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.