Wishful Thinking

For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son also gives life to whom He wishes.

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. (John 5:21,24)

I have had a question in the back of my mind for quite some time now about the phrase in verse 21 whom He wishes. I have touched on this previously as a distinction between what the Father does and what the Son does, but it still has a great deal more hidden beneath the surface that I want to uncover and appreciate.

As I sat meditating again on this passage this morning it started to emerge more clearly as I saw what seems to me to be a link between this and the people described in verse 24. Not everyone is going to receive the kind of life that the Son came to impart to this world – eternal life. And that is the difference that seems to be implied here between what the Father does and what the Son does if I am not mistaken. But I am sure that there is far more to be uncovered here than what is plain to me right now.

Part of my struggle to perceive what the real meaning is in these passages is my inability to be able to read in the original languages and catch the deeper nuances and potential implications that can be seen when that is available. When something is read in a translated language instead of the original, much of the meaning has to be deciphered more by inference sometimes than by clear statements. But even that has it hazards.

In these two verses I see a connection that links them more closely than what may first appear. What I see now in this second verse appears to answer the question I have had for a long time about just who it is that Jesus was referring to in the phrase to whom He wishes. It is people who actually hear, respond and choose to believe what Jesus came to reveal about what God is like.

As I have come to appreciate more fully the outlines of what is really going on in this great war in the universe, it has become easier to see how many things fit in more accurately into that bigger picture. As I have seen more clearly how in heaven the Father was accused of playing favoritism to the Son over Lucifer when it appeared to Lucifer that there was no distinguishable difference between himself and the Son, it makes more sense to see many statements of Jesus addressing those very accusations. And given that larger context, much of what Jesus is saying here, at least in my growing opinion, is as much being addressed directly to Satan (formerly Lucifer) as much as to the people around who were listening at that time.

The whole problem of sin all started in heaven with Lucifer when he began to agitate that the Father was not being fair or even-handed in His treatment of him in comparison to the privileges granted to the Son. Some believe, and I tend to gravitate that direction myself, that God created Lucifer in appearances so similar to Christ that Lucifer could not discern with his own capabilities of perception that the Son was any different than himself. In fact, it could well have appeared to the entire created universe of intelligent beings that the Son and Lucifer appeared to be something like twins. They at first thought so much alike, looked so much alike and both reflected God so perfectly that for all practical purposes and perceptions it could be assumed that they both indeed had the same origins and rank and capacities.

One reason that I am coming to believe this is because of what Jesus later did by coming to this earth to appear as a human. When Jesus showed up as a baby who looked totally like other babies and grew up in a poor home where He had to struggle and work and suffer right along with every other average person, the effect of that camouflage so to speak was that it became extremely difficult if not impossible for humans to discern that this man was actually God and not just a man like everyone else. In fact, this is seen in Jesus' words to Peter when Peter had just confessed that Jesus was the Son of God, He made it plain that Peter had not received that idea on his own but had received it from an outside Source, viz., a revelation from God Himself.

Given that pattern of how God chose to relate to His created beings on the human level, it stands to reason that He may well have related to angels using the very same technique even before any angels had ever fallen out of favor with God. God seems very much to be into wanting to relate to His children as much as possible on their level more than as just a superior. He somehow must have created us, and maybe the angels as well, with a desire to relate more closely to other beings that are very similar in nature and appearance to themselves better than beings of a different breed or status.

If that is true – and I don't see much evidence to refute that at this point – then it could be entirely possible that Jesus chose at some point to take on a form very much like an angel so that angels could relate to Him more intimately just as He chose later to become a human so that humans could relate to Him and to the Father more intimately. Jesus really is the great liaison between all of His intelligent created beings and the Father God who is over all.

Of course, this does not come without its risks. Just as Jesus was largely misunderstood and not appreciated for who He really was by humans when He was here on this earth, it also implies the same possibility that Lucifer himself had previously fallen into the same problem when he assumed that Jesus was not that much different than himself as he and Jesus worked together to cover the throne of God at the center of the universe. Lucifer's original job was to hover over the throne of the Almighty as a covering cherub as well as to know God more intimately than all the other created beings. He was then to convey to those other beings the real truth about what God was like and explain His will in ways they might better understand.

Both Jesus and Lucifer were positioned to reflect the true glory and essence of what and who God is to the rest of the universe. That is why the fall of Lucifer was so spectacularly devastating and had such widespread impact all throughout the universe because he had such immense credibility as a legitimate interpreter of what others should believe about God.

The final showdown and the core issue of the whole great war between Christ and Satan is the tension between what Lucifer claims is the real truth about God and what Jesus claims is the real truth about God. Humans are not the only intelligent beings aligning themselves with one side or the other. Every created intelligent being all throughout the universe is compelled to choose which side they are going to believe and how they are going to align themselves in regards to the accusations against the Father. There is no middle ground; everyone ultimately has to decide if their picture of God is going to be like what Jesus came to reveal in His life of humility, compassion, love and selfless service, or if the myriads of lies about God might have some validity that Satan has been spreading throughout the universe since long before this world was even created.

Even the issue of how to interpret these words of Jesus here are strongly influenced by our preconceived ideas about what God is really like. It is so easy to impose on these words the common assumption that God is in some regards at least a little bit arbitrary. Whenever that belief is present it is very easy to think that maybe Jesus just picks certain people to be saved and chooses to have others be lost. This kind of thinking fosters doubts about God's fairness deep in the heart even if those doubts are never allowed to surface because they might sound conflictive with religious propriety. But it is what our heart really believes about God far more than what our minds and words claim to believe that determines which side of this controversy we are going to emerge on in the end. And it is assumptions about God that are exposed when we come to statements such as this that can be viewed from more than one perspective. What we choose to believe about how God feels about us too often reflects our preconceived notions and the culture around us.

What has been emerging more and more clearly to me over the past few years is that God absolutely is not arbitrary despite all the assumed evidence to the contrary. Jesus is not here referring to some sort of fatalistic determinism arbitrarily imposed by God on humans as to who can be saved and who is to be damned. Far from that, this passage I believe is revealing that those whom Jesus wishes to save are simply those who respond to the real truth about God that He came to reveal to this world, in fact to the entire universe. All who chose to listen and respond and believe the representation of God in the life of Jesus in contradiction to the many lies about God the enemy has implanted in our hearts, those are the ones who align themselves on the side of Christ and that enables Him to give them the kind of eternal life that can only be found through a response of faith that takes hold of the real truth about God.

In this last verse I see Jesus expanding much more fully the real truth about those who enter into the wishful thinking of Jesus described in verse 21. Anyone who chooses to change their opinions about how God feels about them and what He is really like based on what Jesus revealed about Him will enter into eternal life. They will also bypass the public exposure called judgment that will embarrass and shame all who refuse to accept Jesus' version of what God is really like and instead cling to their traditions and assumptions about God that are more familiar and widely believed by most everyone around them.