death into the
light of life, subsequent realization of a place in the glorious calling of the mystery, in no
sense mitigating, canceling or altering this simple issue. To-day John's ministry and
Paul's ministry are both running together, John having "the world" for his parish, and
"life" for his great object. Paul the prisoner, has the "Gentile", as distinct from the
"Jew", as his charge, and the message of Paul pre-supposes the hearer to have "life" and
leads him on to the heights of that calling which finds its sphere in the heavenlies, and its
inception "before the overthrow of the world".*
[* - See chart which sets out the relationship of John and Paul
during the present time in Volume XXVIII, pages 126, 127.]
In John 5: 28, literal resurrection is in view, and "all", not "some", that are in the
graves shall hear.
The reader of "The Berean Expositor" needs no lengthy argument to prove that
Scripture teaches the resurrection of the dead and that each will then be clothed with a
body suitable to the sphere of blessing he is to enter. There may be, however, a need to
discover why the Lord divided, as He did, the two classes who shall be raised.
It is emphatic testimony of the Scriptures, that
"There is none righteous, no not one . . . . . there is none that doeth good, no not one"
(Rom. 3: 10-12).
If this passage is all that has been revealed on the subject, then our Lord could not
have spoken of any who could be called "They that have done good". There would
simply be the resurrection of but one class, the condemned; they who had done evil.
Paul, on one occasion, spoke in the following words of the resurrection, and divided
those thus raised into two companies: