Tag Archives: John 5:26-27

Who Am I? Part 11

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In the movie M*A*S*H Major Frank Burns (Robert Duvall) is introduced on his knees at his cot praying aloud.  At sixteen I thought he was some kind of super-Christian.  I wouldn’t have prayed aloud like that at church camp.

When he yelled at Private Boone (Bud Cort) for a lazy and inappropriate response to a direct order, it was uncomfortable, but it didn’t diminish Major Burns in my estimation.  After all, what does it mean to be “under authority” if not that those in authority over you berate you as they see fit?  I didn’t particularly like it but I was used to it.  It didn’t really change my opinion of those who berated me.

When Major Burns succumbed to his lust for Major Houlihan (Sally Kellerman), it was disappointing, but God punished him immediately.  Radar O’Reilly (Gary Burghoff) slipped a microphone into the tent where Major Burns and Major Houlihan carried on their tryst.  Audio of it was broadcast live to the entire 4077th camp.

And know that your sin will find you out[1] [Table below].  You who tell others not to commit adultery, do you commit adultery?[2]

When Major Burns was sent home in a straitjacket and I was left alone at the MASH camp in Korea (actually, I was on a date) I was at a loss to figure out what this, my first R-rated, movie was actually about.  I had been a do-it-yourself-Christian for over ten years by then.

Jesus may have died to forgive my sins but it was up to me to trust and obey.  C.H. Spurgeon did a fair job of describing my faith in a sermon presented, not as doctrine he believed but, as his characterization of an “Arminian” theory of redemption:

Christ, when He died, did not die with an intent to save any particular person…Christ’s death does not in itself secure, beyond doubt, the salvation of any one man living…Christ died to make the salvation of all men possible…any man who pleases may attain unto eternal life…if man’s will would not give way and voluntarily surrender to grace, then Christ’s atonement would be unavailing….

Though I didn’t realize it at the time I worshiped my own free will.  I didn’t carve or cast a statue, fall prostrate before it and bring it offerings.  I wasn’t a sculptor.  But I thought free will as a concept was fair.

I lifted the following diagram from a site online.

The Throne Diagram

This diagram (or one like it) was the essence of my religious education.  The explanation reads as follows: “The circle is your life.  The seat is a throne.  The throne stands for whatever is lord of your life.  S is for self.  The cross is Jesus.  The other things in the circle represent whatever is important to you.”

Everyone begins at letter A.  The goal is to work through to letter C.  The steps are spelled out in some detail on Cru.org online:[3]

We must surrender, or yield, the throne to Christ….By faith we must recognize that Christ assumed control of our lives upon our invitation….We receive the Lord Jesus Christ by faith.  How then do we allow Him to control our lives moment by moment?

Did I receive the Lord Jesus Christ by faith at sixteen?  Certainly not by the faith (πίστις) that is an aspect of the fruit of his Spirit (John 16:12-16).  I didn’t know of such a faith and would have considered it cheating.  By faith meant trust and obey, acts (continuous acts) of my free will: “We must surrender…we must recognize…We receive…we allow” or God is powerless, except to punish.

I didn’t realize I was worshiping my free will.  I certainly can’t recall what I might have meant at the time by free will if I had.  I thought I was doing, more or less, what I was supposed to be doing, except, of course, when I wasn’t.  So, what is free will?

As I approach it now I have a fairly clear idea what the translators of the NET think about it.  Jesus said (John 10:18 NET):

No one takes [my life] away from me, but I lay it down of my own free will.  I have the authority to lay it down, and I have the authority to take it back again.  This commandment I received from my Father.

Here the Greek words ἀπ᾿ ἐμαυτοῦ were translated of my own free will.  This ἐμαυτοῦ was derived from an authority (ἐξουσίαν, a form of ἐξουσία) derived from a commandment (ἐντολὴν, a form of ἐντολή) Jesus received (ἔλαβον, a form of λαμβάνω) from his Father.  Jesus’ saying is very important to me.  I can describe it best as a contrast to me.

Nail me to a cross and I will stay there until you pry me down, whether dead or alive will depend on how long you leave me nailed there.  Jesus endured the cross.  The Greek word translated endured was ὑπέμεινεν (a form of ὑπομένω): “to remain, stay behind (while others leave); to remain (instead of fleeing).”  Jesus remained on the cross when He had other options.  At any moment throughout that ordeal He could have exercised his authority received by the commandment of His Father, and of his own free will, said, “Enough of this,” and stepped down from the cross.

In the past I’ve added, “and been none the worse for wear.”  I see it a little differently now: He would not be obedient to the point of death, nor the firstborn from the dead and He would be uniquely alone: I tell you the solemn truth, He said, unless a kernel of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains by itself alone.  But if it dies, it produces much grain.[4]

At sixteen I didn’t study the Bible, didn’t know I was worshiping my own free will, but I wonder if I could have accepted an authority received from a commandment of God my free will.  Recently, I’ve described free will as an ability to ignore and disobey God.  That might be an authority derived from a commandment: I don’t know but I don’t cease to exist the moment I think or do anything contrary to God’s word or will.

I looked at the other examples of ἀπ᾿ ἐμαυτοῦ to see if of my own free will would stand up to scrutiny as a translation.  The very first example called my understanding of Jesus’ free will into question (John 5:26, 27, 30):

For just as the Father has life in himself, thus he has granted the Son to have life in himself, and he has granted the Son authority to execute judgment because he is the Son of Man.

I can do nothing on my own initiative.  Just as I hear, I judge, and my judgment is just because I do not seek my own will, but the will of the one who sent me [Table].

I can do nothing of my own free will (ἀπ᾿ ἐμαυτοῦ), seems to hold up, despite its shock value: Jesus said this after having been granted (ἔδωκεν, a form of δίδωμι)…authority (ἐξουσίαν, a form of ἐξουσία) to execute (ποιεῖν, a form of ποιέω) judgment (κρίσιν, a form of κρίσις).

I’m willing to hear an authority (ἐξουσίαν) granted (ἔδωκεν) as roughly equivalent to an authority (ἐξουσίαν) received (ἔλαβον) by a commandment (ἐντολὴν), though that authority is not exercised here of Jesus’ own free will: Just as I hear (ἀκούω), I judge (κρίνω), and my judgment (κρίσις) is just (δικαία, a form of δίκαιος).  Jesus didn’t leave me to guess why such judgment is just: I do not seek (ζητῶ, a form of ζητέω) my own will (θέλημα), but the will (θέλημα) of the one who sent me.

So is there something peculiar about judgment (κρίσιν, κρίσις) that placed special constraints on Jesus’ authority (ἐξουσίαν) to judge of his own free will?  Or did I carry it too far before?  Could Jesus, being Jesus, being who He is, actually of his own free will have stepped down from the cross?  Or did He, as Jesus, seek…the will (θέλημα) of the one (KJV: Father) who sent Him?

The next occurrence of ἀπ᾿ ἐμαυτοῦ sheds some more light on Jesus’ attitude (John 7:16-18 NET):

So[5] Jesus replied, “My teaching is not from me, but from the one who sent me [Table].  If anyone wants to do God’s will, he will know about my teaching, whether it is from God or whether I speak from my own authority.  The person who speaks on his own authority desires to receive honor for himself; the one who desires the honor of the one who sent him is a man of integrity, and there is no unrighteousness in him.

Here ἀπ᾿ ἐμαυτοῦ was translated from my own authority, despite the lack of any form of ἐξουσία in the text.  I don’t have any quarrel with it but think “of my own free will” was still possible as long as I don’t assume that Jesus’ teaching was contrary to his own free will.  The point is his own free will was not the source of his teaching: My teaching is not from me (ἐμὴ, a form of ἐμός; literally: mine).

The person who speaks on his own authority (ἀφ᾿ ἑαυτοῦ) desires (ζητεῖ, a form of ζητέω; literally: seeks) to receive honor (δόξαν, a form of δόξα; KJV: glory) for himself.  Again, Jesus contrasted this one to Himself, One who seeks the glory of the One who sent Him.  It seems less and less likely that Jesus would have exercised his authority to utilize his free will to come down from the cross.

The next occurrence of ἀπ᾿ ἐμαυτοῦ was translated on my own initiative (John 7:28, 29 NET):

Then Jesus, while teaching in the temple courts, cried out, “You both know me and know where I come from!  And I have not come on my own initiative, but the one who sent me is true.  You do not know him, but[6] I know him because I have come from him and he sent me.”

Again, I have not come of my own free will, holds up as long as I don’t assume that He came against his own free will.  This pattern continues: When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am he, and I do nothing on my own initiative (ἀπ᾿ ἐμαυτοῦ), but I speak just what the Father[7] taught me.[8]  And, If God were your Father, you would love me, for I have come from God and am now here.  I have not come on my own initiative (ἀπ᾿ ἐμαυτοῦ), but he sent me [Table].[9]  And finally, Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in me?  The words that I say[10] to you, I do not speak on my own initiative (ἀπ᾿ ἐμαυτοῦ), but the Father residing in me performs[11] his[12] miraculous deeds.[13]

To translate ἔργα (a form of ἔργον) miraculous deeds here and in the following verses might divert one’s attention away from one of the clearest statements of Jesus’ faith, how He lived as a man on this earth: the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works.[14]  I live by the faith (πίστει, a form of πίστις) of the Son of God,[15] Paul wrote.

So, though Jesus had the authority to come down from the cross of his own free will, He didn’t do it because the Father that dwelleth in [Him]…doeth the works.  I didn’t know any of this at sixteen.  My knowledge of God was based on hearsay and whatever I had reasoned out through trial and error, which wasn’t particularly helpful since I was asking the wrong questions and misunderstanding the answers.

God’s love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control is so meaningful to me now, I search for some inkling of the fruit of the Spirit in my past.  The closest I come is the vague memory of a belief that God would help me.  By age sixteen I had over ten years of empirical evidence that God didn’t help me do anything I wanted to do.  (Even after my prodigal years the fruit of the Spirit so-called was a list of attitudes I was expected to conjure and maintain out of my own gratitude for being saved from an eternity in the lake of fire.)

At sixteen I was trying to trust and obey as continuous acts of my own free will and figure out how to abdicate the throne of my life to Christ.  God had one role in my life: to punish me for sin.  By seventeen or eighteen, after He had “failed” at that, I was left alone to figure out what this life was actually about (or so I thought). 

Tables comparing Numbers 32:23 in the Tanakh, KJV and NET, and comparing Numbers 32:23 in the Septuagint (BLB and Elpenor), and tables comparing John 7:29; 8:28 and 14:10 in the NET and KJV follow. 

Numbers 32:23 (Tanakh)

 Numbers 32:23 (KJV)

Numbers 32:23 (NET)
But if ye will not do so, behold, ye have sinned against HaShem; and know ye your sin which will find you. But if ye will not do so, behold, ye have sinned against the LORD: and be sure your sin will find you out. “But if you do not do this, then look, you will have sinned against the Lord.  And know that your sin will find you out.

Numbers 32:23 (Septuagint BLB)

Numbers 32:23 (Septuagint Elpenor)
ἐὰν δὲ μὴ ποιήσητε οὕτως ἁμαρτήσεσθε ἔναντι κυρίου καὶ γνώσεσθε τὴν ἁμαρτίαν ὑμῶν ὅταν ὑμᾶς καταλάβῃ τὰ κακά ἐὰν δὲ μὴ ποιήσητε οὕτως, ἁμαρτήσεσθε ἔναντι Κυρίου καὶ γνώσεσθε τὴν ἁμαρτίαν ὑμῶν, ὅταν ὑμᾶς καταλάβῃ τὰ κακά

Numbers 32:23 (NETS)

Numbers 32:23 (English Elpenor)
But if you will not do so, you will sin against the Lord, and you will know your sin when misfortunes overtake you. But if ye will not do so, ye will sin against the Lord; and ye shall know your sin, when afflictions shall come upon you.

John 7:29 (NET)

John 7:29 (KJV)
but I know him because I have come from him and he sent me.” But I know him: for I am from him, and he hath sent me.

NET Parallel Greek

 Stephanus Textus Receptus

Byzantine Majority Text
ἐγὼ οἶδα αὐτόν, ὅτι παρ᾿ αὐτοῦ εἰμι κακεῖνος με ἀπέστειλεν εγω δε οιδα αυτον οτι παρ αυτου ειμι κακεινος με απεστειλεν εγω οιδα αυτον οτι παρ αυτου ειμι κακεινος με απεστειλεν

John 8:28 (NET)

John 8:28 (KJV)
Then Jesus said, “When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am he, and I do nothing on my own initiative, but I speak just what the Father taught me. Then said Jesus unto them, When ye have lifted up the Son of man, then shall ye know that I am he, and that I do nothing of myself; but as my Father hath taught me, I speak these things.

NET Parallel Greek

 Stephanus Textus Receptus

Byzantine Majority Text
εἶπεν οὖν [αὐτοῖς] ὁ Ἰησοῦς· ὅταν ὑψώσητε τὸν υἱὸν τοῦ ἀνθρώπου, τότε γνώσεσθε ὅτι ἐγώ εἰμι, καὶ ἀπ᾿ ἐμαυτοῦ ποιῶ οὐδέν, ἀλλὰ καθὼς ἐδίδαξεν με ὁ πατὴρ ταῦτα λαλῶ ειπεν ουν αυτοις ο ιησους οταν υψωσητε τον υιον του ανθρωπου τοτε γνωσεσθε οτι εγω ειμι και απ εμαυτου ποιω ουδεν αλλα καθως εδιδαξεν με ο πατηρ μου ταυτα λαλω ειπεν ουν αυτοις ο ιησους οταν υψωσητε τον υιον του ανθρωπου τοτε γνωσεσθε οτι εγω ειμι και απ εμαυτου ποιω ουδεν αλλα καθως εδιδαξεν με ο πατηρ μου ταυτα λαλω

John 14:10 (NET)

John 14:10 (KJV)
Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in me?  The words that I say to you, I do not speak on my own initiative, but the Father residing in me performs his miraculous deeds. Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? the words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works.

NET Parallel Greek

 Stephanus Textus Receptus

Byzantine Majority Text
οὐ πιστεύεις ὅτι ἐγὼ ἐν τῷ πατρὶ καὶ ὁ πατὴρ ἐν ἐμοί ἐστιν; τὰ ρήματα ἃ ἐγὼ λέγω ὑμῖν ἀπ᾿ ἐμαυτοῦ οὐ λαλῶ, ὁ δὲ πατὴρ ἐν ἐμοὶ μένων ποιεῖ τὰ ἔργα αὐτοῦ ου πιστευεις οτι εγω εν τω πατρι και ο πατηρ εν εμοι εστιν τα ρηματα α εγω λαλω υμιν απ εμαυτου ου λαλω ο δε πατηρ ο εν εμοι μενων αυτος ποιει τα εργα ου πιστευεις οτι εγω εν τω πατρι και ο πατηρ εν εμοι εστιν τα ρηματα α εγω λαλω υμιν απ εμαυτου ου λαλω ο δε πατηρ ο εν εμοι μενων αυτος ποιει τα εργα

[1] Numbers 32:23b (NET)

[2] Romans 2:22a (NET)

[3] “The Christ-Controlled Life,” by Bill Bright

[4] John 12:24 (NET)

[5] The NET parallel Greek text and NA28 had οὖν here, where the Stephanus Textus Receptus and Byzantine Majority Text had και (KJV: And).

[6] The Stephanus Textus Receptus had the conjunction δε here.  The NET parallel Greek text, NA28 and Byzantine Majority Text did not.

[7] The Stephanus Textus Receptus and Byzantine Majority Text had μου following Father (KJV: my).  The NET parallel Greek text and NA28 did not.

[8] John 8:28 (NET)

[9] John 8:42 (NET)

[10] The NET parallel Greek text and NA28 had λέγω here, where the Stephanus Textus Receptus and Byzantine Majority Text had λαλω (KJV: speak).

[11] The Stephanus Textus Receptus and Byzantine Majority Text had αυτος (KJV: he) preceding performs (KJV: doeth).  The NET parallel Greek text and NA28 did not.

[12] The NET parallel Greek text and NA28 had αὐτοῦ following deeds.  The Stephanus Textus Receptus and Byzantine Majority Text did not.

[13] John 14:10 (NET)

[14] John 14:10b (KJV)

[15] Galatians 2:20b (KJV)

Condemnation or Judgment? – Part 4

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Then Jesus began to criticize openly the cities in which he had done many of his miracles, because they did not repent.  “Woe to you, Chorazin!  Woe to you, Bethsaida!  If the miracles done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes.  But I tell you, it will be more bearable for Tyre and Sidon on the day of judgment (ἐν ἡμέρᾳ κρίσεως) than for you![1]

Here, potentially, I have another instance where more bearable meant that fewer people rise up at the judgment to condemn the inhabitants of Tyre and Sidon than the inhabitants of Chorazin and Bethsaida, those who witnessed Jesus’ miracles and yet rejected his message.  The same may be true of Capernaum relative to Sodom (Matthew 11:23, 24 NET).

And you, Capernaum, will you be exalted to heaven?  No, you will be thrown down to Hades!  For if the miracles done among you had been done in Sodom, it would have continued to this day.  But I tell you, it will be more bearable for the region (γῇ)[2] of Sodom on the day of judgment (ἐν ἡμέρᾳ κρίσεως) than for you!

But all of this assumes that my intuition that κρίσεως[3] is limited to judgment and does not expand to mean condemnation is correct.  In Revelation κρίσεως may mean condemnation as I understand it: Then I saw another angel flying directly overhead, and he had an eternal gospel to proclaim to those who live on the earth – to every nation, tribe, language, and people.  He declared in a loud voice: “Fear God and give him glory, because the hour of his judgment (ἡ ὥρα[4] τῆς κρίσεως αὐτοῦ) has arrived, and worship the one who made heaven and earth, the sea and the springs of water!”[5]

Granted, the first thing that happens after the announcement of the hour of his judgment is a distinction I recognize as judgment.  One like a son of man seated on a cloud reaped the harvest of the earth for some unspecified purpose, at the command of an angel who came out of the temple in heaven.[6]  Then another angel came out of the temple in heaven and reaped the earth at the command of another angel who was in charge of the fire.  Those harvested in this way were the grapes from the vineyard of the earth, and were tossed into the great winepress of the wrath of God.[7]

So far so good.  But what I would consider the condemnation of the great winepress of the wrath of God was spelled out in some detail later as the seven bowls containing God’s wrath.

First Bowl

Revelation 16:2 (NET)

 …ugly and painful sores appeared on the people who had the mark of the beast and who worshiped his image.
Second Bowl

Revelation 16:3 (NET)

 …the sea…turned into blood, like that of a corpse, and every living creature that was in the sea died.
Third Bowl

Revelation 16:4-7 (NET)

 …the rivers and the springs of water…turned into blood.
Fourth Bowl

Revelation 16:8, 9 (NET)

 …the sun…was permitted to scorch people with fire.
Fifth Bowl

Revelation 16:10, 11 (NET)

 …on the throne of the beast so that darkness covered his kingdom, and people began to bite their tongues because of their pain.
Sixth Bowl

Revelation 16:12-16 (NET)

 …on the great river Euphrates and dried up its water to prepare the way for the kings from the east.
Seventh Bowl

Revelation 16:17-21 (NET)

 Then there were flashes of lightning, roaring, and crashes of thunder, and there was a tremendous earthquake – an earthquake unequaled since humanity has been on the earth, so tremendous was that earthquake.  The great city was split into three parts and the cities of the nations collapsed….Every island fled away and no mountains could be found.  And gigantic hailstones, weighing about a hundred pounds each, fell from heaven on people…

After the third bowl containing God’s wrath John recorded:  Now I heard the angel of the waters saying: “You are just – the one who is and who was, the Holy One – because (ὅτι)[8] you have passed these judgments (ἔκρινας, a form of κρίνω),[9] because (ὅτι) they poured out the blood of your saints and prophets, so you have given them blood to drink.  They got what they deserved!”  Then I heard the altar reply, “Yes, Lord God, the All-Powerful, your judgments (κρίσεις, a form of κρίσις)[10] are true and just!”[11]  Here both κρίνω and κρίσις were used for the adverse sentence, condemnation as I understand it.  It makes my careful distinctions moot.

I don’t recant because: 1) I’m not comfortable deriving the meaning of words from the most esoteric and figurative book in the Bible; and 2) the angel’s reasoning sounds vaguely demonic to me.  (And, yes, I recognize the audacity of that statement.)  Perhaps that is all demonic means.  Perhaps a demon is nothing more than an angel who has elevated his own reasoning above the will and word of God.  But I don’t believe that God is just or righteous because he passed these judgments (KJV, hast judged thus).

I don’t believe that God is just or righteous because He conforms to some abstract conception of justice or righteousness: they poured out the blood of your saints and prophets, so you have given them blood to drink.  They got what they deserved!  I believe that God is just and righteous because he is the Holy One, who is and who was.  What He does, how He judges, is just or righteous because of who He is.  Let God be proven true, and every human being shown up as a liar, Paul wrote the Romans, just as it is written: “so that you will be justified in your words and will prevail when you are judged.”[12]  But I suspect here that God is judged not only by human beings, but by angels.  Or, perhaps, ὅτι should have been translated—regarding the fact that—as in Acts 13:34 (NET).

But regarding the fact that (ὅτι) he has raised Jesus from the dead, never again to be in a state of decay, God has spoken in this way: “I will give you the holy and trustworthy promises made to David.”

I don’t have any issue with the altar’s reply—Yes, Lord God, the All-Powerful, your judgments are true and just!—except its tacit and uncritical acceptance of the angel’s reasoning (if his statement is translated correctly).  And, no, I’m not particularly troubled by a living altar in heaven capable of speech and reason.

Perhaps Genesis 1:11 and 12 is simply a poetic and figurative way of expressing God’s creation of plant life on the earth, or perhaps it is meant to be understood as God’s way of expressing how He created a living earth with a God-given ability to create plant life.  What is conspicuously absent from the text is any mention of God’s direct action in the creation of plant life, as is the case of animals in the sea and birds in the air (Genesis 1:21), animals on the earth (Genesis 1:25) and human beings (Genesis 1:26).  Now he is not God of the dead, but of the living, for all live before him,[13] Jesus said in a different but potentially related context.

If the angel flying directly overhead had the seven bowls in mind, condemnation as I understand it, when he said ἡ ὥρα τῆς κρίσεως αὐτοῦ (the hour of his judgment) then Jesus’ contrasts may have a different meaning as well.  The regions of Sodom, Gomorrah, Tyre and Sidon may be places of refuge from ugly and painful sores, rivers and springs of water turned into blood, and the scorching fire of the sun relative to Chorazin, Behtsaida, Capernaum or any town in Israel where the inhabitants rejected Jesus’ disciples’ message, The kingdom of heaven is near!  That is, of course, if the angel flying directly overhead was reasoning correctly and not thinking as backwards as the angel of the waters (if the angel of the waters was translated correctly).  So I’m conflicted here and continue in the spirit of giving the angel flying directly overhead the benefit of the doubt.

“Fear God and give him glory, the angel flying directly overhead said, because the hour of his judgment (ἡ ὥρα τῆς κρίσεως αὐτοῦ) has arrived, and worship the one who made heaven and earth, the sea and the springs of water!”  After the fourth bowl was poured out, people were scorched by the terrible heat, yet they blasphemed the name of God, who has ruling authority over these plagues, and they would not repent and give him glory.[14]  After the fifth bowl, They blasphemed the God of heaven because of their sufferings and because of their sores, but nevertheless they still refused to repent of their deeds.[15]  After the seventh bowl, gigantic hailstones, weighing about a hundred pounds each, fell from heaven on people, but they blasphemed God because of the plague of hail, since it was so horrendous.[16]  This makes it more plausible that κρίσεως here meant the condemnation of the seven bowls, the great winepress of the wrath of God, and not merely the judgment of Revelation 14:14-19.

In that case, however, I would tend to understand Jesus’ words like this: Furthermore, the Father does not [condemn (κρίνει, a form of κρίνω)] anyone, but has assigned all [condemnation (κρίσιν, a form of κρίσις)] to the Son…[17]  For just as the Father has life in himself, thus he has granted the Son to have life in himself, and he has granted the Son authority to execute (ποιεῖν, a form of ποιέω)[18] [condemnation (κρίσιν, a form of κρίσις)], because he is the Son of Man.[19]  The writer of Hebrews would have written, And just as people are appointed to die once, and then to face [condemnation (κρίσις)], so also, after Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many, to those who eagerly await him he will appear a second time, not to bear sin but to bring salvation.[20]

I’ve been through this before.[21]  This is why I would like to keep κρίνω as judge rather than condemn (κατακρίνω),[22] and κρίσις as judgment rather than condemnation (κατάκρισις,[23] κατάκριμα[24]).  Though I suppose it doesn’t matter really whether the Father assigned all judgment or all condemnation to the Son, or whether He has the authority to execute judgment or condemnation, if He does not judge or condemn the world because God sent Him into the world…that the world should be saved through him[25] instead.

Condemnation of Judgment? – Part 5

Back to Justice, Vengeance and Punishment

 

[1] Matthew 11:20-22 (NET)

[5] Revelation 14:6, 7 (NET)

[6] Revelation 14:14-16 (NET)

[7] Revelation 14:17-19 (NET)

[11] Revelation 16:5-7 (NET)

[12] Romans 3:4 (NET)

[13] Luke 20:38 (NET)

[14] Revelation 16:9 (NET)

[15] Revelation 16:11 (NET)

[16] Revelation 16:21 (NET)

[17] John 5:22 (NET)

[19] John 5:26, 27 (NET)

[20] Hebrews 9:27, 28 (NET)

[25] John 3:17 (NET)

Condemnation or Judgment? – Part 1

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I received the following question in a personal email:

John 5: 28 and 29  “Do not be amazed at this, for a time is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice and come out —  Those who have done good will rise to live, and those who have done evil will rise to be condemned.”

OK.  I don’t really like these verses because it’s like the verses about the sheep and the goats and the wheat and the tares.  It makes it seem like some people are going to be saved and others aren’t.

HOWEVER, couple it with Romans 7:14-20 and it seems to mean something else.  In Romans 7:20 “Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.”

Now that verse seems like a real cop out!  I’ve never understood it very well.  But it seems to be saying that that part of the person doing “evil” is separate from the person himself or herself (maybe as far as east is from the west??).

So maybe John 5:28 and 29 can be talking about all us dead being raised and our “old selves” get condemned and our “new selves” live eternally with the Lord.  After all, the one on the white throne in Revelation said he was going to make all things new.

I hope the whole point is God’s going to save everybody!  Am I nuts???

Do not be amazed at this, Jesus said, because a time is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and will come out – the ones who have done what is good to the resurrection resulting in life, and the ones who have done what is evil to the resurrection resulting in condemnation (κρίσεως, a form of κρίσις).[1]  The first two things I noticed were, 1) the phrase do not be amazed at this invited me to look earlier in the passage for Jesus’ meaning, and 2) κρίσις (κρίσεως), judgment, was translated as if it were κατάκρισις[2] (κατακρίσεως),[3] a judgment against, condemnation.

In context, Jesus was answering Jewish leaders who wanted to kill him because not only was he breaking the Sabbath [by healing a man through the words, “Stand up!  Pick up your mat and walk”[4]], but he was also calling God his own Father, thus making himself equal with God.[5]  For the Father loves the Son, Jesus continued, and shows him everything he does, and will show him greater deeds than these, so that you will be amazed.[6]  Then He specified two of these greater deeds:

Greater Deeds…so that you will be amazed…
For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whomever he wishes (θέλει, a form of θέλω).[7]

John 5:21 (NET)

 Furthermore, the Father does not judge (κρίνει, a form of κρίνω)[8] anyone, but has assigned all judgment (κρίσιν, another form of κρίσις) to the Son…

John 5:22 (NET)

And He did this so that all people will honor the Son just as they honor the Father.  The one who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him.[9]

So the themes of Jesus’ discourse are that the Son gives life to whomever he wishes, and the Father…has assigned all judgment to the Son.  These themes were repeated, just in case I missed them: For just as the Father has life in himself, thus he has granted the Son to have life in himself, and he has granted the Son authority to execute (ποιεῖν, a form of ποιέω)[10] judgment (κρίσιν, another form of κρίσις), because he is the Son of Man.[11]  So I wondered what prompted the translators to make such an abrupt change to Jesus’ stated themes (John 5:24, 25 NET):

I tell you the solemn truth, the one who hears my message and believes the one who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned (εἰς κρίσιν οὐκ ἔρχεται; literally, “into judgment will not come” [or “go”]), but has crossed over from death to life.  I tell you the solemn truth, a time is coming – and is now here – when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live.

A note in the NET acknowledged the more literal meaning: “Grk ‘and does not come into judgment.’”  There is a significant difference between not coming into judgment at all, and coming into judgment but not being condemned.  Consider Jesus’ words recorded by Matthew (25:31, 32 NET Table):

When the Son of Man comes in his glory and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne.  All the nations (ἔθνη, a form of ἔθνος)[12] will be assembled before him, and he will separate people one from another like a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.

If the one who hears [Jesus’] message and believes the one who sent Him “does not come into judgment,” that one would not be present at this event as a participant.  It makes some sense, since the stated criteria for separating the “sheep” from the “goats” is not hearing Jesus’ message and believing the one who sent Him, but something else entirely (Matthew 25:35, 36, 40 NET).

For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me…I tell you the truth, just as you did it for one of the least of these brothers or sisters of mine, you did it for me.

Conversely, the only people who would not hear the words, Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world,[13] are those who managed to live their entire lives without showing a single human kindness to one of the Lord’s brothers or sisters.  I, too, was socialized into essentially the same religion as the translators of the NET.  I can feel how this alone might give them cause to translate the phrase εἰς κρίσιν οὐκ ἔρχεται as will not be condemned (making the one who hears [Jesus’] message and believes the one who sent Him the “sheep” Jesus spoke about in Matthew’s Gospel).  But consider Peter’s response to the Jewish leaders who questioned him (Acts 4:8-12 NET):

Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, replied, “Rulers of the people and elders, if we are being examined today for a good deed done to a sick man – by what means this man was healed – let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead, this man stands before you healthy.  This Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, that has become the cornerstone.  And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among people by which we must be saved.”

We have taken this to mean that the only way to be saved is to hear [Jesus’] message and believe the One who sent Him.  And we have added to it, more or less, say a sinner’s prayer, get baptized, go to my church, like me, and tell me how good and wise I am to have understood this before you.  But if Jesus, who may give life to whomever he wishes, who has been granted the…authority to execute judgment, decides that not only those who hear his message and believe the One who sent Him, but those who show them kindness, are worthy of the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world, who am I to dispute Him?  Are they saved by some other name when it is Jesus who sits on the throne, judges them worthy and grants them life?  Am I not permitted to do what I want with what belongs to me? He asked in a parable.  Or are you envious because I am generous (ἀγαθός)?[14]

Do not be amazed at this, Jesus continued his discourse with the Jewish leaders who wanted to kill Him, because a time is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and will come out – the ones who have done what is good (ἀγαθὰ [another form of ἀγαθός] ποιήσαντες [a form of ποιέω]) to the resurrection resulting in life (εἰς[15] ἀνάστασιν[16] ζωῆς[17]), and the ones who have done what is evil (φαῦλα[18] πράξαντες[19]) to the resurrection resulting in condemnation (εἰς ἀνάστασιν κρίσεως).[20]  Viewed as I’ve been suggesting here one can’t arbitrarily assume that everyone who comes into judgment will be condemned.  Some, if not many, if not most, will hear the Lord say, Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.

So it seems more appropriate to me to translate the verse more literally: the ones who have done what is good, that is the ones who heard Jesus’ message and believed the One who sent Him, hear his voice and will come out [of their tombs]…to the resurrection resulting in life [they have eternal life[21]]; while those who have done [literally, practiced] what is evil (φαῦλα) [that is anything that kept them from hearing Jesus’ message and believing the One who sent Him] will come out [of their tombs]…to the resurrection resulting in judgment (as opposed to condemnation).

I can do nothing on my own initiative, Jesus concluded.  Just as I hear, I judge (κρίνω), and my judgment (κρίσις) is just, because I do not seek my own will, but the will of the one who sent me.[22]

[1] John 5:28, 29 (NET)

[3] 2 Corinthians 3:9

[5] John 5:18 (NET)

[6] John 5:20 (NET)

[9] John 5:23 (NET)

[11] John 5:26, 27 (NET)

[13] Matthew 25:34 (NET)

[14] Matthew 20:15 (NET)

[20] John 5:28, 29 (NET)

[22] John 5:30 (NET)