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The Gospel of John, The Period of Controversy, The Claims of Jesus Christ, Part II, John 5:23-27 - Lesson 32
Summary of verses 16 through 22
My Father worketh and I work (In Service, vv. 16-18)
His will and the Father's are equal, (In will, v. 19)
He knows all that the Father knows (In Intelligence, v. 20)
He has the same sovereign rights as the Father (In Sovereign Rights, v. 21)
He is to receive the same honor as the Father (In Divine Honors, vv. 22-23)
Read Verses 5:19-22, for review:
Verse 5:23, That all men should honour the Son, even as they honour the Father. He that honoureth not the Son honoureth not the Father which hath sent him.
Isaiah 42:8, I am the Lord: that is my name: and my glory (honour) will I not give to another...
He wants Jesus honored which shows that Jesus is not another, but the very Son of the Godhead where no division exists.
But we believe in the oneness of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
The Son is co-equal and co-existent with the Father and the Father wishes to have the Son have all honour as the Father does.
So completely and perfectly does the Son manifest the Father, that no one can at the same time refuse the Son's claims and pay honour to the Father.
The world tries this but it is impossible to have any status with God without status with the Son.
You cannot honor the Father if you do not honor the Son.
To reject the Son is to reject the Father.
You must honor the Son to honor the Father.
You cannot have one without the other because both are one.
You cannot know God except through Jesus Christ. I John 2:23, "Whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father.."
Sometimes we may be afraid that we give too much honor to Jesus Christ and that by doing this we do not honor the Father.
You cannot honor the Son too much.
The Father is not jealous of the honor the Son receives, for when you honor the Son you honor the Father.
Verse 5:24, Verily, verily I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.
Jesus says that all judgment is his responsibility, all judgment is under his authority.
But his hand of mercy is extended in this verse.
He says you can have a gift of life and you will not be judged for your sin.
You will not come into condemnation.
This verse says that you do not have to wait until your body is dead and stand before the judgment bar to find our what the verdict is in your case.
You don't have to hope that your pluses outweigh your minuses and that because you led a generally good life he will welcome you to the Father.
He infers in this verse that unless you grab hold of this lifeline that he extends, you will come into condemnation and you will stand before him at the Great White Throne Judgment.
You will be judged as a rejecter of the grace that he extends to you.
Earlier in this passage Jesus said that he would quicken or make alive those that he willed to make alive.
This verse tells us who he wills to make alive.
Jesus does not will to quicken on a haphazard basis.
He does not go around the world and say inny, meany, miney, moe.
He does not have a quota by race, or gender, or size, appearance or personality.
He is not a respecter of persons.
We see by this verse who he chooses to quicken.
We see who he wills to make alive.
He chooses to give life to those that hear his word, and believes on the Father.
Those, who in faith, receive his life giving word.
He chooses to exclude from the judgment those that put their case in his hands,
These do not have to wait until the last day to hear a favorable verdict; it has been pronounced already.
Nor do those that he passes from death unto life have to wait to experience the essence of resurrection.
He tells us here that they have been raised from a state of death and have passed into an eternal state of life.
They have been born again.
Eternal life is a present possession, a possession never to be lost, a state of existence, and not only something future.
Verse 5:25,26,27, Verily, verily, I say unto you, The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live. For as the Father hath life in himself; so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself; And hath given him authority to execute judgement also, because he is the Son of man.
Again we hear Jesus saying, Of a truth, of a truth.
Perk up your ears to a life changing truth.
Here is a verse that tells us that the dead hear.
Who are these dead?
What do they hear?
Can they hear just anything?
This is a paradox for the carnal mind.
How can anything that is dead be able to hear?
These verses tell us that only the voice that is life is able to penetrate into the place of death, and because His voice is a life giving voice, the dead hear it and live.
The capacity to hear accompanies the power of the voice.
Those who hear the voice, we are told, are raised from spiritual death. Isa. 55:3 says to "Incline your ear, and come to me; hear, that your soul may live."
These dead that Christ talks about are those that are dead in trespasses and sins.
Those that walk about without the life that is true life and is only received through Jesus Christ.
Those that are the natural generation of Adam when death passed upon all men.
This race of men and women that is dead to all things spiritual and all things of God.
Jesus Christ is telling here of the dispensation of the grace of God.
This is the hour of the quickening ministry of the Holy Spirit.
This is the hour where the voice of the Son is breathed into dead men's souls and they are turned into men alive only in Christ.
We are not alive in ourselves, but alive only because God the Father has given to the Son to have life in himself.
But Jesus includes an ominous warning in his message.
For those that refuse to hear the gospel message of the grace of God, the same God, who has made Jesus Christ a giver of life, has also appointed him as Judge to those who refuse Him, in the last day.
You will have to deal with the Son.
You either receive his grace or you receive his judgment!
He is both giver of life and the only one who has the authority to judge you if you refuse that life.
There is one mediator between God and man, and that is the man, Christ Jesus.
When men refuse to bow before him while in this life, they will bow before him in the judgment.
This passage sets forth the absolute equality of the Son with the Father: |