Feb 7, 2021
Scripture Reading: John 5:13-24
When Jesus said, "My Father is working until now, and I am working," it sounded like a trumpet on the ears of the Jewish leaders who heard it. God is sometimes referred to as the Father of Israel collectively and, on rare occasions, of an individual. But in direct address, individuals did not call on God by using the term 'father.' When Jesus called God His Father, the Jews thought it was blasphemy and they wanted to kill Him for it.
In John 5:19-47 Jesus gives a wonderful defense of His divinity and His unity with God the Father. J. C. Ryle says, "Nowhere else in the gospels do we find our Lord making such a formal, systematic, orderly, regular statement of his own unity with the Father, his divine commission and authority, and the proofs of his Messiahship, as we find in this discourse" (Ryle, Expository Thoughts on John, 1:199).
Jesus' defense of His relationship to God the Father can be seen in His statement, "Whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise" (Jn 5:19). The Son does all that the Father does. No one could make that statement unless he could also claim divinity.
Further, the Father loves the Son in a special way, showing Him "all that he himself is doing" (Jn 5:20). Out of love the Father shows the Son all He is doing. Out of obedience the Son does all that the Father does. The Son, in His earthly life, is revealing the Father to humanity.
Such is the unity between God the Father and God the Son that to dishonor the Son is to dishonor the Father (Jn 5:23). To hear the words of Jesus and to believe God are two ways to describe the same reality of saving faith (Jn 5:24). Let us bow down and marvel at the Son, in all His glory.