John 5:19, commentary and pictures

The Son does nothing of Himself or on His own, but only what He sees the Father do, and whatever the Father does the Son does in the same way in perfect harmony with the Father's will. The Father loves the Son and hides nothing from Him, but opens all His counsels to Him and will show Him still greater works that will cause wonder. Father and Son are two distinct persons with their own personality and individuality, yet the Son is exalted to equality with the Father and is one with Him in nature, will, and purpose. Spoken after He healed the impotent man at Bethesda on the Sabbath, Jesus used it to answer the charge of Sabbath-breaking and of making Himself equal with God by showing that His healing was the Father's sacred work, for relieving suffering honors the Sabbath and God's work of doing good never ceases. That same united working includes the Father's greatest works of raising the dead and judging all, which the Father has committed to the Son so that all honor the Son as they honor the Father, and it stands as the pattern for believers who of themselves can do nothing but must depend on Christ and do as He did.

Sabbath Healing Setting

At Bethesda Jesus longed to heal the sufferers gathered there, yet He knew that to heal on the Sabbath would stir the Jews' prejudice and cut short His work. The saying belongs to the discourse that followed His healing of the impotent man at the pool of Bethesda, when the Jews found fault with Him for healing on the Sabbath and were determined to kill Him. Their anger grew still greater when He said His Father works and He works, for by calling God His Father He was making Himself equal with God.

In that setting He answered the charge of Sabbath-breaking by healing and the charge of making Himself equal with God. The Pharisees regarded that claim to equality as blasphemous. By this answer He declared His true character and position.

Son's Unity with Father

The Son does nothing of Himself or from Himself, and never acts independently, but only does what He sees the Father do, and whatever things the Father does those same things the Son does likewise in perfect harmony with the Father's will. His works are not separate from the Father's works but are bound up with them, so that His healing on the Sabbath is the Father's work as well and declares His true position. Standing at the head of humanity He is entirely dependent, and His actions express implicit obedience and set the example of perfect obedience. This means He can do nothing against the Father's will, because His very relation to God forbids working independent of Him. Utterly emptied of self He made no schemes and no plans of His own, but accepted God's plans as the Father unfolded them day by day and lived them out in full and implicit obedience as the daily outworking of the Father's will. That dependence rebukes following human ideas instead of God's ideas, and requires all the more that human agents depend on God for constant instruction, seek wisdom from Him, submit entirely to work out His thoughts, and make life the simple working out of His plans rather than walking in sparks of their own kindling or moving independent in pride and self-sufficiency.

The Father loves the Son and shows Him all things that He Himself does, opening all His counsels to Him with nothing planned or hidden from Him. He will show Him greater works than these, which will cause marveling and will astonish those who witness them.

Father and Son Revealed

The verse sets forth the Father and the Son as two distinct persons, each possessing personality and individuality, with God as the Father of Christ and Christ as the Son of God. Their distinct identities as Father and Son remain even though the Son is given an exalted position made equal with the Father. The Son does nothing of Himself or independently, but only what He sees the Father do, doing likewise whatever things the Father does. The Father loves the Son and shows Him all things that He Himself does, opening all His counsels with nothing hidden, and He speaks with conscious authority possessing power to carry out His work.

In declaring this unity the Son claims equal rights with God because His work is equally sacred and of the same character as His Father's work in heaven. This perfect union in carrying out the Father's will and purposes does not lessen His authority or equality with the Father. The Father gives Him authority equal to His own, so the Son's word is to be obeyed as the Father's. His healing work therefore belongs to God's continuing work and honors rather than violates the Sabbath.

His authority comes from being God's Son, one with the Father in nature, will, and purpose. He does not act independently but does what the Father shows Him, carrying out the Father's will and purposes in perfect union. Nothing the Father plans is hidden from the Son, and the Father's will is fulfilled through Him, especially in the work of creating the earth and every living thing and in providence. He accepted the Father's plans and depended on the Father's power, making no plans for Himself.

The Father and the Son cannot be separated, for Christ's works and power are from God. To reject the Son is to fail to recognize the Father's power at work in Him. Christ alone has power to give life, and no claim about Christ is to be used to turn people away from the Father or His law.

Works and Authority Declared

Jesus used the saying to explain that His healing on the Sabbath was the Father's work as well, done in perfect harmony with the Father and not independently of Him. That work is sacred and of the same character as the Father's work in heaven, in accord with the Father's purpose and with God's law. Relieving suffering therefore honors the holy Sabbath rather than desecrating it or breaking it. God's work and heaven's work of doing good never cease for a moment, and are even greater on the Sabbath when His people leave usual employments for prayerful meditation and worship and ask more favors and special attention and choicest blessings, which He grants without waiting for the Sabbath to pass.

Whatever things the Father does those the Son does in like manner, by the exercise of like power and with like results. This shared work includes working with the Father in creating the earth and every living thing, carrying out the Father's will and purposes through whom that will is fulfilled. This does not lessen His authority, for His word is to be obeyed as the Father's. It includes especially one of the Father's greatest works, raising the dead, in which the Son also has power in Himself to raise from the dead. As the Father raises up the dead and quickens them, so the Son quickens whom He will, and all in the graves shall hear His voice and come forth, those who have done good to the resurrection of life and those who have done evil to the resurrection of damnation. The Father judges no man, but has committed all judgment to the Son, that all men should honor the Son even as they honor the Father.

That life-giving power includes power to forgive sins, reflecting His divine nature and His honored position in unity with God. It works now in those who are spiritually dead in sin, breaking evil's dominion and freeing them from sin through faith. Those who receive the Spirit of Christ share in the power that will raise their bodies from the grave. He speaks in the language of conscious authority, calling whom He pleases to follow Him and bringing other sheep which are not of the Jewish fold so there shall be one fold and one shepherd. His command breaks the spell of the world's enchantment, and at the sound of His voice greed and ambition flee from the heart so that men rise emancipated and follow Him.

His words and works bear the divine signature, acting in complete accord with what He sees the Father do. He represented the Father by doing in every circumstance what the Father would do, revealing God's ways. He represents the Father's power and glory and reveals the Father in a form humanity can bear, for if God had come in all His glory humanity would have been consumed. The truth reaches people through His humanity, in whom the Father is imaged and who is truth, light, and life.

Pattern for Believers

Standing at the head of humanity, Christ set the example of perfect obedience, for the Son is entirely dependent on the Father and does only what He sees the Father doing in implicit obedience. His dependence is the pattern for His life in believers, for when He dwells in their hearts He works in them and they work as He worked, showing the same spirit in complete unity with the Father.

As Christ looked to the Father, God's sons and daughters are steadfastly and teachably to look to Jesus as their Pattern, praying for Him to be their pattern and beholding Him in order to do His work. They do nothing in their own way and after their own will and pleasure, but set aside their own way and will and do what they have seen their Pattern do in His lessons, ways, and teachings. Christ is to be copied in ways and habits in order to work wisely, and ministers and teachers who keep Jesus before them and study His life, character, and teaching gain greater power and efficiency and show less imperfection in their work. In this way teachers under discipline in the school of Christ, self-controlled and keeping their souls in the love of God, represent the character of Jesus Christ to students, children, and youth under their instruction at all times and on all occasions, catching the bright rays of the Sun of Righteousness and reflecting those beams upon them.

Of themselves His workers can do nothing, for all might, power, glory, and efficiency belong to God, and spiritual understanding comes through close connection with God and heavenly intelligences. They must give credit to the higher Power whose will and word they carry out, depend on Christ, place the will under Him, learn His methods rather than relying on supposed ability or wisdom, and make God their dependence. Ministers must look to Christ as Christ looked to the Father, with the Saviour as their efficiency, and through the working of the Holy Spirit they will do His works and reflect His brightness as a greater blessing to the church than the stars are to the world, to the honor of Christ. When human wills are sanctified they work in the same united way Christ worked in unity with the Father, and believers work in partnership with Christ in faithful duty to honor and glorify Him.

The bond between Father and Son teaches that people are inseparably bound to their heavenly Father and Parent, responsible to God who holds all destinies in His hands in whatever position they occupy and whatever trust they hold. God has appointed them to do His work and endowed them with faculties and means for it, and while faithful to that stewardship they may claim their Master's blessings and promises. Those who in pride and vanity feel sufficient in themselves, depend on their own wisdom and power, take sacred responsibilities and affairs into their own hands, and separate from Him whom they profess to serve, act without His authority and out of unison and harmony with their Commander, and God will call them to account for unauthorized acts. This rebukes those who called the Son to account for the very work He was sent to earth to do while they themselves had separated from God by wicked acts and were moving independent of Him needing no higher wisdom.

His example directs people to follow God's Word and live its principles and to follow God's works and words rather than appeal to human counsel or authority or leave God and Christ out of their decisions. By beholding Christ and following His work and prayer they show steadfast loyalty to God and His law amid unbelief, corruption, and trial. His work was open, not secret, and serves as the model for openness and cooperation among those carrying forward God's work.

The verse proves Christ was never self-confident, bigoted, or self-conceited, but meek and lowly in heart even while bearing humanity's test and acknowledging no power in Himself alone. There is no strength in humanity alone, and even the Saviour lived by that dependence. No one should exalt self, talk of self, extol abilities, display knowledge, cultivate self-conceit, or tear down the work of others who do not labor according to his standard, but should become a learner as well as an instructor in the school of Christ, daily learning meekness and lowliness of heart and wearing Christ's yoke and bearing His burdens in order to enter the kingdom of heaven and to discover and develop talent in others. Workers must put self aside rather than boast of abilities, learn meekness, lowliness of heart, and distrust of self, submit to the impressions of the Holy Spirit, live in obedience to all God's requirements, and become partakers of the divine nature, for efficiency for the exalted work of God comes only by receiving from God greater wisdom than any knowledge imparted by human teachers.

In His human life He used God-given powers to meet people's needs and drew on divine power for mercy and healing, doing in every circumstance what the Father would do and revealing God's ways. As they learn from Him and receive His Spirit, believers reflect His character and represent Him as He represented the Father, and through Him represent the Father.

He stands at the right hand of God seeing everything the Father is doing in this world and working in every obedient heart, seeing what each humbled and teachable person as a little child can do. To the one who is meek and lowly in heart the Lord gives a work to do and prepares him to do that work in unity with Christ Jesus, and believers are to work in partnership with Christ in faithful duty. What Christ does His followers must do with no discord with Him, and since the world's Redeemer would not work among the suffering and diseased with a pipe in His mouth, teachers and all who influence children and youth must follow His undefiled example and not give a contrary example by smoking a pipe or cigar or using tobacco in any form.

Those who believe place themselves in right relation with God to know the mind of God and do as Christ did, so they do the works of the Father in cooperation with Christ and with the souls He came to save. When human wills are sanctified they work unitedly as Christ worked in unity with the Father. As Burden-bearer He is the one to whom helpless souls must come directly instead of placing burdens on others, believing He is able and willing to meet the circumstances of each case, and when in contrition they come to the foot of the cross with faith in the merits of the crucified and risen Saviour they receive power through Him, and as they cast their helpless soul upon Him He gives peace and joy and strength and courage so they can tell others how precious He is to them.