The Son Gives Life

In John 5 Jesus was informing His detractors about why He healed on the Sabbath. His answer was, "My Father is working until now, and I am working." (John 5:17) He went on to explain that His mode of operation was to imitate His Father (John 5:19-23). Down there at the end of this passage, Jesus says this:

"As the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom He will." (John 5:21)

It's a wonderful thing, really. I mean, considering "you were dead in the trespasses and sins" (Eph 2:1), "when we were dead in our trespasses, [God] made us alive together with Christ" (Eph 2:5). This whole "the Son gives life to whom He will" is very good news, especially for people like us who started out spiritually dead.

It's interesting to me, then, that the response of today isn't so much marvel and gratitude, but complaint. "Hey! 'The Son gives life to whom He will', eh? So why doesn't He give life to everyone?" It's not enough that He does it at all to anyone. Somehow, He owes it to all. This is partly because of a misunderstanding of passages like 2 Peter 3:9 that seem to say that it is God's will that everyone is saved. The truth is that it is not God's will that everyone be saved, or the Son would give life to whom He will and that would include everyone. The idea is mostly due to our anthropocentric view of Christianity. It's centered on Man. It's all about us. God's ultimate goal is our happiness. Hey, He owes us that! So when He fails to come through, it is a shortcoming on His part.

This notion is at the heart of many of the objections of skeptics. God doesn't heal everyone. What's wrong with Him? "Bad things happen to good people." What's wrong with Him? People who live their lives in complete opposition to God and His authority are outraged when unpleasant things occur in their lives and they complain, "How could God allow this to happen??!!" Because it's quite clear that any good God would be most concerned about us and our pleasure.

Jesus said He gives life to whom He will and that should be good news. It should be good news because He is not obligated to give life to anyone, so if anyone is given life, it's a marvelous thing. But we know better. And He's wrong. "Gives life to dead people?" Good. But not good enough. We should be allowed to determine who that would be, and we would likely determine that it's just about everyone. If not, it should certainly be whomever decides He should include them. God as sovereign in salvation? Not acceptable. We decide.

Our rebellion goes deep. It is at the core of the problem. It is characterized as "the suppression of truth" (Rom 1:18). It is necessary to maintain our rejection of God (Rom 1:21). And while we may think we're being magnanimous to require of God that He be our magic genie who gives us everything we desire, the truth is not in us.

Good news! "The Son gives life to whom He will." We need to realize that 1) He does not will to give it to everyone, that 2) none of us deserve it, and 3) anyone that receives life from the hand of Christ does so as an act of God's unmitigated grace.