5:19-27 The Son gives life

February 25, 2021

Read John 5:19-27

The dialogue in 5:16-47 lays the foundation for all the other claims of Jesus by stating the relationship between the Father and the Son. If Jesus had claimed to be a second god then that would indeed have been blasphemy (5:17-18). But, as Jesus here states emphatically (“Very truly”), the equality he has with God is one of perfect unity, a relationship of total obedience by Jesus and total love by the Father (19-20; 1:1,18). So the authority of Jesus is the authority of God, and that includes the authority to do God’s work of giving life and judging all people (21-22; Deut.32:39; Gen.18:25). The Father’s purpose in this was that Jesus would receive the same honour as the Father himself; therefore, to dishonour Jesus is to dishonour the Father (23).

A further “Very truly” statement declares the relevance of this for those who accept the authority of Jesus’s word and believe in him – they have already “crossed over from death to life” (24). Because eternal life is the abundant life of God himself, believers already experience the benefits of it now, a foretaste of their life with him after death. Likewise, because judgement too is an experience in the present (3:18-21), believers need not fear the future day of judgement.

A third “Very truly” saying underlines the promise that Jesus is the life-giver (25). Once more the unity of Father and Son in this work is emphasised, both in giving life (26) and in judgement (27). The authority to judge is given by God to Jesus “because he is the Son of Man” i.e. the one who would come with “authority, glory and sovereign power” (Dan.7:13-14). It is because Jesus has God’s life in himself that anyone who believes in him already “has eternal life” (24).