The Son’s Authority of Life and Judgment
John 5:24-29
Sometimes we use the expression, “It’s a matter of life and death” when it really isn’t. But in John 5:24, Jesus explains that to believe in Him and EVERYTHING that the Bible conveys about Him as the Eternal Son of God and Son of man IS A MATTER OF ETERNAL LIFE and ETERNAL DEATH. Verse 24 reads: "Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life.” We examined this verse at the close of last study and the section we looked at last week, Jesus made five claims regarding His relationship with His Heavenly Father and position in the Godhead: 1. He claims that He is equal with God in His person. 2. He claims that He is equal with God in His Works. 3. He is equal with God in His Power and Sovereignty. 4. He is equal in his judgment. 5. He is equal in his honor. So Jesus’ testimony is that He is equal with God in His person, His Works, His Power and Sovereignty, His Judgment, and His Honor.
Jesus gives life.
I closed with verse 24 last study but did not consider some of the specifics: Jesus indeed gives life and according to verse 21, He gives life to whomever He desires; that is what verse 21 teaches: "For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son also gives life to whom He wishes.” It is His choice! Father God and the Son of God BOTH have the power and authority to give life.
Those who receive life from God are those who truly HEAR the WORD. We hear the Word physically with our ears and minds, but it goes further than the physical: When you TRULY HEAR the Word, you will respond to it, follow it, and obey it. The Word is all the words of God written down in the Holy Bible alone, but the Word is also the Son of God, equal to God in all respects who puts on flesh to reveal God for a season on this earth. The Word includes the words of Jesus as He taught on this earth and we have the portions preserved for us by God through the all scriptures of the Bible.
Secondly, Jesus gives life to those who receive the word and believe the person of Jesus: they are those who truly BELIEVE in the Father and Son as persons of the Godhead and that Jesus was eternally at the Father’s side and sent by the Father. This is exactly what scripture teaches: This is the Jesus of the Bible whom people receive and are born from above, a rebirth from God through the power of God, His Word and His Spirit. There is not “another” Jesus who will save: Only the gift of SAVING FAITH in this Jesus will redeem you. (Jesus is not God’s “spirit child”, as some think; such thinking is blasphemous to God!)
Those who truly hear, truly believe and assent to the Jesus of the Bible and are born of the Spirit of God from above receive Life: When God does this WORK in a person, that person passes from death to life by God’s Power, Authority, and Sovereignty and has nothing whatsoever to do with man’s capability or works. This person is in a settled state of existence which begins here and now and will continue throughout eternity. What a marvelous reality to be IN CHRIST!
Two Resurrections
We continue with the next 5 verses from John 5:25: "Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. 26 "For just as the Father has life in Himself, even so He gave to the Son also to have life in Himself; 27 and He gave Him authority to execute judgment, because He is the Son of Man. 28 "Do not marvel at this; for an hour is coming, in which all who are in the tombs will hear His voice, 29 and will come forth; those who did the good deeds to a resurrection of life, those who committed the evil deeds to a resurrection of judgment.”
There are two resurrections mentioned in these verses: All mankind, both the saved and the unsaved, will be resurrected, some to ETERNAL LIFE and some to ETERNAL JUDGMENT. Hebrews 9:27 says the same thing: “And inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment.” There are not stages mentioned in the Bible. There are not “second chances” after you die your earthly physical death. Your eternal destiny is already decided so don’t invent some other way to achieve salvation and in so doing try and undo the Truth of God’s Word.
Verse 25 clarifies that for us: "Truly, truly, (absolute truth, no two ways around it. This is it Jesus declares it with all Godly Power and Authority.) I say to you, an hour is coming and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live.” Those who are BORN from above are ALREADY “spiritually resurrected” but NOT YET physically resurrected. If you have heard the voice of God and respond to Him you have already passed from death to life: You have been “spiritually resurrected” even though you have NOT YET been physically resurrected. Ah, the Glory of God’s Grace in Christ. Positionally and spiritually, we who truly believe, reign with Christ. We are IN HIM NOW AND FOREVER. We are protected by Him: He is our stronghold, our strength, our salvation. What Love and Grace to have been born from above! The HOPE of His return and the gift to come of bodies which will be eternal when we are raised from the dead is so close and real that we KNOW that we can fully trust HIS PROMISE and ability to accomplish what He has said. We have it now, but what for more with joyful expectation because of what He has done in our hearts and lives by His indwelling Spirit and Word: We are able to love and forgive and hope and rejoice in trials…and the list goes on and on!
How are we so sure? Because God has commanded it! Verse 26 reaffirms what has been said: "For just as the Father has life in Himself, even so He gave to the Son also to have life in Himself.” This is not something new but rather, it is an activity of God throughout eternity past! Having Life in one’s self is exclusive to God. Humans receive life FROM God; they do not have life in themselves, although many times in the arrogance and stupidity of unbelief, they may THINK they have life in themselves. The Son possesses the same kind of life in HIMSELF that the Father has in HIMSELF because God has given this quality to both from all eternity, from everlasting to everlasting. Amen!
Alister McGrath put it this way in His book “Understanding the Trinity”. He explains the economy of God as three essential models. The first model is that of the transcendent God who lies beyond the world as its source and creator [Father}; the second is the human face of God revealed in the person of Jesus Christ [Son}; the third is that of the immanent God who is present and active throughout his creation [as the Holy Spirit]. (Taken from G. Boesenecker’s exegetical Notes on John 5, p. 14)
Just because the Son is submissive or subordinate to the Father in no way implies inferiority or priority of His personal being. Remember last study we spoke of the perfect mutual love which they have for each other…always, eternally, entirely and perfectly? It is because of the eternal possession of LIFE-IN-HIMSELF that the Son also holds authority and power to call the dead to life by His dynamic word which is exactly what verse 27 states clearly and emphatically: “and He gave Him authority to execute judgment, because He is the Son of Man.” How did Jesus receive His authority to execute judgment? Because the Father granted the Son the right to exercise that power and privilege. The Son of Man IS the SON OF GOD and he is given absolute sovereign authority and power as LORD OVER ALL. Jesus would reign over all of heaven and earth after His humiliation on the cross because God gave him that authority. He is returning as judge as certainly as He lived as the Son of Man, ministered, died, arose, and ascended and is reigning from HEAVEN AND HEARTS TODAY. That time will come as certainly and surely as His Words were spoken and recorded, just as certainly that we are reading them today.
Verses 28-29 promise: "Do not marvel at this; for an hour is coming, in which all who are in the tombs will hear His voice, and will come forth; those who did the good deeds to a resurrection of life, those who committed the evil deeds to a resurrection of judgment.” You can be sure of this: Resurrection Day is coming for the SAVED as well as the UNSAVED! But also let’s make one other thing very clear hear: Jesus is NOT teaching justification, salvation, or the forgiveness of sins by works. In the next chapter, Jesus speaks in John 6:26-29 after feeding the 5,000: "Truly, truly, I say to you, you seek Me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled. 27 "Do not work for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you, for on Him the Father, God, has set His seal." 28 Therefore they said to Him, "What shall we do, so that we may work the works of God?" 29 Jesus answered and said to them, "This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent."
The voice of Yahweh in the Old Testament commanded the people to listen: Here it is the FUTURE voice of Jesus the Son at the end of the ages who will call the dead from the graves for their eternal rewards. The “First and the Last” Jehovah of Isaiah is the Christ “First and the Last” Lord Jesus of Revelation.
The “Good” are those who have truly believed on the Son and have denied themselves, abandoned themselves and followed the Son; they are the ones who have received new natures from God Himself by the power of the Word and Spirit, which has produced in and through them Godly works which God prepared beforehand that they should walk in them. We already studied John 3:21 where it said: "But he who practices the truth comes to the Light, so that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God." God’s works are revealed through the life that has been born from above, the life that is born again.
James 2:14-20 says: “What use is it, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but he has no works? Can that faith save him? 15 If a brother or sister is without clothing and in need of daily food, 16 and one of you says to them, "Go in peace, be warmed and be filled," and yet you do not give them what is necessary for their body, what use is that? 17 Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead, being by itself. 18 But someone may well say, "You have faith and I have works; show me your faith without the works, and I will show you my faith by my works." 19 You believe that God is one. You do well; the demons also believe, and shudder. 20 But are you willing to recognize, you foolish fellow, that faith without works is useless?” Here it is again: SIN, SALVATION, SERVICE or GUILT, GRACE, GRATITUDE. You are saved and you WILL produce the fruit of a life that has been saved because God has done it, not you.
Kevin DeYoung put it this way in his book, “The Hole in Man’s Holiness”: “Not only is holiness the goal of your redemption, it is necessary for your redemption. Now before you sound the legalist alarm, tie me up by my own moral bootstraps, and feed my carcass to the Galatians, we should see what Scripture has to say. . . . It’s the consistent and frequent teaching of the Bible that those whose lives are marked by habitual ungodliness will not go to heaven. To find acquittal from God on the last day there must be evidence flowing out of us that grace has flowed into us.” (p. 26) “On the last day, God will not acquit us because our good works were good enough, but he will look for evidence that our good confession was not phony. It’s in this sense that we must be holy.” (p. 29)
He goes on to say: “It’s all too easy to turn the fight of faith into sanctification-by-checklist. Take care of a few bad habits, develop a couple good ones, and you’re set. But a moral checklist doesn’t take into consideration the idols of the hearts. It may not even have the gospel as part of the equation. And inevitably, checklist spirituality is highly selective. So you end up feeling successful at sanctification because you stayed away from drugs, lost weight, served at the soup kitchen, and renounced Styrofoam. But you’ve ignored gentleness, humility, joy, and sexual purity.” (34) Once again, The “Good” believe on the Son and receive new natures which produce these and many more Godly works in obedience to the Word and Spirit of God. It is the RESULT of the gift of saving faith in the Lord Jesus.
The second half of 29 says “those who committed the evil deeds to a resurrection of judgment.” The “evil” done is rejecting the life and light of the Son of God as revealed by the Word of God, the Incarnate Word and the Spirit of God. You may enjoy some of the benefits of this life, as a matter of fact, you may appear successful and may appear to be a “good person”, but yet you have rejected the saving Work and Word of God in Christ for salvation.
Believers have already entered life that is characterized as “eternal life” and their Godly works are evidence that God has performed in them what He alone can do. They are ALREADY SAVED, but not yet completed. Unbelievers will rise CONDEMNED ALREADY and they will receive the fruit or wages of their lives and labors to eternal judgement. Scripture commands and warns: “Today if you Hear His Voice, do not harden your hearts.” Amen
MESSAGE OUTLINE John 5:24-29: Last week: Jesus claims that He is equal with God in His person, in His Works, in His Power and Sovereignty, in his judgment, in his honor.
I. Jesus gives life. (vs. 24) (to whomever He desires vs. 21)
A. Those who receive life are those who truly HEAR the WORD.
B. Those who receive life are those who truly BELIEVE in the Father and Son.
C. Those who truly hear, believe, and receive Life: They pass from death to life by God’s Power.
II. All mankind, saved and unsaved, will be resurrected, some to ETERNAL LIFE and some to ETERNAL JUDGMENT. (25-29)
A. Those who are BORN from above are ALREADY “spiritually resurrected” but NOT YET physically resurrected. (vs. 25)
B. The Father granted the Son “life-giving power” from all eternity. (26)
C. The Father granted the Son the right to exercise judgment and authority. (vs. 27)
D. Resurrection Day is coming! (vs. 28-29)
1. The “Good” believe on the Son and receive new natures which have produced Godly works.
(John 3:21, James 2:14-20)
2. The “evil” done is rejecting the life and light of the Son.
3. Your works are the evidence of one’s nature.
