Eternal Life – John 5.16-29
Whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life.
He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.
Whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life.
He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.
PURPOSE OF JOHN'S GOSPEL
What Paul declares as the essential gospel message in 1 Corinthians 15.1-5, the other gospel writers also hold to be indispensable truth. John, in contrast to the synoptic gospels, highlights the cardinal doctrine of salvation by faith. He clearly states his purpose in writing: Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name (John 20.30-31). Indeed, the Gospel is saturated with the theme that belief in the Son results in eternal life (e.g., John 1.12; 3.16; 4.14; 6.27-29; 10.28; 17.2). John clarifies the identity and role of the second person of the Trinity. The discourse following the healing of the lame man reveals that the Son is in perfect accord with the Father, and that the Son has been entrusted with all eschatological judgment. The Son has been given authority to execute judgment against everyone who has done evil and the Son has the power to give eternal life to those who have done good. The work of God that merits the resurrection of life is to believe on the one whom God has sent – namely, Jesus (John 6.29).
JESUS AND THE SABBATH
The incident that precipitated the conflict between the Jews (John frequently uses the term “Jews” in reference to the Jewish leadership) and Jesus was his healing of a lame man on the Sabbath. It was Jesus’ response, when confronted about his “Sabbath violation,” that was problematic for his accusers: My Father is working until now, and I am working(John 5.17). As in the Synoptic accounts (cp. Matthew 12.1-8; Mark 3.1-6; Luke 13.10-17) Jesus might have contested that their understanding of the Sabbath was deficient and that he was Lord of the Sabbath. Instead, he identifies his healing work with the work of God, or more correctly, and I might add gratingly for the Jewish leaders, my Father. By this response John implicitly demonstrates that Jesus is Lord of the Sabbath. The author of Hebrews develops the idea that Jesus is the believer’s Sabbath rest (4.3-11). Though John does not express this view explicitly, the idea is dormant in the text nonetheless.
But just as the Fourth Gospel suggests that the various Jewish feasts, rightly understood, anticipated Jesus and thereby ‘testify’ to him, so it may be that the Sabbath festival is understood to point to him. The possibility is strengthened if Jesus is presupposing (as also Heb. 4:3-10) that God’s seventh-day rest (sabbatismos) at creation has never ended. … The conclusion is drawn that there is still a rest for the people of God, a rest that can be entered and enjoyed by faith in Christ. This is a rest from dead works, a joyful participation in the salvation that has already dawned in Christ. (D. A. Carson, John, p. 248)
Jesus’ distinctive use of the term my Father, signified that he was aware of his own unique relationship with the Father, one not enjoyed by others. Jesus’ intimacy with the Father is uniquely His prerogative. John clarifies this distinction by using a different word to describe Jesus’ unique relationship to the Father. John refers to Jesus as the Son (huios, John 3.16), and to believers as children (tekna, John 1.12; cf. 5.23; 8.49; 1 John 3.1). Moreover, Jesus claims to have come from the Father and he alone has seen him (John 6.46). The implications of his comment are not lost on his hearers. Infractions against the Sabbath are serious enough, claiming equality with God is blasphemous – a capital offense under Jewish law. It ought to be noted that Jesus is not claiming to be another God. Rather, he is subordinate to the Father as a Son. Jesus emphatically declares: Truly, truly, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing.
THE TRINITY AND SALVATION
Just a brief excursus on the Trinity may be helpful at this point. That Jesus is the second person of the Trinity is essential to understanding what the New Testament teaches about salvation. The proclamation (kerygma) of the gospel is of God’s saving work in the vicarious life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 15.3-5). The doctrine (dogma) of Christ’s substitutionary atonement provides the foundation and structural support for that proclamation. One may come to saving faith in Christ without understanding the doctrine of the Trinity, but the true object of faith (Christ) is in fact the second person of the Trinity. In short: “the proclamation is that ‘God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ’; the doctrine is that the ‘God’ in question has to be thought of as a Trinity if this proclamation is valid” (Alister McGrath, Understanding the Trinity, p. 115). McGrath says elsewhere: “The doctrine of the Trinity is to the Christian experience of God what grammar is to poetry – it establishes a structure, a framework, which allows us to make sense of something which far surpasses it” (McGrath, p. 147).
the subordination of the son to the father
John explains the obedience of the Son to the Father using four “because” or “for” statements: For whatever the Father does, the Son does likewise. For the Father loves the Son and shows him all that he himself is doing. And greater works than these will he show him, so that you may marvel. For as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom he will. [For – οὐδὲ γὰρ] the Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son, that all may honor the Son, just as they honor the Father (John 5.19 -22). John says that the Son perfectly expresses the will and action of the Father; to behave or think otherwise would nullify his Sonship. Because the Father loves the Son, he shows him everything. What the Father makes known to the Son is greater than what he makes known to his covenant people. They are limited in their understanding of the mysteries of God (cp. Deuteronomy 29.29; Job 38.2; Psalm 139.1-6). But now an even greater work than has heretofore been made known will be revealed through the Son so that everyone will marvel. This will happen so that people will believe in him and have eternal life.
The words Jesus speak reveal the truth about himself and the Father; these words are validated by his works (or signs, cp. John 10.38). Jesus healed a lame man, but he is about to do something greater: he will exercise the prerogatives of God himself by giving life to the dead and pronouncing final judgment on the wicked. One cannot help but think ahead to John 11 where Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead. That event anticipates the eschatological fulfillment of the Son’s work. “The Father and the Son both enjoy the prerogative of giving life, for the Father has determined that it will not be his direct task to judge anyone, but has instead entrusted all judgment to the Son. Seen in this light, the authority to give resurrection life is the entailment of the authority to judge on the last day” (Carson, p. 254).
JUDGMENT BELONGS TO THE SON
Judgment is perceived as the prerogative of God alone; it is conferred to the Son so that he might be honored as the Father is honored. It is a remarkable affirmation of the preeminence of the Son. It is difficult to miss John’s point: Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him. Now that the supremacy of the Son has been established, Jesus makes another emphatic statement: Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life. It is the will of the Father for everyone to believe in the Son (John 6.40), but Jesus tells his listeners that believing the word he speaks is tantamount to believing in the Father who sent him. The activity of the Father and the Son are tightly woven together in this passage. Jesus is the object of faith and those who believe in him have already passed over from death to life. There is an immediacy to the eternal life that Jesus gives the believer. This is an example of inaugurated eschatology. It is not an uncommon theme in John. For example, “I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world” (John 16.33). The new life that Jesus gives to the believer is a present reality (John 10.10; cp. 1 Thessalonians 5.9;
Romans 8.1; 10.11-13).
The resurrection is essential to the New Testament’s doctrine of redemption. Of course, the resurrection of the believer cannot be understood apart from Jesus’ resurrection (Romans 8.29, 31-32). Jesus said: I am the resurrection and the life.Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die (John 11.25; cp. John 5.25-29). There is no resurrection to eternal life except in Jesus. In Jesus’ discourse about his authority as God’s Son, he said, “For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day” (John 5.40; cp. John 14.1-3; 1 John 5.11-13).Jesus claimed to have the authority over life and death (John 5.24-29). He demonstrated this by raising Lazarus from the dead (John 11.42-44; cp. Mark 5.41). Regarding Lazarus, who had been dead for four days, Jesus said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I said this on account of the people standing around, that they may believe that you sent me” (John 11.41-42). It is in Jesus’ authority over death both in his own resurrection and in the lives of believers that his messianic mission is validated: The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 15.56).
BOTTOM LINE OF THE GOSPEL
Jesus gives eternal life to those who believe in him as the redemptive Son of God. Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life (John 5.24). He is able to do this because he has innate authority over death (John 5.26). He has the power to give up his life (John 10.18) and he has the power to give life to others (John 3.36). The gospels attest that Jesus orchestrated the events that would lead to his own crucifixion. Indeed, many of the events of Jesus’ ministry were done to fulfill the prophetic pronouncements of the New Testament (e.g., Matthew 4.14; 12.17-21; 26.54). Peter, in his sermon on the day of Pentecost, points us to Psalm 16 and helps us to understand that David foresaw and spoke about the resurrection of Jesus (Acts 2.25-28, 31; cp. Psalm 16.9-11). Knowing this, we appreciate how Jesus’ crucifixion brings glory to God by accomplishing his redemptive purpose (John 17.4) and we understand that his Messianic mission of redemption is confirmed by his resurrection. That Jesus understood this is evident in his priestly prayer to the Father recorded by the apostle John: Glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed (John 17.5).
The tension between the present urgency of accepting the message of the gospel and the future judgment is developed in John 5.25-29. Jesus is the apocalyptic Son of Man spoken of in Daniel 7.13-14 to whom the Ancient of Days gave dominion and glory and a kingdom so that all peoples and nations should serve him. The prerogative to exercise judgment is conferred upon the Son, yet, he is clothed in human flesh, fully man. He has been given full authority to execute judgment. There is but one essential work of God: Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent” (John 6.29). In saying this Jesus was referring to himself. Believe in him and you will pass from death to life and escape the resurrection of judgment.
In the Gospel of John one finds the declaration of Jesus’ vicarious atonement stated very early in the Gospel narrative: Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! (John 1.29). The manner of this atoning sacrifice is implied in John 3.13-15: No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. Seven times in John’s gospel he makes reference to the “hour” awaiting Jesus (2.4; 7.6 [time]; 7.30; 8.20; 12.23, 27; 13.1; 16.25; 17.1): the first was at the wedding at Cana when in response to his mother’s prompting to make himself known he said: My hour is not yet come (John 2.4). When at the feast in Jerusalem some Greeks approached Philip asking to see Jesus, he replied: The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified (John 12.23; cp. 17.1). Of course, Jesus is glorified in his death and the justice and holiness of God is vindicated through his death.
What Paul declares as the essential gospel message in 1 Corinthians 15.1-5, the other gospel writers also hold to be indispensable truth. John, in contrast to the synoptic gospels, highlights the cardinal doctrine of salvation by faith. He clearly states his purpose in writing: Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name (John 20.30-31). Indeed, the Gospel is saturated with the theme that belief in the Son results in eternal life (e.g., John 1.12; 3.16; 4.14; 6.27-29; 10.28; 17.2). John clarifies the identity and role of the second person of the Trinity. The discourse following the healing of the lame man reveals that the Son is in perfect accord with the Father, and that the Son has been entrusted with all eschatological judgment. The Son has been given authority to execute judgment against everyone who has done evil and the Son has the power to give eternal life to those who have done good. The work of God that merits the resurrection of life is to believe on the one whom God has sent – namely, Jesus (John 6.29).
JESUS AND THE SABBATH
The incident that precipitated the conflict between the Jews (John frequently uses the term “Jews” in reference to the Jewish leadership) and Jesus was his healing of a lame man on the Sabbath. It was Jesus’ response, when confronted about his “Sabbath violation,” that was problematic for his accusers: My Father is working until now, and I am working(John 5.17). As in the Synoptic accounts (cp. Matthew 12.1-8; Mark 3.1-6; Luke 13.10-17) Jesus might have contested that their understanding of the Sabbath was deficient and that he was Lord of the Sabbath. Instead, he identifies his healing work with the work of God, or more correctly, and I might add gratingly for the Jewish leaders, my Father. By this response John implicitly demonstrates that Jesus is Lord of the Sabbath. The author of Hebrews develops the idea that Jesus is the believer’s Sabbath rest (4.3-11). Though John does not express this view explicitly, the idea is dormant in the text nonetheless.
But just as the Fourth Gospel suggests that the various Jewish feasts, rightly understood, anticipated Jesus and thereby ‘testify’ to him, so it may be that the Sabbath festival is understood to point to him. The possibility is strengthened if Jesus is presupposing (as also Heb. 4:3-10) that God’s seventh-day rest (sabbatismos) at creation has never ended. … The conclusion is drawn that there is still a rest for the people of God, a rest that can be entered and enjoyed by faith in Christ. This is a rest from dead works, a joyful participation in the salvation that has already dawned in Christ. (D. A. Carson, John, p. 248)
Jesus’ distinctive use of the term my Father, signified that he was aware of his own unique relationship with the Father, one not enjoyed by others. Jesus’ intimacy with the Father is uniquely His prerogative. John clarifies this distinction by using a different word to describe Jesus’ unique relationship to the Father. John refers to Jesus as the Son (huios, John 3.16), and to believers as children (tekna, John 1.12; cf. 5.23; 8.49; 1 John 3.1). Moreover, Jesus claims to have come from the Father and he alone has seen him (John 6.46). The implications of his comment are not lost on his hearers. Infractions against the Sabbath are serious enough, claiming equality with God is blasphemous – a capital offense under Jewish law. It ought to be noted that Jesus is not claiming to be another God. Rather, he is subordinate to the Father as a Son. Jesus emphatically declares: Truly, truly, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing.
THE TRINITY AND SALVATION
Just a brief excursus on the Trinity may be helpful at this point. That Jesus is the second person of the Trinity is essential to understanding what the New Testament teaches about salvation. The proclamation (kerygma) of the gospel is of God’s saving work in the vicarious life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 15.3-5). The doctrine (dogma) of Christ’s substitutionary atonement provides the foundation and structural support for that proclamation. One may come to saving faith in Christ without understanding the doctrine of the Trinity, but the true object of faith (Christ) is in fact the second person of the Trinity. In short: “the proclamation is that ‘God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ’; the doctrine is that the ‘God’ in question has to be thought of as a Trinity if this proclamation is valid” (Alister McGrath, Understanding the Trinity, p. 115). McGrath says elsewhere: “The doctrine of the Trinity is to the Christian experience of God what grammar is to poetry – it establishes a structure, a framework, which allows us to make sense of something which far surpasses it” (McGrath, p. 147).
the subordination of the son to the father
John explains the obedience of the Son to the Father using four “because” or “for” statements: For whatever the Father does, the Son does likewise. For the Father loves the Son and shows him all that he himself is doing. And greater works than these will he show him, so that you may marvel. For as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom he will. [For – οὐδὲ γὰρ] the Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son, that all may honor the Son, just as they honor the Father (John 5.19 -22). John says that the Son perfectly expresses the will and action of the Father; to behave or think otherwise would nullify his Sonship. Because the Father loves the Son, he shows him everything. What the Father makes known to the Son is greater than what he makes known to his covenant people. They are limited in their understanding of the mysteries of God (cp. Deuteronomy 29.29; Job 38.2; Psalm 139.1-6). But now an even greater work than has heretofore been made known will be revealed through the Son so that everyone will marvel. This will happen so that people will believe in him and have eternal life.
The words Jesus speak reveal the truth about himself and the Father; these words are validated by his works (or signs, cp. John 10.38). Jesus healed a lame man, but he is about to do something greater: he will exercise the prerogatives of God himself by giving life to the dead and pronouncing final judgment on the wicked. One cannot help but think ahead to John 11 where Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead. That event anticipates the eschatological fulfillment of the Son’s work. “The Father and the Son both enjoy the prerogative of giving life, for the Father has determined that it will not be his direct task to judge anyone, but has instead entrusted all judgment to the Son. Seen in this light, the authority to give resurrection life is the entailment of the authority to judge on the last day” (Carson, p. 254).
JUDGMENT BELONGS TO THE SON
Judgment is perceived as the prerogative of God alone; it is conferred to the Son so that he might be honored as the Father is honored. It is a remarkable affirmation of the preeminence of the Son. It is difficult to miss John’s point: Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him. Now that the supremacy of the Son has been established, Jesus makes another emphatic statement: Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life. It is the will of the Father for everyone to believe in the Son (John 6.40), but Jesus tells his listeners that believing the word he speaks is tantamount to believing in the Father who sent him. The activity of the Father and the Son are tightly woven together in this passage. Jesus is the object of faith and those who believe in him have already passed over from death to life. There is an immediacy to the eternal life that Jesus gives the believer. This is an example of inaugurated eschatology. It is not an uncommon theme in John. For example, “I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world” (John 16.33). The new life that Jesus gives to the believer is a present reality (John 10.10; cp. 1 Thessalonians 5.9;
Romans 8.1; 10.11-13).
The resurrection is essential to the New Testament’s doctrine of redemption. Of course, the resurrection of the believer cannot be understood apart from Jesus’ resurrection (Romans 8.29, 31-32). Jesus said: I am the resurrection and the life.Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die (John 11.25; cp. John 5.25-29). There is no resurrection to eternal life except in Jesus. In Jesus’ discourse about his authority as God’s Son, he said, “For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day” (John 5.40; cp. John 14.1-3; 1 John 5.11-13).Jesus claimed to have the authority over life and death (John 5.24-29). He demonstrated this by raising Lazarus from the dead (John 11.42-44; cp. Mark 5.41). Regarding Lazarus, who had been dead for four days, Jesus said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I said this on account of the people standing around, that they may believe that you sent me” (John 11.41-42). It is in Jesus’ authority over death both in his own resurrection and in the lives of believers that his messianic mission is validated: The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 15.56).
BOTTOM LINE OF THE GOSPEL
Jesus gives eternal life to those who believe in him as the redemptive Son of God. Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life (John 5.24). He is able to do this because he has innate authority over death (John 5.26). He has the power to give up his life (John 10.18) and he has the power to give life to others (John 3.36). The gospels attest that Jesus orchestrated the events that would lead to his own crucifixion. Indeed, many of the events of Jesus’ ministry were done to fulfill the prophetic pronouncements of the New Testament (e.g., Matthew 4.14; 12.17-21; 26.54). Peter, in his sermon on the day of Pentecost, points us to Psalm 16 and helps us to understand that David foresaw and spoke about the resurrection of Jesus (Acts 2.25-28, 31; cp. Psalm 16.9-11). Knowing this, we appreciate how Jesus’ crucifixion brings glory to God by accomplishing his redemptive purpose (John 17.4) and we understand that his Messianic mission of redemption is confirmed by his resurrection. That Jesus understood this is evident in his priestly prayer to the Father recorded by the apostle John: Glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed (John 17.5).
The tension between the present urgency of accepting the message of the gospel and the future judgment is developed in John 5.25-29. Jesus is the apocalyptic Son of Man spoken of in Daniel 7.13-14 to whom the Ancient of Days gave dominion and glory and a kingdom so that all peoples and nations should serve him. The prerogative to exercise judgment is conferred upon the Son, yet, he is clothed in human flesh, fully man. He has been given full authority to execute judgment. There is but one essential work of God: Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent” (John 6.29). In saying this Jesus was referring to himself. Believe in him and you will pass from death to life and escape the resurrection of judgment.
In the Gospel of John one finds the declaration of Jesus’ vicarious atonement stated very early in the Gospel narrative: Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! (John 1.29). The manner of this atoning sacrifice is implied in John 3.13-15: No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. Seven times in John’s gospel he makes reference to the “hour” awaiting Jesus (2.4; 7.6 [time]; 7.30; 8.20; 12.23, 27; 13.1; 16.25; 17.1): the first was at the wedding at Cana when in response to his mother’s prompting to make himself known he said: My hour is not yet come (John 2.4). When at the feast in Jerusalem some Greeks approached Philip asking to see Jesus, he replied: The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified (John 12.23; cp. 17.1). Of course, Jesus is glorified in his death and the justice and holiness of God is vindicated through his death.