The Apostle John’s stated objective in writing the Gospel that bears his name, was so that His readers would know that Jesus is the Son of God and that ‘believing’ in Jesus, is the way to  eternal life. Today’s text no less so than any other, speaks directly to the fact of Jesus as God. It is either the clearest or one of the clearest statements by Jesus himself regarding His own Deity. 

Chapter five begins to show us that the leadership in Israel as well as the people were increasingly rejecting the claims of Jesus. Jesus faced malicious hostility and the miracle that immediately precedes our text triggers intensified hostility against Him.  The antagonism toward Jesus will continue to grow and again burst into the open, at the occasion of the opening of the eyes of a man born blind and at the raising of Lazarus.  

The occasion of our lesson follows in the wake of Jesus’ Sabbath day healing of a man at the pool of Bethesda, who had been crippled for thirty-eight years. Matthew 9:35 recalls an occasion when Jesus indiscriminately healed everyone and every disease with which He came in contact but not this time. 

Up to this point, it appears Jesus was deliberately trying to minimize publicity about His miracles but here everything seemed very deliberate. Jesus not only picked out and healed an ungrateful ‘cripple’ on the Sabbath but instructed the man to ‘take up His bed and walk‘, on the Sabbath! This was sure to attract the attention and draw the ire of the religious authorities.

John had made sure to tell us that Jesus acted deliberately on the Sabbath.  We are later told that Jesus was not apparently content with being persecuted for breaking the Sabbath, but went on to claim equality with God in a very forceful manner, giving the Jews more reason to hate Him than simply for breaking the Sabbath. 

Jesus posed a particularly interesting question to the impotent man before healing him.  He asked the man who was helpless and paralyzed, “do you want to be healed?” 

The question might appear foolish but Jesus never asked foolish questions. The man's response in John 5:7 indicates a feeling of resignation because of his lack of ability to help himself and the absence of anyone to help him. So Jesus took the initiative and commanded the man to do the impossible thing of rising and walking. The man was immediately healed after thirty eight years of helplessness. 

Jesus by his action was declaring to all those who would hear of this miracle, that no matter how bad any person’s situation, irrespective of their lack of hope, he had the power to do the impossible.  He has all power and is willing to use it in our service. 

Clearly, the Jewish leaders should've realized that no matter how bad the situation in their personal lives and in the life of the nation, a man from God who could heal in the way Jesus did and display such extraordinary powers could solve any problem that existed.  No matter how helpless they or the nation were, he had the power to set things right.  All they had to do was to say like the crippled man, “Yes I want to be healed!” and presto, matters would be set right.   

Jesus’ message was of course lost on most of the Jewish leadership, for they immediately ignored everything about the miracle and directed their hate at Him. Their real motive was instantly revealed when they met this previously crippled man. 

The ‘healed man’ is soon confronted by the authorities and accused of breaking the law, by carrying his pallet on the Sabbath. He quickly blamed “He who made me well…”. Note that the Jewish leadership did not have any interest in finding out who had healed the crippled man but only wanted to know who told him to carry his bedroll on the Sabbath day. 

The Jews were absolutely devoted to the traditions that they had built up around Sabbath day worship.  The vast majority of these rules are not found in Scripture.  Make no mistake, Jews today continue in many of these same traditions.

The man was in real trouble, for the law said that anyone who carried a load on the Sabbath was to be stoned to death. Even if they would not legally be able to carry out this punishment, they could ban him from the synagogue and the temple and make his life miserable in many respects.  It is no wonder that the man made sure he told the Jews who had healed him. We should understand that these leaders of Israel were serious people and were prepared to go to any lengths to destroy those that they think had broken their traditions. 

Once the former crippled man ‘fingered’ Jesus as his healer, the ‘Jews’ then accused Jesus of breaking the Sabbath, a charge punishable by death.  

Jesus’ response to the charge certainly put Him in even worse light with the authorities and escalated the mounting tensions between them and Himself. Suddenly Jesus was not only a notorious Sabbath breaker but a blasphemer, a man who made himself equal with God. It was bad enough that he faced the very serious charge of breaking the Sabbath but he proceeded to make some claims about Himself that only God could rightly make.  

To the chagrin of the authorities, who were determined to ignore the reality of Jesus' power and what it meant for them, Jesus went on to explain the astounding implications of the miracle, revealing an intimacy and union with God the Father, that could only be possible with one that was Himself God. Jesus prefaced His statement with the grave “Verily, verily…” and all who read this text must give heed to the person of Christ.  

He provides some insight into the on-going working relationship between Him and the Father, the basis of the relationship being the Father’s love for Him. He makes a formal, systematic and orderly statement of His own unity with the Father, His divine commission and authority and the proofs of His Messiahship. Jesus claimed the divine right and ability to ‘give life’ and judge all men with regards to their eternal destiny. These responsibilities were the exclusive prerogatives of God (Gen. 18:25; 1sam.2:6; 2 Kings 5:7) and Jesus, according to His testimony.  

The ‘Jews’ were convinced that they were zealous for God and his law but Jesus pointed out that to honour the ‘Son’ was to honour the Father and to dishonour the ‘Son’ was to dishonour the Father. The Father-Son relationship of which Jesus spoke seemed alien to the Jews. However, messianic passages in Isaiah, Daniel and the Psalms certainly held out the possibility if not the reality of one having such a relationship with God the Father.

Note, the problem for the ‘Jews’ and for all who are confronted

with Jesus of Nazareth and reject Him, is this! Jesus not only claimed to be God but His actions were consistent with His claim. The immediate miracle was a case in point, where His Deity was confirmed. 

Jesus’ deity is in view in our text but the utter depravity of the human heart is also on display. The miraculous healing and its implications for the prosecutors are completely ignored, as these evil men pursued their murderous intentions against our Lord.  Such is the nature of blindness.  This is deep iniquity. 

Jesus’ ‘I am only carrying out My Father’s work’ comment does not go over well. This is what really sends the Jewish authorities into a tizzy. Jesus is not just a Sabbath-breaker; He is a blasphemer! And for them there is no more serious offence than blasphemy. Now the Jewish leaders are even more intent on putting Him to death. 

A study of Jewish writings indicate that the rabbis realized that God did not really cease to work on the Sabbath and his divine providence continued, so that life for men, animals and the world of nature would continue.  Because of the work of God men and animals were born on the Sabbath and men and animals died on the Sabbath, something under the control of God and so they knew very well that God was active on the Sabbath. 

When Jesus justified his work of healing on the Sabbath, He was really saying that he shared in the privilege of working on the Sabbath, an activity and a divine prerogative which was peculiar to God.  This claim made Jesus literally equal to God.

We accept that God works at all times, the Spirit works at all times and Jesus works at all times.  Nothing can happen outside of their control.  This is great comfort to us believers. 

Our text is Jesus response to the accusations of breaking the Sabbath and making Himself equal with God. Jesus gives His testimony by boldly claiming to be the Son of God, equal with God and thus having full authority to act like His Father. Let us consider His words and make sure our response to Him, is our response to God.

TEXT

Verses one to fifteen is the actual account of the healing of the paralytic at the pool of Bethesda. Jesus visits the pool but does not heal everybody and empty the five porches. Jesus selects a man who had been paralyzed for thirty-eight years and asks the man if he wished to be healed.  This man's case seems to have been a particularly bad one and Jesus’ focus on him, shows us in a particularly striking way how God sometimes deals with human helplessness and weakness. 

Almost unbelievably the fellow claims no one had helped him for all these years. But the man makes it clear to Jesus that he wants to be healed. The problem was he needed help and had no one to help him. He had given up hope. 

Jesus did not just comfort the man, telling him to keep on trying but commanded the man to take action; rise, take up his bed and walk. Seemingly the man can do nothing else but to immediately obey the Lord’s command.  He felt the strength come into his bones and muscles and he knew he could stand and walk and he did. 

We wish the Pharisees and leaders of Israel would have recognized the power of Jesus and behave like this man.  The crippled man had weaknesses but he listened to Jesus. 

Jesus then melts into the festive crowd gathered in Jerusalem for one of the Jewish feasts. The healed man is soon accosted by the Jewish authorities who accuse him of violating the Sabbath by carrying his bed on the sacred day. The former paralytic excuses himself by blaming the One who healed him, but is unable to identify Jesus, as he had not even bothered to find out Jesus’ name. 

Jesus later encounters the individual in the temple and warns him against continued sinful behaviour, lest a worse condition come upon him. There is no mention of thanks but the now healed man immediately reports Jesus to the authorities, as the one who told him to carry his pallet on the Sabbath. 

In verses sixteen through eighteen we read that the Jews confront Jesus with the charge of breaking the Sabbath and with the intent of having him killed.  Jesus begins His defence with this ‘bomb’ of an opening statement: “My Father worketh hitherto, and I work”. The ‘Jews’ are enraged. It was bad enough that Jesus had healed on the Sabbath and instructed the former paralytic to carry his pallet on the sacred day but now He was making Himself equal with God with the “ My Father”… statement.  

 (See Psalm 2; Psalm 45) 

The ‘Jews’ will be further incensed as Jesus elaborates on the relationship between Himself and His Father.

Verse 19.   Here Jesus begins to shed some light on the relationship between Father and Son as it relates to the work that they both do. He starts with the well known-‘Truly, truly…’. These words are words of emphasis and introduce ideas that are particularly important and to which Jesus wants everyone to pay special attention. 

Jesus begins a formal, systematic and pointed discussion of His unity with the Father, what the Father wanted him to do and had commissioned him to do and the authority that he had been given by the Father. 

Note that Jesus was now choosing a clear position and making clear who He was.  If he wanted to avoid trouble, now was the time to minimize and reinterpret his previous statements that he was equal to God.  Instead we see that Jesus was not uneasy about his position but was very bold, claiming to be equal with God and having full authority to act like the Father. 

To support His claim, Jesus confesses His total and unqualified dependence on the Father. Jesus, the Son of God never acts independently but is always fully in submission to the will of the Father.  Even so this in no way conflicts with His own claim to Deity for the Father does not force him.  He submits to the Father by  choice. Given that they share the same nature and the same essence there is only one principle that governs how they behave. 

We must be mindful that in His incarnation, in His role as Redeemer of sinners, Jesus set aside the exercise of His divine attributes and placed Himself totally in the hand of the Father

 (Phil.2:6-9; Heb.5:7-8). At all points Jesus was empowered by the Holy Spirit. 

The secret of the life of Jesus is now revealed and shows that self-sufficiency is total foolishness. 

It indicates that if anyone wants to be used by God, to be a channel  for the power of God, one cannot use the power of God for one's own benefit and achieve anything that is permanent, satisfying or of any real value. 

It is not that Jesus is saying that he cannot do anything apart from the Father, just as we can do things apart from God and often do.  He could “act out of himself” as he later says he could, but he steadfastly refused to do so, choosing to be obedient and never exercising power for his own benefit.  So when the devil tempted him to satisfy his hunger by changing stones into bread, or jumping from the temple to let people applaud him, he rejected that.  Jesus summarized his attitude, and we should have the same attitude, by saying:

 “The Son can do nothing of himself.” 

Jesus is really saying (and we should say the same thing if we have the mind of Christ) that he had an inner vision, which allowed him to constantly see the will of the Father in every situation and so He was immediately obedient to that will.  Everything He did was in line with the Word of God.

So the Apostle tells us in 1 Thessalonians 5:21 that we should test everything to ensure that whatever we do is in line with what Scripture says is the will of God the Father.

Jesus is our model and we are to have a similar relationship with the Father.  The Father did great things through Jesus, Jesus wants us to be prepared, so that God can do great works through us.

Underlying Jesus’ assertion is the fact that He is God and so His behaviour must of necessity be akin to and part of what God the Father does. The work of the Son and the work of the Father is complimentary and inextricably linked. Jesus’ situation is like the truism of our day: Like father, like son. The Son does what He sees His Father doing. Jesus’ claim is an all encompassing, “what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise”. Jesus must then possess all the attributes of the Father to be able to do all that the Father does! 

This raises the very interesting question of what work or works is the Father doing. According to Jesus, the Father has not been inactive since the creation and has been at least as busy as Jesus Himself and engaged in the same kinds of tasks. Based on the activities of Jesus, we could safely say the Father is engaged in works that effectively benefits people both in the physical and spiritual realms and bring glory to His Name.   

So when we think that the Father should zap people with lightning when they do anything wrong and immediately destroy these disobedient nations who do things based on iniquity, we can assess whether this is in fact how He behaves, by looking at how Jesus behaved when people did him wrong. 

The union between the Father and Son is such that Jesus will not act independently or separately from the Father; all that he does has the concurrence or the command of the Father. There is a perfect oneness between Him and the Father. 

The Jews understood what Jesus was saying very well, for later they would accuse him of doing his works by the power of Satan rather than by the power of God. This is how bad they were and how they would commit the unpardonable sin. 

Specifically, the Father does work on the Sabbath and the Son does likewise (5:17).  

…will shew Him…The Father will assign and direct Him to greater works than the curing of the impotent man and men will be amazed at their execution. To this point Jesus had performed many signs

(John 2:23) and as great as these were, greater was yet to come. 

Just imagine! The Father so loves the Son, that everything in his infinitely brilliant and glorious mind is open to the Son.  So when we read that the Father loves the Son and that He loves us, we must understand that we are expected to begin to participate more and more in the work of the Father and the Son.  If we are in fellowship with Him, He has given us more power than we imagine, so that we are able to manifest the power of God and the incredibly beautiful life of Jesus.

Verse 21.   Jesus pointed to those signs He had already performed but here he speaks of signs that will more dramatically and pointedly prove His claims. He will raise the dead and He himself will rise from the dead. The Old Testament affirms the activity of raising the dead and giving life is the exclusive domain of God. (Deuteronomy 32:39; 1 Samuel 2:6; 2 Kings 5:7). Even so… in the same manner the Son will exercise the same power and authority that belongs to God.

…whom He will…It is in Jesus’ power to give life at His pleasure but He tells us He works at His Father’s pleasure. 

All the works of the Father, which the Jews knew were all legitimate works, were done exactly by Jesus. 

Note, Jesus continues to bestow spiritual life through the preaching of the gospel (1Cor.15:3-4) and conviction of the Holy Spirit and at His second coming people will come forth from their graves.  

Verse 22.  Jesus is setting out a progressive argument regarding his equality with the Father. He claimed power over the Sabbath just as His Father (vs.17); He did the same things as the Father (vs.19); and he had the same power to raise the dead (vs.21).  Here Jesus reveals that the Father has committed the judgement of all men exclusively to the Son, a role the Father previously exercised.  

Far be it from You to do such a thing as this, to slay the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous should be as the wicked; far be it from You! Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?”

Gen. 18:25).  (See Psalm 94:2). Jesus will mete out judgement on all those who reject his sacrifice for sin. (Rev. 6:15; Matthew 25:31-46; Acts 17:31; Matthew 11:27; Acts 17:31; 2 Corinthians 5:10) 

Note the power of judging the world must involve the ability to search the heart and understand the motives of all actions. Only God can know the thoughts of a man (Psalm 94:11; Rom. 8:27). So we see two areas over which the Father had sole prerogative and over which Jesus now has claim, namely, the power of life and the power of judgment. 

The standard for judgment is going to be whether we have used what we had for God and whether we had made ourselves available for God to use as he willed. 

He gives life and he judges whatever we do and in doing that he shows us what God is like.  There is no one like Jesus and we should behave accordingly.

Verse 23.   One would hardly imagine that the Father has done this, sending the Son, giving Him authority, opening up His mind to Him, having Him go into humiliation, establishing and declaring this powerful relationship of love with the Son with no end in view. 

Here we are told that there is a purpose and a motive behind the actions of the Father and the dynamics of the relationship with the Son. God wants us to look at the Son, marvel at the magnificent things that have been done, understand how precious Jesus is to the Father, with all of this leading to: …all should honour the Son just as they honour the Father… 

To honour is to esteem, reverence, praise or do homage to. If God will have the Son honoured, it is the duty of all to whom this is revealed to honour Jesus; both for His absolute excellences and perfections in Himself and for what He has done on behalf of sinners.  

One commentator speaks of honour in part:

We honour one when we ascribe to him in our hearts, and words, and actions the praise and obedience which are due to him. We honour God when we obey him and worship him aright. We honour the Son when we esteem him to be as he is; when we have right views and feelings toward him. 

This is the concluding statement in Jesus’ train of thought, He must be honoured to the same extent, that is equally with the Father, for this is the Father’s desire. To refuse to honour Jesus is to dishonour the Father; such is the closeness of the union between Father and Son.  

If we really understand that the Father loves His Son and intends that His Son should be honoured, worship, believed and obeyed, we would not take any chances and do anything that would even suggest that Jesus is not ‘all in all’. 

Can you imagine how God intends to deal with those members of cults and churches that do not have a proper understanding of and appreciation of who Jesus is? We cannot dishonour Jesus and at the same time honour God the Father.

Clearly, Jesus is saying to these Jewish authorities, “you must worship Me and esteem Me as   equal with God”. So worship of God in all its myriad forms (in spirit and in truth) must be directed to the Father and Jesus.

Verse 24.   Note that at the very outset Jesus clearly expects that His statements will be believed.  What He is telling the Jews and us is not anything so amazingly out-of-the-way and illogical that we can sensibly reject his words. 

Neither is He really defending Himself in the sense of trying to save His life or escape whatever sanctions might be brought against Him by the ‘Jews’. So he's not apologetic.

 He is rather giving the right perspective, so that all understand that His words and actions are concomitant with His Person as the Son of God. Jesus has impacted and will impact the life on every individual from Adam until the time of the ‘new heaven and the new earth’.

If Jesus is the Son of God, then whoever hears His message and believes in the One who sent Him has eternal life. To possess eternal life is to escape divine condemnation. The one who believes crosses over from a state of death to the state of life.

Starting with “I tell you the solemn truth…” Jesus reveals the further purpose of the Father in sending Him and the implications for those who hear Him and believe. (believe - used in the NT of the conviction and trust to which a man is impelled by a certain inner and higher prerogative and law of soul). They have everlasting life as a present possession. That is, they have an unbroken, continuous relationship with God, even at physical death. They have been quickened, given spiritual life; they are now Christians and thus passed from ‘death’ into ‘life’. Spiritual life is rooted in Jesus Christ and His sacrifice for sinners and thus 1 John5:20 makes this link:

And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us an understanding, that we may know Him who is true; and we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life.

…my word…would be all that Jesus taught about Himself, the Father, His teachings and instructions.

Man’s natural state is presented as ‘dead in sins’  (Eph. 2:1) and so the unsaved are already condemned, meaning they are marked for  judgment and Hell. “He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. John 3:18. 

When we heed what Jesus and His Apostles are saying, we are really hearing and loving God the Father himself, for He is behind the words of Jesus. In so doing we are passing from death to life.

There is only one way to honour God the Father and that is to believe in the Son.  This is honouring to both.

Verse 25.   Jesus elaborates on the fact that He gives life (vs.21) and now has the responsibility to judge all men (vs.22) in the remaining verses of our study text.  

…the hour… the time, presently and in the future, the ‘dead’ will hear His voice and respond. The ‘dead’ will be both the physically dead in the grave and the spiritually dead in sin.  Mark 5:41; Luke 7:14 and John 11:43 records instances when Jesus physically restored people that were dead back to life. The people were restored by the authority  of Jesus and at His command. He spoke …(the voice of the Son of God…) and the dead responded by coming to life. Likewise at the Day of Judgment, the dead will be raised by His command. 

Similarly, many that were ‘dead in sin’ were made alive when they heard His message and believed, (See John8:30-31, 10:41-42, 17:8).

Unless God acts to save, sinners remain totally unmoved by the gospel of Jesus Christ. The gospel is a spiritual message and so no reaction can come from the spiritually dead until they are quickened. 

…they that hear… This is more than the outward act of hearing

 (John 8:47) but involves a particular response to that which is heard.

Verse 26.   God as the Creator is the source of all life and as opposed to all other deities, is called the Living God. His existence is totally independent of any and all influences, things or personalities. God’s life derives from Himself and thus the Father is said to have life in Himself and the Son has life in Himself. God has always existed as He is.  (Psalm 90:2; James 1:17). 

…as the Father…so hath He given… means in a similar fashion, in the same manner as the Father, Jesus has life in Himself.

…hath He given…is a reference to the power to raise the dead and the authority to judge the world that Jesus now exercises in His role as Mediator between man and God. It is not a suggestion that Jesus’ divine nature was in some way derived or given to Him, for as to Jesus’ deity, In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. (John 1:1).  We must be mindful that Christ ‘emptied’ (Phil. 2:7) and humbled Himself prior to His incarnation and God subsequently exalted Jesus to the right hand of the Majesty on high at His resurrection (Heb. 1:3). The power to give life at His pleasure and the authority to judge all men was committed to Him.  

One writer explains in part:

In regard to his divine nature, it is not affirmed here that it is in any manner derived; nor does the fact that God is said to have given him this power prove that he was inferior in his nature or that his existence was derived. For,

1st. It has reference merely to office. As Mediator, he may be said to have been appointed by the Father.

2nd. Appointment to office does not prove that the one who is appointed is inferior in nature to him who appoints him. A son may be appointed to a particular work by a parent, and yet, in regard to talents and every other qualification, may be equal or superior to the father. He sustains the relation of a son, and in this relation there is an official inferiority. General Washington was not inferior in nature and talents to the men who commissioned him. He simply derived authority from them to do what he was otherwise fully able to do. So the Son, as Mediator, is subject to the Father; yet this proves nothing about his nature.

It is absolutely certain that the issue of life-and-death is of the most importance in this present world.  According to Jesus some will receive life, while others will receive the condemnation of death.

This is of immense practical significance.  We must tell everyone that we are not talking interesting theology, but something that is near and dear to them. Jesus makes it clear that those ‘listening’ to his voice will live and so we call on all men to make the decisions that are good for them and to make it right now.

Being amazed at the miracles of Christ, the kind of life he lived and the amazing value of his teaching is good, but it only makes sense if it leads us to committing ourselves to honour Him today and not just in the future.

Jesus is clearly trying to force his listeners to that point, to make them stop sleeping, to realize their need to pay attention to Him, just as the crippled man at the pool of Bethesda did. So we ask, are we listening to what Jesus said, to examine our lives immediately, to understand that He is the judge of whether what we do is worthwhile or not.

Jesus and Jesus alone has the unique position to dispense life to us and that should lead us to turn our lives over to him and honour him right now.

No situation is so hopeless that he cannot cure.

Verse 27.   Jesus continues to expand on His commission to raise up the dead as he pleased; to convert sinners when and where He chose and finally here, to raise up the dead to an eternal judgment.

Because He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead, Acts 17:31. 

Verse 28-29.    These verses provide more details on how the judgement will be carried out. The mere logistics and scope of the event places it squarely in the realm of the supernatural. Before we begin to wonder Jesus says ‘here is how! 

At some point in time, the dead of every age and nation, all that were ever born will hear the voice of Jesus. All those that have died will be resurrected to face a final judgment. 

Works will be the basis of the separation and naturally so, for … by their fruits ye shall know them (Matt.7:20). Only the righteous can do works acceptable to God. Theirs will be the resurrection of life, (Rev. 20:5-6, 21:4; Luke 14:14). The acceptable works will be the evidence of a righteous life in Jesus. To believe in Jesus and accept His sacrifice for our sins is the ultimate work in securing our salvation. This is accomplished through the agency of the Holy Spirit. 

Thus works are not the means by which one is saved, but they are the evidence of having been saved. Jesus has already taught:

But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: who 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.

(See James 2:14-26). 

God knows men’s hearts and thus He alone can judge men apart from their works. 

The resurrection of damnation is a sentence of condemnation and those so judged are resurrected for the sole purpose of being damned or condemned.

And these will go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into eternal life. Matt.25:46.

In flaming fire taking vengeance on those who do not know God, and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.  These shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of

Jesus words here are a clear repudiation of the universalists, who claim that all men will be saved. This passage proves that at the Day of Judgment the wicked will be condemned. Unbelievers who have found solace in their teaching should note! Everlasting punishment and destruction awaits those who reject Jesus Christ and there is no account of redemption in hell. There is no Saviour, no Holy Spirit and no offer of mercy there.

We seek to have that quality of life, rich, full, beautiful life that will last forever and which cannot be ended by death.  This is called ‘spiritual life’ or ‘eternal life’.  Only Jesus can give that life to us and He gives it to whom He wills, for He decides on the destiny of all human beings.  He is the judge, the arbiter, the indefatigable one who decides.

Obey His words, walk in fellowship with Him, share His life and then we would have “done good”.  Then we can face the future with confidence.

Remember, He's got the Whole World in His Hands.

He is to be honoured even as the Father is honoured. The Father is dishonoured when Jesus is not honoured. To honour Jesus is to love, serve and obey him with all our hearts. Do you?

Jesus will judge all men to either eternal life or eternal condemnation. He has been given the mandate, the power and He has the authority. If we believe in Him, our sins will be forgiven and we will have eternal life. If we do not believe, we are condemned already. There is no more frightening future than that which unbelievers have chosen by their unbelief.

Let us consider the claims of Jesus Christ, and then respond to Him in faith by believing in Him for eternal salvation.