John 5:19-29 English Standard Version (ESV)

The Authority of 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^[a] 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. 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. 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.

John 5:14-18 English Standard Version (ESV)

¹⁴ Afterward Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, “See, you are well! Sin no more, that nothing worse may happen to you.” ¹⁵ The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had healed him. ¹⁶ And this was why the Jews were persecuting Jesus, because he was doing these things on the Sabbath. ¹⁷ But Jesus answered them, “My Father is working until now, and I am working.”

Jesus Is Equal with God

¹⁸ This was why the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.

My question at the end of yesterday’s blog was if the lame man obeyed a man he did not know. I have an opinion on the matter that I will keep to myself. Opinions are not doctrine. We saw the man do that which was unlawful to do on the Sabbath and his motivations are in question. We can only see what the man did, not why. Then he meets Jesus and now knows Jesus. Now he has a testimony of what Jesus did for him and he witnesses for Jesus. We who believe are seen in the same way.

These Jews, not called to be Pharisees or Sadducee. These Jews now hear this witness as an accusation of guilt. According to Jewish law it takes two or three witnesses to convict a man of breaking the law. So they call on Jesus to testify against Himself. Jesus answers, “My Father did it and I will do it.”

Herein is the largest single difference in all religions of the world. Only in Christianity is Jesus Christ declared to be the Son of God. All other religions refuse to believe that God would stoop so low as to become a man. That refusal blocks out every prophecy that identifies how God the Father chose to deliver salvation to mankind.