15  The Most Startling  Claim Ever Made  (John 5:17–24)

But He answered them, “My Father is working until now, and I Myself am working.” For this reason therefore the Jews were seeking all the more to kill Him, because He not only was breaking the Sabbath, but also was calling God His own Father, making Himself equal with God. Therefore Jesus answered and was saying to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, unless it is something He sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, these things the Son also does in like manner. For the Father loves the Son, and shows Him all things that He Himself is doing; and the Father will show Him greater works than these, so that you will marvel. For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son also gives life to whom He wishes. For not even the Father judges anyone, but He has given all judgment to the Son, so that all will honor the Son even as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him. Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life.” (5:17–24)

Throughout the centuries, scholars and skeptics have given many different answers to the query, “Who is Jesus Christ?” His life is the most influential ever lived, and its impact continues to escalate. Still, Jesus’ true identity is still hotly debated by modern historians and theologians. Countless opinions have appeared as unbelievers have attempted to explain away the truth about Him.

The Jewish leaders of Jesus’ day, motivated by their own bitter jealousy accused Him of being a Samaritan (8:48) who was demon-possessed (7:20; 8:52), insane (10:20), and of illegitimate birth (8:41). Although they could not deny Jesus’ astonishing power, they discounted it as being of satanic origin (Matt. 12:24). Their successors similarly reviled Jesus as “a transgressor in Israel, who practised magic, scorned the words of the wise, [and] led the people astray” (F. F. Bruce, New Testament History [Garden City N.Y.: Anchor, 1972], 165).

The theological skeptics and liberals of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries were intent on denying Jesus’ deity. They viewed Him as the quintessential strictly human moral teacher, in whom the spark of divinity inherent in all people burned most brightly. In their minds, Jesus’ sacrificial life provided mankind with a model that all should follow, but not with a means by which men might be saved. Thus, He was “an example for faith, not the object of faith” (J. Gresham Machen, Christianity and Liberalism [Reprint; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1974], 85).

To twentieth-century existentialists, such as the highly influential Rudolf Bultmann, the Jesus of history was all but unknowable. That did not bother Bultmann, however, since he believed that the “Christ of faith” invented by the church could still provide the basis for a genuine religious experience. Neoorthodox theologians, such as Karl Barth, were not willing to so completely ignore the factual significance of Jesus’ life or His deity. Yet they were not willing to accept and believe the biblical record of Christ in a truly historical sense.

Other conceptions of Jesus range from the crusading sociopolitical revolutionary of liberation theology, to the cynical Jewish sage of the Jesus Seminar, to the countercultural hero of the rock musicals Godspell and Jesus Christ Superstar. But all such fanciful and blasphemous viewpoints are far removed from the God-man revealed in holy Scripture. They say more about the obstinate unbelief and perverted imaginations of the people who created them than about Jesus’ true identity.

Ironically, in all the debate over Him, Jesus’ own self-testimony is seldom considered reasonably. Did He, as historic Christianity has always maintained, claim to be God incarnate in human flesh? Or, as skeptics argue, did His followers later invent those claims and attribute them to Him? All this unbelieving pseudo scholarship ignores the biblical account of His life and ministry, which leaves no legitimate doubt about who Jesus declared Himself to be, and who He was.

Jesus frequently spoke of His unique, otherworldly origin, of having preexisted in heaven before coming into this world. To the hostile Jews He declared, “You are from below, I am from above; you are of this world, I am not of this world” (8:23).”What then,” He asked, “if you see the Son of Man ascending to where He was before?” (6:62). In His High Priestly Prayer Jesus spoke of the glory which He had with the Father before the world existed (17:5). In John 16:28 He told His disciples, “I came forth from the Father and have come into the world; I am leaving the world again and going to the Father.”

Jesus assumed the prerogatives of deity. He claimed to have control over people’s eternal destinies (8:24; cf. Luke 12:8–9; John 5:22, 27–29), to have authority over the divinely ordained institution of the Sabbath (Matt. 12:8; Mark 2:28; Luke 6:5), to have the power to answer prayer (John 14:13–14; cf. Acts 7:59; 9:10–17), and to have the right to receive worship, faith, and obedience due to God alone (Matt. 21:16; John 14:1; cf. John 5:23). He also assumed the right to forgive sins (Mark 2:5–11)—something that, as His shocked opponents correctly understood, only God can do (v. 7).

Jesus also called God’s angels (Gen. 28:12; Luke 12:8–9; 15:10; John 1:51) His angels (Matt. 13:41;24:30–31); God’s elect (Luke 18:7; Rom. 8:33) His elect (Matt. 24:30–31); and God’s kingdom (Matt. 12:28; 19:24; 21:31; Mark 1:15; Luke 4:43; John 3:3) His kingdom (Matt. 13:41; 16:28; cf. Luke 1:33; 2 Tim. 4:1).

When a Samaritan woman said to Him, “I know that Messiah is coming (He who is called Christ); when that One comes, He will declare all things to us” (4:25) Jesus replied, “I who speak to you am He” (v. 26). In His High Priestly Prayer to the Father, He referred to Himself as “Jesus Christ whom You have sent” (17:3); “Christ” is the Greek equivalent of the Hebrew word translated “Messiah.” When asked at His trial by the high priest, “Are You the Christ, the Son of the Blessed One?” (Mark 14:61) Jesus replied simply, “I am” (v. 62). He also accepted, without correction or amendment, the testimonies of Peter (Matt. 16:16–17), Martha (John 11:27), and others (e.g., Matt. 9:27; 20:30–31) that He was the Messiah.

The Lord’s favorite description of Himself was “Son of Man” (cf. Matt. 8:20; Mark 2:28; Luke 6:22; John 9:35–37, etc.). Although that title seems to stress His humanity, it also speaks of His deity. Jesus’ use of the term derives from Daniel 7:13–14, where the Son of Man is on equal terms with God the Father, the Ancient of Days.

The Jews viewed themselves collectively as sons of God by creation. Jesus, however, claimed to be God’s Son by nature.”All things have been handed over to Me by My Father,” Jesus affirmed, “and no one knows the Son except the Father; nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son wills to reveal Him” (Matt. 11:27). In John 5:25–26 He said, “Truly truly, I say to you, an hour is coming and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. For just as the Father has life in Himself, even so He gave to the Son also to have life in Himself.” After receiving word that Lazarus was ill Jesus said to the disciples, “This sickness is not to end in death, but for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified by it” (11:4). When asked at His trial, “Are You the Son of God, then?” Jesus replied, “Yes, I am” (Luke 22:70; cf. Mark 14:61–62). Instead of rejecting the title, the Lord embraced it without apology or embarrassment (Matt. 4:3, 6; 8:29; Mark 3:11–12; Luke 4:41; John 1:49–50; 11:27).

The hostile Jewish authorities clearly understood that Jesus’ use of the title Son of God was a claim to deity. Otherwise, they would not have accused Him of blasphemy (cf. 10:36). In fact, it was Jesus’ claim to be the Son of God that led the Jews to demand His death: “The Jews answered [Pilate], ‘We have a law, and by that law He ought to die because He made Himself out to be the Son of God’” (19:7). Even while He was on the cross, some mocked Him, sneering, “He trusts in God; let God rescue Him now, if He delights in Him; for He said, ‘I am the Son of God’” (Matt. 27:43).

Jesus further outraged the unbelieving Jews by taking for Himself the covenant name of God, “I am” (Yahweh). That name was so sacred to the Jews that they refused to even pronounce it, lest they take it in vain and suffer judgment (cf. Ex. 20:7). In John 8:24 Jesus warned that those who refuse to believe He is Yahweh will perish eternally: “Therefore I said to you that you will die in your sins; for unless you believe that I am He, you will die in your sins.” (The word “He” is not in the original Greek.) Later in that chapter “Jesus said to [His hearers], ‘Truly truly, I say to you, before Abraham was born, I am’” (v. 58). Unlike many modern deniers of His deity, the Jews knew exactly what He was claiming, as their subsequent attempt to stone Him for blasphemy makes clear (v. 59). In John 13:19 Jesus told His disciples that when what He predicted came to pass, they would believe that He is Yahweh. Even His enemies, coming to arrest Him in Gethsemane, were overwhelmed by His divine power and fell to the ground when Jesus said “I am” (18:5–8).

All of the above lines of evidence converge on one inescapable point: Jesus Christ claimed absolute equality with God. Thus He could say, “I and the Father are one” (10:30); “He who sees Me sees the One who sent Me” (12:45); and “He who has seen Me has seen the Father” (14:9). Those who would deny that Jesus claimed to be God must deny the historical accuracy and truthfulness of the gospel records and thereby establish themselves as superior sources of truth. They are saying they know more about what was true two thousand years ago than the inspired eyewitnesses. Such skepticism is unwarranted, however, since the New Testament is by far the most well-attested document of the ancient world (cf. F. F. Bruce, The New Testament Documents: Are They Reliable? (Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity 1973). Skeptics are also hard-pressed to explain why Jesus’ monotheistic Jewish followers would have embraced His deity so early in church history apart from His own claims. William Lane Craig notes,

This section affirming our Lord’s deity flows directly from the confrontation that arose when Jesus healed a crippled man on the Sabbath (vv. 1–16). The Lord did not violate the Old Testament Sabbath regulations, but rather the rabbinic additions to those regulations. Yet He did not defend Himself by pointing out the distinction between God’s Law and man’s extraneous tradition. Instead, He responded in a far more radical way—He maintained that He was equal with God and thus had the right to do whatever He wanted on the Sabbath. The result is one of the most profound Christological discourses in all of Scripture. In verses 17–24 Jesus makes five unmistakable claims to full equality with God: He is equal with the Father in His person, in His works, in His sovereign power, in His judgment, and in the honor due Him.

JESUS IS EQUAL TO GOD IN HIS PERSON

But He answered them, “My Father is working until now, and I Myself am working.” For this reason therefore the Jews were seeking all the more to kill Him, because He not only was breaking the Sabbath, but also was calling God His own Father, making Himself equal with God. (5:17–18)

As noted in the previous chapter of this volume, the Sabbath observance was at the heart of Jewish worship in Jesus’ day. The Lord’s reply to those who challenged Him for violating it (5:16), “My Father is working until now, and I Myself am working,” implies that the Sabbath was not instituted for God’s benefit but for man’s (Mark 2:27). In other words, the Sabbath restriction on working did not apply to God; He was not required to rest on every seventh day. It is true that at the end of creation week, He “rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done” (Gen. 2:2). That, however, was not because He was tired or received some benefit, for “the Everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth does not become weary or tired” (Isa. 40:28). Instead, it was to set a divine example for man to rest one day out of each week (Ex. 20:9–11). (For a discussion of the New Testament believer’s relationship to the Old Testament Sabbath, see John MacArthur, Colos-sians and Philemon, The MacArthur New Testament Commentary (Chicago: Moody, 1992), 118–19.)

The significance of the seventh day is underscored by the three references to it in Genesis 2:1–3. According to verse 3, God “sanctified” (“set apart”; “separated”) that day to distinguish it from the first six, none of which are so designated. Three verbs in the passage, each of them associated with the work of God, reveal why He uniquely set apart the seventh day.

“Completed” (v. 1) stresses that the entire work of God in creation was finished by the end of the sixth day. In contrast to the theory of evolution (whether atheistic or theistic), the Bible denies that the creative process is still ongoing.

Since His work of creation was completed, God “rested” (vv. 2–3). As noted above, that does not imply any weariness on His part (Isa. 40:28); the verb merely indicates that by the seventh day God had ceased to do the work of creation (cf. Ex. 20:11).

Finally, God “blessed” the seventh day (v. 3); that is, He set it aside as a memorial. Every Saturday of every week serves as a reminder that God created the entire universe in six days, and then rested from His creative activity.

But as even the rabbis themselves acknowledged, God’s Sabbath rest (cf. Heb. 4:9–10) from His creative work does not obviate His unceasing providential work of sustaining the universe (Heb. 1:3). Jesus’ statement that He worked on the Sabbath just like the Father was nothing less than a claim to full deity and equality with God, that “the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath” (Matt. 12:8). His words also served as a subtle rebuke to the Jewish legalistic system, under which He had been indicted for doing good and showing mercy on the Sabbath. After all, God Himself does good and shows mercy on the Sabbath. Jesus, therefore, maintained that it is right to do good on the Sabbath, since God does. Ironically, even the unbelieving Jews performed acts of mercy on the Sabbath (cf. 7:23; Luke 14:5)—the very thing for which they hypocritically rebuked Jesus.

The hostile Jews instantly grasped the import of Jesus’ words and as a result were seeking (the tense of the verb indicates continuous action) all the more to kill Him (cf. v. 16). He was not only breaking the Sabbath, but even worse in their minds, Jesus also was calling God His own Father, making Himself equal with God (cf. 10:30–33). In contrast to the Jews’ collective reference to God as “our Father,” Jesus called God His own Father. The clear implication, which His opponents readily understood, was that He was claiming to be fully equal with God in nature (cf. 1:1; 8:58; 20:28; Phil. 2:6). In response, they intensified their efforts to take His life (cf. 7:1, 19, 25; 8:37, 40, 59; 11:53), not just for exposing their self-styled legalism, but now with justification (in their minds), because He was asserting His deity.

JESUS IS EQUAL TO GOD IN HIS WORKS

Therefore Jesus answered and was saying to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, unless it is something He sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, these things the Son also does in like manner. For the Father loves the Son, and shows Him all things that He Himself is doing; and the Father will show Him greater works than these, so that you will marvel.” (5:19–20)

For a mere man to claim to be God was, to the Jews, an outrageous act of blasphemy. Therefore if they had misunderstood Him, Jesus surely would have immediately and vehemently denied making such a claim (cf. Acts 14:11–15; Rev. 19:10; 22:8–9). But instead, He became even more forceful and emphatic, introducing His next statement with the solemn affirmation, truly, truly, I say to you (cf. the discussion of 3:3 in chapter 8 of this volume). In the strongest possible terms, the Lord assured His hearers that what He said to them was true. He further defended His healing on the Sabbath by tying His activities directly to those of the Father. “The Son can do nothing of Himself,” Jesus declared, “unless it is something He sees the Father doing.” He always acted in perfect harmony with and subordination to the Father’s will. Thus, His works paralleled those of the Father in both their nature and extent, for whatever the Father does, these things the Son also does in like manner. Obviously, only someone who is equal to the Father could do everything that He does. Christ’s statement, then, was a clear declaration of His own divinity.

The perfect harmony that characterizes the joint working of the Father and the Son stems from the absolute unity of essence that they share (cf. 17:21). Because they are one in being, one eternal God (10:30), to see Christ act is to see God act (John 12:45; 14:9–10). By accusing Jesus of wrongdoing, the religious leaders were actually doing what they charged Jesus with doing, impugning the holy nature of God Himself.

In verse 20 Jesus described the oneness of the Father and the Son as a union of love: the Father loves the Son (cf. 3:35; 17:26; Matt. 3:17; 17:5; 2 Peter 1:17) and shows Him all things that He Himself is doing. The verb translated loves is not agapao, the love of will and choice, but phileo, the love of deep feelings; the warmth of affection that a father feels for his son. This is the only time in the New Testament that it is used to refer to the Father’s love for the Son. The present tense of the verb indicates an eternally uninterrupted and all-knowing love that leaves no room for ignorance, making it impossible for Jesus to have been unaware of God’s will, whether about the Sabbath, or about anything else.

Jesus continued by declaring that the Father would show Him still greater works. His healing of the crippled man had amazed the crowds. But in obedience to the Father, Jesus predicted that He would perform deeds that were even more spectacular—including raising the dead (v. 21) and judging all people (v. 22). As a result, His listeners would

marvel.

JESUS IS EQUAL TO GOD IN HIS POWER AND SOVEREIGNTY

“For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son also gives life to whom He wishes.” (5:21)

By asserting His equality with God, Jesus claimed that He had the parallel power with God to raise the dead just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life. The Bible teaches that only God has the power to give life to the dead (Deut. 32:39; 1 Sam. 2:6; 2 Kings 5:7; Acts 26:8; 2 Cor. 1:9; Heb. 11:19), and the Old Testament records several instances where He did so (1 Kings 17:17–24; 2 Kings 4:32–37; 13:20–21). Because His power is the same as the Father, Jesus Christ is able to raise the physically dead (11:25–44; Matt. 9:18–25; Luke 7:11–15; cf. John 6:39–40, 44). Moreover, He has the power to give spiritual life to the spiritually dead. “Whoever drinks of the water that I will give him,” Jesus promised, “shall never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life” (4:14). In John 6 He admonished His hearers, “Do not work for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you,” because He is “the bread of God … which comes down out of heaven, and gives life to the world” (vv. 27, 33; cf. vv. 35, 48, 54; 1:4; 10:28; 11:25; 14:6; 17:2).

Unlike Elijah (1 Kings 17:22) and Elisha (2 Kings 4:34–35), Jesus did not merely act as God’s representative when He raised the dead, but as God Himself. The Son Himself gives resurrection and spiritual life to whom He wishes. As God is the source of life, so Jesus Christ is the source of life. As God chooses when He gives life, so does the Son choose, in perfect agreement with the Father, a truth illustrated by the salvation of sinners. All whom the Father chose before the foundation of the world to give to the Son will come to him, and He will not reject any of them (6:37). Even Jesus’ truly human prayer in Gethsemane, “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; yet not as I will, but as You will” (Matt. 26:39), yields to the perfect concord between the persons of the Godhead.

JESUS IS EQUAL TO GOD IN HIS JUDGMENT

“For not even the Father judges anyone, but He has given all judgment to the Son,” (5:22)

Jesus’ authority to grant spiritual life to whomever He chooses is consistent with His authority to judge all men on the last day (cf. 3:18–19; 12:48). Since God is the “judge of all the earth” (Gen. 18:25; cf. 1 Sam. 2:10; 1 Chron. 16:33; Pss. 82:8; 94:2; 96:13; 98:9), the fact that the Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son further attests to Christ’s deity. Because their wills are in perfect harmony, all judgment can be given to Christ in the assurance that His judgment will be, in fact, the very same as the Father’s judgment. Although judgment was not the primary purpose of Christ’s first coming to earth (3:17; 12:47), it remains the inescapable final result of rejecting the salvation He offers (3:18).

In the future, “the Lord Jesus will be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels in flaming fire, dealing out retribution to those who do not know God and to those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus” (2 Thess. 1:7–8), because God “has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead” (Acts 17:31). On that final, terrible day of judgment, those who have rejected Jesus will hear Him say, “I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness” (Matt. 7:23).

JESUS IS EQUAL TO GOD IN HIS HONOR

“so that all will honor the Son even as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him. Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life.” (5:23–24)

The Father’s purpose in entrusting all His works and judgment to Jesus is so that all will honor the Son even as they honor the Father. It is only fitting that those equal in nature (vv. 17–18), works (vv. 19–20), power and sovereignty (v. 21), and judgment (v. 22) would be accorded equal honor. The Father’s honor is not diminished by the honor paid to Christ; on the contrary, it is enhanced.

Although the unbelieving Jews thought they were truly worshiping God while rejecting His Son (cf. 16:2), such was not the case, for he who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him. This was an astounding claim on Jesus’ part, as D. A. Carson notes:

When He was asked, “What shall we do, so that we may work the works of God?” Jesus answered, “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent” (6:28–29).”He who hates Me,” He warned, “hates My Father also” (15:23). Those who refuse to honor the Son while claiming to honor the Father are actually self-deceived. John Heading writes,

That the Father and the Son are to be afforded equal honor forcefully asserts Christ’s deity and equality with God, who declared through the prophet Isaiah, “I will not give My glory to another” (Isa. 42:8; 48:11). Yet, the Father has commanded that all will honor the Son. In Philippians 2:9–11 Paul wrote,

Willingly or unwillingly, everyone will eventually obey the Father’s command to honor Jesus Christ.

Jesus closed this section of His discourse by reaffirming His authority to give eternal life to whomever He desires. The Lord underscored the statement’s monumental significance by introducing it with the solemn formula amen, amen (truly, truly). He identified those who receive eternal life as those who hear His word (or message) and believe the Father who sent Him. As always in the Scriptures, divine sovereignty in salvation is not apart from human responsibility to repent and believe the gospel. The blessed promise to those who believe is that they do not come into judgment, but have passed out of death into life. As Paul wrote to the Romans, “There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 8:1).

The claims of Jesus Christ confront everyone, forcing all to make a decision either for or against Him. There is no neutral ground, for as Jesus said, “He who is not with Me is against Me; and he who does not gather with Me, scatters” (Luke 11:23). Those who accept Him for who He is, God incarnate in human flesh, will be saved from their sins through Him (Matt. 1:21; 1 Tim. 1:15; Heb. 7:25). But those who believe Him to be anything other than who He truly is will one day face His judgment (John 3:18;9:39; 12:47–48; 16:8–9; Acts 10:38–42; 17:31;2 Tim.4:1).