Immerse: Messiah - Flipbook - Page 419
5:15-38
John
407
so stop sinning, or something even worse may happen to you.” Then the
man went and told the Jewish leaders that it was Jesus who had healed him.
So the Jewish leaders began harassing Jesus for breaking the Sabbath rules.
But Jesus replied, “My Father is always working, and so am I.” So the Jewish leaders tried all the harder to find a way to kill him. For he not only
broke the Sabbath, he called God his Father, thereby making himself equal
with God.
So Jesus explained, “I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself. He does only what he sees the Father doing. Whatever the Father
does, the Son also does. For the Father loves the Son and shows him everything he is doing. In fact, the Father will show him how to do even greater
works than healing this man. Then you will truly be astonished. For just as
the Father gives life to those he raises from the dead, so the Son gives life
to anyone he wants. In addition, the Father judges no one. Instead, he has
given the Son absolute authority to judge, so that everyone will honor the
Son, just as they honor the Father. Anyone who does not honor the Son is
certainly not honoring the Father who sent him.
“I tell you the truth, those who listen to my message and believe in God
who sent me have eternal life. They will never be condemned for their sins,
but they have already passed from death into life.
“And I assure you that the time is coming, indeed it’s here now, when
the dead will hear my voice—the voice of the Son of God. And those
who listen will live. The Father has life in himself, and he has granted that
same life-giving power to his Son. And he has given him authority to judge
everyone because he is the Son of Man. Don’t be so surprised! Indeed,
the time is coming when all the dead in their graves will hear the voice of
God’s Son, and they will rise again. Those who have done good will rise
to experience eternal life, and those who have continued in evil will rise
to experience judgment. I can do nothing on my own. I judge as God tells
me. Therefore, my judgment is just, because I carry out the will of the one
who sent me, not my own will.
“If I were to testify on my own behalf, my testimony would not be valid.
But someone else is also testifying about me, and I assure you that everything he says about me is true. In fact, you sent investigators to listen to
John the Baptist, and his testimony about me was true. Of course, I have
no need of human witnesses, but I say these things so you might be saved.
John was like a burning and shining lamp, and you were excited for a while
about his message. But I have a greater witness than John—my teachings
and my miracles. The Father gave me these works to accomplish, and they
prove that he sent me. And the Father who sent me has testified about me
himself. You have never heard his voice or seen him face to face, and you do
