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JOHN - The Light Shines in the Darkness
A Bible Study Course on the Gospel of Christ according to John
PART 2 - Light Shines in the Darkness (John 5:1 - 11:54)
A - Second Journey to Jerusalem (John 5:1-47) -- Emergence of Hostility Between Jesus and the Jews

3. Christ raises the dead and judges the world (John 5:20-30)


JOHN 5:20-23
20 For the Father has affection for the Son, and shows him all things that he himself does. He will show him greater works than these, that you may marvel. 21 For as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son also gives life to whom he desires. 22 For the Father judges no one, but he has given all judgment to the Son, 23 that all may honor the Son, even as they honor the Father. He who doesn’t honor the Son doesn’t honor the Father who sent him.

How mighty are these works, impossible for man, but Jesus can perform them. The Father commits them to the Son to carry through. Here we note two qualities prophesied in Scripture relating to Christ. The Jews expected the Man who typified them: Raising the dead, and judging truly. The two, Jesus attributed to himself. Jesus beforehand predicted in the presence of his foes that he is the Lord of Life who will judge, even though they regarded him as mad or blasphemous. They resolved to kill him. By this affirmation Jesus wanted to change them and lead them to think aright and repent sincerely.

Our God is no destroyer, but a life-giver, not desiring the death of a sinner but his turn about from his waywardness into life. He who forsakes God perishes gradually, spirit, soul and body. However, he who draws near to Christ is revived and experiences eternal life. The Savior desires your revival and awakening. Will you heed his voice? Or do you persist in a life of sin and guilt?

From eternity the universe is built on truth. Even if people are careless of their Lord, killing and deceiving one another, yet truth is unchanging. The day of judgment is the great accounting day. Divine vengeance will fall on all outrages and specially on the ill-treatment of widows and the weak. God has committed all judgment to Christ and He will judge all peoples, tongues and religions. Jesus was a sinless human, so he understands our human condition and feels our weaknesses. His judgment is just. When he appears in his glory all the tribes on earth will lament for they ignored the Judge, despising and rejecting him. Do you realize this?

Then all will bow the knee before the Son. Those who neglected the worship of Christ on earth will honor him in fear and trembling. Christ is worthy of all power, riches, wisdom, honor and glory (Revelation 5:12). He has reconciled the world to God because He was the meek Lamb slain for us. God and the Son are alike in the essence of love and might, not just in works, but in worthiness of honor and adoration offered to them. That is why Jesus did not reject the worship of anyone while on earth. We ought to honor the Son as we do the Father. We can address the Son in prayer directly as we do our heavenly Father.

All who reject Christ or belittle him reject the Father Himself. The Eternal is free to choose a Son. The main reason why people who deny the Sonship of Christ and his worship is their wicked mentality. They are unwilling to know him and so cannot know God in His reality.

JOHN 5:24
24 Most certainly I tell you, he who hears my word, and believes him who sent me, has eternal life, and doesn’t come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life.

He who gladly hears Christ’s Gospel and believes in his Sonship receives eternal life. A life that does not begin at death, but here on earth through the Holy Spirit. This Spirit descends on you because you believe in the Father and the Son. Not all grasp the sense of Christ’s words even if they have heard them thousand times and read and analyzed their contents. They will not speak about the Son’s grace nor walk in the Spirit. True faith is confidence in Christ and allegiance to him. Entering this bond with Christ you are justified, freed from judgment, because it is faith that saves you not works. Christ’s love covers those who take refuge in the cross and wipes out their sins and purifies the conscience. It encourages us to approach God for the Eternal has become our Father by our new birth. Our rebirth is the result of our justification.

Have you recognized Christ’s great promise? You have been freed from death and its terrors and you are eternally alive by Christ’s grace. God’s wrath will not fall on you.

Your faith in Christ has transformed you and a holy everlasting life is now yours. Our link with Jesus is not simply intellectual, but practical, existential and genuine. There is no greater salvation than our abiding in Christ. Learn verse 24 by heart, and fix your life in him and we shall meet in eternity face to face.

PRAYER: We worship you Father, Son and Holy Spirit, for you have forgiven our sins and justified us. We shall not pass into judgment, because your wrath has passed over us. We adore you because your life has poured into us, and death for us has been cancelled. We live for you eternally. Make us firm in you, to magnify your name.

QUESTION:

  1. Which are the two important tasks that the Father gave to Christ to carry out?

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