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.
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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.