The Jews were seeking all the more to kill him… So Jesus said to them… John 5:18, 19
To get the feel of this you need to picture Jesus speaking to an angry crowd of demonstrators. This is a hostile environment. The people are offended by him and they have it in for him.
To these antagonistic people Jesus says, “Whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life” (5:24).
Every word Jesus speaks here is so that people who hate him may have eternal life. What does Jesus say so that they may have eternal life? First, they need to know the truth about Jesus and second, they need to know the truth about themselves. And that is our focus over these next days.
When Jesus tells this crowd (who wants to kill him) the truth about themselves, it is not pretty. It is not easy to hear, and it must have taken immense courage for our Lord to speak as he did here.
John already said that Jesus is full of grace and truth. The truth is in what he says. The grace is in why he said it: “I say these things so that you may be saved” (5:34). When Jesus says the hardest things to you, it is because he seeks the best things for you.
The desire of Jesus, even for people who are openly hostile toward him, is that they should be saved. All that he says here is spoken to that end. Whenever you find something in the Bible that offends you, remember that God says these things so that you may be saved.
React to this statement: “When Jesus says the hardest things to you, it is because he seeks the best things for you.”
