The Authority of Christ - John 5:19-29

James Peck was a federal judge in the early 1800s and he was involved in several land claim disputes associated with the Louisiana territory. In one case, he ruled against the client of lawyer Luke Lawless. 

So Lawless did what any disgruntled lawyer would do: he wrote an anonymous hit piece against Peck in a local newspaper.

Well it didn’t take long for folks to figure out who wrote the piece and eventually Lawless was outed as the author.

So Peck retaliated by having Lawless thrown in prison for twenty-four hours and had his license to practice law revoked for eighteen months for contempt of court for:

“Intent to impair the public confidence in the upright intentions of said court, and to bring odium upon the court, and especially with intent to impress the public mind, and particularly many litigants in this court, that they are not to expect justice in the cases now pending therein.”

This began Lawless’s crusade to have Peck impeached. And eventually, Peck was impeached by the United States House of Representatives on April 24, 1830, on a charge of abuse of power.

Often real life is stranger than fiction. That’s a wild, somewhat bizarre part of our nation’s history but it happened. We can all recognize abuse of power when we see it. When someone is simply using their power to serve their own purposes.

No doubt “abuse of power” has been a hot button issue both politically and culturally. The whole “Me Too” movement was centered around “power differentials.”

It seems so many have forgotten the immortal words of uncle Ben from the Spiderman movie, “With great power comes great responsibility.”

But for Peck and so many others their power and authority come from their position here on earth.

But for Jesus his authority didn’t come from his status or position here on earth. His power and authority comes from his divinity (vv. 19-24). And it’s because of his divine authority he will judge all people (vv. 25-29).

This morning we’re looking at verses 19-29, which is Jesus’ response to the Jews charges in verse 18, that he’s breaking the Sabbath and “making himself equal with God.”

But rather than running from the charge, or softening his claim, what does Jesus do? He explains in painstaking detail why he is in fact equal with God. And it’s because of this, we get a lot of Trinitarian language. In these verses he speaks frequently about the Father and the Son.

The Trinity is one of those doctrines that we put on the shelf to collect dust. We assume it, we know it’s there, but rarely examine it.

The Westminster Shorter Catechism helpfully defines the Trinity in question and answer six:

Question: How many persons are there in the Godhead?

Answer: There are three persons in the Godhead; the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost; and these three are one God, the same in substance, equal in power and glory.

One of the great challenges of Trinity is that heresy lurks all around it. The Trinity is unlike anything we experience in nature.

That’s why every analogy of the Trinity fails to adequately articulate it. In fact, every analogy of the Trinity will likely plant you firmly in some sort of ancient heresy. I’ll give you a classic example of what I’m talking about:

I’ve heard people describe the Trinity like water and how it can exist in three different states: a solid, liquid, and gas. It might sound good, but that’s the ancient heresy of modalism, which states that God exists in three different modes: the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. Modalism denies the distinct persons of each member of the Trinity.

Or maybe you’ve heard someone describe the Trinity as a three leaf clover. Supposedly, the three leaf clover was how St. Patrick explained the Trinity to the Irish people. But that commits the heresy of partialism which states that each member of the Trinity makes up one third of the Godhead. Each member of the Trinity is in fact, fully God.

Hopefully you get the idea, the Trinity is unlike anything we experience in nature and that’s why every analogy for it forces you into some weird heresy. The Trinity is a divine mystery. That’s why some of the ancient creeds, like the Athanasian Creed or Nicene Creed are so helpful. They faithfully summarize the Bible’s trinitarian theology.

But if I’m honest with you all this morning, one of the most difficult aspects of the Trinity is in applying it. That’s all cool information right, but how does it relate to my life? Why should I care?

The Trinity is important, particularly in our passage this morning because it’s the source of Christ’s authority. Jesus is fully God.

And this is what he sought to explain to the Jews.

Jesus Claims Divine Authority (vv. 19-23)

It’s why he never walked anything back, or said, “you’re misunderstanding me, or taking my words out of context.”

He begins by describing his Trinitarian relationship with the Father in verses 19-22.

“Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise. 20 For the Father loves the Son and shows him all that he himself is doing. And greater works than these will he show him, so that you may marvel. For as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom he will. 22 For the Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son,”

One commentator explained these words in this way, “This unity of action is so close that to behold the works of the Son is to behold the works of the Father, for the Father himself is working through, with, and in the human action of his Son.”

Because the Father and the Son are of the same substance. They are united.

There is an indivisible Trinitarian relationship between the Father and the Son and you cannot separate the works of Christ from the works of the Father.

Jesus says it even more explicitly in verse 23.

“...all may honor the Son, just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him.”

Here’s the overall point that Jesus is making: you cannot separate his signs, works, and miracles from God. Why? Because he is God.

But what do the Jews assume? They assume that Jesus is just recklessly committing blasphemy. No one stops to ask an obvious question: is there any validity to what he’s saying?

The irony is that the Jews don’t even recognize the God they claim to worship and serve. They think they’re zealously defending God by charging Jesus with blasphemy. Don’t you see the irony?

Because the Jews wanted to separate the work of Christ from the work of God. They want to divide them. They want to separate what Jesus is doing from the Lord.

And people still do this today. They want to distinguish the work of Christ from God.

I tend to think this is what makes agnosticism appealing to many. You can say there is a higher power, maybe a god out there, but he’s unknowable.”

Agnosticism can easily delete Jesus from the equation. It’s a very convenient way to avoid having to deal with the claims of Jesus Christ.

But what’s equally concerning to me is seeing professing Christians do similar things.

I once had a conversation with someone and we were discussing something (I can’t remember what) and I referenced the book of Ephesians or Romans or something and I got this response: “Those are the words of Paul, but I like the words of Christ.”

Huh? I was rather taken aback. Isn’t all of the Bible God’s Word? Isn’t a subtle denial of the inspiration of Scripture - that it’s all God-breathed.

But what was my friend’s point? He was elevating the words of Christ in the gospels over the rest of the Bible. No doubt it was a thoughtless comment. But that mentality can lead to scary places because it pits Christ’s words against God’s words. As if they’re two separate things - they’re not. They’re one beautiful cohesive unit because Christ is equal with the Father.

The words of Ephesians and Romans are every bit as authoritative as the words of Christ right here in John 5. It’s all from God.

Divine Authority Gives Right to Judge (vv. 24-29)

But Jesus doesn’t stop there. Not only is Jesus equal with God, his status within the Trinity grants him the authority to judge the world. Jesus moves from establishing his equality with God into the power that has been given to him.

Jesus talks about judgment, but it’s a topic that we often try to avoid. Judgment on the whole is a difficult topic, isn’t it?

No one wants to come across judgmental, which is a good thing. You don’t want to ever give the impression that you think you’re better than someone else.

We’ll even appeal to the Scripture “judge not lest you be judged.” I think that verse is often misused, but there is a real element of truth there. We shouldn’t ever condemn someone because of their faults. After all, there really isn’t any room for an imperfect person to condemn another imperfect person.

But perfection has every right to judge imperfection. Perfection that judges perfectly has every right to condemn imperfection.

This is why Jesus goes from telling the Jews that he is equal with God to telling them that he will judge the world. That’s what verses 25-29 predominantly deal with, the final judgment.

And in these verses there is tension between ‘what has already happened’ and ‘what has not yet happened.’

Isn’t it true that many things were fulfilled upon Christ’s arrival, but not everything was fulfilled? We’re still waiting for his second coming. Many theologians describe this biblical tension as the “already, and the not yet.”

We see this in verse 25. The hour is here for the spiritually dead to hear Jesus’ voice and be raised to spiritual life, and at the same time there will be a literal bodily resurrection. The dead will one day rise. This is the hope of the resurrection.

Verse 25 has a double meaning: there will be a spiritual resurrection, people will be born again, people will be saved, but there will also be a literal, physical bodily resurrection.

And this helps us understand the “life” language in verse 26. There is, of course, spiritual life, in the Lord, but there is also literal, physical life as well.

We tend to think of death as ceasing to exist. Or perhaps we think of death as, “the absence of life.” But that’s not the way the Bible describes it.

I recently read where John Calvin referred to death as, “passing from one life to the next.” I heard a pastor at a funeral once say, “death isn’t goodbye, it’s just see you later.”

There’s a little context missing there, but I appreciated his point. Death doesn’t have the final say, the Lord does. He has the final say.

Because when you’re in Christ there is a future hope of life beyond the grave. And the new heavens and new earth will reflect to some degree the life we’ve experienced on earth.

Jesus is using Old Testament language to help us understand exactly what he’s talking about. He refers to the book of Daniel twice. He makes reference to Daniel 7 and Daniel 12.

The Son of Man isn’t a reference to his humanity, rather it’s a reference to Daniel 7 where Daniel has this incredible vision of the end times where a great king will descend from heaven, one as “the Son of Man.”

And everything sort of hits the crescendo in verses 28-29, when Jesus says, “Do not marvel at this, for an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice 29 and come out, those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment.”

And again, he’s referencing the end times prophecies in the book of Daniel. Listen to the similarities in Daniel 12:2. “And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.”

All of this language only furthers his overall point: He has a divine right to judge. He has the power and authority to raise the dead to life.

No doubt, the Jews would have known exactly what Jesus was talking about. That he was making divine claims by using judgment language along with the titles, “Son of God” and “Son of Man.”

Jesus’s authority isn’t rooted in the fact that he said some interesting things. Or in the fact that he could draw a crowd.

His authority is rooted in his equality with God.

Jesus’s argument for his authority is very different from every other religion in the world. His authority wasn’t because he dug up some golden tablets like Joseph Smith. He didn’t just start writing verses like Muhammad. He didn’t say pithy statements like Buddha.

Jesus’ authority is different because his claim to authority rests in his divinity.

These verses in John 5 are very interesting. We get a lot of rich Trinitarian theology in these verses. Primarily because they root the authority of Jesus in his role as the second person of the Trinity which gives him every right to sit on the throne of judgment.

As I said previously, we don’t like to talk about Biblical judgment because the condemnation associated with it is a tough pill to swallow.

But the truth is, we condemn people all the time. Who doesn’t think Hitler deserves everlasting punishment? Aren’t we all outraged over the injustice we see all around us? Doesn’t it often feel like the balances of our justice system are unfairly tilted? Doesn’t it feel like our system consistently condemns the average citizen while absolving the elites from any wrongdoing?

And isn’t that the problem that we consistently find ourselves griping about? For a society that’s always complaining about power differentials somehow we keep giving the most corrupt people power and authority.

Doesn’t it seem like the people that are quick to abuse power and authority always seem to have it? And we intuitively know all of this is wrong down in our very bones. We know this isn’t the way the world should be.

Do we not long for a perfect, holy, righteous judgment?

One day, Jesus is going to set everything straight. He’s going to right wrongs. He’s going to fix it.

It’s a tremendous comfort to know that perfect holiness and righteousness sits on the judgment throne. What an even greater comfort to know that he isn’t just holiness and righteousness.

But even judgment is a glorious reminder of the gospel.

Because what righteous leg does a sinner have to stand on in the sight of a holy judge?

The Lord is holy and righteous, but he’s also gracious and merciful abounding in steadfast love. What a glorious comfort! And we see it most clearly in verse 24.

“Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.”

You’re made right with God through your faith that Jesus Christ was sent from heaven to redeem people from their sins. If you believe that then, to use the words of Jesus, you “[will] not come into judgment, but [will] pass from death to life.”

Through faith in Christ, you and I can avoid a sentence of condemnation and experience the life to come.

Jesus told his disciples, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.” Isn’t there real comfort in knowing the final judgment will be perfect? There will be no unjust punishment. But on that day there will be tremendous grace, mercy and forgiveness outpoured.