John 5:17-47 | What's a lesson for the original audience?

Jesus spells out this lesson very clearly in the text. The Son is not operating on His authority. He is operating on the authority of the Father. We have all heard the saying that goes, "The apple doesn't fall far from the tree." The point of the saying is that we operate in a father-like-son world. A son imitates his father. So the same for the Son of God imitating the Father. Jesus makes regular statements like this throughout the Gospels. If you have seen the Son, you have seen the Father. Why? He is the express image of the Father. Naturally this raises some expectations.

Jesus brings a direct comparison in saying this,

21 For as the Father raises the dead and gives life to them, even so the Son gives life to whom He will.
-John 5:21


Of course, Jesus is drawing attention to the Father having authority over life and death. Jesus is saying the same for Him. The call that He is making is to look back upon the miracles that the Father has performed and see that the Son does the same. They come from the same authority. The Son has been committed as the Judge. The Son's words are to be believed in as the Father's words were. If you believe in the Father, you must believe in the Son.

What lesson are you seeing?
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