John 5:16-30

February 7, 2008

This is a difficult passage; in my opinion, one of the most difficult in John’s Gospel.  If the first part of chapter 5 is a beautiful expression of the imminence and compassion of Jesus Christ, then this passage fills me with a great sense of His transcendence. 

As I read verses 16-30, I feel small and foolish.  It is good to feel that way from time to time as we look at Jesus.  If He is more than a product of our own imagination, then He should make us feel like idiots every now and again.

That is how I feel when I read these verses; I am being caught up into heavenly places, to behold the eternal relationship between the Father and the Son.  Such a relationship boggles the mind, and I long to treasure the depths of love that is described here:

“The Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing…” (v.19)

“The Father loves the Son and shows him all that he himself is doing…” (v.20)

“The Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son, that all may honor the Son, just as they honor the Father…” (v.22-23)

“For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself.” (v.26)

“I seek not my own will but the will of him who sent me.” (v.30).

This is a relationship of perfection, unlike any other.  Words such as these seem beyond our comprehension, but Jesus does not speak in order to confuse; He speaks to inform and to elicit worship.  He comes to manifest the eternal glory of the Triune God. 

As I read words like in this passage, I was filled with wonder that Jesus would die to bring a redeemed people into this kind of relationship with Him.  As He prayed just before His betrayal, “that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us…” (John 17:21).  “I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.“

Thank You, Jesus, for revealing such wondrous love to us, and for dying to bring us into this depth of eternal, divine love. 

Posted by Larry | Filed Under Gospel of John, Seeking Him 

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