When God Breaks the Rules
John 5:8-15
A stranger changes a man’s life with a simple question.
“Do you want to get well?”…
And then, “Pick up your mat and walk.”
There was no, “I am Jesus…”
There was no, “If you believe…”
There was no, “Repent!…”
There was no, “You are forgiven…”
There was only the question, “Do you want to get well?”
Suddenly the man is walking.
The Scripture does not say if he was born this way or if this was the result of a tragic event.
What we do know is that for the first time in thirty-eight years he is walking.
It was the Sabbath - a wonderful day to enter a new phase of life.
For the first time in decades his feet feel the ground, for the first time he can freely move from one place to another…He is healed!
Suddenly he is stopped. “It is the Sabbath!” He is told. “The law forbids you to carry your mat.”
We can only imagine his look of bewilderment.
How do you answer that in the middle of a miracle?
All he could think to say was, “...The man who made me well said to me, “Pick up your mat and walk.”
How could they tell him that he was breaking the law, when he has just been healed, walking and feeling fully alive-for the first time in decades.
Without breaking the “law,” he would still be lying by the pool.
When we put conditions on the work of God’s kingdom, we remain invalids, bound in our condition for a long time.
Later Jesus found him at the temple, an appropriate place for thanksgiving and praise.
Jesus speaks to him, “See, you are well! again.”
Then the warning, “Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you.” John 5:14
Jesus’ declaration is crucially important, then and now.
If you fall into sin again, something worse than being an invalid may over-take you. Fulness of life ceases again.
When, where or how He chooses to heal you is up to Him. Walking out the healing is up to you.
“Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” James 4:7
Falling into sin is always an open door to bondage and death.
Jesus is always the fountain of freedom and life.
Choose life.
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