Life from Jesus and in Jesus

Today, if the Lord wills, we are going to look as Jesus’ own words on what it means to have life from him and in him. That’s really the whole point of why the Apostle John wrote his biography of Jesus. We keep coming back to the end of the book in John 20:31 where he says, “these [things] are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.”

Life is a good thing. In a church increasingly full of a bunch of babies, clearly we love new life. But here in verses 25-29 on John 5, Jesus describes life in him as both something available now and something to come in the future. It’s both already here and not yet arrived.

It’s kinda like finding out you’re pregnant. Just seeing that positive test changes everything. If you’re the woman, all the sudden you’re not supposed to eat uncooked meat, you have to watch a lot of your other habits. You start thinking about your budget differently. You check your insurance coverage There’s a real baby, and he or she is already making an impact.

And yet, at the same time, that baby needs to grow and develop. You’ve got around 9 months, and then the baby will fully arrive, and with that so will an entirely new season of life. Both are sweet, but there’s not like getting to the finish line of that pregnancy and meeting the one you’ve been preparing for all that time.

Followers of Jesus live in the same kind of “already-not yet” dynamic. If you’re a Christian, you can biblically say that you have been, are being, and will be completely saved. We experience the redeeming power of Jesus now when we repent and turn from the sinful ways we try to rule our own lives and instead trust in the finished work of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection for us. And we also will one day see the fulfillment and full glorification of our life with Christ as we’re united to live with him for eternity. Both the “already” and the “not yet.”

And Jesus presents this framework in our passage this morning. In verse 25, he begins saying, “Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming, and is now here.” He’s talking about right now. But by the end, in verse 28, he looks to the future and drops the language “is now here” to simply say, “an hour is coming” (meaning it’s still coming). And that makes these 5 verses such a gift to the Christian because it starts with how we come to have life in Jesus, it points out why we can have a source of daily meaning in Jesus, and it gives us the only foundation for a sure and steady future hope because of Jesus.

For the Christian, Jesus is the start of our life, the source of our life, and the Savior of our life. And I know that’s very spiritual language, but even if you don’t consider yourself a Christian this morning—whether you would say you’re curious or skeptical or actively seeking—even if you don’t consider a Christian, we all have to fill in the blanks for each one of those three categories. We all have answers for why we live, how we live, and what we’re living for.

If we don’t, we can’t live as whole and stable people. We all need to feel like we have a reason for existing, or we won’t want to exist. We all need to have something that gives meaning to our daily life, or we won’t enjoy getting out of bed to live it; we won’t find ourselves pursuing anything but instead just drifting through everything. A ship without a set course floats everywhere. And we also need to have something we’re living for to have hope in what’s to come.

Everyone is listening to something to give themselves life. Everyone is looking to something to give themselves meaning. And everyone is leaning on something to give themselves hope. And Jesus shows us in these 5 verses that he’s the only thing that can perfectly fulfill each of these needs and desires in our heart. So, let’s start with how everyone is listening to something to give themselves life. Look with me at verse 25.

John 5:25 ESV

²⁵ “Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live.

This passage begins with the idea of resurrection and it ends with the idea of resurrection. But like we mentioned already, verses 28 and 29 deal with an hour that is still coming. But here in verses 25, this hour—a different hour—is already now here. That means there’s a difference in the type of life given in verse 25 and the type of life given in verses 28-29. So, what’s Jesus talking about in verse 25? I don’t think we have to look any further than backing up one verse to verse 24.

John 5:24 ESV

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.

There’s that same idea of passing from death to life right there again, immediately before verse 25, which tells us that they’re referring to the same thing. If verse 24 is talking about having “eternal life” like Jesus says in the middle of the verse, then verse 25 is also talking about receiving eternal life—about our salvation. And in verse 25, Jesus says that’s not something that the people listening to him back then or us reading the gospel of John today have to wait for. Salvation in Jesus is available now to those who believe in him.

But who is it that believes in him? Verse 25 tells us that “the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live.” Not “some of those who hear”, but “those who hear.” Jesus is saying that there is a type of hearing that unilaterally leads to new life and salvation in him.

A manager can casually mention to one of his employees that he needs a project finished by a certain deadline but then walk away feeling like the message might have gone in one ear and out the other. But there’s a way that manager can give the same assignment to someone he’s managing, with all the intentionality and urgency and authority as someone that can promote the person’s job or cause them to lose their job, and you will see that employee hear well and act on it.

Jesus is saying there is a type of hearing that spiritually raises the dead, and it will always do so. It will always lead to belief and obedience like we see in the progression of verse 24. And Jesus gives us a hint at where this hearing comes from in the way he describes those who hear: he says they’re spiritually dead. That makes it kinda hard to hear on their own. It means they’re not actively listening and waiting.

And yet, Jesus says the time is now when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God. So, what makes something dead able to hear? It’s not that we’re that good at being dead; it’s that Jesus is that good at speaking. And just as he healed the man who couldn’t walk at the pool of Bethesda in our passage a couple weeks ago, Jesus—which John 1:1 described as the “Word of God”—brings healing and new life through the power of his Word. Like verse 24 says, salvation happens when we hear his Word and respond by believing in him.

But even if you haven’t—even if you’ve heard the story of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection and chosen not to respond in belief—you’re still listening to something to give you life. You’re still looking somewhere to justify yourself—somewhere to give you a peace that you’re okay. That you are good.

For many of us, the thing we’re listening to is our good intentions. “Maybe we’re not perfect, but we’re trying to be good people.” “We’re just doing our best to make the world a better place.” Do you know who else says that? Every single villain in every superhero movie ever made.

Good intentions can have bad outcomes when they come from bad origins. And the Bible describes the human condition as spiritually dead because of our sin and rebellion against God’s rule that’s separated us from him. We might have good intentions that have a lot of good in them because we were beautifully and wonderfully made in the image of our creator, but apart from him we’re like a broken mirror—the end result is going to be distorted.

But if it’s not our intentions, another thing we can often find ourselves listening to in hopes that it’ll justify us is an evaluation of our performance or our character. It’s so easy for us to compare ourselves to this person or that person and think, “I might not be perfect”, but I’m better than that guy. And this isn’t just a problem for non-Christians. You might be a follower of Jesus but still struggling to listen to other voices telling you your performance is what makes you good before God.

And when that’s the case, you’re inevitably going to look down on others that you think haven’t performed as well as you have: maybe they’re not as generous or as tolerant or as humble (which is ironic that we’d pride our humility over others, but our hearts can be so good at twisting our perception as we try to justify ourselves).

But if you find yourself listening to the voice of comparison as your source of justification, how do you decide on a metric or a stopping point? Let’s say you think love is the greatest attribute a person can have. It might be true that you’re more loving than person A or person B, but what about person C? Surely, none of us believe we’re the most loving person on the planet. Someone else is more loving than you. Does that mean you fall short?

Well, in that scenario, everybody but one person—the most loving person—is going to fall short of being “truly good.” And actually, the Bible agrees with that. It turns out that playing the comparison game to it’s rational conclusion gets us to the good news of Jesus after all. Only one person has ever been described, not just as loving, but as love. As the origin of love. The foundation and fountain of love. For every other being not sharing his love, we fall short of the greatest love.

And we can’t reach that love on our own. We can’t do enough. We can’t be enough. Outside of that love, because we’ve rejected that love, verse 25 is accurate when it calls us spiritually dead. But the Word of God has drawn near to us. He has spoken life to us by becoming death for us. As Romans 5:8 says, “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

When you hear from Jesus, and trust in his performance to make you right with God rather than your own—his love becomes your love; his goodness becomes your goodness. Not because we’ve earned these things—it’s because he has, and he’s declared all that he’s earned to be ours while all that we’ve earned becomes his. His life is given to you, and the death you’ve earned is given to him. That’s the gospel.

There are so many voices out there claiming they can help you feel good about your life, but only the Word of God can raise you from the dead and give you a new life. And that’s because he gives you his life, which is not simply a life that justifies you in a moment; it’s a life that gives you a new meaning and purpose as you live every day of yours moving forward. Let’s keep reading with verses 26-27.

John 5:26–27 ESV

²⁶ For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself. ²⁷ And he has given him authority to execute judgment, because he is the Son of Man.

These verses parallel Jesus” words back in verses 21 and 22 where Jesus is described as being able to raise the dead and give life to whom he will as well as the Father having given him all judgment. We see similar language here, but the reasoning has slightly shifted. Before, Jesus was just said to be able to give life like the Father, but now we see another reason why: he has “life in himself.”

In a way it’s like John, the author, is demonstrating how Jesus’ earlier words connect with the prologue all the way back at the beginning of the book in John 1:4 when he says that “In [Jesus] was life, and the life was the light of men.” We are able to have life because Jesus has life. But it’s also more than that. Once again, verse 26 says, Jesus “has life in himself.”

My least favorite toys that our son owns are the ones with batteries. They’re rarely turned off when he’s done with them, so most of the time when he wants to play with them, they’re dead. And they can’t just do what they’re supposed to do on their own. They don’t have their own power source. They have to be given that power; they have to be given that life from something else.

And Jesus tells us in verse 25 that that’s not the case for him. The Son, like the Father, isn’t dependent on something else for his life. He has life in himself. Which means he had no beginning, and he will never have an end. That’s why when Moses asks God for his name back in Exodus 3, he simply says “I am who I am.” God is the uncaused cause.

You are the product of your parents, who are the product of their parents, who are the product of theirs and so on and so on. All of creation is derivative. Our life and our existence comes from something else. But not so with God. Not so with Christ.

And this matters to us because, if our life is derivative, then so is our meaning. So is our purpose. Everyone is looking to something to give themselves meaning in life. But no matter where we look, nothing else can provide an ultimate meaning for our life because everything finds it source in the one who is the creator of all life—the one who has life in himself.

I love the experience of going to a nice restaurant. I enjoy the moment of looking at a menu and trying to figure out how I’m going to build the perfect meal that hits whatever I’m craving. It’s one of the main reasons why Macie and I went to an all inclusive for our honeymoon—we didn’t have to worry about the budget once we were there, so we we could each get our own appetizers, I could try something I wouldn’t normally want to pay for, we didn’t have to share dessert. It was great!

I love getting to figure out exactly what my dinner is going to look like. But if the waiter was trying to take our order, and I just kept waving them off all night because I just wanted to keep looking at the menu the whole time I was there, you’d think I was silly. If I don’t actually place my order and eat my meal, then I’m missing the main reason why I’m there.

We can be guilty of doing the same thing with our lives. We fixate ourselves on this thing and that thing—and they might not even be bad for us—it could be our kids, our job, our reputation, our character, or our hobbies—we can be determined to find our sense of meaning and purpose in these kinds of things, and we miss out on how every good thing is meant to point us to the ultimate thing—every source of joy is meant to be a taste of the joy of our creator—every focus that offers fulfillment is meant to be a shadow that finds it’s greatest fulfillment in our God.

If my kid tries to play with his shadow, he can have a lot of fun. But eventually, the sun will go down, the weather will change, or he’ll step inside. He doesn’t just need a shadow to play with temporarily—he needs his dad who will always be there.

We all have a desire to have meaning in our lives—a reason to exist; something that orders our steps and gives them intentionality and purpose. Are you looking for your ultimate sense of meaning in an unsteady shadow or in the unchanging substance? The uncaused cause.

My enjoyment of looking at a menu and planning out my feast at a restaurant isn’t diminished when I place my order and the food comes. That’s when my joy’s complete.

Whatever other things give you meaning in life right now—whether it be your family, your personal growth, your career—whatever it might be—the invitation of Jesus isn’t to stop enjoying those things. It’s to experience the fulfillment of those things as you see the various areas of your life find a whole and connected meaning with the God who made you for himself.

• He doesn’t say your marriage doesn’t matter compared to him. He says that your marriage demonstrates to you and to the world the sacrificial and covenantal love he has for his people. When God is right in your marriage, you don’t always have to fight to be. Following Jesus gives you a new meaning for your marriage.

• In the same way, he doesn’t say your kids don’t matter compared to him. He says that he’s the perfect Father you never had and the one you can’t be. So, you can rest in his strength to love you as you love your own children. You don’t have to try to be their Savior when you’re pointing to the Savior. Following Jesus gives you a new meaning for your parenting.

• And finally, he doesn’t say your job doesn’t matter compared to him. He says that every job, no matter the prestige, is an opportunity to steward God’s creation as we reflect his character in the way we lead and create from what he’s provided. Following Jesus gives you a new meaning for your job.

Following Jesus doesn’t mean you forsake what’s meant to be good; it means you submit to God in the things that have good meaning, so you can experience their true fulfillment in light of his ultimate meaning. And because Jesus is the source of our life—because he has life in himself and is the Son of man who will judge us for looking for life apart from him—that means every area of our lives can and should be shaped by who he is and what he’s done for us.

That’s why at our church we often say, “The gospel affects all of life.” What he’s accomplished for us doesn’t just change how we act; it shapes how we see. And that’s why following Christ is meant to give hope, both for today and for the future. Let’s look one more time at our passage in verses 28-29.

John 5:28–29 ESV

²⁸ 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.

Back in verse 20, Jesus said that the Father will show him even greater works than healing the man at the pool of Bethesda—works like dying for our sin, defeating death with his resurrection, and redeeming us to a new life and right relationship with him. Those works of God are meant to lead us to marvel.

But not verse 28. In verse 28, he says, “Do not marvel.” Don’t marvel that an hour is coming when every person will be resurrected, some to eternal life and some to judgment. Why the difference? Why marvel at one and not the other? Jesus is saying that we should marvel at how how he has shown his love to us, but it shouldn’t surprise us that he’s God over us.

If God is real, then it makes sense that one day we would be held accountable to him. But what doesn’t make sense is that he would take any of that judgment onto himself. The gospel shows us a God who is unwavering in his commitment to righteousness but also sacrificial in his loving mercy. He doesn’t forgive the ways we’ve sinned against him without justice—But he took that justice onto himself at the cross.

Everyone is leaning on something to give themselves hope, and yet that also seems to be one of the biggest stressors that we face in our culture. At the end of the first season of the show Ted Lasso, several of the character share the same sentiment before the final soccer game: “It’s the hope that kills you.”

And that feels easy for us to identify with. We all hope in something, but life seems to be filled with people, careers, sports teams, and any other number of things that eventually let us down. And yet, even after disappointment, our focus might shift, but we still try to look to something else to regain our sense of hope. Because even though our experience might tell us “it’s the hope that kills you”, there’s something deep in our hearts that cries out believing there’s a hope that can sustain us.

A hope that one day wrong things will be made right. A hope that you can leave an impact, whether it be on the world in general or simply in the lives of those closest to you. A hope that at the end of your life, you can be full of peace rather than regret—that your life can matter and that there’s better things ahead. All of those hopes find their fulfillment in Christ. Listen to the words of 1 Peter 1:3-9.

1 Peter 1:3–9 ESV

³ Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, ⁴ to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, ⁵ who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. ⁶ In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, ⁷ so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. ⁸ Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, ⁹ obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

And how can we gain this hope? What must we do to have hope that one day God will make all bad things untrue and bring us into the resurrection of life? In verse 29, Jesus describes it as “those who have done good”. But we have to understand what “good” means in the context of the gospel of John, and we can look both in front of our passage and behind it for understanding.

If we fast forward one chapter, the people ask Jesus in John 6:28 what they must do to be doing the works of God? And Jesus tells them in verse 29, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him who he has sent.” If we rewind back to John 3:21, Jesus says that “whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.”

Our ability to have a steady and unfailing hope for life, both now and in the future, requires us to believe and rest in the good work that Jesus has done in our place to forgive us of our sin and give us a new life that is within himself.

Let’s pray.