What is More Important?

Previously I noticed a chiastic structure in this chapter that I mapped out graphically. Over the past few days I have started noticing another chiastic structure in this passage that is emerging that overlaps the previous one. Here is what I am seeing.

Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, unless it is something He sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, these things the Son also does in like manner.

For the Father loves the Son, and shows Him all things that He Himself is doing; and the Father will show Him greater works than these, so that you will marvel.

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

For not even the Father judges anyone, but He has given all judgment to the Son, 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.

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.

Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live.

For just as the Father has life in Himself, even so He gave to the Son also to have life in Himself; and He gave Him authority to execute judgment, because He is the Son of Man.

"Do not marvel at this; for an hour is coming, in which all who are in the tombs will hear His voice, and will come forth; those who did the good deeds to a resurrection of life, those who committed the evil deeds to a resurrection of judgment.

"I can do nothing on My own initiative. As I hear, I judge; and My judgment is just, because I do not seek My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me. (John 5:19-30)

If you are aware of how a chiasm is set up, the most important point of the whole passage is not at the end of the writing like we often tend to do in our Western culture but is at the very center of the bell curve-like structure. Given that arrangement, I now can see that the center message of both of these chiasms is about the importance of the authority of Jesus Christ. But in this last chiasm it moves a little farther and the climax statement at the center gives the compelling results of recognizing and embracing that authority – eternal life for all who choose to listen and believe the truth about Jesus and His Father.

As I meditate over this and the surrounding passage I notice another small series that seems to complement this larger one. And the message that I sense from it is vitally important for me and all those who sincerely want to receive eternal life.

You do not have His word abiding in you, for you do not believe Him whom He sent.

You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life;

it is these that testify about Me;

and you are unwilling to come to Me so that you may have life. (John 5:38-40)

As I read and reread over these last few verses it began to impress itself on me that I and many around me in my life have made the mistake that Jesus is pointing out here. Like the Jews, we have claimed to have a handle on eternal life because we are so agile with the Word and founded on the Word of God. We know how to be ready to quote proof texts and be more educated in biblical knowledge than most. We raised our children to memorize Scriptures and to learn all the right answers, even to many questions they had never thought to ask to start with. We even learned to quote these very verses to prove that the Jews made a serious mistake in rejecting Jesus as their Messiah.

And yet through all of this it is still so very easy to repeat the same mistake that those before us did, even when the clear declaration of Jesus is fresh on our lips. While firmly believing that we have 'the truth' and that our church is the one identified as the last church and will go through to the kingdom, we have mostly based our beliefs and hopes on the foundation of our Bible knowledge rather than on an intimate, personal, integrated relationship with the personality of Jesus Christ in a very real sense.

While claiming to have the Word abiding in us, quoting the Word ubiquitously and even being able to mingle it into nearly everything we talk about in religion, we still are far from actually knowing the living, real-time presence of Jesus as a personal friend and one who is eager to drastically change our opinions about how our heavenly Father feels towards us. In short, we have settled for an intellectual religion while refusing to enter into an intimacy with God that is so vital for experiencing a saving relationship that will prepare us to enjoy His fellowship for all of eternity.

The power of deception lies mostly in the fact that we seldom realize we are deceived. When that is the case we can read clear statements like this about our true condition and still insist that it only applies to someone else somewhere else and not to us. Yet I am learning that if I myself do not feel the convicting presence of the Spirit urging me to see myself and my own condition in these warnings from Jesus and feel a growing need to apply these words to my own relationship with God, then I am likely still caught in a trap of deception myself and am in desperate need of an awakening just as were the Jews in Jesus' day.

I can distinctly remember that many times over the years I have pondered with frustration the words of Jesus about coming to Him. Come to Me for rest. Believe in Me. Follow Me. Come to Me so that you may have life. All of these sorts of statements seemed to be designed to frustrate me more than to help me feel closer to God or feel secure. Since I could not personally and physically see Jesus for myself I found it maddeningly irritating at times to read such statements for they seemed to throw up an impossible prerequisite that I had to accomplish before God would allow me to receive the craving of my heart, the peace and joy that I so longed to experience. Since I couldn't figure out the right formula to get myself past the apparent conditions laid down, I could never quite get to the place that my heart longed for the most.

I would try to spend hours feeding on the Word of God and maybe even memorizing Scriptures to fill my mind with truth. That is certainly helpful and I wouldn't want to discourage anyone from pursuing that to some extent. But there was always something still missing and I never seemed to be able to put my finger on the missing ingredients from religion that would finally help me break through into that feeling of being reconciled to God and at peace with my conscience.

As I immersed myself in the Word year after year I became more and more educated and familiar with Scriptures. That has been a tremendous blessing and asset to me over my life and I certainly do not regret that investment. God has used that internal library of stored verses many times to knit together incredible pictures of beauty as He has been revealing Himself to me over recent years. But that knowledge alone never accomplished what my heart has longed for all of my life. Only a personal encounter daily with the presence and person of Jesus Christ and His Father through the intercession of the Spirit has allowed me to begin to experience the kind of relationship that Jesus speaks of in this passage.

So how do I move past just becoming a growing expert in the Word of God into coming to Jesus and having that Word Himself abide in me?

I must say that it is an on-going experiment of faith. (Interestingly it is an adventure of interactive faith, or maybe I might say mutual faith. I have been discovering that the faith of Jesus is actually a faith that Jesus has in us where He believes that given enough attention and attraction we will respond to His drawing love in our lives.) Yes, it is true that if we look around us many of us cannot discern very well the evidences of love in our lives. But it is sometimes in a very different place that we discover God is speaking to our souls, and many times in the most unexpected places and ways. Some of these experiences I would never choose on my own, but God shows up there anyway, maybe just to prove that He can love me anytime and anywhere.

But on my part, I choose to spend time every morning for an extended period of time meditating in the Word of God and actively listening internally for any promptings or convictings that the Spirit of God may want to bring to my attention. I try to focus on engaging my heart and my spirit intentionally in this experience at least as much as my intellect if not more. I spend this time in the Word, not primarily to increase my knowledge of the Bible – though that is certainly a powerful byproduct of these times – but mostly to quiet my own spirit and to submit my heart and will to the authority of God in my life for that day.

I have also found for myself that journaling, as I am doing at this very moment, dramatically improves my ability to hear His Spirit. It is like an interactive conversation with God while I write and I find it refreshing, challenging and inspiring. I try to maintain a caution against trying to figure very much out for myself though, and so I try to stop at times and just listen in silence to what God may be trying to speak to my heart or mind that I might miss in my eagerness to capture it in words. Sometimes the most important messages from God cannot be put into words at all but can only be received by a spirit that is willing to be still long enough to receive it effectively.

Father, I sense one of those times right now. I don't want to be so busy writing down what I hear in Your Word that I miss the quiet whisperings of Your love speaking to the deep wounded places in my soul that still need healing. Sometimes I need to just rest in Your arms and lay back on Your chest and let Your love hold me emotionally. These kinds of encounters with You give me a stability that lasts all throughout my day. But each morning I need to come again and quietly dwell in Your presence and be again recharged to meet the challenges and hazards of another day.

I choose to praise You and meditate on the qualities of Your character as they impress me with my need to reflect them more in my own relationships throughout the day. But the only way I can reflect them is to focus on You more intently myself and to absorb them into my own soul. Thank-you for being the One who is always faithful, compassionate, loving, forgiving, kind, generous, providing, protecting, blessing.... Reveal Your glory through me today in every conversation, in every interaction with others and in every choice that I have to make today. Dwell in me by Your Spirit and fill my life with Your presence so that I sink into insignificance while You become the Star that draws others to want to know You better themselves.