Lots of people know lots of stories about Jesus, but without ever realising that they can know God in Christ. The accounts we have about Jesus aren’t just interesting tales (though they are interesting!), nor moral fables.
They are meant to display who Jesus is. And the big win for you is that the reason for explaining who Jesus is is that you yourself can know God in Christ.
What you see in a passage like John 5:18-30 is that there’s always more to learn, more to grasp. And that’s not surprising, because Jesus is God the Son.
When you grasp what that means, you begin to understand how it is that he brings you eternal life. Know God in Christ today.
These notes accompany a sermon on YouTube delivered at Bromborough Evangelical Church in July 2024. You can find more in the series in our sermon index.
See God in Christ (17-23)
Last time we looked at John 5:1-18.
Jesus walked to the pool at Bethesda and saw an area full of paralysed, sick people, unable to help themselves. He walked over to a man who’d been paralysed for 38 years and told him, “Pick up your mat and walk.” Because it was the Sabbath, some people there ended up challenging Jesus about telling someone to carry their mat on the Sabbath. Jesus’ response raised the temperature: Read John 5:17-18.
We looked at all that last time.
There is only one God, and the Jews felt that it was blasphemy for Jesus to claim equality with him. Was Jesus claiming to be another God? A challenger?
So now we come to Jesus’ response. And it’s amazing.
The Deity of the Son of God
He’s going to explain something of the relationship between the eternal Father and Son, showing the deity of the Son of God. God is Three in One: He is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We’ll learn more about the Holy Spirit in later chapters, but this chapter is very much about Jesus the Son and his relationship with the Father.
Read John 5:19.
- “Truly I tell you” – we see that 3 times (v19, 24, 25) – so pay attention.
- “The Son is not able to do anything on his own, but only what he sees the Father doing.” Jesus isn’t another God; he is the Son of God working in perfect submission and obedience to the Father. The work of the Father and Son is integrated and harmonious, and the Son works works in subordinate obedience.
Jesus has just been asked why he told someone to carry their mat on a Sabbath. And his answer is that he can only do what he sees the Father doing. What does he mean?
He spells that out with four explanations.
Jesus’ submission to the Father
- Read John 5:19. Jesus does what the Father does.
What does the Father do?- Sustains the universe, gives life, takes life, hears prayer, executes judgment, extends grace.
- He does it 24×7 – including Sabbaths.
- How can Jesus make such claims? He’s the Son of God.
- Read John 5:20. The Father loves the Son and shows him all things.
- So Jesus does what the Father does, and the Father shows Jesus all things…
- So it follows that Jesus reveals the Father to us in the things he does.
- It’s at this point that we realise that the healing of the paralysed man was a sign (like the water-to-wine sign) pointing to Jesus’ glory.
- That’s why Jesus promises “greater works than these” to the unbelieving onlookers: They will see the cross and be amazed.
- As you understand what Jesus did, you see the Father, and you see his glory – at the cross.
- Read John 5:21. Only God can give life. So can Jesus.
- More, we noted how Jesus only healed one man at that pool, when many were there.
- Jesus has that sovereign, divine choice of whom he wants to extend mercy to.
- Read John 5:22-23. The Father wants you to honour Jesus just as you honour the Father.
- Remembering that God is a jealous God, demanding worship of him only, it’s remarkable that the Father wants everyone to honour the Son.
- He has joy without envy, when the Son is honoured.
- You are accountable before God for your sin, and the Father has given judgment to the Son.
- And so Father and Son are worshipped equally in heaven, as you see in Revelation.
- The Son isn’t an ambassador, envoy, or representative of God in heaven; he’s the Son, due equal honour with the Father, to the Father’s joy.
Jesus’ self-declaration
They asked why Jesus could say to a man “Take up your mat and walk”, and they discovered Jesus declaring his own deity.
When you see Jesus, know that he only did what the Father told him.
That’s because there is only one God, and in the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God.
The Word who was with God and was God became human – the Son of God, Jesus.
- He does what the Father does, because there is one God.
- The Father shows him all things, revealing himself to you.
- Only God can give life; Jesus gives life (healing; resurrection).
- God the Father himself exalts the Son, Jesus, to a point of honour and worship and glory.
See God in Christ. And then:
Trust God in Christ – and live! (24)
Read John 5:24.
It’s an amazingly loaded sentence. But get hold of it, and you’ll be on your way to eternal life! If you’re to know God in Christ, here’s how, and what it will mean to you!
Jesus only did and said what came from the Father. Jesus’ miracles were signs pointing to the glory that was to come – his death and resurrection, whereby he’d be a sacrifice to atone for your sins. That is his word, his good news.
And because he does and says what the Father says, the good news of the glory of Jesus’ death and resurrection is the word of the Father – the one who sent Jesus into the world.
John 1:12 said, “But to all who did receive him, he gave them the right to be children of God, to those who believe in his name…”
Good news for you
So hear this:
- God loves you, and sent his Son into the world to save you.
- He loves his Son, Jesus, the eternal Word.
- God desires you to know that the eternal Word came into the world to save you.
- Jesus did so because he loves the Father and he loves you.
- Jesus became human, and laid down his life to be a sacrifice to suffer the punishment you deserve – death.
You’re called to faith. You’re called to trust what Jesus did.
- Let go of your empty religion.
- You’re free from the burden of do this, do this, do this…
- There’s no fear of punishment, no condemnation, for those who have trusted in the free grace of God in Christ.
When you trust God in Christ, going to him in repentance of all your sin, asking for his forgiveness, he’ll never turn you away.
- You’ll be forgiven. No more burden of religion.
- Rest for your soul.
- Eternal life begun! “…passed from death to life” already!
- You can still expect to die physically, but spiritually your eternal life is begun.
- It has to, in fact, because you’re now a child of God.
He has no stillborn children.
God becomes your Father. Jesus is your brother. You’re taken into the intimacy of God’s love forever, starting now. That’s what we mean when we say you can know God in Christ.
You’re not called to Christianity. Jesus calls you to himself, and as you go to him you are in the Father.
So what about everyone else?
Be ready for God in Christ (25-30)
The third “Truly I tell you” means you really need to hear this. Read John 5:25.
There are some blessings Christians experience now, in this life, and others that are not yet here – ready to come in the future.
With Jesus there in Jerusalem in John 5, anyone who heard him and believed went from being spiritually dead to alive. Just as the paralysed man obeyed Jesus’ command to “pick up your mat and walk”, so too Jesus calls people to obey, “Repent and believe the good news”.
Can any man claim to give life, the way Jesus did?
Life in himself
No, because he had life to give: Read John 5:26.
- God the Father has life in himself.
- He exists, outside of time, without beginning or end.
- The Son is eternally begotten of the Father.
- There wasn’t a time when he didn’t exist (he’s not part of Creation, as the JW’s claim).
- He is the Son of the Father, and the Father has given life-in-himself to the Son.
- Sometimes this is called the ‘eternal generation of the Son’ – he is of the Father.
- Indivisible, yet distinct, the Father and Son and Holy Spirit are One God.
- The Son exists, outside of Creation, because he has life in himself, granted by the Father.
You had a beginning. But not so with Jesus. He didn’t begin at Bethlehem, or Nazareth.
He has eternal existence, life in himself, from the Father, and by his word of command he is ready to give life to you. But the Father has given something else to Jesus too: Read John 5:27.
- The son of man is a reference to Daniel 7, a prophecy of “one like a son of man was coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days and was escorted before him. He was given dominion and glory and a kingdom…”
- And because Jesus is that Son of Man, God the Father has given him authority to pass judgment.
- As both Son of God and Son of Man, he has the right and authority to pass judgment on all humanity.
And that’s something he will do when he returns to the earth.
The return of Christ
Read John 5:28-30.
When he returns, everyone will rise from the dead! The graveyards will give up their dead – everyone will be resurrected. The seas, the deserts, the mountains, space – everywhere will give up their dead.
Every man, woman and child whoever lived will be physically resurrected to stand before Jesus, the judge, who will judge with perfect justice.
You’ll be there, that day. If you’ve “done good things” (i.e. come to the light of Jesus for life) you’ll enter a new and amazing eternity of life with God in Christ. But if you’ve “done wicked things” (preferring darkness and wickedness rather than the light of Christ) you’ll go to the resurrection of condemnation.
Revelation calls that a Lake of Fire. What that means in practice I don’t know, but it’s a terrifyingly vivid image – and an unnecessary one for you in the light of God’s invitation to you today.
There will be no appeal, because his knowledge and his justice is perfect. You can’t even appeal the Father, because Jesus will judge with the perfection and agreement of the Father.
Follow the sign
So where does that leave you?
The healing of the man at the pool of Bethesda was a sign, pointing you to the glory of Christ. The signs in John’s gospel take you to Christ’s glory as displayed at the cross, in his death and resurrection, working to save you.
So the revelation of the Father in these verses helps two things:
- First, elevate your understanding of Jesus to the highest heights! He is the eternal Son of God, eternally generated of the Father, acting in perfect union and integrated harmony with the Father, in utter obedience in love.
- Second, be amazed that he is the One who became flesh to die for you.
If you think you have any hope of eternity without ever coming to know God in Christ then you’re kidding yourself.
You can only know God in Christ because the Son is the one through whom the Father is revealed to you.
Today: See God in Christ. Trust God in Christ – and live.
Be ready for God in Christ, for the day he will return. Turn to Jesus in repentance and faith today.
Then, should he return today, his return will be for you a day of endless light, of utter brilliant warmth and love.
God himself came to save you, and God calls you to go to him in Christ for life. Eternal life starts today.