From Death to Life
John 5:24-30
Here in John 5 Jesus is replying to the Jewish religious leaders in Jerusalem after He healed the man at the pool of Bethesda. This healing prompted the Jews to accuse Him not only of breaking the Sabbath, but also of claiming to be equal with God (5:19). And Jesus, rather than recoiling from such a charge with shock and backing off, Jesus intensified His claims to be God. We saw this last time in verses 19-23. Jesus claimed to be equal with God in His nature (5:17-18), His works (5:17, 19), His love and knowledge (5:20), His power to give life (5:21), His authority to judge (5:22), and His honor in worship (5:23). No mere man and no created being could make these claims and back them up. But Jesus clearly made those claims and His miraculous signs validated them.
Now in this next section (5:24-30) Jesus expands on His power as the Son of God to give life and on His authority as the Son of God to judge. In these verses we will find that there are two types of resurrection. There is a spiritual resurrection and there is a physical resurrection. The first may happen now to bring spiritually dead people to eternal life. The second happens at the end of the age when all the dead are raised physically from the grave and judged, some to the resurrection of life others to the resurrection of condemnation.
These resurrections divide humanity into two categories of people: those who have been granted eternal life and those who are still spiritually dead and under God’s condemnation. In verses 24-25 Jesus claims to give spiritual life to people now and he tells how it takes place. Verses 26-27 show the basis of the power of Jesus to raise the dead and give life is His relationship to the Father. And in verses 28-30 Jesus claims that in the future He will physically raise everyone from the dead and judge them.
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 text makes three main points:
- Jesus gives eternal life right now (5:24-25).
Jesus makes an authoritative, emphatic, absolute statement here in verse 24. Again He uses the phrase, “Most assuredly,” or “truly, truly.” We saw it in verse 19 when Jesus began to answer the Jews and make those tremendous claims of His deity. He doesn’t want us to miss the importance of what He says here.
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.
In this verse Jesus tells us what it means for us that He is the Son of God. In the preceding verses Jesus has claimed deity, to be the Son of God with power to give life and authority to judge. Now in verse 24 we have a great promise to those who would believe His claims. The promise is eternal life, “he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life.”
First, I want you to see that eternal life is not just existing forever. The Bible is clear that all people will continue throughout eternity regardless of whether they are righteous or wicked. In speaking of the judgment Jesus said in Matthew 25:46 that some “will go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.” Eternal life is the life of the age to come. It is a life that “shall not come into judgment.” Romans 8:1 says, “There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus.” The condemnation for our sin was placed on Jesus Christ as the cross and He paid for it fully.
And second I want you to see that this eternal life is a present possession, not just a future hope. The verse says, “has everlasting life.” That is present tense. You don’t have to wait for the resurrection at the end of the age to have eternal life. It is a spiritual life that you can have right now. In fact, if you do not have eternal life now, in this age, you will not have eternal life in the age to come. Instead you will be condemned and perish in eternal punishment.
In verse 25 Jesus says, “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.” Notice the phrase, “the hour is coming, and now is.” Jesus used that same phrase with the woman at the well when He spoke about worshiping the Father in spirit and truth (4:23). He meant that it was a present reality, but also that there was more to come. In this case, the “more to come” would be the cross, Jesus’ resurrection, His ascension, and the sending of the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost. But “now is” meant that as He spoke, Jesus had the power to speak so that the dead would hear and live.
Jesus will demonstrate that power physically at the tomb of Lazarus in chapter 11 when He calls out (11:43), “Lazarus, come forth.” With the command, Jesus imparted the supernatural power for that dead man to hear and obey. But that miraculous sign pointed to the spiritual truth that Jesus has the power to speak to those who are spiritually dead so that they receive eternal life. That is the main focus of 5:24-25. While we all would have been amazed if we had been there at Lazarus’ tomb, we should realize that the miracle of the new birth is just as great, if not greater, than the raising of a dead man. Just as Lazarus was raised instantly at the command of Christ, so dead sinners are instantly saved when they truly hear the voice of the Son of God. With the command to believe comes the power to believe.
Those who have eternal life have heard Jesus’ word and have believed the One who sent Jesus. Notice the conditions for eternal life:
a) Hearing: “he who hears My word.”
Those who have eternal life have heard Jesus’ word. Jesus’ word stands for His entire message or teaching. Hearing Jesus’ word is the same thing as hearing God’s Word, since Jesus only did what He saw the Father doing (5:19) and spoke what He heard from the Father (8:38). And the Father testified of His Son (5:37-38). God sent His Son to be the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (1:29). He sent Him to be the Savior of the world (4:42).
Hearing Jesus’ word referred to more than just hearing the sound of His voice. Obviously, the Jewish leaders who were challenging Jesus heard the sound of His voice, but they didn’t accept or submit to what He was saying. In spite of witnessing the amazing miracles that Jesus did, the Jewish leaders opposed Him and rejected His claim to be sent to earth from God. In John 10:27, Jesus said, by way of contrast with these unbelieving Jews, “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand.” And so to hear Jesus’ word means to hear with faith and obedience. It means to believe that what Jesus says is true and to submit to His lordship.
b) Believing: “believes in Him who sent Me.”
Jesus adds (5:24) that the one who has eternal life also “believes in Him who sent Me.” Who sent Jesus? The Father. To believe in the Father is believe that He sent His Son Jesus Christ. It is not possible to believe what the Father says and to turn away from the Son. The theme of this whole passage is the unity of the Father and the Son. As Jesus said in verse 23, “He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him.”
You cannot believe in the Father without believing in the Son whom He sent to be the Savior of the world.
The result of hearing and believing is eternal life, which Jesus describes at the end of verse 24 as having “passed from death into life.” The Bible is clear that without Christ, we are spiritually dead. In Ephesians 2 Paul writes about our condition before we believed saying you “were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others.” (Eph. 2:1-3).
That is why we need the new birth that Jesus spoke about to Nicodemus, because we are spiritually dead. And only God can make us alive. Look back to verse 21, “For as the Father raises the dead and gives life to them, even so the Son gives life to whom He will.” It is a work of God to give life to spiritually dead people. Christ gives life to whom He wills. Men don’t come alive on their own. God gives life.
So you might ask, “How can I know that He wills for me to have this spiritual life?” That is where verse 24 comes in again. Have you heard the word of Jesus? Are you believing in the Father who sent His only begotten Son to take away the sin of the world? If so, then you have passed from death into life.
I have often used this verse to give assurance of salvation to those who have just believed in Christ. Assurance of salvation is based on fact, not just whether you feel saved or not. The fact is Christ promises that those who hear and believe have eternal life and will not come into judgment. Either we trust His word or we don’t.
A man once came to the famous evangelist, D. L. Moody, and said that he was worried because he didn’t feel saved. Moody asked him, “Was Noah safe in the ark?” “Certainly he was,” the man replied. “Well, what made him safe, his feeling or the ark?” Our salvation doesn’t rest on our feelings, but on Christ our Savior. If we’re in Him, we’re secure and protected from the storm of judgment that is coming on the world. Our feelings rest on the absolutely truthful promises of Jesus.
Verse 24 is more than a statement of fact. It’s an invitation to hear the words of Jesus Christ and believe in Him. Have you put your trust in Him? If not, why not do it now?
From our Lord’s next words we learn…
- Jesus gives life because of His relationship to the Father (5:26-27).
In verse 26, Jesus explains why He can impart life to those who hear His voice: “For as the Father has life in Himself, so He has granted the Son to have life in Himself ….” Life is inherent in God. He spoke all life into existence in the original creation. Even so, Jesus says, the Father “has granted the Son to have life in Himself.”
In John 1:4, John said, “in Him was life,” that is, in the Word, the only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, was life. Jesus doesn’t say that life comes from the Father through the Son, but rather that just as the Father inherently has life in Himself, so also He granted or ordained that the Son has this same inherent power of life in Himself. It is another claim that Jesus shares full deity with the Father.
At the same time, the verse distinguishes the Father and the Son and shows that the Son is eternally subject to the Father. It is by the authority of the Father that the Son has life in Himself. And in verse 27 Jesus says that is also true of His authority to judge:
27 “and has given Him authority to execute judgment also, because He is the Son of Man.
The Father has given the Son the authority to judge. The reason given here is “because He is the Son of Man.” The reference to the Son of Man goes back to Daniel 7:13-14, where the prophet saw one like the Son of Man coming up to the Ancient of Days. He was given everlasting dominion, glory and a kingdom so that all the peoples and nations might serve Him. Jesus is that Son of Man. He is the Word made flesh who dwelt among us and we beheld His glory. He is eternal God in human flesh. He is uniquely qualified to judge humanity because He is both the all-knowing God and at the same time a man who understands by experience what it is like to be human (Heb. 2:17-18; 4:15). So this term, “Son of Man” speaks both of Jesus’ divinity and of His humanity. Jesus can judge perfectly and compassionately because He is the Son of Man.
So we have seen that Jesus gives eternal life right now, that He has the authority to do so because of His relationship with the Father, and thirdly we see:
- Jesus will raise the dead in the future and judge them (5:28-30).
Jesus will raise all people to face judgment.
John 5:28-29a: “Do not marvel at this; for the hour is coming in which all who are in the graves will hear His voice and come forth ….” Jesus says, “Do not marvel at this.” This is a preemptive statement because what Jesus is going to say is so shocking. So Jesus warns them not to scoff or marvel at this.
Then He adds a further claim of His divine power: “the hour is coming in which all who are in the graves will hear His voice and come forth.” Hear whose voice? The Son of God from verse 25 and the Son of Man from verse 27. In the future Jesus Himself will give the command and every dead person from every people group from all ages will arise from the dead! Whether their bodies were drowned or burned or eaten by scavengers or blown apart by a bomb, all will be raised to face judgment.
And verse 29 indicates there will be two categories of resurrection: the resurrection of life and the resurrection of condemnation–“those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation.” It’s the same thing that Daniel prophesied in Daniel 12, “And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, Some to everlasting life, Some to shame and everlasting contempt.”
Other Scriptures also indicate that there will be two types of resurrections. Believers will be raised at the second coming of Christ (1 Thess. 4:13-18; Rev. 20:4). They will not face judgment for condemnation (John 5:24), but they will be judged for rewards in heaven (Rom. 14:10; 1 Cor. 3:13-15; 2 Cor. 5:10). Unbelievers will be raised at the end of the millennium to be judged and cast into the lake of fire which is the second death (Rev. 20:11-15).
Jesus is plainly teaching that this life is not the end of our existence. Either there is life beyond the grave for every person—both the righteous and the wicked—or Jesus is wrong. He says that both those who did good and those who did evil will be raised.
The basis for this judgment will be our deeds. He distinguished between “those who have done good,” and “those who have done evil.” Does this mean that we are saved by our works? Of course not. To think that we would have to ignore what we just read in verse 24. It is not those who have done good who have eternal life and will not be condemned, but it is those who hear the word of Christ and believe. John has stressed this throughout his gospel so far:
[John 1:12] 12 But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name:
[John 3:16] 16 “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”
[John 3:36] 36 “He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.”
John Piper puts it this way:
This doesn’t mean that we are justified by our good works, or that God is on our side because of our good works, or that we are united to Christ by our good works. It means the reverse: If you are justified by faith, your faith will produce good works, and if God is on your side, he will empower you to do good works, and if you are united to Christ you will bear the fruit of good works. And in this way, your good works become the evidence, the confirmation, the verification at the judgment that you were justified by faith alone, and that God was on your side by grace alone, and that you were united to Christ before you did any good work.
Jesus knows those who believe in Him and He works through them to do what is good. That is why His judgment is a righteous judgment. John 5:30: “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.” As we saw in verse 19, when Jesus said, “the Son can do nothing of Himself,” He wasn’t saying that He has no power to act on His own; Rather, He has neither the will nor the desire to do so, due to His divine nature and His love for His Heavenly Father. There is absolutely no room in Jesus’ heart for selfishly seeking His own will, apart from the Father’s will. Nor is Jesus saying that at the Judgment, the Father would continually whisper to Jesus how He should judge in particular cases, leaving the Son to simply announce His Father’s verdicts.
Although He is in complete, voluntary subordination to the Father, His judgment on the Last Day will be His own. But it will match the Father’s judgment perfectly, because both Father and Son share the divine attribute of perfect justice and righteousness.
Here is the point: You are going to be raised from the dead someday. Your decomposed body will obey the voice of the Son of God. And you will rise from the dead and face Him—the One who was humanly tempted like you are, the One who died for the sins of the whole world on the cross, the One who was raised from the dead and lives forever as Lord of Lords. And he will look at your life—not for perfection but simply for the evidence that you believed.
Jesus speaks about judgment in a parable of contrast in Luke 18. There Jesus said, “And shall God not avenge His own elect who cry out day and night to Him, though He bears long with them? I tell you that He will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith on the earth?” Salvation is a work of God as He wills to give life to His elect. But this work of God is not apart from faith. What can you do? Believe. Only believe in Him.
When the Son of Man comes to judge will He find faith on the earth? Will He find faith in you? “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.” (John 5:24).
