 |  |
We must not allow ourselves to lose the main line of argument because, in themselves,
the side issues are so great. The matter before us, as it was before the Lord, His disciples
and the Jews, was His claim to equality with God, a claim resident in His Sonship, and by
the fact that He declared that the works which He did were the self-same that the Father
did. We resist therefore the temptation to explore the doctrines of resurrection, of
quickening, of judgment; each theme demanding a study to itself; and pass on, with the
Lord, to His conclusion
"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" (John 5: 23).
How should men honour the Father? They must worship Him in spirit and in truth
(John 4: 23).
"All men should honour the Son, even as they honour the Father."
"The Father raiseth the dead, and quickeneth them" (John 5: 21).
"Jesus said, I am the resurrection, and the life" (John 11: 25).
"All men should honour the Son, even as they honour the Father."
"Shew us the Father, and it sufficeth us" (John 14: 8).
"He that hath seen ME hath seen the FATHER . . . . . believest thou not that I am in
the Father, and the Father in Me?" (John 14: 9, 10).
"All men should honour the Son, even as they honour the Father."
"Father, the hour is come; glorify Thy Son, that Thy Son also may glorify Thee"
(John 17: 1).
"I have glorified Thee . . . . . glorify Thou Me with Thine Own self, with the glory
which I had with Thee before the world was" (John 17: 4, 5).
"All men should honour the Son, even as they honour the Father."
Let us not miss the second part of John 5: 23. A man may say that he honours the
Father, for He indeed is God, but that he cannot bring himself to honour the Son in the
same way, because that appears to be honouring One Who was subordinate. Let not such
think that it is possible thus to honour the Father. It is impossible. Any who withhold
equal honour to the Son, render themselves unable to honour the Father at all.
"I am the Way, the Truth and the Life, no man cometh unto the Father, but by Me"
(John 14: 6).
To think that the Person and Character of the Father is less understandable than the
Person and Character of the Son, betrays a dangerous ignorance.
"All things are delivered unto me of My Father, and no man knoweth the Son but the
Father; neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the
Son will reveal Him" (Matt. 11: 27).
a statement parallel with those already considered in John's Gospel.