John 5:17 - Meaning and Application

We have here Christ’s answer after being accused of breaking the Sabbath. It seems to be his defense before the Sanhedrin, the Jewish ruling council, when he was brought before them. Whether this happened the same day or a few days later is not clear, though it likely was the same day.

He answered them, which means they had accused him of something, or had been saying among themselves that he deserved to be killed (John 5:16). His reply was, “My Father is working until now, and I am working” (John 5:17). In other places, when people made a similar charge, he pointed to David eating the bread from the tabernacle, the priests working in the temple, or people watering their cattle on the Sabbath. But here he gives a higher reason. He appeals to his Father and to his own divine authority. He passes over every lesser argument and stands on the one that answers all objections. He had already said, “The Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath” (Matthew 12:8), and here he expands on that truth.

First, he shows that he is the Son of God, which is implied when he calls God his Father. If that is true, then his holiness cannot be questioned and his authority cannot be denied. He may do what he wills regarding the divine law. Surely they ought to honor the Son, the heir of all things.

Second, he shows that he is working together with God. “My Father is working until now” means that God’s rest on the seventh day was a rest from the work of creation, not from all activity. God still works every day, on weekdays and Sabbaths alike, upholding and ruling all creatures. He also carries out his wise providence, meaning his ongoing care and rule over creation, for his own glory. So when we are told to rest on the Sabbath, we are not forbidden to do what directly serves God’s glory, as in the case of the man carrying his bed.

“I am working” means more than, “Therefore I may work, as he does, by doing good on the Sabbath.” It also means, “I work with him.” As God made all things through Christ, so he also sustains and rules all things through him (Hebrews 1:3). This places everything Jesus does beyond any fair objection. He who works so greatly must be the rightful ruler over all. He who does all things is Lord over all things, and therefore Lord of the Sabbath. He was claiming this part of his authority now, because he would soon show it further in changing the day from the seventh to the first.

The Jews were even more determined to kill him because of this answer (John 5:18). His defense became, in their minds, another offense, as if justifying himself had made matters worse. Those who refuse to learn from Christ’s words become angered by them. Nothing troubles Christ’s enemies more than his claim to authority. “Why do the nations rage?” (Psalm 2:3-5).

They wanted to kill him, first because they said he had broken the Sabbath. No matter what he said in his own defense, they had already decided to find him guilty. When malice and envy are in the judge’s seat, reason and justice may have no chance to speak.

They also wanted to kill him because he said God was his Father. They acted as if they were defending God’s honor, just as they had claimed to defend the Sabbath. They charged Christ with the serious sin of making himself equal with God. And if he had not truly been equal with God, that would indeed have been a serious sin. It was the sin of Lucifer, who said, “I will be like the Most High.”

This charge was rightly drawn from what Jesus had said. He had called God his Father in a special sense, his own Father, his very own Father, not another’s. He had also said that he worked with his Father, by the same authority and power. In that way, he made himself equal with God. The Jews understood this, even if the Arians, who deny Christ’s full deity, do not.

Yet the charge was wrongly used against him as if it were a crime. He was, and still is, God, equal with the Father (Philippians 2:6). So in answering this accusation, Christ does not deny their meaning as if it were strained. Instead, he proves that he truly is equal with God in power and glory.

Christ’s words here continue without interruption to the end of the chapter. In them, he explains and then confirms his commission, meaning his assigned role as mediator, the one who stands between God and humanity to bring them together. The honors given to him are too great for any creature to receive. The work given to him is too great for any creature to complete. Therefore, he is God, equal with the Father.

In general, he is one with the Father in all he does as mediator, and there is perfect agreement between them. He introduces this with strong emphasis: “Truly, truly, I say to you” (John 5:19). That means these words are very weighty and should command full attention. They are also completely certain and should be believed without hesitation. And they are matters of divine revelation, truths Christ has told us that we could never have discovered on our own.

He says two general things about the Son’s oneness with the Father in working. First, the Son copies the Father: “The Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing” (John 5:19). As mediator, the Lord Jesus is perfectly obedient to his Father’s will. He is so fully obedient that he can do nothing on his own, in the same sense that God cannot lie or deny himself. That does not mean weakness in God, but perfect faithfulness. In the same way, Christ was so wholly given to his Father’s will that he could not act apart from it.

Second, he watches and follows his Father’s counsel. He can do nothing except what he sees the Father doing. No one can fully know God’s work except the only-begotten Son, who is in the Father’s care and knows his purposes intimately. Christ always had the plan before him. Everything he did in his work as mediator was the exact copy of what the Father had planned in his eternal counsel, the unchanging plan of our redemption. It was like a copy made from a great original. Christ was faithful, as Moses was, in doing everything according to the pattern shown to him on the mountain.

This is said in the present tense, “what he sees the Father do,” for the same reason that, when Christ was on earth, it was said, “He is in heaven” (John 3:13), and “is in the bosom of the Father” (John 1:18). Even then, by his divine nature, he was present in heaven, so the things done there were open to his knowledge. What the Father did in his wise plans, the Son always had before him, and he still kept his eye on it, like David speaking of Christ, “I have set the Lord always before me” (Psalm 16:8).

Third, Christ is equal with the Father in his work. “Whatever the Father does, the Son does likewise.” He does the same things, not just similar things, but the very same things, and he does them in the same way, with the same authority, freedom, wisdom, power, and effectiveness. Does the Father make, cancel, or change laws? Does he rule over nature and know men’s hearts? So does the Son. The power of the Mediator, the one who stands between God and us, is divine power.

The Father also shares things with the Son, as in John 5:20. Notice first the reason for this: “The Father loves the Son.” He had already declared, “This is my beloved Son.” The Father not only approved of the work, but took full delight in the one doing it. Christ was hated by people, “one whom the nation abhors” (Isaiah 49:7), but he took comfort in this, that his Father loved him.

Notice also the way the Father shows that love. He shows the Son everything he himself does. The Father’s plan in making and ruling the world is shown to the Son, so that the Son may use the same plan in building and ruling the church. That work was to be a copy of creation and providence, and so it is called “the world to come.” He shows him all things he does, or, as it could also be read, all that the Son does is done under the Father’s direction. He shows him. He will also show him, meaning he will appoint and guide him to do greater works than these.

These greater works include works of greater power than healing the crippled man, for Christ would raise the dead and rise from the dead himself. By natural power, and with the help of means, a disease may sometimes be cured in time. But nature can never, by any means and in any time, raise the dead. They also include works of greater authority than allowing the man to carry his bed on the Sabbath day. The people thought that was bold, but what was that compared with Christ’s soon setting aside the whole ceremonial law, the law of sacrifices and outward rites, and establishing new ordinances? “That you may marvel.” Right now they looked on his works with contempt and anger, but soon he would do what would leave them amazed (Luke 7:16). Many are brought to marvel at Christ’s works and give him honor, yet they are not brought to believe and gain the benefit of them.

In particular, Christ proves his equality with the Father by naming some of the works that belong to God alone. This is explained further in John 5:21-30. He does, and will do, what belongs to God’s rule and authority alone, judging and carrying out judgment (John 5:22-24, 27). These two truths are closely tied together, so they are repeated and pressed again. Taken together, they prove that Christ was right when he said that he was equal with God.

Notice first what is said about the Mediator’s power to raise the dead and give life. He had authority to do it, as in John 5:21: “As the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so the Son gives life to whom he will.” It belongs to God alone to raise the dead and give life. He first breathed life into man and made him a living soul, and see also Deuteronomy 32:30; 1 Samuel 2:6; Psalm 68:20; Romans 4:17. God had shown this through Elijah and Elisha, which confirmed their calling. A resurrection from the dead was never part of ordinary nature, and it never entered the minds of those who thought only in terms of nature’s power. Their basic rule against it was that what has once been lost cannot be restored. So the idea was mocked at Athens as absurd (Acts 17:32). It is purely the work of divine power, and it is known only by divine revelation. The Jews themselves would admit this.

But the Mediator has been given this right. He gives life to whom he will, raising whom he chooses and when he chooses. He does not give life by natural necessity, as the sun gives warmth by its regular beams. He acts freely, with his power entirely under his own control. He is never forced, and never held back, in using it. As he has the power, so he also has the wisdom and rule of God. He has the key of death and the grave (Revelation 1:18), not as a servant who opens and shuts only when ordered, but as the key of David, which belongs to him as master (Revelation 3:7). This is the mark of an absolute ruler: “whom he would he slew or kept alive” (Daniel 5:19). That is true of Christ without exaggeration.

He is able to do this because he has life in himself, just as the Father has life in himself (John 5:26). It is certain, first, that the Father has life in himself. He is not only self-existent, meaning he depends on no one else for his being (Exodus 3:14), but he is also the sovereign giver of life. He holds life in his own hand, and all good as well, since “life” often means all good things. Everything comes from him and depends on him. He is the fountain of life and all good for his creatures, the giver of their being and well-being, the living God, and the God of all who live.

It is just as certain that he has given the Son to have life in himself. As the Father is the source of all natural life and good as Creator, so the Son, as Redeemer, is the source of all spiritual life and good. He is to the church what the Father is to the world (1 Corinthians 8:6; Colossians 1:19). The kingdom of grace, and all the life in it, are fully and completely in the Redeemer’s hand, just as the kingdom of providence is in the hand of the Creator. And as God, who gives being to all things, has being from himself, so Christ, who gives life, raised himself to life by his own power (John 10:18).

Having life in himself, and having authority to give life to whom he will, Christ acts on that authority and power in two resurrections spoken of here. First is a resurrection that happens now (John 5:29), a rising from the death of sin to the life of righteousness by the power of Christ’s grace. “The hour is coming, and now is.” This resurrection has already begun and will keep going, when the dead hear the voice of the Son of God. This is clearly different from the resurrection in John 5:28, which speaks of the resurrection at the end of time.

This is not speaking about the dead being raised in their graces, or about all the dead coming out of their graves. Some think this was fulfilled in the people Christ raised back to life, such as Jairus’s daughter, the widow’s son, and Lazarus. It is worth noticing that Christ spoke to all whom he raised: “Damsel, arise,” “Young man, arise,” “Lazarus, come forth.” By contrast, those raised in the Old Testament were not raised by a spoken word, but by other means (1 Kings 17:21; 2 Kings 4:34; 2 Kings 13:21).

Some take this to mean the saints who rose with Christ. But we do not read of the Son of God calling them with his voice. So I think this is mainly about the power of Christ’s teaching, which brings back to life people who are dead in sins, that is, spiritually dead and cut off from God (Ephesians 2:1). The time was coming when dead souls would be made alive through gospel preaching, with the Spirit of life from God working with it. In fact, it had already begun while Christ was on earth.

This may especially point to the calling of the Gentiles, which is described as life from the dead. Some think Ezekiel’s vision pictured this (Ezekiel 37:1), and Isaiah foretold it: “Your dead shall live” (Isaiah 26:19). But the truth reaches farther than that. It applies to all the great success of the gospel among both Jews and Gentiles, an hour that was then present and still keeps coming until all the elect are effectively called. Sinners are spiritually dead. They have no spiritual life, no sense of their condition, no strength, and no power to move toward God. They are dead to God, miserable, and yet unable to feel their misery or rescue themselves.

When a soul turns to God, that is a resurrection from death to life. A person truly begins to live when he begins to live for God, to long for him, and to move toward him. This happens by the voice of the Son of God. He gives life by his power, and that power is carried through his word. The dead will hear, meaning they will be made to hear, understand, receive, and believe the voice of the Son of God as his own voice. Then the Spirit gives life through that word, because otherwise the letter kills.

We must hear Christ’s voice if we are to live by it. Those who hear, and truly pay attention to what they hear, will live. “Hear, and your soul shall live” (Isaiah 55:3).

There is also a resurrection still to come, described in John 5:28-29. Jesus begins by saying, “Do not marvel at this,” meaning, do not reject what I have said about the first resurrection as impossible or foolish. At the end of time, you will see an even clearer and more amazing proof of the power and authority of the Son of Man. Just as his own resurrection was the final proof of his personal mission, so the resurrection of all people will be a like proof of his mission carried out by his Spirit.

Notice, first, when this resurrection will happen. “The hour is coming.” It is fixed to an exact time, so precise is this great appointment. Judgment is not pushed off to some unknown day. God has appointed a day. The hour is coming. It has not yet arrived, and it is not the same hour spoken of earlier, the one that “is coming, and now is” (John 5:25). Some made a dangerous mistake by saying the resurrection had already happened (2 Timothy 2:18). But it will certainly come. It is drawing nearer every day, and it is at the door. We do not know how far off it is, but we do know it has been firmly planned and cannot be changed.

Second, who will be raised? All who are in the graves, all who have died from the beginning of time, and all who will die until the end of time. Daniel said, “Many shall arise” (Daniel 12:2), but Christ tells us that those many will be all. Everyone must stand before the Judge, so everyone must be raised. Every person, and the whole person, must rise. Every soul will return to its body, and every bone to its bone.

The grave is the prison of dead bodies, where they are held, and also the place where they are consumed (Job 24:19). Yet in light of the resurrection, we may also call it a bed, where they sleep until they are awakened again, or a treasure store, where they are laid up to be used again. Even those who are not buried in graves will rise, but since most people are buried, Christ uses that language: all who are in the graves. The Jews used the word “sheol” for the grave, meaning the state of the dead, and all who are in that state will hear.

Third, how will they be raised? We are told two things. They will hear his voice. That means he will cause them to hear it, just as Lazarus was made to hear the words, “Come forth.” Divine power will go with the voice, giving life and enabling obedience. When Christ rose from the dead, no voice was heard, because he rose by his own power. But in the resurrection of mankind, Scripture speaks of three sounds (1 Thessalonians 4:16). The Lord will come down with a shout, the shout of a king, with the voice of the archangel, either Christ himself, the prince over the angels, or the chief commander under him, and with the trumpet of God. That trumpet is like a soldier’s trumpet sounding the alarm of war, or a judge’s trumpet summoning people to court.

The effect will be that they come out of their graves, like prisoners leaving a prison house. They will rise from the dust and shake it off (Isaiah 52:1, Isaiah 52:2, Isaiah 52:11). But that is not all. They will also stand before Christ’s judgment seat. They will come out as people being tried, coming to the bar of judgment to receive their sentence openly.

Fourth, what state will they be raised to? They will rise to a different state of happiness or misery, based on their character, and to a state of reward according to what they did in the time of testing. Those who have done good will rise to the resurrection of life. They will live again, and live forever. Whatever name people claim, or whatever attractive profession they make, the great day will go well only for those who have done good, meaning those who have done what pleases God and helps others.

The resurrection of the body will be a resurrection of life for all who have been sincere and steady in doing good. They will not only be publicly cleared, like a pardoned criminal whose life is spared, but they will also be brought into God’s presence, and that is life itself, better than life. They will enjoy comforts in full. To live is to be happy, and they will be raised above the fear of death. That is true life, where death is swallowed up forever.

But those who have done evil will rise to the resurrection of damnation. They will live again only to keep dying forever. The Pharisees thought the resurrection belonged only to the righteous, but Christ corrects that mistake here. Evil-doers, whatever they may claim, will be treated as evil people on the day of judgment. For those who did evil and never turned from it by repentance, the resurrection will be a resurrection of condemnation.

They will come out to be openly convicted of rebellion against God and openly condemned to eternal punishment. They will be sentenced, and then sent at once, with no delay or chance of relief. That is what the resurrection will be like.

Notice next what is said about the Mediator’s authority to carry out judgment (John 5:22-24, 27). As Christ has all power, so he also has rightful rule. Who is better fit to preside over the affairs of the life to come than the one who is the Father and source of life?

Here is Christ’s commission, or official appointment, to the office of judge, which is stated twice here: “The Father judges no one” (John 5:22), and again, “He has given him authority” (John 5:27). This does not mean the Father has given up governing. It means he is pleased to rule through Jesus Christ, so people are not forced to deal with God in terror at once, but may come to him through a Mediator, one who stands between God and us.

Since God made us, he may do with us as he pleases, like a potter with clay. Yet he does not use that right harshly. He draws us with human kindness. He also does not judge our final destiny by the covenant of innocence, that first agreement under which Adam stood. He does not take the full advantage he has against us for breaking it. Since the Mediator has offered to make a substitute payment for sin, the matter is handed over to him, and God is willing to begin again under a new agreement, not under the law of the Creator, but under the grace of the Redeemer. A substitute payment means Christ took the penalty in our place.

The Father has committed all judgment to the Son and made him Lord over all (Acts 10:36; Romans 14:9), as Joseph was made ruler in Egypt (Genesis 41:40). This was foretold in Scripture (Psalm 72:1; Isaiah 11:3-4; Jeremiah 23:5; Micah 5:1-4; Psalm 67:4; Psalm 96:13; Psalm 98:9). All judgment is entrusted to our Lord Jesus for several reasons.

First, he is in charge of the rule of providence, God’s ordering of all events. He is head over all things (Ephesians 1:11), head of every man (1 Corinthians 11:3), and all things hold together by him (Colossians 1:17). Second, he has authority to give laws that bind the conscience directly. “I say to you” is now the form of the laws of the kingdom of heaven. It is as if each law says, “Let it be enacted by the Lord Jesus, and by his authority.” All the laws now in force carry his royal seal.

Third, he is authorized to set and set in order the terms of the new covenant, the new agreement of peace between God and man. It is God in Christ who reconciles the world. He has been given power to give eternal life. The book of life is the Lamb’s book, and we must stand or fall by his decision. Fourth, he is commissioned to carry on and finish the war against the powers of darkness, to cast out and condemn the prince of this world (John 12:31). He is sent not only to judge, but to make war (Revelation 19:11). All who want to fight for God against Satan must enlist under Christ’s banner.

Fifth, he is appointed as the sole ruler of the judgment of the great day. The early writers usually understood these words to mean that final, universal judgment. That final court is given to the Son of Man. The tribunal is his, the judgment seat of Christ; the attendants are his mighty angels. He will hear the cases and pass sentence (Acts 17:31).

He has also been given authority to execute judgment (John 5:27). This means more than the power to make laws and decide cases. It also means the power to carry out the sentence. Here the word especially points to condemnation (Jude 1:15). He will “execute judgment upon all,” the same as taking vengeance (2 Thessalonians 1:8). The ruin of unrepentant sinners comes from the hand of Christ. The one who executes judgment on them is the same one who would have brought salvation to them, and that makes the sentence fair and beyond complaint. There is no escape from the sentence of the Redeemer. Salvation itself cannot save those whom the Savior condemns, and that makes the ruin final and beyond remedy.

This authority comes from the Father, who gave it to him. Christ’s authority as Mediator is given to him and comes from another. He acts as the Father’s deputy, the Lord’s Anointed, the Lord’s Christ. All of this honors Christ greatly. It clears him from the charge of blasphemy for making himself equal with God, and it gives great comfort to all believers, who may safely trust everything into such hands.

All this power was given to him for two main reasons. First, because he is the Son of man. That title points to three things. It shows his humility and willing lowering of himself. Man is like a worm, and the son of man is like a worm too, yet this was the nature and title the Redeemer took on in love. He stooped to this low place and accepted all the shame that came with it because it was his Father’s will. In reward for that remarkable obedience, God gave him this honor. Because he humbled himself to be the Son of man, his Father made him Lord over all (Philippians 2:8-9).

It also points to his kinship with us. The Father has placed the rule of the children of men in his hands because, as the Son of man, he shares the same nature as those he rules. That makes him a judge who is harder to object to and easier to receive. “Their ruler shall come from among them” (Jeremiah 30:21). The old law pointed to this truth: “One of your brothers you shall set king over you” (Deuteronomy 17:15).

Finally, it points to his being the promised Messiah. In the great vision of his kingdom and glory, he is called the Son of man (Daniel 7:13-14), and so he is in Psalm 8:4-6: “You have made the Son of man have dominion over the works of your hands.” He is the Messiah, and therefore he is given all this power. The Jews often called the Christ the Son of David, but Christ usually called himself the Son of man. That is a humbler title, and it shows him as a prince and Savior not for the Jewish nation only, but for all mankind.

Second, “that all should honor the Son” (John 5:23). Honoring Jesus Christ is shown here as God’s great purpose. The Son came to glorify the Father, and therefore the Father intended to glorify the Son too (John 12:32). It is also shown as the great duty of people in response to that purpose. If God wills that the Son be honored, then all who know him must honor him.

We must honor the Son. We should see him as one who deserves honor, both for his far greater excellence in himself and for the relationship he has to us. We should seek to give him the honor that belongs to him. We must confess that he is Lord, worship him, and honor the one who was dishonored for us. The degree of honor is this, we must honor the Son just as we honor the Father. That assumes it is right to honor the Father. Revealed religion rests on natural religion and directs us to honor the Son with divine honor. We must honor the Redeemer with the same honor we give the Creator.

So far is it from blasphemy for him to make himself equal with God that it is the greatest wrong for us to make him anything less. The truths and commands of the Christian faith, so far as God has revealed them, are as holy and honored as the truths of natural religion. They deserve the same respect. We are under the same obligation to Christ, the one through whom we came into being, and we depend on the Redeemer's grace just as surely as we depend on the Creator's care. That is enough to support this command, to honor the Son as we honor the Father.

To make this command even stronger, it is added: He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him. Some people claim to respect the Creator and speak well of him, yet they treat the Redeemer with indifference or contempt. Let them know that the honor and interests of the Father and the Son are so closely joined that the Father never counts himself honored by anyone who dishonors the Son.

Notice two things here. First, insults against the Lord Jesus Christ reflect on God himself and will be judged that way in heaven. The Son has taken the Father's honor so fully to heart that he bears the insults aimed at the Father (Rom 15:3). In the same way, the Father takes the Son's honor to heart and counts an insult to the Son as an attack on himself. Second, the reason is that the Son was sent and given authority by the Father. It is the Father who sent him. To insult an ambassador is rightly taken as an insult to the prince who sent him. By this rule, those who truly honor the Son also honor the Father (Phi 2:11).

Here is the rule by which the Son carries out this mission, and these words seem to lead into it (Joh 5:24): He who hears and believes has everlasting life. In these words we have the heart of the whole gospel. The opening words call for careful attention to something very weighty, and full agreement with something very sure: "Truly, truly, I say to you, I, to whom all judgment is given, I, in whose mouth there is a divine sentence, give you the Christian's mark and the Christian's promise."

First, the mark of a Christian: He who hears my word and believes him who sent me. To be a true Christian means, first, to hear Christ's word. It is not enough merely to be near it. We must listen to it with attention, like students listening to their teacher, and with obedience, like servants listening to their master. We must hear and obey it, and hold to Christ's gospel as the fixed rule for our faith and conduct. Second, it means to believe in the one who sent him, because Christ's purpose is to bring us to God. God is the first source of all grace, and he is also the final object of all faith. Christ is our way, God is our rest. We must believe in God as the one who sent Jesus Christ and made himself known to our faith and love by showing his glory in the face of Jesus Christ (Co2 4:6), as his Father and our Father.

Second, the promise of a Christian, in which all true Christians share. See what we gain through Christ. There is a promise of pardon: He shall not come into condemnation. The grace of the gospel gives a full release from the curse of the law. A believer will not only avoid eternal condemnation, but will not even come under it now, or come near its danger (Rom 8:1). He will not come to judgment, and will not even stand accused.

There is also a promise of privilege: He has passed from death to life. He is given present life in his soul now, and he is promised eternal life later. The first covenant said, Do this and live, and, The one who does these things will live by them. This shows Christ's equality with the Father, because he has the power to offer the same blessing to those who hear his word that the old law offered to those who kept it, namely, life. Hear and live, believe and live, is a promise we may safely trust with our souls when we are unable to do and live (Joh 17:2).

Here is the rightness of his actions as he carries out this mission (Joh 5:30). Since all judgment has been given to him, we naturally ask how he handles it. He answers, My judgment is just. All Christ's judgments are righteous.