Last week, in AT THE POOL OF BETHESDA, Part 4, we learned that we have access to the will of God through Jesus. Jesus knows the will of the Father, and because He has called us His friends, He will reveal that will to us. The key to knowing God’s will begins with a personal relationship with Him!
Wait a minute. I thought this particular discourse of Jesus was about Jesus’ divinity. To date, this hasn’t been addressed. Lesson 1 focussed on how to prepare for a miracle, lesson 2’s focus was on how we should react when we’ve received a miracle, lesson 3 taught us that God never stops working and Jesus never did anything by Himself, but only did what He saw the Father doing, and then lesson 4 teaches about having a personal relationship with God. But where is the bit about the divinity of Jesus?
Belief in the trinity and in the divinity of Jesus is something that is unique Christianity. No other world religion embraces the trinity. The Jews and Muslims see this particular Christian belief as “worshipping other gods”, in direct defiance of the verse that says “our God is One God”. They do not accept Jesus as God. Even some who are under the umbrella of Christianity do not believe Jesus is uniquely God. So why, then, do we believe in the Trinity, in the divinity of Jesus?
The space allotted for this devotional is too short to be able to completely address this issue, but suffice is to say, one of the reasons is this very discourse that we’ve been looking at. This is the underlying theme of everything Jesus says after the miracle at the pool of Bethesda.
Let’s look:
1. Jesus’ ability to heal the paralytic stems from the fact that He is God.
2. Jesus performed the miracle on the Sabbath, the day of rest, to help us understand that ultimate rest — from worry, from concerns, etc. — come only from Him! That He is the Lord of the Sabbath. Who could claim such a thing but the God who proclaimed the Sabbath holy in the first place?
3. Jesus was always 100% in compliance with God’s will. Why? Because He and God are One! Two parts to the whole! They work together in ALL things! Jesus NEVER worked outside of God’s plan!
4. And finally, we, too, can always be in touch with God’s will, through Jesus. Why? Because He and God are two parts of the Trinity, and because Jesus calls us His friend, we, too, have access to God’s will.
And the next few verses of John chapter 5 make it even clearer:
“For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son gives life to whom He is pleased to give it.” (John 5:21 NIV)
How does Jesus have the power to raise the dead to life? Because He and the father are One. Two parts to the Trinity!
“Moreover, the Father judges no one, but has entrusted all judgement to the Son …” (John 5:22 NIV); and “And He has given Him authority to judge because He is the Son of man.” (John 5:27 NIV)
Just like our mouths are dedicated to speaking, our ears to hearing, parts of the whole, one of Jesus’ functions, as a part of the trinity, is judgment! He even tells us why this part has been relinquished to Jesus: “… that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father.” (John 5:23a NIV)
Then He goes on to give yet another reason: “He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father, who sent Him.” (John 5:23b NIV)
Wow! Remember that by sending His Son, God sent a part of Himself. And when we honor that part, Jesus, we are honoring God. By the same token, when we dishonor Jesus by not believing in Him, we also dishonor God!
But Jesus isn’t through driving the point home: “I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes Him who sent me has eternal life …” (John 5:24)
So what should our response be to those who say they believe in God, but not in the divinity of Jesus? Jesus’ teachings on this are clear: He Himself says He is the Son of God. If we do not believe what He teaches, we are dishonoring God!
Please join us next week, for AT THE POOL OF BETHESDA, Part 6: The Reward!
In His love,
Lyn
Lyn Chaffart, Mother of two teens, Speech-Language Pathologist, Author and Moderator for The Nugget, a tri-weekly internet newsletter, and Scriptural Nuggets, a website devoted to Christian devotionals and inspirational poems, with Answers2Prayer Ministries.
(To access the entire “At the Pool of Bethesda” mini-series, please click here.)