John 5:26

“Just like the Father embodies and emanates life to His very core because He is life so it is with the Son. He bestows that very life to the Son so that it is part and parcel of who he is as well.”  John 5:26 EFP

Life resides in Jesus. Life and Jesus are inseparable, just like life and God are inseparable. The apostle John makes this clear in his opening remarks of this Gospel. To see Jesus is to see God. In Jesus is light and life to the world. God and Jesus are one.

Believing and receiving Jesus in faith is accepting the life he brings. Life comes to the one who believes and accepts the claim of Jesus on his soul. Today I need to hear this. I need to hear it every day! I have life as long as Jesus is in my life. That means I need more of Jesus in my life, only then can I have more life. Lord, help me believe! 

John 5:25

“Honestly, a time will come, in fact it is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God calling them.  Those that hear it will live.”  John 5:25 EFP

Is this a reference to a future event when Jesus will raise people from the dead?  Is it one of those texts that speaks of future events set in motion by the presence of Jesus on the earth?  What do you hear when you reduce this text to its simplest possible meaning?

It’s not…or then.  What Jesus states here takes place at that moment. Jesus’ words are life; this is nothing new to those of us who have spent time in this book before.  They are life-giving words to those who hear.  That man laying prone on the ground is dead in many ways.  Physically he is alive, but minimally, with little hope of change.  He is mentally exhausted and spiritually spent after years of a steady wasting away of all that is precious to him.

Suddenly, the man hears the voice of the Healer, and now he is alive.  He is walking and jumping and living again.  That reality begins that day for that man, but the promise to us remains in force today and every day, because God never ceases to labor.  He is the Prime Mover on my behalf.  He wastes no opportunity.  He spares no expense.  He empties the heavenly coffers to give me life to me.  He speaks to me today.  If I hear him through the pathetic and miserable chatter of the world around me, I will live. Yes!

John 5:24

“Let me make this perfectly clear to you: Anyone who hears the words I speak and as a result places his or her faith in the Father who sent me has eternal life and will no longer be under condemnation.  These people pass over from looming eternal death into the realm of everlasting life.”  John 5:24 EFP

Though the claims of Christianity are stunning, the salvation described in the core of Christianity is even more stunning.  Jesus states it here succinctly: Believe and live.  Believe and pass from an inevitable and final death to a glorious reality of perfect and perpetual life.

It’s so simple!  And it’s at the core of Christianity.  There are no loopholes.  No escape clauses.  No qualifiers.  Believe and receive the gift of eternal life—now.  Your sentence of death is removed and the promise of eternal life is put in its place.  It’s almost as if at times I am afraid of how permissive this sounds that I am tempted to explain it away or qualify it somehow.  But the statement stands firmly as a concise salvific declaration of Jesus.  Help me believe, Lord!

What happens after this moment may be up for debate, but this truth remains in all its beauty. Let it stand!

John 5:23

Jesus continues. “He gives me all judgment so that the entire world will honor his Son just like they honor the Father.  If you do not honor the Son, you do not honor his Father either, because He is the one who sent him.”  John 5:23 EFP

Try to hear these words through the ears of some very devout Jewish leaders.  This is blatant blasphemy to them.  They must have been caught somewhere between sheer angst and boiling vitriol.  Jesus claims YHWH has bestowed all judgment to him!  He could just as easily said, “YHWH is not the judge anymore, I am!  He assigned that responsibility to me.”  That’s crazy!  That is beyond bold! 

To this claim he adds that the purpose of this inconceivable divine act is to bring the entire world to the point of honor to the Son of His Father YHWH, mainly him.  “If you do not honor me, you do not honor YHWH who sent me.”  Does that sound like a reconciliatory statement?  Not at all!  It is either claim of a megalomaniac or it is true.  There is no middle ground.  There is no room for ambivalence.  You either believe his claim or do what the religious leaders did—find a way to snuff out any remnant of the pretender, his message, and his followers.

It sort of leaves me in the same place.  Making the claim of being a believer in Christ carries a pretty high price.  For one it requires I believe and accept the claim of Christ on me.  I calls me to place him in a place of special honor, merited only by one who is not only the Son of God, but one with God.  I either accept it or dedicate my life to destroying that unacceptable reality.  I have chosen to believe.  I discover daily the meaning and cost of that choice and the never-ending battle for my allegiance. 

John 5:22

“By the way,” Jesus adds, “my Father does not judge anyone; he has bestowed that task on me, his Son.” John 5:22 EFP

Jesus is relentless!  He just told the religious leaders, who by the way, already want to kill him for his disregard for the Sabbath and his presumptuous claims about God as his Father, 1) My Father works all the time—so do I; 2) Whatever my Father does—I also do; 3) The Father has more amazing things to show you in the future through me—stick around; 4) The Father gives life to whom he chooses—so do I; 5) The Father does not judge anyone—I do!  By the way, he’s not done yet.

But I want to focus for a moment on the imagery of Jesus being behind the judge’s bench.  This picture is not one of the Son pleading with his Father to accept the sinner.  It is a scene in which the Son is the one declaring judgment on behalf of the sinner who stands indicted by the “accuser of [the] brethren.” (Revelation 12:10). In brief, the good news is that the Father and the Son stand united in my favor—I am the accused.  I need only to place my trust in the judge.  I need only surrender to His judgment.  I need only to confess my guilt and throw myself at the mercy of the court.  I find forgiveness and freedom.  I can live with that!  Literally.

John 5:21

“And in the same way my Father can raise the dead and give them life,” He adds, “I, his Son, gives life to whomever I choose to give it.”   John 5:21 EFP

Jesus is on a roll!  As if they are not riled enough by his previous declaration about his relationship to his Father, he drops this bomb.  Just like God gives life as he pleases, I do to.  His hearers heard the stories of the prophets of old raising people from the dead.  Obviously they didn’t do it—God did.  He chose to answer the prayer of his servant and breathed life into a lifeless body.

So, if he wishes to give new life to a crippled old man, he will do so, because his Father gives him the model to follow.  Quite honestly, to be consistent with the verse, I believe Jesus is saying, “You are here standing because my Father is working all the time keeping you alive.”  That is what God does.  That is what Jesus does.  He gives life.  He restores the broken.  He breathes life into moribund dreams.  It is His will to do so.  That is God’s default, and He knows why he chooses the ones he chooses.  I am thankful, His choice is life to me…all the time.

John 5:20

Jesus is not done yet.  “The Father loves the Son so much he hides nothing from him,” he continues, “in fact He shows him everything he does.  There are things more amazing that these things you see today that He has yet to show the Son.”  John 5:20 EFP

Every word Jesus speaks must have grated the Jewish leaders to the core.  “The Father loves the Son.”  “He shows the Son everything.”  If that is not shocking enough, imagine their reaction when he tells them, “You ain’t seen nothing yet!”  The healing of a crippled man is certainly special, but there are things more amazing that lay ahead.  It’s almost as if Jesus is saying, “Stick around boys, it’s gonna get better!”

But Jesus is not showing off, he is simply stating the reality.  God is amazing.  He is omnipotent—there is nothing beyond his power to do.  He is omniscient—there is nothing outside His view.  He is omnipresent—there is nothing beyond His reach.  I am as guilty as the next guy in selling God short. I imagine God has some amazing things he would like to accomplish through anyone willing to totally depend on him—including me!  Mountains need to be moved.  Giants are primed to be felled.  Rivers are waiting for the order to stand still.  God is able.  I am sadly unwilling to commit.  What other answer is there for the dearth of the amazing?  What is the reason for the absence of the miraculous in most churches?  God is always at work. And here I am playing in the mud puddles of humanity.  God, Almighty!  I am reaching out to you, Lord. Rescue me. Mold me. Use me.

John 5:19

Jesus decides to address their concerns.  “Let me tell you something,” he begins, “the Son can do nothing independently; the Son only does what he sees the Father do.  In other words, as the Father does so does the Son.”  John 5:19 EFP

If the Jewish religious leaders are alarmed by Jesus calling God “Father” they certainly are not any less chagrined by his description of the relationship he claims to have with His Father.  In short, Jesus tells them in so many words God and him are so close the Son does not do anything he does not personally see the Father doing.  It is up to his listeners to figure out how he sees the Father doing anything.

I am amazed by the implications of his statement.  Jesus and his Father are tight!  How does that happen? How does that work in my life?  Will I ever be able to say, “My Heavenly Father and I are so tight my life reflects His”?  It almost sounds preposterous.  For Jesus it is the most natural thing.  I want that.  I do not know if I am willing to pay the price of intimacy with the Almighty as Jesus did.  Still, in moments like these I can’t help but wonder what a tight knit and intimate living experience with God would be like.  God help me want to want what you want me to want.