John 5 - Introduction

The Healing of the Disabled Man - Discourse on Eternal Life - God's Witness To Jesus.

The chapter commences with ‘After these things'. This is a vague connecting phrase regularly used by John (compare John 3:22; John 6:1; John 7:1; John 19:38; John 21:1 see also John 2:12; John 19:28). It may indicate here that a new phase of the Gospel has begun, although not necessarily directly, and we must be wary of fitting John into our own mould. There does, however, appear to be a different emphasis as Jesus comes into conflict with ‘the Judaisers', and more detailed aspects of His self-revelation are made known.

It begins with the healing of the disabled man on the Sabbath, a Messianic sign, together with the resulting controversy and the first indications of a desire to kill Him because He made Himself equal with God, but expressed in such a way as to indicate that those desires were already there. It then leads on to Jesus' revealing His equality with God as the Co-worker with God, the Source of Life and the Judge of all.

And it closes with Jesus declaring the different ways in which God has borne witness to Him, through John the Baptiser (John 5:33), through His mighty works (John 5:36), through God's own voice, including the voice at His baptism (John 5:37), through God's word (John 5:38), and through Moses (John 5:45). Included also is the counteraccusation that they do not believe because they seek their own glory (John 5:43).