Our passage today contains Jesus' third major discourse in the Gospel of John. The first discourse is in John chapter 3 where Jesus explains the new birth to Nicodemus. The second is in John chapter 4 where Jesus explains the water of life to the Samaritan woman. In this third discourse, Jesus explains His unique relationship with God the Father. This is one of the most profound passages in all of Scripture. The words are simple, but the message is deep.
Before looking further at this discourse, let me review for you its background. Jesus had healed the lame man who was lying beside the pool at Jerusalem called Bethesda. Jesus did this on the Jewish Sabbath, and the Jews criticized Jesus for breaking one of their traditions.
Our passage for today is the beginning of Jesus' response to that unjust criticism. Jesus could have responded to this criticism by critiquing their traditions as a distortion of the law of God. On other occasions when Jesus was criticized for healing on the Sabbath, Jesus compared healing someone to rescuing an animal that had fallen into a pit or to loosing an animal to lead it to water. Jesus pointed out to his critics that they routinely did these things for their animals on the Sabbath. Well, how much more valuable is a human being than an animal! How can they criticize Jesus for doing good for people on the Sabbath when that good is analogous to the good they themselves routinely do for their animals on the Sabbath?
Jesus could have responded that way here in John chapter 5, but He did not. Instead Jesus here responded by pointing out His special and unique relationship with God the Father. What Jesus here tells the Jews is that He and God are in such a close working relationship that they cannot criticize Him for the work He is doing on the Sabbath without in the process criticizing God. When Jesus does something, such as healing this man on the Sabbath, Jesus is not working alone. In the context of the mysteries of the Trinity and the Incarnation, Jesus and God the Father are always working closely together. Jesus goes on to say that He and His Father will be doing even greater works in the future, specifically works of resurrection and judgment.
We will be focusing this week on the latter part of the passage, and our outline will be
I. The Son's power II. The Son's authority III. The Son's greater works First, the Son's power to do these greater works involving resurrection life and judgment. We find this in verse 26:
Both God the Father and God the Son have life in Themselves. This is what is meant by the name Jehovah. At the burning bush, God explained to Moses that the name Jehovah means, "I Am That I Am." That is, God has life in Himself as opposed to life derived from another or life given by another. God exists simply because He exists. God is not created. God has no beginning. God never derived His existence from another. God the Father is the self-existent Jehovah God, and God the Son is the self-existent Jehovah God. Because Jesus has this divine self-existent life in Himself, He is able to give creaturely, derived life to others. That is how Jesus has the power to do these greater works which involve imparting resurrection life.
26 "For as the Father has life in Himself, so He has granted the Son to have life in Himself." Now our verse says that God the Father has this life in Himself and that God the Father granted the Son to have this life in Himself. Here we have a revelation of mysteries which we can only barely comprehend. We are here given a glimpse into things which remain largely unseen. The Son has life in Himself, just as the Father has life in Himself. They both have the same self-existent, non-derived life which has no beginning. Yet there is some sense in which God the Father granted this divine life to God the Son. This is a reference to that mysterious, eternal, personal relationship between God the Father and God the Son in which the Father begets the Son and in which the Son is begotten by the Father. This is not a reference to an event which happened at some point in time. It is a reference to an eternal relationship between God the Father and God the Son which had no beginning. This is not a reference to God the Son's being given some partial, derived deity. The only true deity is fully divine deity; partial deity is a contradiction in terms. Here is the truth in a nutshell: God the Son as Son is from the Father, but God the Son as God is from Himself. God the Father and God the Son are one God, the same in substance and equal in power and glory. Neither is more divine, more fully God, than the other. Yet the Father begets the Son, and the Son is begotten by the Father. Both the Father and the Son have self-existent, non-derived, eternal, divine life. Yet the Father has life in Himself which no one gave Him, and the Son has life in Himself which the Father gave Him. Here is a glimpse into the mystery of the Triune Godhead, the Three in One who is One in Three.
Jesus, the incarnate Son of God, the Messianic Son of God, has life in Himself through the incarnation. The Power of the Most High overshadowed the Virgin Mary, and at that moment, God the Son took to Himself a full human nature derived from the flesh of the Virgin Mary. At that miraculous moment of conception, Jesus came into existence. God the Son had existed from eternity, but the human nature of Jesus had a beginning there in the Virgin's womb. When God the Father gave God the Son to become flesh and dwell among us, God the Father granted the incarnate Jesus to have life within Himself as well.
How is it that Jesus has the power to perform works such as resurrection, works that involve the imparting of life? It is because Jesus is not only fully human but also fully divine. And one aspect of His divine nature is this self-existent life which is able to impart life to others.
Jesus has the power to do greater works because He has life in Himself, and He has the authority to do greater works because He is the Son of Man, which is our second point. Jesus here refers to Himself as the Son of Man. The key verse in defining this title "Son of Man" is Daniel 7:13-14:
God the Son, of course, has always had authority and dominion, but Jesus in regard to His humanity received this authority and dominion when He rose from the dead and ascended to the right hand of God the Father, which is the place of all authority in heaven and on earth. As it says in Philippians 2:9-11:
13 I was watching in the night visions, and behold, One like the Son of Man, coming with the clouds of heaven! He came to the Ancient of Days, and they brought Him near before Him. 14 Then to Him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and His kingdom the one which shall not be destroyed.
9 Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, 10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, 11 and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. So we have seen that Jesus has the power to do greater works because He has life in Himself, and He has the authority to do greater works because He is the Son of Man. Now we will examine what these greater works are. These works are spiritual resurrection and physical resurrection. We will begin by looking at physical resurrection, which is described in verses 28-29:
Here we see the climatic exercise of the power and the authority of Jesus. There is coming an hour or a point in time when Jesus is going to shout a command of power and authority. It will be a command of power because it will impart physical resurrection life to every dead human who has ever lived and died in the entire history of the earth. It will be a command of authority because every one of these resurrected humans will obey the command and come forth from their graves. 1 Thessalonians 4:17 says that Jesus will come with a shout. The Greek word there translated "shout" is elsewhere used to refer to the order which an officer shouts to his troops, the order a hunter shouts to his dogs, the order a charioteer shouts to his horses, and the order a ship-master shouts to his rowers (Hendricksen, page 116). This word obviously refers to a shouted order. At His return, Jesus is going to order the dead to arise, and they are going to obey.
28 "Do not marvel at this; for the hour is coming in which all who are in the graves will hear His voice 29 "and come forth -- those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation." Think about what Jesus is saying here: "the hour is coming in which all who are in the graves will hear [My] voice and come forth." What an audacious thing to say! I am reminded of that often quoted observation of C.S. Lewis:
A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said wouldn't be a great moral teacher. He'd be either a lunatic on a level with a man who says he's a poached egg or else he'd be the devil of hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse.How aptly said. The Jews were correct on this point: the words that Jesus said on this occasion certainly do imply that He is equal with God. That is clearly what Jesus was claiming.Before going on, I want to make a clarification and an observation. First, the clarification. Jesus here says that those who have done good will come forth to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation. This verse is not teaching salvation by works. This phrase, "those who have done good" is merely a description of those who are saved. We are saved from a life dominated by the power of sin, and we are saved unto a life of good works. This phrase is not an explanation of how we are saved. The explanation of how we are saved is found in verse 24:
We avoid God's judgment not through works but through faith. We must put our trust in Jesus to get us into heaven on the basis of His life of perfect obedience and His death as an atoning sacrifice. Salvation is by grace through faith and not of works, lest anyone should boast.
24 "Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life." Second, an observation. Notice how simple is this description of the coming day of resurrection. Jesus will one day return. All the dead, every single one, will at that time be resurrected. The saved will be resurrected unto life, and the lost will be resurrected unto condemnation. How very simple.
Contrast that with the confusingly complex view which many hold today. Here is what they say: Jesus will return but not all the way to earth. At that point, the church age saints will be resurrected. That's one resurrection. Seven years later, Christ will come all the way to earth, and the Old Testament saints and the tribulation saints will be resurrected. That's two resurrections. A thousand years will pass. During this time, people in resurrection bodies will share the earth with people still in their mortal bodies. At the end of this thousand years, the millennial saints will be resurrected together with the lost from all the ages. That's three resurrections.
Now which are you going to accept? This popular modern system involving three resurrections over a one thousand seven year period of time? Or the simple statement of Jesus:
" ... the hour is coming in which all who are in the graves will hear His voice and come forth -- those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation."?End of observation.Now we've seen that Jesus has the power to do greater works. We've seen that Jesus has the authority to do greater works. We have examined one of those greater works, which is physical resurrection. Let's look at the other greater work, which is spiritual resurrection, which we find in verse 25:
This verse is talking about regeneration, the imparting of life to the spiritually dead. John chapter three compared regeneration to a new birth, and this verse compares it to a resurrection.
25 "Most assuredly, I say to you, the hour is coming, and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God; and those who hear will live." Beloved, this verse is a very humbling verse which reminds us that salvation is all of grace. It is totally, completely a gift which God gives us. There is nothing we have done to deserve this. We have no basis for boasting whatsoever.
You see, Jesus here compares the spiritually dead to the physically dead. In our natural, fallen state, we have no more spiritual power than the physically dead have physical power.
What will happen at the physical resurrection? Will the physically dead first hear and come forth, and then Christ will impart to them physical resurrection life? Or will Christ first impart to the physically dead physical resurrection life, and then they will hear and come forth? Well, of course, it is the latter. Christ must first impart the physical resurrection life. Only then will the physically dead have the physical ability to hear and the physical ability to come forth from their graves.
The same is true with spiritual resurrection. In our lost state, we are dead in trespasses and sins. We cannot come to the Light, not because God is physically restraining us but because we love the darkness. We are spiritually deaf to the gospel because we don't want to hear it. We are spiritually blind to the gospel because we don't want to see it. Jesus delivers us by sending us outwardly the gospel message and inwardly the life giving ministry of the Holy Spirit.
Look carefully at verse 24. It says that those who hear and believe are those who have passed over from death unto life. "Hear" and "believe" are in the present tense; "passed over" is in the perfect tense, which refers to action in the past which continues to affect us. Why do we hear and believe the gospel? Because the Holy Spirit has already worked His work of regenerating grace in our hearts. Because we first passed over from spiritual death to spiritual life.
We find this same truth in 1 John 5:1:
Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God ...Again, "believes" is in the present tense, and "has been born of God" is in the perfect tense.Back in the late 1970s, I visited an older Southern Baptist minister in Arkansas who had been preaching for many years. He had been studying 1 John 5:1 in the Greek, especially the tenses of the verbs, and for the first time he realized that the new birth must come before saving faith. Jesus first gives the gift of spiritual life to the spiritually dead, and then and only then do they believe the gospel message. He came to realize that saving grace is a gift even to the point that Jesus gives us the heart ability to believe. I remember his discussing with me this simple point which adds such profound depth to one's understanding of salvation by grace through faith.
Have you underestimated the power and authority of Jesus? Have you overestimated your contribution to your salvation? Beloved, this passage is humbling. If you already trust Christ for your salvation, then praise Him for giving you the heart ability to do so. You could have never done it on your own. And if you are not trusting Jesus for your salvation, then cry out to Him to give you in addition to the simple gospel message, the spiritual life you need to hear it and to believe it. When by God's grace you pass over from spiritual death unto spiritual life, you will hear and believe, just as surely as the physically dead will come forth from their graves at the last day.