Bible Truth #201 - John 5:21

John 5:21

For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son gives life to whom he is pleased to give it.

I even overlooked this Truth at first...

The first phrase - just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life. How can the dead do anything when they are dead? Did Lazarus have anything to do with his resurrection? NO, Jesus raised him. Did Jesus have anything to do with His own resurrection? NO, the Father raised Him (Romans 8:11). And so the Father raised us. While we were dead in our sins (Ephesians 2:1, 2:5; Colossians 2:13), a.k.a. lost, we couldn’t believe, we couldn’t repent, we couldn’t accept, we couldn’t do ANYTHING pleasing to God (Romans 8:8) because we hated Him (John 3:20) and were hostile toward Him (Romans 8:7).

Now let’s go on to the rest of the verse, if the Arminian claims that the Son gives life to whom He is pleased to give it and He gives it to those who believe, not only does that position implicitly state that the dead can believe, it also makes Christ out to be a respecter of persons - i.e. He saves those who believe and doesn’t save those who don’t believe. I covered that false belief way back in Bible Truth #24. Peter said it: God is NOT a respecter of persons.

They are saying that Christ reacts to something man does. They are saying that there is a requirement to be saved. Sorry, belief comes AFTER God saves because Jesus clearly said that belief in a man is a work of God, not man (John 6:29). And in Philippians 1:29 Paul writes that belief is given to us. So if a man doesn’t believe it’s because God has not done a work in him and given him belief. It would stand to reason that Paul would say the same thing to his son in the ministry - and he does! He writes to Timothy that we are not saved because of ANYTHING we have done (2 Timothy 1:9).

So, who are those to whom the Son is pleased to give life? Answer - the Son is pleased to give life to those chosen in Him before the foundation of the world (Ephesians 1:4). If a man is chosen, there is nothing he can do to lose it, and if a man is not chosen, there is nothing he can do to gain it.