From Darkness to Light (6): The Son Gives Life -- November 21, 2010

So, because Jesus was doing these things on the Sabbath, the Jewish leaders began to persecute him. In his defense Jesus said to them, "My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I too am working." For this reason they tried all the more to kill him; not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.

Jesus gave them this answer: "Very truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does. For the Father loves the Son and shows him all he does. Yes, and he will show him even greater works than these, so that you will be amazed. For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son gives life to whom he is pleased to give it. Moreover, the Father judges no one, but has entrusted all judgment to the Son, that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father, who sent him.

"Very truly I tell you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be judged but has crossed over from death to life. Very truly I tell you, a time is coming and has now come when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live. For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself. And he has given him authority to judge because he is the Son of Man.

"Do not be amazed at this, for a time is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice and come out-those who have done what is good will rise to live, and those who have done what is evil will rise to be condemned. By myself I can do nothing; I judge only as I hear, and my judgment is just, for I seek not to please myself but him who sent me.

(John 5:16-30)

We live in a fractured world. We live in a world ruptured by disunity. We now live in a nation that is divided by a minority government that, regardless of which party is in power, is constantly under the pall of a failed parliamentary vote and yet another national election. We now live in a nation where our young people and even our not so young people are so scared of, so disenfranchised with the God-ordained, holy state of matrimony that it was recently reported that there are now more people living together than there are those who are married. We live in a society where we know, either through our own experience or through the experiences of those we love, the tragedy and painfulness of divorce all too well. And we live in our own inner world where there's a massive disconnect between our outer, public persona, and the inner realities of pain and turmoil with which we have to deal--often in loneliness & isolation. We live in a society where the incidence of mental breakdown and depression is fast on the rise. We live in a nation and in a world ravaged by disunity.

And yet, the good news is that the disunity of this world, perhaps even the disunity of our own lives, does not have the last & final word! At the base of reality itself, at the core of the Godhead, Father, Son & Holy Spirit, there is an inseperable and unconquerable unity. Many years ago Bishop J.C. Ryle said this of John 5:19-24: "Nowhere in the Gospels do we find our Lord make such formal, systematic, orderly, regular statement of His own unity with the Father, His divine commission and authority, and the proofs of His Messiahship, as we find in this discourse. ... To me it seems one of the deepest things in the Bible." In his translation of this passage, J.B. Philips inserts this sub-heading: Jesus makes His tremendous claim.

One aspect of His tremendous claim is the profound truth that Jesus Christ is at total oneness and unity with His Heavenly Father. The Lord Himself puts it this way in vs.19 & 20: " 'I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does. For the Father loves the Son and shows him all he does. Yes, to your amazement he will show him even greater things than these." And then in vs. 30 He even goes as far as to say, " 'By myself I can do nothing.'" Notice Jesus' total, confessed, and utter dependence on God. As Aussie New Testament scholar Leon Morris notes, it's not simply that Jesus does not act in independence of the Father--it's that He cannot act in independence of the Father. He can only do the things He sees the Father doing. There's total and complete unity between the Two. Leon Morris writes, "There is a continual contemplation of the Father by the Son, an uninterrupted communion."

And the context in which Jesus says all this is very instructive: Right before all this there are two miraculous healings performed by Jesus rapid-fire. In the first instance there's this government official who comes to Jesus, begging Him to go and heal his dying son. But Jesus refuses to make the trip, He just simply tells this man, "You may go. Your son will live." Amazingly the man takes Jesus at His Word and goes home to find that the very moment Jesus says "your son will live" is the exact same moment his son takes a miraculous turn for the better.

Then, at the beginning of chapter 5, Jesus comes across this man who's been crippled for 38 years. This man is camped out by this pool that is said to have healing powers, but he can never get there when the going's good. So Jesus simply says to him, "Get up! Pick up your mat and walk." And that's exactly what the guy does! Only, it's the Sabbath, the religious day of rest, and technically, this guy's not supposed to pick up anything. So our passage begins with Jesus getting in trouble for healing on the Sabbath, and daring to call God "Father"--thereby making Himself equal with God.

But we need to understand, from an ancient, orthodox Jewish perspective, no one had the right to willfully break the Sabbath, and anyone who claimed equality with God was either crazy, blasphemous, or both! But by recording these two healings in succession, as well as all this controversy surrounding them John is bringing into relief a startling truth: God really is one with Jesus, and He with God!

And yet, mixed in beautifully with this Reality of Who Jesus Is: The One Person on this planet with skin on Who was totally at one with God--mixed it with that is the wonderful aroma of obedience. Do you get a whiff of that? Jesus is saying in effect, I don't do any of this stuff on My own; I'm only doing what I see My Father doing. Like Father, like Son. And in reality, I can't really do anything by Myself.

If that's true of the One and Only Divine, Sinless Son of God--how much more does that need to apply to individual believers like you and I! We live in such a ruthlessly individualistic society. Independence is everything. Self-made is key. But that's not how Jesus rolled. And it's not how we should roll either. The authentic Christian life is designed by it's Originators to be lived in full-out, no-holds-barred dependence on God.

I love the morning prayer of the martyred World War II theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer: In me there is darkness, But with you there is light, I am lonely, but you do not leave me; I am feeble in heart, but with you there is help; I am restless, but with you there is peace. In me there is bitterness, but with you there is patience; I do not understand your ways, But you know the way for me.

Lord Jesus Christ, You were poor and in distress, a captive and forsaken as I am. You know all men's troubles; you abide with me when all men fail me; You remember and seek me; It is your will that I should know you and turn to you. Lord, I hear your call and follow; Help me." (quoted in The Book of Jesus, C. Miller, ed., pg.468) We follow One who said, "By myself I can do nothing." Even through His obedience and dependence on the Father, Jesus shows us the way.

But then notice that this unity Jesus enjoys with the Father is a unity that raises the dead. Jesus goes on to say in vs.21, " 'For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son gives life to whom he is pleased to give it.'" Nobody listening to Jesus at that time would have been surprised to hear that God the Father raises the dead and gives life. This is the clear teaching of the Hebrew Scriptures. In Deuteronomy 32:39 the Lord God says, "I put to death and I bring to life." I Samuel 2:6 says, "The LORD brings death and makes alive; he brings down to the grave and raises up." Last week I heard a young college hockey player describe his near-miss with total paralysis. He broke his neck, yet was still able to walk and have full movement. Referring to the fact that he could still walk he said something to the effect of, "I'm not a religious man, but I told the doctor I feel like I won the Power Ball. He told me it was more like I won Power Ball twice in a row." Everybody knows, God Almighty alone raises the dead and gives life.

But it's that second part of vs.21 that's so surprising: Jesus goes on to say, "... even so the Son gives life to whom he is pleased to give it." Such is Christ's unity with the Father that He's able to say to a dying boy's father, "You son will live", and it happens. He's able to say to a man crippled for 38 years, "Get up and walk", and he does. And Jesus is just as powerful to raise the spiritually dying and the morally lame!

So much so that Jesus makes this momentous assertion in vs.24, " 'I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life." Did you notice that Jesus says that whoever hears His Word and believes the One Who sent Him has eternal life already--the person who has placed their trust in Christ has already passed over from death to life! Such is the power of the Word of Jesus!! Eternal if isn't something that's just up in the air when we die--maybe we'll make it, maybe we won't--eternal life is the believer's present possession through the Powerful Word of Jesus.

I saw a very clever church sign in Newmarket recently. It cleverly addressed this issue of "right now". In big, bold letters the sign read ASAP. How many times have we seen that acrostic--ASAP, As Soon As Possible! But on this sign underneath the ASAP was striking explanation: Always Stop and Pray! Why can we avail ourselves of such a great spiritual resource right now? Because when a person places their faith, hope and trust in Jesus Christ eternal life isn't just a future hope in the sweet by & by--it is the believer's present possession. At the very moment you and I came to Jesus for the very first time, right then, we were given eternal life, right at that very moment, we passed over from death to life.

And did you notice? Jesus says that right at that very moment-- and for all the moments we have left in this life as well--we no longer stand condemned!! The Apostle Paul put it this way in Colossians 1:13-14: "For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins." Isn't that great news?

Life is one of John's characteristic concepts in this gospel. In fact, more than a quarter of all of the New Testament references to life are in John's gospel alone! (36 times in John, Revelation 17 times, Romans 14 times, I John 13 times.) Jesus Christ is the Life Bringer! In John's gospel eternal life isn't just about quantity or duration--it's about quality as well. It is the gift of God, not the achievement of man. And when a person believes in Jesus that person has His life, eternal life right now! No longer condemned, that person's vindication is present in the here and now. That person has already passed right out of the state of death and has come into life. This incredible statement of Jesus in vs.24 points to permanent safety. But they also constitute an invitation and a challenge: to hear the Word of Christ, and then step out in faith & obedience and follow Him!

For these are not the empty words of someone Who's never been there! These are the words of Him who died on a cross and beat death at it's own game, rising again on the Third Day!!

A true story is told of Chinese officials from the Public Security Bureau who invaded a Sunday School room at a church in early 2005. They found thirty children there and herded them all into a van. Despite the scary situation, one child started to sing. In a few moments, they were all singing!

Arriving at the police station, the children marched bravely into the interrogation room, still singing to the Lord! The Chinese officers tried to force the children to write, "I do not believe in Jesus" one hundred times, or else they wouldn't be released. Instead, the children wrote, "I believe in Jesus today. I will believe in Jesus tomorrow. I will believe in Jesus forever!"

The exasperated officials called their parents, some of whom had renounced Christ. But there was one widow who refused to deny Jesus when she came to pick up her twin sons. The officers told her, "If you do not deny Jesus, we will not release your sons." So she replied, "Well, I guess you will just have to keep them, because without Jesus, there would be no way for me to take care of them!" The exasperated officials just said, "Take your sons and go!" (1001 Illustrations that Connect, Larson & Ten Elshof, eds., pg.198)

I love the way Alister McGrath once described it. He wrote, "Christianity makes the astonishing assertion--which it bases on the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ--that God is profoundly interested in us and concerned for us. We mean something to God; Christ died for us; we are special in the sight of God. Christ came to bring us back from the 'far country' to our loving and waiting father. In the midst of an immense and frightening universe, we are given meaning and significance by the realization that the God who called the world into being, who created us, also loves us and cares for us, coming down from heaven and going to the cross to prove the full extent of that love to a disbelieving and wondering world. Once more, a human experience (a sense of loneliness and meaninglessness) is addressed, and transformed into a sense of being dearly loved and given a sense of purpose." (quoted in The Book of Jesus, pg.450)

I love the old illustration about a little girl who was given a "make work" project by her tired and distracted father. Her father found a picture of the world from a magazine, tore it up into a hundred little pieces, and then told her to go "put the world back together again". To his amazement she returned in about ten minutes with the task already finished. Flabbergasted, he asked her how she finished so fast. She replied, "There was a picture on the other side of a man. Once I put the picture of the man back together, the world came together with it." When the father looked at the picture of the man, it was a portrait of Jesus. When we discover Who Jesus is, at One with the Father, the Savior Who sovereignly gives us life and salvation, in Whom there is no condemnation for those who trust Him--when we put Him back together, our fractured world starts to make a lot more sense as well.