A study of John 5:21–23
”For as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom he will. For the Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son, that all may honor the Son, just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him.“
John 5:21-23 ESV
Definitions of the original language in the context of this passage:
-The Son: “υἱὸς”, “huios”; noun, nominative, singular, masculine — a son; used to describe those who are born again (Lk. 20:36) and of angels and of Jesus Christ.
-The Father: “πατέρα”, “patera”; noun, accusative, singular, masculine — God is called the Father; the Father of Jesus Christ, as one whom God has united to himself in the closest bond of love and intimacy, made acquainted with his purposes, appointed to explain and carry out among men the plan of salvation, and made to share also in his own divine nature.
-Raises: “ἐγείρει”, “egeirei”; verb, present, active, indicative, third person, singular — to arouse from the sleep of death, to recall the dead to life.
-Dead: “νεκροὺς”, “nekrous”; adjective, accusative, plural, masculine — corpse, dead.
-Gives Them Life: “ζῳοποιεῖ”, “zōopoiei”; verb, present, active, indicative, third person, singular — make alive, give life.
-Judges: “κρίνει”, “krinei”; verb, present, active, indicative, third person, singular — to pass judgment on someone; contextually in John 5:22: used specifically of the act of condemning and decreeing penalty on one.
-Judgment: “κρίσιν”, “krisin”; noun, accusative, singular, feminine — decision, judgment; opinion or decision given concerning anything. That judgment which Christ occasioned, in that wicked men rejected the salvation he offered, and so of their own accord brought upon themselves misery and punishment; to come into the state of one condemned.
-Honor: “τιμῶσι”, “timōsi”; verb, present, active, indicative, third person, plural — to have in honor, to revere, venerate.
-Sent: “πέμψαντα”, “pempsanta”; verb, aorist, active, participle, singular, accusative, masculine — to send; Teachers who come forward by God’s command and with his authority are said to be (or to have been) sent by God: as, John the Baptist, John 1:33; Jesus, John 4:34; John 5:23f, 30, 37.
Observation/Summary (short explanation of what the passage says in your own words):
As Jesus explained His perfect unity with the will and work of the Father, He said in verse 20 that even greater works than what had already been witnessed from him would be seen. And He went on verses 21–23 to say that even as the Father raises the dead to life, the Son (Jesus) does the very same. Next, Jesus said the Father judges no one, but He has given all judgment to the Son to administer. Then Jesus said that everyone who does not honor the Son, does not honor the Father, because Jesus (the Son) was sent by the Father.
Implication (what does this mean to us):
Here in verses 21–23 Jesus continues to explain His relation to God the Father. He is not a subordinate or alternate deity, but rather, fully God and fully Man; one with the Father. As Jesus explains His connection to the work of the Father, He discusses resurrection in verse 21. The Jewish leaders had just witnessed a miraculous healing, but they didn’t care about that. They only cared about the man made laws they had added to the Sabbath which had been broken when Jesus commanded the healed paralytic man to get up, pick up his bedroll and walk.
In His response, Jesus goes a step further than discussing healing. He speaks of raising the dead to life. The raising of the dead was understood by the Jewish audience to be something only God could do. Elijah, in the Old Testament, had been an example of God using a man to raise the dead, but Elijah was clearly the instrument in that scenario. Here, Jesus is not claiming to be a mere human prophet, or instrument, used by God to raise the dead. Jesus is saying He has the power to raise the dead because He is God. This is why He says, “…the Son gives life to whom He will.” Elijah acted in accordance with Yahweh’s will, but Jesus acts in accordance with His own will because He is Yahweh. God the Father is Yahweh. God the Son is Yahweh. And God the Holy Spirit is Yahweh. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are one Being who exists as 3 perfectly unified Persons; and they are all equally and fully Yahweh.
Interestingly, Jesus uses the same word for “raises” in verse 21 that He used to tell the disabled man to “get up” in verse 8. We could understand this to be a way of Him saying, “Not only will I “raise” up the sick and disabled, I will even “raise” the dead to life.” This is an important message Jesus communicated many times in passages such as John 11:25 where He said, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live.” There would be certain events like the raising of Lazarus in John 11:43–44 that would exhibit Jesus’ authority over death and life, but by this Jesus is referring to the ultimate eschatological (end times) resurrection of the dead that He alone has authority over. The set of resurrection accounts we have during Jesus’ ministry are meant to be a tiny glimpse into what is to come. Everyone who places their faith in Jesus is immediately resurrected to spiritual life, but one day all who believe in Jesus will also receive resurrected bodies that are perfect and free from decay, just like the resurrected body of Jesus. For this reason the resurrected spirit we receive in Christ is often referred to as the “down payment” of the certain and guaranteed resurrection to life that everyone who is in Christ will receive.
But He will not only resurrect those who have believed in Him to glory. He will also resurrect those who have not believed for judgment (Revelation 20:11–15). And this leads us to verse 22 where Jesus speaks again of judgment to explain His relationship to the Father. As we have discussed, Jesus is God the Son and He is fully unified and equal with God the Father, but He is a unique Person and He fulfills a unique role. Part of that role, in addition to giving life and raising the dead, is that of Judge. And God was already understood by this 1st century Jewish audience as the Judge of all the earth because of passages like Genesis 18:25 or Psalm 50:6 that says, “…for God himself is judge!”. When Jesus says, “For the Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son,” He is communicating that the role of judging the earth has been given to Him to fulfill by God the Father. And in His judgment He is perfectly unified with the will of God the Father. And we are meant to see the connection between the role of life-giver and judge. As Jesus judges, He also gives or takes life in accordance with His righteous judgments.
People love to misuse scripture by saying things like, “Judge not lest you be judged” to justify their own sinful actions and deflect criticism. And because of this some like to imagine that Jesus treats sin in the same flippant way. But that could not be further from the truth. If God did not take sin seriously, He would not have given His only Son to die for our sin. It took the blood of the Divine to justify us. And God will righteously judge all who do not accept His free gift of salvation from enslavement to sin that is only possible because Jesus, God the Son, took the righteous judgment for our sin on our behalf. Anyone who does not want to follow Jesus and accept His free gift of taking their punishment on their behalf is free to do so, but if they do so choose, then they must bear the eternal punishment for sin against an eternal God themselves.
We might hear this though and recall John 3:17 where Jesus said, “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn [also translated “judge”] the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.” And in recalling that verse we might ask, “Didn’t Jesus say He was not sent to condemn or judge the world?”. We need to understand the context of each statement though. In John 3:17 “condemn” or “judge” communicates the idea of ultimate condemnation. In John 3:17 Jesus was telling Nicodemus that He had not been sent at that particular time to judge or condemn the world for sin. He came to tell the world that we are already condemned, but that salvation is available to everyone through Him, and everyone who rejects that freely offered salvation will remain in their condemned state. Here in John 5:22, Jesus uses the word judgment to speak of His role as judge and of the judgment that will come in the future that is His to administer. So, Jesus did not come to judge or condemn the world in His first coming, but He is the Judge of all, and He will execute judgment one day. And this role has been given to Him by the Father.
This is really good news though because Jesus is a righteous Judge. As we look around at the injustice and suffering in the world we can take heart from the fact that Jesus, the righteous Judge of all, will administer justice one day. As John 5:27 says, He has the “authority” to execute judgment. Psalm 9:8 tells us He judges the world with righteousness and uprightness. Psalm 98:9 tells us He judges not only with righteousness, but also equity. He plays no favorites. And lastly for this list, Ecclesiastes 12:14 makes it clear that He will bring every deed into judgment, and every hidden thing, whether good or evil, will be answered for. No one is getting away with anything. This is comforting for us to know about in relation to the corrupt and evil powers of this world, but also sobering or even terrifying when we consider the sin in our own lives. But the gloriously good news is, “If we confess our sin, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” 1 John 1:9. Jesus is a righteous Judge, therefore sin must be punished, because “sin is lawlessness” (1 John 3:4). But He is also loving, merciful and gracious, so He has paid the penalty for our sin and fully satisfied His righteous judgment Himself.
Lastly for this passage we come to the concept of honor in verse 23. As the Judge and Life-Giver of all the earth, Jesus is to be honored just as we honor the Father. This is another claim to deity from Jesus. Jesus is saying that God the Father has given Him the power of life and death, and the office of Judge “so that all may honor the Son, just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him.” This means Jesus cannot just be a prophet or messenger of God. He claimed to be God. No one shows the same honor to the ambassador from a King that they would show to the King himself. To say that He must be honored in the exact same way as the Father is a direct claim to deity. Any mere human to claim such a thing would be blasphemy. It is impossible to honor God without honoring Jesus as God Himself, because Jesus is God incarnate.
This claim provides us with yet more reason why we cannot simply see Jesus as a prophet, or good teacher. He claimed to be God incarnate and the one and only way to eternal life. This means He is either a lying sociopath, insane, or God incarnate. There are only 3 possibilities. But upon a sincere and prayerful examination of the wealth of evidence from eye witness testimony, I think the only logical and rational conclusion is that He is who He says He is: Yahweh incarnate as both fully God and fully human.
He is worthy of all honor and praise, and as beings created to honor Him it is in our best interest to fulfill our role. As Jeremiah 17:7–8a (LEB) says, “Blessed is the person who trusts in Yahweh, and Yahweh is his trust. For he will be like a tree planted by water,”. And as we honor Jesus with our lives and words we join in the worship of the heavenly host we see in Revelation 5:13 (ESV), “And I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all that is in them, saying, “To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever!” And we honor him best when we put His words from Matthew 22:37–38 into practice when He said the greatest commandment is to love the Lord our God with all of our heart, soul and mind.
“So then, O kings, be wise. Be warned, O rulers of the earth. Serve Yahweh with fear, and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son lest he be angry and you perish on the way, for his anger burns quickly. Blessed are all who take refuge in him.”
Psalms 2:10-12 LEB
Response (How does this change how I think, act and pray?):
This passage should cause us to see Jesus as fully God and fully human. We should think of Him as the righteous Judge of all the earth who alone has total power of life and death. Recognizing Him as such, we should rightly honor Him, God the Son, in the exact same way we honor God the Father. Anyone who does not believe Jesus is fully God and fully human, equal and One with God the Father, does not honor or worship God the Father. To reject Jesus is to reject Yahweh entirely, because Jesus is Yahweh. Jesus is God.
Self Reflection:
As I look around at all the suffering and injustice in this world, how does the fact that Jesus is the Judge of the entire universe, who will administer justice to every single person for every single deed, affect my perspective?
What does the fact that Jesus fulfilled His own righteous and just requirements for sin to be punished, by taking the penalty for the sin of the whole world on Himself, tell me about what kind of Judge, Person, and God He is?
Have I accepted Jesus’ free gift of salvation from the eternal condemnation I deserve for my sin? Who has He put me in close proximity to so that I can tell them about this great gift that is available to everyone by grace through faith in Him?
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