John 5:24-30

Hello everyone. We’re back on discussing the Trinity again. It’s quite appropriate for now as I spent the early afternoon today with a wonderful pair of Jehovah’s Witnesses and got to speak to them about who Jesus is according to the Bible. Wonderful time. Speaking about the Trinity just fills me with the awe of worship and the wonder that Jesus came and did what he did. The Word became flesh. Those are truly words that should leave us in awe once we believe them

Today, as you can see from the blog title, we will be looking at John 5:24-30. Here is the text.

²⁴“I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life. ²⁵I tell you the truth, a time is coming and has now come when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live. ²⁶For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son to have life in himself. ²⁷And he has given him authority to judge because he is the Son of Man.

 ²⁸“Do not be amazed at this, for a time is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice ²⁹and come out—those who have done good will rise to live, and those who have done evil will rise to be condemned. ³⁰By myself I can do nothing; I judge only as I hear, and my judgment is just, for I seek not to please myself but him who sent me.

For some of you who might be thinking eschatology will be a big discussion on this one, no. I don’t do that here at Deeper Waters. I do have my own eschatological viewpoint, but this blog is about mere Christianity and about the viewpoints that we hold in common and not the ones we differ on.

To begin with, Jesus is basing your eternal destiny on his words. If you hear his words and believe in them, you will not be condemned. You will instead have eternal life. In fact, when the resurrection comes, it is his voice that will cause the dead to come out of their graves.

Some people see a problem with the Father granting the Son to have life in himself. Why? The Son is begotten of the Father so it fits in perfectly with a Trinitarian concept. The Son and the Father are that inter-connected and all that the Son has, he has because of the Father. Trinitarians agree with that.

The Father has also given authority to judge to the Son of Man. When the time of the last day comes, he will judge. This is quite stupendous that Christ is making such a claim. The Jews would have thought God would be the judge and here Jesus is saying that he is going to be the one who is to be the judge. You will be raised to eternal life or you will be condemned and which one it is depends on what the Son says.

Jesus also says “By myself, I can do nothing.” How is this going against the Trinity? Do Trinitarians believe that Jesus can be a rogue agent acting independently of the will of the Father? That he can go and do his own thing while the Father does something different? Not at all. This instead shows their intense unity.

When Jesus judges, it will be the will of the Father also for he will judge according to what he hears and his goal will not be to please himself but to please the Father. When we read these passages, we should see the deep relation that is shared between the Father and the Son. We might think it’s against Trinitarianism on face value, but I would suggest some who think that see what it would mean if Jesus said a point opposite to what he really said.

In truth, we have powerful evidence of the Trinity. The more one sees how Christ saw himself and his relationship to the Father, the more convinced one should be of the Trinity.