Chapter 5 of the Fourth Gospel opens with Yeshua in Jerusalem at the pool of Bethesda. There are a multitude of sick people at the this pool, and Yeshua picks out one man, who had been sick for 38 years, and heals him, instantly. Our Lord commands him, "Get up, pick up your pallet and walk." And immediately the man is healed and takes up his bed and walks. This miracle, which was done on the Sabbath, prompts the Jewish leaders to view Yeshua as a Law breaker.
For this reason the Jews were persecuting Yeshua, because He was doing these things on the Sabbath. John 5:16 NASB
Yeshua responds to this with a statement that enrages the Jews to the point that they conspire to kill Him:
But He answered them, "My Father is working until now, and I Myself am working." John 5:17 NASB
To the charge of breaking the Sabbath Yeshua states that the Sabbath regulations had no more authority over Him than they did over God Himself. He basically said, Yahweh works on the Sabbath and so do I. To this the Jews respond:
For this reason therefore the Jews were seeking all the more to kill Him, because He not only was breaking the Sabbath, but also was calling God His own Father, making Himself equal with God. John 5:18 NASB
There was never any question in the Jews minds that Yeshua was claiming to be Yahweh. They got it. So He went from a Sabbath breaker to a blasphemer. They said He makes Himself equal with God. And they were right. What is so important to see here is not why they would draw that conclusion, but that Yeshua reinforced it.
So then in verses 19-47 Yeshua gives the most complete explanation of His relationship to God the Father in the Gospels. I'm not a big fan of red letter Bible's, but in this text it helps us see that these are all Yeshua's words. They accuse Him of blasphemy, which was a capital offence, and He responds by saying, Yes, you got it right, I am equal to God in every way. To not honor Me is to not honor the Father.
Yeshua's dialogue is divided into two parts: The first part includes verses 19-30 in which Yeshua addresses both the equity and the distinction between the Father and the Son. God the Father and God the Son are equal: all the Son's power and authority comes from the Father.
The second part includes verses 31-47 and addresses the diversity of God the Father and God the Son. They are two distinct persons. The Son does what He has seen the Father do, and the Father bears witness to the Son.
In our last study we looked at the first half of the first part, verses 19-24, which as clear as any text lays out the deity of Christ. Please grasp the power of this verse:
so that all will honor the Son even as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him. John 5:23 NASB
In our twenty-first century world of pluralism, with so many different religious beliefs competing for our allegiance, this verse blows all views, but Christianity, out of the water: "Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him." You simply cannot have a relationship with God apart from Yeshua the Christ.
Anyone who does not honor Yeshua for who He really is—God of very God, the Messiah, the crucified and risen Savior of the world, the Lord of the universe and Judge of all human beings—doesn't honor God.
"Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life. John 5:24 NASB
The Greek tense for the word "passed" in verse 24 indicates that the transfer from death to life has already taken place and now the believer is living with the results of that change. Then verse 25 gives us a pictorial view of verse 24:
"Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. John 5:25 NASB
"Truly, truly"—this is the third double "amen" in this dialogue. This double "Amen" found in the initial position in a sentence was a unique way of drawing attention to Yeshua's significant, trustworthy statements, or revelation from Yahweh.
This voice of the Son of God is the life giving voice of God. This is one of the themes of the Fourth Gospel that Yeshua brings life to the dead. We saw this in chapter 1 and verse 4, "In Him was life." Verse 15 of chapter 3 says:
so that whoever believes will in Him have eternal life. John 3:15 NASB
Everyone is familiar with verse 16:
"For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. John 3:16 NASB
Then verse 36 says:
"He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him." John 3:36 NASB
This thought is all through this Gospel, Yeshua gives life.
but these have been written so that you may believe that Yeshua is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name. John 20:31 NASB
Dead men don't come alive by some religious ceremony. They don't come alive by by some work that they do. They come alive when the voice of Christ calls them to life.
Hearing Yeshua's word referred to more than just hearing the sound of His voice. Obviously, the Jewish leaders who were challenging Yeshua heard the sound of His voice, but they didn't come to life.
When does Yeshua say that the dead will come to life? "I say to you, an hour is coming and now is"—so were men receiving eternal life at that time? Many commentators call this "Realized eschatology", which is the aspect of future conditions that exist already in the present. In this case, they say it refers to the believer's possession of "eternal life" already. Beasley-Murray called this verse "the strongest affirmation of realized eschatology applied to the believer in the NT." [Beasley-Murray, John, p. 76.]
W. Hall Harris III writes:
"And it is most significant that in Jesus' reply to the Jews, both realized eschatology and final eschatology are blended: realized eschatology in 19-25, final eschatology in 26-30. Note this tension between present and future: eternal life is a thing to be had now (24a) and the transition from death to life is already made (24b); dead (25) refers to those spiritually dead. But in (29) the (physically) dead come out the tombs at the voice of the Son for a (future) judgment."
So many see Yeshua's statement as "Realized eschatology." They see it as those people at that time receiving eternal life. But how can this be in light of what Yeshua says in Mark and Luke's Gospel?
but that he shall receive a hundred times as much now in the present. age, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and farms, along with persecutions; and in the age to come, eternal life. Mark 10:30 NASB
I want you to notice the last phrase in this verse: "And in the age to come, eternal life" Luke uses these same words:
who shall not receive many times as much at this time and in the age to come, eternal life." Luke 18:30 NASB
In John's Gospel it sounds like men were receiving eternal life at that moment, but here Yeshua says they will receive "eternal life" in the age to come. What does it mean to receive eternal life in the age to come? Commenting on "and in the age to come eternal life" Swete says, "The age which is to follow the Parousia." So is he saying that no one has eternal life until the Second Coming of Christ? Sounds like it.
Commenting on "and in the age to come eternal life" Wuest Word Studies says:
"The authorities are silent on all this, and the present writer confesses that he is at a loss to suggest an interpretation. The best he can do is offer the usage of the Greek words in question."
As is obvious, this phrase is troubling to many. To understand what Yeshua is saying we need to understand that all through the New Testament we see two ages in contrast: "This age," and the "age to come." We see it in:
"And whoever shall speak a word against the Son of Man, it shall be forgiven him; but whoever shall speak against the Holy Spirit, it shall not be forgiven him, either in this age, or in the age to come. Matthew 12:32 NASB
The word "come" at the end of the verse is the Greek word mello, which means: "about to be." We could translate this: "the age about to come." About to come for who? For us? No, for the original audience, which was those in the first century:
far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in the one to come. Ephesians 1:21 NASB
Here again, we see the two ages. So, the New Testament speaks of two ages, "this age," and "the age to come." The understanding of these two ages and when they changed is fundamental to interpreting the Bible and understanding when eternal life is received.
The New Testament writers lived in the age that they called "this age." To the New Testament writers, "the age to come" was future, but it was very near because "this age," the age they lived in, was about to end.
Now these things happened to them as an example, and they were written for our instruction, upon whom the ends of the ages have come. 1 Corinthians 10:11 NASB
Paul said very plainly that the end of the ages was coming upon them, the first century saints. "This age" was about to end.
For He was foreknown before the foundation of the world, but has appeared in these last times for the sake of you 1 Peter 1:20 NASB
Yeshua came during the "last times" of the "this age," that was the Old Covenant age, the Jewish age. He came to rescue us from the "present evil age":
who gave Himself for our sins so that He might rescue us from this present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, Galatians 1:4 NASB
That "evil age" came to an end with the destruction of the Temple in A.D. 70. So, the New Testament writers lived in what the Bible calls "this present evil age." "This age" of the Bible is the age of the Old Covenant that was about to pass away in the first century. It should be clear to you that "this age" is not the Christian age in which we live. In the first century, the age of the Old Covenant was fading away and would end completely when the Temple was destroyed in A.D. 70.
When He said, "A new covenant," He has made the first obsolete. But whatever is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to disappear. Hebrews 8:13 NASB
The book of Hebrews was written at around A.D.64-67. At this time, the Old Covenant was still in effect, but it was ready to pass away. It passed away in A.D. 70 in the destruction of Jerusalem. The "this age" of the Bible is now ancient history.
but that he shall receive a hundred times as much now in the present age, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and farms, along with persecutions; and in the age to come, eternal life. Mark 10:30 NASB
If eternal life was a condition of the "age to come," then does this mean that the New Testament saints who lived in "this age" did not yet have eternal life? Or we could ask the question this way: When did believers receive eternal life? To answer that question, we must know what "eternal life" is. But first we need to understand that prior to Yeshua's messianic work, man did not go to Heaven. When men died they went to a holding place of the dead and waited for the atoning work of Christ and the resurrection from the dead. In the Tanakh, the Hebrew word for where they were prior to the resurrection is Sheol. In the New Testament, the Greek word is Hades.
To understand eternal life, we need to understand death, and to do that, we need to go back to the book of beginnings, Genesis. In the book of Genesis, we see what death is:
Then the LORD God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to cultivate it and keep it. 16 And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, "From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; 17 but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you shall surely die." Genesis 2:15-17 NASB
God warned Adam, regarding the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, "The day that you eat of it, you shall surely die." Adam disobeyed God and ate of the tree. Did Adam die that day? Not physically! Adam lived at least 800 years beyond the day he ate the fruit. But, God said he would die the day he ate, and we know that God cannot lie. Adam did not die physically that day, but he did die spiritually. He died spiritually the moment he disobeyed. Spiritual death is separation from God:
Behold, the LORD'S hand is not so short That it cannot save; Neither is His ear so dull That it cannot hear. 2 But your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, And your sins have hidden His face from you, so that He does not hear. Isaiah 59:1-2 NASB
Because of his sin, man was separated from God. He was dead in trespasses and sins. The focus of God's plan of redemption is to restore through Yeshua what man had lost in Adam:
For since by a man came death, (spiritual death) by a man also came the resurrection of the dead (eternal life). 1 Corinthians 15:21 NASB
Because of Adam's sin, we are all born dead, separated from God. But through Yeshua came the resurrection from the dead. Yeshua came to redeem man from death, to resurrect man back into the presence of God, to give him eternal life. The Bible is God's Book about His plan to restore the spiritual union of His creation. Resurrection is not about bringing physical bodies out of the graves, it is about restoring man into the presence of God.
To be taken out of Sheol and brought into the presence of the Lord is what the Bible calls "the resurrection," which is eternal life. This resurrection that brings eternal life happened at the end of the Old Covenant Age:
Martha said to Him, "I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day." John 11:24 NASB
This was the "last day" of "this age," "the age to come" has no last days. So, the resurrection was to happen at the end of the Old Covenant Age when the Temple was destroyed, just as Daniel said it would:
"And many of those who sleep in the dust of the ground will awake, these to everlasting life, but the others to disgrace and everlasting contempt. Daniel 12:2 NASB
When was Daniel told that this resurrection would happen?:
And I heard the man dressed in linen, who was above the waters of the river, as he raised his right hand and his left toward heaven, and swore by Him who lives forever that it would be for a time, times, and half a time; and as soon as they finish shattering the power of the holy people, all these events will be completed. Daniel 12:7 NASB
Daniel was told, "as soon as they finish shattering the power of the holy people [which was the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple in A.D. 70] all these events [including the resurrection] will be completed."
So, the resurrection was to happen at the end of the Jewish Age, the Old Covenant Age. We know that this happened in A.D. 70 with the destruction of the Jewish Temple. To be resurrected was to be given "eternal life" and to be in the presence of God.
We must understand that those saints who lived in the transition time did not have salvation, justification, or eternal life in its consummated form. Salvation was not a completed event in the lives of the first century believers, it was their hope, they looked forward to its soon arrival:
And this do, knowing the time, that it is already the hour for you to awaken from sleep; for now salvation is nearer to us than when we believed. 12 The night is almost gone, and the day is at hand. Let us therefore lay aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light. Romans 13:11-12 NASB
He equates their salvation with the "day" which was at hand, referring to the Day of the Lord. The completion of redemptive history was at hand, and with it would come salvation.
Peter also states that their salvation was not yet complete:
who are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. 1 Peter 1:5 NASB
Salvation was ready to be revealed, when? In the last time, which would happen at the resurrection of the dead at the end of the age. So, the resurrection was to happen at the end of the Jewish Age, the Old Covenant Age. We know that this happened in A.D. 70 with the destruction of the Jewish Temple. To be resurrected was to be given eternal life and to be in the presence of God.
To those saints living prior to the end of the age "eternal life" was not a present possession, but a hope:
that being justified by His grace we might be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life. Titus 3:7 NASB
They had the hope of eternal life, but they did not have it as a present possession. Eternal life was something that was to come to them at the Second Coming, in the "age to come."
We must understand that those saints who lived in the transition time did not have salvation, justification, or eternal life in its consummated form. It was not until the "age to come" that the saints received eternal life. Since we live in what the Bible calls the "age to come," we have eternal life at the moment we trust Christ for it.
So if eternal life did not come until AD 70 in the consummated age to come why does Yeshua say:
"Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. John 5:25 NASB
In the transition period, the New Covenant had been inaugurated but not consummated. It was a time of "ALREADY BUT NOT YET." So "eternal life" was not a present possession, but a hope. We must see the "already but not yet" character of the transition period. They had eternal life positionally, but it would not be theirs in fact until the Lord returned. They had the promise of it, they had the Holy Spirit as the guarantee, but they still waited for the consummation. Redemption was still a hope to them. Until A.D. 70 and the consummation of all they were promised, they lived in hope.
Believers, we are no longer living in the "already but not yet" of the transition period. We are living in the New Covenant age in which righteousness dwells. We are not living in the age of "hope," we are living in the age of "have." The righteousness of Christ is ours, eternal life is ours, immortality is ours.
So when Yeshua says, "An hour is coming and now is, "something has arrived already and yet has a future aspect. Something has arrived in the present, but has a future completion. The ministry of salvation through the Lord Yeshua has begun. He was giving life to people.
"Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. John 5:25 NASB
Commenting on this verse Roger Hahn writes:
"It speaks of an hour in which the dead will hear the voice of Christ, and those who hear will live. Again, the concept is that of obedience. Those who obey the voice of Christ will live."
This voice of the Son is a sovereign call to life. It has nothing to do with us obeying. We hear, we live.
"For just as the Father has life in Himself, even so He gave to the Son also to have life in Himself; John 5:26 NASB
"The Father has life in Himself"—this is basically the meaning of the term Yahweh from:
God said to Moses, "I AM WHO I AM"; and He said, "Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, 'I AM has sent me to you.'" Exodus 3:14 NASB
"I AM WHO I AM" is "Ehyeh; asher ehyeh" which means: "I am that which exist." The root of Ehyeh is hiya, which means: "to be" or "I exist." The two names, Yahweh and Ehyeh, are related. Ehyeh means: "I exist, I will exist, I am." And Yahweh means: "He exists, He will exist, He is." And both of these names are related to each other. They are both conveying the idea that Yahweh is the existing One.
In the Tanakh only Yahweh had "life" and only He could give it to others:
"The Spirit of God has made me, And the breath of the Almighty gives me life. Job 33:4 NASB
Here Yeshua claims that Yahweh gives this same unique power to Him! "Even so He gave to the Son also to have life in Himself"—if the Father gave the son life, does this mean that the Son was not eternal? Do this mean that the Son came into being at a point and time? No, it does not.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. John 1:1 NASB
The word "was" here is a form of the verb "eimi" that suggests continued existence. At the beginning of eternity, when there was nothing else, "the Word" existed.
So what does Yeshua mean by, "Even so He gave to the Son also to have life in Himself"—this is what scholars call "the eternal generation of the Son." This is not a simple concept to understand. Hodge explains it like this:
"The eternal generation of the Son is defined as an eternal personal act of the Father, wherein, by necessity of nature, not by choice of will, He generates the person (not the essence) of the Son, by communicating to Him the whole indivisible substance of the Godhead, without division, alienation, or change, so that the Son is the express image of His Father's person, and eternally continues, not from the Father, but in the Father, and the Father in the Son." [A. A. Hodge, Outlines of Theology, p. 182.]
So verse 26 teaches that the Father (v. 26a) possess "life in Himself" (i.e., self-existence). We are told that the Son possesses a form of "life" identical to that of the Father—"life in Himself" (v. 26b). The Father and Son, however, possess "life in Himself" in distinct ways. The Son possesses "life in Himself" that has been "given" to Him while the Father possesses "life in Himself" that was given by no one.
Augustine writes:
"Therefore, the Father remains life, the Son also remains life; the Father, life in Himself, not from the Son, the Son, life in Himself, but from the Father. The Son was begotten by the Father to be life in Himself, but the Father is life in Himself, unbegotten." [Tractates on the Gospel of John 19.13].
The doctrine of the "eternal generation of the Son" can be misunderstood to suggest that there is a qualitative difference between the Father and the Son, and that somehow, someway, the Son came into existence. This is not what the term means.
The eternal generation of the Son is the teaching that the Son is eternally begotten by the necessary will of the Father, but that the Son is not created or caused, and that neither the Son nor the Holy Spirit are dependent upon the Father or any other member of the Godhead for existence. The eternal generation of the Son is a statement on the relationship within the Trinity between the Father and the Son before the incarnation. Therefore, the term is not in reference to causation but to nature and relationship. The eternal generation of the Son does not mean that the Father brought the Son into existence, which would deny the full immutability and deity of the Son.
Not everyone held this position of eternal generation. John Calvin understood that the Father granted this power to Jesus in His incarnation [Calvin's Commentaries [Baker], p. 207].
Those who hold this view would say that in His humiliation He willfully, personally, voluntarily restricts the use of His divine attributes so that even in His incarnation, He only does that which the Father desires Him to do. They would say that even in His incarnation the Father has given Him the ability to give life. But in John 1:4, we are told, "in Him was life," in His pre-incarnate state as the eternal Word. So this act of the Father granting life to the Son must be an act belonging to eternity.
In verse 21 we are told, "The Son gives life." And here in verse 26, "The Son has life." He can give life because He has life.
In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men. John 1:4 NASB
One of Yahweh's attributes is that He is self existent. His life comes from Himself. He does not come from anyone but Himself. He's the only individual in this universe whose life is from Himself.
Life is the sole possession of God who is the life-giver and of Christ who is also the life giver. That life comes only to those who hear His voice, and by that voice are brought to life.
And the testimony is this, that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. 1 John 5:11 NASB
He has life resident "within Himself. He is self-existent, whereas humans must receive their life from Him, the source of life:
"For just as the Father has life in Himself, even so He gave to the Son also to have life in Himself; John 5:26 NASB
The verse distinguishes the Father and the Son and shows that the Son is eternally subject to the Father. There is an old heresy called Sabellianism which says that there is only one God but He shows up in three different forms. It teaches that there is no distinction of persons between the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. It's also called Modalism, sometimes He's the Father, sometimes He's the Son, and sometimes He's the Spirit. It's popular today, in what's called oneness Pentecostalism or the Jesus-only Movement.
Back in the time of Athanasius that heresy was seen as being resolved in this verse (5:26). If the Father is sometimes the Father and sometimes the Son, and sometimes the Spirit and just shows Himself in different modes, then it cannot be said that the Father gave to the Son anything because you could only give something to someone if that someone exists.
Lazarus uses the same words for the Son's having life that he uses for the Father's having life. He has it as source, not as channel. The life comes from the Son, not just through the Son:
and He gave Him authority to execute judgment, because He is the Son of Man. John 5:27 NASB
Remember what Paul said to the people on Mars Hill in Acts 17:31:
because He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead." Acts 17:31 NASB
Yeshua was given authority by the Father to be the judge of all the earth.
"Son of Man"—this is Yeshua's favorite title for Himself that He used over 80 times. In this Gospel the term "Son of Man" is always associated either with Christ's heavenly glory or with the salvation He came to bring. Each time this title is used it refers back to the vision of Daniel 7:13-14, a vision of the Messiah as the Kingly judge of all nations:
"I kept looking in the night visions, And behold, with the clouds of heaven One like a Son of Man was coming, And He came up to the Ancient of Days And was presented before Him. "And to Him was given dominion, Glory and a kingdom, That all the peoples, nations and men of every language Might serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion Which will not pass away; And His kingdom is one Which will not be destroyed. Daniel 7:13-14 NASB
Yeshua is that Son of Man, eternal God in human flesh. He is uniquely qualified to judge humanity because He is both the all-knowing God and at the same time a man who understands by experience what it is like to be human (Heb. 2:17-18; 4:15).
"Do not marvel at this; for an hour is coming, in which all who are in the tombs will hear His voice, John 5:28 NASB
"Do not marvel at this"—what He is about to say is so shocking that He says, "Don't marvel." "An hour is coming in which all who are in the tombs will hear His voice." Notice that He doesn't add "and now is" to "an hour is coming." Here He is talking about the resurrection at the end of the age. So who will be raised by Yeshua? "All who are in the tombs." This includes the righteous and the wicked.
and will come forth; those who did the good deeds to a resurrection of life, those who committed the evil deeds to a resurrection of judgment. John 5:29 NASB
It includes everybody! Those who are raised to life and those who are raised to judgment. Believers and unbelievers. This is what Daniel 12:2 taught:
"Many of those who sleep in the dust of the ground will awake, these to everlasting life, but the others to disgrace and everlasting contempt. Daniel 12:2 NASB
Paul also taught this duel resurrection in:
having a hope in God, which these men cherish themselves, that there shall certainly be a resurrection of both the righteous and the wicked. Acts 24:15 NASB
Is this resurrection based on works? "Those who did the good deeds to a resurrection of life, those who committed the evil deeds to a resurrection of judgment"—commenting on this John Piper writes:
"If you are justified by faith, your faith will produce good works, and if God is on your side, He will empower you to do good works, and if you are united to Christ you will bear the fruit of good works. And in this way, your good works become the evidence, the confirmation, the verification at the judgment that you were justified by faith alone, and that God was on your side by grace alone, and that you were united to Christ before you did any good work."
As you guessed, I disagree with Piper on this. Dr. Thomas L. Constable, in his Notes on John, writes:
"Believers are those who do 'good,' which involves believing on the Son (6:29; cf. 3:21). Theirs will be a 'resurrection' resulting in eternal 'life.' Those who do 'evil,' by not believing on the Son (3:36; cf. 3:19), will experience eternal condemnation following their 'resurrection.'"
Yeshua's words in the next chapter help clear this up:
Therefore they said to Him, "What shall we do, so that we may work the works of God?" Yeshua answered and said to them, "This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent." John 6:28-29 NASB
So what happens to the wicked that are raised? They are judged, thrown in the lake of fire where they perish.
Yeshua then concludes His defense in almost the same way He commenced it:
"I can do nothing on My own initiative. As I hear, I judge; and My judgment is just, because I do not seek My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me. John 5:30 NASB
Therefore Yeshua answered and was saying to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, unless it is something He sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, these things the Son also does in like manner. John 5:19 NASB
Verse 30 is transitional. It concludes Yeshua's explanation of the Son's equality with the Father (vv. 19-29), and it introduces His clarification of the Father's testimony about the Son (vv. 31-47).
Yeshua's point was that He could not do anything independently of the Father. ("on My own initiative"), because of His submission to Him ("I do not seek My own will"). His "judgment" is the result of listening to His Father. His judgment "is just" because the desire for self-glory does not taint it. The Son's "will" is totally to advance ("seek" only) the Father's "will."