Life; John 5:24-30

Jesus continues to explain who He is to these antagonistic Pharisees. As He stands on the steps of the temple and he responds to their challenge a crowd has begun to gather, so that not only are the antagonistic, legalistic Pharisees standing there but also many others who are listening to His Words.

John 5:24 ^NASB  “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life.” This is a crucial verse to understand and there are some aspects of it that cannot be understood correctly in the English, but must be understood by looking at the Greek as Jesus clarifies His position. He begins with the statement amen, amen [a)mhn, a)mhn] which is translated either verily, verily or truly, truly. It is really a call to attention. It is a verbal way of underlining and boldfacing what you are getting ready to say. Jesus is going to give them a crucial principle of doctrine here and they need to pay attention. “…he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me…” It looks at first glance in the English that there are two conditions being set here for salvation. That is why we have to take a little time and look at the Greek in the passage. It begins with the articular participle akouon [a)kouwn], and this is the one who hears. Then there is a connecting conjunction kai [kai] and second participle pisteuon [pisteuwn], the verb for faith. Notice there are two participles here. Because there is a definite article it is viewed as an adjectival or substantive participle. That means it functions like a noun—the one who hears, the person who is listening. Hearing in both Greek and in Hebrew is not just having your ear drums vibrated by sound, hearing includes and implies a positive response in obedience and application. So Jesus is saying, “The one who listens and does My word.” So the object of this first is “the one who hears My word.” The object of the second verb is “Him who sent Me.” A reference to God the Father. The question we must ask is, Are we talking about one, or two different things? Do you have to believe in God the Son and His substitutionary work on the cross, and do you also have to believe in God the Father? That is what it looks like, but that is not what it says in the Greek. This is why it is so crucial to know the Greek. “The very act of hearing and accepting Me, I am so tightly united with the Father that to hear Me and to believe Me is to believe the Father.” They are viewed as identical things. The Greek grammar here is so crucial that God the Holy Spirit in the act of breathing out God’s Word through John the apostle articulates it in a very precise manner.

There is an application to this. When we read the Scriptures we see that God is precise. He doesn’t speak in generalities; there is an emphasis on quality, on doing things in a very precise manner. If God is being precise, then we too should be precise. There is another application of that. Too often when we do things as a believer we slip into mediocrity in our lives.

“… has eternal life.” This is a present possession, a present active indicative in the Greek indicating continuous action. Eternal life becomes our personal possession at the moment of salvation. Expanding the translation: “Truly, truly, the person who positively responds to my message of the gospel is at the same time believing with respect to the Father who sent me; this person has as a result the present possession of eternal life, and he does not come into judgment but is passed from death into life.”

We have moved from the category of death. We are born into the realm of Satan who is the prince and power of this world. This is also called the kingdom of darkness. At the moment of faith alone in Christ alone we move into the realm of life. We are given spiritual life; we are in the kingdom of God; we are in the kingdom of light. But the Scripture says that we are to walk as sons of light. The process of the spiritual life is learning the Word of God under the filling of the Spirit of God so that we can advance to spiritual maturity and fulfil the mandates to live like sons of light. But don’t confuse spiritual life doctrine with justification doctrine. The person who has eternal life does not come into judgment. At the cross God the Father poured out all the sins of humanity on Jesus Christ, past, present and future. So Jesus Christ paid the penalty for every single sin in human history. The sin barrier is removed and sin is not an issue anymore, God the Father is not going to bring it up again.

John 5:25 ^NASB “Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live.” This is the third of four times in John that He uses the phrase, “and hour is coming.” “… and hour is coming and now is.” In John 4:21, 23 Jesus used the phrase talking about the new shift of dispensation. The fact that an hour is coming and now is indicates that God is changing things in the way he operates or administers human history. It is a dispensational shift. “… when the dead [spiritually dead] shall hear the voice of the Son of God.” They hear the gospel. When the unbeliever hears the gospel he is spiritually brain dead (1 Corinthians 2:14), he can’t understand the things of the Spirit of God. So the Holy Spirit in His ministry of conviction makes the gospel clear and understandable to the thinking of the unbeliever. Then the unbeliever has to exercise his volition, either positively by saying he believes the gospel, or negatively by rejecting the gospel. Jesus is saying that the hour now is when the spiritually dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, because He is physically present—and He uses the phrase Son of God because here He is emphasising His deity—and those who hear (and believe) shall live.” Jesus said: “I came, not like a thief to destroy, but to give life and to give it abundantly.” Then He goes on to explain this concept of life in v. 26.

John 5:26 ^NASB “For just as the Father has life in Himself, even so He gave to the Son also to have life in Himself.” So in the plan of God there is God the Father delegating to God the Son, life. Therefore God the Son who is the Saviour is the one who is going to bestow life (eternal life) on believers. [27] “and He gave Him authority to execute judgment, because He is {the} Son of Man.” Why does God the Son have authority to execute judgment? Because He is the one who went to the cross, and He died there as our substitute.

John 5:28 ^NASB “Do not marvel at this; for an hour is coming, in which all who are in the tombs will hear His voice,.” These are the dead. 1 Thessalonians 4 says that the dead in Christ will rise first, then we who are live and remain will be caught up together with Him in the clouds. This is the Rapture.

John 5:29 ^NASB “and will come forth; those who did the good {deeds} to a resurrection of life, those who committed the evil {deeds} to a resurrection of judgment.” The word “good” is the Greek word agathos [a)gaqoj] which means good of intrinsic value. Jesus Christ did the good on the cross, and by virtue of our faith alone in Him that is applied to us, and that is the doctrine of imputation of righteousness. Those who did the good deeds in poieo [poiew] in the Greek, which means to do something; but “committed the evil deeds” is the Greek word prasso [prassw] which means to practice. He is talking to the Pharisees because they have committed their lives to a life of practising righteousness so that they can get into heaven. And Jesus said that if we are going to get into the kingdom of God our righteousness has to exceed the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees; not because there was something evil about them but because in terms of human history probably no group of people have ever been more moral and upright than the Pharisees. Jesus said that this is the best man can do and you have to be better than this to get into heaven; you have to have perfect righteousness. The “resurrection of judgment” in the great white throne judgment.

John 5:30 ^NASB “I can do nothing on My own initiative. As I hear, I judge; and My judgment is just, because I do not seek My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me.” Jesus summarises in terms of His equality with the Father. He reiterates the opening points from verse 19. He is not acting independently of the Father, he is carrying out the Father’s will.