The Son

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.
(Jn. 5:19-23 ESV)

In this passage, Jesus informs his audience that He, the Son, is equal to the Father in four ways.

The Son is equal to the Father in works (vv.19-20).
The Son is equal to the Father in giving life (v.21).
The Son is equal to the Father in judgement (v.22).
The Son is equal to the Father in honor (v.23).

In the first two verses we see that the Son only does what the Father does. Jesus does not have his own agenda. He doesn’t go off on his own and do whatever pleases him. He doesn’t glimpse what the Father is doing and flippantly dismiss it. He watches the Father and then does what the Father does. The Son and the Father walk in perfectly timed cadence.

But why?

The second verse tells us it is because the Father loves the Son and shows him all the he is doing. The Father has opened the shop to his Son and shown him all the tools and all the work that is being done. Nothing is hidden from the Son. ALL that the Father does the Son has access to and is a part of it. There is no part of the Father’s plan; no part of the work he is doing in which the Son does not participate. In fact, in 4:34, the Son states, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work.”

The Son had one focus, please the Father. The Son’s desire was to complete the work of the Father who sent him. The Father loves the Son and sent him to do the work(s) that he himself was doing. In obeying the Father, the Son reveals the Father through all that he does because he is only doing what the Father does. He exegetes the Father to us and shows us what life under the Father should look like. D.A. Carson in his commentary on John states it this way, “The Father initiates, sends, commands, commissions, grants; the Son responds, obeys, performs his Father’s will, receives authority.”

Is it any different for us as followers of Christ? What is our role but to respond with Spirit-empowered faithful obedience to the commands of God? In order to know how to do that wemust look to the Son. What does it mean to love our neighbor? Look to the Son. What does it mean to desire rightly? Look to the Son. How do I live at peace with others? Look to the Son.

Do you see that the Son is equal to the Father in works?
Do you help others see that the Son is equal to the Father in works?
Do you look to the Son? Do you help others look to the Son?

By His Grace Alone,
Josh