Son. Then
followed this incisive declaration: "Verily, verily, I say unto you, He
that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath
everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed
from death unto life."

Christ's realm was not bounded by the grave; even the dead were wholly
dependent upon Him for their salvation; and to the terrified ears of His
dumbfounded accusers He proclaimed the solemn truth, that even then the
hour was near in which the dead should hear the voice of the Son of God.
Ponder His profound affirmation: "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." The murderous rage of the
Jews was rebuffed by the declaration that without His submission they
could not take His life: "For as the Father hath life in himself; so
hath he given to the Son to have life in himself." Another utterance was
equally portentous: "And hath given him authority to execute judgment
also, because he is the Son of man." He, the Son of the exalted and
glorified Man of Holiness and now Himself a mortal Man,[446] was to be
the judge of men.

No wonder they marveled; such doctrine they had never before heard nor
read; it was not of the scribes nor of the rabbis, of neither the
Pharisaic nor Sadducean schools. But He reproved their amazement,
saying: "Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all
that are in the graves shall hear his voice, And shall come forth; they
that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have
done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation."[447]

This enunciation of the resurrection, so plainly made that the most
unlettered could understand, must have offended any Sadducees present,
for they emphatically denied the actuality of the resurrection. The
universality of a resurrection is here unquestionably affirmed; not only
the righteous but even those who merit condemnation are to come forth
from their graves in their bodies of flesh and bones.[448]

Then, renewing His solemn asseveration of the unity of His Father's will
and His own, Christ discussed the matter of witnesses to His work. He
admitted what was a recognized tenet of the time, that no man's
unsupported witness of himself was sufficient; but, He added: "There is
another that beareth witness of me; and I know that the witness which he
witnesseth of me is true." He cites John the Bapti