John 5:25-27 Truly, truly, I say to you, The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God… In Him life may be contemplated in its twofold activity. I. THE LIFE OF GOD PASSES FORTH FROM ITSELF. It lavishes itself through the realms of nothingness. It summons into being worlds, systems, intelligences, orders of existences unimagined before. In doing this it obeys no necessary law of self-expansion, but pours itself forth with that highest generosity that belongs to a perfect freedom. That is to say that God the Life is God the Creator. II. GOD IS BEING RETURNING INTO ITSELF, FINDING IN ITSELF ITS PERFECT SATISFACTION. God is thus the object of all dependent life. He is indeed the object of His own life; all His infinite powers and faculties turn ever inward with uncloyed delight upon Himself as upon their one adequate end. We cannot approach more nearly to a definition of pleasure than by saying that it is the exact correspondence between a faculty and its object. Pleasure is thus a test of vitality; and God as being Life is the One Being who is supremely and perfectly happy. (Canon Liddon.) Parallel Verses KJV: Verily, verily, I say unto you, The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live. |
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