Evidence · Case 04 · The Trinity
Life in himself, and the judgment seat of Christ, John 5:26 and 2 Corinthians 5:10
One exhibit from the free evidence repository at apologetics.pro.
Sources
John 5:26, NASB.
2 Corinthians 5:10, NASB.
Objections & responses
- John 5:26 says the Father “granted” the Son to have life in himself. If it was granted, it wasn’t intrinsic.
The grant language is real and should not be talked around. What the verse says is that the Son possesses life the same way the Father does, in himself, as the Father has it, which is not how creatures have life. The classical reading is that the Son eternally receives from the Father what the Father eternally has, so the granting is not an event that made the Son something he was not. Whether that reading is right is a theological question; the textual fact is that the Son’s way of having life is compared to the Father’s, not to a creature’s.
- Paul also says we must all appear before the judgment seat of God in Romans 14:10. So “judgment seat of Christ” may just mean Christ acting on God’s behalf.
Paul uses the two phrases interchangeably for the same event, which is the point: for Paul, standing before Christ’s judgment seat is standing before God’s. Interchangeability of that kind between a human agent and God does not occur elsewhere in Paul. He does not, for instance, speak of the judgment seat of Moses or of an angel as if it were God’s own.