John 5:21-30

21 For as the Father raises the dead and gives life to them, even so the Son gives life to whom He will. 22 For the Father judges no one, but has committed all judgment to the Son, 23 that all should honor the Son just as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him. 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. 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. 26 For as the Father has life in Himself, so He has granted the Son to have life in Himself, 27 and has given Him authority to execute judgment also, because He is the Son of Man. 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. 30 I can of Myself do nothing. As I hear, I judge; and My judgment is righteous, because I do not seek My own will but the will of the Father who sent Me.

Our Spiritual Resurrection Now……Leads to Our Resurrection unto Eternal Life Later

In the verses leading up to these, Jesus makes some astounding claims, but none of them could have prepared the Jews for the claims that He makes in these next few verses. Jesus takes His claim of deity to a new level by saying, paraphrasing, “Just like the Father can raise the dead, I can raise the dead, and I can give life to whomever I want.” God gave Elijah the power to raise the widow’s son from the dead, but he had to cry out to God for that power. It was granted to him for that specific situation. The same is true with the apostles in the New Testament. Jesus didn’t need God’s approval in order to raise someone from the dead, because Jesus is God, and has power equal to God. Remember John 1:4…..”in Him is life”? There are many scriptures that say that God raised Jesus from the dead, and will raise us up as well. For example, in 1 Corinthians 6:14, it reads, “And God both raised up the Lord and will also raise us up by His power.” I picked this verse because of the use of the word “power”. God and Jesus were equal in power. Does this mean that the statement by Jesus to the Jews in John 2:19 is a contradiction when He said, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up”? Jesus is saying that He is going to raise Himself from the dead, where other verses say that God raised Jesus from the dead. This is not a contradiction at all, because as it has been established in previous verses, God and Jesus do everything together, along with the Holy Spirit. One does nothing without the other. So…..basically, Jesus raised Himself from the dead, and will raise us up on judgment day. 

In verse 22, Jesus establishes Himself as equal with God as a judge. You’ve heard the statement, “only God can judge”. Well…..God has given Jesus the authority to pass judgment. Jesus was there at the beginning and created physical life, and He will be there at the end to pass judgment and decide who will gain eternal life. Another scripture that reiterates this is Acts 10:42 when Peter preached to the household of Cornelius. It reads, “And He commanded us to preach to the people, and to testify that it is He who was ordained by God to be Judge of the living and the dead.” “He” in this verse is Jesus Christ. Also, in Romans 14:10, Paul says, “….For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ.” Some other verses for reference to this are: Acts 17:31, Romans 2:16, 1 Corinthians 4:5, and 2 Timothy 4:1. 

In verse 23, Jesus says that He is to be honored equally with God. Wow, I bet the Jews loved that statement. He was basically telling these Jewish leaders that they were not honoring God, because they were not honoring Him. God has given Jesus all authority, because He wants His Son to be honored in the same way that He is honored. There is no way to honor God without honoring Jesus. The Jews accused Jesus of blasphemy. Blasphemy would definitely not be considered as honoring God. But Jesus is on earth to do the will of the Father. He certainly didn’t leave heaven, and come to earth for His own pleasure. His willingness to do the Father’s will is showing honor to God. (John 6:38) Revelation 5:13 says it best, “And every creature which is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, I heard saying: ‘Blessing and honor and glory and power be to Him who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb, forever and ever!’” We know who the “Lamb” is…..the one and only Jesus Christ.

In verse 24, Jesus wraps up everything he has said in the previous verses. It is the words of Jesus that we have to heed if we want eternal life. Remember when Jesus was transfigured on the mount in front of Peter, James and John, and God said, “This is my Son. Hear Him!”? (Luke 9:35) God says to Peter, paraphrasing, “Stop worrying about building tabernacles to Moses and Elijah. Stop talking Peter…..and listen to My Son!” These Jewish leaders needed to stop talking, and listen to Jesus”! Jesus makes an amazing promise in verse 24. If we hear, believe and obey every word that He has said to the best of our ability, then we will have eternal life. We will not face judgment, but we will be raised up from death to life everlasting. Jesus says that we will pass “from death into life”. Romans 8:1-2 says these beautiful words that we can all take comfort in, “There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.” There is nothing like the freedom of being in Christ. I so very much wish the world would just listen to and abide by the words of Jesus, and gain this freedom before it is too late. 

In verse 25, Jesus builds on verse 24 by again using the phrase “most certainly”. It is translated from the word “amen” which means, “truly, truly”, “verily, verily”, “surely, surely”, “most assuredly”,  and “of a truth”. Its definition is firm and trustworthy. (blueletterbible.org) Jesus wants everyone listening to know that what He is saying is completely trustworthy. His words are the firm foundation that we can rely on for absolute truth with no doubt in our mind at all. After His intro phrase, He begins to speak about a resurrection of the dead…..a spiritual resurrection. He says that this resurrection “is coming, and now is”. How can it be both coming and happening now? He is speaking of the coming kingdom (the church) that will be established on Pentecost (Acts 2). However, He is also desiring for people to believe and follow Him while He is on earth as well. I mean…..why wait? People were dead in their sins, and needed saving just like we do today. 

Paul, through the Holy Spirit, does an amazing job of explaining to the Christians at Ephesus how Jesus brings us from death to life. Ephesians 2 describes the resurrection that Jesus is speaking of in verse 25 perfectly. It is a beautiful chapter that describes how we as Christians were dead in our sins, but God’s grace, coupled with our obedience has “made us alive (resurrected) together with Christ” (vs. 6). We had no hope (were dead) and were “far off”, but were “brought near by the blood of Christ” (vs. 12-13). By the way…..where do we access Jesus’ blood? We access His blood in the waters of baptism. Jesus brings us peace, because we are no longer dead in our sins (vs. 14). Jesus made us citizens of His household of which He is the chief cornerstone…..the foundation (vs 19). Nothing can separate us from His household unless we decide to leave of our own volition. If we leave the household of God after we have become Christians, we are committing spiritual suicide.

Jesus could grant eternal life to anyone who believed and obeyed Him during His ministry on earth, and He grants eternal life to anyone who believes and obeys Him now. In both instances, whether while He was alive on earth or ascended back to the Father, if the spiritually dead would hear His voice and follow Him, they would live eternally. We will meet so many in heaven who walked with Jesus while He was here on earth. Isn’t that a wonderful thought? Another thought…..Jesus wanted to save as many as He could while He was here, because some of those people could have died before the church was established. Jesus saw the urgency in saving souls. Do we? Of course, His followers who were alive at Pentecost still had to obey Jesus by repenting and being baptized for the remission of their sins. They still had to hear Jesus’ voice through the apostles, and obey. The resurrection that Jesus is speaking of in verse 25 is our choice. We can be a part of this resurrection or choose not to be a part of it. 

In verse 26, we see Jesus reiterating the fact that He is life. His words are life. We are dead without His words. Verse 27 leads up to verses 28 and 29, where we hear Jesus speak about another resurrection. The difference between the resurrection in verse 25 and the one in verses 28 and 29 is that Jesus will execute judgment during this resurrection. Remember back in verse 24, when Jesus said that all who hear His words and believe in who sent Him would not come into judgment? Now…..in verses 27-29, Jesus is going to execute judgment. What will that judgement look like? In verse 28, Jesus says, paraphrasing, “Don’t marvel” or don’t be taken by surprise, because a time is coming when everyone will hear my voice, even those who are already dead physically and in the grave. No one will get to choose whether they want to hear me or not.” Notice that he doesn’t say, “the time is coming and now is” like He did in verse 25. This is the resurrection that will occur at Jesus’ second coming on judgment day. On this day, we will have no choice but to hear His voice. We still have a choice right now. If we are not Christians, we can choose to be resurrected by obeying the words of Jesus, and let Him bring us to life spiritually through confession, repentance and baptism, or we can remain dead in our sins. If we have become a wayward Christian, we can choose to repent and let Him bring us back to life spiritually, or we can remain wayward and lost. We won’t always have that choice. 

In verses 27 and 28, Jesus said that He would execute judgment and all people would hear His voice, even those who are already in the grave. In verse 29, we see what will happen at that moment when Jesus calls the dead out of the graves. There will be a separation between those that do good and those that do evil. The good will not come into judgment and will pass into eternal life, but the evil will be brought into the judgment of Christ. So…..what is good? Who is good? In Romans 3:10-12, Paul quotes from Psalms 14:1-3, saying, “There is none righteous, no, not one; there is none who understands; there is none who seeks after God. They have all turned aside; they have together become unprofitable; there is none who does good, no, not one.” In that same chapter verse 23 he says that “all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God”. We are all in the same boat. We can never do enough good to earn our salvation. So…..what does Jesus mean by “good” and “evil”? The “good” that Jesus is talking about in verse 29 are the people who have heeded His voice, and made a life-changing commitment to Him. Jesus spoke of being “born again” spiritually to Nicodemus, and becoming a true worshiper to the woman at the well. He told the man by the pool to go and sin no more, meaning “go live for me to the best of your ability”. Jesus has been building up to this statement in verse 29 in all these conversations. If we have truly made that life-changing commitment to Jesus, then good works should come naturally for us. If we are truly striving to be Christ-like, then we will be involved in good works just as He was when He was on earth. In James 2:14, James asks a question, paraphrasing, “What good is it to say that you have faith, when you don’t do anything good for others because of that faith?” True faith involves good works even though good works can never earn salvation. Obedience to Jesus is “good” and leads to salvation. Disobedience to Jesus is “evil” and leads to judgment. In verse 30, Jesus again makes it plain that He does not execute this judgment on His own. It is not His will, but the Father’s will. And since He and the Father are one in all things, it is a unanimous decision regarding the judgment of a person. 

Just to reiterate, Jesus is speaking of two different resurrections in this passage of scripture. Verse 25 is talking about a resurrection of the dead, but not the physically dead. He is talking about a resurrection of the spiritually dead. And it is not THE resurrection that will happen on judgement day which He speaks of in verses 28 and 29. The “dead” in verse 25 are the people who have not listened to the voice of Jesus and obeyed Him yet, or the people who have obeyed, but become wayward. We are all spiritually dead in our sins before we decide to hear the Words of Jesus and obey them. What does Jesus command us to do to be resurrected spiritually? Jesus commands us to believe in Him and be baptized in order to be saved (Mark 16:16). Peter told the people who were gathered together on Pentecost to repent and be baptized for the remission of their sins (Acts 2:38). This was after the people were cut to the heart and realized that they had crucified the Son of God, and asked Peter what they needed to do about it (Acts 2:36-37). What more do we need to know? 

Romans 6:3-6 explains perfectly how we are resurrected spiritually, “Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?  Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin.” There is no other way than His way. Because we belong to Christ, who is the cornerstone of the house of God, we are the “living stones” who build up the house of God…..the Lord’s church (1 Peter 2:4-5). In what other situation would a non-living stone be called a “living stone”? Only through Christ can that happen! Have you been spiritually resurrected through obedience to Christ? Are you a “living stone” in the house of God? 

God means for everyone to learn what the Bible teaches about how to be saved. It only takes an open heart for Jesus, and a willingness to put away what we’ve been taught in the past, and truly read what God’s Word says for ourselves…..and then accept what it says and obey it. If I can help you in any way, I would love to! Are you walking in the light? Are you in Christ? Are you saved? If you aren’t or you are not sure if you are, I’d love to help you. Are you a member of the Lord’s church, but are struggling spiritually in your walk with Christ? If you are…..believe me, I’ve been there many times, and I’d love to help you. If you have any questions, please reach out. 

I love God’s Word. It challenges me to be better…..to do more in His service. It is interesting and keeps me on the edge of my seat wondering what is going to happen next. It gives me confidence and builds me up, and it brings me to my knees when my soul needs convicting! Thank you Father for the wonderful gift of Your Word!

God’s Plan of Salvation

Below is the plan that God has set forth in His Word, for humankind to receive His grace that leads to salvation and an eternity with God in heaven. This plan is straight from the Bible. 

We have to hear His word. (Romans 10:17) 

Upon hearing the message of Jesus, we believe it. (Mark 16:16) 

Then, we confess Jesus’ name before men. (Matthew 10:32) 

Next, we repent of our sins. (Acts 2:38, Acts 3:19) 

Finally, we are baptized into Christ for the remission of our sins.  (Acts 2:38, Matthew 28:18-20, Mark 16:16, Romans 6:3-4, Acts 22:16, 1 Corinthians 12:13, Galatians 3:26-27) After baptism, God adds us to His church. (Acts 2:47)

Then, we remain faithful in our commitment to Christ until death. (Revelation 2:10, 2 Peter 2:20-22)