Image: Berries, North Garden, Virginia, November 2017.
Note: Devotion take from last Sunday's sermon on John 5:15-24.
John 5:22 For the
Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgement unto the Son: 23 That
all men should honour the Son, even as they honour the Father. He that honoureth
not the Son honoureth not the Father which hath sent him.
In vv. 22-23 Jesus turns to the issue of judgment. He notes
that the Father has given the task of judgment to the Son (v. 22; cf. John
3:16-17, 35-36).
The Father has so decreed that all men should honor the Son
even as they honor him (v. 23a). He adds: “He that honoureth not the Son
honoureth not the Father which sent him” (v. 23b).
This is a declaration that Jesus Christ is the dividing line
for all humanity. There are only two types of men, not Jew and Gentile, not
male or female, not high or low, but those who honor the Son and those who do
not honor the Son (cf. Matthew 10:32-33).
Jesus says that the Son of God must receive the same honor as
does the Father. One cannot say I believe in God the Father, but I do not
believe that Jesus is the Son of God. No one comes to the Father but by him
(John 14:6). This has been called the
scandal of particularity. If you take this scandal away, you are rejecting
what Jesus himself taught!
Calvin says on this passage:
[Muslims] and Jews do indeed adorn
with beautiful and magnificent titles the God whom they worship; but we ought
to remember that the name of God when it is separated from Christ, is nothing
but a vain imagination. Whoever then desires to have his worship approved by
the true God, let him not turn aside from Christ.
Let us then honor the Son, as we honor the one who sent him.
Grace and peace, Pastor
Jeff Riddle
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