Articles
Equal to God
Equal to God
With the healing of the lame man, Jesus declared "My Father is working until now, and I Myself am working". The Jews took this as a claim making himself equal with God. (vs. 18).
While such may not seem like claiming to be equal with God TO US, we are reading about THEIR story and what phrases and words meant to THEM. To them, Jesus claimed to be equal with God.
Knowing that they were set on stoning Him for such an understanding of His words, He could have easily corrected them for misunderstanding. WE would have. Yet, if that WAS the meaning of His claim, He would be able to defend the truthfulness of it. THIS is what He did.
He begins by declaring: "whatever the Father does, these things the Son also does in like manner" (vs. 19). He then gives specific examples of such things:
· He gives life to whomever He wishes - 21
· All judgment belongs to Him - 22
· He is to receive the same honor - 23-24
· He gives (spiritual) life to those who hear Him - 25
· He has life in Himself - 26
· He not only will judge, but He will execute judgment - 27
· He will someday raise ALL the dead - 28-29.
He follows up these claims with a listing of witnesses to the truth of these claims. Under the Law of Moses, every claim was to be established by two or three witnesses (Deut. 19:15; Matt. 18:16). Jesus gives five.
· He is a witness (30-31), but He is not alone.
· John the Baptist - 32-35
· The works that Jesus did - 36
· The Father gave witness - 37-38
· The Scriptures testified of Him - 39.
The reaction? The Jewish leaders were simply UNWILLING, even with all this, to accept it. They loved the glory of men more than that of God. They did not have the love of God in them. Though they had the scriptures that gave witness unto Jesus, they did not believe them.
And you? You have the same scriptures and the testimony of all the signs that Jesus did.
Hugh DeLong
