Today’s reading is John 5.
I believe I am on record as saying, “Every healing miracle in the New Testament is a picture of salvation grace…well, maybe I should say almost every miracle.” Stories like this one of the invalid in John 5 keep me from being able to make the completely blanket statement.
Most of the healing stories demonstrate faith and faith-filled responses to Jesus or the apostles. Most of them parallel people responding to Jesus’s offer of salvation. But this one doesn’t. The invalid doesn’t have faith in Jesus. He doesn’t even know who Jesus is. He didn’t even respond to Jesus’s question about wanting to be healed. He simply made excuses. The invalid is not committed to Jesus. He turns Jesus in after he finds out who Jesus is.
But this exception proves the rule, or perhaps I should say it proves the Ruler. That is, while generally Jesus responds to faith, devotion, submission, in this story Jesus demonstrates His complete control of healing. He has authority over sickness and disease. He has authority over this man’s lameness. Jesus gets to heal whomever He wants. He has the power to heal whomever He wants. He can heal however He wants. Why? Because Jesus is King.
I can’t really comment on this guy’s eternal destiny. When we read about the blind man healed in John 9, I’m pretty convinced he is healed medically and spiritually. I’m not convinced about this guy. This guy is a foil for the blind man in John 9 not a parallel to him. He really does seem to be an exception. But notice this. He’s an exception because the Ruler made and stated an exception. That’s what a Ruler gets to do. He establishes the rules and He allows the exceptions. The man is surrounded by “a multitude of invalids.” But Jesus only told this man he could take up his bed and walk. Nobody else, seeing this man walking, was able to just get up and walk without a faith-filled response to Jesus.
So, perhaps we do see some parallel to salvation in this miracle. Jesus gets to save whomever He wants. He has the power to save whomever He wants. He can save however He wants. Allow me to be perfectly clear regarding the point I’m making. Jesus can save anyone He wants without the waters of baptism. It may be that one of those exceptional circumstances people bring up really works. It may be the person who dies in a car crash on the way to the baptistry will still be welcomed into Christ and saved in eternity. It may be the guy in the desert who comes to faith in Jesus but can’t find water in which to be baptized before he dehydrates is welcomed into Christ and saved in eternity. It may be the prisoner on death row who wants to be baptized but isn’t allowed is still welcomed into Christ and saved in eternity. Maybe. Jesus can do what He wants in each situation and will do what is right in every situation. However, even if Jesus makes an exception in each of these situations, Jesus is still making exceptions. Exceptions may prove rules, but exceptions don’t become rules.
Here’s the point. If Jesus, as He did with the thief on the cross, tells you you are saved and are going to be in paradise with Him without being baptized in water for the remission of your sins, then revel in the exception He has made for you. After all, this man was able to take up his bed and walk even though he didn’t even know Jesus’s name because it was Jesus who told him to. He can rejoice in his ability to walk even if he is not giving his allegiance to Jesus. But unless Jesus Himself is the one telling you He has saved you without being baptized, I highly advise you to act based on the general rule Jesus and His apostles gave: “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God” (John 3:5, ESV).
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Tomorrow’s reading is John 5.
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PATHS:
Discuss Today’s Meditation with Your Family
How does John 5 admonish you?
Read the Bible 