Albert Barnes Commentary John 5:27

"and he gave him authority to execute judgment, because he is a son of man." — John 5:27 (ASV)

Has given him authority. Has appointed him to do this. Has made him to be judge of all. This is represented as being the appointment of the Father (Acts 17:31).

The word authority here (commonly rendered power) implies all that is necessary to execute judgment—all the physical power to raise the dead and to investigate the actions and thoughts of life, and all the moral right or authority to sit in judgment on God’s creatures and to pronounce their doom.

To execute judgment. To do judgment—that is, to judge. He has been appointed to do justice, to see that the universe suffers no wrong, either by the escape of the guilty or by the punishment of the innocent.

Because he is the Son of man. The phrase Son of man here seems to be used in the sense of “because he is a man,” or because he has human nature. The term is one which Jesus often gives to himself, to show his union with humanity and his interest in human beings. (See the notes on Matthew 8:19-20).

It should be noted here that the word son does not have the article before it in the original: “Because he is a Son of man”—that is, because he is a man. It would seem from this that it is appropriate for one in our nature to judge us. We do not certainly know what this appropriateness is, but it may be for the following reasons:

1. Because one who has experienced our weaknesses and possesses our nature might be considered by those who are judged to be better qualified than one of a different nature.

2. Because he is to decide between man and God, and it is appropriate that our feelings, nature, and views should be represented in the judge, as well as those of God.

3. Because Jesus has all the feelings of compassion we could ask—all the benevolence we could desire in a judge; because he has shown his disposition to defend us by giving his life, and it can never be alleged by those who are condemned that their judge was a distant, cold, and unfriendly being.

Some have supposed that the expression Son of man here means the same as Messiah (Daniel 7:13–14), and that the meaning is that God has made him judge because he was the Messiah.

Some of the ancient versions and early church fathers connected this with the following verse, interpreting it something like this: “Do not marvel because I am a man, or because this great work is committed to a man apparently in humble life. You will see greater things than these.” The Syriac version, for example, reads it this way, as did Chrysostom, Theophylact, and some other early church fathers.