3. The Son's equality with the Father 5:19-29

The preceding controversy resulted in Jesus clarifying His relationship to His Father further. Jesus proceeded to reply to His enemies' charge that He was not equal with God the Father. This is the most thoroughgoing statement of Jesus' unity with the Father, divine commission, authority, and proof of Messiahship in the Gospels. Jesus moved from clarifying His relationship to the Father to explaining His function as the judge of humanity to citing the witnesses that established His claims.

5:19 Jesus introduced his reply with another solemn affirmation. He began by assuring the Jewish leaders that He was not claiming independence from the Father. He was definitely subordinate to Him, and He followed the Father's lead (cf. 4:34; 5:30; 8:28; 12:50; 15:10; Luke 5:17). Jesus described His relationship to the Father as similar to that of a son growing up in a household who learns a trade from his father while remaining submissive to him. The Son of God receives authority from the Father, obeys Him, and executes His will. Jesus would have to be God to do this perfectly. It was also impossible for the Son to act independently or to set Himself against the Father as against another God.

"Equality of nature, identity of objective, and subordination of will are interrelated in Christ. John presents him as the Son, not as the slave, of God, yet as the perfect agent of the divine purpose and the complete revelation of the divine nature."²²³

5:20 Jesus next clarified how He could do whatever the Father does. He could do so because the Father loves the Son (cf. 3:36). Moreover the Father shows the Son whatever the Father does. Continuous disclosure indicates love. The greater works than "these"(i.e., the healing of a paralytic and commanding him to carry his mat on the Sabbath) include giving life to the dead (v. 21) and pronouncing final judgment (v. 22). Part of the purpose of these greater works was to face His critics with His divine authority so they would consider His claims.

5:21 The fact that the Father discloses all He does to the Son and the Son does whatever the Father does is clear from the Son's giving life to the dead. The Jews acknowledged that only God could raise the dead (2 Kings 5:7; Ezek. 37:13). This involves overcoming the forces of sin and death. Jesus claimed that authority now, and He demonstrated it later (11:41-44). His healings were a lesser demonstration of the same power. The Son's will is so identical to the Father's that His choices reflect the Father's will. Eternal spiritual life and resurrected physical life are both in view.

5:22 This verse probably explains the former one rather than being parallel to it, which the NIV translation implies. The roles of the Father and the Son are parallel in verse 21, but there is a distinction between them in this verse. The Father and the Son both give life, but the Father has committed all judgment to the Son (cf. Acts 17:31).

"This was something new to Jews. They held that the Father was the Judge of all people [cf. Gen. 18:25], and they expected to stand before him at the last day."²²⁴

The Son's giving life is in preparation for His judging. Judgment here probably includes discriminating as well as announcing final condemnation. This verse clarifies the roles of the Father and the Son whereas 3:17 deals with the primary purpose of the Son's incarnation.

5:23 The reason for this delegation is that all may honor the Son as they honor the Father. Subordination usually results in less honor. The Father has guaranteed that the Son will receive equal honor with Himself by committing the role of judging entirely to Him. Therefore failure to honor the Son reflects failure to honor the Father. Conversely honoring the Son honors the Father (cf. Phil. 2:9-11). God will not share His honor with another (Isa. 42:8, 11). Consequently for Him to share His honor with the Son must mean that the Son and the Father are one in essence.

"The religious' people who say that they worship God, but who deny the deity of Christ, have neither the Father nor the Son!"²²⁵

5:24 Jesus proceeded to develop one idea from the preceding argument more fully. He introduced it with a solemn affirmation. Jesus said that He gave life to whomever He pleased (v. 21). He now described these people as those who hear His word and believe the Father. They will not experience condemnation (cf. 3:18; Rom. 6:13; 8:1) but begin already to experience eternal life (cf. 3:36; Eph. 2:1, 5).²²⁶They pass from one realm to another the moment they believe (cf. 1 John 3:14)

Jesus' word had brought new life to the paralytic (v. 8). His word will also bring eternal life or eternal death to everyone. His word is the same as the Father's word since the Son only says what the Father gives Him to say (v. 19). Jesus specified the Father as the object of faith because He had just explained that the Son mediates everything from the Father, not because Jesus is an inappropriate object of faith (cf. 3:16; 14:1). The Son represents the Father to humankind, so when we place faith in the Son we are placing it in the Father as well.

Therefore the believer's basis of eternal security and his or her assurance of eternal life both rest on the promise of the Son.

"To have eternal life now is to be secure throughout eternity.

"The words of this verse should not be taken simply as a statement of fact. They are that. Anyone who hears and believes has eternal life. But the words also constitute an invitation, a challenge. They are a call to hear Christ and to take the step of faith."²²⁷

5:25 Jesus continued to describe what believers will experience in the future fully that they already experience now in measure (cf. 4:23), namely resurrection life. We will experience it in the future physically, but we experience it now spiritually. Jesus' word gives believers spiritual life now, and it will raise the dead in the future (cf. vv. 28-29; 11:43).

5:26 This verse explains how Jesus can do these things. He can do them because He has life resident within Himself. He is self-existent whereas humans receive their life from Him, the source of life. This quality of the Son is another that came to Him by the Father's good pleasure before Creation (cf. v. 22; 1:4).

5:27 Similarly God has given the Son authority to judge (vv. 21-22). Jesus revealed an additional reason for this here. It is because Jesus is "Son of Man"(Dan. 7:13-14). He is the Anointed One whom God has sent, but He is also fully human. Jesus can judge humanity because He belongs to it and understands it (cf. Heb. 2:17). The absence of a definite article before the title stresses the quality of Jesus as "Son of Man"(cf. Heb. 1:2).²²⁸

5:28-29 Jesus urged His hearers not to marvel that it would be His voice that would summon the dead eventually (cf. 11:43). All the dead will hear the Son of Man's voice in the future calling them forth to judgment. Believers are those who do good, which involves believing on the Son (6:29; cf. 3:21). Theirs will be a resurrection resulting in eternal life. Those who do evil by not believing on the Son (3:36; cf. 3:19) will experience eternal condemnation following their resurrection.²²⁹As always, judgment is on the basis of works.

Another view is that only unbelievers are in view in both descriptions.²³⁰However believers and unbelievers have both been prominent throughout the foregoing discussion.²³¹