John 5:10-18
Legalism is a very dangerous tendency to which all our
hearts are attracted. Grace and mercy
sound wonderful to us be they don’t flow naturally from us so they are not as
attractive to us. Keeping rules and
regulations allow us to feel some sort of merit that stimulates our pride. Thankfully, God does not deal with believers
based on their merits; He extend grace and mercy to those who trust Him. Jesus has just healed a man who spent almost
forty years without being able to walk.
Normally this would have been cause for great celebration; but Jesus
happened to have performed this miracle on the Sabbath. When the Jews saw the man carrying his bed;
they confronted him with doing work on the Sabbath. This is a classic example of the blindness
legalism can cause. Instead of rejoicing
with this man in his healing, they were criticizing him for “working” on the
Sabbath. What follows is a series of
events that demonstrate the contrast between legalism and grace.
AN INQUISITION: Because the man was carrying his bed on the
Sabbath, the Jews confronted him with a violation of the Sabbath. Only minutes earlier he had been helpless to
carry even the weight of his own body on his lame lags. Now he is able to walk and carry his
bed. Instead of being amazed at the
power of healing they had witnessed, they were focusing on their legalistic
interpretation of the Law. The Law
permitted taking care of emergencies on the Sabbath so Jesus was not in
violation of the Sabbath and the man was not performing work, he was simply
taking care of his belongings. When they
confronted him, he simply informed them that he was just doing what the man who
healed him had told him to do. They then
started the process of an inquisition to find out who had dared to tell the man
to carry his bed. He honestly told them
that he didn’t know. Traditions and
regulations can easily make us blind to the mercy and grace of God. The Jew’s focus on their interpretation of
the Law caused them to not only ignore a miraculous healing but to stand in
condemnation of others.
AN INSTRUCTION: When Jesus saw the man in the temple again;
He had a word of instruction for this man.
He simply told the man to abandon his sin or the consequences would be
much worse than the illness that took away his ability to walk. His illness was only physical and the
consequences were an inability to walk.
The consequences of sin are much worse than being lame. Not all illness is as a result of our personal
sin; but some illness is. In many
respects, it is better to suffer under the consequences of sin than it is to
allow sin to go unchecked. When sin is
allowed to reign in the lives of people without repentance and faith in Christ
the result is an eternity in hell.
Spiritual reconciliation with the Father is of far greater value than
the ability to walk. Jesus came to free
us from sin on every level. Healing can
never become more important to us than forgiveness. Our spiritual well-being is always more
important than our physical health. This
second encounter with the man was of far greater eternal value than the first.
AN INDIGNATION: The man informed the Jews that it was Jesus
who had healed him. It is very likely
that they knew this to be true already but they wanted to try to have a witness
against Jesus as part of their plot to get rid of Him. When the Jews confronted Jesus with having
healed on the Sabbath and then instructed the healed man to carry his bed;
Jesus responded by stating the Father and He were both working to bring about
the salvation of men. This went against
all that these Jewish people believed.
They understood that Jesus was claiming to have a special relationship
with the Father. This was considered to
by blasphemy so they were filled with indignity at such a claim. They completely ignored His supernatural
ability to cure so they failed to connect the fact that this healing was
evidence as to His ability to forgive as well.
They were blinded by their own legalism and so their hearts were full of
anger instead of joy. God’s will is to have
a personal relationship with all of us.
However, that can only be accomplished by grace through faith. Legalism will never result in a relationship
with the Father.
APPLICATION: Guard our hearts from the blindness of
Legalism. Respond to God’s grace
demonstrated in our lives by living a life of holiness before Him. Rejoice in the grace of God and trust Jesus
for forgiveness as means of entering into a vibrant relationship with God.
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