The Son Gives Life to whom He Will

John 5:21 For as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom he will.

By a word of command, the Father brought the entire creation into existence. By a word of command, God created every living thing. Similarly, by a word of command, the Father in heaven raises the dead to life. The Father has power and authority over the realm of the dead. He has power and authority to raise the physically dead, and he has power and authority to raise the spiritually dead. Those who are dead in trespasses and sins the Father is able to make alive. This is an example of God’s glory, and of the greater works of God.

These are the works—or demonstrations of God’s almighty power and glory—at which the people would stand amazed. (Deut. 32:39; 1 Kings 17:21-22; Eph. 2:1,4-6)

However, as the Son of God asserts in verse 21, the power, glory and authority of the Father is also the power, glory and authority of the Son.

(21) “For as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom he will.” (ESV; bold emphasis added)

 The fact that the Lord Jesus could impart, create, or restore life is further evidence that he came from God and that he is one with God. This is indisputable proof that he is whom he claims to be; i.e., his Father’s Son, since no one but God can impart life or restore life to the dead.

The Son possesses all the fullness of God—including his divine attributes (although the fullness of his glory remained veiled while on earth). God’s one and only Son has the authority to grant life to whomsoever he will. The Son gives this life to everyone whom his heavenly Father has committed to him from eternity. From before the creation of the world, their names have been written in the Lamb’s book of life. (John 17:1-2; Rev. 21:27)

John 5:22 The Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son,

The Father did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that through him the world might find free salvation and deliverance from God’s just condemnation on sinners. However, the Day of Judgment is coming. On that day, the Father will judge all mankind through his Son. He who now is the Saviour of mankind, will—on that day—be mankind’s Righteous Judge. (John 12:47; Acts 10:42; 17:31; Heb. 9:27)

However, there is another sense in which we are to understand judgment. A judgment is a time of separation or sundering. Even now, the Son of God had come to separate one group of people from another. He had come to separate his own people from the world of mankind, and to call them to himself. In calling his own to follow him, however, he would be separating them from the rest of mankind. These ‘separated ones’ or ‘sanctified ones’ would constitute his church. These would be his holy ones or his ‘saints’. They would be the Lord’s treasured possession—his redeemed and special people. (John 15:16,19; 1 Pet. 2:9)

John 5:23 that all may honour the Son, just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honour the Son does not honor the Father who sent him.

It is the will of the Father in heaven that all may honour the Son just as they honour the Father. Exactly the same degree of love, worship, praise, reverence and awe as is given to the Father in heaven is to be given to the Son.

If a person does not love, worship and reverence the Son, then he does not love, worship and reverence the Father who sent him. Again, anyone who refuses to acknowledge the authority, power and glory of the Son refuses thereby to acknowledge the authority, power and glory of the Father.

To refuse homage and worship to God the Son is to refuse homage and worship to God the Father. (Ps. 2:11-12; Matt. 28:18-19; Heb. 1:5-6; see also Luke 12:8-9)