Beloved, I am glad to share with you today the above theme from Jn 5:17-18. Indeed, the hatred of the Jews is an opportunity for Jesus to reveal some of his glories: First his work of love to remove sin from the world (Jn 1:25-30). For in the presence of the ruin of his creation, the Son, like the Father, could not rest. Then, the infinite affection of the Father for this Son with whom He shares all his thoughts (Jn 3:31-36). For the power of life that is in Him by which He now gives eternal life to those who believe in Him. And He will exercise this power in an hour yet to come for the resurrection of the dead. Moreover, judgment was given to Him in his capacity as son of man. Finally his obedience. What value it takes when it is realized precisely by the One who is entitled Himself to the obedience of every creature!
For if the Lord speaks of His own glories it’s because they are closely related to those of His Father. Not to honor the Son is to offend the One who sent him (1 Jn 2:21-24). Therefore, in the presence of all the perfections of our Savior, we too can only be in admiration and worship. Jesus replied to the Jews: “My Father acts until now; I, too, act.” Valuable statement! It stems from the infinite love of God who reveals himself as Father in his beloved Son. Since all man’s work is in vain, if not to bring him to judgment, God works to get him out of his state of sin.
After the six days of creation, God saw that everything He had done was “very good”; he rested on the seventh day. But when sin comes in, everything spoils. For man, a masterpiece of creation, falls into suffering and death; so no rest, no happiness. Now God could have destroyed all that he had created, to remove from his front the soiled man and creation; but this first creation was provisional; for God had in mind new heavens, a new earth, and perfect men to dwell in it eternally.
That is why he had to get back to work. He could not rest, as for man, when he saw him suffering, unable to get out of the terrible condition in which sin had placed him. His love wanted to make him happy. This is the work that the Son was doing in communion with his Father that did not allow him to remain inactive on a Sabbath day. For He could not enjoy rest in the midst of a scene of sin and suffering. Once God’s work is done, when all the saints are introduced into “his rest” (Heb 4:3, 9-11), God “will rest in his love” (So 3:17). For all those who have benefited from it will find themselves in the final and eternal state, introduced into the rest of God.
Instead of rejoicing the Jews, Jesus’ response created a new motive to make him die, because “not only was he violating the Sabbath, but also because he said that God was his own Father, making himself equal to God.” They had concluded, with good reason, that since Jesus called God his Father, he was one with him. In response to their outrage, Jesus lays out the whole truth about his union with his Father and the work he was doing. For if Jesus was truly God manifested in the flesh, he also acted in the dependence of God, since the Father and the Son, though distinct, were not two independent persons. Indeed, the Son, the expression of the Father’s love, did in perfect obedience what the Father prescribed to him. He said to them: “In truth, in truth, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of himself, he does only what he sees the Father doing; and all that the Father does, the Son also does it in the same way.”
Thus the works of the Son, as well as his words, are those of the Father; this aggravated the guilt of the Jews who did not receive Jesus. And several passages present this unity of action of the Father and the Son (Jn 7:17; Jn 8:26-29; Jn 10.25, 37, 38; Jn 14.10, 11, etc.). Jesus goes on to say, “The Father loves the Son, and shows him all the things he does himself, and he will show him works greater than these, that you may be in admiration.” For Jesus had just healed the infirm of Bethesda; but it was far from all that the Father wanted him to do, for this healed man remained subject to the law and under the consequences of sin. It required a greater deliverance than that in favor of the lost man, a work that would amaze the Jews; that of the resurrection, by which man would come out of death; the resurrection of Lazarus manifested it. “For the Father loves the Son, and shows him all that he does; and he will show him works greater than these, that you may be in amazement.
For as the Father resurrects the dead and gives life, so the Son gives life to whomever he wants.” The Jews could not deny that God had the power to invigorate the dead, for they believed in the resurrection on the last day. So the Son, one with the Father, also invigorating those he wanted. And even more: the Jews knew that there would be a judgment; they had to learn that it would take place through the Son whom they despised, for the Father gave him all the judgment, so that all might honor the Son as they honor the Father. The Jews claimed to honor God by rejecting His Son who was one with the Father; they said to the blind man who had become a seer: “Give glory to God; we know that this man is a sinner”(Jn 9:24).
For before the coming of Jesus, the Jews honored God, the object of their worship; they knew him as the only true God, but only lips and with a heart far removed from him, he told them, in Isaiah 29:13. Since Jesus demonstrated here on earth God the Father, one could not honor the Father without honoring the Son, since the Father and the Son are only one. Even today god is granted divinity, omnipotence, all-science, but they are denied to the Son, while putting him at the head of good men. For this kind of honor shows contempt for the Father as well as for the Son. All will have to bend their knees before him: “in the name of Jesus” (Ph 2:10).
For there are two ways to honor the Son. One can believe in him during the time of grace. The Jews then, like the men of today, used the lowering in which the Son of God came to this world as a pretext to deny him his title and the honor due to him. But those who believe in him during this time receive life, peace; the heart filled with love for the Son, they honor him, are submissive to him, worship him, attribute to him all the glories that he possesses and of which he is worthy for time and eternity. But those who do not believe in him, who discuss the divinity of his person, remain in their sins and will be obliged to honor him one day. They will bend their knees before him on the day of judgment (Ph 2:10:11).
Beloved, how do you desire to honor Jesus, the Bible tells us how one can be one of those who honor the Son as Savior right now: “Verily, verily, I say unto you, he who listens to my word, and who believes in him who sent me, has eternal life and does not come to judgment, but he has passed from death to life.” It is therefore necessary to hear the word of Jesus, that of God the Father, and to believe, not simply in God, but as in the one who sent his Son into the world, when he saw man unable to be saved by any other means. We must believe in the God who “loved the world so much that he gave his only begotten Son”. How can we not believe, since this simple faith acquires such titles for eternity?
The following verses have been compiled for your edification and grouped together for your better understanding.
- Knowledge of Christ concerning the father:
Mt 11:27 All things have been given to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father; nor does anyone know the Father, except the Son and the one to whom the Son wants to reveal him. Jn 7:29 And Jesus, a teacher in the temple, cried out: You know me, and you know where I am from! I did not come by myself: but the one who sent me is true, and you do not know him. Jn 8:55 and that you do not know. For me, I know him; and if I said that I did not know him, I would be like you, a liar. But I know him, and I keep his word. Jn 10:15 as the Father knows me and as I know the Father; and I give my life for my sheep. Jn 17:25 Righteous Father, the world has not known you; but I have known you, and they have known that you have sent me.
- Hatred towards Christ:
Lk 6:11 They were filled with fury, and they consulted each other to find out what they would do to Jesus. Lk 19:14 But his fellow citizens hated him, and they sent an embassy after him, to say: We do not want this man to rule over us. Jn 7:7 The world cannot hate you; he hates me, because I bear witness to him that his works are evil. Jn 15:18: 25 If the world hates you, know that it hated me before you. Jn 19:6 When the chief priests and the ushers saw him, they cried out: Crucify! crucify! Pilate said unseed to them: Take him yourselves, and crucify him; for I find no crime in him.
- Divinity of Christ: His Own Words
Lk 22:69-70 Henceforth the Son of man will sit at the right hand of the power of God. 70 All said: You are therefore the Son of God? And he replied, “You say it, I am.” Jn 10:30, 37, 38 I and the Father are one. If I don’t do my Father’s works, don’t believe me. 38 But if I do them, even if you do not believe me, believe in these works, so that you may know and recognize that the Father is in me and that I am in the Father. Jn 12:45 and he who sees me sees the one who sent me. Jn 14:7-10 If you knew me, you would also know my Father. And right now you know him, and you’ve seen him. 8 Philip said unsealed to him, Lord, show us the Father, and that is enough for us. 9 Jesus said unto him, “I have been with you for so long, and you have not known me, Philip!” He who has seen me has seen the Father; how do you say, Show us the Father? 10 Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you, I do not say them of myself; and the Father who dwells in me, it is he who does the works. Jn 16:15 All that the Father has is mine; that is why I have said that He takes from what is mine, and that He will announce it to you.
- Defied deity:
-by Satan: Mt 4:3 The tempter, having approached, said to him: If you are Son of God, order that these stones become loaves. Mt 4:6 and said unto him, If thou ist Son of God, throw thy thy below; for it is written: He shall give orders to his angels about you; And they will carry you on your hands, Lest your foot hit a stone.
-by the scribes and the Pharisees: Lk 5:21 The scribes and the Pharisees began to reason and to say: Who is this one, who utters blasphemy? Who can forgive sins, if not God alone?
-by the Jewish people: Jn 5:18 Because of this, the Jews sought even more to make him die, not only because he violated the Sabbath, but because he called God his own Father, making himself equal to God. Jn 8:53 Are you greater than our father Abraham, who died? The prophets are also dead. Who do you claim to be? Jn 10:33 The Jews answered him: It is not for a good work that we stone you, but for blasphemy, and because you, who are a man, make yourself God.
-by the scribes and the elders: Lk 20:1-2 One of those days, as Jesus taught the people in the temple and announced the good news, the chief priests and the scribes, together with the elders, came, 2 and said to him: Tell us, by what authority do you do these things, or who is the one who gave you this authority?
-on the cross: # by the crowd: Mt 27:39-40 Passers-by insulted him, and shook their heads, 40 saying: You who destroy the temple, and who rebuilt it in three days, save yourself! If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross! # by the chiefs: Lk 23:35 The people stood there, and watched. The magistrates mocked Jesus, saying: He saved the others; let him save himself, if he is Christ, god’s chosen one! # by the soldiers: Lk 23:36-37 The soldiers also mocked him; approaching and presenting him with vinegar, 37 they said: If you are the king of the Jews, save yourself! # by one of the malefactors: Lk 23:39 One of the crucified malefactors insulted him, saying: Are you not Christ? Save yourself, and save us! # by the chief priests: Mk 15:31-32 The chief priests also, with the scribes, mocked each other, and said: He saved the others, and he cannot save himself! 32 May Christ, the king of Israel, now come down from the cross, so that we may see and believe! Those who were crucified with him also insulted him.
From all of the above, we note that both the Father and the Son are at work, that it is not believing in Jesus, but believing God, and believing what He says and what He does is believing that He exists; and all Jews believed it, but it does not save. For he who hears and believes comes into possession of three things: he has eternal life, in contrast to the perishable life of man in fall; consequently he does not come to judgment, for he possesses the life to which no sin can be attached and, because Jesus was in judgment in his place; third, he went from death to life. For the power of life that is in Him by which He now gives eternal life to those who believe in Him. And He will exercise this power in an hour yet to come for the resurrection of the dead. For not only must the guilty man come to trial, but he is morally dead for God, dead in his faults and sins. God’s grace has fully responded to all faces of our wretched state. Our prayers support you all in your efforts to believe in God.
PRAYER OF ACCEPTANCE OF JESUS CHRIST AS LORD AND PERSONAL SAVIOR
I now invite anyone who wants to become a new creation by walking in the truth, to pray with me as follows:
Lord Jesus, I have long walked in the lusts of the world ignoring your love for humans. I acknowledge that I have sinned against you and ask forgiveness for all my sins, because today I have decided to give you my life by taking you as my Lord and personal Savior. I acknowledge that you died on the cross of Calvary and that you rose from the dead for me.
I am now saved and born again by the power of the Holy Spirit. Lead me each day to eternal life you give to all who obey your Word. Reveal to me and strengthen my heart and my faith so that your light may shine in my life right now.
Thank you, Lord Jesus, for accepting me in your divine family so that I too can contemplate the wonders of your kingdom.
I will now choose a nearby waterpoint to baptize myself by immersion, in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
To you all worship, power, and glory, now and forever and ever. Amen!
I would be glad to respond to your queries and comments if any, before sharing with you next week “Jesus teaching on his divine mission.”
May the Lord Jesus Christ bless you profusely.
David Feze, Servant of the Almighty God.
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