PLEASE READ THIS FIRST: John 5:16-23

What do you sense the Lord saying to you in this passage?

“My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I too am working.” (John 5:17)
I believe that Jesus is ‘the Word made flesh’ (John 1), and in this way is divine.
But I see the words in this section pointing to Jesus’s humanity, not his divinity.
Everything Jesus says in this section, Adam could have said too (before ‘the fall’).
Adam was the first “son of God” (Luke 3:38), entrusted with God’s authority.
He called God Father, was loved by the Father, and was called to do what the Father did.
That is, to reflect the character of God and to represent God in the world (image of God).
Humanity (in Adam and Eve) was authorized to name and judge things in the world.
They should have judged the serpent’s words as wrong, and rejected them.
Because they failed, God promised a future “son of man” to set things right (Genesis 3:15).
Jesus is that “son of man” who lives faithfully as the “son of God”.
As a human, Jesus crushes the serpent, reverses the curse, and reclaims human authority.
What Jesus claims in this section is true for us as well, if we honour the Son!
We call God Father and are loved and authorized to work with God, like God and for God!
Try to say what Jesus says for yourself, and consider how it applies to how we live today.
PRAYER
Lord, I honour you as the true human, and the reason I am honoured. Help me to live honourably as a son of Adam, to work WITH, LIKE and FOR God as his restored image-bearer.