What does "I can do nothing on my own" mean (John 5:30)?

C.C. — Then we have what is strange to a great many in verse 31, “If I bear witness of Myself, my witness is not true,” i.e., not valid, The law requires two witnesses, and He recognizes its claims upon Him. In the preceding verse He says, “I can of mine own self do nothing.” That is, He cannot act independently. “As I hear, I judge.” His judgments were in accordance with the mind and will of the Godhead. He was in such relationship with the Father that His judgments were fully in accord with His.

It is undoubted, at least in our judgment, that when the Lord says, "As I hear, I judge," He refers to hearing, not from man, but from the Father. The last word of the previous verse is really "judgment," and not "damnation." It is necessary to observe this to understand the connection. Thereupon, after speaking of the resurrection of judgment (and this must bring in what is said in verse 27), He proceeds, "I can of Mine own self do nothing," that is even in executing judgment as the Son of man; as we also read in verse 19, "The Son can do nothing of [or from] Himself, but what He seeth the Father do." Then He adds, as explaining this, "As I hear, I judge." Invested thus with authority to judge all who will be brought before the great white throne, all the unconverted dead of every age and dispensation, He will act in communion with, and in dependence upon, the Father. Every sentence He passes will be the expression of the mind of God, for the very reason that as He hears, He will judge. What follows will justify this interpretation, for He says, "My judgment is just; because I seek not Mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent Me." In the judgment, therefore, He will do the will of God, just as He did it in every step of His pathway upon the earth.

Verse 30. "I can of mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge, and my judgment is just because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me." He gives the moral reason for that — "because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me. If I bear witness of myself, my witness is not true. There is another that beareth witness." Then He gives a fourfold series of witnesses to His Person, the leading thought being that He has eternal life to communicate. (Vers. 26-39.) In 1 John 5 you have a threefold testimony that eternal life is in Christ Himself, and that God has given it to us. Thus you get a sevenfold testimony on this subject. The four here are — first, John; second, the Father Himself; third, the scriptures bore witness; and fourth, the works He did. "Search the scriptures, for in them ye think ye have eternal life, and they are they which testify of me." But in 1 John 5 it says, "There are three that bear witness, the Spirit, and the water, and the blood." (Vers. 10, 11.) "He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself; he that believeth not God hath made him a liar, because he believeth not the record that God gave of his Son. And this is the record, that God hath given unto us eternal life, and this life is in his Son." It is very important to read that verse 11 in connection with the three that bear witness. What was it the three bore witness to? What is the testimony?

John 5 becomes a complete revelation of the place He has taken, as of Him who takes it. Divine grace, active in power to bless even on the Sabbath day, had clashed with Jewish stickling for forms. How little they knew the heart of God, who thought that He could rest in a world where there was the cry of human misery on every hand. "My Father worketh hitherto, and I work," revealed that heart, but in terms that they knew well involved the perfect community of nature between the Son who spoke and the Father; and they charge Him with making Himself equal with God. Nothing could be further from the truth, as to One who never sought His own glory, but only the glory of Him that sent Him (John 7:18; John 8:50); yet to be on such an equality was no usurping of what did not belong to Him, as we have seen. But He had emptied Himself, becoming in the likeness of man; and so He answered them, "The Son can do nothing from [apo] himself, but whatever He sees the Father do." He had not come down to act as an independent divine Person on earth in the exercise of His own will and power, but in perfect dependence; and in the communion in which He ever walked with His Father, we learn further that "whatever things he doeth, these also doeth the Son in like manner. For the Father loveth the Son, and showeth him all things that he himself doeth;" and this carried out even in quickening whom He will (ver. 21); while verses 27-30 show that not otherwise will it be in the exercise of the judgment committed to Him. "I cannot do anything from myself: as I hear, I judge: and my judgment is righteous; because I do not seek my will, but the will of him that sent me." Oh, how it searches and humbles us to hear Him speak of not even seeking will of His, but only that the Father's might be accomplished!

179 Having declared these great truths, which reach to the end of God's ways with men, in His Person, as to life, and as to judgment, Christ goes back to the great principle which was at the very beginning of His discourse; that is, that He could do nothing as an independent Person from the Father. If it had been otherwise, it would have been, indeed, the denial of that bond between Him and the Father in which they were one, and which was found in everything, with this additional fact, that He had the form of a servant, of One sent by the Father. He did nothing of His own will: according as He heard, He judged, and His judgment was just, for He sought not His own will in anything, but that of the Father who had sent Him (v. 30). No selfish motive whatever was to be found in His manner of viewing things, but the judgment which He formed, whatever it might be, flowed from the communications that the Father made to Him: this was divine perfection. He acted as Man, and as sent, but He did so according to the immutable perfection of God, not of Himself as a Man, which would not even have been human perfection, but forgetfulness of Him whose Servant He had become. Still, it was as Son of man, in this title of glory as of grace, of Him who had been humbled, that He executed judgment with authority.

We learn of the Son's obedience where He says, "I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me" (John 5:30). Where every other man sought to do his own will, the Son of the Father sought only the Father's will. Yet this very obedience brought out the perfection of the Son, and revealed who He was, for He said, "I can of mine own self do nothing." None other could say this: only One who was conscious of His relationship with the Father in the unity of the Godhead could speak thus. It was impossible for Him as one with the Father to act independently of Him in anything, whether in His actions or in His judgments. He viewed and judged everything, not as they affected Himself, but in relation to the will and glory of His Father. This of necessity made His judgment just, and in marked contrast to the Jews who viewed all in relation to their own interests.

If the Father's will was to be accomplished the Son must enter into death, and through death, in resurrection, bring to full fruition all the eternal counsels of the Father. And the obedience of the Son in doing this great work called forth from the Father the deep love of His heart, even as He said, "Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again" (John 10:17). Here was a fresh cause for the Father's love for the Son. Men might oppose Him, and be the instruments of His death, but they never could have slain Him had He not given up His life as a voluntary offering, even as He continues to say, "No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father" (John 10:18).

In the light of this chapter we believe we may speak of quickening as the most deep-seated and fundamental aspect of God's work in us. Such is its importance that the Father and the Son act together as to it in a special way. A wrong use is sometimes made of our Lord's statements in verses 19 and 30; "The Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He sees the Father do;" and " I can of Mine own Self do nothing." These words do not mean that He disclaimed all power, just as a mere prophet might have done. They expressed in the first place the fact that in becoming Man the Son had taken the place of dependent service, acting wholly by the Spirit in subjection to the Father. This thought seems specially prominent in verse 30. But in the second place they also emphasized the fact that His essential place in the unity of the Godhead was such that it was impossible that He should act apart from the Father. This thought seems more prominent in verse 19.

The answer Jesus gave to their murderous hatred, in verse 19, is very striking. The Son, who was here in Manhood, had taken the place of carrying out in perfection all the Father's will and work. Hence He could do nothing "of Himself," as originating it independently of the Father: but rather He acted in all things as directed and ordered of the Father. But this is intended to conduct us, we believe, to the still deeper truth that this necessity was rooted in His perfect oneness with the Father. Though Man He was so wholly and perfectly and altogether in the unity of the Godhead that it was impossible for Him to act apart from the Father. In that sense, "The Son can do nothing of Himself;" and therefore this saying far from being any confession of impotence or even inferiority is an assertion of His unqualified Deity.

"The Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He seeth the Father do: for what things soever He doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise. For the Father loveth the Son, and showeth Him all things that Himself doeth" (John 5: 19, 20), and "I can of Mine own self do nothing" (Verse 30). Some say this could not apply to the Lord as eternal Son but only to Him as Man. But this is bringing in human reasoning. We must not confuse the dignity of His person with the place He has voluntarily taken in carrying out the divine purposes. The Son is seen in this chapter as coequal with the Father, quickening whom He will and judging all, but He is not acting independently of the Father nor is the Father acting independently of Him. The Father shows Him all He does and the Son does nothing without His Father. There is complete equality and oneness in purpose and thought in carrying out one common plan. The Son has voluntarily taken the form of a servant for accomplishing the divine purposes of the Godhead with which He is fully one. But this does not render Him in anywise inferior to His Father by doing so. We must not confuse the dignity of His Person with that place He has taken in full communion and oneness of thought and purpose with the Godhead in carrying out the divine purposes.

To this He again answers (still, as before, speaking of Himself as Son, but taking a place of subjection also), "Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of Himself."*

*Without the knowledge of the divine dignity of His person we cannot discover the place which the Lord here takes to be the place of willing subjection, as it was. For it would not have been such in any mere creature, however exalted, to have said, "I can of mine own self do nothing." But this in the Son was subjection.