But Jesus answered them, My Father worketh hitherto and I work.
Jesus had just healed a disabled man at a pool in Jerusalem, and He did it on the Sabbath. The Jews accused Him of breaking the day of rest. He did not defend the act. He pointed to what His Father had never stopped doing — and His accusers heard the claim He was making about Himself.
God did rest once, when creation was new. That rest ended.
A Sabbath in the strict and proper sense could only happen when there was nothing left to do. It belonged to an undefiled creation — a creation with no spot of sin on it. God can have no rest where there is sin. Look around, and you learn that God cannot enjoy a rest in creation now. The thorn and the thistle, and ten thousand other sad and humbling fruits of a groaning creation, rise before us and declare that God must be at work and not at rest. Could He rest amid the sighs and tears, the groans and sorrows, the sickness and death, the degradation and guilt of a ruined world?
The creating is over; something else has taken its place.
The seventh day was a day of rest for God. His work had involved both creating and making, but all was now complete. From that time until now He has plainly not set His hand to work of that order. The entrance of sin made it necessary for Him to take up work of another order. The Lord Jesus referred to this when He said, "My Father is working until now, and I am working."
Notice what Jesus does not appeal to.
In the other Gospels, when people challenge the Lord for doing His works on the Sabbath day, He answers from the case of David eating the holy bread from God's house, or the priests doing work in the temple, or the way His accusers themselves would lead out their donkey to water on the Sabbath day. But here, in John's Gospel, He does not plead what David, or the priests, or His accusers would do or had done. He pleads what the heavenly Father had always been doing in this needy, ruined world.
This work is grace, and the scene at the pool shows what that means.
Christ had come to work. What makes it so blessed is this truth: it was not man's work and man's strength; the Father and the Son are the workmen in our salvation. The law required man to work, just as the pool of Bethesda required a man to be quick enough to get himself into it. But in the gospel, it is God who works: "My Father is working."
The two words that inflamed His hearers were not about the Sabbath at all.
It was an overwhelming answer. They knew nothing of fellowship with the Father. He, not they, could call God "My Father," and loved to say that He "is working until now." For the Father could not rest in sin, He would not rest in misery. This is not yet God judging. So He was working as Father, and working until now — though only now was He declaring Himself Father, in and by the Son. Jesus, the Son, had fellowship with His Father, unbroken and perfect.
His hearers drew a conclusion about equality with God. That conclusion needs stating with care.
If the time for God's rest had not come, the full time for His work had, so that people might be made ready for a place in that rest. The Jews were right to take the Lord's words as involving His equality with the Father. But for that reason it could not be true that He made Himself God. The truth was this: being in the form of God, He did not treat equality with God as a grasping at something that was not His own. Instead He emptied Himself — that is the wonderful word — and took the form of a servant.
The Master's answer settles something for His followers too.
"Sabbath" means "rest," and the Lord said, "My Father is working until now, and I am working." The Lord Jesus could not rest in a world full of sin and suffering. He could not keep the Sabbath down here... No more can a true Christian keep the Sabbath in such a world. He has no more right to be resting here than his Master. If his Master must work, so must he. But in Hebrews 4:9 we read, "So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God." The Sabbath rest is ahead of us.
- Sin broke the rest. God rested over a spotless creation. Thorns, tears and death ended that rest, so He took up work of another kind.
- Work of grace. This work is not judgment but grace. The law asked a helpless man to move himself; at the pool, God moved instead.
- Father and Son together. In John, Jesus points to no example from David or the priests. He points to what His Father has always done — and does the same Himself.
- "My Father" is the offence. Those two words claimed a place no one else could take. His hearers heard equality with God in them.
- Rest still ahead. The work ends in the Sabbath rest that remains for God's people. Until then the servant works, like his Master.
For this therefore the Jews sought the more to kill him, because he had not only violated the sabbath, but also said that God was his own Father, making himself equal with God.
Jesus healed a sick man on the sabbath, and the man reported Him to His enemies. When Jesus answered by pointing to His Father's work, their anger hardened into a plan to kill Him.
The Lord did not argue about sabbath rules. He pointed to His Father's work and set His own beside it.
It was the sabbath day. The Jews draw attention to the fact. The Lord takes up the blessed character He had as Son, and says: "My Father is working until now, and I am working." How can God rest where sin is? Where misery is? He cannot have His rest in a world like this. Christ had come to work. But what makes it so blessed, dear friends, is this truth: it was not man's work and man's strength. The Father and the Son are the workmen in our salvation.
The pool of Bethesda pictured the difference between law and gospel.
The law required man to work, just as the pool of Bethesda required a man to be quick enough to get himself into it. But in the gospel, it is God who works: "My Father is working."
Why did the Lord keep healing on that particular day? The sabbath was Israel's sign before the nations.
To be a sign, a thing must be outward, something men can observe. The sabbath was such an outward observance. Keeping it with care would at once have made Israel a distinct people among the nations. It would also have shown that they were in covenant relations with God. This makes the Lord's repeated acts of mercy on the sabbath day full of meaning. He was showing that the mercy of God is not restricted by the law God had given. He was also showing that the grace He brought was setting aside the law of Moses as the basis of acceptance before God. John 5:17-18 shows this most clearly.
The wording matters. He claimed God as His own Father, and He never softened it.
He did not deny, but confessed, that God was His own Father in a sense that was true of none but Himself. This is the truth of all truths most owed to God, and the turning point of all blessing to man. By it the believer knows God and has life everlasting. Without it a person is an enemy of God, as the Jews showed themselves that day and ever since. They were hardened men, blinded in a stubborn and fatal way. In supposed zeal for God's honour, they sought all the more to kill Jesus, His own Son, who had come in infinite love to make the Father known and to reconcile man to God. But God is wise and infinitely good in His work. He let them prove their malice to the very end, and when the time came they killed Jesus. In that act He proved His own love to the full in atonement.
The phrase "making Himself equal with God" is easy to read as the hostile spin of angry men. One writer points out that it is not their comment at all.
Note carefully: verse 18 is John's own explanation of why the Jews sought to kill Him. It is not his record of the explanation the Jews gave — though of course it may have been the explanation they gave too. So it is the comment of the Holy Spirit through John. It proves that in the Sonship of our Lord there is no thought of any inferiority to the Father. On the contrary, it is the assertion of equality.
Another writer points out who had really broken the sabbath, and what His enemies heard in His answer.
The Lord simply points out that someone else has broken the sabbath, not Himself. Man's sin has broken God's rest, and it has stayed broken ever since the fall — on the sabbath as on every other day the Father works, and the Son works with Him. Their own conscience should have bowed to this and owned the truth. Instead, they hate Him still more because of His announced Sonship to the Father. Unlike modern unbelievers, they saw that such a claim meant equality with God.
Rejecting the Son costs more than a missed blessing.
Man as he is needed life out of death, and this the Father is giving in the Son... Could they, then, reject the Son and miss only this infinite blessing of life in Him? No — the Father has given all judgment to the Son. He will have everyone honour the Son, just as they honour the Father.
- Rest broken. Man's sin broke God's rest, not Christ. God cannot rest in a world of misery, so the Father works and the Son works with Him.
- Work begun. The pool waited for a man quick enough to get in; in the gospel God works. Salvation is the joint work of Father and Son, not of man.
- Sign set aside. The sabbath was the visible badge of Israel's covenant. Touching it on purpose signalled that law was no longer the basis of acceptance with God.
- Claim made. "His own Father" is true of no one else. By that truth a person knows God and has eternal life; without it he stands as God's enemy.
- Charge confirmed. John, writing by the Spirit, agrees with what His enemies worked out: the Son is equal with God, in no way less. Their malice ran on to the cross, where God proved His love in atonement.
Jesus therefore answered and said to them, Verily, verily, I say to you, The Son can do nothing of himself save whatever he sees the Father doing for whatever things *he* does, these things also the Son does in like manner.
The leaders had charged Jesus with making God His own Father, and so making Himself equal with God. His answer sounds like a step back — the Son can do nothing on His own. Commentators read it the other way: not a retreat from the charge, but the explanation of it.
The Lord's reply does not soften the charge. It confirms it.
The Lord does not deny, but confesses the charge of the Jews that He "said that God was His own Father," for "the Son can do nothing of His own accord, but only what He sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise." The Son does the same things as the Father and in the same manner. There was, therefore, absolute equality without independence.
The phrase is not about lack of power. Several writers render it "from Himself" and explain it as a matter of source — who starts the action.
The first thing is that He could do nothing of Himself — or rather, from Himself. This was true in the lowly place He willingly took. His whole mission was to carry out the will of Another. While He was doing it, He could not start a single action of His own. His will was perfect as He Himself was perfect, and yet He never allowed His will to govern Him in what He did. Doing the Father's will was His food, and for that very reason He could do nothing of Himself.
The Father shows, the Son sees, and the Son does the same. That last word means more than copying.
The Son is standing here, in this world, speaking to men of what He sees, and is in contact with, in another world. The Father shows Him, and He sees. It is not that the Son does works of a like nature to the Father, but He does the identical same works. In that way He is doing the works of the Father, just as He is speaking the Father's words.
The verse has two halves, and both are meant. One rules out acting alone. The other shows who alone could speak this way.
He was not here, then, to act as God, independently, for He said, "Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of His own accord, but only what He sees the Father doing." He had come only to act in absolute dependence upon the Father; yet only One equal with the Father could have said, "For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise." All His works were the Father's works, showing the Father's nature and will. In His works the Father was revealed.
Commentators differ on how far back this reaches. Some tie the words to the place He took when He became man:
The Son, having become man, therefore became subject to the Father. He moved and acted with reference to the Father instead of acting on His own initiative. Scriptures like this one describe the position the Son took in relation to the Father when He became man.
Others say this dependence was always true of the Son. What was new was obedience:
This was always true. But He was here on earth, in a new position for Him. Before He became man, He knew nothing of obedience. He did not act on His own. He acted as sovereign, together with the Spirit and the Father. But He became man. He came into our condition and circumstances. He entered a new relationship — one of dependence. So He learned obedience, a new experience for Him.
What looks like a limit turns out to be evidence.
The Father put all things into His hand, yet the Son would not act on His own. It is impossible for the Son to act apart from the Father. They are one in the fullness of the Godhead, and their bond of love is eternal.
What marked the Son also marks a perfect man.
Two things make perfection in a man: dependence and obedience. They were in Christ, the contrast to what was in Adam when he sinned. Christ was ever the dependent and the obedient one. Independence is sin: there is the principle of sin in it... With Christ there was no will but His Father's. This was not a restraint on Him but His motive.
- Charge — They accused Him of making Himself equal with God. His answer never takes that claim back.
- Source — "Of Himself" means "from Himself." The Father starts the action; the Son carries it out.
- Sameness — He does not do works like the Father's. He does the identical works, in the identical way.
- Equality — Only One equal with the Father could say that He does whatever the Father does. His dependence proves the union; it does not deny it.
- Pattern — He refused to act from Himself. Dependence and obedience make a perfect man; acting on your own is where sin begins.
For the Father loves the Son and shews him all things which he himself does; and he will shew him greater works than these, that ye may wonder.
Jesus is speaking in Jerusalem, where hostility toward Him is rising. He traces everything He does back to the Father's love for Him — and warns that far greater works are still to come.
The verse begins with "For," tying the Son's actions back to a cause. One writer reads that link as the key to how Father and Son work as one:
These Godhead claims of union and communion with the Father (v. 19), and of quickening whom He will (v. 21), are joined to a further claim. The Father dearly loves (philei) the Son, and shows Him all things which He Himself does (v. 20). How fully this threefold claim explains the working together of the Father and the Son: "My Father is working until now, and I am working" (v. 17). As love is the essence of the Divine Being, so love is the mainspring or motive of the joint divine working by the Father and the Son.
The verse names the Son as the one the Father loves. One writer asks what that tells us about the love:
"The Father loves the Son." This statement shows that there was One present on earth who could display the Father's love in full. To say that the Father loved a saint — even the greatest of saints — would be true, but it would not set out the greatness of the Father's love. Men prove the poverty of their love by the smallness of the objects on which they often set their affections. The greater the object of the love, the greater the character of the love. In the Son every moral quality is found in perfection. The Father's love is so great it can be satisfied with no less an object than the Son.
English uses one word for love here and in John 3:35, but the Greek words differ. One writer notes where the change falls:
In John 3:35 we learn that "the Father loves (agapao) the Son, and has given all things into his hand." The English is the same in John 5:20. But here, faced with the rising hatred of those in Jerusalem, the Lord Jesus withdraws into His known place in the most intimate love of the Father: "the Father loves (phileo) the Son." And we have the Father's resulting resolve that all men shall honour Him, and the measures taken to secure it.
The second half of the verse says what this love does: it shows.
In the verse we have read we see one way in which love works. It is one of the activities that express love: "The Father loves the Son and shows Him all that He Himself is doing." Love confides all its secrets to its object, and makes known all its doings to its friend. There is a delightful transparency that goes with true love, of which a stranger knows nothing. As man here below, the ever-blessed Son was always in the secret of the Father, and always understood what the Father was doing. There was no veil between the Father and the Son; the Father showed Him all things that He did Himself.
The verses that follow name what these greater works are:
The Lord goes on to show that the greater works are the work of resurrection, the work of quickening, and the work of judgment. These greater works will affect all men, believers and unbelievers. Believers will be raised and quickened; unbelievers and opposers, like the Jews to whom the Lord was speaking, will come under His strange work of judgment.
One writer points to the raising of Lazarus as an example:
The "greater works than these, so that you may marvel" are His raising the dead, and many works that He did; He raised Lazarus when he was decaying. They all knew that if the Lord had been there Lazarus would not have died, but He deliberately did not go before his death; raising him was more than healing.
Note the purpose Jesus gives for these greater works — and what He does not say:
He lets them know, as He knew Himself, that the Father would show Him greater works, as the later part of this Gospel testifies, "that you may marvel" — He does not say believe. For He speaks, not of grace, but of power shown in testimony to the Jews. Its effect would be, not the faith which honours God, but the amazement which so often keeps stupid company with unbelief.
The Son's refusal to act on His own is also read as a pattern. One writer draws out what "of Himself" means:
His whole mission being to accomplish the will of Another, He could not, while engaged in it, start a single action of His own. His will was perfect as He Himself was perfect, and yet He never allowed His will to govern Him in what He did. His food was to do the Father's will, and for this very reason He could do nothing of Himself.
- Love first. The Son's works flow from love. Love is the mainspring of the joint working of Father and Son.
- Love shows. Because the Father loves, He hides nothing. There was no veil between the Father and the Son.
- Love needs a worthy object. The greater the object, the greater the love — and the Father's love rests on no one less than the Son.
- Love enlarges the work. The greater works are resurrection, quickening and judgment. They reach past death itself.
- Love provokes wonder. Jesus says the greater works are so that people may marvel — He does not say believe. Amazement often keeps company with unbelief.
For even as the Father raises the dead and quickens [them], thus the Son also quickens whom he will
Jesus had just healed a man on the Sabbath, and the religious leaders wanted Him dead for making Himself equal with God. His answer does not soften the claim. He points to a work that belongs to God alone: giving life.
That healing was real, but greater works were still to come. One writer names them, and says who they touch.
John 5:21-23. The Lord goes on to show what the greater works are: the work of resurrection, the work of giving life, and the work of judgment. These greater works will affect all men, believers and unbelievers. Believers will be raised and given life. Unbelievers and opponents, like the Jews the Lord was speaking to, will come under His strange work of judgment.
The older word for this is "quicken," and it carries no idea of improving something already alive.
God then must act. But how must He act? Will reformation, education or instruction meet our case? By no means: there can be nothing until He quickens, for quickening simply means the giving of life. The word translated "quicken" in the New Testament joins the noun "life" to the verb "to make" — to make alive.
The verse names two acts: raising the dead, and giving them life. They are not the same.
Quickening is giving life — a life that lives to God. In a spiritual sense the believer receives that life now. He was spiritually dead to God; now he is alive to God and knows it (Colossians 2:13). Quickening covers more than the believer's soul. It reaches the mortal body too. When Christ comes, He will free the body from death completely, and it will put on immortality (Romans 8:11; 1 Corinthians 15:53). Unbelievers will be raised from the dead. Scripture does not say they receive life.
The Son does not just copy the Father's action. He acts by His own right, and He kept that right when He became a man.
As Son, though He is here as a man, He keeps His sovereign rights over people. The Father gives life; so does the Son. This action is Divine by its very nature. It belongs to God alone... He makes His own Divine claim on the creature; He gives life to whom He will... He does not give up His sovereign rights as God by becoming flesh.
What does that leave people with?
The Jews had just tried to kill Him, because He made Himself equal with God. He let them know that they could only receive life, spiritual life, from Him, and only as He was willing to give it. He gives life to whom He will. So men are completely at His mercy for receiving life. He gives life. Those in whom He works this way cannot have had spiritual life before. They were dead. As creatures who had failed in their responsibility, they were dead in trespasses and sins (Ephesians 2:1, 5).
Sovereignty is one side of the picture. Dependence is the other.
His divine nature and Godhead shine throughout, but He receives everything — He is sent — and has taken the place of one who receives and obeys... He acts with the same divine power as the Father, yet the Father shows Him all, and He does nothing of Himself.
Sovereignty here is no excuse to sit still. This life reaches a person along a set path.
This is the sad truth: men busy with all the activities of the world are here "the dead." The answer is not a stricter morality or a holier religion. They may gain one or the other or both, and still have no life. Teaching cannot give life any more than practice can. Life flows from the Son of God, Who gives life to whom He will. Yet it comes by faith, and so through the word which the Spirit applies with living power.
Giving life is one half of the Son's glory. Judgment is the other, and everyone falls under one or the other.
So the Son's glory is upheld in two ways. Like the Father, He gives life... then by judgment, for the Father judges no one, but has handed all judgment to the Son, so that all may honour Him. Those who receive life honour Him with all their heart, and gladly. Judgment will force those who do not believe to honour Him, against their will.
- Dead — the problem is not weakness but spiritual death. Reform, education and religion cannot reach it.
- Life — "quicken" means to make alive. It is the Father's own work, and the Son does it too.
- Will — He gives life to whom He wills. He keeps His divine rights, yet takes the place of a Son who is sent and obeys.
- Word — the life comes by faith, through His word heard and believed.
- Honour — those given life honour Him gladly. Judgment will force those who refuse Him to honour Him.
for neither does the Father judge any one, but has given all judgment to the Son;
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
that all may honour the Son, even as they honour the Father. He who honours not the Son, honours not the Father who has sent him.
Jesus had just healed a man on the Sabbath and called God His own Father, and the leaders wanted to kill Him for it. He does not soften the claim. He explains why the Father has given Him all judgment: so that the Son receives the very honour that belongs to God.
The verse opens with "that" — it gives the reason for the words just before it. The Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son. One writer traces this back to the Son becoming a man. As a man, people could despise Him.
Two things are spoken of in this chapter (v. 21, 22) which show the glory of the Son. He gives life and He judges... But He has become a man, so men may dishonour Him in person, reject Him, and despise Him. That is why the Father judges no one and has given all judgment to the Son. The purpose is that all should honour Him, even those who have rejected Him. They are to honour the Son just as they honour the Father whom they acknowledge as God. If they refuse Him when He acts in grace, they will have to honour Him when He acts in judgment.
Behind the arrangement is the Father's own concern. The Son humbled Himself so far that He could say He does nothing of Himself. The Father will not let that humbling become a reason to value Him less.
Read, dear reader, the Lord's words to the Jews in John 5. There the secret comes out. Though the Son has humbled Himself, and though He says He can "do nothing of Himself," the Father will make sure it never dishonours Him or lowers Him in any way. By this most careful and jealous decree the Father guards the rights of the Son — His full divine rights.
The verse sets a measure for this honour, and the measure is the honour given to the Father Himself. The writer below quotes an older translation, which reads "even as they honour the Father" where the ESV reads "just as."
Nothing said here weakens our prayer and praise to our God and Father. What a blessed privilege! The writer himself knows that many of his own prayers go that way. But God has decreed "that all men should honour the Son, even as they honour the Father." "Even as" is a forceful phrase — in every way — in all things! Let us obey the Word!
Everyone in the verse ends up honouring the Son. The difference lies in whether that happens now, willingly, or later, under judgment.
If men refuse, like the Jews, to honour the Son as equal with the Father, they will still have to honour Him. They will meet Him as the Judge. To refuse Him as the Son is to miss the blessing: to meet Him as the Judge will seal their doom. But the Father will have His Son honoured either as the Son or as the Judge. The decree stands: "all men" shall honour the Son. Souls made alive, in the power of that new life, delight to acknowledge Him as the Son. Judgment will force the wicked to acknowledge Him as the Son.
The second half of the verse closes a door. No one can honour God while setting the Son aside.
Some may claim to honour the Father while refusing the Son. But the claim is false. To dishonour the Son is to dishonour the Father, who sent the Son as His own exact representation.
If the Son deserves the same honour as the Father, we may pray to Him directly.
When I say that God is the only One we should pray to, I do not for a moment mean that we must not pray to the Lord Jesus. He is God, equally with the Father, and equal honour belongs to Him (John 5:23). We find Stephen praying to the Lord Jesus to receive his spirit. Paul, too, prayed to Him about his thorn in the flesh.
- Cause — Because the Son became a man, people could despise Him. So the Father gave Him all judgment, securing His glory.
- Decree — The honour is not left to human taste. The Father Himself decrees it, watching over the full divine rights of the Son.
- Measure — "Even as" sets the level: the same honour given to the Father, in every way, in all things.
- Reach — It covers everyone. Believers give it gladly now; those who refuse will be compelled to give it before the Judge.
- Result — Honour withheld from the Son is not honour redirected to the Father; it is honour lost. To claim the Father while refusing the Son is a false claim.