The Authority of the Son Midrash, Part 1: Resurrection

Read the series.

John 5:20-30 with Psalm 2:12, Daniel 12:1-2 and Deuteronomy 18:15-19

Although a number of religions acknowledge an afterlife, mainstream Judaism was unique in its day for believing in the bodily resurrection.¹ Rabbinic Judaism demonstrates this emphasis in the daily prayer known as the Amidah – also known as the 19 (originally 18) blessings.² The second blessing reads:

You, O Lord, are mighty forever, you revive the dead, you have the power to save. [From the end of Sukkot until the eve of Passover, insert: You cause the wind to blow and the rain to fall.]

You sustain the living with lovingkindness, you revive the dead with great mercy, you support the falling, heal the sick, set free the bound and keep faith with those who sleep in the dust.

Who is like you, O doer of mighty acts? Who resembles you, a king who puts to death and restores to life, and causes salvation to flourish? And you are certain to revive the dead. Blessed are you, O Lord, who revives the dead.³

John 5:20-30 quotes the words of Jesus:

For the Father loves the Son and shows him all that he himself is doing. And greater works than these will he show him, so that you may marvel. For as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom he will. For the Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son, that all may honor the Son, just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him. 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.

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. For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself. And he has given him authority to execute judgment, because he is the Son of Man. Do not marvel at this, for an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and come out, those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment.

I can do nothing on my own. As I hear, I judge, and my judgment is just, because I seek not my own will but the will of him who sent me.

Resurrection of the Dead

The first theme we will look at is the resurrection of the dead.

Daniel 12:1-2 is the premier Old Testament passage about the resurrection; in this passage, an unidentified angel speaks to Daniel about the end times:

At that time shall arise Michael, the great prince who has charge of your people. And there shall be a time of trouble, such as never has been since there was a nation till that time. But at that time your people shall be delivered, everyone whose name shall be found written in the book. And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.

Several Old Testament passages address an end time resurrection of sorts. Job 19:25-26 records the words of one of Abraham’s contemporaries, Job:

For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God…

Ezekiel’s vision of the dry bones (Ezekiel 37:1-14) probably represents the resurrection of Israel as a nation. Israel will see its fortunes reversed from humiliation to exaltation in the Kingdom Age.

They That Have Done Good

Does Jesus support the folk religion belief that people who do good things go to heavenly realms and people who do bad things go to infernal regions? It certainly appears so, at first glance.

This teaching seems to be reinforced by Paul, who writes in Romans 2:6-8,

[God] will repay each person according to his deeds: to those who by perseverance in doing good seek glory, honor, and immortality, He will give eternal life; but to those who are self-serving and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, He will give wrath and indignation.

We can conclude that God will award heaven to those who have done good, but with a caveat: the good done is the result of regeneration—and such deeds are the evidence of regeneration—not its cause.

We have already been introduced to such a concept in John 3, including a verse we have not addressed, John 3:21. “But the one who practices the truth comes to the Light, so that his deeds will be revealed as having been performed in [or through] God.”

Paul couples this “doing good” with the fruit of regeneration: “…in that they show the work of the Law written in their hearts…” (Romans 2:15a).

For a more detailed perspective, Ephesians 2:1-10 provides sequence: regeneration, belief (salvation by grace through faith), and then good works as part of the pre-ordained fruit of salvation. The kind of works involved here are the fruit of salvation, not its cause. Thus the works of those justified by grace through faith are an accurate thermometer for the destiny of the soul. And thus it has been throughout both testaments.

Parameter Fulfillment

“Parameter Fulfillment” is my term for one aspect of Biblical logic. It blurs the distinction between correlation and cause. We often see this pattern in the Bible: if the conditions (correlations) surrounding a prophecy or promise are matched, the promise will be realized in some way. The prophecy or promise may not be completely fulfilled, but it will be fulfilled in at least a partial or spiritual way. This does not negate the fuller, more literal fulfillment of these prophecies in the future.

Correlation and Cause: Sacred Logic vs. Western Logic

The Scriptures sometimes distinguish between cause and correlation, but not always. When it fails to do so, I call this phenomenon “parameter fulfillment.” God often honors correlations. Humans are therefore sometimes presented with the option of realizing the promise by creating the correlations surrounding the promise or prophecy, even though matters are really out of human hands—and even if they are incapable of creating those correlations.

There are many examples of this in Scripture, including Jesus command that we as perfect as God (Matthew 5:48) which, in light of I John 1:8, is quite impossible.

Another example is Acts 3:19-21. Peter is preaching to the Jews, when he proclaims:

Repent therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out, that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send the Christ appointed for you, Jesus, whom heaven must receive until the time for restoring all the things about which God spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets long ago… (NIV)

This is obviously a promise of the Millennial Reign of Christ. Here in Acts, Peter is making an offer to the children of Israel: If enough of the Jewish people would repent and turn to Messiah Yeshua, He would return and establish his kingdom on the earth. Yeshua’s return is connected to meeting the parameter of a believing Israel.

Both Peter and the sages taught that if we can successfully reproduce kingdom conditions, the kingdom will come. If we could bring about certain repentance and belief, Messiah would reign.

At the same time, we know that the times and seasons for such things are under the Father’s control. We also know that Jewish unbelief was in the plan of God (Romans 9-11).

In this example, the Son is the One Who determines who has “done good,” and this “doing good” is equated with believing in the Son: “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life” (John 5:24). This same concept is reinforced in nearby context, John 6:29: “Jesus answered and said to them, ‘This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent.’” It is the genuineness of one’s belief (cause), evidenced by works (correlation), that reveals the destiny of the elect.