In John 5:19-20, Jesus claimed to be
one in action with the Father. Now in the verses that follow He made two other
claims. Firstly, that He has the power to give life. So in verse 21 we read, “For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son also gives life to whom He wishes.”
Then in verse 22, He moved to claim that He has the authority from the Father to
judge. So the verse reads, “For not even the Father judges anyone, but He has given all judgment to the Son.”
What was Jesus saying? He had so clearly
stated that His acts were not self-initiated. He only did so at the direction
of the Father. And as the Father could raise people from their physical death, so
He the Son has also been granted the authority to give life to all who hears His
words and believe in Him. Of course we know Jesus was referring to the
spiritual life. It’s the kind of life that one will receive in acknowledging His
Lordship. We all know that without Christ in our life, we could be alive physically
and yet would be very dead spiritually. The Bible tells us that outside of
Christ we would be dead in our trespasses. Christ through His life and death had
released into believers God’s new life. True life begins when we hear, receive and
act on the words of Jesus. So He boldly asserted that the hour is coming, and
now is, when those who hear His words and believe in Him, though they may be dead
in spirit will be granted life in Him. John
5:24 says that He gives us eternal life. We can be assured that eternal life
begins the very moment we receive Christ. Physical death is only a transition from
the physical realm into the eternal realm. Life for believers continues into
the eternal realm even when the physical life is over. John tells us that in much
the same way, both the Father and the Son have life in themselves. Hence as the
Father is the life giver, so now the Son also has the same power to grant life.
In this passage, Jesus said that He is also
conferred the right to judge mankind. There is an hour coming when the resurrection
will take place. Everyone will then face the judgement. Christ will be sitting
on the judgement throne to judge the deeds of men. The talk about good and bad
deeds does not mean that we can be saved based on our works. The ways we
conduct our life merely go to show the faith we profess. They are the indications
whether we have truly believed in the Word of the Son of God or not.
In the light of these claims of Christ, we must
place our focus on Him and realize that He came to express the action of the Father.
He is our life giver and our coming judge, and life must be lived in the light
of these claims. For we will have to give an account to Him. He is the power to
life and He has the right to judge. How then should we live presently?
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