16 And this was why the Jews were persecuting Jesus, because he was doing these things on the Sabbath. 17 But Jesus answered them, “My Father is working until now, and I am working.”

18 This was why the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.

19 So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father[a] does, that the Son does likewise. 20 For the Father loves the Son and shows him all that he himself is doing. And greater works than these will he show him, so that you may marvel. 21 For as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom he will. 22 For the Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son, 23 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. 24 Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.

The big idea of the message today is that Jesus is God.  This is one of key passages about the deity of Jesus.  The deity of Jesus means that Jesus is God.  This is a very fundamental truth to the Christian faith.  Your eternal destiny hangs on this truth.  If you do not believe that Jesus is the God-man, you are not saved just like Jehovah Witnesses, Moslems and people of all other false religions.  You do not worship the true God.  You worship what you do not know.  You are living dangerously.  You are under the canopy of God’s wrath.    

It is also important for a Christian, because it will help you to defend this truth with confidence.  Jehovah Witnesses will come knocking on your door to tell you that Jesus is not God.  How will you effectively respond to them?  Many professing Christians do not know how to defend their faith, because they are ignorant.  Therefore, it will be important for you to pay attention to this message. 

This message may not be strange to you today.  Our very first message in the series of John was “Jesus is God”.  Before this text, the Holy Spirit through the Apostle John has stated that Jesus is God.  John the Baptist has also stated that He is God, because He takes away the sin of the world.  The Disciples have also confessed that He is the Messiah.  Jesus himself has confessed privately to the Samaritan woman that He is the Messiah. 

But what is unique about this passage is that Jesus himself is stating that He is God, and He is stating it publicly and in the face of his enemies in very clear terms.  He is freely confessing to enemies that are determined to kill him.  He is neither watering down the truth, nor backing off.  It is quite a lesson to us not to be afraid of speaking the truth before the enemies of God. 

It is interesting that at first, His enemies accused him of breaking the Sabbath. In response, he told them that He did what he did because He is God.  That infuriated the enemies.  You might have thought he would retreat.  But he goes on to elaborate this truth, and He is clearly explaining to them, so that they are clearly understating him.  They know that He is claiming to be God.  He was challenging them while fully aware that the penalty for blasphemy was death.  Leviticus 24:16 says, “Whoever blasphemes the name of the Lord shall surely be put to death…” 

In response to their accusing him of breaking the Sabbath, Jesus says,“My Father is working until now, and I am working”.  The emphasis in the statement was on “My Father”.  The Jews knew that He was claiming to be in a very special relationship with God.  At that time, it was not how they were calling God.  When Jesus said it, they knew He was claiming to be God; hence, they intensified their resolve to kill him.  The text says in verse 18, “This was why the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God”. 

Jesus goes ahead to elaborate this truth.  He makes three arguments.

Equal with the Heavenly Father in Works

The first argument He makes is thathe is equal with the Heavenly Father in works.  He says in verse 17, “My Father is working until now, and I am working”

He is telling them that He is not bound by the Sabbath, because He is God.  As God, He is always at work just like the Father. 

When God created heavens and earth, He rested on the Seventh day.  But resting on the Sabbath Day did not mean that He had rested from His works of providence and redemption.  God has always been at work.  He causes the sun to rise and set every day including on the Sabbath.  He sustains His creation every day of the week.  He heals people and animals even on Sabbath. 

The Jewish leaders knew that God is always at work including on the Sabbath.  The problem is that they did not think Jesus was God.  So they charged him with breaking the Sabbath and blasphemy.  Ironically, they were blaspheming against God by thinking He is not equal with the Heavenly Father and accusing Him of breaking the Sabbath.  They put God on their human scale and found him guilty. 

No one else but Jesus could and does whatever the Father does.  Moses did not.  Abraham did not.  John the Baptist did not.  All the prophets did not.  None of us can because we have a sinful nature and we commit sin.  We are limited by our own sins and sinfulness.

Notice Jesus starts by “truly, truly”.  Here he is putting emphasis on what He is about to say.  When He says, “The Son can do nothing…” He does not mean inability, but he is stating that He and the Father work in perfect unity.  What Jesus was doing was in fact what the Heavenly Father was doing.  Jesus was implementing the work of the Father. When he healed the paralytic, it is because the Father healed the paralytic. He did whatever He did because the Father did it.  To accuse Him of breaking the Sabbath was to accuse the Heavenly Father of breaking the Sabbath.  To charge Him with blasphemy was to charge the Father with blasphemy. 

Also notice that what he does is a motivated by the father’s love for him.  He says in verse 20, “For the Father loves the Son and shows him all that he himself is doing. And greater works than these will he show him, so that you may marvel”

Because the Father loves Jesus, the Father granted Jesus to do the Father’s miracles. Those who accuse the Son of breaking the Father’s law by healing on the Sabbath should know that in fact the Father who showed Him those works out of His love for the Son.  Whatever the Son did was the Father’s gift to the Son.  It flew from the Father’s love for the Son. 

Equal with the Heavenly Father as a Sovereign Giver of Life

The second argument that Jesus makes is that He is equal with the Heavenly Father as a sovereign giver of life.  He says in verse 21, “For as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom he will” 

The Jews understood that God has power to give and take life.  That was not their problem.  Notice the following verses:

Job 1:21:

“And he said, ‘Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord’”

1 Samuel 2:6-7:

“The Lord kills and brings to life; he brings down to Sheol and raises up. The Lord makes poor and makes rich; he brings low and he exalts.”

Deuteronomy 32:39:

“See now that I, even I, am he, and there is no god beside me; I kill and I make alive; I wound and I heal; and there is none that can deliver out of my hand”

But Jesus is stating that He has power to give life.  He is the source of life.  That makes him God.  Where else do we find evidence for this?  The Holy Spirit has communicated in John 1:3 that “all things were made through him, and without him, was not anything made that was made”.  Jesus is the creator. He, with the Heavenly Father and the Holy Spirit, created the heavens and the earth and all that is in them out of nothing.  Only Jesus, like the Father and the Holy Spirit, can create something out of nothing. We cannot.  We are not even little gods as some ignorant people teach.  Only the Triune God can create things into existence. 

Jesus raised Lazarus to life by his word.  The greatest miracle is when He raised Himself to life.  He lay down His life willingly but raised himself up effortlessly on the third day.  Jesus also resurrects the spiritually dead. The Bible describes all people who are not born again to be dead in sin.  They are walking corpses.  He says to those who are spiritually dead, “Let there be light” and they become alive spiritually.  He gives resurrection to those whom He wills.  He is the sovereign giver of life.  No one has power to resurrect himself.  Only Jesus can give him or her life.  He “…gives life to whom he will”.   

Note that when He is saying that He gives life to whom He will, He is referring to the same group of people.  It is not like the Father is raising one group of people and the Son is working on another.  They are co-working.  They are, along with the Holy Spirit, raising the same group of dead souls to life together.  When the Son raises them to life, the Father and the Spirit have done it

Jesus is affirming that the Father’s will is His will.  They are two persons, but they have one will.  What the Father wills is what the Son wills.  When the Father was sending His Son to the earth to die for sinners, that was exactly the will of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.  There is nothing that the Son will that is not God’s will.  They are of the same essence in their will. 

The Judge who Determines the Eternal Destiny of all People

Jesus’ third argument is that He is judge who determines the eternal destiny of all people.  Some people believe that the Heavenly Father will execute the final judgment and that Jesus is the lawyer who will plead with the Father not to judge and punish them.  They think of the Father as the merciless judge, but of Jesus as a gracious lawyer who must plead their case before the Father.  But this text is saying that the Father has delegated judgement to Jesus. He says in verse 22, “For the Father judges no one, but has given all judgement to the Son”.  Judgment is in Jesus’ not the Father’s hands. The savior of the world is also judge of the world. 

Notice that it is in present tense: “For the Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son”.  In this life Jesus is judge.  And He, not the Father, will execute the final judgment. 

The Way to Honor The Father is to Honor the Son 

Notice in verse 23 why the Father has entrusted Jesus with judging the eternal destinies of all people. It is“thatall may honor the Son, just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him”Honor here means the holy fear of God. 

God forbids worship of other gods.  He demands that we should worship only Him.  It is an abomination to worship other gods.  Yet here Jesus argues that the Father has entrusted Him with judgment so that all people may honor Jesus in the same way that they honor the Father.  According to God, any honor of God that is separated from Christ is vain honor. The way to honor the Heavenly Father is to honor Jesus.  He who does not honor Jesus does not honor the Father.  What a statement.  No matter how much you may speak well and appear to honor the Heavenly Father, if you dishonor Jesus you are dishonoring the Father, because He is the sender of the Son to the world.  If you give honor to Jesus but not as God, your honor is dishonor.  You may think you honor the Father, but you are only deceiving yourself if you do not honor Jesus as you honor the Father.  The Father demands that His Son be honored as God. 

Only One Way of Escape

There is only one way of escape from the judgment of Jesus:  Hearing His Word and believing the heavenly Father.  He says in verse 24, “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life.  He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life”

This is not talking about mere hearing. It is hearing the Gospel that leads to saving faith.  It is hearing with both the physical ear and the heart.  Notice it says, “Believe him who sent me”.  Jesus is referring to the Father.  To hear the Word of Jesus is to believe the Heavenly Father who sent Him.  He is the only way to the Heavenly Father.  To reject the Word of Jesus is to reject the Father.  No one is a true believer of God who rejects Jesus.

The result of believing the Gospel is eternal life.  Notice that eternal life is not just a future reality.  It begins here on earth when a sinner believes the Gospel.  Jesus says it in present tense, “…has eternal life”.  There is no judgment for those who have believed in Jesus.  Assures the Lord,“He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life”

Have you passed from death to life?  What is your relationship with Christ like?  Are you under His judgment or under His grace?  If you want to escape His judgement, repent and put your trust in Him.  Receive His Gospel and you will have eternal life.  

We have learnt from Jesus himself that He is God.  He is equal with the Heavenly Father in works and in will and that He is the judge of the eternal destiny of all people. Every human being must honor Him as such or He or she will perish. 

Are We Free to Worship God However We Choose? – TGC Africa (thegospelcoalition.org)

Grace and Truth By Brino Kumwenda

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