“For just as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted also to the Son to have life in himself.” (John 5:26) What does the Father’s having “life in himself” really mean? Does it mean merely that he is alive as the only “living and true God”? (1 Thess. 1:9) Does it mean that he has independent life or inherent life? In other words, immortality? An American Translation understands the matter that way, for it renders John 5:26 this way: “For just as the Father is self-existent, he has given self-existence to the Son.” In line with this, The Holy Bible in Modern English by Farrar Fenton understands the name Jehovah to mean “Ever-Living,” and so renders Isaiah 42:8: “I am Ever-Living;​—for that is my name.” Jehovah has been called “The Self-Existent One.”

16. If the giving of “life in himself” to the Son of God meant merely giving him perfect life, why would the Son not be outstanding in this respect?

¹⁶ However, according to the line of argument in the immediate context the expression “life in himself” has a more forceful meaning than his self-existence. The expression means that the heavenly Father has a reservoir of life in himself, so that, like a father, he is able to impart life to others. In the face of this fact, he was able to impart life to his Son in such quantity that he also would be able to impart life to others. If the Father’s giving the Son the ability to have “life in himself” meant merely giving him perfect life, then the Son would not be outstanding. Why not? Because God gave perfect life also to the heavenly angels. Not only that, but he gave perfect life to Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden. But why was the Son of God given “life in himself”?

17. Why was “life in himself” given to the Son, and how does his prayer, in John 17:1, 2, harmonize with this?

¹⁷ It was because the Son of God laid down his perfect human life as a ransom sacrifice for all mankind. (Matt. 20:28; 1 Tim. 2:5, 6) In this way he could buy back mankind from the death to which they were condemned due to inherited imperfection. With this thought in mind Jesus could open up his prayer on Passover night with the words: “Father, the hour has come; glorify your son, that your son may glorify you, according as you have given him authority over all flesh, that, as regards the whole number whom you have given him, he may give them everlasting life.”​—John 17:1, 2.

18. How does the translation by R. A. Knox of John 5:26 make the truth evident, and when was Christ authorized and empowered to impart life?

¹⁸ The New Testament of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ by Ronald A. Knox captures that truth and makes it evident in its translation of John 5:26. There it reads: “As the Father has within him the gift of life, so he has granted to the Son that he too should have within him the gift of life.”a After his sacrificial death, his resurrection and his presenting the value of his perfect human life to his heavenly Father, Jesus Christ could be authorized and empowered to impart the benefits of it to those in need of it​—all condemned and dying mankind. Hence, we read, in Romans 6:23: “The wages sin pays is death, but the gift God gives is everlasting life by Christ Jesus our Lord.”

19. Why is Jesus Christ the rightful one for God to use in judging mankind?

¹⁹ As a human of flesh and blood, Jesus the “Son of man” could offer to God the exact equal of what Adam had forfeited for all his descendants by his willful sin in Eden. (Heb. 2:9, 14, 15; John 1:14) Inasmuch as Jehovah God uses him in the giving of life to condemned, dying mankind, Jesus Christ the “Son of man” is the rightful one for Jehovah to use in judging redeemed mankind.

20. At John 5:26, 27, what did Jesus say about authority to do judging, and how did Paul confirm this in his speech on Mars Hill?

²⁰ In harmony with that fact, Jesus went on to say: “So he [the Father] has granted also to the Son to have life in himself. And he has given him authority to do judging, because Son of man he is.” (John 5:26, 27) Because the now glorified Jesus Christ was once a man himself in the midst of a corrupt worldly system of things, he can be a judge both merciful and righteous toward those whom he redeemed from death. This fact was clearly stated to the highest judicial body in ancient Athens, Greece, when the apostle Paul stood among the judges on Mars Hill and said: “He [the God unknown to them] has set a day in which he purposes to judge the inhabited earth in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed, and he has furnished a guarantee to all men in that he has resurrected him from the dead.”​—Acts 17:23, 31.

The Good News Bible renders John 5:26: “Just as the Father is himself the source of life, in the same way he has made his Son to be the source of life.” (Published by American Bible Society in 1976)