Jesus therefore answered and said to them, Verily, verily, I say to you, The Son can do nothing of himself save whatever he sees the Father doing for whatever things *he* does, these things also the Son does in like manner.
The leaders had charged Jesus with making God His own Father, and so making Himself equal with God. His answer sounds like a step back — the Son can do nothing on His own. Commentators read it the other way: not a retreat from the charge, but the explanation of it.
The Lord's reply does not soften the charge. It confirms it.
The Lord does not deny, but confesses the charge of the Jews that He "said that God was His own Father," for "the Son can do nothing of His own accord, but only what He sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise." The Son does the same things as the Father and in the same manner. There was, therefore, absolute equality without independence.
The phrase is not about lack of power. Several writers render it "from Himself" and explain it as a matter of source — who starts the action.
The first thing is that He could do nothing of Himself — or rather, from Himself. This was true in the lowly place He willingly took. His whole mission was to carry out the will of Another. While He was doing it, He could not start a single action of His own. His will was perfect as He Himself was perfect, and yet He never allowed His will to govern Him in what He did. Doing the Father's will was His food, and for that very reason He could do nothing of Himself.
The Father shows, the Son sees, and the Son does the same. That last word means more than copying.
The Son is standing here, in this world, speaking to men of what He sees, and is in contact with, in another world. The Father shows Him, and He sees. It is not that the Son does works of a like nature to the Father, but He does the identical same works. In that way He is doing the works of the Father, just as He is speaking the Father's words.
The verse has two halves, and both are meant. One rules out acting alone. The other shows who alone could speak this way.
He was not here, then, to act as God, independently, for He said, "Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of His own accord, but only what He sees the Father doing." He had come only to act in absolute dependence upon the Father; yet only One equal with the Father could have said, "For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise." All His works were the Father's works, showing the Father's nature and will. In His works the Father was revealed.
Commentators differ on how far back this reaches. Some tie the words to the place He took when He became man:
The Son, having become man, therefore became subject to the Father. He moved and acted with reference to the Father instead of acting on His own initiative. Scriptures like this one describe the position the Son took in relation to the Father when He became man.
Others say this dependence was always true of the Son. What was new was obedience:
This was always true. But He was here on earth, in a new position for Him. Before He became man, He knew nothing of obedience. He did not act on His own. He acted as sovereign, together with the Spirit and the Father. But He became man. He came into our condition and circumstances. He entered a new relationship — one of dependence. So He learned obedience, a new experience for Him.
What looks like a limit turns out to be evidence.
The Father put all things into His hand, yet the Son would not act on His own. It is impossible for the Son to act apart from the Father. They are one in the fullness of the Godhead, and their bond of love is eternal.
What marked the Son also marks a perfect man.
Two things make perfection in a man: dependence and obedience. They were in Christ, the contrast to what was in Adam when he sinned. Christ was ever the dependent and the obedient one. Independence is sin: there is the principle of sin in it... With Christ there was no will but His Father's. This was not a restraint on Him but His motive.
- Charge — They accused Him of making Himself equal with God. His answer never takes that claim back.
- Source — "Of Himself" means "from Himself." The Father starts the action; the Son carries it out.
- Sameness — He does not do works like the Father's. He does the identical works, in the identical way.
- Equality — Only One equal with the Father could say that He does whatever the Father does. His dependence proves the union; it does not deny it.
- Pattern — He refused to act from Himself. Dependence and obedience make a perfect man; acting on your own is where sin begins.
For the Father loves the Son and shews him all things which he himself does; and he will shew him greater works than these, that ye may wonder.
Jesus is speaking in Jerusalem, where hostility toward Him is rising. He traces everything He does back to the Father's love for Him — and warns that far greater works are still to come.
The verse begins with "For," tying the Son's actions back to a cause. One writer reads that link as the key to how Father and Son work as one:
These Godhead claims of union and communion with the Father (v. 19), and of quickening whom He will (v. 21), are joined to a further claim. The Father dearly loves (philei) the Son, and shows Him all things which He Himself does (v. 20). How fully this threefold claim explains the working together of the Father and the Son: "My Father is working until now, and I am working" (v. 17). As love is the essence of the Divine Being, so love is the mainspring or motive of the joint divine working by the Father and the Son.
The verse names the Son as the one the Father loves. One writer asks what that tells us about the love:
"The Father loves the Son." This statement shows that there was One present on earth who could display the Father's love in full. To say that the Father loved a saint — even the greatest of saints — would be true, but it would not set out the greatness of the Father's love. Men prove the poverty of their love by the smallness of the objects on which they often set their affections. The greater the object of the love, the greater the character of the love. In the Son every moral quality is found in perfection. The Father's love is so great it can be satisfied with no less an object than the Son.
English uses one word for love here and in John 3:35, but the Greek words differ. One writer notes where the change falls:
In John 3:35 we learn that "the Father loves (agapao) the Son, and has given all things into his hand." The English is the same in John 5:20. But here, faced with the rising hatred of those in Jerusalem, the Lord Jesus withdraws into His known place in the most intimate love of the Father: "the Father loves (phileo) the Son." And we have the Father's resulting resolve that all men shall honour Him, and the measures taken to secure it.
The second half of the verse says what this love does: it shows.
In the verse we have read we see one way in which love works. It is one of the activities that express love: "The Father loves the Son and shows Him all that He Himself is doing." Love confides all its secrets to its object, and makes known all its doings to its friend. There is a delightful transparency that goes with true love, of which a stranger knows nothing. As man here below, the ever-blessed Son was always in the secret of the Father, and always understood what the Father was doing. There was no veil between the Father and the Son; the Father showed Him all things that He did Himself.
The verses that follow name what these greater works are:
The Lord goes on to show that the greater works are the work of resurrection, the work of quickening, and the work of judgment. These greater works will affect all men, believers and unbelievers. Believers will be raised and quickened; unbelievers and opposers, like the Jews to whom the Lord was speaking, will come under His strange work of judgment.
One writer points to the raising of Lazarus as an example:
The "greater works than these, so that you may marvel" are His raising the dead, and many works that He did; He raised Lazarus when he was decaying. They all knew that if the Lord had been there Lazarus would not have died, but He deliberately did not go before his death; raising him was more than healing.
Note the purpose Jesus gives for these greater works — and what He does not say:
He lets them know, as He knew Himself, that the Father would show Him greater works, as the later part of this Gospel testifies, "that you may marvel" — He does not say believe. For He speaks, not of grace, but of power shown in testimony to the Jews. Its effect would be, not the faith which honours God, but the amazement which so often keeps stupid company with unbelief.
The Son's refusal to act on His own is also read as a pattern. One writer draws out what "of Himself" means:
His whole mission being to accomplish the will of Another, He could not, while engaged in it, start a single action of His own. His will was perfect as He Himself was perfect, and yet He never allowed His will to govern Him in what He did. His food was to do the Father's will, and for this very reason He could do nothing of Himself.
- Love first. The Son's works flow from love. Love is the mainspring of the joint working of Father and Son.
- Love shows. Because the Father loves, He hides nothing. There was no veil between the Father and the Son.
- Love needs a worthy object. The greater the object, the greater the love — and the Father's love rests on no one less than the Son.
- Love enlarges the work. The greater works are resurrection, quickening and judgment. They reach past death itself.
- Love provokes wonder. Jesus says the greater works are so that people may marvel — He does not say believe. Amazement often keeps company with unbelief.
For even as the Father raises the dead and quickens [them], thus the Son also quickens whom he will
Jesus had just healed a man on the Sabbath, and the religious leaders wanted Him dead for making Himself equal with God. His answer does not soften the claim. He points to a work that belongs to God alone: giving life.
That healing was real, but greater works were still to come. One writer names them, and says who they touch.
John 5:21-23. The Lord goes on to show what the greater works are: the work of resurrection, the work of giving life, and the work of judgment. These greater works will affect all men, believers and unbelievers. Believers will be raised and given life. Unbelievers and opponents, like the Jews the Lord was speaking to, will come under His strange work of judgment.
The older word for this is "quicken," and it carries no idea of improving something already alive.
God then must act. But how must He act? Will reformation, education or instruction meet our case? By no means: there can be nothing until He quickens, for quickening simply means the giving of life. The word translated "quicken" in the New Testament joins the noun "life" to the verb "to make" — to make alive.
The verse names two acts: raising the dead, and giving them life. They are not the same.
Quickening is giving life — a life that lives to God. In a spiritual sense the believer receives that life now. He was spiritually dead to God; now he is alive to God and knows it (Colossians 2:13). Quickening covers more than the believer's soul. It reaches the mortal body too. When Christ comes, He will free the body from death completely, and it will put on immortality (Romans 8:11; 1 Corinthians 15:53). Unbelievers will be raised from the dead. Scripture does not say they receive life.
The Son does not just copy the Father's action. He acts by His own right, and He kept that right when He became a man.
As Son, though He is here as a man, He keeps His sovereign rights over people. The Father gives life; so does the Son. This action is Divine by its very nature. It belongs to God alone... He makes His own Divine claim on the creature; He gives life to whom He will... He does not give up His sovereign rights as God by becoming flesh.
What does that leave people with?
The Jews had just tried to kill Him, because He made Himself equal with God. He let them know that they could only receive life, spiritual life, from Him, and only as He was willing to give it. He gives life to whom He will. So men are completely at His mercy for receiving life. He gives life. Those in whom He works this way cannot have had spiritual life before. They were dead. As creatures who had failed in their responsibility, they were dead in trespasses and sins (Ephesians 2:1, 5).
Sovereignty is one side of the picture. Dependence is the other.
His divine nature and Godhead shine throughout, but He receives everything — He is sent — and has taken the place of one who receives and obeys... He acts with the same divine power as the Father, yet the Father shows Him all, and He does nothing of Himself.
Sovereignty here is no excuse to sit still. This life reaches a person along a set path.
This is the sad truth: men busy with all the activities of the world are here "the dead." The answer is not a stricter morality or a holier religion. They may gain one or the other or both, and still have no life. Teaching cannot give life any more than practice can. Life flows from the Son of God, Who gives life to whom He will. Yet it comes by faith, and so through the word which the Spirit applies with living power.
Giving life is one half of the Son's glory. Judgment is the other, and everyone falls under one or the other.
So the Son's glory is upheld in two ways. Like the Father, He gives life... then by judgment, for the Father judges no one, but has handed all judgment to the Son, so that all may honour Him. Those who receive life honour Him with all their heart, and gladly. Judgment will force those who do not believe to honour Him, against their will.
- Dead — the problem is not weakness but spiritual death. Reform, education and religion cannot reach it.
- Life — "quicken" means to make alive. It is the Father's own work, and the Son does it too.
- Will — He gives life to whom He wills. He keeps His divine rights, yet takes the place of a Son who is sent and obeys.
- Word — the life comes by faith, through His word heard and believed.
- Honour — those given life honour Him gladly. Judgment will force those who refuse Him to honour Him.
for neither does the Father judge any one, but has given all judgment to the Son;
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
that all may honour the Son, even as they honour the Father. He who honours not the Son, honours not the Father who has sent him.
Jesus had just healed a man on the Sabbath and called God His own Father, and the leaders wanted to kill Him for it. He does not soften the claim. He explains why the Father has given Him all judgment: so that the Son receives the very honour that belongs to God.
The verse opens with "that" — it gives the reason for the words just before it. The Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son. One writer traces this back to the Son becoming a man. As a man, people could despise Him.
Two things are spoken of in this chapter (v. 21, 22) which show the glory of the Son. He gives life and He judges... But He has become a man, so men may dishonour Him in person, reject Him, and despise Him. That is why the Father judges no one and has given all judgment to the Son. The purpose is that all should honour Him, even those who have rejected Him. They are to honour the Son just as they honour the Father whom they acknowledge as God. If they refuse Him when He acts in grace, they will have to honour Him when He acts in judgment.
Behind the arrangement is the Father's own concern. The Son humbled Himself so far that He could say He does nothing of Himself. The Father will not let that humbling become a reason to value Him less.
Read, dear reader, the Lord's words to the Jews in John 5. There the secret comes out. Though the Son has humbled Himself, and though He says He can "do nothing of Himself," the Father will make sure it never dishonours Him or lowers Him in any way. By this most careful and jealous decree the Father guards the rights of the Son — His full divine rights.
The verse sets a measure for this honour, and the measure is the honour given to the Father Himself. The writer below quotes an older translation, which reads "even as they honour the Father" where the ESV reads "just as."
Nothing said here weakens our prayer and praise to our God and Father. What a blessed privilege! The writer himself knows that many of his own prayers go that way. But God has decreed "that all men should honour the Son, even as they honour the Father." "Even as" is a forceful phrase — in every way — in all things! Let us obey the Word!
Everyone in the verse ends up honouring the Son. The difference lies in whether that happens now, willingly, or later, under judgment.
If men refuse, like the Jews, to honour the Son as equal with the Father, they will still have to honour Him. They will meet Him as the Judge. To refuse Him as the Son is to miss the blessing: to meet Him as the Judge will seal their doom. But the Father will have His Son honoured either as the Son or as the Judge. The decree stands: "all men" shall honour the Son. Souls made alive, in the power of that new life, delight to acknowledge Him as the Son. Judgment will force the wicked to acknowledge Him as the Son.
The second half of the verse closes a door. No one can honour God while setting the Son aside.
Some may claim to honour the Father while refusing the Son. But the claim is false. To dishonour the Son is to dishonour the Father, who sent the Son as His own exact representation.
If the Son deserves the same honour as the Father, we may pray to Him directly.
When I say that God is the only One we should pray to, I do not for a moment mean that we must not pray to the Lord Jesus. He is God, equally with the Father, and equal honour belongs to Him (John 5:23). We find Stephen praying to the Lord Jesus to receive his spirit. Paul, too, prayed to Him about his thorn in the flesh.
- Cause — Because the Son became a man, people could despise Him. So the Father gave Him all judgment, securing His glory.
- Decree — The honour is not left to human taste. The Father Himself decrees it, watching over the full divine rights of the Son.
- Measure — "Even as" sets the level: the same honour given to the Father, in every way, in all things.
- Reach — It covers everyone. Believers give it gladly now; those who refuse will be compelled to give it before the Judge.
- Result — Honour withheld from the Son is not honour redirected to the Father; it is honour lost. To claim the Father while refusing the Son is a false claim.
Verily, verily, I say unto you, that he that hears my word, and believes him that has sent me, has life eternal, and does not come into judgment, but is passed out of death into life.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
Verily, verily, I say unto you, that an hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that have heard shall live.
In John 5 Jesus announces that a new hour has arrived — an hour in which His own voice raises the dead. Two questions follow: who are "the dead," and what makes His voice able to do this?
The word is not describing corpses in a graveyard. It describes the people in front of Him — busy, religious, and lifeless toward God.
It is indeed the sad truth: men busy with all the world's activities are here "the dead." The question is not stricter morality or holier religion. They may acquire one or the other or both, and still lack life. Dogma cannot give it any more than practice. It flows from the Son of God, who gives life to whom He will. Yet it comes by faith, through the word which the Spirit applies with living power.
Some take "the dead" here to mean people who have already died. One writer answers that plainly:
It is an inexcusable mistake to apply "the dead" in John 5:25 to those who have died. The phrase describes instead the common condition of fallen mankind, dead in trespasses and sins (Eph. 2:1, 5). "An hour is coming, and is now here" tells us what the Son of God has been doing ever since He came. He works by the gospel, which gives life to those who hear His voice.
The verse does not say the dead hear His words; it says they hear His voice. One writer points to an example from the book of Acts.
In Acts 13:27 we learn that the people of Jerusalem heard the actual words of the prophets every Sabbath day. Yet they did not know "the voice of the prophets". It is clear, then, that we may hear the words and miss the voice… The voice is the true meaning of the words. It is the message the words contain. The meaning of the voice of the Son of God is the revelation of God in love acting in sovereign grace toward man.
That shifts attention away from a message and onto a Person:
We naturally ask what words they hear. But it is not yet the words that are in question — it is the Voice. There are words, of course; but the point is that the Voice is that of the Son of God. The eye is fixed on the Person who speaks. It is the Son of God who is made known, and the dead become alive by it.
A dead man cannot hear. One writer takes that objection head-on.
Can a dead person hear? In a natural sense it is a contradiction in terms. Yet Scripture tells us that Lazarus, the widow's son, and Jairus' daughter all heard that voice. So it is with dead souls… The Speaker is the Son of God. And God, in the Person of His Son, gives life. He gives life — not notions, not creeds. Our part is that of faith.
Jesus says the hour is coming and has already begun. The word "hour" here is not sixty minutes.
The hour here refers to what has been going on ever since Christ was on earth up to this very moment. "The hour" there takes in nearly two thousand years.
The Son gives life to whom He will. That ends the long argument about how a person gets life.
A greater blessing was now within the reach of every one, if they would receive it… Here He stated man's condition by nature — dead in trespasses and sins. He declared man's need, and He announced the way to meet it. Man needed what he could never get by his own effort — spiritual life… From now on, all debate about how to get it was over.
Christ's work has two stages, and He takes a different title in each.
Next He shows man's real state — not weak only, but "dead" before God. And even now the voice of His Son calls, so that men who have heard may live… For the Son had come. As the Father has life in Himself, so He gave the Son also to have life in Himself. Being man, He receives all from the Father… So He gives life now. At the end He will carry out judgment, by the authority given Him, because He is Son of man.
- Dead. Not people in the grave, but living people who are dead toward God. No morality or religion can cure it.
- Voice. You can hear the words and still miss the voice. The voice is the meaning inside them, and it reveals a Person acting in sovereign grace.
- Hour. It began when Christ was on earth and has run for nearly two thousand years — we are still inside it.
- Live. No one achieves life; the Son gives it — not notions, not creeds. Faith is our only part.
- Coming. The voice that raises souls now will raise bodies then — He gives life as Son of God, and judges as Son of Man.
For even as the Father has life in himself, so he has given to the Son also to have life in himself,
In Jerusalem the Lord has healed a man at the pool, and He is answering the charge that He made Himself equal with God. Verse 26 explains how a dead soul can hear His voice and live — and it raises a question: how can One who is God receive anything?
The verse opens with "For." Commentators read it as the ground of the promise just made in verse 25: the dead hear the voice of the Son of God and live.
"Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live" (v. 25). For the Son had come, and as the Father has life in Himself, so He gave to the Son also to have life in Himself. Being man, He receives everything from the Father. He is careful to honour Him alone, as that is man's only right place.
The gift is not life as such, given to someone who lacked it. Writers point instead to the power that goes with the phrase "in Himself" — the capacity to pass life on.
In taking the place of Son on earth He accepts everything as a gift from the Father, even "to have life in Himself." Life was in Him as the Word (John 1:4). But here the Father gives it to Him as the Son on earth to have life in Himself. This does not mean that the Father gave the Son life as such. He gave Him the power to communicate that life to others.
Not everyone limits the giving to the time when the Son became man. Others press the sentence itself — "as… so." They ask when either Father or Son began to have life in Himself.
It is impossible to apply this to the Incarnation... The statement here is not "The Father has given to Him to have life in Himself because He is the Son of Man." The life given is as between the Father and the Son. The Son, as the Son, derives everything from the Father... When did the Father begin to have life in Himself? Was this ever true of the Father apart from the Son? This proves that the relationship of Father and Son is eternal. Who could introduce a point of time into verse 26? The Son is eternal with the Father, existing with Him in life and being.
The wording separates the Son from everyone else who has life.
Take a leaf in your hand. It has life in it, but not life in itself; it has life in the tree. If it had life in itself you could detach it from the tree and it would go on living independently of the tree. But the moment you detach it, that moment it withers and dies. Its life is in the tree and depends on its connection with the tree.
Life lodged in Christ rather than in us is not a limitation. It is the reason the believer's life cannot be spoiled.
Suppose life could have been detached from the Son of God, so that it was in us only and not in the Son. Then it might be damaged or decay. But because it is in the Son, it stays holy and imperishable. So we have it, and we know we have it on His word. Every good work, every right affection, all true service and acceptable worship flow from eternal life in the power of the Spirit.
The passage does not stop at life-giving. Kelly grounds each of the Son's two works in what He is.
Read faithfully, the whole context allows and maintains that there are two dealings set against one another: life-giving and judging. This contrast is kept up in every case. The Son has life because He is God; the Son judges because He is man. He is the only person in the Godhead who became man, and He gave up none of His rights as God. God has appointed Him judge of the living and the dead.
- Source. The Father has life in Himself. Life-giving power belongs to Him first, and the verse starts there.
- Gift. The Son received not existence but the power to hand life on. As Man He took even this from the Father, and never claimed it apart from Him.
- Dispute. Commentators differ. Does the giving belong to the Son's life on earth, or to the eternal relation of Father and Son?
- Vessel. We have life, but never "in ourselves." Like a leaf in a tree, we hold it by staying joined to Christ. That is why it cannot decay.
- Verdict. The same Person gives life because He is God and judges because He is man. Hearing His voice now decides which of the two you meet.
and has given him authority to execute judgment [also], because he is Son of man.
Jesus has been speaking about the life He gives. Now He gives the reason judgment is in His hands too: He is the Son of Man. Why does becoming a man give Him the right to judge? And what does that mean for the people who met Him in His lowliness?
The Lord carries two titles here, and each has its own work.
It is as Son of man that the Lord Jesus will sit on the throne. No doubt He will show His Divine knowledge when He judges. But, as He says plainly, the Father has given Him authority to execute judgment because He is Son of man. As Son of God He gives life; as Son of man He will judge. How solemn! Had He been only Son of God, who would have dared to despise Him? The light of His glory would have destroyed every proud enemy in front of Him at once.
His humanity is what gave men the opening to insult Him. That same humanity is what they will face.
He commits all judgment to the Son. He will judge in the very nature in which men treated Him as nothing. He will judge not only as God, though He is God, but as Man — the Man once utterly despised and rejected. Though He was the Son, He was willing to share in flesh and blood, and so become Son of man. Man will be judged in front of the Man he hated enough to kill. Man will stand and tremble before the exalted Man, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Verse 22 gives judgment to the Son. Verse 27 adds the reason: He is Son of Man. Men refused both titles, and God will see Him honoured in both.
Men reject Christ as the Son of God, and seek to kill Him as the Son of Man. God intends that those who have rejected Him will honour Him both as Son of God and as Son of Man. Since they have rejected Him, this can only happen in judgment. So He exercises judgment both as Son of God and as Son of Man (verses 22, 27).
Some have used His humanity as a reason to deny that He is God. The Father has answered that.
Men have used the Son's Manhood as an excuse to deny His deity. But the Father has made very sure that men will realise who the Son is. If men refuse to bow before the Son in the day of God's grace, they will have to bow before Him in the day of judgment.
The Gospels usually say "the Son of man". Here the Greek leaves out the word "the".
In Matthew, Mark and Luke He is always called "the Son of man". But in John 5:27 (as in Rev. 1:13 and Rev. 14:14) He is called "Son of man" without the article. As Westcott says, this stresses His true humanity, and His work as Judge belongs to that humanity rather than to His personality.
This authority has a scene attached to it: the raising of the dead at the end.
He has bought their bodies as well as their souls. Now the hour has come when all who are still in their graves must hear His voice and come out to the resurrection of judgment, and be judged by the spotless purity of the great white throne. Christ, not God, sits on that throne. God is "the Judge of all" (Heb. 12:23), yet He "has given all judgment to the Son," and that "because He is the Son of Man." (John 5:22, 27.) It is God's judgment, because Christ, the perfect man, carries out God's righteousness perfectly.
The vision that opens Revelation is read as the same Person in that character: "The Lord Jesus presented Himself to John as 'like to the Son of Man'… all of them hinge on this first great vision of the Son of Man in His judicial glory."
The order matters. He took the place of judgment before He takes the seat of judgment.
He was lifted up as the representative of men. He bore the judgment that lay on them, so that He might be the Redeemer before He takes the throne as Judge. He was lifted up on the cross, and just as certainly He will fill that throne.
There is still a way out, and it is open now:
Eternal life comes through hearing Christ's Word now and believing the One who sent His Son in love. Otherwise nothing is left but a resurrection of judgment, which will vindicate His injured name.
- The Man. As Son of God He gives life; as Son of Man He judges — the whole verse turns on the title He wore in rejection.
- The reason. Men used His manhood as their excuse to despise Him. The Father made that same manhood His right to judge them.
- The wording. Here the title drops the word "the". That stresses His true humanity.
- The throne. He will use that authority at the great white throne. It is God's judgment, carried out by the perfect Man.
- The order. He was lifted up as Redeemer before He sits as Judge. Hear His word now and you have life; refuse it, and judgment waits at the end.
Wonder not at this, for an hour is coming in which all who are in the tombs shall hear his voice,
Jesus had just told the Jewish leaders that the Son gives life to whom He will. The Father, He said, has handed all judgment over to Him. Verse 28 answers their shock. If His voice wakes dead souls today, a day is coming when it will empty every grave.
Jesus is not changing the subject. He is enlarging what He said in verse 25 about the dead hearing His voice.
Verses 28-29 are an extension of verse 25. There our Lord said that the hour is coming, and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God. Here He expands it: the hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear His voice. Not isolated cases, such as Lazarus for instance, but all — some at the resurrection of life, and others at the resurrection of judgment.
In verse 25 the dead who hear live, so faith is in view. Verse 28 is different: everyone hears.
Here the hour is not one that "now is," but one entirely future. There is no call for faith, and no unbelief proved. Instead, "all who are in the tombs will hear His voice." Before, He spoke only of the believer and his blessing — dead by nature, but made alive by hearing the voice of the Son of God. That was an individual, personal thing for the soul. In this future hearing of His voice, faith is no longer the question. The Son of God puts forth His mighty power without limit and over all.
The verse before this one ties His authority to judge to His being the Son of Man. That title matters, because the men in front of Him were despising a Man.
It is as Son of man that the Lord Jesus will sit on the throne. As He says plainly, the Father has given Him authority to carry out judgment, because He is Son of man. As Son of God He gives life; as Son of man He will judge. How solemn! Had He been only Son of God, who would have dared to despise Him? The light of His glory would have consumed every proud enemy in an instant. It was His grace, in becoming man to save men, that exposed Him to contempt.
Six chapters later, Jesus stood at a tomb and did for one man what verse 28 promises for all.
"I am the resurrection," He had said. He proved it. It was a foretaste of the power that will call every sleeping saint from the tomb. It was a foretaste too of the power that will call out all the ungodly dead to appear at the great white throne. Nothing could stop Lazarus from obeying the voice of Christ. Nothing will keep the bodies of the ungodly dead in the grave. God's people can take heart. When He calls His own from the tomb, every one of them will come out. Ungodly people may well tremble as they read what His voice does.
Both groups rise inside one "hour," so many assume everyone rises at the same moment. Commentators reject that.
So the Lord announces another hour, distinct from the one that "now is," and only "coming." It is not an hour for making alive those of the dead who hear the voice of Christ. It is the hour when "all who are in the tombs" rise. This is resurrection proper, and the Lord carefully denies the popular idea of one general resurrection. Here, as elsewhere, we learn of two resurrections completely contrasted in character. In Revelation 20 they are contrasted in time, with the millennium and more between them.
The word "hour" can cover a long stretch of time. One writer measures both:
That "hour" lasts a thousand years; the "hour" in which Christ makes dead souls alive has already lasted more than eighteen hundred years. The "hour" in which He will raise dead bodies begins with His coming to change His living saints and raise His sleeping ones. It closes with the resurrection of the wicked dead, and their judgment before the great white throne — "the resurrection of judgment."
For anyone who has already answered that voice, the coming call completes a gift already received.
Those who have believed on the Son of God have heard His life-giving voice. They will hear that blessed voice again, calling them to share in the resurrection of life. The Christian now has eternal life in his soul, and so can never perish. In the resurrection of life he will have eternal life in his body too, conformed to the image of Christ and brought into His likeness.
- One voice. The same voice that raises dead souls today will one day reach every tomb. Verse 28 extends verse 25 from the soul to the body.
- No exceptions. In this hour faith is no longer the issue. All hear, and all come out, under the mighty power of the Son of God.
- The Judge is a Man. As Son of God He gives life. As Son of Man, once despised, He has authority from the Father to judge.
- The proof already given. Lazarus walking out of the tomb is the preview: comfort for God's people, warning for the ungodly.
- Two outcomes, not one crowd. The Lord names a resurrection of life and a resurrection of judgment. Commentators argue that one "hour" is wide enough to hold a thousand years between them.
and shall go forth; those that have practised good, to resurrection of life, and those that have done evil, to resurrection of judgment.
The Lord has just said that an hour is coming when everyone in the graves will hear His voice. Here He tells us they will not all come out to the same thing: one voice calls, but two opposite outcomes follow.
Many readers assume Scripture teaches one general raising of all the dead.
Some readers have looked at this great question from their earliest days through the standards of doctrine and confessions of faith around them, and the idea of two resurrections has never once entered their minds. Still, Scripture does speak, in the clearest and plainest terms, of a "resurrection of life" and a "resurrection of judgment" — two resurrections, different in character, and different in time.
The deeper difference is not the clock but the nature of each raising.
A difference of character is a far more important feature than a difference in point of time. For my own part, I do not make so much of the long space between them. Even if only a minute separated the resurrection of life from the resurrection of judgment, the eternal and essential features would remain. The one is a resurrection of life, which the grace of God gives in His Son, and it always marks out those who have received Him here. The other is a resurrection of judgment, for those who would not have Him in this world.
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The main objection is the word "hour" in the previous verse — does it mean one moment? The Lord uses the same word four verses earlier.
In verse 25 the Lord says, "Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live." These are certainly the spiritually dead. They heard the voice of the life-giving Son of God when He was here on earth, and they passed from death to life. But is this work all over? Blessed be God, no! Sinners are still hearing His voice; "the hour" runs on still. That removes the difficulty about verse 29. If "the hour" of verse 25 stretches over nearly two thousand years, it is not hard to believe that the same expression may cover one thousand years.
Writers match the two halves of the verse to the two scenes at the end of Revelation.
Revelation 20:4, 6, describes the life-resurrection — "they came to life and reigned with Christ. Over such the second death has no power." Revelation 20:12 to the end describes the judgment-resurrection — "the dead were judged... each one of them, according to what they had done."
One Person raises both groups, and the two titles He carries here mark the difference.
The first holds the righteous; all who are judged in the second are the evil. Our translators call it the resurrection of "damnation," though the real meaning of the word is "judgment." It is the same word used a verse or two earlier. Keep this in mind: as the Son of God, Christ gives life; as Son of Man, He comes to execute judgment in His kingdom. There is the resurrection of life, the resurrection of the believer. It applies to his body the power of life that he already has in his soul.
The verse sorts people by what they have done. So is doing good the way to be saved?
There is no disguising the solemn truth that God will and must have what is good and holy and righteous in His own people... Suppose someone put this before a sinner as a way to be reconciled to God, or to have his sins blotted out. That would deny Christ and His redemption. But hold fast that everything which brings us near to God is found in Christ. Faith alone links a sinner to the blessing of Christ, apart from the works of the law. Then there is no inconsistency at all in this: the same God who gives a soul to believe in Christ works in that soul by the Holy Spirit to produce what is in practice according to Himself.
So why does the verse describe the believer too by what he did?
Men receive for the "deeds done in the body," and it is in the body that they receive it. Notice that the saint here, like the sinner, is marked out by his "doings." Life is a "gift," not a reward. Yet the resurrection recognizes the fruits of that life, which the renewed man brings forth.
The Lord settled the believer's case five verses earlier.
And we do not come into judgment (John 5:24). Judgment has no application to those who share that life. Believers who died before the Lord comes for His Church will be in the resurrection of life, not in the resurrection of judgment. Those still alive at that hour will have their mortal bodies made alive by the power of that same life in which they now live to God.
- One voice. The same Son calls every grave open — He gives life as Son of God, and executes judgment as Son of Man. No one rises apart from Him.
- Two resurrections. Not one general raising. There is a resurrection of life and a resurrection of judgment. They differ in character, and commentators hold that time separates them too.
- One hour, stretched. "Hour" in verse 25 has already run two thousand years; the same word in verse 29 can cover a thousand more.
- One gift, shown in fruit. God gives life; no one earns it. But where He gives it, it shows itself in doing good, and the resurrection recognises that fruit.
- One decision, now. Those who would not have Him in the day of grace must meet Him in the day of judgment. Those who hear His word now will never come into it.
I cannot do anything of myself; as I hear, I judge, and my judgment is righteous, because I do not seek my will, but the will of him that has sent me.
Jesus has just spoken of the judgment placed in His hands, and here He gives the ground for it. He does not point to who He is; He points to a life in which He never once acted on His own.
The words sound like a limit on Him. Commentators read them instead as the place the Son took as Man — the very place that fits Him to judge.
He was equal to the task of judging, though He was the lowliest of men. This was so just because He was never independent of the Father in any of His ways or thoughts. This is the perfection of man, and He alone was like this… He had a will, but He held it in complete subjection to the Father. He saw whatever the Father does, so as to do the same. Morning by morning His ear was open and awake, listening like one who is taught. So He judged, and His judgment was just.
One writer notes what the Lord did not say. He could have based His right to judge on His own Person, and that would have been true.
He could have said, "My judgment is just, because I am the Word who became flesh." That would have been completely true. But He rested His claim on something else: "because I seek not my own will but the will of Him who sent Me." All judgment is safe in the hands of a Man like this.
"As I hear, I judge" raises a question: hear from whom? The answer also reaches forward to a judgment still to come.
In our judgment there is no doubt about this. When the Lord says, "As I hear, I judge," He means hearing from the Father, not from man… He holds authority to judge all who will come before the great white throne — all the unconverted dead of every age and era. He will act in communion with the Father, and in dependence on Him. Every sentence He passes will be the expression of the mind of God, for the very reason that as He hears, He will judge.
Two things bend a verdict: pressure from other people, and the judge's own stake in the outcome. Neither touched Him, and the contrast with us is uncomfortable.
It was the testimony of One Who had taken the place of the perfectly dependent Man. In keeping with this place He could do nothing of Himself. Behind His testimony there was the hidden life of communion with the Father and dependence upon the Father… His judgment was not formed from what He heard from men, nor warped by seeking His own will. Too often our judgments are faulty. Other people sway our minds, and our own wills push us.
Words like these seem to make Him small. In fact they show who He is, because no ordinary man could say them and speak the truth.
Where every other man sought to do his own will, the Son of the Father sought only the Father's will. Yet this very obedience brought out the perfection of the Son and showed who He was. He said, "I can do nothing on my own." No one else could say this. Only One who knew His relationship with the Father in the unity of the Godhead could speak like that… He looked at everything and judged it by the will and glory of His Father, not by how it affected Himself. This necessarily made His judgment just. It stood in sharp contrast to the Jews, who viewed everything in relation to their own interests.
Here the Lord speaks as Man. So the verse does more than teach us about His Person. It maps out a way to live.
What marked the path of Jesus as Man here on earth? There is no shadow of doubt about the answer. Two things marked His whole course in absolute perfection — OBEDIENCE and DEPENDENCE. At every step He showed this: the path of humble obedience is the way of holiness, and dependence is the true secret of strength.
Set beside that path, our instinct to run our own lives shows up for what it is:
How total the contrast to our poor miserable independence and self-seeking.
- Dependence — "I can do nothing on my own" is not weakness. It is the place the Son took as Man. He was never independent of the Father in any way or thought.
- Hearing — His judgment comes from listening to the Father, not to men. Morning by morning His ear was open.
- Justice — No self-interest and no human pressure touch His verdict. So every sentence He passes expresses the mind of God.
- Glory — Only One who knows His relationship with the Father in the unity of the Godhead could say He can do nothing of Himself. The obedience reveals who He is.
- Imitation — Obedience is the way of holiness and dependence is the secret of strength. The verse exposes our independence and shows a better path.
If I bear witness concerning myself, my witness is not true.
At first this verse sounds strange: Jesus says His own witness about Himself is not true. The law standing behind the words explains what He means, and the rest of the chapter shows what He did about it.
The word "true" here is not about honesty but about legal standing. Jesus is applying a rule from the law to His own case.
Then we have what is strange to a great many in verse 31, "If I alone bear witness about myself, my testimony is not true," that is, not valid. The law requires two witnesses, and He recognises its claims upon Him. In the verse before it He says, "I can do nothing on My own." That is, He cannot act on His own.
One witness can be completely right and still not be enough.
The testimony of one man might be true — absolutely; just as true in itself as that of two. But it would not be true in the same way to others: it would need confirmation.
His words come from the place He had taken among men. He lived as a dependent Man.
It was the testimony of One Who had taken the place of the perfectly dependent Man. In consistency with this place He could do nothing of Himself. Behind His testimony there was the hidden life of communion with the Father and dependence upon the Father. So He can say, "As I hear, I judge, and My judgment is just, because I seek not My own will but the will of the Father who sent Me." His judgment did not come from what He heard from men. He never warped it by seeking His own will. Too often our own judgments go wrong. Men sway our minds, and our own wills push us.
The verse also states a rule about motives. A man who is out to promote himself has already disqualified his own account of himself.
His own witness was also true. But what He says is this: He does not seek to glorify Himself. He does not demand their trust. He does not ask them to believe. Just as He says elsewhere, "The one who speaks from himself seeks his own glory, but the one who seeks the glory of Him who sent him is true, and there is no unrighteousness in him." And this always holds good. If a man is seeking to exalt self, he has a motive that is not truth — his witness is not true.
His mission explains His silence about Himself.
He had not come into the world to speak about Himself; it was not the purpose of His mission. He had come to speak about the Father and to make Him known. This is why He said, "If I alone bear witness about myself, my testimony is not true." He never spoke of His works as His own, or of His words as His own. He gave the Father credit for everything. Suppose He had put Himself forward as the source of His work, or as the subject of His words. That would have given a completely false impression of why He was in this world. This is what made Him so different from the great men of this world, who were always calling attention to themselves and trying to make themselves great in the eyes of men.
Later Jesus insists that His witness about Himself is true. The two statements do not clash.
He had said earlier that if He bore witness of Himself, His witness was not true — that is, not valid (John 5:31). Yet now He insists that His witness is true. The answer is not difficult. If He were merely a witness independent of the Father, this witness would have no weight. But in fact His witness never stood alone, "of Himself." It was in total unity with the Father, from whom He had come and to whom He was going.
He accepted the law's standard. Then He gave far more than it asked.
The law could not accept the testimony of only one witness. So He brings forward more than the law required. He cites four witnesses: John the Baptist (verses 32 to 35), the works He did (verse 36), the Father Himself (verse 37), and the Old Testament Scriptures (verse 39). They all confirm His own testimony.
- Valid, not honest. "Not true" means "not valid". One witness alone could not settle a case under the law.
- Submission. Jesus does not override that standard. He puts Himself under it, as One who does nothing on His own.
- Motive. A man out to exalt himself has a motive that is not truth. That test still holds.
- Subject. He came to make the Father known, so He refused to make Himself the theme of His own message.
- Overflow. The law asked for two witnesses. He gave four — John, His works, the Father, the Scriptures.
It is another who bears witness concerning me, and I know that the witness which he bears concerning me is true.
Jesus has just made the highest claims about Himself, so any court would ask: who else says so? He does not rest on His own word alone, but points to another witness whose testimony He knows is true.
The previous sentence has puzzled many readers, since Jesus never spoke a false word. The point is legal, not moral: a single witness could not establish a case under Israel's law.
Verse 31 sounds strange to a great many: "If I alone bear witness about myself, my testimony is not true." That is, not valid. The law requires two witnesses, and He recognises its claims upon Him. In the preceding verse He says, "I can of Myself do nothing." That is, He cannot act independently.
So is His own witness worth nothing? The seeming contradiction has an answer, and it lies in the place Jesus takes in this chapter.
What then is the answer to the seeming discrepancy? It seems to be this: in John 5 He speaks not only as Son, but as one who has become flesh, and He does nothing of Himself except what He sees the Father doing. Our Lord's argument is that if He was the only one to bear witness of Himself, His witness would not be true. He meets the Jews' claim with grace, and He also searches them. They held that if a man bears witness of himself, his witness cannot be true. There must be two witnesses. Three were better — more than enough, according to Jewish law.
Commentators differ on the identity of this other witness. Some take it to be John the Baptist, the first witness named in the verses that follow. One writer rules that out.
But another bore witness of Him, a witness of absolute truth. This cannot refer to John the Baptist, for the Lord puts John's witness on a much lower level in verses 34 and 35. It is the Father's witness of which He speaks, both in the works the Father had given Him to finish, and in the Father's spoken word (v. 37).
Jesus does not only receive this witness. He knows it is true, and that knowing tells us something about Him.
"There is another." Here I believe our Lord secretly refers to God's witness to Him, known to Himself, not the witness He gives to others (see chapter 8). … From this we may indeed learn the unity and divinity of our Lord, for as the Father bore witness, so He was able to know its truth.
This other witness is not the last. Jesus goes on to call several more.
However perfect His own witness, it would not be valid by itself according to the law. The law says, "The testimony of two people is true." So, though His judgment was just and His motives pure, He does not ask men to believe in Him on His own witness alone. He goes on to give four other witnesses. First, John the Baptist (verses 32-35). Second, His works (verse 36). Third, the Father Himself (verses 37, 38). Fourth, the Scriptures (verses 39-47).
Behind the legal argument lies a moral one. A man pushing his own claim has already given himself away.
His own witness was also true. But what He states is this: "If I am seeking to glorify Myself, I do not demand your confidence. I do not ask you to believe." … And this always holds good. If a man is seeking to exalt himself, he has a motive that is not truth; his witness is not true.
He does not need human backing. He calls for it anyway, out of love that wants people saved.
John the Baptist, then, is the first witness. The Lord summons him in that ready and everlasting love which said nothing of His own testimony, hoping somehow to convince them and bring them to believe the truth. John had plainly been raised up for this very purpose, and no witness among men could be harder to doubt… Christ did not seek testimony from man; yet how low He stooped to save souls!
- One witness is not enough. "My testimony is not true" means "not valid on its own." The law demanded two witnesses, and the Son placed Himself under it.
- A second witness. He rests His case on someone outside Himself. Commentators differ over who it is: the Father, or John the Baptist, named in the verses that follow.
- A known witness. He does not just receive this witness. He knows it is true, and that points to the unity and divinity of the Son.
- Four more witnesses. John, His works, the Father's own voice, the Scriptures. The testimony piles up far past the two the law required.
- Witness that saves. He needed no human word, yet He stooped to call one, hoping to convince His hearers and save them.