Musings On John 5

by G. PRASHER, SR. | Category: General | Nov 1962

The five porches of the pool of Bethesda contained a company of sick, blind, halt and withered. They doubtless felt their need and in consequence gathered at the pool in hope of possible healing. Obviously this was the case with the impotent man who on this occasion was the subject of the Lord's mercy. As the Lord entered the porches that day the scene that met His gaze surely resembled what He saw as before His incarnation He viewed this earth.

"In heaven above in light,

Most wondrous clear and bright,

The Son of God was throned,

By myriad angels owned;

But down He looked on earth below,

And saw mankind all sunk in 'woe."

The love and pity that led Him to the porches of Bethesda was that which brought Him from the throne of heaven to earth.

"His love for fallen man so vast,

That every bound it overpast"

Sovereign grace is shown as He approached the needy man, who, so far as we can trace, showed no interest in the Lord There is no mention of faith on the part of the sufferer. Was there anything about him that commended him to the Saviour? We think there was. It was the realization of his need, together with the hopelessness of his outlook for healing. His reply to the Lord's question, "Wouldest thou be made whole?" reveals he had no hope in any person outside of himself, and that his own efforts were unavailing. It is just here that grace can operate. Human efforts to effect salvation only hinder divine operation. The grace and pity of the Lord are wonderful.

"Pity to the wretched moved Him,

Who that hears it will deny

That God is love."

At the command of the Lord, "Arise, take up thy bed, and walk," the man was straightway made whole, and took up his bed and walked.

The man encountered the opposition of the Jews as he carried his bed that day, it being the Sabbath; but there is something good about his reply that it was the One who healed him who had told him to take up his bed. Later the Lord found him in the temple and addressed solemn words to him, "Sin no more, lest a worse thing befall thee." From this it would appear the man's disease had been the result of sin. Certain sins have a grave effect upon the human body. The command, "Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body," (1 Corinthians 6.18) should be borne in mind. Joseph acted in keeping with this command, and the LORD took knowledge of it.

Now the man could tell the Jews it was Jesus that had made him whole, "and for this cause did the Jews persecute Jesus, because He did these things on the Sabbath." Their tradition was more to them than the healing of a man. The Lord exposed their hypocrisy on another occasion when He asked, "Doth not each one of you on the Sabbath loose his ox or his ass from the stall, and lead him away to watering?" (Luke 13.15). Fitting indeed were Isaiah's words concerning them:

"This people honoureth Me with their tips But their heart is far from Me.

But in vain do they worship Me, Teaching as their doctrines the precepts of men"

(Matthew i5. 7-9).

"My Father worketh even until now, and I work," was the Lord's reply to the Jews. Having taken exception to His works, they now take up His words, rightly concluding that He claimed Deity by the expression "My Father worketh." As they saw it, He called God His own (proper) Father, thus making Himself equal with God. We know the Lord did not need to make Himself equal with God since it is written of Him-" Who, being in the form of God, counted it not a prize to be on an equality with God, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant, becoming in the likeness of men; and being found in fashion as a man He humbled Himself, becoming obedient even unto death, yea, the death of the cross" (Philippians 2.6-8 R.V.M.). It is thus the Holy Spirit bears testimony concerning the Son of God, and yet the Jews sought the more to kill Him, because He not only brake the Sabbath, but also called God His own Father, making Himself equal with God. They now accuse Him of being a sabbath-breaker, and of blasphemy.

Verse 19 to the end of the chapter gives the Lord's reply to these indictments -His status to verse 29; the witnesses to His rank and eminence to the end of the chapter. In the former of these sections the Son is mentioned ten times. Let us bear in mind that Satan is ever out to blind men's minds concerning the grand truth of the Sonship of Christ. Perhaps there is nothing more important for the extension of His kingdom than that men should realize that they have had wrong thoughts about the Son of God.

"We cannot be right in the rest,

Unless we think rightly of Him."

The Sonship of Christ must present difficulties to the human mind. Zophar's words concerning God are in conformity,

"Canst thou by searching find out God?

Canst thou find out the Almighty unto perfection?

It is high as heaven; what canst thou do?

Deeper than Sheol; what canst thou know?" (Job 11. 7, 8). But the Holy Spirit has borne witness in the Scriptures, and we are shut up to receiving His witness. There the Lord Jesus is shown to be the eternal Son of the eternal Father.

We will now note seven things which the Lord sets forth in His defence: (1st) The Father loveth the Son. Many times in John's Gospel the Lord refers to His Father's love for Him. "The Father loveth the Son, and hath given all things into His hands" (3.85); "Therefore doth the Father love Me, because I lay down My life, that I may take it again" (10.17). Here we see the Father's love associated with the Son's obedience - His obedience even unto death; and, like as with Abraham and Isaac, the Son is the Heir of all, and is the Object of His Father's eternal love. In chapter 17 the eternal character of the Father's love is clearly expressed. When we consider that God's love for the world caused Him to give His only begotten Son to the death of the cross for sinners, sheathing the sword of judgement of divine wrath on account of sin in the bosom of the One He loved, what may be the judgement expected by those who by unbelief and rejection dishonour the Son?

(2nd) "The Father ... sheweth Him all things that Himself doeth" (20). What the Son saw and heard with His Father is referred to in 3.11, 32; 5. 20; 8.26, 88, 40; 15.15. Nothing of the Father's workings and sayings were withheld from the Son. Moreover whatever was done He was the Doer of it, whether it be in creation or salvation. "For in Him were all things created, in the heavens and upon the earth, things visible and things invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers; all things have been created through Him and unto Him; and He is before all things, and in Him all things consist" (Colossians 1. 16, 17). His was the fulness of knowledge of all that transpires in heaven, of all that He saw and heard. He was here among men as God's faithful Witness.

(3rd) "As the Father raiseth the dead and quickeneth them, even so the Son also quickeneth whom He will" (21). "In Him was life" (John 1. 4); "The last Adam became a life-giving Spirit" (1 Corinthians 15.45). He was able to quicken both the naturally and spiritually dead. "I made a man every whit whole"

(7.28). This refers to the man of chapter 5. Such is the quickening power of the Son of God. His work affects the entire man. It is the quickening power of God.

(4th) "Neither doth the Father judge any man, but He hath given all judgement unto the Son" (22). Wherever we find a judgement-seat or throne it is always the Son who is there to judge, whether it be the judgement of saints for the work done in the body, the judgement of the living nations prior to the Millennium, or the great white throne judgement, it is the Son who will be the Judge. He is the Judge of all the earth who will do right (Genesis 18.25). To the believer there is a special sweetness in considering the promise of John 5.24 where the Judge Himself assures those who hear His word, and believe the One that sent Him, that they shall not come into judgement, but have passed out of death into life. Peter bore witness, while preaching in the house of Cornelius, that Christ "charged us to preach unto the people, and to testify that this is He which is ordained of God to be the Judge of quick and dead" (Acts 10.42).

(5th) He has been given all judgement, "that all may honour the Son, even as they honour the Father., He that honoureth not the Son honoureth not the Father which sent Him" (28). We do well, with king David, to meditate on "the glorious majesty of Thine (Christ's) honour" (Psalm 145.5). He is indeed the One whom the King delights to honour. Men honour an earthly monarch as they appreciate his majesty. What honour then is due to Him whom God has made both Lord and Christ!

"Honour and majesty are before Him:

Strength and beauty are in His sanctuary" (Psalm 96.6).

Oh, that men would learn that it is impossible to honour the Father while they withhold honour from the Son!

"All the Father's counsels claiming Equal honour for the Son;

All the Son's effulgence beaming,

Makes the Father's glory known."

(6th) "As the Father hath life in Himself, even so gave He to the Son also to have life in Himself" (26). When Elijah and Elisha raised the dead they had not life in themselves to perform these acts. They called upon God who heard and answered their cries, and the lads were restored to life; but the Lord Jesus had life within Him to impart to the needy around Him. "The hour cometh, and now is," said the Lord Jesus, "when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God; and they that hear shall live." And "all that are in the tombs shall hear His voice, and shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life ; and they that have done ill, unto the resurrection of judgement."

(7th) "And He gave Him to have authority to execute judgement, because He is the Son of Man" (27). Here is a most solemn matter. One day He will descend "from heaven with the angels of His power in flaming fire, rendering vengeance to them that know not God, and to them that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus: who shall suffer punishment, even eternal destruction from the face of the Lord and from the glory of His might" (2 Thessalonians 1. 7-9).

"The Son of Man shall sit on the throne of His glory, when He shall come in His glory, and all the angels with Him. Then He shall gather the nations and shall separate them as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, putting the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left. "Then shall He say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from Me, ye cursed, into the eternal fire which is prepared for the devil and his angels: ... And these shall go away into eternal punishment: but the righteous into eternal life" (Matthew 25.31-46). These are examples of the judgement He will execute, besides the many which are revealed in the Book of the Revelation.

How very sad to think of puny men bringing an indictment against Him who is the Lord of all! What rude awakening awaits all who rise up against the Son whom God has placed upon the throne, and the One to whom has been given all authority in heaven and on earth! We think of the words,

"Now therefore be wise, 0 ye kings:

Be instructed, ye judges of the earth.

Serve the LORD with fear,

And rejoice with trembling.

Kiss the Son, lest He be angry, and ye perish in the way,

For His wrath will soon be kindled.

Blessed are all they that put their trust in Him" (Psalm 2.10-12).

The closing paragraph of John 5 is taken up with the witnesses which the Lord sets forth for His being the sent One of His Father. He mentions four - John's, that of His works which His Father had given Him to accomplish, His Father's witness, and the witness of the Scriptures. He said, "If I bear witness of Myself, My witness is not true" (31). This we judge means they would regard His witness thus. We know He spake truth, and He is the truth. But He here presents testimony apart from His own. Later in this book (8.18) we have His own witness, but here He gives the witness of others.

(1) Of John he says, "Ye have sent unto John, and he hath borne witness unto the truth" (33). "There came a man, sent from God, whose name was John. The same came for witness, that He might bear witness of the Light, that all might believe through him" ... "I knew Him not;" said John, "but that He should be made manifest to Israel, for this cause came I baptizing in water. And John bear witness, saying, I have beheld the Spirit descending as a dove out of heaven; and it abode upon Him. And I knew Him not but He that sent me to baptize in water, He said unto me, Upon whomsoever thou shalt see the Spirit descending, and abiding upon Him, the Same is He that baptizeth in the Holy Spirit. And I have seen, and have borne witness that this is the Son of God" (John 1.6, 7, 31-84, R.V.M.). John was truly "the lamp that burneth and shineth."

The rejection of John's witness was a serious matter for the Israel nation. God had sent John to bear witness that all might believe through him, but Israel, through its rulers, refused to hear John. Later in the Lord's ministry the chief priests and the elders of the people asked Him, "By what authority doest Thou these things? and who gave Thee this authority?" The Lord took them back to where they had gone astray, by asking the question, "The baptism of John, whence was it? from heaven or from men ?" (Matthew 21.28-27). They were unable to answer Him, and so the Lord left them in their ignorance and unbelief.

(2) The witness of His works. "But the witness which I have is greater than that of John: for the works which the Father hath given Me to accomplish, the very works that I do, bear witness of Me, that the Father hath sent Me" (86). It is solemn to hear the Lord pleading, "Though ye believe not Me, believe the works" (10.33). In the upper room He said to the disciples, "If I had not done among them the works which none other did, they had not had sin : but now they have both seen and hated both Me and My Father " (15.24). The works He did were actually His Father's works, as He said, "The Father abiding in Me doeth His works" (14.10), and therefore their actions were against the Father as well as against the Son. His words and actions were those of the Father, therefore He could say to Philip, "He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father" (14.9).

(3) "The Father which sent Me, He hath borne witness of Me" (37). He added, "Ye have neither heard His voice at any time, nor seen His form." The Father had spoken on more occasions than one, and at least on one of the occasions they had an opportunity of hearing, but alas! they were dull of hearing. When John had baptized the Lord, and the Spirit had descended as a dove upon Him, a voice out of the heavens, saying, This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." We should note that God is speaking to others concerning His Son at this time, but having ears they heard not. In Mark 1.11 God is speaking to His Son "Thou art My beloved Son, in Thee I am well pleased." Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, while in the holy mount, heard the voice saying, "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye Him" (Matthew 17.5). Truly, the Father which sent Him hath borne witness of Him.

(4) The Scriptures. "Ye search the Scriptures, because ye think that in them ye have eternal life; and these are they which bear witness of Me" (89). On the day of His resurrection, while speaking to the two men on the way to Emmaus, "Beginning from Moses and from all the prophets, He interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself" (Luke 24.27). "Moses... wrote of Me" (John 5.46). Paul declared, while preaching in the synagogue in Antioch in Pisidia, "They that dwell in Jerusalem, and their rulers, because they knew Him not, nor the voices of the prophets which are read every Sabbath, fulfilled them by condemning Him" (Acts 13.27). Yes, the Old Testament Scriptures are full of Christ.

G. PRASHER, SR. | Nov 1962
General