Day 874: Equal with God! - John 5 vs 15 - 24

15-18 The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had healed him. And this was why the Jews were persecuting Jesus, because he was doing these things on the Sabbath. But Jesus answered them, “My Father is working until now, and I am working.” This was why the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.

19-20 So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise. For the Father loves the Son and shows him all that he himself is doing. And greater works than these will he show him, so that you may marvel. 21-23 For as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom he will. The Father judges no one, but has given all judgement to the Son, that all may honour the Son, just as they honour the Father. Whoever does not honour the Son does not honour the Father who sent him.

24-25 Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgement, but has passed from death to life. Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live.” John 5:15-24 English Standard Version

A pioneer of communism once said that religion was 'the opiate of the people'. The implication is that religion keeps people drugged and dulled. I suggest that when religion is rooted only in rigid rules, rather than a relationship with the One who can give health to a man who'd been paralysed for 38 years, then, yes, it can dull the senses of it's followers. So in vs 15-18 John tells us why the staunch Jews of Jesus' day wanted to kill Him. He broke their version of religious rules, and dared to equate His works with almighty God. What does Jesus' answer in vs 19-20 suggest their religious rigidity was causing them to not see?

They couldn’t see the significance of His amazing miracles! They couldn’t rejoice with a long crippled man who had received a whole new lease of life. They could only find fault that their rules hadn’t been carefully followed. They were blind also to the fact that the One who had originally given Israel good rules to live by, which they had twisted by a whole lot of man made additions, was actually in their midst. The One who had given such holy commandments was certainly the One who could best interpret them, and pass proper judgment on how they should be kept. How did Jesus take the matter further in vs 21-23?

Having just told them that He had still ‘greater works’ to do than the physical miracles they’d seen, Jesus then spoke of raising the dead and giving life to those He chose. He reminds them that raising the dead was something which they themselves believed only God could do. Therefore, if Jesus did so as well, it meant He was worthy of the same honour as the Father. Later in this gospel John will describe how Jesus did indeed raise someone who’d been physically dead for over three days, and called a man named Lazarus out of the tomb. But do vs 24-25 suggest that Jesus had a greater work than even that in view?

The Bible speaks of a day when all the dead will be raised to face their Creator's righteous judgment. It's at that time when those souls who have had a real relationship with God, rather than just religious rules, will be clothed in resurrected bodies suitable for living eternally with God. But before that day arrives, they will already have experienced a spiritual call out of death to life through Jesus Christ. The wonderful raising of people who were spritually dead had already started when Jesus was on earth. But notice how He spoke of 'hearing His words, and believing.' (vs 24) That’s the ongoing 'greater work' of Jesus which was taken up by the apostles as they took the gospel into the world, and which continued through the centuries wherever the gospel was faithfully preached. And this ongoing work of raising those who were spiritually dead shows that Jesus is indeed 'equal with God'. It's not religion that people need - it's a living relationship with the Father's only begotten Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.