John 5:28-30

²⁸"Do not be amazed at this, for a time is coming when all who are in their graves will hear His voice ²⁹and come out - those who have done good will rise to live, and those who have done evil will rise to be condemned. ³⁰By Myself I can do nothing; I judge only as I hear, and My judgment is just, for I seek not to please Myself but Him who sent Me.

Jesus said in v25-27 that the spiritually dead will hear the voice of the Son of Man and live. And He adds to that here, speaking of the resurrection of the physical body. Why does Jesus begin here saying, “Do not be amazed”? We tend to be amazed when our eyes see things thought impossible, like raising a physical body from death to life. We often fail to find amazement when things happen miraculously that we cannot perceive in the physical realm, like the conversion of sinner. Jesus has proclaimed His authority to raise the spiritually dead to spiritual life. We might not be amazed when that happens, but we should be. It’s a more impressive miracle than a physical resurrection. Understanding that reality, we should not be amazed that He has the authority to raise the physically dead as well; but we are.

Like spiritual life-giving, the time is coming for physical body-raising, but unlike spiritual life-giving, for which the time is now at hand, the time for physical body-raising is not yet come. This reality takes into v29, where we perceive that Jesus is speaking of the last day, Judgment Day. “All who are in their graves will hear His voice and come out.” His voice is the Trumpet (Matthew 24:31; 1 Corinthians 15:52; 1 Thessalonians 4:16); it’s the day we long for when we say, “Come Lord Jesus – Maranatha.” And this is a good desire for believers (we yearn to see Him face to face), but we must take note of the consequences for unbelievers (condemnation). Jesus marks believers by their good deeds, and He marks unbelievers by their evil deeds. Salvation is by grace through faith (Ephesians 2:8-9), but evidence of believers’ faith is seen in good works, the hatred of sin, and the desire to live for Christ (James 2:26). Evidence of unbelievers’ lack of faith is seen in their evil deeds, the lust for sin, and the desire to live for self.

Finally at the beginning of v30, Jesus reaffirms His initial statement, that He is not able to do anything alone, and qualifies it with this extended observation: He is so united with the Father that it is impossible for the Father to will one thing and the Son to do something else. They are perfectly One, and cannot be at odds with each other anymore than God can deny Himself (2 Timothy 2:13). Notice the shift from third- to first-person. When we read in v30, “My judgment is just,” we ought to note simply that whatever proceeds from God must be right and good and true. And we are likewise reminded that the only rule for acting well is to follow the direction and obey the commandment of God. And if after this the whole world should rise against us, we shall still have this invincible defense: he who follows God cannot go astray. Furthermore, we can know that Jesus’ judgment is just, because He has no disposition that is both unique to His Person and separate from the command of the Father. Praise Him!

John 5:24-27

²⁴"I tell you the truth, whoever hears My word and believes Him who sent Me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life. ²⁵I tell you the truth, a time is coming and has now come when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live. ²⁶For as the Father has life in Himself, so He has granted the Son to have life in Himself. ²⁷And He has given Him authority to judge because He is the Son of Man.

Again, Jesus begins with, “I tell you the truth,” so listen up! John Calvin summarizes this verse well: “Here is the described way and manner of honoring God, that no one may think that it consists solely in any outward performance, or in frivolous ceremonies. For the doctrine of the Gospel seems as a scepter to Christ, by which He governs believers whom the Father has made His subjects…Christ demands from us no other honor than to obey His Gospel.” Jesus likewise commends the fruit of obedience – eternal life, that we may be more willing to obey. It’s hard for us to imagine being so hardened as to keep from submitting to Christ, when the reward of eternal life is offered, and it is painful to see a great number of people refuse to come to Christ. This truth is both a fulfillment of prophecy (Matthew 7:13-14) and a great witness to human depravity. It pains believers that so many choose to perish of their own accord than to surrender to obedience to the Son of God. Yet we humbly acknowledge that our surrender was solely by His grace.

By saying, “Whoever believes will not be condemned,” Jesus is saying that all are under condemnation and only by believing in Him can we escape these wages for our sin against God (John 3:36; Romans 8:1). When Jesus speaks of the believer having “crossed over from death to life,” does not mean that we will not experience physical death; rather, we are free from the state of death – that is, separation from God – thanks to the life that has only begun in us. Believers are so certain of obtaining this state of eternal life that we ought not fear death; after all, we are united to Him who is the inexhaustible fountain of life.

Jesus one more time in this passage begins with, “I tell you the truth.” Pay attention, because this is a critical statement. He goes on: “The dead will hear the voice of the Son of Man and live.” Some commentators suggest He is talking only about physical death, prophesying of Lazarus’ physical resurrection to come (John 11:44), as he heard Jesus’ voice while physically dead; but most agree that He is talking about spiritual death and will add the physical in v28. When Jesus calls our name, we are quickened to spiritual life, and our hearts are opened to receive Christ through the hearing of the Gospel (ala Mary in John 20:16). Note Jesus’ comment that “the dead will hear, and those who hear will live.” There is a double-grace given here – first that the spiritually dead would hear and second that upon hearing the spiritually dead would come alive.

One more possibly confusing element is found in v25. Jesus says, “A time is coming and has now come” when this will happen. Calvin comments: “He thus speaks of it as a thing which had never before happened; and, indeed, the publication of the Gospel was a new and sudden resurrection of the world. But did not the word of God always give life to men? This question may be easily answered. The doctrine of the Law and the Prophets was addressed to the people of God, and consequently must have been rather intended to preserve in life those who were the children of God than to bring them back from death. But it was otherwise with the Gospel, by which nations formerly estranged from the kingdom of God, separated from God, and deprived of all hope of salvation, were invited to become partakers of life.”

In v26, we read that the Father and Son have life in Themselves. Certainly this means that They are Self-existent, but it’s more than that. They have the authority and power to grant life. And wrapping up with v27, we learn why Christ was given authority and power and the right to judge. It is because He is the Son of Man. He did not require that title, but it was given Him as the Author of life for us as a result of His humbling and exaltation (Philippians 2:7-10). It can be explained by saying, “What had been hidden in God is revealed to us in Christ as the Son of Man, and life, which was formerly inaccessible, is now placed before our eyes.” The Son of Man, as the Light of life, reveals life to us in the flesh.

John 5:19-23

¹⁹Jesus gave them this answer: "I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by Himself; He can do only what He sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does. ²⁰For the Father loves the Son and shows Him all he does. Yes, to your amazement He will show Him even greater things than these. ²¹For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son gives life to whom He is pleased to give it. ²²Moreover, the Father judges no one, but has entrusted all judgment to the Son, ²³that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father, who sent Him.

Through the rest of this chapter, we see Jesus elaborating on His statement in v17. He is taking the first of several opportunities to teach necessary truths about Himself. Having offended the Pharisees by claiming to work as God works, He describes just how He relates to the Father. Beginning with, “I tell you the truth” (“Truly, truly,” or “Verily, verily”), He’s calling His audience to the closest of attention. And this a bold move, considering how infuriating His claims must have been to the Jews. Instead of backing down at their offense, He enrages them further, effectively saying, “You’re persecuting Me for what I’ve done by healing this man on the Sabbath day? You haven’t seen anything yet! You don’t know anything about Me, so let Me tell you who I am. You want something to get angry about?” And Jesus goes on to make new claims that far exceed the simple statement that first angered the Jews:

V19 – Jesus never acts independently of the Father; v20 – Jesus possesses intimate knowledge of the Father’s ways; v21 – Jesus is able to give sinners new life; v22 – Jesus is going to judge mankind; and v23 – All this will be for the purpose that all may honor the Son as they honor the Father. Forget about this healing on the Sabbath day – it’s merely incidental. On that glorious day when the Father is glorified and honored, the Son will be receiving that glory and honor in the same way. Jesus is practically demanding worship from these Jews – and rightly so. It’s offensive to them.

When Jesus says, “The Son can do nothing by Himself,” liberal theologians point out that the Son is inferior to the Father; but Jesus’ point is that the Son’s will is united to the Father’s inseparably, such that while the Son is in the flesh, He will certainly and undoubtedly finish the Father’s work He has been given to complete. This work to lose none that the Father gives Him is a great testimony to the eternal covenant of redemption. His intention was to refute the Jews who were endeavoring to contrast Him with God. He therefore affirms that He does nothing by human power, because He has for His guide and director God who dwells in Him. When Jesus says, “The Father shows the Son all He does,” Calvin offers a paraphrase. It is as if Jesus said, “As the Father has given to Me His heart, so He hath poured out His power on Me, that the Divine glory may shine in My works, and – what is more – that men may seek nothing Divine but what they find in Me.” And when Jesus says, “The Father will show Him even greater things than these,” He is pointing out that the healing of the crippled man would pale in comparison to His great work of restoring true life (sinless glory) to all of creation. Of course, we know that most were hardened to the glory of Christ. So when He said, “To your amazement,” He was not prophesying of their awe before Him later in His ministry; rather, He was speaking of the splendor of the demonstration He would give regarding His Sonship to the Father.

Finally, note v21. Jesus declares Himself to be the Author of life, containing within itself not only righteousness, but all the gifts of the Holy Spirit, and every part of our salvation. He raises the dead, and that is wonderful, but it’s not enough. He also gives life. Jesus will later say in John 10:10, “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” Jesus does not speak of this life as bestowed indiscriminately on all; rather He gives life to whom He is pleased to give it, to whom He will, that is, the elect.

A simple summary would be what Jesus will later say, “I and the Father are One” (John 10:30). But notice the way Jesus explains that here. He is saying that He has been watching the Father and is only doing what He has seen the Father do. He’s imitating His Daddy. My son does that, and it’s a great feeling. “I wanna be just like You, cause he wants to be just like me.” And the Father has a great feeling seeing His Son do what He does. The Father and Son are so essentially united, that Jesus is unable to do anything but what the Father wills and does. The Son, having seen and been with the Father, knows God’s will, and does it perfectly. The Father loves the Son and gives Him the work of redemption to do. In this work, the Son is accomplishing the will of the Father by doing the same things the Father does, namely as v21 declares, raising the dead and giving life to His chosen ones.

The Father and Son have perfect unity, yet diversity of offices. The Father makes known His will to the Son, and the Son is authorized to carry out judgment, including the final judgment of mankind. In this realm, along with the Son’s authority to give life to whom He will (v21), it is clear that the Father has given the Son absolute authority and power over all mankind, to condemn those who do not believe in Him and to give life to those who do. Ultimately, this authority will bring the glorification of the Son, as we worship God the Father through the Son, who “is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of His being” (Hebrews 1:3). Thus, if one honors the Son, he honors the Father also; but if he does not honor the Son, neither does he honor the Father (1 John 2:22-23). We must not try to conceive the Father apart from the Son.

John 5:14-18

¹⁴Later Jesus found him at the temple and said to him, "See, you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you." ¹⁵The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well. ¹⁶So, because Jesus was doing these things on the Sabbath, the Jews persecuted Him. ¹⁷Jesus said to them, "My Father is always at His work to this very day, and I, too, am working." ¹⁸For this reason the Jews tried all the harder to kill Him; not only was He breaking the Sabbath, but He was even calling God His own Father, making Himself equal with God.

Jesus re-introduces Himself to the man and tells him to stop sinning. Although he had been delivered from a physical sickness, the man was still under the weight of a far greater calamity – eternal judgment. Faith in Jesus as a mere provider of physical benefits, without the spiritual knowledge of Him as God and Messiah, was not a saving faith. We’ve seen that over and over in John’s Gospel. So Jesus sought him out, found him at the Temple (suggesting that the man was realizing the magnitude of what had occurred and rightly wanted to worship God), and said to him, “See, you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you.” Commentators are divided on this statement. Some suggest that Jesus is claiming that the reason for this man’s paralysis was that he had sinned in some way. Others disagree, claiming that we are to infer from Jesus’ statement that the man is now being made spiritually well. “You are well AGAIN.” He was healed twice, both physically and spiritually, both at the words of the Healer. Evidence that this man has truly come to know who Jesus is and loves Him with all his heart, evidence of a changed heart, of a converted life, of a regenerate soul, the evidence of that will be that he will not go on sinning anymore. Not that he will be sinless, but that he will sin less; his desire will be to be free from slavery to sin.

The man responds by telling the Jews that the Healer was Jesus. The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well. Again, we get an illustration of the proper course of action when receiving Christ as Savior. The man sought out the Pharisees to make right on his earlier statement. He had said that he didn’t know who healed him. Now he knows, and he wants them to know. He wants to honor Christ for what He has done, as should we. Soli Deo Gloria – To God be the Glory.

The Jews persecute Jesus for healing on the Sabbath; He responds declaring His Father’s will, making Himself equal with God, and draws assassination attempts. Picture the Jews saying harshly to Jesus, “Who do You think You are? You’re coming from the less-respected north region down here to the well-respected southern territory, to Jerusalem. You’re upsetting the traditions – specifically Sabbath observation – that have kept this city together for decades and centuries.” That’s persecution. But with Jesus’ response, He’ll draw death threats. He replies, “My Father is always working, and I am working too.” Jesus is claiming that the One who created the world, the One who gave the Sabbath Day, the One who sustains us and blesses life – even on the Sabbath day – is His Father. And as the unique Son of the Father, by healing the disabled man on the Sabbath, He was imitating the work of His Father. He had not broken the law (John says, “…not only was He breaking the Sabbath…” because that was the opinion of His accusers); rather He was claiming to have upheld it. And the Jews understood what He was saying. “He was making Himself equal with God.” So they stepped up their persecution, trying to put Him to death.

The conflict between Jesus and the Pharisees over the nature of the Sabbath came into even sharper focus when Jesus explained why He should be healing on the Sabbath. It was because God the Father was constantly at work to accomplish the plan of redemption and usher in the final Sabbath; and so Jesus, as the true Son of the Father, was also constantly at work for the same purpose. By asserting this much, Jesus is claiming that He and God the Father are equally involved in the constant government of the world, and the unfolding of redemptive history – which, as the Pharisees quickly recognized, is a claim to equality with God. Because Jesus had “broken the Sabbath” (although He had actually fulfilled its essential principle) and had made a blasphemous claim to equality with God (according to the Pharisees’ perception that He was a mere man), He deserved to be condemned. The Pharisees saw His miracles, but they did not exhibit saving faith; therefore, their dissension escalated continually throughout Jesus’ ministry.