John 5:27-29 - Because He is the Son of Man

5:27

Note how the emphasis now switches to judgement. In the Bible judgement and salvation go together. Jesus is the Saviour, He is also the Judge. Because we like to be nice we shy away from talking about the judgement side. This is a big mistake. Obviously if judgement is all you talk about then you are making an equally big mistake, but the Biblical truth is that judgement and salvation go together. So the Father has granted the Son to have life in Himself, and so be able to give life, at the same time He has given Him authority to execute judgement “because He is the Son of Man”. Carson highlights that there are three strands to the meaning of Son of Man here, the first two are fairly familiar, the third was one I hadn’t thought of before. First, there is the Danile Son of Man (Dan 7:13,14). He is the apocalyptic figure. Then there is the humanity of Jesus. Ezekiel is repeatedly addressed by God as “son of man”, he was a thoroughly human prophet. Jesus is fully human and fully God. The third is that the revelatory aspect of “Son of Man”, Jesus reveals the truth. He is the light that exposes who and what we are, and exposes the nature of our deeds.

5:28,29

Having told the Jewish leaders that He is the giver of life and the Judge, Jesus tells them not to marvel at this! He now talks about the dead coming out of the tombs to either the resurrection of life, or the resurrection of judgement. The strange events in Matt 27:52,53 were perhaps a foretaste of the dead coming out of the tombs, but ultimately this is looking towards the final day. It talks here of those who have done good, and those who have done evil. As good evangelicals this gives us a problem as we fear it is talking about salvation by works! It isn’t. We can get so fearful of “salvation by works” that we miss the truth of what some sections of Scripture are saying. Look at the whole Bible, look at the whole book, we are saved by faith in Christ and by the works of Christ. Those who do good are those who come to the light of Christ (John 3:21). Those who do evil prefer the darkness.