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.