Truth or Consequences?

John 5:38-47

Main Idea: Jesus warns the religious leaders about the serious consequences of denying his deity.

1. You Cannot Properly Interpret Scripture (5:38-40).
2. You Cannot Love God (5:42-43).
3. You Cannot Honor God (5:44).
4. You Cannot Avoid Judgment (5:45-47).

For almost thirty years you could turn on NBC and watch the game show Truth or Consequences. The format of the show was simple. Contestants would be given about two seconds to answer an obscure trivia question. If they couldn’t figure out the answer (i.e., the truth), they would have to suffer the consequences. If a contestant got an answer correct, he usually faced a quick second or third question to trip him up. The consequences were participating in some ridiculous, embarrassing stunt. I saw part of one episode in which two men couldn’t figure out the “truth,” so they were forced to try to ride a unicycle on national TV.

Tell the truth or face the consequences. Every parent has said some variation of those words, and every child has heard them. John 5:1-37 reveals the truth that Jesus is God. Verses 38-47 consider four consequences for denying this truth.

You Cannot Properly Interpret Scripture

John 5:38-40

If we read the Bible and don’t worship Jesus Christ as the one true God, we’ve completely missed the point. James Boice asks,

What is the primary purpose of Scripture? Is it to record the history of God’s dealings with men? It does record such history, but that is not its primary function. Is it to reveal certain truths to men? Although it does reveal truths, this is not its primary function either. The primary purpose of Scripture is to point men and women to Christ. (John, 2:407)

Many devote a significant amount of time and effort to studying the Scriptures and yet fail to see, understand, and exalt Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. They fail to see Jesus in Scripture because they misunderstand the purpose of the Bible.

Some think the Bible is a book of ancient tales. It’s not much different from Aesop’s Fables. The Bible’s full of stories and tales like “The Tortoise and the Hare,” illustrating ideas such as slow and steady wins the race.

Others think the Bible is a book full of moralistic lessons. It’s a book of virtues. It includes many different genres, everything from fairy tales to history lessons, Greek mythology to English poetry. Each is included to help instill certain positive character traits.

Still others think the Bible is like a driver’s manual. It tells you to turn here, yield over there, and stop when you reach this line. It tells you how to navigate through life. It’s our road map. “Doesn’t the word Bible stand for Basic Instructions before Leaving Earth?”

Finally, some people think the Bible is full of secret codes. The extreme end of this view has people searching the Bible for hidden messages and trying to decipher numerology. A less extreme view is taken by those who search the Bible for inspirational nuggets to impact each day—a little chicken soup for their souls.

To miss the promise of God to send a Savior to rescue mankind from sin, and not to see the fulfillment of that promise in the person of Jesus Christ, is to miss everything! Everything in Scripture serves as a sign pointing us to Jesus. When I was growing up, my parents took the family on a trip from Michigan to Florida. We were so excited! All we could talk about for weeks—maybe months—leading up to that trip was Florida. Just mentioning “Florida” would bring squeals of delight from us as we anticipated all the fun that lay in store. When we finally took that trip, we couldn’t wait to get there. We drove and drove and finally we saw it. There on the side of the highway was a big blue sign with a bright orange sun on it and the word “Florida.” We were so excited my parents pulled the van off the road, and we went over to the sign, lined up around it, and took a picture. Then we took all of our stuff out of the van, made camp around that sign, and spent the next week and a half enjoying the big, blue Florida sign. Of course we didn’t. We got back in the van and drove into Florida and spent a week and a half enjoying it.

Studying the Scriptures without seeing, worshiping, and obeying Jesus Christ is as foolish as making camp around the Florida sign. The whole point of the sign was to encourage us to keep going and to tell us what awaited us. The whole point of the Word of God is to point us to Jesus. God gave us his Word so that we might come to Jesus Christ. I love how Sally Lloyd-Jones captures it:

Now, some people think the Bible is a book of rules, telling you what you should do and shouldn’t do. The Bible certainly does have some rules in it. They show you how life works best. But the Bible isn’t mainly about you and what you should be doing. It’s about God and what he has done. Other people think the Bible is a book of heroes, showing you people you should copy. The Bible does have some heroes in it, but . . . most of the people in the Bible aren’t heroes at all. They make some big mistakes (sometimes on purpose). They get afraid and run away. At times they are downright mean. No, the Bible isn’t a book of rules, or a book of heroes. The Bible is most of all a Story. It’s an adventure story about a young Hero who comes from a far country to win back his lost treasure. It’s a love story about a brave Prince who leaves his palace, his throne—everything—to rescue the one he loves. It’s like the most wonderful of fairy tales that has come true in real life! You see, the best thing about the Story is—it’s true. There are lots of stories in the Bible, but all the stories are telling one Big Story. The Story of how God loves his children and comes to rescue them. It takes the whole Bible to tell this Story. And at the center of the Story, there is a baby. Every Story in the Bible whispers his name. He is like the missing piece in a puzzle—the piece that makes all the other pieces fit together, and suddenly you can see a beautiful picture. (The Jesus Storybook Bible, 14–17)

Jesus makes clear that the whole Bible tells his story. In Luke two disciples are walking down the road when Jesus, freshly resurrected, joins them. He asks them why they’re so sad. They don’t recognize him, so they tell him all about Jesus and his death. Jesus responds:

“How foolish and slow you are to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Wasn’t it necessary for the Messiah to suffer these things and enter into his glory?” Then beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted for them the things concerning himself in all the Scriptures. (Luke 24:25-27)

Jesus wanted them to see that all the Scriptures pointed to him (Luke 24:44; Acts 26:22-23). Everything that had happened to him—his suffering, death, and resurrection—was prophesied already. He had to suffer: Genesis 3—he was the Son whose heel would be bruised. He had to be rejected: Psalm 118—he was the Stone who would be cast out. He had to be killed: Isaiah 53—he was the Lamb led to the slaughter. He had to be victorious: the bruised heel would crush the serpent’s head. The rejected stone would become the cornerstone. The sacrificed Lamb would see his offspring.

The Bible is about Jesus Christ. As the subtitle of The Jesus Storybook Bible indicates, every story whispers his name. Law, poetry, narrative, and prophecy all work together to point us to Jesus Christ. The reason we read this book is to see him. If we miss him, we miss it all.

These religious leaders thought the act of studying God’s Word would bring them favor with God. They assumed their devotion to the Scriptures would cause God to accept them. But God’s Word isn’t a lucky charm. It’s a sign that points us to Jesus Christ. Martin Luther preached on this passage just a few months before his death:

Here Christ would indicate the principal reason why the Scripture was given by God. Men are to study and search in it and to learn that He, He, Mary’s Son, is the one who is able to give eternal life to all who come to Him and believe on Him. Therefore he who would correctly and profitably read Scripture should see to it that he finds Christ in it; then he finds eternal life without fail. On the other hand, if I do not so study and understand Moses and the prophets as to find that Christ came from Heaven for the sake of my salvation, became man, suffered, died, was buried, rose, and ascended to Heaven so that through Him I enjoy reconciliation with God, forgiveness of all my sins, grace, righteousness, and life eternal, then my reading in Scripture is of no help whatsoever to my salvation. I may, of course, become a learned man by reading and studying Scripture and may preach what I have acquired; yet all this would do me no good whatsoever. For if I do not know and do not find the Christ, neither do I find salvation and life eternal. In fact, I actually find bitter death; for our good God has decreed that no other name is given among men whereby they may be saved except the name of Jesus. (Cited in Boice, John, 2:421–22)

Do you realize it’s possible to focus on the minutiae in the text and miss the larger point? Many people I’ve met argue vehemently over peripheral issues while neglecting foundational ones. They argue about the length of a skirt or the beat in the music while ignoring the centrality of the gospel to our lives as believers. If you’re a Christian and you read the Bible while missing the point, you’re going to struggle with confusion, discouragement, frustration, ineffectiveness, and stagnation:

• Confusion because the parts won’t make sense by themselves.
• Discouragement because it will seem like a duty instead of a delight.
• Frustration because your love for the Scriptures won’t grow.
• Ineffectiveness because you won’t understand why it matters in your life.
• Stagnation because you won’t see growth in understanding or maturity.

It’s about Jesus. It’s all about him. We need to guard against being distracted by secondary concerns. A church should be defined by its commitment to Christ, not personal preferences. As Christians, we must be vigilant to help one another keep the main thing the main thing. The main thing is “Jesus Christ and him crucified” (1 Cor 2:2).

You Cannot Love God

John 5:42-43

If you deny the deity of Jesus Christ, it’s impossible for you to love God. You can write songs to God. You can go on mission trips. You can feed the poor. You can give money to the church. But if you don’t worship Jesus Christ as the true God, you cannot love God. If one of your children was completely rebellious, constantly disobeying your instructions, directly defying everything you said, would you believe her when she said, “I love you”? No. You’d probably say, “You don’t love me. You only love yourself.” Her actions reveal her heart’s condition. Jesus says these men who claim to love God reveal a lack of love by their refusal to believe God. They’re unwilling to accept the one God sent.

Four times in this passage Jesus describes himself as having been sent by God (vv. 30, 36,37,38). Yet he was being rejected by those who claimed to love God. Their declaration of love does not square with their lives. If they loved God, they wouldn’t receive false prophets while rejecting God’s Son. Right after my wife and I got engaged, we spent the summer apart. Because we were apart and busy, with infrequent opportunities to call each other, we wrote letters—a lot of letters. Partway through the summer, I went to visit her at camp. Imagine if I had walked in and seen all of my letters unopened and filling the wastebasket. “What’s going on? I thought you loved me,” I’d say. “Oh, I do,” she’d reply. “Then why haven’t you read any of my letters? If you loved me, you would listen to what I have to say,” I could argue. We can claim to love God, but if we don’t listen to what he says, we don’t love him (cf. 14:23-24).

The reality of our love for God is seen in our submission to Jesus Christ. Love is more than the declaration of our lips. Love is seen in our actions. The proof of love is not what we say but what we do. In high school I took geometry. You generate a hypothesis, and then you prove your hypothesis. You couldn’t just turn in your hypothesis to your teacher. You had to prove why your hypothesis was true through a series of logical steps. You may think you love God, but where is your proof? You need to think about what would prove your love is true. Maybe you look at your works and think, I give money in the offering. I go to church. I pray before meals. I try to do the right things. Therefore, I love God. Didn’t the religious leaders do all of these things and more? Yet Jesus said they didn’t love God. The only proof of your love for God that matters is your submission to Jesus Christ. If you refuse to submit to Jesus as Lord, if you deny his deity, then you can write poems to God and paint murals of Bible scenes on the walls of your house, but it doesn’t matter. You cannot love God if you refuse to submit to Jesus Christ as God.

You Cannot Honor God

John 5:44

These men were more concerned about how they would appear to others than they were about the glory of God. They were unwilling to humble themselves, believe on Jesus, and submit to his will. Like them, we care too much about what other people think about us. Why do you choose the clothes you wear? Is it not to craft a certain image? Some people wear a certain kind of thing to church each week for one reason—to impress people. They want people to think they’re spiritual. Often the same motive causes one person to dress fancy and another person to dress immodestly. Both are trying to draw praise. Both are hoping to be noticed. Both are worried about what people might think or say. So the one dresses to catch the eye of the righteous, and the other dresses to catch the eye of the rebellious. Both are still making decisions based on what others might think and say about them. They both want honor from others.

The religious leaders in Jesus’s day could spout great truths about the glory of God. They could wax eloquent about the Shekinah glory and regale you with all the details of God’s glory revealed in Israel’s history. But when it came down to it, they were more concerned about being honored by men than they were about honoring God.

To embrace the deity of Jesus Christ is inherently humbling. If you embrace the gospel message, you’re admitting your life is so messed up that God’s Son had to enter the human race in order to fix you. In order to believe the gospel, you must admit you’re not righteous. You must admit you’re a sinner who desperately needs a Savior. The sad testimony of these men is they liked flattery more than the truth. They swapped God’s salvation for man’s admiration. What a terrible trade! If you were to chart the trajectory of your life on a graph, would it look like you were aiming at man’s applause, man’s acceptance, and man’s appreciation, or God’s approval? The only way to honor God is to humble yourself and admit that he sent his own Son, Jesus, into the world to rescue you. You cannot deny the deity of Jesus and still honor God.

You Cannot Avoid Judgment

John 5:45-47

Rejecting Jesus Christ is going to bring the religious leaders under God’s judgment. In verse 45 Jesus tells them directly, “You will stand accused before God.” Jesus won’t accuse them though; Moses will. They will make their defense: “We held to the law. We obeyed what Moses wrote.” The divine decree will judge them guilty.

Moses wrote that mankind was sinful and rebellious and needed a Savior. That’s what the Ten Commandments are all about. They show us what it means to obey God, and they also show us that we each fail. No one has worshiped God alone. No one has loved his neighbor like himself. No one but Jesus, that is.

Moses wrote that a promised Deliverer would come. The Son of God would come to redeem his people from their sin. These men who put their hope and confidence in Moses’s writings missed the point of what he wrote. He wrote about Christ. He wrote about the coming of Jesus.

In spite of all their religious training, these men had misplaced their hope. Their hope was in their own righteousness. They were trusting in their commitment to reading and obeying the Scriptures. Hope in anything other than the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross for your sin is a fool’s hope. The sad verdict of their lives is offered by Jesus in verse 40: “You are not willing to come to me so that you may have life.” The only way to have life is to come to Jesus, and the only possibility for the man or woman who rejects Jesus Christ is judgment.

When Bob Barker hosted Truth or Consequences, he ended every show by saying, “Hoping all your consequences are happy ones.” If you deny the truth about Jesus, your consequences are not going to be happy.

• You won’t understand the Bible.
• You won’t love God.
• You won’t honor God.
• You won’t avoid judgment.

But if you embrace the truth about Jesus, these four consequences flip around and become happy ones.

• Because of Jesus, you will avoid judgment.
• Because of Jesus, you will honor God.
• Because of Jesus, you will love God.
• Because of Jesus, you will understand the Bible. In fact, the Bible will come to life as you start to see Jesus on every page.

Reflect and Discuss

1. What consequences will you face if you deny or miss the truth that Jesus is God?
2. What is the primary purpose of Scripture?
3. What are some ways people misunderstand the purpose of Scripture?
4. In your own study of Scripture, how is your focus moving to Jesus?
5. What steps can you take to ensure Jesus remains at the center of your Bible study?
6. What Old Testament passages can you think of that point to Jesus?
7. What is the danger in focusing on the minutiae in a text and missing the larger point?
8. What results will occur in our theology and doctrine if we read Scripture and miss the point of Jesus?
9. How is it humbling to embrace the gospel of Jesus?
10. How can Moses accuse those who claim to have kept the law?