The Gospel According to John

Biblical Research Monthly
March, 1956
Dr. David L. Cooper
(Installment Fourteen)

HEALING OF A CRIPPLE MAN and THE CONTROVERSY DEVELOPING THEREFROM

As we saw in the last study of this series, the leaders of the Jews in Jerusalem became infuriated at Jesus because He healed a cripple man on the Sabbath. These opponents sought an opportunity to kill Him, but were unable to do so. They were most enraged by His calling God His Father, making Himself equal with the Almighty. But, as we have already seen, the occasion of the controversy was His working on the Sabbath—as they interpreted His actions—healing a cripple man.

The Son Does Nothing Except What He Sees the Father Doing

In order to justify Himself in the eyes of His opponents, Jesus declared that He first saw God working and that He then did exactly what He had seen His Father doing. Small children frequently imitate their parents. Since Jesus declared that He did nothing of Himself except those things which He saw the Father doing, and since He had healed a man on the Sabbath, the Jews concluded that the Lord Jesus meant to say that God works on the Sabbath. His language appeared to His blinded opponents as downright blasphemy. His words that greatly offended them were: "The Son can do nothing of himself, but what things soever he doeth, these the Son also doeth in like manner" (John 5:19). By this statement, the Lord, Jesus meant to say that God continually was doing exactly what He himself does. If God the Father had laid aside His glory, had entered the world by miraculous conception and virgin birth, and had taken on human form for the purpose of redeeming all believers, He would have acted on all occasions exactly as the Lord Jesus did. In becoming Man—the Son of Man—the second person of the Holy Trinity limited Himself. Then as the God-man, with human limitations, He could say that the Father was greater than He. Since He laid aside the limitations of the flesh when He arose from the dead, He would not say, should He speak on the same subject, that God was greater than He. He was in eternity of the past equal with God, is equal with God now, and will ever be so.

But being here in the flesh, restricted by self-imposed limitations, He said that whatever He saw the Father doing, He himself did. In Psalm 146 we are given a short list of some of the things that God does. This list by no means begins to embrace the things which God does continually. The Lord Jesus, following the example of God the Father, worked—even on the Sabbath day.

According to John 5:20, the Father loved the Son and showed Him the things that He himself was doing. Moreover, the Lord claimed that He would do still greater works than healing and restoring a cripple man to perfect soundness of body and health. Whenever He would do these greater wonders, the Jews, according to the Lord, would marvel. Among the works that the Father would show the Son and that the Son would do, was raising the dead. "For as the Father raiseth the dead and giveth them life, even so the Son also giveth life to whom he will" (vs. 21). Jesus raised the son of the widow of Nain. He also raised Lazarus. As God had raised different ones in Old Testament times, so now Jesus said that He would raise the dead—certain ones, of course—in accordance with the plan of God and His own sovereign will.

Since Jesus came to earth as the Saviour and has worked out redemption for the race, God has placed all judgment in His hand "that all may honor the Son, even as they honor the Father." The one who, said Jesus, honors the Son, also honors the Father who sent Him.

The Believer Has Eternal Life

"Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth him that sent me, hath eternal life, and cometh not into judgment, but hath passed out of death into life" (John 5:24). Christ's mentioning His raising people from the dead and restoring them to life suggested the spiritual ministry for which He especially came into the world. He therefore said that those who hear His Word and believe on Him who sent Him have eternal life and do not come into judgment. The believer at the present time has everlasting life. When one believes and accepts Christ as his personal Saviour, the Lord regenerates the heart and plants in his soul life, the quality of which is eternal. He has eternal life now and will have it throughout all eternity, for the Apostle in I John 3:9 declares that his seed abides in him.

Those who have eternal life will never come into judgment. The judgment of which the Lord was speaking is the Judgment of the Great White Throne. All believers come up in the first resurrection, which occurs before the Millennium, and receive their rewards for service rendered (II Cor. 5:10). All who are unsaved are raised at the end of the Millennium and are brought before the Judgment of the Great White Throne, where they hear their eternal doom pronounced. Such is the prediction which the Lord Jesus made on this occasion. The reason the saved person will not come into judgment is that he has passed out of death into life.

Christ Is the Judge of All

"For as the Father hath life in himself, even so gave he to the Son also to have life in himself: 27 and he gave him authority to execute judgment, because he is a son of man" (John 5:26,27). When the Son limited Himself, entered the world by miraculous conception and virgin birth and became the God-man, God the Father gave Him the prerogative and authority to give life to whom He wills.

Christ, moreover, was given the absolute authority to exercise judgment over all men. The reason He is given this authority is that He became a son of man and championed the cause of humanity. Man lost everything upon the level of the human plane and in the realm of the will. This loss came about when Adam transgressed the one and only command that God laid upon him. The evil consequence of the fall could be offset and counteracted only by one who, on the level of humanity and in the realm of the will, would champion the cause of defeated man. Christ alone was both able and willing to do so. Because He did, He has therefore been given authority to be judge of all (John 5:27).

The Two Judgments

We have many times heard people speak of a general judgment day when all people, both saint and sinner, will be brought before the judgment bar of God and will be separated, some being put on the right hand and some on the left. Of course, those taking this position turn to Matthew 25:31-46 as scriptural proof for their belief. But when this passage is studied in its connection, it is seen that it refers to Christ's judging the living nations when He returns to earth. There is no resurrection mentioned in this chapter. This judgment of the living nations surviving the Tribulation cannot be interpreted as a general judgment at which both saints and sinners will be parted and each will go to his respective eternal abode.

Notwithstanding this fact, those who believe in general judgment frequently turn to John 5:28,29 as authority for proof that there is but one judgment. "Marvel not at this: for the hour cometh, in which all that are in the tombs shall hear his voice, 29  and shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of judgment" (John 5:28, 29). Those thus interpreting this passage as proof of a general judgment call our attention to the word “hour” in the sentence, "Marvel not at this: for the hour cometh, in which all that are in the tombs shall hear his voice, and shall come forth …" The term "hour" is interpreted as a period of sixty minutes. If it has this meaning in our passage, there is a general judgment and the controversial question is settled. But, when a person looks at the usage of the word "hour" in the New Testament, he sees that it has various connotations. For instance, in John 4:23 Jesus said, "But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshiper shall worship the Father in spirit and truth …" In this context "hour" refers to the entire Christian Dispensation. In other words, "the hour" is the Christian Dispensation. In I John 2:18 the Apostle declared, "Little children, it is the last hour: and as ye heard that antichrist cometh, even now have there arisen many antichrists, whereby we know that it is the last hour." In this passage John speaks of the Antichrist who will rule the world at the very end of the present dispensation. But even in John's day many antichrists had appeared. John therefore knew that this dispensation is the last one—before the kingdom age. In the light of these facts and this usage, "hour" again refers to a long period of time which has thus been drawn out for approximately 1900 years. If it can have such connotation as these passages indicate—and there is no doubt about it—it can have the same or similar meaning in John 5:28,29.

When we see in Revelation 20:1-5 that there are two resurrections: one occurring before the thousand years reign of our Lord and the other one coming to pass after His millennial reign, we can know that there is not a general judgment, as some suppose, but that there are to be two resurrections, separated by this period of the thousand year reign of Christ.

When we see these facts, and when we remember that the Scriptures do not contradict themselves, we must understand that the two resurrections mentioned by Jesus in John 5:28,29 are the same two resurrections mentioned by John in Revelation, chapter 20. Thus, the resurrection of life occurs before the thousand-year reign of our Lord; the resurrection of judgment takes place after the thousand years.

The one great concern for everyone of us is whether or not, "I have accepted the Lord Jesus Christ so that I will come up in the first resurrection." Remember, he that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life and cometh not into judgment, but is passed out of death into life.