He Wrote Of Me
“For if you believed Moses, you would believe me; for he wrote of me.”
These words of our Lord point out the fact that Moses, the servant of the Lord, spoke and wrote about Christ. But we know that the entire Old Testament is about our Lord Jesus Christ. From Genesis to Malachi, Christ is the central theme of the Old Testament. If you miss Jesus in the Old Testament, you are not reading biblically. It is the New Testament that clearly reveals the Lord to us, and then when we go back to the Old we find him everywhere. The New Testament makes great use of the Old Testament. There are direct quotations, allusions, illustrations, types, and shadows.
Now here in John 5, our Lord is confronting the Jews. They were persecuting Jesus (vs. 16). They were seeking to kill him (vs. 18) because they said he made himself equal with God and that was blasphemous to them. Jesus spends a lot of time in verses 19 – 46 explaining why he was equal with God. John’s Gospel is one big thesis aimed at proving that Jesus is the Son of God and, in particular, that he is God.
A man had been lying at the Pool of Bethesda for a long time. He was paralyzed. Verse 5 says that he had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. In a matter of moments Jesus had healed him. He told the man to get up and take his bed and walk, and that’s what he did. The problem was that he was carrying his bed on the Sabbath day, and the irony of the passage is that the Jews don’t care one whit about his being healed. All they cared about was rigid observance of the Law.
The problem, however, was that the Old Testament Scripture does not say anything specific prohibiting the carrying of a bed. Later on, oral tradition worked out a very detailed code of laws to be observed, and carrying your bed was deemed to be work; therefore, it was sin if done on the Sabbath. It was not possible for Jesus to break the Sabbath because he is Lord of the Sabbath (Mark 2:28). When Jesus is later confronted and questioned by the Jews as to why he healed the man on the Sabbath, he replies that he was working and that his Father was also working (vs. 17). The Jews, therefore, viewed Jesus also as breaking the Sabbath because he acknowledged that he was working.
The equality between God the Father and Jesus is seen in the statements that Jesus makes in regard to the Jews’ accusations of him (vs. 18). In verse 19, the Son only does what the Father does. It is the same work. The work of Jesus is not a lesser work than God the Father’s. It is equal. This is because reciprocal love exists between the Father and the Son (vs. 20). Greater works will be done by the Father in raising the dead and giving them life (vs. 21). But Jesus will do the same (vs. 21), and he will do it sovereignly (“to whom he will”). The Son possess all judgment; therefore, the judgment of the Son must be perfect since the Father has committed this judgment to the Son (vs. 22, 27). Just as the Father is honored so too must Jesus be honored because the judgment is God’s (vs. 23). A failure to honor the Son is a failure to honor the Father (vs. 23).
The consequence of these statements (vs. 24) is that we should believe the Son. Why would we not? To hear the words of Jesus and to believe that God the Father had sent him brings eternal life. Judgment is averted and we pass from death to life (vs. 24). This is salvation, of course. Jesus speaks about the dead hearing the voice of the Son of God and living (vs. 25). This is regeneration and not just resurrection from the dead (vv. 28, 29). The picture of resurrection is used of being born again to new life.
Whatever Jesus does he does because the Father would do the same. Jesus does not act independently of the Father. He cannot. He does the will of the Father (vs. 30). And Jesus does not promote himself (vs. 31) in this regard. The Father bears witness of him (vs. 37), and so too does John the Baptist (vv. 32 – 35). The works that Jesus was doing also bore witness of him (vs. 36). This was a greater witness than John the Baptist because the works were also the works of the Father. The works simply prove that Jesus was sent by God.
It is at this point that Jesus goes for the kill ( if I can put it like that). In verse 37, he accuses the Jews of never having heard the voice of God the Father and of never seeing his form. A closer investigation would lead us to conclude that Jesus is indirectly saying to them, “you are not listening to me and you are not looking to me.” Jesus says the Jews do not have God’s word in them and they don’t believe the Son sent by the Father (vs. 38). They are not reading their Old Testaments right (vs. 39) because they are missing Jesus in them (vs. 39). This proves to us that it is possible to read the Bible and miss Jesus. Why is this so? Because we come with our own ideas about Jesus and God. Instead of listening to the evidence in the Word, we reject it. That’s what the Jews did. Jesus says the real issue is that they did not want to come to him (vs. 40). No one comes to Jesus just because he wants to. No one wants to (John 6:36). It is the Father who draws a person (John 6:37, 44). The only way to God is through Jesus (John 14:6). The Jews did not love God (vs. 42). They refuse Jesus (vs. 43). Jesus accuses them of accepting all other lesser individuals (vs. 44). Jesus has come in the Father’s name and they won’t accept him. How could they believe if this was how they thought and acted (vs. 44). They preferred the glory of man to the glory of God (cf. John 12:37 – 43, esp. vs. 43). Jesus doesn’t even have to accuse them at the Judgment. Moses will accuse them. They placed great faith in Moses. He was their great Law-Giver. They had set their hope on Moses (vs. 45).
And this brings Jesus to his powerful indictment of them. He says that if they believed Moses, they would have believed him (vs. 46). Why would they have believed Jesus? Because Moses “wrote of me.” But since they reject Jesus, they reject Moses. So the one on whom they pin their hopes will fail them in the end. When they look to Moses at the judgment, Moses will point to Jesus. Jesus is saying, you cannot believe Moses and not me. To believe all that Moses wrote is to believe what Jesus says (vs. 47). What a remarkable statement by our Lord. Those who believe Genesis through Deuteronomy will believe the words of Jesus.
The disciples on the road to Emmaus were confronted with the greatest exposition of Scripture ever given (Luke 24:27). Jesus began at Moses (i.e. Genesis through Deuteronomy) and went through all the Prophets explaining what all the Scriptures said about himself. The entire Old Testament is a spiritual gold mine. The feast is laid out for us. All we must do is taste and eat. Savor Christ. Don’t neglect the Old Testament. You would be neglecting Jesus.
On whom have we sat our hope? Many follow the writings of others, their blogs, their websites. It is possible to miss Christ. We too easily set our hopes on men. Jesus says in verse 47, “how will you believe my words?” If we truly wish to know Jesus then we must read what was written of him. Not only must we read, but also receive his Word and believe him. Moses wrote of Jesus. So did David. So did all the Prophets. To set our hope on anything other than Christ is to be accused by them at the judgment. The real issue ultimately is whether we truly believe Jesus to be who he says he is. He is equal with the Father and does the same work as the Father, and the Scriptures bear witness to this.