John 5

“For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise” (v19).   John tells us that Jesus was being persecuted for healing on the Sabbath and for calling God His Father, “making himself equal with God” (v18).  Many religious people, including leaders, thought they knew what God was like, and they rejected the image of God that Jesus demonstrated and preached: a God who cared for outcasts, ate with sinners, condemned hypocrisy, and “broke” the Sabbath laws for the sake of healing. 

“The Son gives life to whom He will” (v21). Jesus the Son calls us to abandon our self-righteousness and false ideas about God. When we embrace Jesus, everything He said and did, we find life.