Restoring God's Grace

Sunday, October 18, 2026 · Pastor Dale Roh

"Rise, take up thy bed, and walk." — John 5:8 (KJV) Scripture: John 5:1–18

When Everything Seemed to Fall Apart

About a year ago, our church was preparing to move from Rochester Hills to Livonia, Michigan. We believed God had prepared a new church building for us, and we were in the process of selling our former property. We even planned to hold a Bible conference in the new building before officially purchasing it, believing that God would soon lead us there.

However, things suddenly began to fall apart. The church that owned the building unexpectedly refused to let us use it for the conference. While I was struggling with that problem, I received even more disturbing news. The buyer who had agreed to purchase our Rochester Hills property had decided to withdraw from the contract. I was overwhelmed. Without selling our former property, purchasing the new building would be extremely difficult. Everything we had believed was God’s guidance seemed to be moving in the opposite direction. I had thought the most important issues were already settled, but suddenly we were back to the beginning.

As I struggled with these circumstances, I began reading the Gospel of John. Several stories caught my attention. At the wedding in Cana, the wine had run out. The Samaritan woman had gone through five husbands, yet she still had not found what her heart truly needed. At the Pool of Bethesda, a man who had been sick for thirty-eight years had no one to help him into the water. The woman caught in adultery faced condemnation without anyone who could save her. In each situation, something essential was missing. Yet every one of these people encountered Jesus, and through Him, they received grace. As I reflected on these stories, a conviction began to grow in my heart: Jesus Himself would bring our situation to its conclusion.

Nothing had changed outwardly. I still had no solution, and the future remained uncertain. But I was so desperate that I had no choice but to hold on to God’s Word. Soon afterward, a developer expressed interest in purchasing our former property. Initially, I was skeptical. Developers sometimes delay closings or attempt to renegotiate prices. But this developer offered a $100,000 nonrefundable deposit, waived the usual due diligence requirements, and promised to close within a month.

To my surprise, everything happened as promised. We were also permitted to hold our Bible conference in the new building. The sale was completed, and on October 28, we moved into our new church home in Livonia. Looking back, I can clearly see that everything was accomplished through God’s grace. We could not control the circumstances, but God opened the way. That experience taught me something important: If our journey begins by grace, it must also continue and be completed by grace.

Bethesda: A Place Called the House of Grace

John chapter 5 introduces us to the Pool of Bethesda, located near the Sheep Gate in Jerusalem. The name Bethesda is commonly understood to mean “House of Mercy” or “House of Grace.” The pool was surrounded by five porches, and the number five is sometimes associated with grace in biblical symbolism. Everything about this place seemed to point toward grace. Yet what was happening there presented a striking contrast.

According to the traditional account preserved in some biblical manuscripts, an angel occasionally stirred the water, and the first person to enter the pool afterward would be healed. Consequently, many sick people gathered around the pool, waiting for the water to move. But consider what this meant. Only the person who entered first could receive healing. The others would remain in their suffering, regardless of how desperately they needed help.

Is that grace? If someone must outperform everyone else to receive a blessing, that is not grace. It is a reward based on performance. Grace is not given because someone is better, stronger, or more capable than others. Grace is given freely to those who cannot help themselves. The people at Bethesda were surrounded by reminders of grace, yet their hearts were occupied with their own efforts. They believed their healing depended on how quickly they could reach the water.

Then Jesus came. The One who could freely give them what they desperately needed was standing among them, but their attention remained fixed on the pool. This scene reveals something important about the human heart. Even when God’s grace is available, we often remain preoccupied with what we believe we must accomplish ourselves.

The Fundamental Problem: Departing from Grace

When God created humanity, He provided everything Adam and Eve needed. They lived in a world prepared by His goodness and grace. But when they ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, they departed from God and came under the influence of Satan. Their fall was more than simply committing an act of disobedience. It marked humanity’s departure from the grace of God.

Afterward, God told Adam that he would eat through painful toil and eventually return to the dust. Human life became characterized by struggle, labor, and dependence on human effort. The situation at Bethesda reflects this fallen condition. Although the place was associated with grace, the people believed they had to compete for healing. Their hope rested not in God’s mercy but in their ability to reach the water before anyone else.

We often misunderstand what it means to fall away from God. We tend to associate spiritual decline only with serious sins, abandoning church, or denying our faith. Yet there is a deeper danger: departing from God’s grace and returning to dependence on our own works. Paul addressed this problem in Galatians 3:3: “Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?” (KJV)

The Galatians had received salvation through faith in Jesus Christ. Their spiritual lives began through grace, not through their own achievements. Yet afterward, they attempted to achieve spiritual maturity through human effort. The same thing can happen to born-again Christians today. We believe that salvation is a gift of grace, but after receiving salvation, we often begin living as though everything depends on us. We try to secure our future, protect our families, overcome difficulties, and produce spiritual results through our own strength.

Even pastors can fall into this pattern. Instead of leading people to trust Jesus and experience His work, they may focus primarily on encouraging people to work harder and accomplish more. There is nothing wrong with diligence or responsibility. The problem begins when our confidence shifts from God’s grace to our own abilities. We began by trusting Jesus, but somewhere along the way, we started trusting ourselves. This is why we must carefully examine where our confidence truly rests.

When the Answer We Pursued Was Not the Answer

There are moments in life when we are convinced that we can accomplish something, only to discover that things do not work out as expected. At other times, we believe that achieving one particular goal will finally make everything right. We devote our time, energy, and passion to reaching that goal. We sacrifice other opportunities and endure difficulties because we believe the destination will make everything worthwhile. Eventually, we achieve what we wanted. But then something unexpected happens. We discover that what we achieved was not the answer we had been searching for.

Instead of satisfaction, we experience emptiness. Instead of certainty, we feel lost. We thought we knew the answer and the path that would lead us to it. We followed that path faithfully and finally arrived at our destination, only to discover that the destination was not what we truly needed.

Some people respond by searching for another goal. Others become confused and discouraged, unsure of where to go next. Still others settle into ordinary routines, working, managing responsibilities, and moving through life without asking deeper questions. Eventually, searching for life’s true meaning begins to seem like something only people with extra time or unusually complicated thoughts would do. But avoiding the question does not mean we have found the answer. Not thinking about being lost does not mean we are walking in the right direction.

The people at Bethesda were convinced that the answer was in the water. They had already decided what they needed and how to obtain it. But the true answer was not in the pool. It was standing right before them. His name was Jesus. What we truly need is not simply a better strategy, greater determination, or more favorable circumstances. We need to encounter the grace of God through Jesus Christ.

Jesus Offered a Completely Different Way

Among the sick people at Bethesda was a man who had suffered for thirty-eight years. Jesus knew how long he had been in that condition and approached him. When Jesus asked whether he wanted to be healed, the man explained his problem. He had no one to help him into the pool when the water was stirred. Before he could reach it, someone else always entered first. For thirty-eight years, his hope had been tied to something he could not accomplish. He needed healing, but the only method he knew required him to do what he was least capable of doing.

Then Jesus said: “Rise, take up thy bed, and walk.” (John 5:8, KJV)

Jesus did not tell him to try harder, become stronger, or find someone who could help him reach the water. He offered an entirely different way. The man had been looking toward the pool, but Jesus directed him toward His Word. This is the difference between human works and divine grace. Human works depend on what we can accomplish. Grace depends on what Jesus has accomplished and what He freely gives. The man received Jesus’ Word, and immediately he was healed. What he could not accomplish in thirty-eight years, Jesus accomplished through His Word.

This is also how we received salvation. We did not become righteous by successfully overcoming our sins through personal effort. We received the righteousness of God by hearing and believing the gospel of Jesus Christ. And the principle of grace does not change after salvation. Just as we received salvation through faith, we continue to experience God’s grace by trusting His Word.

God desires to work in our lives. Yet sometimes our own determination becomes so strong that we leave little room for His work. We become absorbed in our plans, abilities, and responsibilities while overlooking the grace He wants to give us. The question is not whether we have enough strength to accomplish everything ourselves. The question is whether we will trust the One who has the power to accomplish what we cannot.

Take Up Your Bed and Walk

Jesus did not simply tell the man to stand up. He told him to take up his bed and walk. For thirty-eight years, that bed had been the place of his suffering, disappointment, and helplessness. It represented a life in which he had repeatedly hoped for healing but remained trapped in the same condition. When he picked up his bed and walked away, he was leaving that life behind. He no longer needed to remain beside the pool, waiting for the water to move.

This has a profound spiritual meaning for us. There was a time when I placed my confidence in myself. I believed my thoughts, trusted my judgment, and struggled to accomplish things through my own strength. I thought that if I worked hard enough, I could eventually achieve the life I wanted. Spiritually, that was the bed on which I had been lying.

But Jesus did not come merely to improve our lives while leaving us in the same spiritual condition. He came to bring us out of a life centered on ourselves and lead us into a new life centered on Him. That new life is a life of faith, walking with Jesus and living for the gospel.

The man who had been healed soon faced opposition because he was carrying his bed on the Sabbath. Rather than rejoicing over his healing, some people criticized him for violating their understanding of the Sabbath regulations. But the man answered that the One who had healed him had told him to take up his bed and walk. He was following the words of Jesus.

In our spiritual lives, we may also encounter pressures that tempt us to abandon grace and return to dependence on human effort. But our confidence must remain in the Word of the One who has given us new life.

Stop Looking at the Water

There are many things in our lives for which we need God’s help. We face financial challenges, family responsibilities, uncertain futures, and situations beyond our control. I also have many personal concerns. Yet every one of them ultimately points me in the same direction: Jesus Christ.

The problem is that we often continue looking at the water instead of looking at Jesus. We examine our circumstances, calculate our possibilities, and measure our abilities. We wonder whether we have enough resources, experience, or strength to overcome our difficulties. Meanwhile, Jesus is calling us to trust His Word.

The man at Bethesda did not receive healing because the water finally moved in his favor. He received healing because Jesus came to him and spoke. When I remember how God led our church from Rochester Hills to Livonia, I realize that our journey was not completed because we had everything under control. At times, we had no idea how the problems would be resolved. Yet God opened a way that we could not have created ourselves.

The grace that brought us here is the same grace that will lead us forward. Our Christian lives began by grace. They must continue by grace, and they must be completed by grace.

Jesus has opened a new way of life for us. It is not a life of endless struggle to prove ourselves worthy of God’s blessings. It is a life of trusting His Word, experiencing His work, and walking with Him for the sake of the gospel.

We began by grace. We must continue by grace. And we must finish by grace.

Let us stop looking at the water and turn our eyes toward Jesus. The greatest thing we need is God’s grace, and the way to receive that grace is to hear and believe His Word.