John 5:17-27
A Miracle
Jesus had just performed a great miracle. A man who for thirty-eight years had been unable to walk, had been instantly healed, insomuch that at the command of Jesus he arose, took up the pallet on which he had been lying, and walked. "And on the same day was the Sabbath." (John 5:9) "Therefore did the Jews persecute Jesus, and sought to slay Him, because He had done these things on the Sabbath day." (Verse 16) Of course Jesus well knew that they would do this. Why then did He perform that special miracle on the Sabbath day? The man was not in imminent danger. After thirty-eight years of waiting, one more day would not have been so intolerable. For that matter, Jesus might doubtless have done the deed the day before as well as not; for the man had been long lying by the pool, and Jesus could not have failed to see him. Did Jesus wish to irritate the Jews, and deliberately to defy their prejudices? It is impossible to harbour such a suggestion for a moment, for it is utterly foreign to His character.
True Sabbath Observance
Why, then, was this miracle of healing, like so many others that are expressly mentioned, performed on the Sabbath day?--Because Jesus would show the true object and meaning of the Sabbath. He would show that it is for man, and not against him,--that it is not a burdensome yoke, but a lifter of burdens. He would teach us that the Sabbath, as the memorial of God's perfect and complete work, makes known the measure of God's power to make both soul and body "every whit whole."
When the Jews persecuted Jesus for the good deed done to the impotent man, He justified Himself by saying, "My Father worketh hitherto, and I work." That was a real justification of His act, for to do that which God does is the most perfect righteousness. Moreover, the acts of Jesus were not simply copies of what the Father did; if they were, then there would be in them no lessons or help for us, for it would show no connection between Him and frail human beings. But He said, "I do nothing of Myself;" "but the Father that dwelleth in Me, He doeth the works." (John 8:28; 14:10) There is no man so weak that he cannot let God work in him to will and to do of His good pleasure.
Jesus was accused of violating the Sabbath, and He did indeed break the Jewish Sabbath, but not the Sabbath of the Lord. The Jewish Sabbath consisted in formal cessation of all labour on the seventh day of the week, even though human life was lost thereby. It was simply a yoke, a burden, an act of penance, by which they thought to make themselves righteous. It had nothing in common with the Sabbath of the Lord except that it was kept on the same day of the week. The Lord's Sabbath is absolute rest in Him and His word,--dependence on His life; and since His life is activity,--service to others,--it follows that true Sabbath-keeping may sometimes involve severe physical labour. How can one tell what works are lawful on the Sabbath day, and what are not?--No list of lawful and unlawful works can be given, but this principle will guide: whatever labour is necessary for the welfare of suffering humanity, whether the disease be of the body or of soul, and from which the labourer derives absolutely no profit or benefit except the consciousness of God's presence, is proper Sabbath labour. True Sabbath-keeping is rest in God,--absolute and unqualified acceptance of His word.
"My father worketh hitherto, and I work." How does God work, and how had Jesus done the work for which He was now persecuted?--By His word. Mark this: It was not as a man works by giving orders to another. No man may flatter himself that he is keeping the Sabbath while others are labouring in his employ. Whosoever does a thing by another does it himself. It is not the way that God works, and it was not in that way that Jesus healed the impotent man. He did not speak the word which set somebody else to work, but His word itself did the work. "By the word of the Lord were the heavens made, and all the host of them by the breath of His mouth." "He spake, and it was." (Ps. 33:6, 9) This miracle of Jesus was therefore simply a manifestation of the creative power of God's word.
In six days God created the heavens and the earth; and then He rested on the seventh day, not because to have continued the work of creation would have been a sin, but for the good reason that it was all done. The word, however, continued to work in upholding that which it had created. All the works of God since that time (so far at least as this earth is concerned) are simply to uphold or to restore, and the works which He does for us and through us are to the same effect. Keeping the Sabbath of the Lord is simply the absolute resting in God's finished work, and allowing Him to put them into us. The absolute ceasing from all our own works on the seventh day,--from everything by which we may get gain,--is an indication of our trust in God for "life, and breath, and all things." If one dare not trust God to keep him if he should rest on what is to all the world (and even the greater part of the professed Christian world,) the busiest day of the week, how can he persuade himself that he is trusting God for eternity?
Right and Authority of a Son
"The Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He seeth the Father do; for what things soever the Father doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise. For the Father loveth the Son, and showeth Him all things that Himself doeth; and He will show Him greater works than these, that ye may marvel. For as the Father raiseth up the dead, and quickeneth them; even so the Son quickeneth whom He will. For the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son; that all men should honour the Son even as they honour the Father." (John 5:19-23) Every son is necessarily the heir of his father. Legislation, knavery, the caprice of the father, or something else, may exclude a son from any share in the father's property; but nothing can deprive any child that is born into the world of his essential heirship, namely, the parents' individual characteristics. The father bestows himself, whatever he may be, upon his son, and this is the son's essential heirship. Even so Christ is "the image of the invisible God" (Col. 1:15), "the brightness of His glory." (Heb. 1:3) Humanity is imperfect, and can therefore only imperfectly reproduce itself, so that a son may be vastly inferior to his father in many or in all respects; but God, whose every way is perfect, reveals every perfection of His character in His Son--"the Beginning of His way." Therefore the only-begotten Son has by birthright the power and authority of the Father. Therefore it is that all judgment is committed to Him. To Him it is given to rule the nations, and at the last to break them in pieces like a potter's vessel; but this power is not arbitrarily bestowed; it is simply one phase of the working of the "power over all flesh" which Christ has in Himself, and which He uses for the salvation of mankind.
"For as the Father hath life in Himself, so hath He given to the Son to have life in Himself; and hath given Him authority to execute judgment also; because He is the Son of man." (John 5:26, 27) How different that is from what we would have written. We would have said that the Father hath given the Son authority to execute judgment, because He is the Son of God; but no; the reason is that He is the Son of man. This brings us face to face with the rightful place of man on this earth.
By virtue of the first creation, man is the son of God. (Luke 3:38) As such authority over all the earth was given him. Remember that the authority was given him in creation. He was made a king. The authority was in him. Just as the magnet is not a magnet because men agree to call it so, but because it has in itself drawing power, so man was king by virtue of what was in him, namely, the life of God. He had dominion over the beasts, the birds, the fishes, and over the earth itself. These did not obey Him because they had agreed to, or were told to, but because he had the authority that they could not help recognizing and yielding to. Everything was placed in subjection to man, and remained so as long as man was in subjection to God.
Man's first dominion was one of glory, for he was "crowned with glory and honour" when he was placed over the works of God's hands. (Heb. 2:7) But "all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God." (Rom. 2:23) Consequently the dominion has been lost. Man is no longer king by nature, because he does not have kingly power in him. Now comes Christ in human flesh, made in all things like unto His brethren (Heb. 2:17), tasting death for every man, and crowned with glory and honour. He "was made of the seed of David according to the flesh, and declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead." (Rom. 1:3, 4) So through Jesus the dominion of the earth still remains in the hands of man; for it must be remembered that Jesus came to earth as man, to win back the dominion for man. God never lost the dominion, or any part of it. Christ did not need to come to earth to get the dominion of the earth, and authority to execute judgment, for Himself as God, for that He had; but it was that the dominion given to man might be perpetuated. Therefore it is that Christ was on earth as man in every respect. He represented God to man, that God might in Him exhibit His idea of a man.
The one who rules is the one to judge. Man is rightful lord of this earth, and therefore he is the one to whom judgment is necessarily committed. "The saints shall judge the world." (1 Cor. 6:2) "Let the saints be joyful in glory; let them sing aloud upon their beds. Let the high praises of God be in their mouth, and a two-edged sword in their hand; to execute vengeance upon the heathen, and punishments upon the people; to bind their kings with chains, and their nobles with fetters of iron; to execute upon them the judgment written; this honour have all His saints." (Ps. 149:5-9) But they have this power only when as sons of men they are also sons of God. In Christ, through the eternal Spirit, we become the sons of God as surely as we are now the sons of our parents, and are heirs of His goodness as surely as we by nature inherit the traits of our earthly fathers. Through the exceeding great and precious promises of God we become "partakers of the Divine nature." (2 Peter 1:4) "As many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name. Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." (John 1:12, 13) Thus are we joint-heirs with Jesus Christ, having rights and privileges with Him. In Him we become "one new man," created in the Divine image.
And now that we see it for a fact that "as He is so are we in this world" (1 John 4:17), we may grasp something of the significance of the wonderful works that He did. Remember that Christ, the Son of God, became the Son of man, in order that we, the sons of men, might become the sons of God. He was made in all things like unto us, that we might become in all things like unto Him. Now read again:
"Verily, verily, I say unto you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He seeth the Father do; for what things soever He doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise. For the Father loveth the Son, and showeth Him all things that Himself doeth; and He will show Him greater works than these, that ye may marvel." (John 5:19, 20) What does this mean to us?--Everything. It is a part of our inheritance. If we are "in Him," sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, called by His name, and walking worthy of the calling, then as joint heirs with Him, sharers of His glory and dominion, we may know that all this applies to us the same as to Jesus of Nazareth. "But we are so weak and helpless," you say. Very well, it is impossible to be more helpless than to be able to do nothing of one's own self. (See verses 19, 30) Jesus does the thing that He sees the Father do, not by Himself as a copyist, but by the Father dwelling in Him. To us He says, "All things that I have heard of My Father I have made known to you" (John 15:15), and "He that believeth in Me, the works that I do shall he do also." (John 14:12) Don't take counsel of past experience, and say that it is too much to believe, and impossible, but take counsel of the Spirit, who alone makes known the riches of the glory of the inheritance.
Jesus of Nazareth was "a man approved of God" "by miracles and wonders and signs which God did by Him." (Acts. 2:22) Wondrous things He did for men, and even greater works were to be done. So to us He says that, believing, we shall do the works that He did, and greater also. What an unspeakable gift! What an incentive to yield ourselves to Him, to be perfectly cleansed from all taint of the curse, and made "complete in Him," "a perfect man," even up to "the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ." What! poor fallen mortals to have power to heal the sick and the lame, and to cast out devils with a word? Even so, for so it is written, and so it shall be, even as it has already been. Not one only, but every believer in Christ, must have this authority. Don't try to understand it, but believe it and accept it; for what the eye hath not seen, nor the ear heard, and what have not entered into the heart of man, namely the things which God hath prepared for those that love Him,--those things hath God revealed unto us by His Holy Spirit; for the Spirit searcheth all things, even the deep things of God, and is freely bestowed on us that we may know the things that are freely given to us of God. "Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable gift."
--February 2, 1899