John 5:19-20 - This is Jesus: The Obedient, Beloved Son

Preached on March 02, 2008, by Eric Schumacher.

Topics: Gospel Of John The Trinity

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© Eric M Schumacher – Preached March 2, 2008 at Northbrook Baptist Church, Cedar Rapids, Iowa

February 22 marked the 276^th birthday of George Washington, the first president of the United States. The lastest edition of WORLD magazine (Feb 23/Mar 1, 2008, 61-65) contained a fascinating article by Marvin Olasky on Washington, entitled “Washington’s War.” That title refers not to the Revolutionary War, but, as the subtitle reads, “The father of our country fought against his impulses.”

Washington, whose young friends called him the “stallion of the Potomac,” was a man of passion, particularly for women. And yet, he would be known as a man who fought against those passions, reflected in the mythical stories about him that still circulate today. Though, it should be noted that he often came very close to failure in that war, even in the last years of his life. He often would had failed were it not for the rejection of more sensible women.

Despite Washington’s discipline, piety and purity, it was disappointing to read of the way in which he was described by his contemporaries. Listen to this ode written about Washington, published in the New Hampshire Recorder:

His glory hath eclips’d the sun

The luster of his rays so bright,

’Tis always day, there’s no more night.

…He’s one in Heaven’s high renown;

He’s deify’d, exalt him high,

He’s next unto the Trinity.

My language fails to tell his worth,

Unless in Heav’n he is the fourth.

How does that language make you feel? What happens in your heart when you read that Washington—a mere mortal—is “deified,” has become a god, and is to be exalted high, even next to the Trinity? How would you respond to the author, could you speak with him, who says that the only language fitting to express the worth of Washington is to say that the Trinity has expanded into a Quartet so that he might take his proper place—Father, Son, Holy Spirit and George Washington?

If you care anything at all about the true God then you are, of course, outraged at this author! It is heresy and dishonoring to God to make a mere mortal the equal of God himself!

Perhaps that gives us a bit of insight into how the Jews felt on the occasion of our text this morning. Imagine that a flesh and blood man were to stand before us this morning and say the things that Jesus says in verses 19-30. We are reminded that Jesus said these things. And we, like the Jews here, are required to make a decision—is he lying, a lunatic, or really the Lord—equal with God!?

To review, Jesus has just healed a man and commanded him to carry his bed on the Sabbath. This command broke the Jewish leaders’ traditional interpretation and application of the law, which forbid carrying anything from one realm to another. In their confrontation with Jesus, he defends himself by stating, “My Father is working until now, and I am working.” Jesus essentially claims that if God the Father does something, then it is appropriate for him to do it as well. This claim is rightly understood by the Jews and enrages them, for it is nothing less than a claim to equality with God.

Jesus’ Extended Defense

Verses 19-30 compose Jesus’ formal, orderly, systematic and theologically deep defense of his claim to be equal to and unified with the Father. And yet, he carefully guards against the idea that this equality might put him in competition with God, setting himself up as an equal rival.

The gist of Jesus’ defense is that he is entirely unified with the Father and in no way acts independent of him. In fact, we see that Jesus is always equal, yet always submissive to the Father.

When I preached on a Sunday evening on the doctrine of the Trinity, I mentioned that there is eternal, functional subordination in the Trinity. By “subordination,” we mean that the Son is subject to the Father. The Father is never subject to the Son. We see that the Father initiates the plan of salvation, sends the Son, commands the Son, commissions the Son and grants the Son life, but the Son is never said to do any of these things toward the Father. Likewise, we see that the Son responds, obeys, performs the Father’s will, and receives authority from the Father, but we never see these roles reversed. The Son is the agent of the Father, but the Father is never the agent of the Son.

By “functional,” we define the type of “subordination.” It is only in terms of “function” that the Son is subordinate to the Father, not it substance or value. They are equal in essence and worth—both fully God and worthy of worship. Yet, in function, one submits to the other. (This, by the way, has application many realms of life in which we are called by God to submit to those in authority over us. Authority and submission between human beings is a matter of “functional subordination,” not a matter of equality or value.)

The Son Does What He Sees

Jesus first argument to defend his status and actions lays this foundation, “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 does, that the Son does likewise.”

His first argument is: The Son does only what he sees the Father doing.

The Son, Jesus says referring to himself, does not do anything on his own. In fact, the Son is incapable of independence—the Son “can” do nothing of his own accord. The Son only does what he sees his Father doing. That is because, whatever the Father does, the Son also does.

In its immediate setting, the logical conclusion is that the Father led the Son to pick this one invalid out of a crowd of invalids, and to command him to take up his bed and walk. If they are going to criticize Jesus’ actions, then they must criticize the Father, whose honor they claim they want to defend.

In the larger context of the entire Gospel of John, this illustrates that Jesus is the perfect revelation of the Father. Jesus In chapter 1, John told us that “He was in the beginning with God.” And, that “the Word became flesh and dwelt among us,” revealing the glory of the Father. John wrote in 1:18 that “No one has ever seen God,” a fact well established in the Old Testament. But then he adds, “the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known.” Jesus, the Word and the Son, was with God in the beginning, at the Father’s side. Through the incarnation, through the Son becoming flesh and dwelling among us, he has revealed the Father to us. So much so, that Jesus can say in John 14 that whoever has seen him has seen the Father!

Jesus cannot be anything less that the perfect revelation of the Father, precisely because he does nothing of himself, but only does what he sees the Father doing. Whatever the Father does, the Son does also. Therefore, to see Jesus is to see the Father.

This emphasizes my conclusion last week, regarding the importance of the person of Jesus Christ and his equality with God. If you look at the person of Jesus Christ and hate what you see, then you hate God. If you reject the person of Jesus Christ as he is revealed in the Bible, then you have necessarily rejected God the Father.

Likewise, if you see what the Bible reveals about God and hate him, then you must also hate Jesus Christ, for whatever the Father does, the Son does likewise. You cannot separate the Father and Son. If you say “I am angry with God” or “I hate God” or “God is a disappointment,” then please go all the way theologically and say, “I am angry with Jesus” and “I hate Jesus” and “Jesus is a disappointment.” That puts a different spin on it, doesn’t it? But that is the logical outcome. Jesus and the Father are one. Jesus does whatever the Father does. You can’t love one without the other. And, you can’t hate one without the other.

In the context of the Bible, these verses show us that Jesus is the perfect Son of the Father. Jesus is, of course, unique in his Sonship. He is the eternal Son of God. There has never been a point at which he was not the Son. He shares the very same essence as the Father—both being fully God. There is no one like the Son, never has been and never will be.

All that said, Jesus is not the first figure to appear in the storyline of the Bible who is called God’s Son. He is the first to succeed, the first to be the perfect Son.

In Luke 3:38, Adam concludes Jesus’ genealogy and is said to be “the son of God.” This refers to the fact that Adam is of all men a “descendant of God,” by virtue of God actually, physically forming him from clay and breathing life into his body. This is in keeping with the genealogy in Genesis 5, which begins with God creating Adam in his likeness, just as Adam with father son in his own likeness.

As a “son,” Adam should have listened attentively to his “father’s” instruction and lived accordingly. Of course, we know that Adam did not trust and obey, but he rebelled. And, as a consequence, Adam’s sons were put under a curse and death entered the world. Yet, the Lord did not remove his love from Adam or his sons, but put into action a plan of redemption.

The Lord redeemed the nation of Israel, who would be called God’s “son.” When Israel was enslaved in Egypt, the Lord commanded Moses in Exodus 4:22-23 to say to Pharaoh, “Let my son go that he may serve me. If you refuse to let him go, behold, I will kill your firstborn son.”

But, what sort of “son” did Israel become? Listen to what the Lord said through the prophet Hosea (11:1-3):

When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son. The more they were called, the more they went away; they kept sacrificing to the Baals and burning offerings to idols. Yet it was I who taught Ephraim to walk; I took them up by their arms, but they did not know that I healed them.

The Lord says that he called his son, but the more he called, the more his son went away to worship idols. Like a father, the Lord taught Israel to walk and carried him in his arms, and yet they did not know him.

The Lord gave his word to Israel, just as he had to Adam. The Lord gave a promised land to Israel, just as he had to Adam. And, as with Adam, as long as the “son” would listen to the voice of his father, trust him, love him and keep his word, then he would enjoy that land. And, just as with Adam, Israel rebelled, provoked the Lord to anger, and was driven from his land.

The consequence of Israel’s rebellion was exile and destruction. Israel was a stubborn and stiff-necked son, who was in need of constant discipline if he would ever learn to obey. Yet, even though Israel turned out to be a rebellious son, the Lord would not remove his love from him but continued in his plan of redemption.

Perhaps, if the nation would not live as an obedient son, one man could be that son on behalf of the nation. The kings of Israel were often called “sons of God,” which may have started with the Lord’s covenant with David. In 2 Samuel 7:12-16, the Lord made this covenant with David:

When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son. When he commits iniquity, I will discipline him with the rod of men, with the stripes of the sons of men, but my steadfast love will not depart from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away from before you. And your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me. Your throne shall be established forever.

After David died, the Lord would raise up his son and establish his kingdom. David’s son would build a house for the name of the Lord. The Lord, in return, would establish his kingdom forever. The Lord promises to be a father to him, and this king will be to the Lord a son. And, the Lord will give his steadfast love to this Son-King forever.

David’s offspring would naturally be seen as Solomon. He was David’s son whose kingdom was “firmly established” (1 King 2:12) after David’s death. It is Solomon who built the Temple, a house for the name of the Lord. We might expect Solomon to be the “son” who keeps the word of the Lord, as an obedient son of a loving father.

But, sadly, in 1 Kings 11 we read that King Solomon loved many foreign women, to whom he clung in love despite the word of the Lord which commanded the Israelites not to marry foreign women. He collected 700 wives, princesses, and 300 concubines. And, sadly, we read:

And his wives turned away his heart. For when Solomon was old his wives turned away his heart after other gods, and his heart was not wholly true to the LORD his God, as was the heart of David his father.

And we read later of the Lord’s response:

And the LORD was angry with Solomon, because his heart had turned away from the LORD, the God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice ¹⁰ and had commanded him concerning this thing, that he should not go after other gods. But he did not keep what the LORD commanded. ¹¹ Therefore the LORD said to Solomon, “Since this has been your practice and you have not kept my covenant and my statutes that I have commanded you, I will surely tear the kingdom from you and will give it to your servant…”

Solomon was obviously not the ultimate fulfillment of the promise of a king who would be a son to the Lord. The consequence of his disobedience in that the nation is torn in two.

Though there were good kings to follow Solomon, as well as evil kings, none was perfect; and none could reform the people of Israel so that they were faithful to the covenant law and able to inherit all the promises.

The Perfect Son

And then, one day, a man arrives on the scene, Jesus of Nazareth. He is a descendant of Adam, an Israelite, a royal descendant of David. At his baptism, God the Father declares, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased” (Mt 3:17). He is the “beloved Son”—the one on whom the Lord’s steadfast love rests. Here, at last, is a “Son” who is well-pleasing to the Father—who can restore the lost paradise, inherit the covenant promises, enjoy life in the land, and reign on David’s throne forever.

That is part of the significance of this moment. John the Baptist declared Jesus to be the Son of God in John 1. There also, Nathanael declared Jesus to be “the Son of God,” referring to him as King. John, the author of the Gospel, declared Jesus to be the Son in his comments in chapters 1 and 3.

Jesus has referred to himself as the Son of Man, the authoritative end-time figure who will exercise God’s judgment and authority. But it is here, for the first time, that we see Jesus refer to himself as “Son,” the “Son” who has such an intimate relationship with God that he can refer to him as “my Father.”

Jesus is the perfect son. He, unlike Adam, Israel and Solomon, only does what he sees the Father doing. He is perfectly humble and perfectly obedient. He perfectly fulfills the will of God. And, as a result, undoes all the curses brought by the previous “sons” and regains what they had lost.

The Beloved Son

The Son is able to do the Father’s will because he sees what the Father is doing. There is a connection between seeing God and being conformed to God’s will. (In fact, John will write in 1 John 3:2 that “when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.”)

But why is it that the Father shows the Son what he is doing? Verse 20 answers that question.

Jesus says, “For the Father loves the Son and shows him all that he himself is doing.” The Father’s disclosure of all he is doing to the Son is the outworking of the love of the Father for the Son. It is because God the Father loves God the Son that he grants him a full and continuous disclosure of what he is doing.

This means that everything that Jesus does is a result of the Father’s revelation to him, which is a result of the Father’s love for him. This means that everything the Son does has its origin in the Father’s love for him.

We will see as the gospel progresses that the Son’s humble response of obedience to the Father—his doing only and all that he sees the Father doing—is the outworking of the love of the Son for the Father. Jesus tells his disciples in John 14:31 why he obeys the Father: “I do as the Father has commanded me, so that the world may know that I love the Father.”

The Father shows the Son all that he is doing because the Father loves the Son. The Son does all that the Father shows him because the Son loves the Father. This means that Jesus’ entire ministry is the outworking of the reciprocal love between the Father and the Son.

In the context of this passage, this means that the Jews had best be careful as they seek all the more to kill Jesus. The deeds for which they seek to kill Jesus are ultimately the will of God. The actions and words for which they want to kill Jesus are really the overflow of the reciprocal love relationship between the Father and the Son. Be careful when you assault that!

Greater Works

Jesus says that healing a blind man is not the greatest thing he will be shown by the Father. He says, “And greater works than these will he show him…” Jesus outlines what these “greater works” will be as the passage continues—the Father will give the Son the “greater works” of raising the dead, giving life, and exercising end-time judgment.

This is done, Jesus says, “so that you may marvel.” And when it is revealed who the Son really is, when he is seen doing these “greater works,” all the people of the earth will marvel.

They will marvel in the hour that is coming. That hour is seen in verses 27-30, in which Jesus says that the Father has given to him the status of the “Son of Man.” The Son of God is the Son of Man, the end-time figure in Daniel 7, who appears before the enthroned Ancient of Days and is given “dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away.”

The Father loved the Son and showed him all he was doing. In response, the Son loved the Father and did all that he was shown—though he was in the form of God, he made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men; and being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. And, in response, the Father loved the Son and highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name. He is King of Kings and Lord of Lords. He shall judge both the living and dead.

And on that day, they will marvel. At the name of Jesus every knee will bow, in heaven and an on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of the Father.

And all this will be because the Father loves the Son and shows him what he is doing and because the Son loves the Father and does all that he is shown.

The Love Story Behind the Gospel

In the greater context, this explains Jesus’ life of obedience, the cross, the resurrection, the Lord’s Table laid before us this morning. This explains the Gospel.

Why did Jesus die on the cross for our sins? Because the Father showed him that was his will. And why did the Father show this to Jesus? Because he loved the Son. And, why did the Son obey and endure death on a cross? Because he loved the Father.

On the one hand, it is true to say that the Gospel was motivated by God’s love for us. John 3:16 told us that “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son that whoever believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.” And John 13:1 tells us that Jesus “loved his own…to the end.” And 1 John 3:1 says, “See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called the children of God; and so we are.”

Friend, if you are not a Christian this morning, I would invite you to look at this table and see this: God the Father so loved sinners and rebels against him, that instead of executing them in his wrath, he sent his Son to die in their place. And that Son, Jesus, so loved these rebels that he gladly laid down his life by dying on a cross for their sins. And then, the Father raised the Son from the dead to show to the world that Jesus had atoned for sin, overcome death and that he was God’s Forever King.

He now commands all—even as I exhort you—to repent of your sins and believe. To hate your sinful rebellion and to subject yourself to the rule of King Jesus, trusting in his work alone for your salvation.

But, I want you, from this passage, to look even deeper into the Gospel, even further past the love of God for his people. I want you to see in the Gospel the drama of the love between the first and second persons of the Trinity.

The Gospel is the story of an eternal Father who looked at his eternal Son and said, “Son, I love you. I want to honor you and bless you. Therefore, I am going to show you everything that I am doing—I am giving to you a spotless bride, a kingdom, dominion, honor and glory, a name that is above every name.” And it is the story of a Son who looked at his Father and said, “Father, I love you. Therefore, I will do everything that you show me. I will humble myself and obey you to the point of death, even death under a curse. And I will rescue your people, vindicate your name, restore your creation, crush the head of the serpent, and deliver the kingdom to you, Father, after destroying every rule and every authority and power.”

The greatest love story ever told is the one into which Jesus gives us a glimpse in these verses—the eternal love between the Father and the Son, through which we get to enjoy salvation.