John 5 - NLT Student Life Application Study Bible

5:1-15 Hurt and Healed After 38 years, this man’s problem had become a way of life. No one had ever helped him with what he needed, and it looked like he had no hope of ever being healed. But no matter how hopeless a situation seems or how trapped we feel because of our limitations, God is able to meet our deepest needs, and he has shown himself again and again to be the deliverer of his people. He may have special work for us to do in spite of the painful situation—or maybe even because of it. Many people are able to minister most effectively to others who are hurting because they can empathize with their pain (see 2 Corinthians 1:4).

5:10 What’s Important This man who hadn’t walked for 38 years had been healed, but the Pharisees were more concerned about their petty rules than the life and health of a human being. They had witnessed both a mighty miracle of healing and the breaking of one of their rules—and they focused their attention on the broken rule instead of the man and the miracle. It can be easy to get so caught up in our rules and policies that we forget the needs of the people involved. We must not let our wonder at what God is doing be diminished by our human guidelines for living, especially if the rules have become needless stumbling blocks rather than a help to people.

5:24-26 Life in Christ Eternal life—living forever with God—begins the moment a person accepts Jesus as Savior, thus becoming a new person in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17). Because God is the source and creator of life, there is no life apart from him, here or in eternity. The life in us is a gift from him (see Deuteronomy 30:20; Psalm 36:9). Because Jesus is eternally existent with God the Father and is God’s creative Word (John 1:1-4), he, too, is “the life” (14:6) through whom we may live forever (see 1 John 5:11-12).

5:45-47 Old Testament Witness The Pharisees prided themselves on being the true followers of Moses. They were trying to follow every one of his laws to the letter, and they’d added many of their own in an effort to clarify what they thought Moses meant. Jesus’ warning that Moses would accuse them undoubtedly stung them and made them furious. Moses had written about Jesus, foreshadowing his coming (see, for example, Genesis 3:15; 49:10; Numbers 24:17; Deuteronomy 18:15-19), yet the religious leaders refused to believe Jesus when he was standing right in front of them.