“The impotent man answered him, Sir, I have no man, when the water is troubled, to put me into the pool: but while I am coming, another steppeth down before me.” (John 5:7)
Jesus is uninterested in excuses. When He is on the scene to help, to heal, to make whole, there is only one issue: Are we willing to move forward into His will by His power and grace?
There is a greater impotency than that of the body. What truly saps us of strength is a will that has become accustomed to a station far beneath the one God has called us to. “I can’t” is very much attached to “I won’t.” Jesus did not address the man’s circumstances or his ability; He simply asked: “Wilt thou be made whole?”
Sin involves doing what we want, instead of what God wants, and cloaking it in excuses. Deep down we know the road we should be on, but we have other destinations in mind. We have replaced God’s idea of good with our idea of good. Sin is lethargy in the direction of God’s will for our life. “Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin” (James 4:17).
Jesus still makes the blind to see and the lame to walk. The impotent man received strength to take up his bed and walk – not in any which way he wanted, but in the way of God’s choosing. He was warned: “Behold, thou art made whole: sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee” (John 5:14).
Once healed, we must beware of self-will, and the excuses that surround it. The worst tragedy that can ever afflict us is total impotence to do what is good and right in the sight of God. God forbid we fall back into a state that is worse than the one we were rescued from.
“For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them.” (2 Peter 2:21)