10
So the Jews said to the man who had been healed, “It is the Sabbath, and it is not lawful for you to take up your bed.”
11 But he answered them, “The man who healed me, that man said to me, ‘Take up your bed, and walk.’”
12 They asked him, “Who is the man who said to you, ‘Take up your bed and walk’?”
13 Now the man who had been healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had withdrawn, as there was a crowd in the place.
14 Afterward Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, “See, you are well! Sin no more, that nothing worse may happen to you.”
15 The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had healed him.16
And this was why the Jews were persecuting Jesus, because he was doing these things on the Sabbath.
17 But Jesus answered them, “My Father is working until now, and I am working.”
Jesus returns to the man he has healed and gives him the reason for his 38-year ailment, nothing thus far has been said about a change in the man’s spiritual condition.
His body had been healed and it is no wonder that the Savior now comes to rebuke him and restore the soul. “See you have been made well. Sin no more, lest a worse thing come upon you.”
In essence Jesus says this happened to you because of your sin, which, you better leave…or something worse will happen to you…because of your sin. Now, it is certainly
true that the Bible teaches that much suffering and trial that comes to us is NOT the specific punishment for some sin. For instance, think of Job, his suffering was not because of his sin. I have marked at least 9 different reasons why God sends suffering
and trial, and only one of the nine is because of the person’s sin. But that hardly means that no suffering is the specific punishment for sin. Surely there are a great many instances in the Bible in which punishment is precisely or suffering is precisely
because of the person’s sin.
We commonly make two mistakes in this regard:
First, is when we think our trials are NEVER because of our sin. Second, is when we think our trials HAVE TO BE because of our sin. You might be thinking: “How are we
to know?” Brothers and sisters, this is very important: Only the person who walks with Jesus by the power of the Spirit, and is truly submissive to God…only the person who day in and day out seeks Christ and gives Himself to knowing His Word and His presence,
will ever be able to discern this. And those who do NOT seek the Lord this way, will most of the time not know, but it must be said that most often, they do not care to know.
Has this come upon me because of my sin? The answer could very well be, yes, it has, you are going to have to do honest, heart work.
Second, is the warning that accompanies this: When the Lord delivers us in some way from the consequences of our own sin, we are obliged to take special care not to fall
back into that same sin. If we do, we may find the consequences worse and more difficult and more inescapable than before. Jesus is saying that if you have been delivered, and you do not take care to put that sin to death…then perhaps things are going to get
more difficult and the consequences more profound.
Christianity is the embrace of God’s grace, His gift of salvation of which men and women
are utterly unworthy, a GIFT because no man or woman could achieve it, no one could come close to meeting the requirements of God’s holiness. And so, the fundamental principles of a true relationship with God in the human heart are therefore humility —
we could not do it and so God did it for us; love — we could not do it so God did for us; and faith — we could not do it and so God did it for us.
But we easily lose sight of this. It is our natural instinct to lose sight of it. We begin to think differently about our relationship to God. Subtly, imperceptibly, we transform our salvation,
our peace with God, our hope of his favor in the next life into a careless and often thoughtless lifestyle of being ‘good enough’.
This lame man was going to have to reckon with his sin. He was going to have to see himself clearly…done to his bones. Don’t you imagine Jesus’ words hanging in his mind and heart? When
sin would encroach upon his life, temptations becoming too good to refuse…and then he would hear again the words of Jesus, “Sin no more, lest a worse thing
come upon you.”
Sometimes the best teacher, although I admit the most painful and stern are: consequences and a very good memory. The consequences of sin, the misery and hurt they cause
are to be remembered and used as a foil to cause us to flee to the Savior and to stay far away from that which imprisoned us in the past and thinks to do so again.
Here is the pathway to peace, to joy, to living free and happy. See yourself in this man: You are unable and you have no one who can help you. Remember…remember what the life
of bondage felt like, looked like and how it stripped you of all hope. Then, look to God and the work of the Son and the Spirit and see Him as the hope for everything and the fruit of that will be a life that lives in the enjoyment and blessing of obedience.
Prayer: Father, I know that sin is an evil taskmaster and offers no hope, but only bondage and death. Help me to be at war with all my sins of the past that still desire expression
and every evil that whispers to be novel and pleasurable. I know that the freedom, peace and joy that I enjoy have come because Jesus has broken sin’s power. Help me this day to walk in the Spirit and in no way fulfill the lusts of the flesh, through Jesus
Christ my Lord, Amen.
Hymn: Who Are These Like Stars Appearing
