John Chapter Five: Jesus, God, Honor, Life and Judgment.

Teaching through the Gospel of John can at times start to feel repetitive because John keep banging on the drum of Jesus equal status to God. For those of us who grew up around Christianity it seems like rehashing old issues while other issues await our attention, but for the audience of the time to ascribe Jesus an equal status to God was revolutionary. I also believe that as our culture becomes more post Christian it is again necessary to focus on Jesus' full God-hood.
There are certain things Jesus say that are culturally acceptable that he needs no higher authority to be right about. These are the "Jesus as a great philosopher" statements. Among those, "Give to everyone who asks." "Love your neighbor as yourself." The problem with these statements is they are vastly outnumbered by the statements of Christ that make him seem crazy unless he where to have some authority beyond being smart Rabbi influenced by eastern philosophy (by the way in my mind that is such rubbish and requires a blind spot to huge portions of the Gospel narratives to even pretend it could be true). Hippy eastern Jesus is also known to have said, that denying him before God will have eternal consequences. He claims that following him will put people at odds with their own families who will turn them over to authorities to be persecuted. Jesus says that following him means taking up a cross, the symbol of dissident torture, not sometimes, but daily. If Jesus is not up to his eyeballs with Godly insights then he out to switch to decaf, because he keeps ratcheting up the stakes, not softening them.
That brings us to chapter five of John's Gospel. Jesus once again asserts his authority as God's equal. Follow a few words through verses 19-29, "does," "life," judgement," and "honor." What the father does Jesus does. Certainly Jesus limits his actions to those that the father has given him to do but it does not limit his God hood, its God's own modeling of submission to us. The doctrine of the trinity gives us so many gifts. We see how God models so many essential parts of the human experience within his three-in-one nature so we can live them by example. Love, community, worship and yes submission. Jesus does submission the way only God could, perfectly.
In that submission Jesus is given a task. Judgment. Now in John 3 Jesus says he has come not to judge but to save, but this does not mean a contradiction. Jesus is saying that his primary role is salvation, not judgment. In salvation there will be judgment. Those who reject to wear Jesus' righteousness like a garment will be judged wanting. "Life," and "Judgement," are pitted against each other and like a resolving Chord Jesus finishes his discourse with this statement, "Do not marvel at this, for an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and come out, those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment. (John 5:28-29, ESV)"

Sola Christus!