John 5:19-20 – Jesus and the Father are one in action

The Jews had all along shown great reverence for God. To them it was irreverent to casually mention His name. So they had designed the term Jehovah in addressing Him. For that reason, when a scribe was copying scriptures and had come to the name of God, he would wash himself and change to an unused pen to write that name. The pen would then be laid aside and not used to write anything else. Knowing this fact helps us to understand why the claim that Jesus had made seemed blasphemous to the Jews.

Remember, Jesus had just healed a man of a 38 years debilitation on a Sabbath. And He had boldly stated that it was at the Father’s initiative that He performed the healing. He said, “My Father is working until now, and I Myself am working.” Hearing that they were so infuriated that verse 18 says “…they 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.” Did Jesus really claim to be God?

In John 5:19-20, Jesus said, “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.” The two words, truly, truly that prefaced His claim indicate that there are no possibility for contradiction to the claim that follows. Simply explained, the two words mean, “I am stating this with full certainty.” It suggests that one must hear and accept it. Here Jesus claims to be one with the Father in action. There is perfect oneness in the working out of divine plan. The Father and Son have perfectly loved each other that their hearts virtually beat as one. In the perfect love and harmony that Jesus had with the Father, there is perfect unity seen in both their works.

Jesus asserted that He is only doing what God, His Father, is doing. It is true that the Sabbath is a special day, and God had ordained it so. But even He had continued to sustain the world on that day and on any other days. Hence, what the Son had done in the healing and doing good on the Sabbath as well as other days, He could do so only because He saw what His Father was doing. The claim Jesus makes in these two verses is pure and simply this: He is equal with the Father. And as believers we must repeatedly acknowledge and affirm this claim. We must do so even though we have already known and embraced this to be an undeniable truth. Daily we must appropriate this reality. He is God. He is the King of all kings and the Lord of all lords. Like it or not, Jesus’ claim will continue to ring both now and throughout all eternity. An appropriate response is demanded of every one of us who know this to be true. And that is to proclaim it too!