The Healing at Bethesda's Pool and the Law's Fulfillment

The Law Reveals, Grace Heals

1. The topics we're about to discuss are neither strange to your ears nor hearts, yet when repeated, they revive the listener's affections. In a way, hearing them again renews us, and it's not tiresome to hear what we already know well. The Lord's words are always sweet. The explanation of Scripture shares this quality with Scripture itself—even when well known, Scripture is still read to refresh our memory. Similarly, though explanations may be familiar, they should be repeated so those who have forgotten can be reminded, those who missed hearing can hear, and those who remember can retain what they've heard and not forget it.

I remember already speaking to you, beloved, about this Gospel passage. Yet repeating the same explanation isn't burdensome for me, just as repeating the same lesson wasn't burdensome. The Apostle Paul says in a certain letter, "To write the same things to you is not tedious for me, but for you it is necessary" (Philippians 3:1). So too, for me to repeat the same things isn't tiresome, but for you it's beneficial.

2. The five porches where the sick lay represent the Law, which was first given to the Jews and the people of Israel through Moses, God's servant. Moses, the Law's minister, wrote five books. The five porches symbolize the Law in relation to the number of books he wrote. But the Law wasn't given to heal the sick, only to reveal and expose them. As the Apostle says, "For if there had been a law given which could have given life, truly righteousness would have been by the Law. But the Scripture has confined all under sin, that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe" (Galatians 3:21-22). Therefore, the sick lay in those porches but weren't cured.

What does Scripture say? "If there had been a law given which could have given life." So these porches, which represented the Law, couldn't cure the sick. Someone might ask, "Why then was the Law given?" The Apostle himself explains: "Scripture has confined all under sin, that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe."

These sick people thought themselves healthy. They received the Law but couldn't fulfill it. Through the Law, they learned of their disease and sought the Physician's help. They wanted to be healed because they now realized they were in distress—something they wouldn't have known if they could have fulfilled the Law. For people thought themselves innocent, and from this very pride of false innocence, they became more insane.

To tame this pride and expose it, the Law was given—not to deliver the sick but to convince the proud. Pay attention, beloved: the Law was given to reveal disease, not to remove it. Those sick people, who might have remained sick in private in their own homes if the five porches hadn't existed, were now displayed before everyone's eyes. The porches revealed them but didn't cure them.

The Law was useful for revealing sin, because when a person was made more obviously guilty by transgressing the Law, their pride could be tamed, and they could implore the help of a merciful God. Listen to the Apostle: "The Law entered that sin might abound; but where sin abounded, grace abounded much more" (Romans 5:20). What does "The Law entered that sin might abound" mean? As he says elsewhere, "For where there is no law, there is no transgression" (Romans 4:15).

A person may be called a sinner before the Law, but not a transgressor. But after sinning and receiving the Law, they're not only a sinner but also a transgressor. Since transgression is added to sin, "sin abounds." When sin abounds, human pride finally learns to submit itself and confess to God, saying "I am weak." They say the words of the Psalm that only a humbled soul speaks: "I said, 'Lord, be merciful to me; heal my soul, for I have sinned against You'" (Psalm 41:4).

Let the weak soul, at least convinced by transgression but not yet healed, say this. The Law reveals but doesn't cure; but grace, which comes only through Christ, brings healing. Listen to Paul showing both that the Law is good and that only Christ's grace delivers from sin. The Law can prohibit and command, but it cannot apply the medicine that heals what prevents a person from fulfilling the Law. Only grace can do that.

The Apostle says, "For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man" (Romans 7:22). That is, I now see that what the Law condemns is evil, and what it commands is good. "For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man. But I see another law in my members warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members" (Romans 7:22-23).

This derives from sin's punishment, from the spread of death, from Adam's condemnation. It "wars against the law of the mind and brings it into captivity to the law of sin in the members." Paul was convicted; he received the Law so he might be convicted. See now what benefit came from his conviction. Hear his words: "O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? The grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord" (Romans 7:24-25).

3. Pay attention, then. Those five porches symbolized the Law, which contained the sick but didn't heal them—revealing but not curing them. But who did cure the sick? The one who descended into the pool. When did the sick man descend into the pool? When the angel stirred the water. The pool was sanctified because an angel came down and stirred the water. People saw the water and understood the angel's presence from the water's movement.

If anyone went down into the water then, they were healed. Why wasn't this sick man healed? Let's consider his own words: "I have no one," he says, "to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up; but while I am coming, another steps down before me" (John 5:7). Couldn't you step down afterwards if someone stepped down before you?

This reveals to us that only one person was healed when the water was stirred. Whoever stepped down first was healed; whoever stepped down afterwards at that stirring of the water was not healed but had to wait until it was stirred again.

What does this mystery mean? This isn't without significance. Pay attention, beloved. Waters in the Book of Revelation symbolize peoples. When John saw many waters in Revelation, he asked what it meant and was told they represented peoples. The pool's water, then, symbolized the Jewish people. This people was enclosed by the five books of Moses in the Law, just as the water was surrounded by five porches.

When was the water stirred? When the Jewish people was disturbed. And when was the Jewish people disturbed but when the Lord Jesus Christ came? The Lord's Passion was the stirring of the water. The Jews were disturbed when the Lord suffered. Look, what we just read relates to this disturbance: "The Jews sought to kill Him, not only because He did these things on the Sabbath, but also because He said that God was His Father, making Himself equal with God" (John 5:18).

Christ called Himself God's Son in one way; in another way, it was said to people, "I said, 'You are gods, and all of you are children of the Most High'" (Psalm 82:6). If Christ had called Himself God's Son in the way any person can be called a child of God (for by God's grace, people are called children of God), the Jews wouldn't have been enraged.

But they understood Him to call Himself God's Son in another way, according to the words, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God" (John 1:1), and as the Apostle says, "Who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God" (Philippians 2:6). They saw a man and were enraged because He made Himself equal with God.

He knew well that He was equal, but they couldn't see it. What they did see, they wished to crucify; by what they couldn't see, they would be judged. What did the Jews see? What the apostles also saw when Philip said, "Show us the Father, and it is sufficient for us" (John 14:8). But what did the Jews not see? What not even the apostles saw when the Lord answered, "Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me? He who has seen Me has seen the Father also" (John 14:9).

Because the Jews couldn't see this in Him, they thought Him a proud and ungodly man for making Himself equal with God. This caused a disturbance—the water was stirred, the Angel had come. For the Lord is called "the Angel of the Great Counsel" (Isaiah 9:6, LXX) because He is the messenger of the Father's will. In Greek, "angel" means "messenger" in Latin. So you hear the Lord saying He announces to us the kingdom of heaven.

He had come, the Angel of the Great Counsel, but He was the Lord of all angels. He was an Angel because He took flesh; He was the Lord of angels in that "all things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made" (John 1:3). If all things were made through Him, then so were the angels. Therefore, He Himself wasn't made, because all things were made through Him. His flesh, which became Christ's mother, couldn't have been born if it hadn't been created by the Word, who was later born from it.

4. The Jews were disturbed. What does this mean? "Why does He do these things on the Sabbath?" (John 5:16). They were especially troubled by the Lord's words, "My Father has been working until now, and I have been working" (John 5:17). Their physical understanding of God resting on the seventh day from all His work troubled them.

It's written in Genesis, and excellently written, for good reasons. But they thought that God rested on the seventh day as if He were tired, and that's why He blessed that day—because on it He found relief from His weariness. In their foolishness, they didn't understand that the One who made all things by the Word couldn't grow tired.

Let them read and tell me: how could God grow tired when He said, "Let it be made," and it was made? Today, if someone could create as God did, how would they become tired? God said, "Let there be light," and there was light. Again, "Let there be a firmament," and it was made. If He had said these things but they weren't done, then perhaps He might have grown tired. In another place, Scripture says briefly, "He spoke, and they were made; He commanded, and they were created" (Psalm 33:9). How, then, could the one who works like this grow tired? And if He doesn't grow tired, how does He rest?

But in that Sabbath day, when it's said that God rested from all His works, our own rest was prefigured. This is because the Sabbath of this world will come when the six ages have passed away. The six days of the world are passing away: one day passed from Adam to Noah; another from the flood to Abraham; the third from Abraham to David; the fourth from David to the Babylonian captivity; the fifth from the Babylonian captivity to Christ's advent. Now we are in the sixth age.

Let us be reformed after God's image, for on the sixth day man was made in God's image. What creation accomplished then, let recreation accomplish in us now. After this day in which we live, after this age, the rest promised to the saints and prefigured in those days will come.

Because after creating everything in the world, God has created nothing new since. The creatures themselves will be transformed and changed. Since no creatures have been added after the initial creation, God is said to have rested from all His works. But because He doesn't cease to govern what He created, the Lord rightly said, "My Father has been working until now."

Consider this, beloved. God finished His creation and is said to have rested because He completed His works and added no more. He governs what He made; therefore He doesn't cease to work. But with the same ease with which He created, He also governs. Don't suppose, brothers, that it was laborious for God to create but not laborious to govern—as with a ship, where those who build it labor, and those who sail it also labor, because they are humans.

With the same ease that "He spoke and they were made," with the same facility and wisdom He governs all things by the Word.

5. Don't think, because human affairs seem disordered, that there is no governance of human affairs. All people are ordered in their proper places, though each person may think there is no order. Look only at what you want to be; as you wish to be, the Master knows where to place you.

Think of a painter with various colors before him. He knows where to apply each color. The sinner has chosen to be the black color, but doesn't the artist know where to place him? How many parts does a painter finish with black? How many ornaments does he create with it? With black he paints hair, beards, eyebrows; he makes the face only with white.

Look to what you would wish to be; don't worry about where He who cannot err might place you. He knows where to put you. We see this happening by the world's common laws. For instance, someone has chosen to be a burglar. The judge's law knows they've acted against the law and knows where to place them—ordering them appropriately. This person has lived wickedly, but the law hasn't ordered them wickedly.

A convicted burglar might be sentenced to the mines. How many great works are built through such a condemned person's labor! Their punishment becomes the city's ornament. So God knows where to place you. Don't think you're disturbing God's plan if you're inclined to disorder. It would be better for you to strive to be placed in a good position.

What was said of Judas by the apostle? "He went to his own place" (Acts 1:25). Through Divine Providence's operation, because he chose to be evil by an evil will, he did what he wanted and suffered what he didn't want. In doing what he wanted, his sin was exposed; in suffering what he didn't want, God's order was praised.

6. Why have I said all this? So you might understand what the Lord Jesus Christ meant when He said, "My Father has been working until now." In saying this, He shows He doesn't abandon the creation He made. He added, "And I have been working." In this statement, He immediately indicated He was equal with God. "My Father," He says, "has been working until now, and I have been working."

Their physical understanding of rest was disturbed. They thought the Lord was tired and needed rest. They hear, "My Father has been working until now," and they're troubled. "And I have been working" —He has made Himself equal with God, and they're troubled. But don't be alarmed. The water is stirred because the sick man is about to be healed.

What does this mean? The Lord must suffer. The Lord suffers, the precious Blood is shed, the sinner is redeemed, grace is given to the sinner—to the one who says, "O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? The grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord" (Romans 7:24-25).

But how is the sick person cured? By stepping down. This pool was constructed so that people had to go down, not up to it. There could be pools built in such a way that people would need to go up to them. But why was this one built so people had to go down? Because the Lord's Passion seeks the humble. Let the humble go down; let them not be proud, if they wish to be cured.

But why was only one person healed? Because the Church is only one throughout the world—unity is preserved. When one is made whole, unity is symbolized. By "one" understand unity. Don't depart from unity if you don't want to miss out on this healing cure.

7. What does it mean that the man had been sick for thirty-eight years? I know, brothers, that I've spoken about this before, but even those who read forget, how much more those who hear infrequently? Pay attention for a little while, beloved.

The number forty symbolizes the fulfillment of righteousness. Righteousness means living here in labor, in toil, in self-restraint, in fasting, in watchfulness, in trials—bearing this present time and, in a sense, fasting from this world. Not just abstaining from bodily food, which we do occasionally, but from love of the world, which we should always do.

Whoever fulfills the Law abstains from this world. For they cannot love what is eternal unless they stop loving what is temporal. Consider a person's love—think of it as the soul's hand. If it's holding something, it can't hold anything else. But to hold what it's given, it must let go of what it's already holding.

I say this clearly: whoever loves the world cannot love God; they already have their hand occupied. God says, "Hold what I give," but they won't let go of what they're holding, so they can't receive what's offered. Have I said a person shouldn't possess anything? If they're able, if perfection requires it, they shouldn't possess. If prevented by necessity, let them possess but not be possessed; let them hold but not be held; let them be the master of their possessions, not their slave.

As the Apostle says, "But this I say, brethren, the time is short, so that from now on those who have wives should be as though they had none, those who weep as though they did not weep, those who rejoice as though they did not rejoice, those who buy as though they did not possess, and those who use this world as not misusing it. For the form of this world is passing away. But I want you to be without care" (1 Corinthians 7:29-32).

What does "Do not love what you possess in this world" mean? Don't let it hold your hand firmly—the hand by which God must be held. Don't let your love be engaged in a way that prevents you from reaching God and clinging to your Creator.

8. You'll say, "Yes, God knows I possess my things innocently." Temptation proves you. Your possessions are threatened, and you blaspheme. We experienced this recently. When your possessions are threatened, you're not found to be who you were before—proving that your words one day are different from your words the next.

I wish you would only defend your own possessions vigorously, without trying to seize others' possessions with audacity. Worse still, to escape criticism, you claim what belongs to others is your own. But why say more?

This I advise, this I say, brothers, as a brother advises: God commands, and I warn because I've been warned. He alarms me, not allowing me to keep silent. He demands from me what He has given. He has given it to be used, not to be stored away. If I should keep it hidden, He says to me, "You wicked and lazy servant, why did you not put My money in the bank, that at My coming I might have collected it with interest?" (Matthew 25:26-27).

What profit is it to me that I've lost nothing of what I received? That's not enough for my Lord; He is desirous of gain. God's desire for gain is our salvation. He seeks His own money, He gathers in His own image. "You should have given," He says, "My money to the bankers, that at My coming I might have collected it with interest."

If by chance I fail to remind you due to forgetfulness, the temptations and trials we're suffering would still remind you. You've heard God's word at least. Blessed be the Lord and His glory. You're gathered here, hanging on the word of God's minister. Don't turn your attention to our outward appearance, through which the word is delivered to you. Hungry people don't care about the plainness of the dish, but the value of the food.

God is testing you. You're gathered together, you praise God's word; temptation will prove how you hear it. You'll face life's practical affairs, which will reveal your true character. The one who today shouts with criticism was yesterday an attentive listener. Therefore, I warn you; I tell you in advance; I don't hold back, my brothers, that the time of testing will come.

The Lord tests both the righteous and the wicked. You know this; we've sung it together: "The Lord tests the righteous and the wicked" (Psalm 11:5). And what follows? "But the one who loves injustice hates his own soul" (Psalm 11:5). In another place, "The thoughts of the wicked will be examined" (Wisdom 1:9).

God doesn't test you where I question you. I question your speech; God questions your thoughts. He knows how you hear, and He knows how to hold accountable—He who orders me to give. He has made me a dispenser, but has reserved the requiring to Himself. To admonish, to teach, to rebuke is our role; but to save, to crown, to condemn, and to cast into hell is not ours. "The judge will deliver to the officer, and the officer to the prison. Assuredly, I say to you, you will by no means get out of there till you have paid the last penny" (Matthew 5:25-26).

9. Let's return to our subject. The number forty shows the perfection of righteousness. What does it mean to fulfill the number forty? To restrain oneself from love of this world. Restraint from temporal things, so they're not loved to our destruction, is like fasting from this world. Therefore, the Lord fasted forty days, as did Moses and Elijah.

He who gave His servants power to fast forty days—couldn't He have fasted eighty or a hundred? Why didn't He choose to fast longer than what He enabled His servants to do? Because in the number forty lies the mystery of fasting, of restraint from this world. What does this mean? What the Apostle says: "The world has been crucified to me, and I to the world" (Galatians 6:14). He fulfills the number forty.

What does the Lord show us? That because Moses did this, as did Elijah and Christ, that the Law, the Prophets, and the Gospel all teach this. Don't think there's one message in the Law, another in the Prophets, and another in the Gospel. All Scripture teaches you nothing but restraint from love of the world, so your love may be directed toward God.

To symbolize that the Law teaches this, Moses fasted forty days. To symbolize that the Prophets teach it, Elijah fasted forty days. To symbolize that the Gospel teaches it, the Lord fasted forty days. That's why on the mountain, these three appeared—the Lord in the middle, Moses and Elijah at the sides. Why? Because the Gospel itself receives testimony from the Law and the Prophets.

But why does the number forty represent the perfection of righteousness? In the Psalms it says, "O God, I will sing a new song to You; on a harp of ten strings I will praise You" (Psalm 144:9). This represents the Ten Commandments of the Law, which the Lord came not to destroy but to fulfill. And the Law throughout the world has four parts—East, West, South, and North—as Scripture says.

Recall the vessel containing all symbolic animals shown to Peter, when he was told, "Kill and eat" (Acts 10:13). This demonstrated that the Gentiles would believe and enter the Church's body, just as what we eat enters our body. The vessel was let down from heaven by four corners (representing the world's four regions), showing the whole world would believe.

Therefore, the number forty symbolizes restraint from the world. This fulfills the Law, and the fulfillment of the Law is love. That's why we fast forty days before Easter. This time represents our toilsome life, where in labor, care, and self-control, we fulfill the Law.

But afterward we celebrate Easter—the days of the Lord's resurrection, symbolizing our own resurrection. Therefore fifty days are celebrated, because the reward of the denarius is added to forty, making fifty. Why is the reward a denarius? Haven't you read how those hired into the vineyard, whether at the first, sixth, or last hour, all received the same denarius?

When righteousness receives its reward, we reach the number fifty. Then we'll have no occupation but praising God. That's why during those days we say, "Hallelujah," which means "Praise to God."

In this frail mortal state, in this number forty, we should groan in prayer, so we may sing praises then. Now is the time of longing; then will be the time of embracing and enjoying. Let's not grow weary in the time of forty, so we may rejoice in the time of fifty.

10. Now who fulfills the Law but the one who has love? Ask the Apostle: "Love is the fulfillment of the Law. For all the Law is fulfilled in one statement: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself'" (Romans 13:10, Galatians 5:14). But the commandment of love is twofold: "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself'" (Matthew 22:37-39).

These are the Lord's words in the Gospel: "On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets" (Matthew 22:40). Without this twofold love, the Law cannot be fulfilled. As long as the Law is unfulfilled, there is weakness. This is why the sick man was missing two years from forty—he had been ill for thirty-eight years.

What does "missing two" mean? He didn't fulfill these two commandments. What good is it if the rest is fulfilled when these aren't? You have thirty-eight years, but if you don't have those two, the rest profit you nothing. You're missing two essentials without which the others are worthless—the two commandments that lead to salvation.

"Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing" (1 Corinthians 13:1-3). These are the Apostle's words.

All these things, then, are like the thirty-eight years. But because love wasn't there, there was infirmity. Who will heal this infirmity but He who came to give love? "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another" (John 13:34). And because He came to give love, and love fulfills the Law, He rightly said, "I did not come to destroy the Law but to fulfill it" (Matthew 5:17).

He healed the sick man and told him to carry his bed and go to his house. This is what He said to the paralytic whom He healed. What does it mean to carry our bed? The pleasure of our flesh. Where we lie in infirmity is like our bed. But when healed, we control and carry it, not being controlled by it. So then, you who are healed, master the weakness of your flesh, so that in the forty days' fast from this world, you may fulfill the number forty. He has healed that sick man "who did not come to destroy the Law but to fulfill it."

11. Having heard this, direct your heart to God. Don't deceive yourselves. Ask yourselves when all seems well with you in the world—ask whether you love the world or not. Learn to let it go before it lets you go. What does it mean to let it go? Not to love it heartily.

While you still have something that you must one day lose—either in life or in death—it cannot always remain with you. While it's still with you, loosen your love for it. Be prepared for God's will; cling to God. Hold fast to Him whom you cannot lose against your will, so that if you lose these temporal things, you can say, "The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord" (Job 1:21).

But if God wills that your possessions remain with you until the end, when you detach from this life, you'll receive the denarius, the fifty, and perfect blessedness will be yours when you sing Hallelujah.

Having these things I've now recalled to your memory, may they help in overcoming your love for the world. Its friendship is evil and deceitful—it makes a person an enemy of God. In just one temptation, a person offends God and becomes His enemy. No, they don't become His enemy then; they're discovered to have been His enemy all along. While they were loving and praising God, they were enemies but didn't know it themselves, nor did others. Temptation came, the pulse was checked, and the fever revealed.

So then, brothers, the love of the world and friendship with the world make people enemies of God. It doesn't fulfill what it promises; it lies and deceives. Therefore people never stop hoping in this world, but who attains all they hope for? But whatever they do attain is immediately devalued by them. New things are desired, other things are hoped for; and when they come, whatever comes is devalued.

Hold fast to God, for He can never be devalued—nothing is more beautiful than He. These other things are devalued because they cannot endure, because they're not what He is. For nothing, O soul, suffices you except He who created you. Whatever else you grasp is miserable; He alone can satisfy you who made you in His own image.

Thus it was expressly said, "Lord, show us the Father, and it is sufficient for us" (John 14:8). Only there can there be security; only where there's security can there be a kind of insatiable satisfaction. You will be so satisfied that you won't want to leave, and nothing will be lacking that could cause you want.