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  Long Island Abundant Life Church 長島豐盛生命教會

John 5:18–29

5/22/2012

 
Click here to read today's passage on Bible Gateway.

Today's passage (tomorrow's as well) is INCREDIBLY rich theologically.  Jesus makes some big statements about Himself and the Father:

"The central motif in the discourse is the relation of a father and a son as it would be viewed in this culture through the trade or skill the son was learning. We can think of Jesus growing up with Joseph in the carpentry shop, obediently learning skills and later imitating them. In a similar manner, Jesus is connected to the Father. His activity is never independent or self-initiated but always dependent, deriving its purpose from his Father’s will. In this model we have to remember that there is no reciprocal relationship. “The Father initiates, sends, commands, commissions, grants; the Son responds, obeys, performs his Father’s will, receives authority.” Moreover, the Son does not simply draw inspiration from the Father, but imitates him tirelessly and successfully." [1]

So what is it that Jesus "does"?  What does Jesus do in the name of the Father?  The passage gives us a couple of key actions that Jesus performs:

1. Gives life (eternal life - raising those that are spiritually dead)
2. Judges (other key passages like John 3:16-18 say this as well)

Why/how does Jesus do this?  Because the Father loves Him (5:20).  Jesus is God the Father's image and will acting out on earth. 

Hebrews 1:1-3a
Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high...

[1] Gary M. Burge, NIV Application Commentary: John (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 2000), 177.
Andrei
5/22/2012 04:49:08 pm

Oh wow, I never thought of the Father/Son relationship from the standpoint of the cultural trade/skill standpoint.

I had a question about v. 25-29. Is this the picture of what actually happens once people die? I'm trying to remember Baywatch's lessons on heaven and everything... my apologies ahead of time if I've forgotten everything and am dead wrong... don't we go to heaven to be with Jesus after we die? Is this passage talking about Rapture or something?

Greg
5/23/2012 04:05:55 am

Good question. It's kind of a difficult to understand. I think that the first thing we need to understand here is that we are talking about two different times here. Jesus is, in a way, using wordplay again.

The first part is now: "the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and live" is referring to the spiritually dead (Ephesians 2:1) and will live when imparted with eternal life. This is fitting with what Jesus has already said about Himself, and also with what comes after: the Father and Jesus are self-existent - they don't require anyone or anything else to sustain them (unlike us), and they give life to others.

The second part has to do with judgement. This was the same structure as the paragraph above, explaining that Jesus is life-giver AND judge. This second part says that when Jesus returns (the hour is coming) the dead will rise to be judged. There are some details with the end times timeline, but I would say that what this is saying in the grand scheme of that is that when we die we go to the "intermediate heaven" to be with God, but at the end of all things our bodies are resurrected and face judgement at the end of all things (this is usually called the "Great White Throne Judgment") to decide whether we dwell in the New Earth or the Pit of Fire.

The additional issue here is that one could possibly take this to be a passage that supports salvation based on works. We've talked about this before, but it is additionally clear that this is NOT works-based salvation if you've been paying attention to John so far. He has make some very clear statements about what salvation depends on (John 3:16) and what the results are (John 3:21): "But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.” John makes the same connection that we've made before, that works do not lead to salvation, but that salvation WILL produce works. John has some other similar verses as well, but that is a whole other topic that I'm sure will come up several more times before we're done with the NT, particularly in Romans and Ephesians.

Hope that helps.


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