Podcast: Download (33.6MB)
Jesus’ Claim of Equality with God
John 5:15-29
Introduction: Do you believe that most people think of God and Jesus in the same way? When people think of God they tend to think of a being who is more distant, more impersonal, and even more judgmental. But when these same people think of Jesus, they think of love, mercy, gentleness, and kindness. There is an obvious disconnect. What God is, Jesus is, and what Jesus is, God is. Jesus illustrates this point in his discourse to the Jews.
Let’s remember the scene. Jesus went out of his way to go to the pool of Bethesda. Out of all the suffering people at that pool, he chose only one, a man who had been an invalid, unable to walk for 38 years. Those 38 years represented the bondage Israel suffered in the wilderness for their sins. This man also had been in bondage as a result of his sin. In fact, Jesus warned him not to continue in sin lest something worse happen to him. There is a relationship between sin and suffering. It is the reason Jesus healed; he was not only forgiving sin, he was picturing the ultimate reversal of the consequences of sin.
- Introduction to Jesus’ Answer (15-19)
- First notice the phrase in verse 16, “because he was doing these things on the Sabbath.” The word “doing” implies this was a regular practice. Jesus was regularly healing on the Sabbath. That being so, it is evident that Jesus is making a concerted effort to get the attention of his people concerning who he is and why he would repeatedly heal on the Sabbath.
- Please, remember that though healing the man was a sign, the healing itself was not all there was to the sign. It was healing a man, who was an invalid for 38 years, but even more, healing him on the Sabbath. We have talked about how Sabbath was symbolic of deliverance from bondage and God’s original intention of bringing his people to a permanent rest. But we must go further. For God to bring us into his Sabbath rest requires a new creation. God finished his work with the heavens and earth, but that was not the entirety of his purpose or his work.
- 2 Cor. 3:15-18 “Yes, to this day whenever Moses is read a veil lies over their hearts. But when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.”
- 2 Cor. 4:5-6 “For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus sake. For God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”
- Therefore, God working through Jesus is creating a new heavens and new earth in which he will place his people who have been created in the image of him. The Sabbath healings announced this work. Jesus was healing on the Sabbath, pointing to his eternal rest in which he will bring his new creation, his “born-from-above” people. Thus, both the Father and the Son have been working until now.
- Next, notice that Jesus gives two answers, verse 17 & 19.
- The first answer is in response to why he is healing on the Sabbath: “My Father is working until now, and I am working.” Jesus did not give the same answer in John’s account as is recorded in the Gospel accounts. He simply proclaims God as his personal Father and that they body have always been working.
- This triggers the second reason the Jews want to kill him. He not only is “breaking the Sabbath,” he is making himself equal with God. In verses 19ff Jesus answered the second accusation of him being equal with God.
- 5:17 Jesus’ first answer: The Jews believed that though God ceased his creative work of the heavens and earth, he continued to work since he was God of all the universe, and as Hebrews 1:4, “he upholds everything by the word of his power.” What incites them against Jesus is that Jesus as a “man” is claiming he is in the same position as God and therefore is working in the same way as God every day. Thus the Jews rightly draw the conclusion that he is making himself equal with God (18).
- Jesus Making Himself Equal with God (19-23)
- Jesus purposely triggered this uproar among the Jews over the Sabbath. Jesus is not passive about his gospel message. He is always inserting truth in the midst of error in order to cause people to think. From another perspective, if people are living in darkness, Jesus is there to light a lamp. In the midst of darkness, a bright light can be shocking. We must also see ourselves in this way.
- But why does Jesus so boldly challenge the Jews by making himself equal with God? If we put this in today’s context, there would be no way we would accept a man claiming to be God. It would be difficult even if he did heal a man who was an invalid for 38 years. A prophet sure, but God? But this is what we miss.
- Remember, the prophets foretold that God would return: “Prepare the way of the Lord…” (Isaiah 40).
- Or, Malachi 3:1-3, “Behold, I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me. And the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple…But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner’s fire and like fullers’ soap. He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, and they will bring offerings in righteousness to the Lord.”
- Understand the Jewish response: imagine how the Jews were challenged with Jesus stating an equality with God. Is there not one God? Did anyone imagine that the Messiah would actually be God? Truly, without understanding this relationship of Father–Son, it would seem that Jesus was blaspheming.
- Jesus clarifies that he is not another God or a competing God. Verse 19 gives the picture of a son as an apprentice to his father, such as what Jesus would have been to Joseph as a carpenter. His goal is to see what the father is doing and then do likewise.
- Further, Jesus is making clear that he not simply (as Nicodemus said) “sent from God.” He is not another Elijah who was given power, he is the power. Therefore, notice how Jesus goes about this explanation. He begins four statements (19-22) using the word “for.” In each case, we can see the reason for the description of “Father–Son.”
- 19: The Son does whatever the Father is doing.
- 20: The Father loves the Son and shows him all that he is doing, even planning greater works will be shown “so that you may marvel” (indicating the Father’s desire for the Son to be exalted and honored).
- 21: To highlight beyond any doubt that the Son is equal to the Father and does what he sees the Father doing, as the Father both raises the dead and gives life, so the Son gives life to whom he will. This statement is critical and outrageous. In 2 Kings 5:7, the King of Israel, when confronted by Naaman to heal his leprosy, said, “Am I God? Can I kill and bring back to life.” Indeed, it was understood by all Jews that only God can bring back to life, and Jesus just claimed that he not only can do what God does in raising the dead, but has the right to give that life to whom he will.
- 22: Then the ultimate statement, the Father has given all judgment to the Son. In Genesis 18:25, Abraham proclaimed God as “the Judge of all the earth.” Jesus has now proclaimed the very principle announced in John’s opening statement to his gospel: “and the Word was God.” Therefore, the Judge of all the earth has been made flesh, and has come, not primarily to condemn the world (3:17) but that the world might be saved through him. However, if one does not honor the Son, the Father is not honored. If one is not honored, neither is the other. How about that for those who reject Jesus but think they are honoring God?
- Whoever Hears My Word (24-29)
- In verse 21, Jesus said that he gives life “to whom he will.” When Jesus went to the pool, he decided to give life to only one person. It was his decision. Now we know who Jesus has chosen to give eternal life, it is to whoever hears my word.
- Consider this claim again from the Jewish point of view and how it would apply today. Jesus is clearly eliminating any possibility of salvation without him. All judgment and all power to bring a person from death to life completely within his power and his power alone to give. And his choice are those who hear his word.
- Now consider the contrast between verse 25 and verse 28.
- In both cases, “an hour is coming.” In verse 25, the hour is now. In the second case, the hour is “coming,” but apparently not yet.
- In the first case, “the dead will hear his voice, and those who hear will live.” However, in the second case, all who are in the tombs will hear his voice, some will experience a resurrection of life, but others a resurrection of condemnation.
- Therefore, in both cases there is a “resurrection.” In the first case, going from being dead to being alive is speaking of being spiritually dead and then coming to life. Ezekiel 37, gave a similar picture in the vision of the Valley of Dry Bones.
- The most important contrast is that in the first case, people have the voluntary choice to hear the voice of Jesus or not. Those who hear will live. Those who do not hear, will not live. However, in the second case, nothing is voluntary. All who are in the tombs will hear and come out. There is no choice in that. Every single person will come out of the tombs. Now it is Jesus’ choice. He chooses who will have life out of the tombs. Jesus has clearly proclaimed: hear me now and live, or one day you will hear me, and that is when I choose the kind of resurrection you will have.
- Concluding Lesson
- This section of John may seem challenging to us in light of John’s purpose of causing his readers to “continue in belief.” If I need evidence to believe, is it enough to hear Jesus making claims of his equality with God? In other words, consider teaching an unbeliever today and reading this text to him. After reading, then say, “See he is God in the flesh! He said that’s who he is. Now do you believe?” Would you expect that your unbelieving friend would immediately say, “Oh wow, that settles it! I believe!”?
- Here is what we are missing. Jesus just made an outrageous claim. The claim demands a response. We cannot just walk away from it. If this is actually God, the Creator of the universe and all of mankind, at the very least we had better consider what he is doing here and what he wants from me.
- Therefore the claim demands a response. There are three possible responses. (1) he is lying. (2) he is a lunatic. (3) he is the Lord. Make your choice!
- If he is lying, to what purpose? Further, none of these people who are challenging him and calling him a sinner for healing on the Sabbath, have in the least bit doubted that he did a miracle. The miracle was done without question. A man who was an invalid for 38 years, who could not walk was healed and walking around town telling everyone. A liar did that?
- If he is a lunatic, how do we account for his teaching? How do we account for his ability to reason beyond anything the scribes and Pharisees are about to do?
- That leaves one choice. He is the Lord. And if he is the Lord, you have a decision to make: either listen to him and obey or reject him and be condemned. What is your choice? What will you do with Jesus of Nazareth? You must do something with him. Is he Lord, Liar, or Lunatic? You must decide.
- But “No,” you might say. There is another choice: he was a good man, maybe a prophet, who taught many good things, even healed people, but he is not God; he is not equal to God. Ah, but that cannot be. This man just claimed to be equal with God and even went beyond that and said that all judgment is give to him, and that the hour is coming in which all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and come forth to either a resurrection of life or a resurrection of condemnation. To claim he is a good man, leaves you with a serious problem. A “good man” who is not the Lord, does not and cannot claim that the entire world must listen to him in order to have eternal life. If he is a mere man, he is not a good man, he is the most evil man who has ever lived. He is a greater deceiver than the devil. Now, what will you do with Jesus of Nazareth?
Berry Kercheville