The Book of John - Chapter 5 (Part 2)

Hello Everyone!

Hope everyone is doing well and is growing closer to God each day! We will jump back into our study of John chapter 5. Last time we discussed the sheep gate at Bethesda and how Jesus healed a man after 38 years of infirmity. The end of that section of the scripture leaves us with the Pharisees seeking to kill Jesus, so that is where we pick up here in verse 17.

John 5:17-31

As the Pharisees are seeking after Jesus to kill him, Jesus says "My Father wortheth hitherto, and I work". To paraphrase that, essentially God does this so I will do this also. Now this, as seen in verse 18, irritates the Pharisees even more. Think about what we have learned about the Pharisees over the first few chapters of John. They hold very tightly to the Mosaic law. Deuteronomy 6:4 is the verse where Moses says that the Lord our God is one, and there is other places in the old testament that make the same statement. With that in mind, the Jewish leaders here were to consider anyone claiming any relation to God as a blasphemous person, punishable by death. However, what they failed to acknowledge were the works that Jesus performed that were reserved for God.

Jesus actually lists two of these works in John chapter 5: judgement and giving of life. Now, I will not focus on the old testament examples of judgement and giving of life from God because you can find plenty of examples within the first 2p pages of the bible! However, let's look at Jesus's rule over these topics also. 2 Corinthians 5 tells us that all Christians will appear before the judgement seat of Christ to determine the eternal rewards for them based on their actions. We cannot lose the context of the first 9 verses, because it would be quite the contrast to be talking exclusively about Christians in the first 9 chapters and pivot to talking about all of humanity in verse 10. Now the judgement for all sinners is called the great white throne room judgement (see Revelations 20). In this judgement, anyone who has no record of their name in the Lamb's book of Life will be judged according to their actions. Even this judgement, despite nothing being directly led by Jesus as was the first judgement spoken about, is still dictated by Christ because the only people in attendance are those who had no relationship with Jesus during their time on Earth. This reminds me on John 10:27-28 when Christ says that he knows his sheep! Christ also references These two judgments in verses 26-30 of John 5. You see Christ here talks about two different types of giving of life. One is called plain Resurrection that is the restoration of body and soul after death. This specifically is seen most often in Revelations 20 as mentioned earlier. You could also think about Lazarus as an example of Christ performing this Resurrection. The second is the quickening of the spirit spoken about in John 5:21!

We have talked about this quickening of the spirit many times between the bible studies and youtube videos that I have created. As a refresher, because of sin our souls are considered dead in ths sight of God. Whenever we pray to Christ for salvation and he performs that work in our hearts, we are quickened or regenerated into a living soul, new and usable by God to be his servant. This is something that no one else in the old or new testament other than God and Jesus have ever done!

There are other examples of these miracles that prove Christ's Godhood as well. Think of all the miracles performed. Think of how Jesus knew people's thoughts before they were spoken. Think about how he walked on water. All of those things are only something God can give.

If you get nothing else out of this, I hope it is a stronger reminder that their is strong evidence biblically that Christ really is God other than just our faith and what we feel through the Holy Spirit. I have seen some commentary online lately that there is not enough evidence from the old testament that Jesus is the Messaiah or that Jesus is God. The fact is, the New testament validates itself with examples from the Old testament. I hope you all enjoyed this study. Please feel free to share!

Thanks

God Bless