Who are the witnesses who back up Christ’s claim to be equal with God? Part 5

“For if you believed Moses, you would believe Me; for he wrote about Me.” John 5:46

Now Jesus calls upon His fifth and final witness to back up His claim to be equal with God. This final witness is THE PROPHET, MOSES (John 5:45-47). Jesus said to the Jewish religious leaders, “Do not think that I shall accuse you to the Father; there is one who accuses you—Moses, in whom you trust.” (John 5:45). It is amazing that the very one they are using as their excuse to persecute Jesus, will instead become their accuser. Moses will finally tell them they have ignored his words about Christ.

Many are in the same situation as the Pharisees today. People say, “When I stand before God I will have a lot of things to say to Him. I don’t think He has treated me very fairly. I have had a bad deal in life and I’m going to tell Him so.” But on that day, they will stand absolutely silent before God, their own memories will testify that He is right and they are wrong. Listen to these words: 46 For if you believed Moses, you would believe Me; for he wrote about Me. 47 But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe My words?” (John 5:46-47). If the Jews believed Moses (and they didn’t), they would believe Jesus because Moses wrote about Him.

After His death and resurrection, Jesus met two disciples traveling to a village called Emmaus who doubted that He was alive. Jesus said to them, 25 O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken! 26 Ought not the Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into His glory?” (Luke 24:25-26). Luke adds, “And beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself.” (Luke 24:27).

Christ began with Moses’s teachings about His sufferings and death. The first reference to Jesus’s death on the cross from Moses is seen in Genesis 3:15, when God pronounced a curse on the serpent who represents Satan (cf. Revelation 12:9), “And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel.” According to this verse, there would be antagonism (“enmity”) between the serpent and Eve (3:15a), and ultimately between Satan/his followers (“your seed”) and the Messiah (“her Seed” – Galatians 3:16, 19) Who would defeat (“bruise your head”) the Devil through His death on the cross (“you shall bruise His heel,” 3:15b; cf. Colossians 2:13-15; Hebrews 2:14; I John 3:8)).

Moses also foreshadows the death of Christ when he records God having to slay an innocent animal to cover the nakedness of Adam and Eve after they sinned (Genesis 3:7, 21). By providing a covering with animal skins, God provided forgiveness through the “shedding of blood” (Hebrews 9:22) through that innocent animal. God later provided forgiveness through the Old Testament sacrificial system which also was a foreshadowing of Christ’s death (cf. Hebrews 10:1-18).

Those animals were shadows of the Babe who was born on that first Christmas morning. He would be called “the Lamb of God” (John 1:29). Like that first animal that was sacrificed for Adam and Eve, Jesus Christ would also be innocent and without sin because He was and is God (John 1:1, 14, 17; 2 Corinthians 5:21; Titus 2:13; Hebrews 1:8; 4:15; I Peter 3:18; I John 5:20). And like that first sacrificial animal, Jesus was born to die for the sins of others (John 1:29; Romans 5:8; I John 4:9), that “whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).

Moses was the final witness called up by Jesus to support His claim to be equal with God. Moses was highly respected by the Jewish nation and Jesus was saying Moses would condemn them because they rejected the Person he wrote about. Most people think that if someone does not believe something, what he needs is more light on it. If a little information does not persuade him, we want to give more information. But Jesus says that won’t work. If a person does not believe the truth he knows now, he won’t believe when he hears even more truth. This is what Jesus is saying to His audience, including us.

Where does that leave us? You may say “How can I believe Jesus is God?” You have the witness of God the Father (John 5:31-32, 37-38; cf. Matthew 3:17); of John the Baptist (John 5:33-35); twenty centuries of testimony about the power of Jesus to heal people, to turn them around and make them whole (John 5:36); the witness of the Bible (John 5:39-44); and the witness of Moses (John 5:45-47). Five witnesses were sufficient to condemn the Jews for their unbelief. The Jews were claiming a legal ground for unbelief (John 5:31) and Jesus shows them there is no legal basis.

Where does that leave you, if you continue to pursue the empty voices of the world and other religions, and seek for positions of power and influence apart from the will and the glory of God? Your future has no hope if Christ is not a part of it.

These are tough words to swallow. I cannot make them easy words because Jesus did not make them easy. But they are words that force us to face ourselves in the light of reality. Where are you going in life? What are you doing with it? This is a critical hour in history. No more critical hour has ever come. Let’s face the choice which Jesus demands. If you are a Christian, will you submit to Jesus Christ as God and let Him direct your life even if it means being led up onto a hill to be crucified or serving Him in another part of the world? Are you willing to live for Him and not yourself?

If you are not a Christian, is there anything keeping you from trusting Christ alone right now to get you to heaven? Because He is God, He is the only One who can give you eternal life. Take Him at His Word when He says, “He who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life.” (John 5:24).      

Prayer: Father God, because Your Son is as much God as You are, He deserves our very best in thought, word and action. He deserves our total obedience. He deserves our worship. Forgive us for giving Him our leftovers. Renew in us a desire to live for Jesus Christ and not ourselves. Give each of us a desire to invest our lives in what lasts – people and the Word of God. For those who do not believe in Jesus yet for His gift of everlasting life, please use these five witnesses to persuade him or her that Jesus is God. Show them how dearly He loves them and wants to save them from their sins and give them everlasting life if they would believe in Him alone as their only hope of heaven. In Jesus’s eternal name I pray. Amen.