John 5 Devotional

The Son Who Gives Life

“Truly, truly, I tell you, whoever hears My word and believes Him who sent Me has eternal life and will not come under judgment. Indeed, he has crossed over from death to life.”John 5:24 (BSB)

A man by the pool of Bethesda has been an invalid for thirty-eight years. When Jesus asks if he wants to be well, he explains that he has no one to help him into the water (5:5-7). Jesus commands him to stand up and walk, carrying his mat, and he is healed at once (5:8-9). The leaders object because it is the Sabbath, and Jesus answers that his Father is still working, and so is he (5:17). They understand exactly what he means: he is calling God his own Father and making himself equal with God (5:18).

Jesus does not back away. The Son gives life to whomever he chooses, all judgment has been entrusted to him, and whoever hears his word and believes the Father has eternal life and has already moved out of death into life (5:21-24). The man by the pool had no one. In Jesus he met the one who gives life by his word. That word comes to you too, and its life does not depend on your strength to reach the water.

To think about: Where do you feel you have no one to help, and how does Jesus' life-giving word speak to that place?