Equal Honor, Equal Work
Introduction: No Middle Ground
We live in a sentimental age, an age that wants a domesticated Jesus. The modern world is quite comfortable with a Jesus who is a gentle moral teacher, a revolutionary sage, a friend to the downtrodden. They will gladly put a "coexist" bumper sticker on their car with His name included in the lineup. But the one thing they cannot abide, the one thing that sends them into a sputtering rage, is the Jesus of the Scriptures. They cannot tolerate the Jesus who claimed to be God.
In our text today, we are brought to a flashpoint. Jesus has just healed a lame man on the Sabbath, and the religious authorities are not pleased. But we quickly learn that their fury is not ultimately about their meticulous Sabbath regulations. The Sabbath squabble was merely the presenting issue. The real issue, the foundational issue, was Christ's identity. The Jews of Jesus' day were many things, but they were not theologically fuzzy. They understood precisely what Jesus was claiming, and they correctly saw that there were only two possible responses: worship or execution. They chose the latter.
This passage is a direct assault on every attempt to find a respectable middle ground on Jesus. You cannot say He was a great human teacher but not God, because a great human teacher does not make the kinds of claims Jesus makes here. A man who says the things Jesus says is either a liar, a lunatic, or He is in fact the Lord of glory. There is no fourth option. The Jews understood this. And Jesus, far from backing down or clarifying that they had misunderstood Him, doubles down. He presses His claim with such force and clarity that it leaves no room for equivocation. This is the heart of the matter. Who is Jesus Christ? Your answer to that question determines everything.
The Text
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 from Himself, unless it is something He sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, these things the Son also does in the same 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.
(John 5:18-24 LSB)
The Indictment (v. 18)
The conflict is laid bare in the first verse of our text.
"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." (John 5:18 LSB)
Notice the escalation. They were already after Him for the Sabbath healing, but now they were seeking "all the more" to kill Him. Why? Because He had moved from challenging their traditions to challenging their most fundamental theological conviction: the oneness of God. When Jesus called God "His own Father," He was not using a generic platitude. He was claiming a unique, exclusive, ontological relationship. They heard it for what it was: a claim to equality of essence with Yahweh. And according to their law, that was blasphemy, an offense punishable by death (Lev. 24:16).
They were wrong about the blasphemy, of course, but they were not wrong in their interpretation. He was making Himself equal with God. This is the great divide. Every heresy is, at its root, a failure to get this right. The Arians tried to make Him a lesser, created god. The Socinians and modern liberals try to make Him a mere man. But Scripture insists, and the early church fought to the death to confess, that Jesus is homoousios, of the very same substance as the Father. He is God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God. The Jews understood the claim, they just rejected the claimant.
The Divine Unity of Action (v. 19-20)
Jesus' response is a breathtaking look into the inner life of the Trinity. He does not deny their charge; He explains it.
"Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing from Himself, unless it is something He sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, these things the Son also does in the same manner. For the Father loves the Son, and shows Him all things that He Himself is doing..." (John 5:19-20 LSB)
A modern reader might hear "the Son can do nothing from Himself" and think it is a confession of inferiority. This is a profound mistake. This is not a statement about a lack of power, but about a perfection of unity. The Son's will is so perfectly and eternally united with the Father's will that it is impossible for Him to act independently. Think of it this way: it is impossible for God to lie. Is this a limitation on His omnipotence? No, it is a statement about His perfect nature. In the same way, it is impossible for the Son to have a separate agenda from the Father. Their will is one will. This is the doctrine of perichoresis, the mutual indwelling of the persons of the Trinity. The Son's action is the Father's action.
The engine of this perfect unity is love. "For the Father loves the Son." This is not a sentimental affection but the eternal, self-giving bond that defines the Godhead. Because of this perfect love, there is perfect transparency: the Father "shows Him all things that He Himself is doing." There are no secrets, no division of labor in that sense. The Father, Son, and Spirit are co-eternal and co-equal, working in inseparable yet distinct ways to accomplish one divine purpose. And Jesus tells them that the work they have seen so far is just the beginning. "Greater works than these" are coming, works that will cause them to marvel.
The Divine Prerogatives (v. 21-23)
What are these greater works? Jesus names two prerogatives that belong to God alone: giving life and executing judgment.
"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..." (John 5:21-23 LSB)
First, Jesus claims the power to give life. Just as the Father is the source of all life, "even so the Son also gives life." And notice the breathtaking sovereignty of it: "to whom He wishes." The Son is not a passive conduit of life; He is the sovereign bestower of it. This is not some generic life force; this is eternal life, resurrection life. He is claiming the power to reverse the curse of death itself, and to do so according to His own good pleasure.
Second, He claims the authority to judge. The Father has delegated all judgment to the Son. This is fitting, because the Son is both God and man. As God, He is the standard of all righteousness. As man, He lived a perfect life of obedience, and so He is qualified to judge mankind. He is the one against whom all men will be measured.
And why has the Father done this? The reason is explicit: "so that all will honor the Son even as they honor the Father." The Greek phrase is kathos, meaning "in the same way, to the same degree." The honor due to the Son is not similar to the honor due to the Father; it is identical. You cannot give 99% honor to the Son and 100% to the Father. To give the Son anything less than co-equal honor is to dishonor both Him and the Father who sent Him. This is the linchpin of the entire argument. Jesus Christ demands the same worship, the same allegiance, and the same honor that is due to Yahweh Himself, because He is Yahweh.
The Great Transfer (v. 24)
Having laid out His divine identity, Jesus now applies this truth directly to His hearers. He begins with His solemn formula, "Truly, truly," or "Amen, amen."
"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." (John 5:24 LSB)
Here is the gospel in its glorious simplicity. How does one receive this life the Son gives? By hearing His word and believing in the Father who sent Him. Notice the inseparable link again. To believe in Jesus is to believe in the Father. To hear Jesus' word is to hear God's word. Faith is the instrument that unites us to this life-giving God.
And look at the results. The one who believes "has eternal life." The verb is in the present tense. It is not something you get when you die; it is a present possession. The moment you believe, you are infused with the life of the age to come. Secondly, the believer "does not come into judgment." This doesn't mean we won't stand before Christ to give an account. It means we do not come into condemnation. Our judgment has already taken place at the cross, where Christ was judged in our place.
Because of this, the believer "has passed out of death into life." It is a completed action. It is a transfer of kingdoms. We were citizens of the realm of death, under the dominion of darkness. By faith in the Son, we have been spiritually resurrected and transferred into the kingdom of life and light. This is not our doing. This is the "greater work" that Jesus spoke of. It is the work of God the Son, who gives life to whom He wishes, and who demands the honor due to God alone.
Conclusion: Honor the Son
The claims of Jesus Christ in this passage are absolute and total. He places Himself before the world and demands co-equal honor with God the Father. He claims the divine right to give life and to execute judgment. These are not the words of a mere prophet or a good teacher. These are the words of God in the flesh.
Therefore, you must make a choice. You can join with the Jews of His day and pick up stones, crying "Blasphemy!" Or you can fall on your face and cry "My Lord and my God!" There is no third way. There is no respectable, nuanced position in the middle.
To honor the Son as you honor the Father means you must trust His word. He says that whoever hears and believes has passed from death to life. Do you believe this? Is your hope for eternity resting entirely on His finished work, or are you still trying to build a case for yourself? To honor the Son is to abandon all self-righteousness and cling to Him alone.
To honor the Son is to obey His commands. It is to submit every area of your life, your family, your work, your thoughts, to His lordship. He is not a part-time savior. He is the Lord of all, or He is not Lord at all. Let us therefore give Him the honor He is due, the same honor we give to the Father, for in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. And in Him, and in Him alone, we have passed from death into life.