March 16, 2023

No Help Without My Father

“Therefore, Jesus answered and was saying to them, Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, unless it is something He sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, these things the Son also does in like 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.” John 5:19-20 (NASB)

I remember during high school living in a completed home for most part dad and I built. I still can’t believe I laid most of those 28,000 bricks on the exterior. Yes, 28,000. When I got out of school many times, I looked over at dad’s workshop. It was on the side of the house. Dad would normally be there working on a project. He didn’t know it, but I used to stand and watch him work with his hands. His back was often turned away from me. As I watched him, I watched him do amazing things in that shop. It made me want to try it one day because I wasn’t born to be very good with my hands. Dad never invited me to join, even when he saw me watching. I think there were projects he just wanted to do. It was cool to see him at work though. I wish now I would have asked him if I could have joined. Maybe I might have been able to perform some masterful works. Nah, I’m just daydreaming. God was doing some masterful works in the world. Jesus wanted to be doing the same thing. He joined His Father in His work. I never did.

“Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, unless it is something He sees the Father doing.” The word “nothing,” comes from two words in Greek. First is the word, dunamai; meaning- to be able, to have power.[1] Secondly, the word oudeis, meaning- no one, none. [2] The two words combined bring the meaning “not being able to do nothing.” Jesus knew He would never do anything that His Father had not sanctioned. He was in perfect harmony with His Father. The Father and the Son are One. A. T. Robertson says, it is “true in a sense of every man, but in a much deeper sense of Christ because of the intimate relation between him and the Father. See this same point in John 5:30; 7:28; 8:28; 14:10. Jesus had already made it in 5:17. Now he repeats and defends it.”[3] Robertson continues, “It is a supreme example of a son copying the spirit and work of a father. In his work on earth the Son sees continually what the Father is doing. In healing this poor man, he was doing what the Father wishes him to do.”[4] Jesus would only do what He saw the Father leading Him to do. His acts were sanctioned by His Heavenly Father, the originator of the law of Moses.

Too many Christians today do what they want, not what the Father wants. We have to be honest and ask ourselves today, “Do we really know what God is doing today?” Are we connected each day with God that we know where He is working? If we do, we should join Him there and experience His power and will for this world. If we don’t know what He is doing or where He is working, then we need to take a hard look at ourselves and ask what is the problem. Is it God who left the relationship first or us. I think each of us can answer this quickly enough…

[1] Robert L. Thomas, New American Standard Hebrew-Aramaic and Greek Dictionaries : Updated Edition (Anaheim: Foundation Publications, Inc., 1998).

[2] Ibid.

[3] A.T. Robertson, Word Pictures in the New Testament (Nashville, TN: Broadman Press, 1933), Jn 5:19.

[4] Ibid, 5:19.