From God’s standpoint all mankind in general are “dead”; they have no right to life and the “wages” that sin pays to them is death. (Rom. 6:23) But by hearing and heeding Jesus’ “word” they would come out from under God’s condemnation of them to death and would thus, figuratively, ‘pass over from death to life.’

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.