ERE CHRIST PLACES THE GOSPEL on equal ground with the Kingdom, so that hearing is at the level of obedience from the heart and with an urgency to carry out the commands. In order to begin to attain what Christ intends here by hearing, we point out that it is hearing the Spirit who moves the dead, for he also at the same time said: a time is coming when the dead will hear Christ’s voice and will rise from their graves.[1] However, the hearing of those who live is superior to the hearing of the dead, because the dead will rise to face condemnation, while here and now when the living hear out of free choice and with great desire and passion, they do not face condemnation but rise to enter eternal life.

This is the gift of free and living choice to hear with alert hearts, for in order to encourage those who come to him the Lord says they are crossing from death to life, meaning they will not suffer any condemnation.

About his life-giving words, Christ emphasizes that he heard them first from the Father. It was the Father who taught them, and it was the Father who sent him from his fatherly embrace as His Son. This brings us to the depths of the divinity, for we must realize God is Father, Son and Holy Spirit. In the Gospel, the Holy Spirit’s role is to take from Christ and teach us, and the words of Christ are first the words of the Father which the Holy Spirit taught to the Son. This divine interaction leaves no division between the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, rather, they are one. Christ makes it clear he is in us and the Father is in him. The words of the Gospel come to life in the heart of the one who has believed in the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and the man who believes and receives the Gospel becomes one in the Son as the Son is one in the Father. This perfect unity is what raises man and qualifies him for eternal life in the Kingdom of God and the Son. In this way man becomes a new and heavenly creation by his living communion with Christ, and we are qualified to sit with Christ at the right hand of the Father, in accordance with the eternal pleasure of God.

What is new here and dominates the thought of man is that Christ begins with hearing what is said. By hearing the words of Christ we place our feet on the steps rising to heaven, and our arrival at eternal life depends upon our certainty that the source of the words are God the Father. The source of the words is the one responsible to bring us to him. It is as if hearing the voice of the Son is the guarantee that will bring us to the source beyond him. The source of power here has two sources, the Father who sent Christ to give us eternal life and the words of Christ himself who possesses the mystery of the only Son, which is the power of resurrection to the glory of the Father, from death to the right hand of the throne of God.

Although this verse is extremely abbreviated, in its depths it envelopes the theology of salvation, for it is based first of all on the verse, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”[2] and the verse, “The words I say to you are not just my own. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work.” [3] and “These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me,”[4] and, “The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life.”[5]

October 5, 2005

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