SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 3/7/2016 12:10 PM
My Worship Time Focus:
Jesus is Equal to God in His Honor
Bible Reading &
Meditation Reference: John 5:23-24
Message of the verses: “23 so that all will honor the Son even as they honor the Father.
He who does not honor the
Son does not honor the Father who sent Him. 24 "Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and
believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment,
but has passed out of death into life.”
Perhaps of
all of these qualities that we have been looking at that are the same with
Jesus as with the Father, this may be the most important one, for in this one,
which we have called honor involves worship.
What we are saying, or what Jesus is saying is that worshiping Jesus is
equal to worshiping the Father.
It is the
Father’s purpose in entrusting all His works and judgment to His Son, Jesus “so
that all will honor the Son even as they honor the Father.” MacArthur writes “It is only fitting that
those equal in nature (vv. 17-18), works (vv. 19-20), power and sovereignty (v.
21), and judgment (v. 22) would be accorded equal honor. The Father’s honor is not diminished by the
honor paid to Christ; on the contrary it is enhanced.”
One of the
great problems of the Jews is that they thought that worshiping the Father and
rejecting the Son was the right way to worship, for they did not then nor do
now believe that God is three in One, as many religions today believe. Jesus goes on to tell them “he who does not
honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him. We will now look at a quote from D. A. Carson
which comes from MacArthur’s commentary:
“In a theistic universe, such a statement belongs to one who is himself
to be addressed as God (cf. 20:28), or to stark insanity. The one who utters such things is to be
dismissed with pity or scorn, or worshipped as Lord. If with much current scholarship we retreat
to seeing in such material less the claims of the Son than the beliefs and
witness of the Evangelist and his church, the same options confront us. Either John is supremely deluded and must be
dismissed as a fool, or his witness is true and Jesus is to be ascribed the
honours due God alone. There is no
rational middle ground.”
We will
look at another quote, this time from John Heading “It is not up to a man to
decide that he will honour the One or the Other; it is either both or
neither. In religious circles, it is too
easy for unbelief to contemplate God but not the Son. Knowledge of One implies knowledge of the
Other (John 8:19); hatred of One implies hatred of the Other (15:23); denial of
One implies denial of the Other (1 John 2:23).”
Let us look
at a couple verses in Isaiah and I will highlight different areas in both
verses: “"I am the LORD, that is My
name; I will not give My
glory to another, Nor My praise to graven images (42:8).” “"For My own sake, for My own sake, I
will act; For how can My name be profaned? And My glory I will not give to another (48:11).” Yet, the Father has command that “all will
honor the Son.” Now we will look at what
Paul wrote to the Philippians in 2:9-11 “9 For this reason also, God highly
exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, 10 so that
at the name of Jesus EVERY KNEE WILL BOW, of those who are in heaven and on
earth and under the earth, 11 and that every tongue will confess that Jesus
Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” One way or another all will one day bow the
knee to the Lord Jesus Christ, and those who are believers willingly do this
very often, or at least should do that, however Paul states here that someday
those who are not willing to do that in this life will one day do it in the
next life, perhaps all of this will happen at the Great White Throne Judgment.
Let us look
again at how our Lord closes this part of His discourse: “he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life,
and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life.” This reminds me of Acts 4:12 which states “"And
there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that
has been given among men by which we must be saved."” Of course Peter is speaking of our Lord in
this verse.
John
MacArthur concludes this section by writing “The claims of Jesus Christ
confront everyone, forcing all to make a decision either for or against
Him. There is no neutral ground, for as
Jesus said, ‘He who is not with Me is against Me; and he who does not gather
with Me, scatters’ (Luke 11:23). Those
who accept Him for who He is, God incarnate in human flesh, will be saved from
their sins through Him (Matt. 1:21; 1 Tim. 1:15; Heb. 7:25). But those who believe Him to be anything
other than who He truly is will one day face His judgment (John 3:18; 9:39;
12:47-48; 16:8-9; Acts 10:38-42; 17:31; 2 Tim 4:1).” I remember a quote in a movie that I saw, one
of those “Indiana Jones” movies and the quote I remember is “choose wisely.”
Spiritual meaning for my life today: Shortly after I became a believer I had no
idea who Jesus truly was, but the patience of God was with me and step by step
He showed me the truths about who His Son was, and for that I am eternally
grateful.
My Steps of Faith for
Today: “but sanctify Christ as Lord
in your hearts, always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you
to give an account for the hope that is in you, yet with gentleness and
reverence (1 Peter 3:15).”
Answer to yesterday’s Bible question: “Candlestick, table, and shew bread” (Hebrews
9:2).
Today’s Bible question:
“During His temptation, how long did Jesus go without eating?”
Answer in our next SD.
3/7/2016 12:51 PM
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