20 truly amazing things Jesus said about Himself in John 5.
Is He a liar, a lunatic, or the Lord?
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1. I do what God the Father does.
So Jesus said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise. John 5:19
2. God the Father loves Me and shows Me all He is doing.
For the Father loves the Son and shows him all that he himself is doing. And greater works than these will he show him, so that you may marvel. John 5:20
3. I give life to the ones I choose to give life to.
For as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom he will. John 5:21
4. All judgement has been given to Me.
The Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son, John 5:22
5. I should be honored as God the Father is honored.
... that all may honor the Son, just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him. John 5:23
6. Whoever hears Me and believes in Me has eternal life.
Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life. Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. John 5:24-25
7. I have life in Myself just as God the Father does.
For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself. John 5:26
8. I have authority that has been given to Me from the Father.
And he has given him authority to execute judgment, because he is the Son of Man. John 5:27
9. One day, the dead will hear My voice.
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
10. My judgement is just.
I can do nothing on my own. As I hear, I judge, and my judgment is just, because I seek not my own will but the will of him who sent me. John 5:30
11. Those who testify about Me are testifying the truth.
If I alone bear witness about myself, my testimony is not true. There is another who bears witness about me, and I know that the testimony that he bears about me is true. You sent to John, and he has borne witness to the truth. John 5:31-33
12. If you listen to what I say, you will be saved.
Not that the testimony that I receive is from man, but I say these things so that you may be saved. John 5:34
13. My testimony is greater than that of John's.
He was a burning and shining lamp, and you were willing to rejoice for a while in his light. But the testimony that I have is greater than that of John. John 5: 35-36a
14. The works that I do prove that I have been sent by God the Father.
For the works that the Father has given me to accomplish, the very works that I am doing, bear witness about me that the Father has sent me. John 5:36
15. If you do not believe in Me, you don't have the Father's word abiding in you.
And the Father who sent me has himself borne witness about me. His voice you have never heard, his form you have never seen, and you do not have his word abiding in you, for you do not believe the one whom he has sent. John 5:37-38
16. The Scriptures point toward Me.
You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, John 5:39
17. If you come to Me, you will have life.
... yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life. John 5:40
18. I have come in the name of God the Father.
I do not receive glory from people. But I know that you do not have the love of God within you. I have come in my Father's name, and you do not receive me. If another comes in his own name, you will receive him. John 5:41-43
19. I seek the glory that comes from the only God.
How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the only God? John 5:44
20. Moses in the ancient Scriptures wrote about Me.
Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father. There is one who accuses you: Moses, on whom you have set your hope. For if you believed Moses, you would believe me; for he wrote of me. John 5:45-46
What a list of outrageous claims! If we heard someone in our church make these claims today, we'd likely kick them out of the church... or at least we'd warn everybody to stay far away!
Yet Jesus said all this... and more. In Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis wrote, “I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic — on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg — or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.”
What will we make of Christ? Is He a liar, a lunatic, or Lord?
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