Jesus therefore answered them, “Most certainly, I tell you, the Son can do nothing of himself, but what he sees the Father doing. For whatever things he does, these the Son also does likewise.
Parallel Translations
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Jesus therefore answered them, “Most certainly, I tell you, the Son can do nothing of himself, but what he sees the Father doing. For whatever things he does, these the Son also does likewise.
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Then answered Iesus and sayde vnto them: verely verely I saye vnto you: the sonne can do no thinge of him selfe but that he seeth the father do. For whatsoever he doeth that doeth the sonne also.
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Then answered Iesus, and said vnto them, Verely, verely I say vnto you, The Sonne can doe nothing of himselfe, saue that he seeth the Father doe: for whatsoeuer things he doth, the same things doeth the Sonne in like maner.
Cross-references (39)
Passages linked to John 5:19 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- John 12:49 For I spoke not from myself, but the Father who sent me, he gave me a commandment, what I should say, and what I should speak.
- John 8:28 Jesus therefore said to them, “When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am he, and I do nothing of myself, but as my Father taught me, I say these things.
- John 14:10 Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? The words that I tell you, I speak not from myself; but the Father who lives in me does his works.
- John 10:18 No one takes it away from me, but I lay it down by myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. I received this commandment from my Father.”
- John 5:28-30 Don’t marvel at this, for the hour comes in which all who are in the tombs will hear his voice, and will come out; those who have done good, to the resurrection of life; and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of judgment. I can of myself do nothing. As I hear, I judge, and my judgment is righteous; because I don’t seek my own will, but the will of my Father who sent me.
- Romans 8:11 But if the Spirit of him who raised up Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised up Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.
- John 14:16-23 I will pray to the Father, and he will give you another Counselor, that he may be with you forever: the Spirit of truth, whom the world can’t receive; for it doesn’t see him and doesn’t know him. You know him, for he lives with you, and will be in you. I will not leave you orphans. I will come to you. Yet a little while, and the world will see me no more; but you will see me. Because I live, you will live also. In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. One who has my commandments and keeps them, that person is one who loves me. One who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him, and will reveal myself to him.” Judas (not Iscariot) said to him, “Lord, what has happened that you are about to reveal yourself to us, and not to the world?” Jesus answered him, “If a man loves me, he will keep my word. My Father will love him, and we will come to him, and make our home with him.
- Luke 21:15 for I will give you a mouth and wisdom which all your adversaries will not be able to withstand or to contradict.
- John 9:4 I must work the works of him who sent me while it is day. The night is coming, when no one can work.
- John 5:21 For as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son also gives life to whom he desires.
- John 5:24-26 “Most certainly I tell you, he who hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life, and doesn’t come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life. Most certainly I tell you, the hour comes, and now is, when the dead will hear the Son of God’s voice; and those who hear will live. For as the Father has life in himself, even so he gave to the Son also to have life in himself.
- Genesis 1:1 In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.
- Genesis 1:26 God said, “Let’s make man in our image, after our likeness. Let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the sky, and over the livestock, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”
- Psalms 50:6 The heavens shall declare his righteousness, for God himself is judge.
- Jeremiah 17:10 “I, Yahweh, search the mind. I try the heart, even to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his doings.”
- John 2:19 Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.”
- John 11:25-26 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will still live, even if he dies. Whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?”
- 2 Corinthians 5:10 For we must all be revealed before the judgment seat of Christ that each one may receive the things in the body according to what he has done, whether good or bad.
- Philippians 4:13 I can do all things through Christ, who strengthens me.
- Exodus 4:11 Yahweh said to him, “Who made man’s mouth? Or who makes one mute, or deaf, or seeing, or blind? Isn’t it I, Yahweh?
- Psalms 138:3 In the day that I called, you answered me. You encouraged me with strength in my soul.
- 2 Corinthians 12:9-10 He has said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Most gladly therefore I will rather glory in my weaknesses, that the power of Christ may rest on me. Therefore I take pleasure in weaknesses, in injuries, in necessities, in persecutions, and in distresses, for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak, then am I strong.
- Ephesians 2:5 even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—
- Ephesians 3:16 that he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, that you may be strengthened with power through his Spirit in the inner person,
- Philippians 3:21 who will change the body of our humiliation to be conformed to the body of his glory, according to the working by which he is able even to subject all things to himself.
- Colossians 1:16 For by him all things were created in the heavens and on the earth, visible things and invisible things, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things have been created through him and for him.
- 1 Peter 3:18 Because Christ also suffered for sins once, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring you to God, being put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the Spirit,
- Revelation 2:23 I will kill her children with Death, and all the assemblies will know that I am he who searches the minds and hearts. I will give to each one of you according to your deeds.
- Proverbs 2:6 For Yahweh gives wisdom. Out of his mouth comes knowledge and understanding.
- Isaiah 44:24 Yahweh, your Redeemer, and he who formed you from the womb says: “I am Yahweh, who makes all things; who alone stretches out the heavens; who spreads out the earth by myself;
- John 3:3 Jesus answered him, “Most certainly, I tell you, unless one is born anew, he can’t see God’s Kingdom.”
- Acts 2:24 whom God raised up, having freed him from the agony of death, because it was not possible that he should be held by it.
- Romans 6:4 We were buried therefore with him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we also might walk in newness of life.
- 1 Corinthians 15:12 Now if Christ is preached, that he has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?
- 2 Corinthians 4:14 knowing that he who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus, and will present us with you.
- Ephesians 1:18-19 having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope of his calling, and what are the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to that working of the strength of his might
- Isaiah 45:24 They will say of me, ‘There is righteousness and strength only in Yahweh.’ ” Even to him will men come. All those who raged against him will be disappointed.
- 1 Thessalonians 4:14 For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus.
- Colossians 1:11 strengthened with all power, according to the might of his glory, for all endurance and perseverance with joy,
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (19 sources)
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John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain 19. Jesus therefore answered. We see what I have…
19. Jesus therefore answered. We see what I have said, that Christ is so far from vindicating himself from what the Jews asserted, though they intended it as a calumny, that he maintains more openly that it is true. And first he insists on this point, that the work which the Jews cavilled at was a divine work, to make them understand that they must fight with God himself, if they persist in condemning what must necessarily be ascribed to him. This passage was anciently debated in various ways between the orthodox Fathers and the Arians. Arius inferred from it that the Son is inferior to the Father, because he can do nothing of himself The Fathers replied that these words denote nothing more than the distinction of the person, so that it might be known that Christ is from the Father, and yet that he is not deprived of intrinsic power to act. But both parties were in the wrong. For the discourse does not relate to the simple Divinity of Christ, and those statements which we shall immediately see do not simply and of themselves relate to the eternal Word of God, but apply only to the Son of God, so far as he is manifested in the flesh.
Let us therefore keep Christ before our eyes, as he was sent into the world by the Father to be a Redeemer. The Jews beheld in him nothing higher than human nature, and, therefore, he argues that, when he cured the diseased man, he did it not by human power, but by a Divine power which was concealed under his visible flesh. The state of the case is this. As they, confining their attention to the appearance of the flesh, despised Christ, he bids them rise higher and look at God. The whole discourse must be referred to this contrast, that they err egregiously who think that they have to do with a mortal man, when they accuse Christ of works which are truly divine. This is his reason for affirming so strongly that in this work, there is no difference between him and his Father.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain This must be understood of Christ’s person, which consisteth…
This must be understood of Christ’s person, which consisteth of two natures, and not simply of his Godhead: so then he saith that his Father moveth and governeth him in all things, but yet notwithstanding, when he saith he worketh with his Father, he voucheth his Godhead.
Not only without his Father’s authority, but also without his mighty working and power.
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In like sort, jointly and together. Not for that the Father doeth some things, and then the son worketh after him, and doeth the like, but because the might and power of the Father and the Son do work equally and jointly together.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain 19 Then answered Jesus and said unto them, Verily,…
19 Then answered Jesus and said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, 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.
Ver. 19. The Son can do nothing, &c.] He denies not himself to be the Son though they quarrelled him: but sweetly sets forth the doctrine of his Deity, which they so much stomached and stumbled at.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain Consider Christ as God, so he can do nothing…
Consider Christ as God, so he can do nothing but what the Father doth, that is, nothing that respected created beings: for it is a known rule, That the works of the Trinity out of itself are not divided; whatsoever one person doth, the others do; though, to denote the order of the Trinity’s working, some works are most ordinarily ascribed to the Father, such are the works of creation and providence; some to the Son, as redemption; some to the Holy Spirit, as sanctification; yet they are not so ascribed to any Person, but that other Scriptures justify the cooperation of all three Persons. Consider the Son as the Messias; so also it is true, that
the Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do. Nor is this any diminution to the glory of Christ, nor doth it speak any impotency in him, from whence the Arians and Socinians would conclude his inferiority to his Father; but rather his perfection, that he did only what pleased the Father: so that phrase, what he seeth the Father do, is to be interpreted; and that term, can do nothing, signifies no more than, he doth or will do nothing. See such a usage of the phrase, Gen 19:22; Luk 16:2; Joh 12:39. From this he leaveth them easily to conclude, that what he had done, in curing this impotent man upon the sabbath day, was the Father’s work, though by him; for whatsoever the Father doth, or willeth, the same doth the Son likewise. From hence will appear an easy solution to the difficulty arising upon the first view of the words, viz. How these words can prove Christ equal with the Father, when they rather prove the contrary, because he can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do? Some seek a solution in the words
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can do nothing; he that cannot do those things which God cannot do, is equal with God. Some seek it in the word seeth; which they say signifieth here an identity of nature and will. Some seek the solution in the word do, which they say signifieth to will and consent to. The best solution is to be taken from those words, of himself; the Son hath done many things which he did not see the Father do, but he did them not of himself. Our Saviour’s meaning is plainly this: The Son neither willeth nor can do any thing, but what the Father willeth and doth in him; therefore he is one in essence with the Father, and equal to him.
For what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise: the Son doth those things which the Father doth; and, as the Messias, he doth those things which the Father willeth to be done.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain Then answered Jesus, and said unto them,.... They charged…
Then answered Jesus, and said unto them,.... They charged him with blasphemy for calling God his Father, and making himself equal to him: and his answer is so far from denying the thing, or observing any mistake, or misrepresentation of his words, that he allows the whole, and vindicates himself in so saying:
verily verily, I say unto you; nothing is more certain; it may be depended on as truth; I who am truth itself, the "Amen", and faithful witness, aver it with the greatest assurance:
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the Son can do nothing of himself; or he does do nothing of himself, nor will he do anything of himself; that is, he neither does, nor will, nor can do anything alone or separate from his Father, or in which he is not concerned; not anything without his knowledge and consent, or contrary to his will: he does everything in conjunction with him; with the same power, having the same will, being of the same nature, and equal to each other: for these words do not design any weakness in the Son, or want of power in him to do anything of himself; that is, by his own power: for he has by his word of power spoke all things out of nothing, and by the same upholds all things; he has himself bore the sins of his people, and by himself purged them away, and has raised himself from the dead; but they express his perfection; that he does nothing, and can do nothing of himself, in opposition to his Father, and in contradiction to his will: as Satan speaks of his own, and evil men alienated from God, act of themselves, and do that which is contrary to the nature and will of God; but the Son cannot do so, being of the same nature with God, and therefore never acts separate from him, or contrary to him, but always co-operates and acts with him, and therefore never to be blamed for what he does. The Syriac, Arabic, and Persic versions render it, "the Son cannot do anything of his own will"; so Nonnus; as separate from, or contrary to his Father's will, but always in agreement with it, they being one in nature, and so in will and work. He does nothing therefore
but what he seeth the Father do; not that he sees the Father actually do a work, and then he does one after him, as the creation of the world, the assumption of human nature, and redemption of man, or any particular miracle, as if upon observing one done, he did the like; but that he being brought up with him, and lying in his bosom, was privy to the whole plan of his works, and saw in his nature and infinite mind, and in his vast counsels, purposes, and designs, all that he was doing, or would do, and so did the same, or acted agreeably to them; and which still shows and proves their unity of nature, and perfect equality, since there was nothing in the Father's mind but was known to the Son, seen, and observed, and acted up to by him: so Philo the Jew (e) says of the
"Father's most ancient Son, whom he otherwise calls the firstborn; that being begotten, he imitates the Father, and seeing, or looking to his exemplars and archetypes, forms species;''
that is, being conversant with the original and eternal ideas of things in the divine mind, acts according to them, which he could not do if he was not of the same nature with, and equal to his Father. Moreover, the Son sees what the Father does by co-operating with him, and so does no other than what he sees the Father do, in conjunction with him: to which may be added, that the phrase shows, that the Son does nothing but in wisdom, and with knowledge; and that as the Father, so he does all things after the counsel of his will:
for whatsoever things he doth, these also doth the Son likewise; the Son does the selfsame works as the Father does, such as the works of creation and providence, the government both of the church, and of the world; and he does these things in like manner, with the same power, and by the same authority, his Father does, and which proves him to be equal with him; the very thing the Jews understood him to have asserted, and which they charged him with: and this he strongly maintained. The Syriac version reads, "for the things which the Father does, the same also does the Son"; and the Persic version, "whatsoever God has done, the Son also does like unto it".
(e) De Confus. Ling. p. 329.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain The Son can do nothing of himself - This…
The Son can do nothing of himself - This is not his imperfection, but his glory, resulting from his eternal, intimate, indissoluble unity with the Father. Hence it is absolutely impossible, that the Son should judge, will, testify, or teach any thing without the Father, ver. 30, &c.; chap. vi, 38; chap. vii, 16; or that he should be known or believed on, separately from the Father. And he here defends his doing good every day, without intermission, by the example of his Father, from which he cannot depart: these doth the Son likewise - All these, and only these; seeing he and the Father are one.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 19. The Son can do nothing of himself]…
Verse 19. The Son can do nothing of himself] Because of his inseparable union with the Father: nor can the Father do any thing of himself, because of his infinite unity with the Son.
What things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son] God does nothing but what Christ does. What God does is the work of God, and proper to no creature-Jesus does whatsoever God does, and therefore is no created being. The Son can do nothing but what he sees the Father do: now, any intelligent creature may do what God cannot do: he may err - he may sin. If Jesus can do nothing but what God does, then he is no creature - he can neither sin nor err, nor act imperfectly. The conclusion from our Lord's argument is: If I have broken the Sabbath, so has God also; for I can do nothing but what I see him doing. He is ever governing and preserving; I am ever employed in saving.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain The Son can do nothing of himself - Jesus,…
The Son can do nothing of himself - Jesus, having stated the extent of his authority, proceeds here to show its “source and nature,” and to prove to them that what he had said was true. The first explanation which he gives is in these words: “The Son” - whom he had just impliedly affirmed to be equal with God - did nothing “of himself;” that is, nothing without the appointment of the Father; nothing contrary to the Father, as he immediately explains it. When it is said that he can “do nothing” of himself, it is meant that such is the union subsisting between the Father and the Son that he can do nothing “independently” or separate from the Father. Such is the nature of this union that he can do nothing which has not the concurrence of the Father, and which he does not command. In all things he must, from the necessity of his nature, act in accordance with the nature and will of God. Such is the intimacy of the union, that the fact that “he” does anything is proof that it is by the concurring agency of God. There is no separate action - no separate existence; but, alike in being and in action, there is the most perfect oneness between him and the Father. Compare Joh 10:30; Joh 17:21.
What he seeth the Father do - In the works of creation and providence, in making laws, and in the government of the universe. There is a special force in the word “seeth” here. No person can see God acting in his works; but the word here implies that the Son sees him act, as we see our fellow-men act, and that he has a knowledge of him, therefore, which no mere mortal could possess.
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What things soever - In the works of creation and of providence, and in the government of the worlds. The word is without limit - all that the Father does the Son likewise does. This is as high an assertion as possible of his being “equal” with God. If one does “all” that another does or can do, then there must be equality. If the Son does all that the Father does, then, like him, he must be almighty, omniscient, omnipresent, and infinite in every perfection; or, in other words, he must be God. If he had “this” power, then he had authority, also, to do on the Sabbath day what God did.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain The Son cannot do any thing of himself,[5] but…
The Son cannot do any thing of himself,[5] but what he seeth the Father do. In like manner, (ver. 30.) Christ says, I can do nothing of myself. As I hear, so I judge. Again (Chap. viii. 28.) I do nothing of myself; but as the Father hath taught me, I speak these things. All these, and the like expressions, may be expounded, with Maldonatus and Petavius, (lib. ii. de Trin. chap. 4.) of Christ, as man. But the ancient Fathers commonly allowed them to be understood of Christ as God, and as the true Son of God proceeding from him from all eternity; as when it is said, the Son cannot do any thing of himself, it is true, because the eternal Son i not of himself, but always proceeds from the Father. 2. Because the works of all the three Persons, by which all things are produced and preserved, are inseparable. 3. When it is said, that the Son doth nothing, but what he seeth the Father doing: that he worketh, as the Father hath taught him, or shewed to him: these expressions bear not the same sense as when they are applied to men, or to an inferior or a scholar, who learns of his master, and follows him; but here, says St. Augustine, to see, to hear, to be taught by the Father, is no more than to proceed from him, to do and produce by the same action, all that the Father doth and produceth. This is the general interpretation of the ancient Fathers: St. Athanasius, St. Basil, St. Gregory of Nazianzus, St. John Chrysostom, St. Cyril, St. Ambrose, St. Augustine. The words immediately following, confirm this exposition, when it is said: For what things soever he (the Father) doth, these also in like manner the Son doth, i.e. the very same things by an unity of nature, of will, and of action: nor could these words be true, unless the Son was the same true God with the Father. (Witham) --- This must be understood, that he cannot do any thing contrary to the will of the Father. He does not say, "The Son does nothing of himself, but he Son can do nothing of himself, in order to shew their likeness and perfect equality." For by saying this, he does not betray any want of power in the Son; but, on the contrary, shews his great power. For when we say that God cannot sin, we do not esteem it a want of power; so when the Son says he cannot do any thing of himself, his meaning is, that he cannot do any thing contrary to the will of the Father; which certainly is a great perfection. (St. John Chrysostom, hom. xxxvii. in Joan.)
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[BIBLIOGRAPHY]
Non potest filius a se, &c. St. John Chrysostom, Greek: om. le. (t. viii. p. 222.) a seipso nihil facit, neque pater a seipso facit, Greek: oude o pater aph eautou ti poion. See St. Cyril, lib. ii. in Joan. St. Augustine, trac. xvii. in Joan. on the same texts. St. Athanasius, orat. 2. cont. Arianos, tom. ii. p. 488. St. Gregory of Nazianzus, Orat. xxxvi. 584. tom. i. Ed. Par. an. 1630. St. Ambrose (tom. ii. in Ps. cxviii.) Nihil a se facit filius: quia per unitatem operationis, nec filius sine patre facit, nec sine filio pater. St. Hilary, lib. vii. De Trin. P. 927. Ed. Ben. But St. Jerome (tom. iv. part 2, p. 521. Ed. Ben.) Non possum facere a meipso, objiciebant Ariani; sed respondet Ecclesia, ex persona hominis hæc dici, &c. St. Jerome does not mean that he had a human or created person, as the Nestorians pretend; but that these words were spoken, or might be understood of Christ, inasmuch as his human nature was united to his divine person.
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain the Son can do nothing of himself--that is, apart…
the Son can do nothing of himself--that is, apart from and in rivalry of the Father, as they supposed. The meaning is, "The Son can have no separate interest or action from the Father."
for what things, &c.--On the contrary, "whatever the Father doeth that same doeth the Son,"
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likewise--"in the like manner." What claim to absolute equality with the Father could exceed this: not only to do "the same things," but to do them as the Father does them?
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 19. The Son—See note on Luk_1:25.
19. The Son—See note on Luk_1:25.
Nothing of himself—Nothing from himself; that is, separately and independently of the unsearchable, unknowable Father.
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Seeth the Father—Not with a bodily eye, but by the inmost view of consciousness.
Doeth the Son likewise—The doings of the Son are the doings of the unknowable Father. And the doings of that Son through his humanity are the doings of the eternal Son, and are the true expression of the eternal Father. The Father, as the original unknowable subsistence, is recognized in the God manifest, the Son; and all he is and does is in and by and through him. So that this Sabbath work of mine is endowed with all the divinity and authority of God the Father Almighty.
And so these Jews were right in holding him responsible for “making himself equal with God.”
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 19. can do nothing of himself] It is impossible…
19. can do nothing of himself] It is impossible for Him to act with individual self-assertion independent of God, because He is the Son: Their Will and working are one. The Jews accuse Him of blasphemy; and blasphemy implies opposition to God: but He and the Father are most intimately united.
but what he seeth, &c.] Better, unless He seeth the Father doing it.
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19, 20. Intimacy of the Son with the Father further enforced.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (19) The Son can do nothing of himself.—The key…
(19) The Son can do nothing of himself.—The key to this and the following verses is in the relation of Father and Son, from which they start. The Jews saw in this equality with God blasphemy, and sought to kill Him. Men have since seen and now see in it inferiority, and a proof that Christ did not claim for Himself the glory which the Apostle claims for Him in the prologue (Joh_1:1-18), and which the Church has ever in reverent adoration placed as a crown upon His brow. The words “Son,” “Father,” are the answer to both. Did they accuse Him of blasphemy? He is a Son. The very essence of blasphemy was independence of, and rivalry with, God. He claimed no such position, but was as a Son subject to His Father’s will, was as a Son morally unable to do anything of Himself, and did whatever He saw the Father do. Yea, more. He thought not His equality with God a thing to be seized, but emptied Himself and became, as they then saw Him, in the form of a servant, and in the likeness of men. (Comp. Notes on Php_2:6 et seq.)
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain Vers. 19-29. (b) Christ vindicated his equality with the…
Vers. 19-29. (b) Christ vindicated his equality with the Father.
Ver. 19, 20a. (a) He declares himself to be the Sore
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Jesus therefore answered and said to them; i.e. replied to their secret thoughts, and to the sentiments of animosity and hostility which they did not conceal. He spake in language of extraordinary solemnity and august claim. The Verily, verily, with which he prefaced the opening sentence, and which he repeated (cf. vers. 24, 25, as in Joh_3:3 and elsewhere) on subsequent occasions, denoted the high ground of authoritative revelation on which he took his stand. He proceeded, without a break or interruption, to assert, on the authority of his own consciousness, the true relation subsisting between the Son and the Father the deep, eternal, sacred link between them; in essence and in affection, in work and function; and gave several illustrations of these matters, the verification of which was not beyond the capacity of his hearers. These he made the basis of the argument of ver. 23, "that all men should honour the Son, even as they honour the Father." What did he wish "the Jews" to understand by "the Son"? Did he identify himself with the Son of whom he here speaks? Surely this is unquestionably the case, for the "answer" here given is one addressed to those who were seeking to slay him because he claimed for himself that God was "his own Father." He had said," My Father worketh hitherto, and I work." He justified the true reverence he felt for the Father when using this language, by describing in various ways the functions, privileges, and work of "the Son." Is "the Son," however, here the Eternal Son, the Logos, before and independently of his incarnation? and are the doctrines here announced an appeal to a preexisting belief in such a sonship on the part of his enemies, so that he is dealing, at least from vers. 19-23, with the internal relations of the Godhead? The references to the recent ergon , and the moral effects which are to be produced upon his hearers by further activity, make this view doubtful. Does he here speak simply of "the Son of man" in his purely dependent, servile capacity, and earthly manifestation? (Watkins). We think not; for the deeds and functions of "the Son" are here so lofty and far reaching that this interpretation is inadmissible. Therefore we conclude, with Meyer and others, that by "the Son" he did mean "the whole subject, the God-Man, the incarnate Logos, in whom the self-determination of action independently of the Father cannot find place." This view of "the Son" involves the continuity of the Logos-consciousness, and not its obliteration; nor is this (as Reuss urges, and even Godet appears in part to concede) incompatible with the Logos-doctrine of the prologue. The Son is not able to do anything from himself, in the great work of healing, life giving, and redemption, except that which he seeth the Father doing. The Logos made flesh, the Son who has taken humanity up into his own eternal being, is ever in full contemplation of the Father"s activity. He is in intimate and continuous and affectionate relations with the Father, who in this capacity has sent his Son to be the world"s Saviour. He sees the Father"s healing grace and omnipresent energy and ceaseless activity in regions where "the Jews" fail to discern them. The incarnate Son does not set up a rival throne or authority. He moves, lives, has his being, from the Father and not from himself.
Vers. 19, 20. The Father and the Son.
Most of our Lord"s discourses concern man and his spiritual life, are moral and practical. But this passage is, in the true and proper sense of the term, theological, informing us of the relations between the persons of the Godhead, and revealing, so to speak, the inner springs of our Saviour"s ministry, by giving us a glimpse into the Divine nature and purposes.
I THE FATHER IS EVER CARRYING ON BENEFICENT OPERATIONS IN HUMAN SOCIETY. The whole discussion originated in the cure of the infirm man at Bethesda; this being wrought on the sabbath occasioned the murmurings of the Jews, and elicited the defence of Jesus. Now, an ordinary physician, had he effected such a cure, would have been rightly satisfied to fall back upon the fact that the man"s sufferings were relieved, and that human strength and comfort are an abundant justification for any measures not morally wrong. But the Divine Physician fell back upon the working of God in the world and among men. What he says does not remove all mystery, for he tells us nothing to explain the existence of sin and of suffering. But he does give us to understand that God is ever working among men in the very way in which he Jesus himself had been working, when he had healed the infirmities of the sick.
II THE FATHER, LOVING THE SON, SHOWS HIM WHAT THINGS HE IS EVER DOING. This language is, of course, accommodated to our powers of comprehension. However the world, or the Jews in particular, might hate Christ, he was the beloved of the Divine Father, and as such was admitted to the Father"s intimate and affectionate confidence. What a qualification for him who came to this earth as Prophet, Priest, and King of humanity! How wise a provision was thus made for our salvation! A perfect sympathy exists between the Personal Power of beneficence in the universe and the Teacher, Saviour, Lord of man.
III THE SON, SEEING THE FATHER"S WORKS, DOES THE SAME IN HIS EARTHLY MINISTRY AND IN THE EXERCISE OF HIS MEDIATORIAL SOVEREIGNTY. Here was the all-sufficient vindication of our Lord"s miracles themselves, and also of their manner and circumstances. The Father is ever working for man"s welfare, on the sabbath as on other days. Every day of the week his sun shines, his air passes gently over the earth, his streams flow, his flowers bloom, his birds sing, his creatures rejoice in his bounty and kindness. He is all day long and every day promoting not only the bodily, but the intellectual and spiritual welfare of his dependent children. And what the Father does, that the Son does, moving amongst men, seen or unseen, a Presence of grace and comfort, of inspiration and of peace. Thus he ever works his Father"s works, and forwards the cause which is dear to the Father"s heart. Where we see the triumphs of the Gospel in individual hearts, in human society, let us recognize the tokens of the Saviour"s holy and benevolent ministry, and be assured that this is the work of God himself.
IV THE PAST OPERATIONS OF DIVINE MERCY ARE A PLEDGE OF GREATER AND MORE MARVELLOUS WORKS IN THE FUTURE. Our Lord, unlike a human teacher or leader, always represented what he did as only the promise of greater and better things to come. This assurance of his foreknowledge was verified in the marvels of Pentecost, and in the fruits which have been yielded throughout the long centuries of the spiritual dispensation. T.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain The Son can do nothing of Himself, but what…
Joh_5:19-23
The Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He seeth the Father do
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The unity of the Father and the Son
The Jews sought to kill Jesus in obedience to the law
(1) because He wrought a miracle on the Sabbath;
(2) because He vindicated Himself on the ground of His equality with God, who constantly works such miracles in His providence on the Sabbath.
So far from disclaiming the Jewish inference He here confirms it. Note
I. CHRISTS RELATION TO THE FATHER IN ALL HE DOES (Joh_5:19).
1. Unity of operation. These words assert that as it is impossible for the Son to do anything of Himself, so it is impossible that the Father can do anything without the Son. The cure of the impotent man, therefore, was by both.
2. Distinction of persons. The Father shows, the Son sees; the Father purposes, the Son executes.
3. Identity of works. They do the same, not similar things. The same Jesus stands in the midst of us and says, Wilt thou be made whole? If we despise Him speaking in His word we despise the great God with whom we have to do.
II. THE GROUND OF THIS RELATION (Joh_5:20).
1. Love is the expression of the Fathers feeling toward the Son.
2. He communicates Himself to the Son and makes Him His counsellor.
3. This relation Christ made known that they might marvel--admire Gods glorious manifestation of Himself and give Him glory.
III. INSTANCES OF THE WORKS ILLUSTRATIVE OF THIS RELATION.
1. (Joh_5:21). Resurrection and quickening, including no doubt the physical, but referring mainly to the spiritual process.
(1) Raising up. Sin, as a frightful incubus, rests on the soul exerting its paralysing influence. This spiritual death is chased away.
(2) Quickening. New life is imparted. Death implies previous life. A tree cut down and withered is different from a stone. In Adam the soul died; when the Son quickens a new and more glorious life is communicated.
(3) There can be no consideration more alarming than our continuance in this death. How dreadful to pass away without having the experience of this raising up and quickening, and to lie for ever in condemnation as self-destroyed.
2. (Joh_5:22-23). Judgment.
(1) To Him is committed the whole administration of the gospel; and when His supreme government is asserted as here, it means that the Father judgeth no man alone--both judge.
(2) He will preside at the eternal awards.
IV. IMPORTANT INFERENCES DEDUCED FROM THIS RELATION.
1. If Christ is not worshipped God is not (Joh_5:23). God must be approached according to the revelation He has made of Himself: we cannot do so unless we know Him as the Father who sent the Son.
2. Salvation comes by the word of Christ (Joh_5:24).
(1) This hearing, no doubt, includes listening with the outward ear; a great and necessary duty. But it is also (Joh_5:25) of a kind which awakens to life, with the mind and spirit, therefore, prompting to action, so that we become not hearers only, but doers.
(2) Salvation is by resting on the true object of faith--in God as sending the Son not as the Creator, etc.
(3) This salvation is everlasting life--a great salvation therefore. How shall we escape if we neglect it. (A. Beith, D. D.)
The Fathers love to the Son
I. THE FATHER LOVETH THE SON. What has this to do with us What have we to do with the Son? The answer to the latter will answer the former. If we are one with Christ the fact that God loves Him
1. Will solve a number of curious and doubtful questions. Satan is always trying to draw believers away from what is simple. The Father loveth the Son. Can Satan deny that? If not, then if I be the Sons, all the outgoings and principles of God concerning me must be of love. Everything must be consistent with that.
2. Will lift us up above a number of depressions.
(1) Are we tried?
(2) lonely;
(3) poor;
(4) weary and worn. Whoever was so tried as the beloved Son?
II. CHRIST RESTED IN THE FATHERS LOVE, AND IN THE DEEP CONSCIOUSNESS OF IT PUT FORTH IMMENSE POWER.
1. Wherever love attains its highest form there is rest. It puts away all ifs and speculations, and goes down into the ocean depths of certainties which are beyond the reach of surface storms.
2. This should give us great power
(1) in prayer, passing into Gods mind through an inlet of love; its answer coming forth through the outlet of love;
(2) in faith;
(3) in hope.
III. CHRISTS RELATION TO THE FATHER DETERMINES HIS ADMINISTRATION OF THE FUTURE, AND OUR RELATION TO HIM DETERMINES OUR PART IN IT. In present and future resurrection and judgment. (P. B. Power, M. A.)
Christs reply
resembles Luthers: I cannot do otherwise; or, to take a nearer example, Jesus puts His work under the guarantee of the Fathers, as the impotent man had just put his under the shelter of Jesus. (F. Godet, D. D.)
Christs limitations
Neither the man nor the angel exists who could dare to say of himself: I can do nothing of myself; because no mans and no angels self is essentially and inseparably one with the self of God. The creature can tear itself away from its Creator, and place its I in opposition to Him; it can seek its life in itself, instead of in Him, and it can act in its own name (Joh_8:44); the Son of God, on the contrary, has nothingof His own, no self, which does not eternally contain the same life which the Father has. (R. Besser, D. D.)
The Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment to the Son
The delegation of judicial authority to Christ
I. JUDGMENT APPERTAINS TO GOD. It is His in criminal causes (Rom_12:19) and in civil things (Psa_82:1). No function of God is so often reiterated. And He is the Judge of judges themselves. Judgment is so essential to God that it is co-eternal with Him.
1. He knows, and therefore naturally detests evil. We are blind, and need the assistance of the law to know what is evil. And if a man be a judge what an exact knowledge of the law is required of him--for some things are sins to one nation which are not to another, and some things are sin at one time which are not at another. Only God has a universal knowledge, and therefore detestation of evil.
2. He discerns when thou committest evil. Hence you have to supply defects in laws so that things done in one country may be tried in another. But God has the power of discerning all actions in all places. Earthly judges have their distinctions and so their restrictions; some things they cannot know--what mortal can, and some things they cannot take knowledge of, for they are bound by evidence. But nothing keeps God from discerning and judging everything.
3. He knows how to punish evil. The office of a judge being not to contract or extend the law, but to declare its true meaning. God hath this judgment in perfection, for He made the law by which He judges. Who then can dispute His interpretation? As, then, God is judge in all these three respects, so He is a judge
(1) without appeal;
(2) without needing any evidence (Pro_24:12; Pro_16:2; 1Co_4:4); and if so, not only I, but not the most righteous man, nor the Church He hath washed in His own blood, shall appear righteous in His sight.
II. How then, seeing that judgment is an inseparable character of God, can it be said that THE FATHER JUDGETH NO MAN? Not certainly because weary. He judges as God, not as Father. In the three great judgments of God the whole Trinity judges.
1. Before all times in our election.
2. Now in separating of servants from enemies.
3. At the last judgment in separating the sheep from the goats.
Consider God altogether, and so in all outward works, all the Trinity concurs, because all are one God; but consider God in relation, in distinct persons, and so the several persons do something in which the other persons are not interested. So the Son judgeth, the Father judgeth not, for that judgment He hath committed.
III. TO THE SON HE HATH COMMITTED ALL JUDGMENT, the image of the invisible God, and so more proportional unto us, more apprehensible by us.
1. But doth He judge as Son of God or as Son of Man. Upon this the Fathers and Reformers are divided. But take this rule, God hath given Christ this commission as Man, but Christ had not been capable of it had He not been God too. The ability is in Him eternally, but the power of actual execution was given Him as Man.
2. All judgment
(1) Of our election. If I were under the condemnation of the law, and going to execution, and the kings pardon were presented to me, I should ask no question as to motives and circumstances, but thankfully attribute it to his goodness and accept it; so when I consider myself as under Gods consideration, and yet by the working of Gods Spirit I find I am delivered from it I inquire not what God did in His cabinet council. I know that He hath elected me in Christ. And, therefore, that I may know whether I do not deceive myself I examine myself whether I can truly tell my conscience that Christ died for me, which I cannot do if I have not a desire to conform myself to Him; and if I do that then I find my predestination.
(2) Of our justification, for there is none other name, etc. Do I then remember what I contracted with Christ when I took His name at baptism? Have I fulfilled those conditions? Do I find a remorse when I have not? Do I feel remission of those sins when I hear the gracious promises of the gospel to repentant sinners? Have I a true and solid consolation when I receive the seal of pardon at the Sacrament? Therefore this judgment is His also.
(3) Of our glorification (Rev_1:7). Then He shall come as Man and give judgment for things done or omitted towards Him as Man, for not feeding, etc. Conclusion: Such is the goodness of God that He deals with man by the Son of Man.
1. If you would be tried by the first judgment; are you elected or no? Do you believe in Christ?
2. If by the second, are you justified or no? Do you find comfort in the Word and sacraments of Christ?
3. If by the third, do you expect a glorification? Are you so reconciled to Jesus Christ now that you durst say now, Come quickly, Lord Jesus? then you are partakers of all that blessedness which the Father intended for you when, for your sake, He committed all judgment to the Son. (J. Donne, D. D.)
The Redeemer our Judge
That our Saviour was perfect God and perfect man is a truth which cannot be denied and Christianity not fall to the ground. But this very combination will cause apparent inconsistencies in the way in which He is spoken of. And it should be remembered that what holds good of Him in one capacity may be inapplicable to Him in another. As God judgment could not be committed to Him. He had it by Divine necessity and right. But it is as Mediator, a Being in which the two natures combine, that He is entrusted with the authority as Judge.
I. HE WILL JUDGE AT THE LAST DAY. What are the qualifications requisite for such an office?
1. Obviously no mere creature can fulfil that function. There must be acquaintance with secrecies of character as well as open actions. Hypocrisy must not pass undetected, nor unobtrusive merit fail of recompense. Angels cannot be judges of human character, nor possess themselves of all the necessary evidence. Omniscience alone will suffice.
2. But if we cannot approach an angelic judge with confidence, how approach omniscient Deity? A created judge is immeasurably nearer than the Creator, though of a different nature.
3. You ask, therefore, for one who shall have a thorough fellow feeling with those brought to his bar, i.e., a man. But how can you hope to have a man who, qualified by sympathy, should yet possess the qualification of omniscience?
4. This combination, however, does exist. A man sits on that great white throne, bone of our bone, but God to whom all things are naked and open.
II. HE JUDGES NOW, for all judgment is committed to Him.
1. To this we are indebted for that tenderness which characterizes Gods present judgments. Afflictions are not allowed to come together; the rough wind is restrained till the east wind has passed away. Chastisement is very different conceived as inflicted by God and inflicted by the Mediator.
2. If this be so how heavy will be the final judgment! There will be no pleading that our case was not thoroughly understood. All along we have been drawn by the cords of a man; then the impenitent will be judged by the Man who died for them and tried by every possible means to turn them from enemies into friends. His presence itself will condemn, and they will call to the rocks, etc., to hide them from not the thunderbolts of avenging Deity, but from the face of Him who became man for their salvation. Anything might be better borne than the glance of this face so eloquent of rejected mercies. (H. Melvill, B. D.)
The judgment
Men will have views very different from what they now have.
I. THE MISER will see a life spent in gathering gold with terror.
II. THE AMBITIOUS will wonder that he could barter his soul for office.
III. THE SENSUALIST will dread to review his luxury and lewdness.
IV. THE SOPHIST will argue no more against Divine truth.
V. THE IMPENITENT will be amazed at his madness in clinging to his sins.
VI. THE MOCKER will jest no more about sacred things,
VII. THE PROFANE will howl over the folly that resulted God. (W. H. Van Doren, D. D.)
The judgment will be searching
I will tell you a dream of one of quality, related to myself by the dreamer himself. Said he, I dreamed the day of judgment was come, and all men appeared before Christ. Some were white, others spotted. Methought, said he, I was all white, saving that I had one black spot upon my breast, which I covered with my hand. Upon the separation of these two sorts I got among the white on the right band. Glad was I; but at last a narrow search was made, and one came and plucked away my hand from my breast; then appeared my spot, and I was thrust away among the spotted ones. (Thomas Larkham.)
That all men should honour the Son even as they honour the Father
Equal honour to be paid to the Father and to the Son
I. WHY?
1. Because the perfections of the Father are those of the Son (Joh_5:26). Omnipotence, Omnipresence, Omniscience, Holiness, Love, etc.
2. Because the works of the Father are those of the Son (Joh_5:19). Creation, Providence, Redemption, Resurrection.
3. Because the administration of the Father is that of the Son (Joh_5:22).
(1) Now over kingdoms, cities, families, individuals.
(2) At the great day.
4. Because it is the special desire of both the Father and the Son.
(1) Of the Father, because on the honour of the Son the whole blessedness of the universe is centred.
(2) Of the Son, because the Father is only honoured through the Son. God was not honoured in Judaism, witness its lapses into idolatry and its ultimate formalism; nor by Mohammedanism, witness its cruelty and licentiousness; nor in heathenism, where He is not known at all; nor by Deism, as proved by its development into agnosticism and atheism. Only in Christendom is God honoured, because Christ is honoured.
II. How?
1. By admiring the perfections of the Divine Son. The chiefest among ten thousand, etc.
2. By acknowledging the services of the Divine Son. We are His because He made, preserved, and redeemed us; therefore we should glorify Him as our Master, Friend, Saviour.
3. By co-operating with the rule of the Divine Son.
(1) By obeying it ourselves.
(2) By securing its recognition in others.
4. By making the Supreme desire in the universe the master passion and motive of our souls; doing all things with the one aim of securing the honour of the Son and of the Father through Him.
III. Where?
1. At home.
(1) In secret prayer. This will test the purity and constancy of our motive.
(2) In our families, bringing them up to honour Christ by reverencing His name, word, and ordinances.
2. In the sanctuary.
(1) By attentively listening to the Word.
(2) By regular attendance at His table.
(3) By heartiness in His worship.
3. In the world eschewing all business, amusements, etc., likely to bring dishonour on Him. (J. W. Burn.)
He that honoureth not the Son honoureth not the Father
Amphilochus, Bishop of Iconium, entered the palace of Theodosius, and bowed to the Emperor, but not to Arcadius his son. The Emperor reminding him of his neglect, the good man still refused, and on his showing great displeasure, Amphilochus replied, O king, how much more will Jehovah abhor those rejecting His Son! (W. H. Van Doren, D. D.)
Christs demand of a man
Across a chasm of eighteen hundred years Jesus Christ makes a demand which is beyond all others difficult to satisfy. He asks that for which a philosopher may often seek in vain at the hands of his friends, or a father of his children, or a bride of her spouse, or a man of his brother. He asks for the human heart; He will have it entirely to Himself; He demands it unconditionally; and forthwith His demand is granted. (Napoleon I.)
Christ claims Divine honours
And they worshipped Him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy. Did they sin in worshipping the Lord Jesus Christ? After their long career of intimacy, did love to such a being, who had exhausted the symbolism of life to express His life-giving relations to them; with every conceivable incitement, reverence, and worship; with love, wonder, joy, and gratitude kindling their imaginations towards Him; without a solitary word of caution lest they should be snared by their enthusiasm, and bestow upon Him the worship that belonged only to God--did they sin in worshipping Him? If they did, was not Christ Himself the tempter? If they did not, may not every living soul worship Him? (H. W.Beecher.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
B. W. Johnson 1891 · Public Domain 19–21. Then answered Jesus. To their charge of blasphemy.…
19–21. Then answered Jesus. To their charge of blasphemy. He shows that there is the closest co-operation between the Father and Son. What the Father does the Son will do, even to the extent of giving life to the dead.
B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain Joh_5:19. The Son can do nothing of Himself.—This statement…
EXPLANATORY AND CRITICAL NOTES
Joh_5:19. The Son can do nothing of Himself.—This statement refers back to and justifies that of Joh_5:17. He is still speaking of the eternal relation in which He stands to the Father, but also of that relationship as manifested in His activity as the Son Incarnate. Even when in the form of a servant He sees and knows the Father’s working as men cannot see and know it, and His actions are the works of the Father.
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Joh_5:20. Loveth.—φιλεῖ expresses a feeling of tenderness and personal affection. Greater works.—These works lay already, as it were, within the ken of the Son. The wonderful works already done are but the prelude of the greater that will follow—not only the greater miracles which would cause the Jews to marvel (Joh_11:47), though not to believe, but the quickening of the dead and the strange work of judgment (Isa_28:16-22).
Joh_5:22. Judgment.—“Literally, the judgment which comes and will come, wholly, in all its parts, now in its first beginning and hereafter in its complete accomplishment” (Westcott).
Joh_5:24-29. In this section the relation of the divine Son to humanity is dealt with as the quickener of the dead and the judge of men.
Joh_5:24. Believeth Him.—πιστεύων τῷ πἑμψαντι. not εἰς. Believing God is simply accepting His word and message as true.
Joh_5:25. Now is.—The quickening of the spiritually dead is what is chiefly in view in this verse.
Joh_5:26. Life in Himself.—ἐν ἑαυτῷ is emphatic. As the Father is the self-existent One and the source of life, so is it with the Son. He also with the Father is a spring of self-sufficient life. “He generated such a Son who should have life in Himself, not as a participator in life, but one who should be as He Himself is—Life itself” (Augustine in Reynolds).
Joh_5:30. The Father and the Son do not act, so to speak, independently. Their action is ever in unison. So the judgments of the Son are in perfect accord with the Father’s will and thought.
Joh_5:33. Ye sent.—See Joh_1:19.
Joh_5:38. They had an idolatrous regard for the letter of the law; but the spiritual power of the word they did not know. Its searching and quickening power they had not experienced (Heb_4:12).
Joh_5:39. ἐρευνᾶτε.—Either indicative or imperative—“ye search” or “search.”
Joh_5:40. The freedom of man’s will and his consequent responsibility are here clearly asserted.
Joh_5:43. Should another come in his own name.—There were many who did so; and who, by flattering national vanity, and homologating the Jewish carnal expectations of a Messiah who should reign as a temporal king, led many after them. In all sixty-four false Christs have been enumerated, the most famous being Bar Cocheba. “The teacher who can utilise to the widest extent the fashionable worldliness, and can mingle the pungent human condiment with the princely food of the king’s banqueting-house, is he who at the present hour meets with the loudest response and the readiest reception” (Dr. Reynolds).
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Joh_5:19-47
Joh_5:19-23. The activity of the divine Son.—In these verses we again enter the region of unfathomable divine truth, already opened to us in the prologue, and into which we can enter but a little way. These verses give us a glimpse of the intimate union of God the Father and the Son, as it is revealed in the activity of the Son. “The action and honour of the Son are coincident with the action and honour of the Father” (Westcott). The impulse which moves them is the same. But as the Incarnate Son, who became obedient unto death for our sake, He does what He seeth the Father do; and the works which the Father gives Him these He finishes (Joh_5:36).
I. There is identity of activity on the part of the Father and the Son.—
1. This is seen to be the case from the beginning of things. He is identified with the Father in creation (Joh_1:3); and also in upholding the visible universe (Col_1:17).
2. Therefore in all the Father’s works of love and mercy He has been the constant participator. All through those ages darkened by sin and sorrow He has shared in all those exhibitions of divine goodness toward fallen humanity: so that His sun has shone and His rain has descended on the evil and the good—the just and the unjust.
3. Above all He has shared in that compassionate love which yearned over the ruined race; and in reply to the impulse of that love He said: “Lo, I come to do Thy will. My meat is to do the will of Him that sent me, and to finish His work” (Joh_4:34).
II. The Son’s work during His life on earth was therefore the Father’s work.—
1. The Jews had accused Him of contravening the Father’s will and law in healing the impotent man at Bethesda on the Sabbath, and bidding him take up his “bed” and walk.
2. Our Lord, in His vindication of His action, points out that He could not have acted otherwise. The Father is ever performing acts of beneficence—every morning His mercies are new; and the day of rest forms no exception. In healing the sick and relieving the wretched, therefore, the Son is but doing what the Father does.
3. The greatness of this miracle also proved that the Father must have been in purpose and action one with the Son. And this unity in work was further shown in the end for which the miracle was wrought. It was to quicken and strengthen faith, and thus deliver from sin’s guilt and power.
III. The future will testify to this unity in action as the past has done.—
1. As His word was powerful in times past to heal men, and above all to give them spiritual healing, so He is still powerful “to save unto the uttermost,” etc. (Heb_7:25). In His name still moral miracles are wrought among men, and will continue to be wrought till time shall end.
2. And then will be given yet more universal and striking proofs of that unanimity in thought and action which subsists between the Father and the Song of Solomon 3. To the Son is given the power of resurrection life for those who hear His word and believe on His name.
4. And to Him also is delegated the throne of judgment (Mat_25:31 et seq.) by the Father, that He may appear as the visible representative of the divine majesty and righteousness. And this is to the end that all men should honour the Son, etc.
Joh_5:19-29. Jesus is our Life.—In this Gospel Jesus declares that He is the Lord and that we are His creatures. He has given us life, and will grant it in all fulness. He is the express image of God in His being and working. We reflect His light. He is set over us as judge. Those who appeal to Him are acquitted; those who do not recognise His jurisdiction lose the process of eternity in all particulars. Those who do not desire that death, the king of terrors, should rule over them eternally must turn to Jesus. He has the keys of Hades and death (Rev_1:18). Those who make their reckoning for the judgment-day on any other rule have no deliverance. There are no side or back doors by which men can steal out of their graves and slink into heaven. The wide door of righteousness—on that day most wide—is called Jesus; and the broad way of eternal blessedness—on that day most wide and shining—is also called Jesus, and yet again Jesus. Therefore will we confess Jesus since Jesus is our life, because—
I. He awakes us from spiritual death.—He says in the Gospel that He quickens whom He will; and that the hour is coming in which the dead shall hear His voice and that those who hear shall live—nay, is already come. The spiritual awakening, however, is the condition of the resurrection unto life of the body. When the Word of God pierces the heart it also penetrates the mind. When the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ (2Co_4:6) lights up the soul the glorification of the body has already begun. And this will be apparent in victorious might when the change comes, for which we shall be sown in the field of death (1 Corinthians 15). When men who have lived in the world without true faith in God, without love to Christ or hope of eternal life, or any true delight in his Word, in prayer, etc., are awakened, and, looking around, ask how they stand, they see how far they were from the divine promises, how ignorant of their own hearts and of eternity. Now they see Christ, and in Christ the Father, and know that they have passed from death to life. This is a spiritual resurrection. It is that condition of heart in which men no more go about seeking God’s mercy because of their sin, crying out and hoping merely; but in which they joyfully appropriate it—in which they lay hands on the treasures of eternity in the name of Jesus, and say, These are mine through grace; in which they have within themselves the trustful assurance that it is not necessary any more to seek because they have already found. This experience is the same to all believers, and it is always connected with the name of Jesus. This name is life to the dead in sin, strength and refreshment to those who are quickened. And this heavenly life-essence has, God be thanked, power also in our day. The Father loves the Son and gives Him ever new and greater work to do in the world. And the porches of the Church remain, and are, a true Bethesda. God give the name of Jesus power with us, and enable us to walk in newness of life, enduring to the end, so that we may attain to—
II. The resurrection from the dead through the power of that same great name. Every one who has anything to hope for in life shuns the ways of death. None die willingly, else it had not been written, “All men must die,” but, “All men may die.” When therefore the Lord Jesus here promises that He will quicken men, and summon the dead, who have done good, to the resurrection of life, He evidently meant that He had gained for the miserable race, to which death brings so much anguish and sorrow, an unspeakable blessing. And surely He should have been received with open arms by all, more than a general who has victoriously snatched from the enemy a strong fortress which they had taken. And such a reception surely were well deserved! What were life to us were it to end in death? Our greatest desire is to live, not, indeed, in this life only: there must be another and better if it is to be truly life. He who merely brings us in one hand this uncertain life, and in the other certain death, from him I turn away. He cannot be my benefactor and friend. He who brings me life is He on whom I shall rely. It is incomprehensible how many people can live without a Saviour from death—especially in view of those dear to them. One has a wife whom he cherishes with a love that is akin to devotion; another has children whom he treasures as life’s jewels, on whom he sets his hopes, for whom he will do his utmost. But when they come to die, does he leave them to fare forth without asking whether it be true that he shall never see them again, or what is essential in order to re-union with them? There must surely be a great chilling of love when men can endure the death of loved ones without having any certain hope of life eternal for them and for themselves; and to whom the only mitigation of their grief is that the image of the departed may be retained among the treasures of memory. If this is what is meant by living, then it were better never to have lived. But this truly is life, when we learn and are assured that Jesus will bring again those who sleep in Him, that there will not only be a glorification of the souls, but of the dust of His saints, and that our highest happiness will be found when the little joys of earth have come to an end. For this, Jesus, and He alone, has become our surety. And in view of this all pure souls will echo the confession of Peter: Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life, etc. (Joh_6:68-69).—Abridged from Lecher.
Joh_5:25-26; Joh_5:28-29. The Son as Quickener of the dead.—The Son is the giver of life because He has life in Himself. It is the essence of the Father who is the living God, the I am; and therefore it is also essentially an attribute of the Son. And as the Father is not the God of the dead but of the living, so they who hear the Son shall live. And as death is but a type of spiritual corruption—indeed is in its present form a result of that corruption—so Jesus quickens the spiritually dead who listen to His voice; and thus through His life imparted to them gives the promise and potency of the resurrection life. That hour had already struck when Jesus spoke. An example of His quickening power had just been given; but they were not to wonder at what had been done and spoken: the time was coming when greater wonders would amaze them (Luk_7:11; Joh_11:43); and these would be but prophecies of His own rising, which is the prelude and prophecy of the end, when death shall be swallowed up in victory, etc.
I. Christ the living One has the keys of Hades and death.—
1. The hour is coming (it is not here said now is, as this refers to the future) when all who are in their graves, etc. The emphasis is here upon all, and the reference is to the bodies of men.
2. The souls of the redeemed had already been quickened (Joh_5:25). The meaning here evidently is that the bodies of the departed shall be raised, and united with the spirits awaiting the full consummation of their bliss or woe.
3. All shall go forth; “whether they died before Christ’s birth, to answer according to the measure of their less enlightened conscience, or whether they lived in the full noonday of Revelation,—all; those who have sunk into the grave honoured, loved, lamented, or who died with none to receive their latest breath, wherever be their places of rest, in desert or ocean; all, whether they treasured the Word of the Son of God like our evangelist, or despised it like Pilate,—this last voice louder than trumpet tone they shall hear without exception, and attend to the summons.” But not only shall all hear that dread voice; it shall bring about a manifestation of character and a determination of destiny. There is therefore—
II. The resurrection of life.—
1. They that have done good shall come forth to it. And in the order in which the two resurrections are placed we see the confirmation of the apostolic words, so pregnant yet mysterious: “The dead in Christ shall rise first.” “This is the first resurrection” (1Th_4:16; Rev_20:5).
2. And it is those who have done good who shall participate in the resurrection of life, i.e. those who by their life and actions declare that their spiritual life has been quickened by the Redeemer (Joh_5:25; Mat_25:34-40).
3. They shall not come into condemnation, having already passed from death unto life (Joh_5:24). Over them the second death has no power; for it cannot touch that spiritual life which is in them, and which makes them one with the Redeemer. Therefore is theirs a resurrection of life and to life, to be “kings and priests unto God and His Christ.” It is a resurrection of life because then they shall have escaped from all that fettered their spiritual life in its exercise; and shall have arrived at the full consummation of their salvation and the happiness of their complex nature, when the glorified spirit has been reunited to the purified and glorified body, and they shall be like Christ, seeing Him as He is. But there is also—
III. The resurrection of judgment.—
1. They that have done evil shall come forth to it. Their evil doing was evidence of their unrenewed nature, the proof that the “tree was corrupt” (Mat_7:17-19).
2. Therefore their resurrection, because they had no life in them, is one from death to death (Rev_20:12-15; Mat_25:41-46), whatever maybe the actual meaning of the awful imagery used in Scripture to depict this terrible state.
3. But in any view it must be death; for those who awake to the resurrection of judgment have severed themselves from the only source of life—life spiritual and eternal—Jesus Christ. “He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life” (1Jn_5:12). “Who shall abide the day of His coming, who shall stand when He appeareth?” Those who listen to that voice, now speaking in mercy, of the Son who can quicken us to newness of life.
“O God of truth and grace,
Teach as that death to shun,
Lest we be banished from Thy face,
And evermore undone.”
Montgomery.
Joh_5:22; Joh_5:27; Joh_5:30. The Son as Judge.—Christ occupies an altogether unique position as the Redeemer of men. He is our Advocate; for this end He took on Him the seed of Abraham, and passed into the heavens as our great High Priest, who is touched with the feeling of our infirmities. And this it is that peculiarly fits Him to be our Judge. He is not only the Omniscient, looking with piercing glance at our inmost being, and laying bare our most secret thoughts and feelings; but He is also the Son of man, having points of contact and sympathy with humanity. And the Father hath given Him authority to execute judgment because of this—to execute judgment; but in the fact of judgment the Son and the Father are one. There are two facts that seem to emerge clearly in this and other Scripture presentments of the future judgment, the first in regard to the materials, and the second in regard to the form of judgment. But notice—
I. The intuitions and even the reasoned convictions of the race have ever pointed to a coming judgment.—
1. It may be difficult to find the existence of this idea clearly defined among tribes wholly savage; although it is generally found in some form.
2. But when men rise higher in the scale of civilisation this idea emerges more strikingly, forming often a salutary check on men’s evil passions and inclinations.
3. Often, however, it has become an instrument of terror in the hands of a corrupt order to keep men under their power.
4. The student of history will find much that is interesting and curious regarding this belief in the annals of the past. From the intuition of and belief in a judgment sprang the Egyptian Osiris myth, the Greek Minos and Rhadamanthus, the Roman Orcus.
5. The temples and shrines of antiquity are eloquent indeed in their testimony to this belief.
6. Human reason also on a view of our present state, with its inequalities, etc., led many earnest thinking men in the past to entertain the belief that there would be a day of reckoning. All this is confirmed by Scripture. Turning then to the two facts spoken of we notice—
II. The materials on which the Judge shall base His decisions.—
1. Men are justified by faith; thus it may be truly said that “according to our faith will it be unto us in that day” (Joh_3:36).
2. But it is no less strongly asserted that men’s works shall form the ground of condemnation or acquittal.
3. Faith and works indeed are in a sense correlatives; and both are simply manifestations of the state of the heart. They are related to each other as the ray to the flame, the stream to the fountain, fragrance to the flower. They are both the produce of an inner spiritual life which comes from Christ.
4. A man’s works, therefore, are, as the fruit of his inner being, the witness of the spirit which is in him, the materials on which he will be judged on the day of judgment. Nothing is more clear and definite in Scripture than the statement of the truth, that in that day we shall “receive the things done in the body according to that we have done, whether it be good or bad” (2Co_5:10; Rev_20:13, etc.).
5. And this truth is conformable to reason as well. “Faith without works” must evidently be dead, and therefore worthless; and the proof of the possession of spiritual life in Christ is a life of new obedience to the glory of God. This brings us to the next fact.
III. The form of the judgment.—
1. From what has been advanced it is evident that it will be simply a manifestation and a separation. The imagery used in Scripture to depict the reality is merely employed as a vehicle to bring home the truth to our comprehension.
2. Judgment may even sometimes be said to begin here. “Some men’s sins are open beforehand, going before to judgment,” etc. (1Ti_5:24-25). Christ’s judgments are even now on the earth.
3. But it is at the last great day that the full manifestation will take place, when the Lord, the light of the world, shall come and “bring to light the hidden things of darkness,” etc. (1Co_4:5). The good shall then be attracted to the source of all goodness; and the wicked shall then find every subterfuge vain, and seek to hide themselves from Him who sits upon the throne (Rev_6:15-16).
4. The sentence indeed will be that already pronounced by men on themselves—it will be the declaration of what they are. Sin—separation from God, spiritual death. Righteousness—union with Christ, eternal life.
Therefore the books which will on that day be opened are being written now. The deeds done in the body will manifest our state. “The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light” (Rom_13:12).
Joh_5:31-47. Witnesses to Christ.—To the unbelieving Jews our Lord graciously pointed out these witnesses to Himself, and to the divine origin and purpose of His mission which they had despised or neglected. Thus another opportunity was given to them to reconsider their position. In the first place He speaks of—
I. His witness concerning Himself.—
1. It was matter of accusation on the part of the Jews afterward (this shows how falsely) that He bore witness of Himself (Joh_8:13). But in view of the ordinary and, in our present state, necessary custom among men not to receive personal witness alone, as the Incarnate Son He forbore to do so.
2. Taking His word in connection with His life and works, the purity of His life, the beauty of His character, the heavenliness of His teaching, the majesty of His miracles, there should have been no difficulty in receiving that word as yea and amen. And it is so to all believing hearts.
3. But in condescension to men’s weakness, and to take out of the way every excuse and occasion for offence, He waived His own inalienable right as the Truth to bear testimony concerning Himself. How great His grace and condescension! (Php_2:6-7). He appealed first to—
II. The witness of John.—
1. I receive not witness from a man, said our Lord. The testimony of His Father is that which He chiefly relied on (Joh_5:37). But graciously remembering the human weakness of His hearers, He called in the testimony of the Baptist.
2. John the Baptist indeed bore witness loyally to Christ. He was as a Lamp that burneth and shineth, although it was a light that must wane; and in reference to him men for a time realised that here was a man sent from God to bear witness to the truth.
3. And what was the witness He bore? It was that Jesus was before him; that He was the Lamb of God, who should take up and bear away the sin of the world; that He was the Son of God, the heavenly Bridegroom, whose voice His bride, the Church, would hear. And what other claim did Jesus advance but this? This witness, therefore, according to their own first estimate of him, should have had weight with the Jews. But, alas! they had not received his witness, and now his voice had gone silent. But however great the Baptist was in character and office, and however powerful his testimony was to convince unprejudiced minds, Christ cannot rest on his witness alone. There is—
III. A greater witness than John.—
1. The works which the Father gave Me to finish, etc. Under those works may be comprehended our Lord’s whole activity. From the divine side His works are contemplated as a “complete whole.” But in this world, during His incarnation and among men, they were done by Him at the time and in the place where they were best calculated to carry out His purpose.
2. But more especially to His miracles does this reference point. These are all to be regarded, so to say, as one witness. They form a cumulative testimony of the redeeming love of God to men in Christ. In them the old prophecies of the wonders and blessedness of Messiah’s reign were fulfilled and symbolised—they were types of the spiritual wonders which should be done in His name (Isaiah 35; Isaiah 41). In the spiritual sphere the sick in soul as in body were healed, and to the poor was the gospel preached. In the realm of nature the winds and waves obeyed His voice, so that the storm was stilled; the water was turned into wine; disease and death yielded to His word of power. All these miracles witnessed in unison to the divine origin and mission of the incarnate Son, so that He could afterward say, “If I do not the works of My Father,” etc. (Joh_10:37).
3. If one like Jesus rose among men to-day, would calm, right-thinking men doubt for a moment whence He derived His beneficent power and supermundane wisdom? But not alone do the works, given to Him by the Father to finish, testify of Christ.
IV. The Father Himself bears witness to the Son.—
1. The Father’s witness here seems to refer to all the testimony borne to Jesus as the Messiah, outside of His personal activity as the Redeemer.
2. This was given especially in the testimony of the Father through prophets and holy men of old. “They believed; they saw My day and were glad; but the Word that came to them finds no response in your hearts, is not living and abiding in you. Thus you are unable to rise to the true knowledge of the Father, and have neither heard His voice at any time, nor seen His shape.”
3. But the Father’s testimony was given also in the miraculous occurrences which took place at Christ’s birth and baptism; and also in the evident concurrence of the Father in Christ’s works of power. And this leads naturally up to the last witness called in.
V. The witness of Scripture.—
1. “If it be true,” Jesus seems to say, “that the Father hath witnessed of Me in those Scriptures by attending to the outward letter of which you think you will find salvation, then know that they indeed testify of Me.”
2. Christ is the centre of Scripture—its beginning, middle, and end. And He came to fulfil the law and prophets; for law and prophets bear witness to Him.
Joh_5:39. The clearness and sufficiency of the witness of Scripture.—We notice these objections: Is Scripture intelligible? Has not our age gone far beyond it? Is the reading of Scripture in any way fruitful? Does it merit unconditional confidence? In opposition to this, four characteristic traits of Holy Scripture may be mentioned in its honour. It is pellucid and clear; it is sufficient and adequate; it is fraught with authority and power. And each of these characteristic traits is founded on the fact that the Scripture bears witness to Christ. Because Scripture witnesses to Christ it is—
I. Clear and pellucid.—But how?
1. Is there not a science of theology which seeks to open up the meaning of Scripture by means of languages, etc.? Yes. Would that the origin and aim of theology were less forgotten! Luther’s most cherished title was that of Doctor of Theology. But a theologian must pray also, “What shall I do to be saved?” or Scripture remains to him a book with seven seals.
2. Truly, even to the prayerful believer many things in Scripture remain enigmatical. We see here in a glass darkly; and only on yonder side, when tongues and prophets cease, etc., shall we “know as we are known” (1 Corinthians 13).
3. But is it not clear when, as the gates of paradise are shut, etc., in the wilderness the tender promise of One who should bruise the serpent’s head is given, etc.? A unity of advance from book to book, one spirit of prophecy, one cry of longing, “Come, Lord Jesus”: “He it is,” said John, with outstretched finger. “To Him bare all the prophets witness,” said Peter. “In Him all the promises are yea and amen,” said Paul. “Search the Scriptures,” etc., said Jesus Himself. Here is clearness, perspicuity, to those who are pure in heart.
II. Search the Scripture; it is sufficient and adequate.—
1. It contains all which suffices for the movements and necessities of the spiritual life. It will not satisfy the Athenian desire for novelty. It would then be no book from eternity and for eternity.
2. All the news-sheets and journals of last night are this morning withered leaves. And all the journals for entertainment and amusement may help to drive away ennui, but not the fear of death, the terrors of conscience, or the horror of judgment.
3. Scripture, it is true, will not minister to that importunate curiosity which would seek to tear the veil from the spiritual world; but neither does it anticipate science, nor oppose it. What men can gain by culture and research Scripture does not reveal, etc. It is enough that the Originator of heaven and earth is the same as the Author of Scripture—that He who spake the first word will speak the last—that all men may drink from this fountain and be satisfied, because Holy Scripture gives full satisfaction, since it witnesses of Christ.
III. Search the Scripture; it is fraught with power.—
1. True, a number of men have not been affected by it. Philosophers sit in their chairs and despise the Nazarene and His eternal word. Leaders of thought mock at the deposed majesty of the Bible. Carnal men, etc., plume themselves on the idea that the doctrines of Scripture are coins now out of circulation. Even many preachers—they lead a dusty existence, for their Bibles are dust-covered.
2. But it is comforting that so long as there are men weary and heavy laden, thirsting after the beatitudes of the Sermon on the Mount, etc., so long as there are pain and sorrow in the world, where a Jairus has lost a child, etc., etc., so long will Holy Scripture retain its power and prove itself effective because it witnesses of Christ. But the Lord had to complain of the self-righteous and self-satisfied: “Ye will not come to Me,” etc.
IV. Does Scripture thereby lose its credit? Far from it; it is self-authenticating; it witnesses of Christ—that is its authority.—
1. We Protestants have no pope. We have Christ. He is the Head of the Church yesterday, to-day, and for ever. We do not rest upon tradition.
2. Do we truly receive the Scripture? There is a dead scriptural knowledge which has no real effect on men’s hearts. Some read not at all. Others hear and listen occasionally, but their hearts burn not either with misgiving or thankfulness. And what shall be said of those who forbid the free circulation of Scripture?
3. It is the Holy Spirit who delineates Christ in Scripture, the same Spirit who writes His name on our hearts, makes us living epistles.
4. The Scripture concludes all under sin: “There is none that doeth good; no, not one.” It includes all in the invitation to reconciliation. It opens to all the way of redemption. It witnesses to Christ as God’s Son. The revelation it includes is holy, merciful, simple, deep. All in it is so divine, yet so human. Come under this authority. Take and read. Hold fast that which thou hast, that no man take thy crown.—Abridged from Dr. R. Kögel.
Joh_5:39. Tolle, lege.—How shall the word come to us with power if it has not already done so? The first and most obvious duty, if we desire the word to come to us with power, is to—
I. Search it.—Knowledge of the contents of Scripture comes to us like all other knowledge. Then we must search it with open, teachable hearts, seeking the truth, and prepared to follow its guidance when revealed to us. You remember the incident in Augustine’s life when at Milan, tormented between his sinful life and desires and the desire to serve God, he heard in the garden the words tolle, lege. Hastening to the house, he took up the Pauline epistles, and unrolling the MS. at Romans 13, he read: “Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in revelling and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying. But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ.” It was a voice from God, and proved the turning-point in the great Church father’s career. We must, then, search for truth in it as for hidden treasure; and we must search diligently and prayerfully, not forgetting that He who is its author can best make plain to us His own word. Guizot, in the following sentences, describes this power of the word: “Where has the Christian faith been best defended? There where the reading of the sacred books has been a general and assiduous part of public worship—there where it takes place in the interior of families and in. solitary meditation. It is the Bible, the Bible itself, which combats and triumphs most efficaciously in the war between incredulity and belief.”
II. But all this will be insufficient unless we use the Bible experimentally, i.e. not only to search it and learn it, but to act according to its precepts and commands. This is the highest and best proof of the Bible’s power. “If any man will to do His will, He shall know of the doctrine whether it be of God.”
III. There are many who come to the Bible, not to find what it says, but to find in it support for their own ideas. What wonder if it fail to profit them? But the chief hindrance to the receiving of the word with power is indifference to the truth which it contains, and, worse still, a positive disinclination to have its light brought to bear on the dark corners of the nature. Many do not wish to be disturbed in the enjoyment of their favourite vice or sin; and, like Felix, though they may tremble when in some way the word reaches conscience, yet they put it away from them to “a more convenient season.” But that is folly in the last degree, ruinous for time, fatal for eternity! Let ours be the wise course ever to search, learn, and inwardly digest that divine wisdom which makes wise unto salvation.
“The sacred page
With calm attention scan! If on thy soul,
As thou dost read, a ray of purer light
Break in, oh, check it not; give it full scope!
Admitted, it will break the clouds which long
Have dimmed thy sight, and lead thee till at last
Conviction, like the sun’s meridian beams,
Illuminate thy mind.”
Hayes.
“Within this awful volume lies
The mystery of mysteries:
Happiest they of human race
To whom their God has given grace
To read, to fear, to hope, to pray,
To lift the latch, to force the way;
But better had they ne’er been born
Who read to doubt, or read to scorn.”
Walter Scott.
Joh_5:39. Why are we to search the Scriptures?—The Scriptures here spoken of are the Old Testament Scriptures; and as it is known how highly the Jews prized those writings as the oracles of God, the force of Christ’s appeal may be estimated. And if these sacred Scriptures really did testify of Him, these unbelieving Jews were treasuring up wrath for themselves. How earnestly then should they have searched! But they were wilfully blind, and failed therefore to lay hold on that eternal life which their Scriptures revealed (Mat_13:15). Consider the importance of the Scriptures.
I. They are the oracles of God.—
1. The oracles were the responses by supposed divinities, heathen gods, to the inquiries of their worshippers. Some divine afflatus was supposed to be communicated to the priests or priestesses who served at the heathen shrine; or the image of the god was itself by sign or speech supposed to communicate the divine message; or the message was communicated by certain natural phenomena, etc.
2. The oracles of the Jews came to them by revelations through prophetic men during many centuries. They are contained in the books we now call the Old Testament; and the nature of their contents, and the striking unity shown in the progressive unfolding of the revelation, lift them high as heaven above the ambiguous and often foolish oracles of heathendom.
3. They contain what men never could have discovered for themselves concerning the nature of God, the way of access to Him, and the hope and promise of eternal life.
II. They bear especial witness to Christ.—
1. The whole ritual of sacrifice and many of the enactments of the law typified His atoning work, and thus pointed forward to Him.
2. The prophets plainly foretold Him—His person; His work and the glory of His kingdom; His sufferings and death.
3. The details they give are minute and circumstantial, e.g. the period and place of His birth; His betrayal; His meek endurance under trial and scourging; His cry on the cross as of One forsaken; His sepulture in a stranger’s tomb, etc., etc.
4. Moses and the prophets, indeed, testify of Him; blot Him out of their writings, and these will become confused and enigmatic.
III. They are an authoritative rule of life.—
1. None of the teachers of heathen antiquity, however great intellectually and morally, could give definite and authoritative rules of life and action. What they did give was founded on partial knowledge, and was therefore often misleading. Take, e.g., even such a great philosophical work as “The Republic of Plato.”
2. Those who take the Bible as their rule of life are led into the ways of righteousness, which are in the end ways of pleasantness and peace. These things being so, we ought therefore to—
IV. Search the Scriptures (remembering that to us is given a most glorious and clear revelation)—
1. Sincerely, desiring to know the truth and conform to it. If we believe them to be God’s Word we must search, and we must obey, even when it is not agreeable to flesh and blood to do what is commanded.
2. Diligently.—How much more earnestly and diligently do men attend often to other matters! The Scriptures are worthy of our most earnest attention. Dr. Johnson, when dying, said to a young friend, “Read the Bible every day of your life.”
3. Prayerfully.—There can be no true success in any good undertaking unless we seek it in prayer. Much lies in this, for we need the Spirit’s aid in order that our carnal minds may understand spiritual things.
4. With a view to spread the knowledge of the word.—Has it blessed our souls? Then we must and will seek to bring the same blessing to others.
Joh_5:40-47. Hindrances to faith.—The Jewish religion had become largely a racial and national question with the Jews. It was their nation, their religion, which they were concerned about; not God’s honour and glory and the advance of divine truth. They were no longer emulous of the blessing of Jehovah to the end that His saving health might be known among all nations (Psalms 67). They had fallen far below the spiritual conceptions of the prophets (Isaiah 60), and even of the law (Deu_6:5). The glory of their nation, of themselves, was their paramount aim and end. They would receive any one who came in his own name (false Christs and prophets, Mat_24:24) if only such would promise to carry out their aims for the national glory. This being their state of mind, it was not wonderful that there was antagonism on their part toward Jesus, and enmity in their hearts to Him. “Ye will not come to Me,” etc. (Joh_5:40). The reasons given for this are—
I. The want of love to God.—
1. It was not the love of God the Jews sought supremely; it was their own glory, their proud supremacy as the favoured race of heaven.
2. And yet they professed to have the love of God in their hearts. At least, they bound on forehead, neck, and arm, in writing on scrolls, those precepts of the law which gave love the first place (Deu_6:4-9; Deu_6:13-22, etc.); and the Pharisees especially made conspicuous the frontlet case containing those scrolls (Mat_23:5).
3. But our Lord saw that those outward declarations did not express any inward truth. Their hearts were destitute of the love they outwardly professed.
4. And as the love of God was not in them, how could they recognise it when it came to them in Christ? Those among them who truly had that love did not fail to recognise the witness of God to Christ (Nathanael, Nicodemus, etc.). But in those in whom the love of the world reigned the love of God was shut out. So is it, so must it ever be. The consequence of this want of love to God leads to the second reason—
II. The mistaking the chief end of man.—
1. The chief purpose of man’s creation, the end of his being, is the divine glory. There can be no higher aim. All our life and all its actions should be directed to this end (1Co_10:31).
2. But they who have no love to God in their hearts do not and cannot, so long as they remain in this state, glorify God in their lives, although God, who makes the wrath of men to praise Him, can make even those loveless lives redound to His honour.
3. How different was it with Christ! He, being in the form of God, deemed not His equality with God a thing to be grasped at, but emptied Himself, taking upon Him the form of a servant, etc. (Php_2:6-11). And He sought not glory from men, but from His Father (Joh_17:5, etc.). 4, No wonder, then, that the Jews did not perceive the glory of that life to which Jesus sought to win them, since their desire was for an outward, visible, personal glory, and the divine glory only as it could come to pass that way. The glory of Christ lay in what seemed the reverse of glory—in His humility (Joh_13:3-4), in His cross (Joh_17:4), in His self-sacrificing love, in His obedience unto death (Php_2:8-9).
5. And in His life of obedience Christ was men’s example (1Pe_2:11-25).
III. This want of love to God and mistaking of the end of life led finally to their rejection of the elder revelation and of Him who was its fulfilment.—
1. Jesus came not to judge the world, but to save it, in His life on earth. Therefore He said, “Do not think that I will accuse you,” etc. (Joh_5:45). It was enough to point out that, however vehemently they claimed Moses as their guide and professed to follow him, they entirely missed or rejected the very aim and end of the Mosaic economy.
2. The divine righteousness and glory are the purpose for which the law was established (Romans 2). But the Jews failed miserably in their interpretation and observance of the law (Rom_2:23), and thus failed to grasp its purpose (Rom_2:29).
3. Above all, they failed to see that the end of the law could be reached only through that substance which its shadowy types and its predictions foretold (Joh_5:46). Moses wrote of Christ. The Thorah is here ascribed to Moses personally, and the reference is to that special promise (Deu_18:18) for whose fulfilment the Jews professed to be waiting, and as a preparation for which the types and ceremonies of the law were instituted (Col_2:17). Thus, not seeing the end or purpose of the law, how could they understand Him who came to fulfil the law? These men had reproached Jesus with breaking the law; He showed them that they did not even understand the law.
IV. Application.—
1. A mere unenlightened reception of Scripture, without spiritually guided searching of it, is not sufficient (1Co_2:14).
2. The elder Revelation agrees with the new Revelation of Christ. Novum Testamentum in Vetere latet, vetus Testamentum in Novo patet.
3. The rejection of the elder Revelation must inevitably lead to the rejection of the new.
4. The word of God in Old Testament and New will remain a sealed book to those who have no true love of God in their hearts, and who seek merely their own honour and glory. The true end of human existence is hidden from them; hence they reject that word which reveals it, and that Saviour who came to exemplify it and make it possible for men.
HOMILETIC NOTES
Joh_5:22; Joh_5:27; Joh_5:29. The Son of Man as Judge.—The thought of judgment is wholesome in that it warns us to work out our salvation with fear and trembling. We readily think of Christ as the King who cometh to Zion meek and lowly, who calls to men: “Come unto Me, all ye that labour,” etc. (Mat_11:28). But we should also represent Him to ourselves as He to whom the Father hath committed the right to judge the quick and the dead. Consider:—
I. Those whom He shall judge.—All people who have lived shall stand before Him (Joh_5:28-29).
2. He shall separate the good from the evil (Joh_5:29).
II. The law according to which He shall judge.—
1. It is ultimately the rule of love to Himself and His brethren by which faith shows itself sincere, and which manifests itself in a holy and loving activity (1Jn_3:18; 1Jn_4:7; 1Jn_4:11, etc.).
2. Want of love is ultimately the cause of condemnation; for love to God will lead to service for Him; and also to fruitful activity in the world toward our brethren (1Jn_4:20-21).—From J. L. Sommer.
The great day of judgment.—
I. It is drawing near for all mankind (Joh_5:28).
II. It will bring the good and the evil to light (Joh_5:29).
III. It will determine the lot of each individual (Dan_12:13).—Idem.
Joh_5:39. The true meaning of Scripture not hidden.—Search the Scriptures. Better, Ye search the Scriptures. The question whether the mood is imperative or indicative, whether we have here a commandment to examine the writings of the Old Testament canon, or a reference to their habit of doing so, is one which has been discussed through the whole history of New Testament exposition, and one on which the opinion of those best qualified to judge has been, and is, almost equally divided. Observe that all the parallel verbs in the context are in the indicative. Why should there be a sudden change of construction in this instance only? We find, then, this order of thought.
1. God has in the Old Testament witnessed of Me, but ye, with unreceptive hearts, have never heard a voice nor seen a shape of God (Joh_5:37).
2. Ye have not His Word dwelling in you, or it would have witnessed of Me (Joh_5:38).
3. Instead of receiving the Scriptures as a living power within you, ye search and explain the letter of them from without (Joh_5:39).
4. Ye think they contain eternal life, and hence your reverence for them (Joh_5:39).
5. They really are witnesses of Me, and yet you, seeking in them eternal life, are not willing to come to Me that ye may have this life. It is believed that this is the most natural interpretation.… The only objection to it of weight is that the Greek word for “search” (ἐρευνᾶτε) is one which would not have implied blame. It means to search after, track, inquire after (cp. Joh_7:52); but, surely, this is just the expression for the literal spirit in which the rabbis treated their scriptures. Moreover, it is not the searching which is matter for blame, but the fact of the searching and not finding, which is matter for wonder. Here, too, as elsewhere, the argument from the meaning of a Greek word must be pressed only within strict limits when we remember that it represents in translation a then current Hebrew word. The Hebrew language had a word which just at that time was frequent on every rabbi’s lips, and which exactly corresponds to it. As early as the Book of Chronicles we find mention of the Midrashim or Commentaries.… May it not be, then, that the true meaning of these words is to be found in their bearing upon these rabbinic lives and works?—“Ye make your Midrashim on the Scriptures; ye explain and comment, and seek for hidden mystic meaning; ye do all this because ye think they contain eternal life; their true meaning is not hidden; they tell of life, and ye who seek it do not hear them, and will not come unto Me that ye might have life.”—Watkins.
ILLUSTRATIONS
Joh_5:25. The resurrection the hope of humanity.—We are told that the most savage nations live in a constant horror of death; their life is one long flight from it; it poisons their happiness; it bursts like a ghastly phantom upon their moments of peace. It is not death the agony that they shudder at, though there may be something terrible in that, but death the mystery, and “next to God the most infinite of mysteries;” death that slips the last cable of the soul, and sets it afloat on the shoreless sea of an eternal world; there it is that lies for them “the mute, ineffable, voiceless horror before which all human courage is abashed.” Can you wonder at this continuous dread? They know of no world beyond the grave, and what would life be without the trust in that? How purposeless and mean, how weary and hopeless; a journey leading nowhither; a gate opening upon nothing; a ship sent forth only that she may founder in the bare, unknown deeps. Look steadily at life, and consider what it is; how changeful, how short, how sorrowful. A light and thoughtless youth, of which the beauty and brightness pass rapidly away; and after that, chance and change and bereavement; cravings that meet with no fulfilment; the dying away of hopes, the disappointment of ambition,—a disappointment, perhaps, more bitter when it is gratified than when it fails; the struggle for a livelihood, the cares of a family, the deceitfulness of friendship, the decay and weakness of health and faculties, as inevitable old age comes on: and all the while heard at every silent interval with a plainness that creeps along the nerves, as though our ears caught the pacing of some ghostly tread in the far-off corridors of some lonely haunted house—all the while the monotonous echoing of death’s mysterious footfall, beard louder and louder, as day by day he approaches nearer and yet more near. And all this for so short a time that our petty schemes are broken off perpetually like a weaver’s thread, and the meanest works of our hand survive us and last on for other generations, to which our very names shall be covered with darkness. “And is this all? Is this, then, the period of our being? Must we end here? Did we come into the world only to make our way through the press, amid many jostlings and hard struggles, with at best only a few brief deceitful pleasures interspersed, and so go out of it again?” Alas for man if this were all, and nought beyond, O earth! And then again, if there be no resurrection of the dead, how infinitely pathetic, how quite unspeakably heartrending would be the phenomena of death itself. “If Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain; and your faith is also vain; and we are found false witnesses of God; and ye are yet in your sins; and”—all this is terrible enough, but mark the pathos of the climax, a pathos too deep for tears—“and then they also that are fallen asleep in Christ are perished.” Perished! what a world of desolate anguish, what sighs of unutterable despair, lie hid in that strange word. Most of you are too young to have ever stood, as all the eldest of us have, by the bedside of death; but none of you are too young to feel how awful such a scene would be if we did not believe and know that Christ has risen from the dead. There on that low bed lies one we loved, for whom our whole hearts yearned, to whom our whole affections clung; he was noble and good, he was one of the very few who loved us, and he would have undergone for us any sacrifice, and he had borne bravely and meekly the buffets of the world. It was a short life, hardly checkered (good and beautiful and upright as it was), hardly checkered with any sunshine amid its shade; and now it is over; it ends here: the bright eye is dull and glazed; the gentle face is white and cold; the good brave heart has ceased to beat. He has no more a part in anything that is done under the sun. The day was when he would have sprung to meet us, his whole face brightened at our approach; and now he lies there, cold to the voice of our affection, unmoved by our hot tears, with all the light of the soul quenched within him; gone, if there be no resurrection, to a dreary land where all things are forgotten; all that was good in him, all that was great in him, perished for ever, as we and ours must perish soon. Oh, if there were no resurrection, bow could we bear it? Would not the thought crush us down for very grief into the same open grave? Many of you will have read the famous vision of him who saw a bridge of threescore and ten arches, which spanned the rolling waters of a prodigious tide, and how the Genius said to him, “The bridge thou seest is Human Life; consider it attentively.” “And as I looked more attentively I saw several of the passengers dropping through the bridge into the great tide that flowed underneath it; and upon examination perceived that there were innumerable trap-doors concealed in the bridge, which the passengers no sooner trod upon, but they fell through them into the tide and immediately disappeared. My heart was filled with a deep melancholy to see several dropping unexpectedly in the midst of mirth and jollity, and catching at everything that stood by them to save themselves. Multitudes were very busy in the pursuit of bubbles that glittered in their eyes and danced before them; but often, when they thought themselves within reach of them, their footing failed and down they sank. ‘Alas!’ said I, ‘man was made in vain! How is he given away to misery and mortality! tortured in life and swallowed up in death!’ ”—F. W. Farrar.
Joh_5:27; Joh_5:29. The Judge it at the gate—prepare to meet Him.—Beloved! in this passage are not still greater things promised to the faithful? Verily, verily, etc. (Joh_5:24). Already here below is the believer possessor of life eternal, already here below is he a victor over death, and is freed from judgment. Behold, whosoever cometh to the long-suffering Judge, repentant, and judges himself in the penitent publican’s spirit (Luk_18:13), shall not come into judgment. Now sickness, poverty, loss, isolation, misjudgment, separation, affliction, and every sorrow will tend to bring you to the goal—in that you will be more than conquerors in all these things. In the Lord you have righteousness and strength. Consider your activity! That which impels you, that is yourself. And whither you are impelled there will you remain. In the direction in which the tree inclines it falls and there lies. Turned away from or turned toward Jesus—which is your position, your inner, your eternal sentence on yourself?… There is a judgment, the earth is rolling onward and mankind are pressing swiftly toward it, and the Son of man will destroy the house built on sand, and cast the guest without the wedding garment into outer darkness, and will say to the unmerciful with all their sins of omission: “Inasmuch,” etc. (Mat_25:45). Two great divine works of Jesus are referred to in this passage—the work of resurrection and the work of judgment. In view of them should all men honour the Son as they honour the Father. Kiss the Son! Pay homage to Him while it is called to-day! Pray to Him in the holy adornment of a renewed mind, of a living obedience, of a thorough purification through His blood, so that He may not be angry with you—when His anger is kindled but a little! Woe to all who oppose Him! Blessed are all they who put their trust in Him!—Dr. R. Kögel.
Joh_5:35. The “burning and shining light.—John the Baptist was a burning and shining light. He was burning with zeal for the honour of God, and with love for the welfare of His people; he shone with clear ray on the sins of all classes and conditions of his contemporaries, but also with mild, gentle, and comforting beams on the work and person of the coming Saviour. Israel, however, did not take John’s earnestness in earnest. Now they childishly greeted him with faultfinding and calumny, anon and also childishly with wonder and astonishment, but remained at all times debtors to that repentance which was the chief concern. They boasted and made a show of the famed preacher of righteousness, of their great countryman, yes, even of the powerful preacher of repentance. They toyed with the impressions he made; and even basked in them. For a little while they were contented to rejoice in his light, if they could only be spared the trouble of effecting in themselves a moral reformation. It is even related of a Herod that he willingly heard the imprisoned prophet, and did many things in obedience to his word (Mar_6:20). That John was worthy of being believed, the rulers of the people themselves showed when they sent a deputation of priests and Levites to him. But if the herald were great, how much greater and more worthy of belief was the King!—Dr. R. Kögel.
Joh_5:39. We honour God by receiving His Word.—The Word is the true manna; it is the bread which came down from heaven; it is the key of the kingdom of heaven; it is the savour of life unto life; it is the power of God unto salvation. In it God showeth unto us His might, His wisdom, and His glory. By it He will be known of us; by it He will be honoured by His creatures. Whatsoever truth is brought unto us contrary to the Word of God, it is not truth, but falsehood and error; whatsoever honour done unto God disagreeth from the honour required by His Word, it is not honour unto God, but blasphemy; as Christ saith, “In vain they worship Me, teaching for doctrines men’s precepts.” By Esay God saith, “Who requireth this at your hands?” (Isa_1:12). And by Jeremy, “I spake not unto your fathers, nor commanded them, when I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt offerings and sacrifices. But this thing commanded I them, saying, Obey My voice; and I will be your God, and ye shall be My people; and walk ye in all the ways which I have commanded you, that it may be well unto you.” Again, “What is chaff to the wheat, saith the Lord?” What are your dreams to be weighed with the truth of God? “Search the Scriptures; in them ye shall learn to know Me, and how ye should worship Me; in them ye shall find everlasting life.” “The words of the Lord are pure words, as the silver tried in the furnace.” There is no filth or dross remaining in them. They are the storehouse of wisdom, and of the knowledge of God; in respect whereof all the wisdom of this world is but vain and foolish.—Bishop Jewell.
Joh_5:39. Apparent difficulties do not invalidate the witness of Scripture.—All those apparent discrepancies and contradictions in matters of fact, all those apparent departures from morality in matters of principle, which the unbeliever is subtle to detect and proud to parade, in the holy and blessed Scriptures, are a trial which costs the true-hearted Christian many an anxious moment of distress and perplexity, in proportion to his value for his Bible, his earnestness after truth, and his jealousy for the honour of his God and Saviour. It is no easy thing to say—but the man of Abraham’s mould will say it, as one after another of these difficulties is forced upon his notice—I may not be able to explain it, I may not be able to harmonise these seeming discords, I may not be able to separate accurately the precious from the vile, in this heap of positive statements, bold affirmations, and cruel inferences, to which you point me as the latest results of modern science, of so-called discovery, in its bearing upon the records of revelation; but of this I am sure, that anything which would shake my confidence in the absolute truth of that which is indeed God’s Word must be false, however plausible; that, whatever error may be intermingled with my idea of Scripture, or with my theory of inspiration, there can be no error in the very thing itself, which God communicated in His Son Jesus Christ; and therefore I shall not lose heart nor abandon hope by reason of any novelty which may offer itself for the acceptance of this generation: that which is true in it must be consistent with the truth, and with the Word of the True One; I may not see the meeting-point or the reconciliation, but there is a mind which beholds all things as one—His time I will wait, yea, even if it comes not to me living; for with Him is the fountain of light, and in His light, hereafter if not here, I shall myself one day see light.—C. J. Vaughan, D.D.
Joh_5:45-46. “The letter killeth, the spirit giveth life.”—“There is one who accuseth you, even Moses in whom, ye trust. If ye believe Moses ye would also believe Me, for he wrote of Me.” Those who reject Moses thus also reject Christ. Take heed then, ye who tamper with the integrity of Scripture, of your critical estimates of the Old Testament! Again, whoever rejects Christ also rejects Moses. Hear this, ye who cherish the Judaistic spirit, and do not boast of your Mosaicism! Long ago should the true—not the imaginary—Moses have been to you a schoolmaster to bring you to Christ! And finally, ye would—be free-thinkers, despisers alike of the Old and New Covenants: Moses with threatening, uplifted tables of the law, and Christ with silent but victoriously uplifted cross, will judge you. The contemporaries of Jesus supposed that in their merely external reception and use of the Scripture they had found the pledge and spring of eternal life. They had in their hands God’s Word written on parchment rolls. They carried it also stored up in memory. They had it on their tongues in common speech, as a subject of conversation; but they had not this Word in their hearts as living and quickening. It did not try their minds and hearts; it brought no reproof to their conscience, it was to them no sure support, no comforting hope, no message from the Father’s house to assure those going homeward. Ye have never, Jesus said in accusing tones, heard the Father’s voice. He who is of the truth hears the voice of the Father in that of the Son. He who sees the Son sees the Father.… Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God in Christ. But when the Son of God came out of the coverings and veil of the old Covenant like a bridegroom out of his chamber, like the sun out of his tent, they passed Him by, and when He stood in their way they slew Him.—Translated from Dr. R. Kögel.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 Connecting Statement:
Connecting Statement:
Jesus continues speaking to the Jewish leaders.
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Truly, truly
See how you translated this in John 1:51.
you will be amazed
"you will be surprised" or "you will be shocked"
whatever the Father is doing, the Son does these things also. For the Father loves the Son
Jesus, as the Son of God, followed and obeyed his Father's leadership on earth, because Jesus knew the Father loved him. (See: Translating Son and Father)
Son ... Father
These are important titles that describe the relationship between Jesus and God. (See: Translating Son and Father)
loves
The kind of love that comes from God is focused on the good of others, even when it does not benefit oneself. God himself is love and is the source of true love.
translationWords
amen
Son of God
God the Father
works
love
amazed
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 5:19-30 Jesus claimed that his work on the Sabbath…
5:19-30 Jesus claimed that his work on the Sabbath was the same as God’s work on the Sabbath. Jesus claimed to be equal with God, doing the things God does. Yet he submitted to God’s will, doing only what . . . the Father willed.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.