BIBLE LESSON

“Jesus said to them, `Very truly, I tell you, the Son can do nothing on his own, but only what he sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, the Son does likewise.'”

— John 5:19

The religious leaders wanted Jesus killed because He broke the Sabbath and called God His own Father, “thereby making himself equal to God” (John 5:18). Jesus did not deny His equality to God. Rather, Jesus gave additional reasons why He was equal to God. Jesus stressed His Father was still working so He was, too. Jesus said He did not break the Sabbath, because He and His Father worked together on the Sabbath. They both healed people and did good on the Sabbath. Jesus also said that He never did anything independently of the Father. He never did ministry His way instead of God's way. He declared that He never did anything that God did not do.

Jesus explained that everything the religious leaders and the people saw Him doing was God's way of doing things. Whatever He saw the Father doing, He did, too. He stressed that because the Father loved Him, the Father would show Him even greater works than the good works He had been doing, so people would be astonished.

Jesus made many other claims about himself and declared that the Father wanted people to honor Him as the Son of God just as they honored God the Father.

Ultimately, Jesus promised that someday all the dead in their graves would hear His voice and come out to the resurrection of life or to the resurrection of condemnation. Jesus showed and told many reasons for believing that He is the Son of God.