My Father has been working until now, and I have been working." Therefore the Jews sought all the more to kill Him, because He not only had broken the sabbath, but said also that God was His Father, making Himself equal with God.” (vv.17-18)
Here the Jews were ready to kill Jesus, not just for healing a man who had an infirmity thirty-eight years on the sabbath (v.5), but more for His claim that God was His Father (v.17). If untrue, His claim would be considered blasphemy and punishable by death (Lev.24:11, 16). However, if His claim is true, then there is no crime and He is who He claims to be.
Here in chapter 5 John gives us a fourfold witness to Jesus’s claim of Sonship through the recording of Christ’s own words.
First, he records that John the Baptist bore witness of Jesus (vv.33-35). Upon seeing Jesus coming to be baptized of him John states, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” (John1:29) And later saying of Him, “I saw a Spirit descending from heaven, like a dove, and He remained upon Him” (v.32). And finally, “I have seen and testified that this is the Son of God (v.34).
Second (and even greater witness than John), He sites Christ’s very works (v.36). Jesus had said to His detractors many times, “If you do not believe Me, believe the works, that you may know that the Father is in Me and I in Him.” (John 10:38). A Pharisee by the name of Nicodemus testified of Christ’s works saying, “We know you are a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs (works) that You do unless, God is with him” (John 3:2).
Next we see in chapter 5 a reference to the Father Himself testifying of Jesus after His baptism by John the Baptist (v.37) where God said, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” (Matthew 3:17) And again when Jesus was transfigured on a high mountain in front of Peter, James and John a voice came out of a “bright cloud” saying, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Hear Him.” (Matthew 17:5)
Finally John’s records the words of Jesus that speak of, “the scriptures themselves as testifying of Him” (v.39) and even Moses, their great Prophet, believed and wrote of Jesus (v.46).
So why didn’t these educated Jewish priests believe that Jesus was the Son of God? Why wouldn’t they accept Him and His claim to Sonship and receive everlasting life? The answer, I believe, is found in verse 42 where Jesus states; “I know you, that you do not have the love of God in you.”
So sad that those who called themselves "Holy men of God", who should have known the scriptures and validated His position through them, were blind to it. But their blindness (that would eventually lead to His death through their false accusations), lead to salvation for all that would honor Him and believe on His name. For Jesus is more than a "teacher" who came from God. He is the beloved Son of God.
The Truth
For He received from God the Father honor and glory when such a voice came to Him from the Excellent Glory: “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” (2 Peter 1:17)
