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.