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JOHN CHAPTER 5 KJV WEB / Parallel Gospel See previous page Jn 5,1-14 (56i) Paradox >> Opposites >> Last is first and the first is last – This pool of Bethesda was based on worldly principles: the first is first and the last is last. Whoever got there first was healed, and note that an angel was managing it. The ways of God are opposite: first is last and last is first. This fundamental difference in principle denotes the superiority of Christ over the angels, suggesting that if God were ever to take a vacation from heaven, he would return to it in shambles. God has another principle that Jesus implemented that day, the sovereignty of His gracious choice. Jesus went to the person who was virtually last in line and asked him if he wanted to be healed. The man couldn’t walk fast enough to the pool, so Jesus essentially put him first in line for an immediate divine healing by the touch of His hand. (120h) Thy kingdom come >> Manifestations of faith >> Forgiveness >> Forgiveness is an act of mercy >> God forgives us through His power – There was a multitude of people there, but Jesus healed only one person, the rest remained sick, diseased and crippled. There were many in the multitude who were sick through no fault of their own, and He didn’t heal them; instead he healed a man who brought his sickness upon himself, in that Jesus told him to quit sinning, that nothing worse befell him. Jesus didn’t offer His forgiveness but His healing, and with the healing he was also forgiven, because healing and forgiveness are a package deal (Mk 2,9-12). The Bible also teaches that the basis of forgiveness is repentance, but note the sequence; the man was not expected to repent before he could be healed; that is, the grace of God is not a wage that is due but a gift that we receive through faith, and our appropriate response to His kindness is repentance. Jn 5,1-9 (145a) Witness >> Validity of Jesus Christ >> Jesus’ works bear witness of Himself >> Healing >> Methods of healing >> Healed by speaking the word -- These verses go with verse 14 (192g) Die to self (Process of substitution) >> Result of putting off the old man >> Gain by losing >> Waiting for God to do it His way >> Being patient to receive something better Jn 5,1-4 (15d) Servant >> Ministering spirits >> Angels Perform certain duties – This was a very strange occurrence that took place predictably a few times a year, and even stranger, a spectacle that exhibited characteristics of both heaven and earth. The Kingdom of God and the kingdoms of this world are based on two different principles, which are intrinsically opposite of each other, yet we see traits of both together—the water stirred by an angel, and people competing with each other for the first place in the pool. Competition of this nature does not exist in heaven but comes from our animal nature, which of course is abolished in heaven. After Christ rose from the dead, there is no record of this kind of event taking place again. In fact, it was an isolated event that derived from practically nowhere. In other words, it is a mystery and an anomaly of the New Testament. Jn 5,6-9 (117a) Thy kingdom come >> Faith >> Rest in Jesus (Sabbath) >> Rest in His yoke by dying to self >> Working the rest of God – Anybody could say these words, but the fact that Jesus spoke them, the man got up and walked, indicating that it wasn’t the words themselves but the person of Jesus Christ who healed the man. Jesus has a ministry of the Spirit that He exercises from heaven to forgive, save and heal. After healing him, He told him to take his pallet and walk with it. This was to show just how healthy God had made Him; He could not only bear his own weight but also the weight of his pallet. This happened on the Sabbath to infuriate the religious establishment and break their man-made laws. He had all respect for the Law of God but no respect for the precepts of men that they appended to the Law. He probably healed on the Sabbath more often than any other day of the week just to anger the religious establishment and make them mad enough to want to kill Him. Jn 5-7,8 (4g) Responsibility >> Advocate God’s cause >> He who is faithful in little is also faithful in much – The opposite is also true: he who is unfaithful in little is also unfaithful in much. It says that his illness was the result of his sinful lifestyle (v14). What little movement he had was trumped by healthier patrons of the Pool. Note the backwardness of this healing pool, the one who least needed healing was healed. This man’s lot in life was to sit around a pool for years and wait for Jesus to come and personally heal him. This man’s reward went far beyond the healing of his body to healing scars left by unfeeling people less crippled than himself beating him to the pool each year. The man's tenacity to be present every year, knowing he would not be healed was a character trait that apparently drew Jesus to him. KJV WEB / Parallel Gospel / Navigation Bar Jn 5,8-17 (18h) Sin >> Twisted thinking >> Can’t distinguish between good and evil >> Jesus is evil -- Jesus held the view that performing miracles during the Sabbath was not a violation, for there were no provisions in the law regarding miracles, since He was performing the works of God, not the works of men. Weren't the Pharisees seeking impeachment against God then? That sounds ludicrous, but it was just as stupid to accuse Jesus of sin for healing on the Sabbath! After demonstrating the works of God, the Pharisees wanted to kill Jesus for claiming to be equal with God. Didn't His miracles sort-a prove that? The Pharisees had a motive for misinterpreting the law, and that same motive also misinterpreted Jesus. They misinterpreted everything, and the same kind of people represent the people of our own time, who act just like them, who misinterpret the Scriptures, who condemn the saints. They will misinterpret the signs of the times as the days draw closer to His return, just like the Pharisees misinterpreted the signs of the times in their day, all to protect their wicked pride. These modern day Pharisees are making money in a near identical religious racket. (173m) Works of the devil >> The religion of witchcraft >> Man’s Religion >> Resisting the Kingdom of God -- The Pharisees were not interested in becoming Christians. They saw the work of God and were completely unaffected by it. They considered it more significant that He was breaking the Sabbath according to their warped interpretation of the law than that he was healing people by the power of God. Religion can be a scary thing, because it often causes people to reject the truth after solid evidence has proven they are believing in fallacies. We should treat our beliefs as theories that can be amended when better evidence comes to light. We don't know everything like we think we do, and we should remain flexible, or we may end up like the Pharisees, rejecting the truth. He takes a dim view of people manipulating their own minds to protect their preconceived notions. (207la) Salvation >> The salvation of God >> Salvation verses >> The kindness of God >> God is kind to sinners >> He calls sinners to repentance Jn 5-14 (26f) Sin >> Consequences of sin >> Death is the fruit of the world – Hinduism does not achieve any of God’s objectives outlined in Scripture. It doesn’t help mankind learn to behave, since the world is just as evil as ever; man hasn’t learned anything. It is just as well to let things happen as they may without getting involved. God put man in charge of the earth and gave him authority over his will, so man can do what he wants, and God will not interfere, according to the covenant He made with Adam. God refuses to intervene as karma claims at every human juncture to reward or punish people, though He has intervened in special events with Noah, Moses and Christ. See also: Hinduism; 178d / Karma - God does not baby-sit mankind; Jn 9-34; 174g (145a) Witness >> Validity of Jesus Christ >> Jesus’ works bear witness of Himself >> Healing >> Methods of healing >> Healed by speaking the word -- This verse goes with verses 1-9. Jesus healed this man at the pool of Bethesda after being sick for 38 years. He probably contracted a disease, possibly an STD, as a teenager or a young adult, and according to Jesus’ teaching and other passages, the fact that he was healed means he was also forgiven, for the two are one. Although not everyone forgiven is also healed, yet healing does occur to everyone at least internally. We are all sin-sick, and that sickness can manifest in our bodies at times as a physical illness brought-on by behavior. (178d) Works of the devil >> The religion of witchcraft >> Presumption (Hinduism) >> Presuming the facts about the circumstances >> Philosophy – Karma is a term used in Hinduism to describe human behavior that is rewarded or else punished, and they say that some unknown god is in charge of this process. A person can have good karma or bad karma, they say. Good visual karma is expressed as an aura that surrounds a person, and bad visual karma is expressed as a mean disposition. People with bad karma when they encounter a group of people seem to extort their light, occasionally described as social vampires who suck the life from groups and individuals, and they are said to get what is coming to them. However, the Bible does not support this eastern philosophy, so Jesus was referring to something else. In contrast, the God of creation promised in the Holy Bible that judgment is coming and that He is recording everything. Instead of rewarding and punishing people in this life, he fixed “a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead” (Act 17-31). God is more than able to remember everything that every person did, and He will call them to account for everything they said and did at the White Throne Judgment scheduled to occur at the end of time. See also: Hinduism; 218e (218e) Sovereignty >> God overrides the will of man >> God’s will over man >> Reaping the harvest >> We choose our actions, not their consequences >> Reaping the harvest of our works – Islam has the Quran; Judaism has the Talmud; ancient Israel had the Old Testament and Messianic Jews have the New Testament, but Hinduism doesn’t have a book. Hinduism is the oldest religion in the world, suggesting that karma is an ancient way of thinking. It is almost completely based on intuition, though intuition can lead a person astray. The knowledge of Hinduism has been passed from generation to generation and is based on personal experience and observation, being truly the religion of superstition. Hinduism existed long before the birth of Christ, meaning that Jesus was aware of these teachings. What He told the man after healing him sounded like Hinduism; rather Jesus referred to a cause-and-effect system that God has sown into creation, which is different from Hinduism. For example, a man had sex with a harlot and got a venereal disease. This is a simple concept, compared to the implications of karma that suggests there are spiritual entities in charge of a vast network of human interactions, divvying out rewards and punishments to people that ping off each other in an exponential cascade of mystical repercussions, but in the real world what happens to us is often determined by other people's sin, showing karma to be false. See also: Hinduism; 26f KJV WEB / Parallel Gospel / Navigation Bar Jn 5,17-30 (66f) Authority >> Jesus’ authority >> His position with the Father >> Jesus has authority over all things from the Father – Jesus is like the GUI (Graphic User Interface) of a computer. This term refers to the display of a computer screen that directly interacts with the user. However, behind the splash screen myriads of zeros and ones are being translated into electronic signals that in turn execute commands controlled by an extenuated web of system files that interface with the hardware, which ultimately is responsible for the user’s experience. Jesus is like the GUI in that He is the face of God, but behind Him the Father is doing all the work, and He uses the Holy Spirit to interface with His children. Case in point, Jesus is what everybody sees while they are being judged, but the Father is actually judging them though His Son. They do not see the face of the Father in front of them, but the meek and the mild Jesus condemning them for rejecting the gracious blood that He shed on the cross. (114i) Thy kingdom come >> Faith >> Working the grace of God >> Jesus does God’s work >> All His works are what the Father does – The Bible is a record of the works of God in the past, whereas the Holy Spirit is the manifestation of God in the present. His Spirit is proof that Jesus is still at work, still alive and still in the world. Those who refuse to serve Him want to believe that God has abandoned the world, so they can say they weren’t given a choice to do His will; hence, the work of the Holy Spirit destroys the world’s excuses about ignoring Christ. For this reason Jesus claimed that His works were from the Father, implying that if the Pharisees had a problem with Him, they should take it up with God (in prayer). Jesus said in verse 21, "For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son also gives life to whom He wishes." The Father has given authority to the Son to raise the dead at the end of time, and He will be doing it through the Father as a joint effort, both Father and Son working together. Everyone within the trinity has a part in what God is doing, and in this way the Father made Jesus equal with God. (253k) Trinity >> Relationship between Father and Son >> Jesus is subject to the Father >> Jesus is subject to God’s ability – Some people say that for Jesus to be under His Father’s authority is to make Him inferior to the Father. Throughout eternity Jesus held a place of submission, and in that state of servitude Jesus testified to us that the humblest servant is greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven. The Father has more authority but Jesus is a greater servant, which brings about equality within the trinity. In the same way, Jesus has more authority than the Holy Spirit, yet the Holy Spirit is a greater servant, again bringing equality to the trinity. Jesus spiritually intercedes for us in heaven before the Father giving us the Holy Spirit, while the Holy Spirit comes to us as a servant of Christ and intercedes, endowing us with gifts from heaven to live a godly life. Jn 5-17,18 (253c) Trinity >> Relationship between Father and Son >> Jesus is equal with the Father >> Jesus has all the external qualities of the Father >> Son is inherently equal with the Father Jn 5,19-23 (230h) Kingdom of God >> God’s kingdom is a living organism >> Mystery of godliness >> Mystery of the trinity >> Obey the mystery of godliness like Jesus did -- these verses go with verse 30. We don’t know how many sides there are to the Father; in fact, we don’t even know His substance. The Holy Spirit is just that, a Spirit, and Jesus has the form of a man, but what form does the Father have? We don’t know! Jesus said, “God is Spirit” in Jn 4-24, but He is just one aspect of the Father, just as Jesus is another aspect of God. The Father's essence cannot exist as a Spirit, since the Holy Spirit has taken that role; that is, the Father must be distinct from the Holy Spirit in order to have His own entity, but in what form He takes we don’t have the foggiest idea. Since God uses faith to justify us, and He used faith to create the universe, speaking planets, stars and galaxies into existence, then it is not a stretch to say He is the embodiment of faith, but that still doesn’t tell us what form He takes. The Father has a substance that is all His own, just as the Holy Spirit is a substance that is His own, which even that we don’t know. We cannot say that the Father has no form at all, because that would be saying the Father cannot reveal Himself to His creation, and using the word “cannot” in relation to God catches in the craw. We will just have to wait for heaven to discover these things about God. When we get to heaven, all spiritual entities will be revealed, including the Holy Spirit, we will comprehend His form, and Jesus will be fully manifested and so will the Father, but in what form we don’t know. He is an abject mystery in many ways. (253d) Trinity >> Relationship between Father and Son >> Jesus is equal with the Father >> Jesus has all the internal qualities of the Father >> Jesus is the exact representation of the Father – Jesus said that whatever the Father does the Son also does in like manner. We don't completely know what this means, because we don’t really know the Father, except what what we see in Jesus and what He has told us about Him. Knowing Jesus we see the Father as in a mirror. Jesus said in Jn 14-9, “He who has seen Me has seen the Father.” So, Jesus is the exact representation of the Father, but Jesus has come to show us only one side of Him. The Father is like a polygon; He is many-sided. Jesus gave us one side of Him, His love and mercy. There are other sides of God, such as His hellish wrath that He will impose on the wicked who resist His will. They will meet Jesus at the White Throne Judgment, but they will not receive one ounce of grace or mercy, only eternal damnation. Both His judgment and His mercy are incomprehensible to us; in fact, there is nothing about God that is comprehensible to our limited minds. Jn 5-19,20 (12d) Servant >> Father is our example through Christ (13b) Servant >> Jesus serves His Father >> Jesus is under His authority -- These verses go with verse 30 (114g) Jesus Does God’s Work (Key verse) KJV WEB / Navigation Bar / Parallel Gospel Jn 5-19 (73f) Authority >> Respect positions of authority >> Respect the Father’s authority -- This verse goes with verse 30. There is one thing that God the Father has reserved for Himself that He will not share even with His Son, and that is His final authority. He is head of the house, but problems will never escalate to the point of needing the Father’s intervention; the Son is perfectly adept at problem solving. When we look at the person of God in the Old Testament, Father and Son are essentially the same, so the name “God” referred to either the Father or the Son. The God of the Old Testament was very demanding and expected obedience, and if He didn’t get it, people would die. This is what it is like to be outside the grace of God. Therefore, anybody of the new covenant era who rejects the plan of God and chooses his own way apart from His righteousness, the judgment will not go any easier for him. Jesus is the judge of the world well enough, but those who have rejected Him should not expect leniency just because He is also the savior of the world and the embodiment of grace and truth. (87c) Thy kingdom come >> Obedience >> Jesus obeyed all the Father’s will -- This verse goes with verse 30. The Father sent the Son, and so Jesus was manifested in the flesh. The Father predestined the Son to die for the sins of mankind, and so He was nailed to a cross. The Father predestined His Son to rise from the dead, and so He lives forevermore. The things the Father does, the Son also does in like manner. Therefore, the ministry of the Father is to predestine His Son to perform His word through the power of the Spirit, and Jesus gave the Father credit for sending Him (Jn 3-16). The Father predestines His Son to everything He does, suggesting that Jesus does not act on His own authority, but acts on the authority of His Father. However submitted we are to Christ is the level of spiritual authority we have from Him. None of us has the full authority of Christ, but collectively we will walk in His full authority, as Christ received all authority from the Father. See also: Delegating authority; Rev 4,8-11; 244b (117ga) Thy kingdom come >> Faith >> Eyes of your spirit >> Vision >> Real-eyes God’s purpose for the Church >> Understand Jesus' subordinate position with the Father – If statements like this have multiple interpretations, depending on their religious background, imagine how confused Jesus’ disciples were about these words. They couldn’t have known how Jesus could see the Father. We know that Jesus lived with His Father throughout eternity-past, but Jesus was speaking in present tense; by faith He could see the Father. Jesus walked by faith, just as He expects us to walk by faith, for He is our model of Christianity. Jesus didn’t literally see the Father but had an intimate relationship with Him by obeying the Holy Spirit to the point that the Father revealed to Him what He was planning. That same Spirit lives in us, suggesting that we too can know the thoughts of God as we obey His voice. Jesus had a window into heaven; His flesh was here on earth while His Spirit fellowshipped with God in heaven, causing Him to be spiritually in heaven and on earth at the same time. Although Jesus Christ is our Savior, He was also the first Christian, meaning that He lived in a limited fashion for our sake, so we might live as He did. This window into heaven is something all Christians can have if they will just listen to Him and do what He says. See also: We cannot enter Heaven without an offering; 2Cor 1-14; 235d (194i) Die to self (Process of substitution) >> Turn from sin to God >> Yielding >> Yield to God’s right to direct your way -- This verse goes with verse 30 Jn 5-20 (208g) Salvation >> The salvation of God >> Personal relationship >> Being the friend of God >> Father & son relationship Jn 5,21-23 (207i) Salvation >> The salvation of God >> Salvation verses >> The Kingdom of God >> Salvation authority of Jesus Christ Jn 5-21 (33h) Gift of God >> Believers are children >> God is our Father >> Children are being molded after their heavenly Father – The Son's purpose is to manifest whatever is in His Father's heart; hence, the Father will use the son to raise the Church from the dead in the First Resurrection. This suggests that we have both the Father and the Son giving life to whomever they wish. However, Jesus didn’t claim the power He used to perform miracles, but credited such power to His Heavenly Father. When Jesus said, “The Father raises the dead and gives them life,” He was naming the origin of God’s power to give life to the dead, and there can only be one origin. So when Jesus said, “The Son also gives life to whom He wishes,” He couldn't have meant that the Father and Son separately give life to two groups of people, but work together to do this. Whenever the Bible speaks of those who are raised to be condemned, it doesn't speak of them having "life" as He attributed to those who live in heaven. The Father knows all things from the beginning, but Jesus doesn’t think in these terms. The Son thinks exclusively in terms of manifesting the word of God, whereas the Father thinks exclusively in terms of His foreknowledge and predestination. So when Jesus gives life to whom He wishes, He is manifesting the predestined purpose of God, suggesting that the people to whom the Father gives life are those He has chosen from the foundation of the world, whereas Jesus gives them life in more practical terms. (219a) Sovereignty >> God overrides the will of man >> The elect >> Man is a spectator of his own salvation >> God elects us through His sovereign will (254f) Trinity >> Holy Spirit’s relationship between Father and Son >> Jesus is the life of the Spirit >> Jesus is the substance of God’s life >> Jesus is the manifestation of God’s life -- This verse goes with verses 24-29 KJV WEB / Navigation Bar / Parallel Gospel Jn 5,22-30 (40c) Judgment >> Father gave authority to the son to judge the world through His blood – Jesus' statements put Him equal with the Father. The fact that the Father has given Him all authority to execute judgment and has in turn delegated all things to us (Eph 2-6,7), suggests that the Father has reserved nothing for Himself but has entrusted the entire creation to us through His Son. Contrary to what we have heard, God the Father does not intend to judge the world; rather, Jesus who revealed the Father will judge the world. So if anyone wonders what kind of God will judge him, just look at Jesus. Innocent, gentle Jesus full of mercy and grace is not someone we should fear, or should we? Remember, in Revelation chapter five, heaven could not find anyone worthy to break the seals of God’s fierce judgment to kick off the horrors of endtime prophecy until the Father called on His Son, and He broke the seals and unleashed hell on earth, showing that His innocence entitled Him to judge the world. Anyone who has received mercy and grace from God will appear before the believer’s judgment, which involves taking away rewards, but anyone outside the mercy and grace of God, the judgment will pound his life into powder. (48c) Judgment >> God judges the world >> Eternal judgment of the resurrection – The bodies of those who sleep in their graves will hear the voice of Christ and literally come forth. The bodies of the wicked will not want to awaken but will have no choice, who never gave God a moment of consideration, never thought of Him, never lived for Him, but were self-serving, narcissistic idolaters. They died in that state, and ever since they have been in a place called Hades. In the story of the rich man and Lazarus (Lk 16,19-31) Jesus described the rich man as alive one moment, and the next tormented in flames. Imagine a person like that and hearing the voice of the Son of God calling for him and trying to keep from coming back to life, doing everything in his power; he wants to stay dead. He doesn’t want to come back to life, because he knows eternal judgment is coming. God will give him a body that cannot die and then throw him into the lake of fire, a body that will endure the environment of hell forever and ever. Meanwhile there are others who love God with all their hearts and their bodies too will be resurrected, and they will hear His voice to receive their dwelling from heaven. 2Cor 5-8 says that to be absent from the body is to be at home with the Lord. Currently people in heaven are disembodied spirits, and Jesus said “God is Spirit” (Jn 4-24), so God’s people are comfortable without a body, dwelling in a spiritual kingdom where nothing is physical as we know it. A day, however, is coming when God’s kingdom will manifest in the material realm, and then His people will need bodies to interact with His creation. Shortly after the resurrection of the righteous, Jesus will set up his thousand-year reign on earth, the Millennium, and they will use their physical bodies to interact with this physical world. Jn 5-22,23 (253i) Trinity >> Relationship between Father and Son >> Father and Son glorify each other >> Son glorifies the Father in all things given to Him -- These verses goes with verse 30 Jn 5,24-29 (85l) Thy kingdom come >> Belief >> Treating the knowledge of God as fact >> Believing the Son by obeying the Father >> Obeying the law by faith in the cross >> Obedience represents our faith – Jesus’ idea of "belief" has action involved; this parallels with the book of James. God is first and foremost Lord of our heart. He lives in our spirit and scrutinizes our motives. He knows everything about us from the inside-out, and He knows whether or not we believe. When Jesus said in verse 29 that those who did the good deeds will be raised to life and those who did the evil deeds will be raised to judgment, He was speaking strictly on the basis of our works, which anybody could use to determine whether or not we actually believed. God could ask our neighbor whether or not we believed in Jesus based on the way we lived, and whatever answer he gives would be fairly accurate to the way God also sees us, but God does not need our actions to know whether we believe in Him. The same goes for our neighbor; we need to see some obedience before we are willing to trust that he is our brother in the faith. (207k) Salvation >> The salvation of God >> Salvation verses >> The generosity of God’s salvation >> Salvation is eternal life (245h) Kingdom of God >> Spirit realm imposed on the natural realm >> Literal manifestations >> Manifestation of God’s righteous judgment >> The resurrection is a manifestation of His life -- This passage goes from less to more literal, asking first whether we can hear His word. Then He says that an hour is coming when the dead will hear His voice and shall come forth, proving that God has given Him this power by raising Lazarus from the dead (John chapter 11). (254f) Trinity >> Holy Spirit’s relationship between Father and Son >> Jesus is the life of the Spirit >> Jesus is the substance of God’s life >> Jesus is the manifestation of God’s life -- These verses go with verse 40. The Father delegated all His authority to His Son, who in turn delegates all His authority to us. Jesus claimed to have life in Himself that He received from His Father, meaning He is not just alive but is the manifested life of God. Jesus said the Father gave this to Him, suggesting there was a time when He didn't have it. We know that God has lived forever in eternity past; what He has been doing all this time we don’t know, but we do know that speaking about time is a misnomer when discussing eternity past. So to ask exactly when Jesus received this gift of "Life" is erroneous. We can go back a million, billion, quadrillion years and God was still there, perhaps nothing else but God; the Bible teaches that the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are all one, so that all three of them existed together throughout all eternity past, and there was a "time" when the Father gave this authority to the Son, and He did it for the sake of the kingdom that He would create. When we get to heaven, we will find His kingdom in the process of development, and it has been under construction for who knows how long. When we think about the amount of planning that went into building His empire, God has been thinking about this from eternity past. We live on a planet in the vastness of space, and in our mind we can step back from the earth until it becomes a dot, and then keep stepping until the dot disappears, and all we see are stars and galaxies in an endless universe. It is the same with time. Some say we have been pulled from eternity to dwell on a temporal moment, instated somewhere on the vast timeline of eternity, but we cannot discuses time in eternity, for we cannot comprehend eternity past, though eternity future is a little easier, as Solomon testified in Ecclesiastes 3-11, “He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end.” We dwell in eternity though perceive it in a temporal sense, because we had a beginning and our flesh is racing to a finish line. This very moment is happening in eternity, yet the concept of a moment in eternity contradicts the finite mind. Therefore, we can either understand Jesus having the embodiment of God’s life throughout all eternity or never having it, but we cannot comprehend Him receiving it at some point. Eternity past will forever remain off limits to us. See also: Time (Eternity past); Heb 10,5-9; 136e KJV WEB / Navigation Bar / Parallel Gospel Jn 5-24,25 (25l) Sin >> Consequences of sin >> You’re walking in death if you’re not walking in Jesus (61h) Paradox >> Two implied meanings >> The dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God — Those who are dead in sin to be born again / Those who are physically dead at the first resurrection – Jesus implied two meanings when He said, “The dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live.” Both those who are dead in sin, and those who are dead in the grave. Those in sin will hear His voice and be born-again and those in the grave will hear His voice and be resurrected from the dead, suggesting that Jesus equates being born-again with the resurrection, as Paul said in Eph 5-14, “Awake, sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you,” and he alluded to this in Romans chapter six. It is not based on human will but on the sovereignty of God whether or not we believe in Jesus, and if we cannot hear Him now, we will hear Him one day in the grave, and if we never believed in Jesus for the salvation of our souls, there will be hell to pay. We need to listen for His voice now and be born-again, so when He calls for us in the grave we will be raised to eternal life and not to eternal damnation. (78b) Thy kingdom come >> Sincerity of heart >> Being honest >> Telling the truth (86b) Thy kingdom come >> Belief >> Treating the knowledge of God as fact >> Believing is the result of the resurrection – The gospel is difficult for some to grasp in that it is hard to know what to believe. Some say they believe in Jesus, but they don’t act like it, and James said, 'In that case they don’t really believe.' We all do things that are wrong, so is there actually a cutoff point that separates believers from nonbelievers? What kind of setup does God have for determining who gets into His heaven and who doesn’t? When does a person actually start believing in Jesus? The Bible defines salvation by the indwelling Holy Spirit. The majority of the human race claims to believe in God, yet Jesus stated that only a minority would make it to heaven (Mat 7-13,14). In verse 29 Jesus spoke about God's judgment; those who committed the good deeds will be raised to eternal life, and those who committed the evil deeds will be raised to eternal judgment. We hear Jesus in verse 24 saying, “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word...,” alluding to the statement He reiterated seven times in the second and third chapters of Revelation, “He who has an ear to hear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.” The ability to hear the word of God is the first step in being born-again. We can read the Bible or listen to our preacher in the pulpit, but Jesus wasn’t talking about audibly hearing His word. He was talking about hearing the word by the Spirit. Most people have read at least sections of the Bible, yet we need to hear the Spirit, who delves beneath the written word and reveals the meaning of the Truth. After attaining the hearing ear, we must believe the Father loves us enough to send His only Son to die for our sins (Jn 3-16). (106f) Thy kingdom come >> Faith >> Hearing from God >> Attaining the hearing ear >> When He speaks and what He says -- These verses go with verses 28&29 Jn 5-24 (40f) Judgment >> Judgment of Christ >> God’s word judges the world >> It does not hear Him -- Jesus was speaking to the people around Him and was asking them if they could hear His voice, and obviously they could. Their ears could, but Jesus was wondering if their hearts could hear Him. The answer in most cases was no, just like the answer in our own generation in most cases is no. Jesus elucidated the most important aspect of our faith, reiterating it seven times in the book of Revelation, "He who has an ear to hear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches." It is not a small thing to hear what the Spirit is saying, for if we can hear Him, then we have everything we will ever need from God. Anyone who believes that Jesus' works were from the Father has eternal life. That doesn't seem so hard to believe, since He performed many miracles, yet He knew mankind would manipulate their minds to believe whatever they wanted. If they didn't want to believe in God, they wouldn't, even in the presence of miracles. Jesus said that if we can hear the voice of God AND believe what we are hearing, we have eternal life. (106e) Thy kingdom come >> Faith >> Hearing from God >> Attaining the hearing ear >> Having the ability to hear (205aa) Salvation >> Verses useful in evangelism – As an analogy of salvation, let’s say there are two trains running together on parallel tracks, and down the way the tracks split and go their separate ways, and we must decide which train is ours before they divide. Should we stay on the current train or should we jump trains, taking us in a new direction? There is the risk in jumping, and what if we don’t like where the train is going? These are questions people ask before they get saved, for they are not in control of either train. The ride was more fun at times on the old train, but the destination was not so good. In some ways we like the old train better, because it was all about chasing our lustful passions and desires, except that the tracks ended at a cliff, where the train is destined to plunge to the bottom of a deep gorge dashing its passengers to pieces on the rocks. Ending up there is a simple matter of staying on the old train and following its course. God gives us new interests and desires, new plans and goals, and we understand them by faith, but they don’t make sense to our natural mind. We need faith to understand our new lives as Christians. The more we cultivate faith, the more our lives make sense, but there are times our faith is weak and we wonder what we are doing. See also: Analogies (Train and railroad tracks); Jn 10,27-30; 205aa (205a) Salvation — Key verse for the entire chapter – Even worldly people are quick to lay claim to going to heaven when they die, but those who have not received the Holy Spirit have no reason to obey Him, because without the indwelling Holy Spirit they are not going to heaven. All God need do is look to see if the Holy Spirit is dwelling in us to decide if we are one of His. If not, then we are not allowed entrance into His heavenly kingdom; it is just that simple. (207e) Salvation Ve rses (Key verse) KJV WEB / Navigation Bar / Parallel Gospel Jn 5,25-29 (38h) Judgment >> Jesus defeated death >> Jesus is the resurrection (227k) Kingdom of God >> God’s kingdom is a living organism >> God working in you >> Dependence on Jesus >> Depending on Jesus to instill His life in us (253eb) Trinity >> Relationship between Father and Son >> Jesus is equal with the Father >> Jesus has all the internal qualities of the Father >> Jesus is the Son of God >> Authority of the Son of God Jn 5-25 (61l) Paradox >> Two implied meanings >> The dead shall hear the voice of the son of God: Dead in sin / Literally dead Jn 5,27-29 (38k) Judgment >> Jesus defeated death >> Resurrection of the righteous and the wicked (48e) Judgment >> Levels of judgment >> Judged according to your deeds >> In the day of judgment (49h) Judgment >> God judges the world >> The last days >> The day of judgment (Armageddon) (51k) Judgment >> Judging the Church with the world >> No partiality with God’s justice (226j) Kingdom of God >> Illustrating the kingdom >> Rewards of heaven >> Levels of reward >> Rewarded by levels of glory in our spiritual bodies Jn 5-27 (12n) Servant >> Jesus serves mankind >> Jesus is the son of man -- Jesus received authority from God as the son of man; what does that mean? To be the son of man implies that He is the youngest of all, lowliest of all and servant of all, and in that state He submitted to the will of His Father, which resulted in receiving authority to execute judgment. Most people would have guessed that He got His authority from being the Son of God, but in fact He received it as the Son of man. For this reason God entrusted Him with all authority. Humility is what makes God great. Humility is how God entrusts authority to us, and it is how we entrust authority to others. Jn 5-28,29 (26k) Sin >> Consequences of sin >> Curse >> Deeds that return to the doer >> God’s blessings are a curse if you don’t walk in them (90i) Thy kingdom come >> Keeping the law >> Righteousness of the law >> All righteousness is covered by the law (106f) Thy kingdom come >> Faith >> Hearing from God >> Attaining the hearing ear >> When He speaks and what He says -- These verses go with verses 24&25 (111g) Thy kingdom come >> Faith >> Spirit and the word >> Word and the power (meaning) of God >> Circumstances cannot evade the voice of the Spirit Jn 5-29 (26b) Sin >> Consequences of sin >> Death is hell >> Sin has the sentence of hell (88a) Thy kingdom come >> Faith produces works >> Relationship between faith and works >> Works establish your faith (127j) Thy kingdom come >> Manifestations of faith >> Goodness >> Rewards for doing good >> Doing good is the prerequisite to going to heaven – Those who do good works go to heaven and those who do evil go to hell; that is, good people go to heaven and bad people go to hell. We have all heard someone say something to this effect; this passage is where they got the idea, and "Christians" notoriously try to correct them saying that instead we are saved by grace through faith, like Paul said in Ephesians. Also, Jesus declared all men evil in Lk 11-13, so we are not talking about good people but people doing good; that is, doing good doesn’t make people good. The wicked are evil because they have rejected the purpose of God for their lives, which is to receive the indwelling Holy Spirit. God discriminates between the righteous and the wicked based on whether they are willing to fulfill His unique calling that He has prepared for each person. Those who do the good works that He has prepared for them go to heaven, and those who don’t go to hell. This is what James said about it: "You see that a man is justified by works and not by faith alone." Paul said it differently: "Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness" (Rom 4-3). So which one is true? Do we believe to get to heaven, or do we obey to get to heaven? Believing means to obey! What else did James say? “Show me your faith without the works, and I will show you my faith by my works” (Jm 2-18). James taught that obedience is tantamount to believing, so Jesus is concurring with James, but that shouldn’t surprise anyone since they were step brothers and lived under the same roof as children, meaning the book of James was the direct result of Jesus' influence on him. Are there two gospels in the Bible? Paul seemed to have a little twist to his rendition, saying, “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast” (Eph 2-8,9). This appeals to the flesh, until we really understand what Paul was saying. Most people stop quoting Paul right there, but he continues, “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them” (v10). The good works that God prepared for us are the same works that Jesus mentioned regarding those who go to heaven, accounting for James and Paul, bringing them together so we can understand them both. See also: Act 1,23-26; 198e KJV WEB / Navigation Bar / Parallel Gospel Jn 5,30-47 (142c) Witnesses Of Jesus (Key verse) (154d) Witness >> Validity of the Father >> God bears witness against the world >> Witness that the world is godless >> Witness that the world does not know God – The enemies of Jesus viewed themselves through the laws of Moses, but failed to pattern their lives after them (Exodus 25-40). They were not just indifferent to Christ; they hated Him. Jesus’ enemies would not receive Him because He was of a Spirit that was not of this world. People who hate God will receive just about any spirit and any teaching except the Spirit of Truth. 1Jn 4-5,6 says, “They are from the world; therefore they speak as from the world, and the world listens to them. We are from God; he who knows God listens to us; he who is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.” The world is partial to the many spirits that are of the world, and they can discern these spirits based on the elementary principles of greed, lust and pride. Jesus’ enemies thought they believed in the writings of Moses, so this was news to them that they were actually unbelievers. They thought they had founded their lives on his writings, yet we have a testimony of them in accusation against Jesus. They manipulated laws and taxes and stole from widows taking their houses, leaving them abandoned and homeless for the love of money. Even so, it was news to them that they didn’t believe in the writings of Moses. They obviously had a well-defined mental ascent regarding the Old Testament manuscripts and believed that everything Moses wrote was from God, but they didn't model their lives after those writings. Jesus pointed out that we pattern our lives after what we believe. A person can stray from the Scriptures and be the last one to know it by developing a self-opinion that deviates from reality. Jn 5,30-32 (144g) Witness >> Validity of Jesus Christ >> Witnesses of Jesus >> Trinity bears witness of Jesus >> Father bears witness of His Son -- These verses go with verse 34. We got saved at some point in our lives and became the children of God, but Jesus was actually born the Son of God. We may be sons and daughters of the Most High, but Jesus was born God in human flesh, yet He is also our brother (the son of man). The Father testified of Jesus that He is the Son of God by the words He spoke and by the miracles He performed, proving He was God incarnate, and the Father testifying of Him is the reason we can be saved. Had He lived like any other man, never having a ministry, we could not be saved. As it is, He lived for thirty years, and suddenly His ministry began, and for 3½ years He performed the works of God and fulfilled prophecy about the Messiah. Had He continued with His life as a carpenter and then died, He could not have saved us. It was through His ministry and through fulfillment of prophecy and through the signs and wonders He performed and through the word of God that He spoke that testified of His deity. Then He went to the cross and died for our sins. Now His death had meaning and now He can save us, because the people who killed Him knew they were murdering God in human flesh. There could be no greater sin than that, and for God to forgive this sin represents His ability to forgive any sin, except rejection of Jesus' blood sacrifice as propitiation for sin. Jn 5-30 (13b) Servant >> Jesus serves His Father >> Jesus is under His authority -- This verse goes with verses 19,20. Jesus refused to act apart from His Father's will, nor was He interested in making decisions on His own. Jesus was in His element when He was obeying His Father, whereas unregenerate man feels in his element when he is acting on His own authority, unplugged, and living apart from God. Jesus could not act on His own authority without violating the will of His Father. The glory and the power of Christ was exemplified by His submission and obedience and staying in communion with God. Jesus would rather go to the cross than to step away from Him, though the result was the same. He was in fact alienated from His Father by doing His will and submitting to the cross, but because He remained obedient in all things, His Father raised Him from the dead and they were reunited forever. (69i) Authority >> Righteous judgment (Outcome of Discernment) >> Passing judgment by the authority of God – Jesus commanded us not to judge but then said, “as I hear I judge” (v30). We have every right to judge by the Spirit, but no right to judge by the flesh. This is what He meant in the Beatitudes when He said, “Do not judge” (Mat 7-1), He meant, ‘Do not let your fleshly, sinful nature pass judgment on anybody else’s fleshly, sinful nature.’ However, the things that God reveals to us by the Spirit as we obey Him we are to shout from the rooftops (Mat 10-27). When we reveal what the Spirit is saying, the word can’t help but judge those who hear it, because it is coming from God, and everything the Spirit says judges the flesh. If we hear the voice of God but do not obey Him, our hearing will become less acute, until we are unable to hear Him at all, because we are not doing what He said. (73f) Authority >> Respect Positions Of Authority >> Respect the Father’s Authority -- This verse goes with verse 19 (87c) Thy kingdom come >> Obedience >> Jesus obeyed all the Father’s will -- This verse goes with verse 19 (194i) Die to self (Process of substitution) >> Turn from sin to God >> Yielding >> Yield to God’s right to direct your way -- This verse goes with verse 19 (230h) Kingdom of God >> God’s kingdom is a living organism >> Mystery of godliness >> Mystery of the trinity >> Obey the mystery of godliness like Jesus did -- This verse goes with verses 19-23 (253i) Trinity >> Relationship between Father and Son >> Father and Son glorify each other >> Son glorifies the Father in all things given to Him -- This verse goes with verses 22,23. As you read throughout the rest of this chapter it becomes clear that Jesus was talking about the trinity. He referred to His Father when He said "as I hear I judge," yet the one speaking to Him was the Holy Spirit. Jesus taught the gospel to His disciples in terms of the trinity. There were always three persons involved in His words and deeds: the Father is the origin of God's word, the Holy Spirit revealed it, and Jesus performed it. Jesus had a perfect ear for the voice of God, obviously because He was the Son of God, but also because He was obedient. Therefore, the more obedient we are to the Holy Spirit, the better we can hear Him. KJV WEB / Navigation Bar / Parallel Gospel Jn 5-31,32 (107f) Thy kingdom come >> Faith >> Hearing From God >> Truth of the trinity >> Father is truth Jn 5,33-35 (144e) Witness >> Validity of Jesus Christ >> Witnesses of Jesus >> The Church bears witness of Jesus >> That He was sent by God – Jesus compared the testimony of the Father with the testimony of John the Baptist and said that the testimony of the Father is greater, so much that by His testimony we can be saved. That is, believing that Jesus is the Son of God and that the Father sent Him, leads to salvation, but the converse is also true: to deny Jesus Christ leads to a reprobate mind. The Father’s testimony about His Son is this, "God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life" (Jn 3-16). The testimony of the Father is that He sent His Son into the world to save sinners, while the testimony of John was “a voice crying in the wilderness, make ready the way of the Lord, make His paths straight” (Mat 3-3 taken from Isaiah 40-3). The testimony of the Father is that the person He sent into the world according to the testimony of John was in fact Himself. The testimony of John could not save anyone; meaning repentance alone cannot save anyone. Many try to live by their own righteousness in effort to please God, seeking His favor trying to be a good person, but they need to believe that Jesus is the Son of God and that the Father sent His Son into the world to save sinners. Believing in His blood sacrifice that He made on the cross and His subsequent resurrection, proving the Father’s acceptance that Jesus was pleasing in His sight while living among us in a body of sin, yet without sin (Heb 4-15) is the reason the Father raised Jesus from the dead. Believing in His blood sacrifice and subsequent resurrection, coupled with the witness of John, who was a fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy, who taught repentance for the forgiveness of sin, we can now be saved. Salvation is not a matter of believing, nor is it a matter of repentance but both. Repenting of the sins that Jesus would need to forgive if we committed them is the only way we can say we are sorry to Jesus that He had to die for our sake. Jn 5-34 (144g) Witness >> Validity of Jesus Christ >> Witnesses of Jesus >> Trinity bears witness of Jesus >> Father bears witness of His Son -- This verse goes with verses 37&38 Jn 5-36 (146i) Witness >> Validity of Jesus Christ >> Jesus’ works bear witness of Himself >> Purpose of miracles, signs and wonders >> Proof that Jesus is the son of God >> That the world may be saved – The Father sent His Son and imbued Him with the Spirit to perform miracles, so we may believe that the Father sent Him. That was the purpose of miracles in Christ, so what is the purpose of miracles that God performed through His apostles after Pentecost? They were to get people’s attention and authenticate their message of salvation. Miracles, signs and wonders act as God’s stamp of approval on those performing them, so that we should believe their message and be saved. This explains why we see so few miracles today, because God is not initiating a movement at this time, but before this age closes God will move among His people, and miracles will become commonplace again, and there will be a great ingathering of souls, and in those days signs, wonders and miracles will return to authenticate the message that His servants will speak. Where there are miracles there are also counterfeit miracles, lying deceptions, false wonders to counterfeit what God is doing in the advent of revival when so many millions of people are being saved. Satan will attempt to counteract this work in effort to put on the breaks and stop this revival from blossoming out of control, which is happening at the same time that Satan is attempting to establish his one-world government. Satan will claim to be the Christ and savior of the world. This is why Satan makes such grandiose claims, because of the revival that is occurring, otherwise Satan would have no incentive or interest in such things, only to deceive the people and give them a false alternative to the revival that is transpiring under his nose. Jn 5,37-47 (20cb) Sin >> Nature of sin >> Unbelief >> Having a mind that is unable to receive >> Religion doesn't know how to believe in God – The Pharisees had never heard the voice of God, even while Jesus was speaking the word of God to them. Jesus is essentially the embodiment of the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit is the essence of the Father. Jesus told them, paraphrasing, ‘I know you don’t have His word abiding in you because you do not believe what I’m saying.’ The Pharisees were all about the things of the world, and when Jesus spoke, there was nothing in them that believed in Him. It was not like they had no knowledge of God; Jesus came to them after the recorded Scriptures were handed to them from centuries of transcribing the words of the prophets. The Pharisees, and the scribes studied these words and were extremely familiar with them, yet their understanding of the Scriptures was skewed, not just a little but so far off the mark that when Jesus came and preached the gospel to them and taught the word of God and fulfilled their ancient prophecies, they did not recognize Him. Jesus testified against them saying, “you do not have His word abiding in you,” though they may have memorized the words, yet their commitment to the holy Scriptures was not from the heart. This was the problem with the religious establishment in those days and in ours. Jn 5-37,38 (144g) Witness >> Validity of Jesus Christ >> Witnesses of Jesus >> Trinity bears witness of Jesus >> Father bears witness of His Son -- These verses go with verses 30-32. Jn 5,38-47 (80e) Thy kingdom come >> Know the word to learn the ways of God >> Leading to Jesus Jn 5-38,39 (109i) Thy kingdom come >> Faith >> Spirit and the word >> Spirit the teacher >> Spirit trains us to be like Jesus – What did Jesus mean by, “You do not have His word abiding in you”? He could have meant that the word of God was not in their hearts, but now that Jesus was sacrificed and raised from the dead and ascended to the Father, we understand that He sent the Holy Spirit in His place, and He abides in us. Consequently, for the word of God to abide in us and for the Holy Spirit to abide in us are really the same thing. Scripture is the written word, but when the Spirit speaks a word in our heart, He reveals the written word to us. We may have previously known certain passage in the Bible, but after the Holy Spirit enlightens us, we understand it in a whole new way (1Jn 2-7,8). This is what it means to be saved. Consequently, Jesus accused His enemies of not being the children of God, their eternal destiny being hell unless they repented of their unbelief. He accused them saying, “You have neither heard His voice at any time nor seen His form.” Jesus was God in human flesh, and He stood right in front of His enemies and spoke the word of God to them, yet they could not see Him or hear Him. Jesus condemned them for not hearing His own voice, who told them about God and they refused to believe Him. We can say the same thing as evangelists to those who reject our message; we can accuse them of being unable to hear our own voice.’ Of course if they are not deaf they can hear our speech, but they cannot discern the truth that we are saying to them. KJV WEB / Navigation Bar / Parallel Gospel Jn 5,39-47 (144h) Witness >> Validity of Jesus Christ >> Witnesses of Jesus >> Trinity bears witness of Jesus >> Word of God bears witness to Jesus (167h) Works of the devil >> Manifestations of the devil >> Carnality/Secularism (mindset of the world) >> The carnal mind does not receive the things of God >> It does not believe the word of God -- The Scriptures the Pharisees had been studying their whole lives testified about Jesus. He knew the Pharisees did not have the love of God in themselves, because they did not receive Him. Jesus learned many things about His enemies, based on their reaction to Him. Anyone who acted adversely to Him was not only His enemy, but was also the enemy of His Father. Likewise, we the people of God should live in such a way that our enemies are inherently wrong for hating us. We need to be so in tuned to God that we can confidently assert that our enemies are also the enemies of God, but some of us have enemies that are not necessarily enemies of God, because we ourselves are enemies of God to the degree that we do not listen to Him. No one can believe in God while they are seeking glory from men. (168f) Works of the devil >> Manifestations of the devil >> The world listens to itself >> The world receives itself -- Jesus asked the Pharisees that if they didn’t believe the Scriptures, how could they believe in Him. The writings to which the Pharisees had been committed their whole lives were accusing them of not believing in Jesus. Their Old Testament writings contained all the knowledge they would ever need to recognize Jesus as their Messiah, except that they were seeking the glory of men, causing their skewed perspective on the Scriptures to misunderstand everything He said. They spent untold hours pouring over the Scriptures and never once believed them, because they had preconceived doctrines, like wearing rose colored glasses that filtered everything they read. Their intent was to become professional interpreters of their ancient manuscripts, so they could lord their knowledge over all Israel as self-appointed religious leaders. Their intent was to make a living off the Scriptures, instead of using the word of God to lead the people in positive directions, so when Jesus came, they could have helped the people receive their Messiah. (182g) Works of the devil >> The origin of lawlessness >> Deception >> Three causes of interpreting Scripture falsely >> Because they want to be approved by men (198b) Denying Christ >> Man exercises his will against God >> Man withers when he is in control >> Unteachable >> Too busy being a teacher to learn anything (198j) Denying Christ >> Man exercises his will against God >> Frustrating the grace of God >> Frustrating Jesus through unbelief – The enemies of Jesus had reprobate minds, and with that they reasoned in circles about God. Jesus exposed this fact saying, ‘You search the Scriptures, which speak about Me, and I am telling you the things that are written in the law and the prophets, and you won’t believe Me.’ He proved to them that they didn’t believe the Scriptures, simply because they did not believe Him, who mirrored the Scriptures. They may have read the Scriptures; they may have known them backward and forward; they may have been able to recite them from memory, but they didn’t believe them, or they would have believed Jesus. This is unfortunately a common occurrence in the Church today. People think they believe the Scriptures, but if we spoke to them the things that God is revealing to us by the Spirit, they wouldn’t believe us; instead, they would persecute us. If we quoted them Scripture, they would believe that; and if we gave our opinion, they might consider it, but if we spoke a passage in the Bible that God has revealed to us by the Spirit, they would reject it out-a-hand. They wouldn’t even consider it, and Jesus is saying that it just proves they don’t understand the Scriptures. The things Jesus said went far into the human soul in places where most of us are afraid to go. Jn 5,39-44 (169i) Works of the devil >> Manifestations of the devil >> Seeking the glory of man >> Loving the approval of men rather than the approval of God >> Coveting the favor of men – The Pharisees and many of the Jews did not have the love of God in them but hated Jesus and resisted and opposed Him. He knew their faith was incomplete because they received glory from men. Their lives were not about giving glory to God, but about seeking glory from each other. One of the characteristics of the godless heathen and the sinner is that their whole lives are for the purpose of glorifying self, and part of this is a special effort to integrate into a world that doesn’t know God. In contrast, Jesus’ whole purpose in life was to glorify His Father by obeying Him. Jn 5,39-42 (159b) Works of the devil >> Essential characteristics >> Counterfeit >> Counterfeit godliness >> Love sickening sweet >> The kind of love that replaces wisdom Jn 5-39 (177a) Works of the devil >> The religion of witchcraft >> False doctrine >> Distorting Scripture >> Distorting Scripture from a lack of understanding -- This verse goes with verses 45-47 (255c) Trinity >> Holy Spirit’s relationship between Father and Son >> God’s word is Spirit >> Jesus is the word of the Spirit >> Jesus is the manifested word of God – Eternal life is not in the Scriptures but in Jesus. That is, believing in a set of doctrines never saved anyone; instead, the Spirit of Jesus who dwells in those who obey Him is our savior. Sometimes it seems the distinction between the written word and the Holy Spirit blur to become one, for as we read the Bible the Spirit gives the revelation, and the temptation is to think that the Spirit of God dwells in the Bible, but eternal life is not contained in inkblots on a page but in the person of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who dwells in heaven. The Bible often speaks of the Spirit and the word together, as this verse does; it actually teaches that Jesus Christ is the embodiment of the Holy Spirit. The Bible was translated into English, the language in which many other books have been written, but the Bible is different from all other books in that God uses it as a tool to reveal Himself to His people who believe in Him. For this reason, many of His people think they are saved just because they believe in a set of doctrines, but if they don't have the Holy Spirit dwelling in them, they are none of His. See also: Spirit and the Word (Keys of the kingdom; Jd-12; 241a) KJV WEB / Navigation Bar / Parallel Gospel Jn 5,40-47 (202h) Denying Christ >> Man chooses his own destiny apart from God >> Running from God >> Running from the word of God >> Running from the witness of God Jn 5,40-44 (174e) Works of the devil >> The religion of witchcraft >> Form of godliness >> Self righteousness >> Justifying yourself (199f) Denying Christ >> Man chooses his own destiny apart from God >> Rejecting Christ >> Throwing God away >> Rejecting Christ to steal His glory (200m) Denying Christ >> Whoever is not with Jesus is against him >> He is against Christ who does not receive Him >> Whoever receives the world is against Christ Jn 5-40 (241e) Kingdom of God >> Opposition toward the Kingdom of God >> Hindering the kingdom >> Obstacles in the way of the kingdom >> Ask but don’t receive >> Ask but don’t receive because of unbelief -- This verse goes with verses 43&44 (254f) Trinity >> Holy Spirit’s relationship between Father and Son >> Jesus is the life of the Spirit >> Jesus is the substance of God’s life >> Jesus is the manifestation of God’s life -- This verse goes with verse 21 Jn 5,41-47 (156l) Witness >> Validity of the believer >> Evidence of being hell-bound >> Living an ungodly lifestyle >> Associating with the world Jn 5,41-44 (16i) Sin >> Continuing in sin to avoid the light >> Deny the truth – We can easily discern glory seekers: the honor they should be attributing to God is wasted on people much like themselves who are no more responsible for the good that happens than their pet dog. They pour all this attention on each other because they want others to do it for them, and in the process they ignore and forget God. (165a) Works of the devil >> Manifestations of the devil >> The world is at enmity with God >> The world rejects God (234b) Kingdom of God >> Pursuing the kingdom >> Seeking the glory of God >> Seeking the glory of His favor – The concept of seeking the glory of God some people say is evil, but it means we are seeking to glorify God (not seeking to steal His glory). The flipside of that is we want God to glorify us; this too is not evil but one of the promises He has given us, ‘whoever humbles himself will be exalted’ (Lk 14-11). In His time God will prove His servants above the rest; He will exalt those who devote themselves to Him. It may take a lifetime, but in the life to come we are guaranteed to receive the full reward of our labors of faith. Sadly, many people who call themselves Christians despise the idea of seeking the rearwards of heaven, but either we seek the glory of God or we seek the glory of man, and if they despise the rewards of heaven, they will seek glory in this life. The Bible recommends seeking the rewards of heaven, and if the Bible commends it, who are we to condemn it? Mat 619-21 says, “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. "But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal; for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” Jn 5-41 (77e) Thy kingdom come >> Humility >> Refusing the glory of man >> Refusing to be exalted by men Jn 5-42 (68j) Authority >> Discernment >> Judging truth and error >> Perceiving a wicked heart (128n) Thy kingdom come >> Manifestations of faith >> Bearing fruit >> Evidence of your fruit >> Bad fruit is proof that God is not working in you Jn 5,43-47 (197a) Denying Christ >> Man exercises his will against God >> Spiritual laziness >> Rebelling Against what God wants you to do >> Refusing to renew your mind KJV WEB / Navigation Bar / Parallel Gospel Jn 5-43,44 (20d) Sin >> Nature of sin >> Motives of unbelief – In the world, people don’t want to worship anybody; instead, they want to be worshipped. They glorify one another in hope of being glorified themselves. They know that if they commit themselves to God, the hope of being glorified by men will be lost. They may receive praise from God, but He will not worship them, indicating that this is what they really desire. The Pharisees loved the adoration of men and prestige in society. Jesus is saying that if we love to be adored by each other, how can we at the same time seek to glorify God and adore Him? To glorify God is to receive glory from Him, empowering us to live a godly life, but goodness and righteousness are things the Pharisees sacrificed to receive glory from men. (57e) Paradox >> Opposites >> More glory you receive from men, the less you seek of God – There are many themes and kingdom principles that run throughout the Bible from Genesis to Revelation, and one of them which is less obvious but more central than all of them is the fact that knowing good and evil makes us more like God than any other attribute. It is a God-like attribute that rivals even His status as the Creator. This was the temptation of Adam and Eve: the devil said to them that if they ate the forbidden fruit, they would know the difference between good and evil, “and you shall be like God” (Gen 3-5), which actually was not a lie! However, there was a very subtle deception in the devil’s message to the woman, so subtle and deceitful that the man and his wife would have never unraveled the truth on their own. Had they wrangled with the devil at any length, he would have twisted their minds into knots, and in fact that is what he did in just the few minutes that he conversed with them; not even Jesus argued with the devil. They could have run to God and told them about the talking snake that spoke contrary to His commanded, and everything would have changed from there. God would have uprooted the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil; in a word, they would have passed the test, but had they won the battle, the glory that God now offers through the cross would not have been made available, which far surpasses Adam's would-be victory in the Garden. However, this improvement in our relationship with God has come at a terrible price in both tearing the flesh of God's Son and the cost of human souls. Many wars and much pain and suffering and death has occurred over the millennia, yet because Adam failed the test, God is now able to choose his worshippers from the world for His own possession, whom He had prepared to serve and worship Him. When we go back to the original sin, pride is right there in the middle of the garden, the opportunity to be like God. Prior to the fall, man has been made in the image of God, but in other respects Adam and Eve were not like God in that they did not know evil, until they bit into the forbidden fruit, corrupting their conscience. Ironically, when they experienced evil firsthand, they became like God knowing good and evil, becoming more like God than God, until Jesus went to the cross at His Father's command and experienced sin in its entirety, which made Him more like God than Himself before the cross when He knew about sin on a mere theoretical standpoint, meaning the cross has glorified the very nature of God, who has now experienced sin firsthand. See also: God intended Adam to eat the forbidden fruit; Act 13,44-48; 200b (169a) Works of the devil >> Manifestations of the devil >> The world is blind to God >> Blind to Jesus >> Blind to the glory of God in Christ (195f) Denying Christ >> Man exercises his will against God >> Idolatry >> Worshipping men >> Idolizing men (198h) Denying Christ >> Man exercises his will against God >> Ordained by man >> Having evil motives for seeking leadership positions >> Seeking to gratify their flesh through the ministry (241e) Kingdom of God >> Opposition toward the Kingdom of God >> Hindering the kingdom >> Obstacles in the way of the kingdom >> Ask but don’t receive >> Ask but don’t receive because of unbelief -- These verses go with verse 40 Jn 5-43 (71i) Authority >> Ordained by God >> Jesus is ordained by God Jn 5,44-47 (41b) Judgment >> Satan destroyed >> Be like Jesus >> Jesus is without sin >> He fulfilled the law (90g) Thy kingdom come >> Keeping the law >> Law is our tutor >> Had they kept the law, they would not have persecuted the Church – The Law of Moses is irrelevant to those who walk in the Spirit, but to those who are rebellious and have rejected the purpose of God, the Law remains in effect. So to the degree that the Law is in effect in people’s lives is the degree that they have rejected the purpose of Christ. On the one hand, when the prophet comes and speaks to them, it is all news, and even if they have previously heard the message, it is still news, because they have not obeyed it, and if they persecute him, the consequences will become news, as they perpetually receive in their persons the due penalty of their error (Rom 2-27). On the other hand, we who believe in God go from good work to good work, and the Lord orders our steps and we walk on His prepared trail, and there we find people of good hope who will receive our message of salvation. KJV WEB / Navigation Bar / Parallel Gospel Jn 5-44 (169g) Seeking The Glory Of Man (Key verse) (233g) Seeking The Glory Of God (Key verse) Jn 5,45-47 (40g) Judgment >> Judgment of Christ >> God’s word judges the world >> It does not believe in Him (53j) Paradox >> Opposites >> Contradicting your own standards >> Being accused by someone you believe in (86i) Thy kingdom come >> Obedience >> Be doers of the word >> Clothe yourself with the word of God >> Live the truth (177a) Works of the devil >> The religion of witchcraft >> False doctrine >> Distorting Scripture from a lack of understanding -- These verses go with verse 39 (255c) Trinity >> Holy Spirit’s relationship between Father and Son >> God’s word is Spirit >> Jesus is the word of the Spirit >> Jesus is the manifested word of God See next page