John 5 - Is Your Faith in the Bible, Or in the God of the Bible?

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The Healing at the Pool

Jesus continues to reveal his true nature as the only Son of God, as he meets the man at the pool. Jesus was going up to one of the annual festivals, when he saw a man who was lying around a pool of water that was thought to have healing qualities. There were other similarly disabled people who were blind, lame, and paralyzed. But John says this particular man had been an invalid for 38 years. 

One can only imagine how depressing his life was like lying around this pool waiting for healing that never happened. Jesus asks him an interesting question, "Do you want to get well?"

This brings up the fact that some people don't want to get well. They get so used to being sick or even so comfortable with it, that they really don't want to get well. We often call this a "victim mentality", which this man may or may not have.  

Jesus asks him this question and then he says, "Sir I have no one to pick me up and bring me to the pool when it is stirred up. Someone is always going ahead of me." 

This was a sincere question. Jesus knew that not every sick person wants to be healed, and that some are so discouraged that they put away all hope of being healed. Jesus dealt with a man who may have had his heart withered as well as his legs. Jesus therefore attempted to build the faith of this man. - Guzik

The man was an interesting case of hope combined with hopelessness. He had hope, or would never have come to the Pool of Bethesda. Yet once there, he had little hope to be the favored one to win the healing that day. 

There are many people living out in our world today beset by hopelessness like this man experienced. Or, there hope is in something which will never truly meet their needs. We walk by them every day. 

Jesus told the man, "Pick up your mat and walk!" And guess what happened? The man who had been an invalid for 38 years, picked up his man, a symbol of hopelessness, and walked.  

The miracle happened on the Sabbath, so when the Jewish leaders saw the man walking they asked, "Who told you, you could walk on the Sabbath?" 

Rather than celebrating with the man the miracle he had just experienced, they were caught up in their legalistic observance of the law.  So the man said, "The man who made me well did." 

Apparently the man had no idea that it was Jesus who had healed him. Jesus had slipped into the crowd but showed up again in the temple. Jesus said, 

"See you are well. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you!"

I don't know about you but this strikes me as a very odd saying on Jesus' part. What did he mean when he told the man to stop sinning? 

Afterward Jesus found him: Jesus found him because He was concerned for his spiritual health (sin no more lest a worse thing come upon you), not only his physical health. Living a life of sin is worse, and will bring a worse result, than being crippled for thirty-eight years.

The Authority of the Son

Once again the Pharisees out of their jealousy tried to discredit Jesus' miracle, citing Sabbath day laws. To which Jesus replied, "My Father is always working and so am I!" Of course, Jesus knew this was basically putting him on a par with God the Father. Not only did this make the Pharisees mad, but it says, "They wanted to kill him even more". 

Jesus continues the theme of his equality with the Father, by saying that He can only do what He sees His Father doing. Again, a reference to his divinity. Jesus says that just as the Father gives life and takes life, He can as well. Then, he even says that God the Father has delegated judgment to him. Jesus concludes that he has the authority to judge because He is the Son of Man?

So, what's the difference between the terms "Son of God" and "Son of Man"? 

The phrases “Son of man” and “Son of God” are used for Jesus Christ to refer to His humanity and deity. The message of Scripture was that Jesus Christ was both God and man. What follows below is a fuller explanation of both terms.

So that in the first instance, the Son of Man is a heavenly person—a heavenly person who descends to this world, whose principal role in His visitation to this earth is that of the heavenly judge. And then He returns to the presence of God in His ascension. We remember that Jesus says, “No one ascends to the Father except He who has first descended from Him.” Again, we tend to think that Jesus’ calling Himself the Son of Man was an expression of humility, when, in fact, it was a claim to divine authority. R.C. Sproul

Testimonies About Jesus

Jesus points out John the Baptist's testimony about him as a true testimony. In that way John the Baptist was the first evangelist. But Jesus says the greater testimony is the works he has been doing and will do. His works are signs that He came from the Father and is going back to the Father. 

This is an important verse, 

"You study the Scriptures diligently because you think that in them you have eternal life. These are the very Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life."

Is this saying we shouldn't read the bible?

Obviously not, but what is he saying? He is saying that the bible is a testimony about him but doesn't constitute faith, or a relationship with him. The scriptures lead us to Christ. But the Pharisees studied the scripture to be righteous through their own actions. The bottom line is you could be a biblical scholar, yet not know Christ!

Eternal life doesn't come through the bible, but the God of the bible who revealed His Son through the bible. The bible has power because it is the Word of God, which we learned in John 1 is Jesus the Word made flesh. 

Martin Luther used to say, "The bible is the cradle who holds the Christ-child." Our faith isn't in the cradle but what's in the cradle! Jesus! 

The bottom line is Jesus came in Father's name, revealed the Father's love, and did the works the Father was doing.  It all showed He was truly God in the flesh. Yet, the Pharisees and other Jews did not receive him. So, Jesus says if you want to have it your way, then you will be judged by the Law which you have put your faith in. The Law of Moses. He says, 

“But do not think I will accuse you before the Father. Your accuser is Moses, on whom your hopes are set. If you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote about me. 47 But since you do not believe what he wrote, how are you going to believe what I say?”

Is your faith in the bible, or the God of the bible?