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Whosoever liveth and believeth in Me shall never die. — This saying points to mysteries which have occupied the thoughts of Eastern and also of Western philosophers, as the famous verses of Euripides show: "Who knoweth if to live be truly death, and death be reckoned life by those below?" and indicates a higher form of "corporate" life, such as St. Paul expresses by the phrase, "in Christ" (Galatians 2:20; Colossians 3:4). Part of the thought is expressed in a saying in the Talmud, "What has man to do that he may live? Let him die. "What has man to do that he may die? Let him live." The last words of Edward the Confessor offer a closer parallel. "Weep not, I shall not die but live; and as I leave the land of the dying I trust to see the blessings of the Lord in the land of the living."

(Bp. Westcott.)

Death avoided: — If we truly believe in Christ —

I. THE HEALTHY ACTIVITY OF OUR SPIRITUAL POWERS WILL NEVER CEASE. Life is worthless without activity, and activity without health is misery. By faith in Christ the perceptive, reflective, imaginative, recollective, anticipative faculties will work harmoniously forever.

II. NOTHING VALUABLE IN OUR SPIRITUAL ACQUISITIONS EVER BE LOST. Life without ideas, emotions, memories, habits, is a blank, and with these, if they are not of a virtuous character, it is despicable and wretched. But when they are holy life is blessed. Faith in Christ secures their permanence and perfection. "Our works follow us." We cannot labour in vain in the Lord.

III. ALL THE SOURCES OF TRUE PLEASURE WILL CONTINUE FOREVER: intellectual study, etc.; social — friendship, usefulness, etc.; religious — communion with God, worship. Faith in Christ, then, not in propositions concerning Him, but in Him as the loving Son of God and Saviour, is a condition of happy immortality.

(D. Thomas, D. D.)

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KJV: Then when Jesus came, he found that he had lain in the grave four days already.

WEB: So when Jesus came, he found that he had been in the tomb four days already.