Given Life

DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL OF JOHN

GIVEN LIFE

John 5:19-23

19 Jesus gave them this answer: "I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does. 20 For the Father loves the Son and shows him all he does. Yes, to your amazement he will show him even greater things than these. 21 For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son gives life to whom he is pleased to give it. 22 Moreover, the Father judges no one, but has entrusted all judgment to the Son, 23 that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father, who sent him.

NIV

Having considered the like Father, like Son aspect of these words of Jesus, we should also think a bit about the idea of this raising from the dead. Was Jesus just talking about the upcoming time when the Father would raise him from the dead? Could there be more to his statement than that? Jesus referred to the prophets many times in his ministry and perhaps this is also the case, as Elijah cried out to the Lord and he brought life back into a widow’s son. Elisha did the same thing, but he cried out for the son of Shunamite’s woman and the Lord brought him back to life. So the Father has raised others from the dead, but he is also going to raise Jesus from the dead. However, Jesus also says that He gives life to whom he is pleased to give it. This can be seen in various ways or interpreted differently. The first and most obvious interpretation is that both Elijah and Elisha had to rely on God’s power to heal or raise those boys from the dead. Jesus says he does not need to rely on the Father in order to raise someone from the dead. He has the supreme, divine power, to raise whom he pleases. He raised the ruler's daughter, the widow’s son and of course his friend Lazarus. However, there is another way in which we could interpret his words. Jesus does give life, life eternal to whom he is pleased to give it. Indeed, we have to see there are two ways in which we would interpret this phrase, “whom he is pleased to give it”. John Calvin would most likely want to use this as proof the Jesus chooses whom he gives life to.  However, we also can determine that Jesus is pleased to give eternal life, it is his pleasure to give eternal life to whosoever believes. Jesus does not go to the cross reluctantly. It is true that some would make a case for Jesus not wanting to go to the cross because of his prayer in the garden, praying if this cup could be lifted from him if there was another way. But he also finished his prayer by telling his Father that nevertheless God's will be done, not his. Jesus is always teaching, in everything he did, it was always a teaching moment, even on the cross, he was still teaching. We know Jesus knew his vocation, his purpose in being in the flesh, He knew before the foundation of the world, that he was to be on the cross to redeem mankind before he even created the first man. This was not about Jesus not wanting to go to the cross, his prayer was about showing us that we should always put God’s will ahead of our own. Well, back to this giving life to whom he is pleased to give it. Jesus is pleased to give us eternal life and the only way he could do that was to die in our place, take the full force of the enemy of our souls upon himself and defeating him in being raised from the dead. Jesus is so pleased that we have eternal life, he is pleased that he will raise us from the dead and that we will be in the place he has prepared for us with him. In fact, he sent the Spirit to seal us, to be our guarantee that he will come back for us, raising us up from the dead. So we live with this excitement that we have been given life.