Bible Reading for January 13 – John 5:19-47

Who is Jesus? That’s the central question for all humanity for all time. For Jesus did not claim simply to be a great teacher of ethics, although He certainly taught about the need for all of us to live according to the love of God (5:42). He did not just claim to be a miracle-working prophet, although He admitted that He performed great, divinely empowered deeds (5:20). He didn’t even just claim to be the only way of salvation, the only source of eternal life (5:21).

No, Jesus insisted that He was the Son of God, the One into Whose hands the judgment of all the world has been given (5:22). Jesus claimed that, on the Day of Resurrection, He will call all the dead back to life, and He will decide who receives a resurrection of life and who receives a resurrection of judgment (5:28-29).

Of course, the good news is that there’s no great work any of us need to perform, no expensive offering any of us need to make to receive the eternal life that only Jesus offers. No, Jesus simply promises that “whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life” (5:24). The good news is that we are saved by God’s grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone.

But that necessarily means that if we are not trusting in Christ, if we reject Him, as many of the religious leaders did because He brought healing into peoples’ lives on the Sabbath, if we do not honor the Son of God, then we are not honoring the Father (5:23). And no matter how great our knowledge of the Scriptures may otherwise be, if we don’t believe in Christ, we don’t have God’s Word abiding in us (5:38). And no matter how scrupulous our religious principles may be, no matter how pure our deeds or our intentions may be, if we don’t come to Christ in faith, we can’t have the eternal life that only He can give us (5:40).

So, who is Jesus? What do you think of the claims of Christ? There’s no question of greater significance for any of us today.

John 5:19-47 (ESV)

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 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 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.
25 “Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live.
26 For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself.
27 And he has given him authority to execute judgment, because he is the Son of Man.
28 Do not marvel at this, for an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice
29 and come out, those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment.
30 “I can do nothing on my own. As I hear, I judge, and my judgment is just, because I seek not my own will but the will of him who sent me.
31 If I alone bear witness about myself, my testimony is not true.
32 There is another who bears witness about me, and I know that the testimony that he bears about me is true.
33 You sent to John, and he has borne witness to the truth.
34 Not that the testimony that I receive is from man, but I say these things so that you may be saved.
35 He was a burning and shining lamp, and you were willing to rejoice for a while in his light.
36 But the testimony that I have is greater than that of John. For the works that the Father has given me to accomplish, the very works that I am doing, bear witness about me that the Father has sent me.
37 And the Father who sent me has himself borne witness about me. His voice you have never heard, his form you have never seen,
38 and you do not have his word abiding in you, for you do not believe the one whom he has sent.
39 You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me,
40 yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life.
41 I do not receive glory from people.
42 But I know that you do not have the love of God within you.
43 I have come in my Father’s name, and you do not receive me. If another comes in his own name, you will receive him.
44 How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the only God?
45 Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father. There is one who accuses you: Moses, on whom you have set your hope.
46 For if you believed Moses, you would believe me; for he wrote of me.
47 But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words?”