“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.” — John 5:24 (ESV)
Reflection
Today’s passage features Jesus being hated by the Jews for doing miracles on the Sabbath and for proclaiming that God is his father, which makes him equal to God. The Jews plotted to kill him from the very beginning. Next, Jesus goes on to talk about how the Father has given him authority, but also says things about following the Father’s will, which is the divine nature. There are many ways to explain this more in depth, but to give this a summarizing statement, God gives Jesus the authority to judge, but also to save.
This passage shows Christ’s deity, because no one is able to judge and save but God alone. And the way he also declares his equality with God shows that either Jesus is a crazy man who has allegedly been given authority by God, or he is God himself. Jesus keeps talking in the Father-Son language, and he keeps saying that whoever honors the Son also honors the Father, and whoever doesn’t honor the Son also dishonors the Father. The only explanation is that Jesus and God are one in nature: the divine nature.
Warning: this is where the theology begins!
So when it says that Jesus is seeking God’s will, it means he is following this divine nature. So what is the divine nature? Amazing question! This gets into something I learned like last week called the Hypostatic Union (the best way to reinforce something is by explaining it, so I’ll do that). When Jesus prays at Gethsemane, he says “not my will, but yours be done” or something along those lines (great song Celina). Knowing that Jesus is fully God and fully man, we can deduce that he has two “wills” or “natures”. This consists of the divine nature and the human nature. The implications of this doctrine are far more complex than just this, but I’ll explain it specifically for this context. So the doctrine of the hypostatic union states that Jesus is two in distinct, inseparable natures, yet one in purpose, because the human will is subordinate to the Godly nature. The divine nature of the Trinity is the same, and they have the same will. That’s why Jesus keeps saying that he can’t do anything on his own, and that he seeks the will of God: because he has God’s will, and they are inseparable. https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/kevin-deyoung/theological-primer-hypostatic-union/. This article doesn’t talk about the human will being subordinate to the Godly will, but that part exists somewhere too.