Why Jesus is God - John 5:19-47
19 So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise. 20 For the Father loves the Son and shows him all that he himself is doing. And greater works than these will he show him, so that you may marvel. 21 For as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom he will. 22 For the Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son, 23 that all may honor the Son, just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him.
19
For
For the only one who could conceivably do whatever the Father does must be as great as the Father, as divine as the Father.
As being equal with God the Father, for Jesus it does not mean complete or even partial independence from his Father
The truth is that the Son can do nothing by himself—or, better, ‘on his own initiative’
Whatever the Father does, so does the Son
The Father initiates, sends, commands, commissions, grants
The Son responds, obeys, performs his Father’s will, receives authority.
20
For
For explains how it is that the Son can do whatever the Father does: it is because the Father loves the Son and shows him all he does.
Greater works and marvel
These are pointing to verses 21 and 22. This is a set up statement
21
For
For introduces an exemplification of the principal truth articulated in vv. 19–20, being that He is the giver of life
Old Testament teaching and Jewish tradition attest to the following:
Raising the dead was a prerogative belonging to God alone
So also the Son
Only God gives life and death, so if Jesus does this, He is God
22-23
For
For introduces an exemplification of the principal truth articulated in vv. 19–20, being that He is the Judge of life
In all authority that God has given (to man and angels, His creation), no one is given the authority to be the final judge
God had long been recognized as ‘the Judge of all the earth
24 Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life. 25 “Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. 26 For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself. 27 And he has given him authority to execute judgment, because he is the Son of Man.
26
The logical For is important: this verse explains how it is that the Son can exercise divine judgment and generate resurrection life by his powerful word.
It is because, like God, he has life-in-himself. God is self-existent; he is always ‘the living God’.
27
Application that Jesus is God
What is your response to this?
Do you receive Jesus’ atonement for your sin and are you going to pass from death to life or go from death to eternal death?
28 Do not marvel at this, for an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice 29 and come out, those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment.
They would have been flabbergasted at such statements by Jesus
Good and evil
Not works, but referring to a life lived in faith, following God’s commandments because you are rooted in Him and your allegiance is to Him and not the world
30 “I can do nothing on my own. As I hear, I judge, and my judgment is just, because I seek not my own will but the will of him who sent me.
30
This is essential a summary and reiteration of verses 19-23
31 If I alone bear witness about myself, my testimony is not true. 32 There is another who bears witness about me, and I know that the testimony that he bears about me is true. 33 You sent to John, and he has borne witness to the truth. 34 Not that the testimony that I receive is from man, but I say these things so that you may be saved.
35 He was a burning and shining lamp, and you were willing to rejoice for a while in his light. 36 But the testimony that I have is greater than that of John. For the works that the Father has given me to accomplish, the very works that I am doing, bear witness about me that the Father has sent me.
37 And the Father who sent me has himself borne witness about me. His voice you have never heard, his form you have never seen, 38 and you do not have his word abiding in you, for you do not believe the one whom he has sent. 39 You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, 40 yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life.
41 I do not receive glory from people. 42 But I know that you do not have the love of God within you. 43 I have come in my Father's name, and you do not receive me. If another comes in his own name, you will receive him. 44 How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the only God?
45 Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father. There is one who accuses you: Moses, on whom you have set your hope. 46 For if you believed Moses, you would believe me; for he wrote of me. 47 But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words?”
Extra Notes
Verse 19
Though he is the unique Son of God (cf. notes on 1:49), and may truly be called God (1:1, 18; 20:28) and take to himself divine titles (e.g. 8:58) and, as in this context, divine rights (5:17), yet is he always submissive to the Father.
In this is layered the outline of the way we live our lives (submissive to God), but even more detailed in the structure of the husband being submissive to Christ and the wife being submissive to her husband
Think of it this way, God the Father and Jesus the Son are both equal, yet Christ submits to the Father
Husband and wife are equal in God’s eyes as His children, but the wife submits to the husband
Verse 20
The Son, in obedience to what the Father shows him, will perform ‘greater things’: he will assume the authority and prerogatives of God himself and give life to the dead (v. 21) and pronounce final judgment (v. 22).
Verse 21
That the Son does whatever the Father does, owing to the Father’s perfect self-disclosure to the Son, is nowhere better seen than in the perfect parallelism expressed here: just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son gives life to whom he is pleased to give it.
Raising the dead was a prerogative belonging to God alone: ‘Am I God? Can I kill and bring back to life’ (2 Ki. 5:7).
The same presupposition is amply attested in later Jewish tradition. Rabbi Johanan asserted that three keys remained in God’s hand and were not entrusted to representatives: