John 5:21,22 - Given to the Son

5:21

This verse probably points to the raising of Lazarus, and later to the Son giving life to all who believe in Him. Now at this point there hadn’t been too much raising of the dead. There are one or two incidents in the Old Testament, but not many. The implication in this verse is that the Father gives life to whom He will. He is the source of life. In the same way the Son will give life to whom He will. The raising of Lazarus, and one or two other incidents, are examples of this, but they all point to the eternal life that Jesus gives. And it is Jesus who decides who gets this life. So often men argue as if God should be listening to us and taking our advice on the matter of who gets life. This is arrogant and stupid to the extreme.

5:22

This was a radical challenge to traditional Jewish teaching. They believed that the Father would judge everyone. Before we look more at what Jesus says here let’s just dwell on the fact that God is the judge of the whole world. A unique feature of the Old Testament is that God is the God of all the earth, He created all things, and everyone is accountable to Him. He was not a regional god, not a god for some people or certain aspects of life (eg fertility). He is Lord of all. Today we speak of something being “true for you”, or we see Christianity as just one religion among many. A favourite phrase of some atheists is that they believe in one less god than we do. This demonstrates a serious misunderstanding. The Lord is Lord of All, He is the One creator God.

Now back to what Jesus was saying. He challenged the traditional Jewish thinking in claiming that the Father has entrusted all judgement to the Son. When seeking to argue about the deity of Christ people will often look for “proof texts”, and this is all well and good. However, we should also look at the whole tenor of the New Testament. If Jesus was just a man, ie a man and nothing more, then how could the Father entrust all judgement to Him?

Again as an aside. We (including myself) often refer to God doing this or God doing that. Here in John we see much more of the Father doing this or doing that, the Son doing this or that, the Spirit doing this or that. There is relationship within the Godhead, God is personal, and this three times over! Maybe we need to dwell on this a bit more.

In the particular aspect here we see that God will judge the world, but it is carried out by the Father entrusting the judgement to the Son.