The quickening power of Christ contrasted with the powerlessness of legal ordinances
Chapter 5 contrasts the quickening power of Christ, the power and the right of giving life to the dead, with the powerlessness of legal ordinances. They required strength in the person that was to profit by them. Christ brought with Him the power that was to heal, and indeed to quicken. Further, all judgment is committed to Him, so that those who had received life would not come into judgment. The end of the chapter sets forth the testimonies that have been borne to Him, and the guilt therefore of those who would not come to Him to have life. One is sovereign grace, the other responsibility because life was there. To have life, His divine power was needed; but in rejecting Him, in refusing to come unto Him that they might have life, they did so in spite of the most positive proofs.
The impotent man; strength imparted by Christ
Let us go a little into the details. The poor man who had an infirmity for thirty-eight years was absolutely hindered, by the nature of his disease, from profiting by means that required strength to use them. This is the character of sin, on the one hand, and of law on the other. Some remains of blessing still existed among the Jews. Angels, ministers of that dispensation, still wrought among the people. Jehovah did not leave Himself without testimony. But strength was needed to profit by this instance of their ministry. That which the law could not do, being weak through the flesh, God has done through Jesus. The impotent man had desire, but not strength; to will was present with him, but no power to perform. The Lord’s question brings this out. A single word from Christ does everything. “Rise, take up thy bed and walk.” Strength is imparted. The man rises and goes away, carrying his bed.1
(1. Christ brings the strength with Him which the law requires in man himself to profit by it.)
The sabbath; God beginning to work again in power and love
It was the sabbath-an important circumstance here, holding a prominent place in this interesting scene. The sabbath was given as a token of the covenant between the Jews and the Lord.1 But it had been proved that the law did not give God’s rest to man. The power of a new life was needed; grace was needed, that man might be in relationship with God. The healing of this poor man was an operation of this same grace, of this same power, but wrought in the midst of Israel. The pool of Bethesda supposed power in man; the act of Jesus employed power, in grace, on behalf of one of the Lord’s people in distress. Therefore, as dealing with His people in government, He says to the man, “Sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee.” It was Jehovah acting by His grace and blessing among His people; but it was in temporal things, the tokens of His favor and loving-kindness, and in connection with His government in Israel. Still it was divine power and grace. Now, the man told the Jews that it was Jesus. They rise up against Him under the pretense of a violation of the sabbath. The Lord’s answer is deeply affecting, and full of instruction-a whole revelation. It declares the relationship, now openly revealed by His coming, that existed between Himself (the Son) and His Father. It shows-and what depths of grace!-that neither the Father nor Himself could find their sabbath2 in the midst of misery and of the sad fruits of sin. Jehovah in Israel might impose the sabbath as an obligation by the law and make it a token of the previous truth that His people should enter into the rest of God. But, in fact, when God was truly known, there was no rest in existing things; nor was this all-He wrought in grace, His love could not rest in misery. He had instituted a rest in connection with the creation, when it was very good. Sin, corruption and misery had entered into it. God, the holy and the just, no longer found a sabbath in it, and man did not really enter into God’s rest (compare Hebrews 4). Of two things, one: either God must, in justice, destroy the guilty race; or-and this is what He did, according to His eternal purposes-He must begin to work in grace, according to the redemption which the state of man required-a redemption in which all His glory is unfolded. In a word, He must begin to work again in love. Thus the Lord says, “My Father worketh hitherto, and I work.” God cannot be satisfied where there is sin. He cannot rest with misery in sight. He has no sabbath, but still works in grace. How divine an answer to their wretched cavils!
(1. The sabbath is introduced, whatever new institution or arrangement is established under the law. And in truth, a part in the rest of God is, in certain aspects, the highest of our privileges. (See Hebrews 4.) The sabbath was the close of the first or this creation, and will be so when fulfilled. Our rest is in the new one, and that not in the first man’s creation state but risen, Christ the second Man being its beginning and head. Hence the first day of the week.)
(2. God’s sabbath is a sabbath of love and holiness.)
The Lord putting Himself on an equality with the Father
Another truth came out from that which the Lord said: He put Himself on an equality with His Father. But the Jews, jealous for their ceremonies-for that which distinguished them from other nations-saw nothing of the glory of Christ, and seek to kill Him, treating Him as a blasphemer. This gives Jesus occasion to lay open the whole truth on this point. He was not like an independent being with equal rights, another God who acted on His own account, which, moreover, is impossible. There cannot be two supreme and omnipotent beings. The Son is in full union with the Father, does nothing without the Father, but does whatsoever He sees the Father do. There is nothing that the Father does which He does not in communion with the Son; and greater proofs of this should yet be seen, that they might marvel. This last sentence of the Lord’s words, as well as the whole of this Gospel, shows that, while revealing absolutely that He and the Father are one, He reveals it and speaks of it as in a position in which He could be seen of men. The thing of which He speaks is in God; the position in which He speaks of it is a position taken, and, in a certain sense, inferior. We see everywhere that He is equal to, and one with, the Father. We see that He receives all from the Father and does all after the Father’s mind. (This is shown very remarkably in chapter 17.) It is the Son, but the Son manifested in the flesh, acting in the mission which the Father sent Him to fulfill.
The Son as the Giver of life and the Judge of all
Two things are spoken of in this chapter (vss. 21-22) which demonstrate the glory of the Son. He quickens and He judges. It is not healing that is in question-a work which, at bottom, springs from the same source, and has its occasion in the same evil: but the giving of life in a manner evidently divine. As the Father raises the dead and quickens them, so the Son quickens whom He will. Here we have the first proof of His divine rights, He gives life, and He gives it to whom He will. But, being incarnate, He may be personally dishonored, disallowed, despised of men. Consequently, all judgment is committed unto Him, the Father judging no man, in order that all, even those who have rejected the Son, should honor Him, even as they honor the Father whom they own as God. If they refuse when He acts in grace, they shall be compelled when He acts in judgment. In life, we have communion by the Holy Spirit with the Father and the Son (and quickening or giving life is the work alike of the Father and the Son); but in the judgment, unbelievers will have to do with the Son of Man whom they have rejected. The two things are quite distinct. He whom Christ has quickened will not need to be compelled to honor Him by undergoing judgment. Jesus will not call into judgment one whom He has saved by quickening him.
Grace gives eternal life and secures from judgment
How may we know, then, to which of these two classes we belong? The Lord (praised be His name!) replies, He that hears His word and believes Him who sent Him (believes the Father by hearing Christ) has everlasting life (such is the quickening power of His word) and shall not come into judgment. He is passed from death into life. Simple and wonderful testimony!1 The judgment will glorify the Lord in the case of those who have despised Him here. The possession of eternal life, that they may not come into judgment, is the portion of those who believe.
(1. Remark how full the bearing of this is. If they do not come into judgment to settle their state, as man would put it, they are shown to be wholly dead in sin. Grace in Christ does not contemplate an uncertain state which judgment will determine. It gives life and secures from judgment. But while He judges as Son of Man according to the deeds done in the body, He shows us here that all were dead in sin to begin with.)
Two distinct periods in the Lord’s exercise of power:
(1) Souls quickened by the Son of God
The Lord then points out two distinct periods in which the power that the Father committed to Him as having come down to the earth is to be exercised. The hour was coming-was already come-in which the dead should hear the voice of the Son of God, and those that heard should live. This is the communication of spiritual life by Jesus, the Son of God, to man, who is dead by sin, and that by means of the word which he should hear. For the Father has given to the Son, to Jesus, thus manifested on earth, to have life in Himself (compare 1 John 1:1-21That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life; 2(For the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and show unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us;) (1 John 1:1‑2)). He has also given Him authority to execute judgment, because He is the Son of Man. For the kingdom and the judgment, according to the counsels of God, belong to Him as Son of Man-in that character in which He was despised and rejected when He came in grace.
This passage also shows us that, although He was the eternal Son, one with the Father, He is always looked upon as manifested here in the flesh, and, therefore, as receiving all from the Father. It is thus that we have seen Him at the well of Samaria- the God who gave, but the One who asked the poor woman to give Him to drink.
(2) Bodies raised from death
Jesus, then, quickened souls at that time. He still quickens. They were not to marvel. A work, more wonderful in the eyes of men, should be accomplished. All those that were in the grave should come forth. This is the second period of which He speaks. In the one He quickens souls; in the other, He raises up bodies from death. The one has lasted during the ministry of Jesus and [more than] 1800 years since His death; the other is not yet come, but during its continuance two things will take place. There will be a resurrection of those who have done good (this will be a resurrection of life, the Lord will complete His quickening work), and there will be a resurrection of those who have done evil (this will be a resurrection for their judgment). This judgment will be according to the mind of God, and not according to any separate personal will of Christ. Thus far it is sovereign power, and as regards life sovereign grace-He quickens whom He will. What follows is man’s responsibility as regards the obtaining eternal life. It was there in Jesus, and they would not come to Him to have it.
Four testimonies to the Lord’s glory and Person, leaving man without excuse
The Lord goes on to point out to them four testimonies rendered to His glory and to His Person, which left them without excuse- John, His own works, His Father and the Scriptures. Nevertheless, while pretending to receive the latter, as finding in them eternal life, they would not come to Him that they might have life. Poor Jews! The Son came in the name of the Father, and they would not receive Him; another shall come in his own name, and him they will receive. This better suits the heart of man. They sought honor from one another: how could they believe? Let us remember this. God does not accommodate Himself to the pride of man-does not arrange the truth so as to feed it. Jesus knew the Jews. Not that He would accuse them to the Father: Moses, in whom they trusted, would do that; for if they had believed Moses, they would have believed Christ. But if they did not credit the writings of Moses, how would they believe the words of a despised Saviour?
In result, the Son of God gives life, and He executes judgment. In the judgment that He executes, the testimony which had been rendered to His Person leaves man without excuse on the ground of his own responsibility. In chapter 5 Jesus is the Son of God who, with the Father, gives life, and as Son of Man judges. In chapter 6 He is the object of faith, as come down from heaven and dying. He just alludes to His going on high as Son of Man.