It goes without saying that the religious leaders listening to Jesus were irate when He called God His Father. Remember what Jesus said:
“My Father is working until now, and I Myself am working” (John 5:17).
And, as you recall from last week, Jesus went on to tell them about the relationship that He had with the Father:
“For the Father loves the Son, and shows Him all things that He Himself is doing;…” (John 5:20).
As the crowd continued to become unhinged, Jesus knew that they needed some proof, and just as in a court of law, He offered them the following four witnesses.
1) THE WITNESS OF JOHN –“John has born witness to the truth…He was a lamp that was burning and was shining, and you were willing to rejoice for a while in his light” (John 5:33-35).
2) THE WITNESS OF WORKS – “The works that the Father has given Me to accomplish, the very works that I do, bear witness of Me, that the Father has sent Me” (John 5:36).
3) THE WITNESS OF THE FATHER – “And the Father who sent Me, He has born witness of Me. You have neither heard His voice at any time, nor seen His form. And you do not have His word abiding in you, for you do not believe Him whom He has sent” (John 5:37-38).
4) THE WITNESS OF SCRIPTURE – “You search the Scriptures, because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is these that bear witness of Me; and you are unwilling to come to Me that you may have life” (John 5:39-40).
So, these are the four witnesses to the truth that Jesus is the Son of God, sent by the Father to planet Earth to redeem the world by dying for our sins.
The last witness, the Witness of the Scriptures, went right to the heart of the religious leaders who followed the Law of Moses to the letter, or at least tried to. They daily searched the Scriptures and diligently studied them, thinking that by doing so they would gain eternal life. But even today, eternal life is not found in our studies, regardless of whom or where we might be searching because real LIFE is not found in the Written Word, but in the Living Word, Jesus Christ. But Jesus wasn’t finished telling them about this witness:
“Do not think that I will accuse you before the Father; the one who accuses you is Moses, in whom you have set your hope. For if you believed Moses, you would believe Me; for he wrote of Me. But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe My words?” (John 5:45-47).
Ouch! They claimed to be experts in the writings of Moses, but they completely missed his most important message that pointed to another Prophet that would come after him, one whom they should pay attention to:
“The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your countrymen, you shall listen to him” (Deut 18:25).
They needed to listen to the Prophet that Moses told them about, and that Prophet was Jesus. Let’s not be like the religious leaders of Jesus’ day, thinking that either by obeying a prescribed set of rules or following a particular spiritual teacher will give us eternal life. LIFE is not found in anyone but the Son. Interestingly, John picks up Jesus’ own defense as he also provides a witness in his first letter to the churches written decades later:
“And the witness is this, that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son does not have the life” (1 John 5:11-12).
Notice that John places the definite article in front of the word “life,” because he wants to point us to a particular kind of life, the life that comes only from Jesus. He had the life dwelling in His own being when He arrived on Earth, and because He is alive today, He can dispense this same life to each of us.
How? Not by searching for it in some book or listening to a particular spiritual teacher, but by humbly coming to the Son, repenting of your sin, and by faith asking Him to give it to you. It’s free of charge, but with an interesting twist. Although it’s fee, it will cost you everything. He just wants you, including your heart, mind, soul, and strength. If you offer yourself to Him, He will respond by giving you life, His life. Nothing could be better than that!
