5:21
Only God can raise the dead, Jesus says that as the Son He also can give life to whom He will. There are three key elements to this verse. The first is another equality with God claim. What God can do, in this case raise the dead and give life, the Son can also do. The second is that He can give life. Arguments about God often revolve around His existence in an abstract sense. In many ways we should be arguing about our existence! Without God we would not have life. God is the giver of life, the Son is the giver of life. Finally, He gives life to “whom He will”. The Son chooses. Any Christology that sees Jesus as merely a teacher and a good man is hopelessly inadequate and cannot explain the New Testament.
5:22
The claims of the Son do not stop there. The Father has delegated all judgement to the Son. Now He is a merciful judge to those who come in humility and repentance, but He is the judge. One day all of humanity will be judged by Him. Since all judgement has been entrusted to the Son a wise man will pay attention to what the Son says. So often we think that we are judging Jesus, we are deciding who He is. This is completely the wrong way to look at things. Jesus is the one who judges us, not us Him!
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