Jesus Christ In The Writings Of John
CHRIST’S AUTHORITY

Lesson Text:
John 5:16-30 (KJV)

Subject:
The Credentials and Power of Christ

Golden Text:
“All power is given unto Me in heaven and in earth.” (Matt. 28:18)

Lesson Plan:
1. INTRODUCTION
2. JESUS WORKING LIKE THE FATHER (VS. 16-18)
3. JESUS WORKING WITH THE FATHER (V. 19)
4. JESUS LOVED BY THE FATHER (V. 20)
5. JESUS POSSESSED OF DIVINE KNOWLEDGE (V. 20)
6. JESUS GIVING SPIRITUAL LIFE (VS. 21-26)
7. JESUS THE JUDGE OF THE WORLD (V 27)
8. JESUS THE RESURRECTION AND THE LIFE (VS. 28-30)
9. CONCLUSION

Setting of the Lesson:
Time: Probably about the first of April, A.D. 28, four months after our last lesson. It was a feast (5:1), probably the Passover, which that year was March 29 to April 5.
Place: At Jerusalem, in connection with the healing at the pool of Bethesda, the site of which is uncertain.
Jesus: Between 31 and 32 years old, early in the second year of His ministry.
John the Baptist: Was imprisoned about this time in the Castle Macherus.

Beginning Suggestions:
This is a particularly difficult lesson, although full of very blessed and comforting truths. It will require more than ordinary study.

Consider the intervening history:
After remaining two days at Sychar, teaching the inhabitants and making many disciples, Jesus continued His journey northward, as He proposed when He left Judea, and came to Cana in Galilee, where, nine months before, He had performed the miracle at the wedding. Here was the home of Nathanael, one of His disciples. While He was here, a nobleman of Capernaum came to Him on behalf of his dying son, and was bidden to return, “for thy son liveth.” For the next three months till the Passover, there is no record.

Review the whole first year of Jesus’ ministry, which closes with this lesson. It is recorded only in John.

Read the story of the pool of Bethesda, from which this discourse grew. Write out briefly the course of thought; what Jesus was aiming at in this discourse, and His argument for that end.

Illustration
Doing the Will of God (v. 30). “The end of life is not to do good, although many of us think so. It is not to win souls, although most of think so. The end of life is to do the will of God. That may be in the line of doing good or winning souls, or it may not. For the individual, the answer to the question, “What is the end of my life?” is this: to do the will of God, whatever that may be. Spurgeon once replied to an invitation to preach to an exceptionally large audience, “I have no ambition of preaching to thousands of people, only to do the will of God,” and he declined. If we could have no ambition past the will of god, our lives would be successful. When all is said and done, the maximum achievement of any one’s life is to have done the will of God. No man or woman can do more with a life. There is no happiness or success in any life until that principle has taken possession of a life.

1. INTRODUCTION

Circumstances
When the Passover drew near, held this year March 29, Jesus, in common with many of His countrymen, went up from Galilee to Jerusalem to celebrate it. On the Sabbath (Saturday), quietly walking around the city, He came to the pool of Bethesda, where there had gathered a large number of people under the porticos by the pool, waiting for a peculiar movement of the water, which occasionally bubbled up in a mysterious way, for a brief time, and then subsided. There was a popular impression that this mysterious movement of the waters was caused by an angel, who troubled the waters at various unexpected times, and thus imparted a healing power to them. Then, whoever enters in first, before the commotion ceased, was supposed to be healed. Jesus, looking on, saw one man who, with an infirmity of 38 years’ standing, unable to get to the water in time, and Jesus healed him of his paralytic weakness, and bade him, “Rise, take up thy bed and walk.” The miracle, along with the fact that it was done on the Sabbath, and in carrying his bed the man was working on the Sabbath by Jesus’ command, aroused the opposition of the Jews, who went so far as to try and kill Jesus. This state of affairs is the text for the discourse selected for this study.

2. JESUS WORKING LIKE THE FATHER

He does exactly what God does; therefore He has God’s authority for what He does.

5:16 ... “And for this cause the Jews persecuted Jesus, because He did these things on the Sabbath.” “These zealots who had made the Word of God of none effect by their tradition were adamant in their refusal to allow the slightest possibility of any error on their own part. Their foolish and unscriptural Sabbath regulations were so dear to them that they would crucify the Christ of glory rather than yield on the tiniest iota of their conceited interpretations. Note: John did not say here that Jesus broke the Sabbath but that He ‘did these things,’ a far different thing from breaking the Sabbath” (Coffman).

5:17 ... “But Jesus answered them.” Answered the charges implied in v. 16 – that Jesus had broken the Sabbath law, and was therefore a sinner and opposer of God, instead of a prophet.

5:17 ... “My Father worketh hitherto.” Jesus was justified in healing and helping an afflicted man on the Sabbath, because His Father had been doing such work during the whole of His Sabbath rest. It was Sabbath work, and according to the fourth commandment.

5:17 ... “And I work.” In other words, I do exactly according to His precept and example with the same will and purpose. The Father had never ceased to work in support and maintenance of all things, therefore the Lord was in full character with the Father when He healed a man on the Sabbath day. Furthermore, no Sabbath regulation of any divine sanction had ever forbidden such an act.

God’s Sabbath work
For six divine days the Lord worked making heaven and earth, ending with the creation of man. Since then has been His seventh day, wherein He rested from the work of creation. No new species of plant or animal is known to have been created since man. Has God been inactive? On the contrary, He has continued the necessary operations of nature, as well as working for the redemption of man, both of which are “Sabbath” labors. And He works even now. Like Him, Jesus worked, and we should work. Except for eating and drinking (necessary for existence), there is no record of Jesus doing secular work on the Sabbath. But His works on the Sabbath were works of mercy, religion, teaching, and helping man. And these are still “Sabbath” works. There is no shadow of excuse in Christ’s conduct or teaching for a “Sabbath” spent in worldly pleasures and recreations. Nor is the ‘Sabbath’ to be a day of mere idleness. The “Thou shalt nots” of the fourth commandment are the forces to keep out worldly cares and labors, in order to preserve a free field for the true “Sabbath” deeds.

5:18 ... “Therefore the Jews sought the more.” They now have a second reason for their persecution.

5:18 ... “To kill Him.” Nothing less than this would do. They could have no peace as long as such a man lived. Nothing less could keep Him from teaching things opposed to their traditions.

5:18 ... “Because He not only had broken the Sabbath.” Not, broke the law in any particular case, but was annulling the law and duty of Sabbath observance (Vincent). He did relax what they supposed to be essential to the preservation of the day, but what was really destroying it (Abbott). Man’s true rest is not a rest from human earthly labor, but a rest for divine heavenly labor (Westcott).

5:18 ... “But said … that God was His [own] Father [His Father in the highest peculiar sense], making Himself equal with God.” “On the same level with God” (Meyer). “On an equality with God” (Norton). “Of the same nature and condition” (Robinson). The Jews rightly interpreted the words of the Lord. Westcott pointed out that they saw that He claimed the power of abrogating (determining its intent with Fivine knowledge) the law of the Sabbath in virtue of His absolutely special relation to God, thus placing His action on the same level with the action of God.

How strange it is that some can read the New Testament and then deny that Jesus claimed to be God. Even the Lord’s enemies knew the implication of His words. In fact, it was the Savior’s claim to be God which they construed as blasphemy, and on which they based their demands of Pilate that He be crucified (John 19:7). Coffman wrote, “vs. 17 and 18 are among the most important in Holy Scripture, especially as related to the heresy of Arius (died 336 A.D.) and Sabellius (circa 230 A.D.), the former teaching that Christ was a created being, and the latter affirming that God, the Holy Spirit, and Christ are identical, and that Jesus was not God come in the flesh.”

“Other passages may contain as important witness against Arian, other against the Sabellian, departure from the truth; but this upon both sides plants the pillars of the faith” (Trench).

This open break between Jesus and the ruling hierarchy was sharp and irrevocable; and, fittingly, Jesus now speaks about this occasion at some length to His enemies in a vain effort to persuade them of the truth of His words and of His claim to be the Messiah. The rest of this chapter is consumed with an overwhelming testimony of the Lord Jesus concerning Himself.

3. JESUS WORKING WITH THE FATHER

5:19 ... “Then Jesus answered.” He added another of His credentials of the proofs of His divine authority as the Son of God. He not only worked like God, but He was working with God, with His aid, approval, and purpose.

5:19 ... “Verily, verily.” The same original word as our word “amen,” i.e., “in very truth.”

5:19 ... “The Son can do nothing of Himself” (negative form). Such is the union between the Father and the Son. In other words, it is impossible for any act of the Son to spring from self, from His own will, irrespective of the Father’s will. As Hovey stated, “this inability was a glory and perfection.” Their will and working are one. The two are so closely related that to see one is to see the other; to hear one is to hear the other.

This stresses the obvious truth that no mere man could have healed the cripple; demanding the deduction that Jesus displayed the power of God in doing such a great wonder.

5:19 ... “But what He seeth the Father do” (positive form). The New King James, “but what He sees the Father do.” The Son of God can perform no act which differs in character from the action of the Father.

The divine insight of Jesus Christ is now evident. He was not merely an observer of mortal deeds only. He also beheld supernaturally all the works of God.

5:19 ... “For what things soever He doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise” (in like manner). For it is the very nature of the Son to do whatever the Father doeth. Also, to do these works after the same plan and proceeding, so that there can be unity without discord. The Son does the same things, with the same power, in the same manner.

Jesus’ actions were in complete harmony with God’s actions, not only in quality, but in the manner of their being done. Jesus’ words here are nearly the equivalent to the deduction of Nicodemus, “No man can do the signs which Thou doest except God be with Him” (John 3:2).

In the words of Hovey, the actions of Jesus here were: “To convince His foes, if they will suffer themselves to be convinced that His action has been in harmony with the will of God. In doing this, He is not called upon to emphasize His personal distinction from the Father (that was admitted by His accusers), or to insist directly on His equality with the Father (for to do that would be to confirm their impression that He was a blasphemer), but rather, without denying either of these, to convince them, if possible, of His absolute unity with the Father in action.” (Commentary on John)

All the actions of Jesus were in complete harmony with God’s will. In fact, the Son of God was not and is not capable of doing anything contrary to God’s will.

4. JESUS LOVED BY THE FATHER

5:20 ... “For the Father loveth the Son.” “To love is expressed by two words in the New Testament, Phileo and Agapao. Agapao indicates a reasoning, discriminating attachment (the deliberate choice of one out of a number) founded on the conviction that ts object is worthy of esteem, or entitled to it on account of benefits bestowed. Phileo represents a warmer, more instinctive sentiment, more closely allied to feeling, implying more passion. Thus, Phileo represents the affectional element of love, and Agapao the intelligent element. Men are directed to love (Agapao) God; never Phileo, since love to God implies an intelligent discernment of His attributes, not merely an affectionate sentiment. Both elements are combined in the Father’s love to the Son (Agapao in John 3:35; Phileo here, 5:20). Agape is used throughout the panegyric of love in 1 Corinthians 13. Erao, ‘Love’ in which the idea of sensual passion predominates, is never used in the New Testament.” (Vincent’s Word Studies)

Sadler pointed out that all this unfolding of the divine love in the Godhead, though expressed in human language, and after the manner of men, is absolutely true, because the human relationship of father and son is after the pattern of the Divine. He goes on to say that even if it is not true of earthly fathers and earthly sons, it is because of the imperfection and sin of the human beings, preventing the love and confidence which there is in the persons sharing the divine nature. The fact that the Father loves the Son should have been known by the priests, because God had declared it vocally at Jesus’ baptism.

5. JESUS POSSESSED OF DIVINE KNOWLEDGE

5:20 ... “And sheweth Him all things that Himself doeth.” It is difficult to imagine a more powerful claim to deity than this. “From, apostles, prophets, and philosophers, no small part of the doings of God are concealed. From the Son, nothing is hid. And, as God shows Him all that is done, He must be possessed of omniscience, for to no finite mind could be imparted a knowledge of all the works of God.” (Barnes)

“He who loves hides nothing” (Bengel). The Father conceals nothing from the Son. As Barnes wrote above, from apostles, prophets and philosophers no small part of the doings of God are concealed. From the Son nothing is.

5:20 ... “And He will shew Him.” The knowledge the Son (incarnate) possessed of the Father was progressive (Whitelaw). The Father shows Him everything He does, but not everything at the same time (Gess).

5:20 ... “Greater works than these.” By this, Jesus meant that the Pharisees had not seen the exhaustion of His mighty powers. In the next verse, the Lord indicates that He would even raise the dead.

Godet pointed out that the Jews opened their eyes wide at the healing of an impotent man. What will it be when, at the voice of this same Jesus, mankind will recover life spiritually, and even one day physically. A poor healing amazes them; what will a Pentecost do and a resurrection from the dead.

5:20 ... “That ye may marvel.” That “ye” is emphatic, and is addressed to those questioning His authority, whose wonder would, therefore, be “astonishment” rather than “admiring” faith, but which might lead to faith (Vincent).

The Mystery
The clearest light on the mystery implied in the above verses, comes from a perception that the Divine uniting with the human a person, the Messiah, the Son of God is formed. And as such, many things could be said of Him, which could not be said of Him as the second Person in the Trinity, without being united with the human. “The Word once emptied of the divine state, entered fully into the human state; and after having been revealed to Himself at His baptism as a divine subject, re-entered at the close of His human development upon the divine state. By His human existence and earthly activity He realized, in the form of becoming, the same filial relation which He realized in His divine existence in the form of being. And hence all the terms used by Jesus, the showing of the Father, the seeing of the Son, the expressions cannot and of Himself, apply to the different phases of His existence, to each according to its nature and measure.” (Godet)

6. JESUS GIVING SPIRITUAL LIFE

Jesus has just been speaking of works greater than His actual miracles, which He shall one day accomplish at the will of His Father. He now explains what those works are: the resurrection and the judgment of humanity.

5:21 ... “For as the Father raiseth up the dead.” The general terms of v. 21 must be employed in their widest sense, including both a physical and a spiritual resurrection and gift of life. The spiritual being referred to in vs. 24, 25; and the physical in vs. 28, 29.

5:21 ... “And quickeneth [maketh alive] … even so the Son quickeneth.” Maketh alive “whom He will.” It is in His own power, dependent on no will but His own. Of course that power is exerted only according to infinite wisdom and love. Through these bold words, Jesus sought to compel His foes to make a deduction which obviously they should have already made, namely, that a being with the power to do what Jesus had just done possessed also the power to raise the dead. These words of Christ were fulfilled in the raising of Lazarus; and, in context, these words amount to a promise that Jesus would indeed raise the dead before the very eyes of His enemies. These words also have a spiritual application which Jesus stressed a little later (John 5:25).

5:22 ... “For the Father judgeth no man.” Rather, “For not even doth the Father.” To Whom the work of judging primarily and essentially belongs (Ps. 50:4; Ezek. 18:30; Dan. 7:10; John 8:50; Rom. 2:16; 2 Tim. 4:1; Heb. 10:30). “Judge any man,” i.e., directly.

5:22 ... “But [He] hath committed [given] all judgment.” The whole judicial function in all its parts and sorts, embracing therefore present moral and future legal judgments upon men (Cambridge Bible).

5:22 ... “Unto the Son.” Because the work of quickening with which also He has been entrusted requires such work of judging (Whitelaw).

What about John 1:17f? Is there a contradiction? No, because there Christ was refuting the false expectation that the Messiah would execute a military and political judgment against Gentiles. Regarding that kind of judgment, Jesus came not to judge but to save. The judgment mentioned here (John 5:22) refers to eternal judgment. God has made eternal judgment the exclusive province of the Son of God. Into the hands of Jesus Christ, God has placed all eternal judgment. Here Christ plainly told His enemies that they were in the presence of the Judge Who would judge them in the last day.

5:23 ... “That all men should honor the Son, even as they honor the Father,” etc. For they are one God. If Jesus is not divine, then to honor Him thus, to love Him and trust Him as a Savior, would lead us away from God. Now all honor and worship of the Son is honor and worship of the Father. The more we love Christ, the more we love God. The Father is made known by the Son, “who is the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person.” So that whosoever honors and loves the one, must admire and love the other. Moreover, the Son is the representative of the Father, His Ambassador, and dishonoring the Ambassador is dishonoring to Him who sent Him.

No stronger statement of the deity of Christ appears in the Holy Word of God. How is God honored? By the soul’s purest adoration and worship. That is the way Christ should be honored. These words are equivalent to Jesus’ saying, “I am God and am entitled to all the honor belonging to the Father.”

5:24 ... “He that heareth.” We see from this that “whom He will” (v. 21) implies no arbitrary selection. It is each individual who decides for himself whether he will hear, believe and obey Christ.

5:24 ... “Believeth on Him that sent Me.” New King James: “believes in Him Who sent Me.”

Hearing and believing Christ’s word are equivalent to believing God Who sent Him. Believing Jesus is believing God. Thus, there is another skillful advocacy of His deity. (Westcott).

He that trusts in God, showing it by believing with all his heart the message God has sent by Jesus Christ and, of course, obeying the Gospel “hath,” not merely “shall have.”

5:24 ... “Everlasting life.” That which cannot be destroyed, which endures beyond the grave, and grows fuller and richer as the ages roll on. It is more than an endless existence. It implies blessedness, fullness, joy, glad activity. A tree “exists” when it is dead, but it “lives” only when it freely carries on the processes which make it leaf, blossom, and bear fruit.

This verse focuses on the true mission of our Lord’s coming into the world, to bring mankind eternal life. If the Pharisees had been the type of people who are interested in such a blessing, they might have been convicted by such a promise. But they were too busy with their earthly concerns to pay any attention to the great hope these precious words offered. Eternal life is here spoken of as a present possession of the recipient; but that present possession must be understood as a title deed in the form of God’s own promise of a state of bliss following the resurrection of the dead. Such an inheritance, though in a sense only prospective, creates such a profound change in the life of the possessor, coloring his entire life, transforming even sorrows and hardships, providing the motivation of a higher life-style – so vast a change, in fact, that, in the sense intended here, the believer truly has eternal life.

Eternal life
a. Eternal life is the true spiritual life of the soul – that which is natural to it in its highest state.

b. It is the divine life which is implanted in us when we are born of the Spirit and the water and become children of God. It begins in this life; but

c. Being divine and natural, it endures forever.

d. It is the life that belongs to heaven, which inspires all heavenly beings, making heaven what it is. As a Bible professor beautifully said: “The perfect tense of the verb ‘live’ is ‘love.’”

e. It is the condition of all the highest blessings. These cannot be known without the spiritual life. All pleasures and delights are nothing to the dead.

f. Eternal life, from its very nature, produces a perfect morality, the noblest conduct.

g. Of all things in the world eternal life is most worth the seeking.

5:24 ... “Shall not come into condemnation.” New King James, “shall not come into judgment.” “That judgment which issues in condemnation and punishment” (Sadler). For all will be judged (2 Cor. 5:10; 1 Cor. 3:8).

This is the secret of how eternal life is made available to mankind. The great corollary underlying the promise of eternal life is that so great a blessing is inseparable from absolute perfection and holiness. It is inconceivable that God would perpetuate throughout eternity anything imperfect or unholy. This clause furnishes a clue to the manner in which absolute perfection and holiness can become actual qualities of those destined to eternal life. If we come into judgment in our own names, standing along in our righteousness, pleading our own identity and worthiness, none of us shall be able to stand. And every person who has ever lived will fail in such a judgment as that – hence the profound promise of Jesus here that the saved “cometh not into judgment!”

How can this be? Will God not judge everyone? Yes, of course; but those who believe and are baptized into Christ, who continue to be united with Him, being found at last “in Him” – those shall not come into judgment in their own name or identity, but as Christ. No person shall ever be saved on the basis of his/her own personal merit or righteousness; but in Christ, and as Christ. Everyone who is truly united with the Lord shall be saved, the grounds of justification and redemption being nothing less than the perfect faith and obedience of the Son of God Himself.

5:24 ... “But is passed from death.” The realm of sin and death, temporal, spiritual and eternal.

5:24 ... “Unto life.” New King James: “Into life.” He has come into the condition of eternal life. “Not having perfect identity with Christ, in Christ, and as Christ, is a state of death; because, apart from Christ, the entire race of men is in a state of utmost condemnation. On the other hand, eternal life is in Christ. Thus the soul that receives Jesus Christ as Lord passes out of death into life.” (Coffman)

5:25 ... “Verily, verily [again marking the importance of what is said] ... the hour is coming [it is drawing near; it is sure to come], and now is.” It has already begun. “These words exclude the meaning of a bodily resurrection; the hour for which had not yet arrived.” (Cambridge Bible)

5:25 ... “When the dead [the spiritually dead; those without eternal life, as mentioned in v. 24] shall hear the voice of the Son of God [Who has divine power to make Himself heard] … shall live.” Shall become alive. Shall have eternal life.

These three verses, of which this is the center, are among the most instructive in the whole Word of God. This seems to refer to the first resurrection, because of the contrast of it with the final resurrection in the next verse. This (v. 25) is a spiritual rekindling of life; v. 26 a physical resurrection from the grave. Significantly, the Lord announced: That the spiritual resurrection was then in progress; that the Son of God is the author of it; that His Word is the means of it; and that as His Word was received or rejected men would or would not have a part in it.

A terrible warning
What a terrible warning to those who at that very moment were rejecting His Word, not allowing His true interpretation of God’s Sabbath law. Instead they were plotting a way to maintain their own ridiculous interpretations. It also should be noted that by rejecting Jesus’ Word regarding Sabbath regulations, the priests were light years away from receiving the profound teachings recorded in this paragraph. They remained in a state of spiritual death – the sound of the voice of the Lord of life falling in vain on stopped-up ears. Jesus saw all that; and the thought must have come to Him: “Very well, My voice calling men to spiritual resurrection you will not hear; but I shall speak again on another occasion (that of the final judgment), and then you will hear!” In fact, such is the thought expressed later in John 5:28.

5:26 ... “For [giving the reason why He could promise this] as the Father hath life in Himself [the original source and creator of life], so hath He given to the Son to have life in Himself.” He, too, as the Messiah, is a source and creator of life.

The Pharisees had already decided to kill Jesus (John 5:18). They were diligently seeking a way to carry out their plans. In that context, these words carry the weight of John 10:17, 18, where Jesus plainly states they would not be able to murder Him, but that He would lay down His own life and take it up again. Jesus affirmed here in v. 26 that the Son is co-equal with God in the possession of life in Himself.

7. JESUS THE JUDGE OF THE WORLD

5:27 ... “And hath given Him authority to execute judgment.” All men, not only day by day, but in the final great day, are to be judged by Christ. He is to be the judge. His character and teachings are to be the test. His very presence in the world is a judgment.

“Authority” is the great word with reference to Christ. None of the apostles failed to be impressed with it. Matthew summarized it in Jesus’ own words as “all authority in heaven and upon earth” (28:18).

5:27 ... “Because He is the Son of Man.” A son of man. In this passage alone the phrase “son of man” stands without the article. He is a son of man, a representative man. One who has a feeling for our infirmities, and was “in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.”

God would not judge the intelligent creation whom He fashioned in His own image, until first He Himself had become a man in the person of the Son, in order that His judgment would therefore be more merciful, righteous and just.

Christ as Judge
a. “The judgment is to take place with human publicity; therefore the judge must be visible as man.” (Luther)

b. By His incarnation Christ has so identified Himself with all the interests of humanity, as its head and Savior, that humanity belongs to Him; it is for Him to redeem, to save, to make alive, to judge, to condemn. The final resurrection and judgment are only the completion of the process commenced in His becoming man for us, and for our salvation. This is the kindest arrangement: because as mediator He must have the tenderest regard for man; because as man He would sympathize with us, regarding our temptations; because as God-man He would have a fellow-feeling with us as well as with God.

When we think of the final judgment, we should keep in mind: No stranger shall judge us, but He who is our fellow, Who will sustain our interests, and have full sympathy in all our imperfections. He who loved us, even to die for us, is graciously appointed to assign the final measurement and price upon His own work. He who best knows by infirmity is to take the part of the infirm; He Who would fain reap the full fruit of His passion; He will separate the wheat from the chaff, so that not a grain shall fall to the ground. But it would be false to deny to God the feeling of compassion, “Like as a father pitieth . . . so the Lord pitieth . . . for He knoweth our frame” (Ps. 103:13, 14).

Son of God; Son of man – the real Savior of man must be the Son of God: That He may have all power to save; that He may be omnipresent wherever man and his needs are; that He may be ever beyond and above man, always drawing him upward; that all the love toward Him may also be love to God; that He may be able to make atonement for sin.

He must at the same time be the Son of Man: That He may reveal Himself to men; that He may not only sympathize with them, but that they may know and feel His sympathy; so that He may reach and touch their hearts; that He may be able to make atonement for their sins

SCRIPTURE READING: JOHN 5:28-30

8. JESUS THE RESURRECTION AND THE LIFE

5:28 ... “Marvel not at this.” Do not think that this is too hard to believe, for another similar wonder is to visibly take place; and they should see some examples of it.

In v. 20, Jesus had said “that ye may marvel,” in His words with the priests; but that was not a reference to the final judgment in view here, being rather a prophecy of the raising of Lazarus. “The priestly community in Jerusalem ignored and belittled the healing of a man crippled for thirty-eight years; and, if Christ’s miracles had terminated there, infidelity might have contrived some plausible basis of unbelief. Therefore Christ hurled a challenge in the face of His enemies by promising to raise the dead to life again; but even that, when it occurred, did not convince them, for their error was not a matter of intelligence or reason, but the error of a wicked heart.” (Coffman)

5:28 ... “All that are in the graves.” He is now referring to the physical resurrection.

5:28 ... “Shall hear His voice.” A voice like the sound of a trumpet (Rev. 1:10), and like the sound of many waters (Rev. 1:15), that is, like the roar of the ocean for fullness and power.¹

In v. 21 Jesus claimed power to raise the dead; but His statement there fell a little short of declaring emphatically that He would indeed do so (although it was clearly implied). These words, however, dogmatically declare that Christ will raise all of the deal on earth, that the dead of all ages will respond to His voice, and that Christ will judge them and assign the eternal destiny for both the good and the evil.

5:29 ... “Unto the resurrection of life.” A resurrection which brings perfect life, or eternal and blessed fellowship with God (Hovey).

5:29 ... “The resurrection of damnation.” New King James: “resurrection of condemnation.” The Revised Version: “judgment,” i.e., a judgment of condemnation.

These verses contain a tremendous witness of Jesus Christ Himself, spoken in such a way as to demand their acceptance by men; but the Master saw that the Sahedrinists and their followers were adamant in their rejection of all that He was declaring, despite the signs He did. Such a rejection Jesus met by a change of tactic, and thus He at once marshaled other witnesses on His own behalf. In v. 30, Jesus changes His approach to the closed minds of the priests, still trying to induce them to believe.

5:30 ... “And My judgment is just; because I seek not mine own will.” Nothing is surer to pervert judgment than selfish ends in the judge. Jesus Christ, through His perfect communion with God, was absolutely above the influence of human fear or favor.

“My judgment is righteous” is the equivalent of “My witness of Myself is absolutely true, because I am doing the will of God who sent Me.”

9. CONCLUSION

His self-awareness reflects the Son’s deity on earth
One area of evidence concerning Jesus’ deity is His divine awareness. Although we have little information about Jesus’ personal life, the insights we are given in the Gospel accounts illustrate that He was aware of His deity. He used His divine omniscience and omnipotence as tools in His ministry. He knew all that would happen as He fulfilled His role as Redeemer – including the thoughts and actions of others, both present and future.
His self-awareness is show in many ways.

His knowledge of His relationship with His Father
From early childhood, Jesus was conscious of His role in His Father’s plans. When Joseph and Mary found Him in the temple, this conversion followed: “‘Son, why have You treated us this way? Behold, Your father and I have been anxiously looking fore you.’ And He said to them, ‘Why is it that you were looking for Me? Did you not know that I had to be in My Father’s house?’” There is no evidence that Jesus was unaware of His divine relationship with His heavenly Father. Quite the contrary.

What does this Father/Son relationship mean in light of Jesus’ deity? He said elsewhere, “All things have been handed over to Me by My Father; and no one knows the Son, except the Father; nor does anyone know the Father, except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son wills to reveal Him” (Matt. 11:27). This is an affirmation of universality (“all things”) and exclusiveness (“except the Father . . . except the Son”). This unique Father/Son² relationship means nothing unless it includes intimate, divine relationship. This relation of Father to Son enables the Son to reveal the Father to others as He chooses.

This “Divine initiative” lies behind some of the remarks Jesus made to His disciples. For example, Jesus informed a questioning Thomas that He was (and is) the exclusive way to the Father. Thereupon Philip asked that they be permitted to see the Father. Jesus’ response gives a marvelous example of His consciousness of His identity: “He who has seen Me has seen the Father; how do you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on My own initiative, but the Father abiding in Me does His works. Believe Me that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me” (John 14:9b-11a). Jesus was aware that He was the Father’s Son. The two are so closely related that to see one is to see the other; to hear one is to hear the other.

In our study from John 5:16-30, Jesus went further in saying that whatever the Father does is what the Son does because they are mutually aware of each other. Life and judgment have been entrusted to the Son by the Father; therefore, both the Father and the Son are to be honored (John 5:19-23). Jesus’ awareness of His relationship with His Father rested on the foundation that He was (and is), as His Father is, deity.

Footnotes:
¹ Compare 1 Thessalonians 4:16.
² For more information on the Father and Son, see God’s Fullness in Contents section of StudyJesus.com.

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