Smoodock's Blog

As we go through Jesus’ arguments that show he is equal with the Father (cp. John 5:18), he tells his listeners to “marvel not…” (John 5:28). However, to what was he pointing, when he said don’t marvel (G2296)? It couldn’t be that they shouldn’t marvel at the works themselves, because miracles are done to cause folks to marvel (John 5:19-20) for the purpose of bringing them to faith (cp. John 5:23), and the same Greek word is used for both John 5:20 and 28. I think that Jesus’ command not to marvel, must have something to do with the fact that he claims to have the power of life and death as Messiah (John 5:25-27). All kings have power of life and death. They judge their own people for good and for evil and make judgments accordingly. They are victorious in battle, which brings life to their nation and death to their enemies, and the Messiah was to be such a king, according to the prevailing belief of the Jews during the first century. Yet, Jesus claimed Messiah had power in himself over life and death, just as the Father had power over life and death. In other words, Jesus claimed Messiah actually had power to give life to whomsoever he chose, who were among the dead.

This was a new idea for them, but if they marveled at it, this would mean they doubted the Messiah, meaning he had no power to give life. The miracles were done for the purpose of shocking folks into reconsidering their own ways, and what they thought, and bring them to faith (John 5:23), but to marvel at Jesus’ word that Messiah had the power or authority over life, itself, would lead to rejection of the Messiah, and in doing so, they would fall into the resurrection of judgment instead of the resurrection of life (John 5:28-29).

Notice that in John 5:28-29 Jesus spoke of not only the resurrection to life or of those who would enter the Kingdom of God, which up to this point pointed to folks having a new birth of their spirit, permitting them to engage in fellowship with God, but here in John 5:28-29 Jesus spoke of all who were in the graves. In other words, he spoke of a resurrection of those who were not in fellowship with God, so they would then be judged accordingly, vis-à-vis not believing Jesus meant they rejected fellowship with God, thus sealing their judgment! So, when would the judgment of John 5:28-29 occur?

According to Jesus’ word, the resurrection of life and the resurrection of judgment (John 5:28-29)[1] was yet in the future at the time of his ministry in the flesh. That is, it was not of the hour which was coming and now is (cp. John 5:27). It would occur at his coming in the glory of the Father (Matthew 16:27), which wouldn’t occur until the end of the age (cp. Matthew 24:3), meaning the end of the Old Covenant, which occurred in 70 AD! So, clearly Jesus didn’t refer to a time in our future, but to a time that was fulfilled during the first century AD, for he said in Matthew that he would come and reward every man according to his works and some of those who listened to him would live to see that done (Matthew 16:27-28). Therefore, John 5:28-29 was a warning to the Jewish leadership that, if they didn’t repent and believe, they would suffer the consequences of their works. They knew he was sent by God (John 3:2), yet they doubted his word (cp. John 2:20), because they believed they could see (cp. John 9:41) well enough to judge such matters, but, according to Jesus, the flesh was unable to perceive the Kingdom of God, and had to be reborn in order to see (John 3:3)!

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[1] Jesus also referred to this resurrection as that of the sheep and the goats (Matthew 25:31-46). Paul refers to it as the resurrection of the dead, both of the just and the unjust (cp. Acts 24:25). In Daniel it is referred to as a resurrection to everlasting life and everlasting contempt (Daniel 12:2-3).