John 5:19-30

The Son's Dependence on the Father. Judgment and Lifegiving. To the charge of blasphemy He answers that a son can only do what he has learned to do by watching his father, who out of love shows him how to work. So the Father will show Messiah, the Son, even greater things, so that men will experience the wonder which leads to faith. The greater work is the quickening of the spiritually dead. This will be done not arbitrarily but according to God's will. So the judgment which the Father commits to Messiah will be wrought out. The acceptance or rejection of this spiritual quickening is its test. And its object (John 5:23) is that men should pay due honour to the Son. In John 5:24 Jesus introduces, as usually when Verily, verily occurs, a further thought. Acceptance of His message and faith in His sender gives men true life, which the author always designates as eternal, i.e. spiritual. Of such there is no judgment. They have chosen the better part. And the gift will soon be given. The hour will soon strike when the spiritually dead shall hear the Son's voice, and if they hearken shall have life. For the Father, the source of all life, has given the Son the power to quicken life. And with that corresponds the power of judgment, given to Him as Messiah, who being man knows what is in man. John 5:28 f. is perhaps best explained as the author's comment, to set aside the view that what has been said overthrows the idea of the future Messianic judgment of quick and dead. The dead shall rise for judgment according to their works. John 5:30 takes up the thought of John 5:22. Jesus-' judgment, as His works, is dependent on the Father. And it is just, carrying out the Father's will.