Charles Ellicott Commentary John 5:21

"For as the Father raiseth the dead and giveth them life, even so the Son also giveth life to whom he will." — John 5:21 (ASV)

The following verses (John 5:21–29) show what these greater works are. They are the Resurrection and the judgment; but these are regarded as spiritual as well as physical, as present as well as future. Once again the background of the thought is to be found in John 5:17. Resurrection and Judgment were the work of the Father—My Father worketh hitherto; but the manifestation in limits of space and time is the work of the Son—and I work.

For as the Father raiseth up the dead, and quickeneth them.—The “them” after “quickeneth” is better omitted. The words are purposely general. Raising the dead and making alive are attributes of God. He kills and He makes alive (Deuteronomy 32:39). He bringeth down to the underworld and bringeth up (1 Samuel 2:6). He has the power of life and death .

These the Son sees the Father doing, and these also He does in like manner. He, too, has the power to quicken whom He will, and He uses that power. Deadened souls have felt it, and are living in the new-born life. There is in His word, for the man who hears it and believes it, a moral change which is nothing other than an actual passing out of death into life (John 5:24).