John Calvin Commentary John 8:52

"The Jews said unto him, Now we know that thou hast a demon. Abraham died, and the prophets; and thou sayest, If a man keep my word, he shall never taste of death." — John 8:52 (ASV)

Now we know. The reprobate persist in their stupidity and are not moved by promises any more than by threats, so that they can neither be led nor drawn to Christ. Some think that they slanderously distort His words by using the expression taste of death, which Christ had not used; but this appears to me to be groundless. I rather think that both of the phrases, to taste of death and to see death, were used by the Hebrews in the same sense: namely, to die. But they are false interpreters in this respect, because they apply the spiritual doctrine of Christ to the body.

No believer shall see death, because believers, having been born again of incorruptible seed (1 Peter 1:23), live even when they die; because, united to Christ their Head, they cannot be extinguished by death; because death is to them a passage into the heavenly kingdom; because the Spirit, dwelling in them, is life on account of righteousness (Romans 8:10), until He swallows up all that remains of death.

But those men, being carnal, cannot perceive any deliverance from death unless it appears manifestly in the body. And it is a disease too common in the world that the majority of people care almost nothing about the grace of Christ, because they judge it only by their carnal perception. So that the same thing may not happen to us, we must arouse our minds, that they may discern spiritual life in the midst of death.