CHRIST'S CLAIM TO DEITY

John 5:16-30
"For this reason the Jews persecuted Jesus, and sought to kill Him, because He had done these things on the Sabbath.
But Jesus answered them, "My Father has been working until now, and I have been working."
Therefore the Jews sought all the more to kill Him, because He not only broke the Sabbath, but also said that God was His Father, making Himself equal with God.
Then Jesus answered and said to them, "Most assuredly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He sees the Father do; for whatever He does, the Son also does in like manner.
"For the Father loves the Son, and shows Him all things that He Himself does; and He will show Him greater works than these, that you may marvel.
"For as the Father raises the dead and gives life to them, even so the Son gives life to whom He will.
"For the Father judges no one, but has committed all judgment to the Son,
"that all should honor the Son just as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him.
"Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life.
"Most assuredly, I say to you, the hour is coming, and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God; and those who hear will live.
"For as the Father has life in Himself, so He has granted the Son to have life in Himself,
"And has given Him authority to execute judgment also, because He is the Son of Man.
"Do not marvel at this; for the hour is coming in which all who are in the graves will 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 condemnation.
I can of Myself do nothing. As I hear, I judge; and My judgment is righteous, because I do not seek My own will but the will of the Father who sent Me."

Message:
The second half of John 5 is one of the profoundest passages in this fourth Gospel. It sets forth the Divine glories of the incarnate Son of God. It gives us the Lord's own teaching concerning His Divine Sonship.
The miracles of the healing of the impotent man, which engaged our attention during the last number of weeks in our study, has several

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outstanding and peculiar features in it. The abject misery and utter helplessness of the sufferer, the sovereign action of the Great Physician in singling him out from the multitude which lay around the Pool of Bethesda, the total absence of any indication of him making any appeal to Christ or exercising any faith in Him previous to his healing, the startling suddenness and spontaneity of the miracle, the Lord's command that he should 'take up his bed and walk' on the Sabbath day, are all so many aspects that at once arrest our attention.
The turning of the healed man's step toward the Temple, evidenced that a work of grace had been wrought in his soul as well as his body. The grace of the Lord in seeking him out in the Temple and the faithful words there addressed to his conscience, give beautiful completeness to the whole scene. All of this but serves to emphasize the enormity of what follows:
As soon as the healed man had learned Who it was that had made him whole, he went and 'told the Jews that it was Jesus' (v. 15). What, then, was their response? Did they immediately seek this Blessed One who must be none other than their long-promised Messiah? No! Instead of worshipping the Sent One of God, they persecuted Him. Instead of coming to Him that they might have life, they sought to put Him to death.
In chapter one we see "the Jews" ignorant as to the identity of the Lord's forerunner (1:19), and blind to the Divine Presence in their midst (1:26). In chapter two we see. "the Jews" demanding a sign from Him who had vindicated the honor of His Father's House (2:18). In chapter three we are shown "a ruler of the Jews" dead in trespasses and sins, needing to be born again (3:7). Next we see "the Jews" quibbling or quarreling with John's disciples about purifying (3:25). In chapter four we learn of their callous indifference toward the Gentile neighbors--"the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans" (4:9). Then, in the beginning of chapter five, we read of a "feast of the Jews," but its hallow mockery is exposed in the scene described immediately afterwards--a "feast" and then a great multitude of impotent folk, of blind, halt, withered!"
Now the terrible climax is reached when we are told, "And therefore did the Jews persecute Jesus, and sought to slay him, because He had done these things on the Sabbath day" (5:16). Beyond this they could not go, save, when God's time had come, for the carrying out of their diabolical desires. Unspeakably solemn is this, for it makes manifest, in all its hideousness, that carnal mind which is enmity against God! That a wondrous miracle had been wrought could not be gainsaid. Unable to refute it, the Jews now vented their malice by persecuting the Divine Healer, and seeking to put Him to death!

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"But Jesus answered them, My Father worketh hitherto, and I work" (5:17). This was not the only occasion when the Lord Jesus was criticized for healing the sick on the Sabbath day, and it is most instructive to observe the various replies Jesus made to His opponents as these are recorded by the different Evangelists. Each of them narrates the particular incident (and the Lord's words in connection with it) that most appropriately accorded with the distinctive design of His Gospel.
In Matthew 12:2,3 we find that Christ appealed to the example of David and the teaching of the Law, which was well suited for record in this Gospel. In Mark 2:24,27 we read that He said, "The Sabbath was made for man," that is, it was designed to serve man's best interests--this in the Gospel which treats most fully of service.
In Luke 13:15 we find the Lord Jesus asking, "Doth not each one of you on the sabbath loose his ox or his ass from the stall, and lead him away to watering?": here, in the Gospel of Christ's humanity, we find Him appealing to human sympathies. But in John 5 Christ takes altogether higher ground and makes the answer suited to His Divine glory. Here in the passage we are studying, Christ identifies Himself directly with the Father. In saying, "My Father worketh hitherto and I work" affirms His absolute equality with the Father!
It would be nothing short of blasphemy for a mere creature--no matter how exalted his rank or how great his antiquity--to couple himself with the Father thus. When He speaks of "My Father...and I" there is no misunderstanding the claim that He made. Christ has done what Abraham, Moses, David, Daniel, never dreamed of doing. He had placed Himself on the same level with the Father. His traducers were quick to recognize that he had made Himself equal with God. No other inference could fairly be drawn from His words. And mark it...the Lord Jesus Christ did not charge them with wresting His language and misrepresent His meaning! Instead of that He continued to press upon them His Divine claims, stating the truth with regard to His unique personality and presenting the evidence on which His claim rested.
Jesus prefaced His claim with "I tell you the truth" or "Truly, truly," meaning "without possibility of contradiction." You must hear and accept what I have to say."
"I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by Himself; He can do only what He sees His Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does. For the Father love the Son and shows Him all He does. Yes, to your amazement He will show Him even greater things than these."
IDENTITY OF ACTION WITH GOD THE FATHER IS THE FIRST GREAT CLAIM OF CHRIST. Equality is the inevitable result of identity of action.

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They are so closely related that one wonders how literate people can deny that Christ claimed to be equal with God the Father, but their are some religions who deny Christ's claim to deity.
In the book DONAHUE, a best-selling autobiography, the celebrated talk-show host Phil Donahue explains why he left the faith. He writes these words: "If God the Father is so all-loving, why didn't He can down and go to Calvary? Then Jesus could have said "This is my Father in whom I am well-pleased"...How could an all-loving, all-knowing God allow His Son to be murdered on a cross in order that He might redeem my sins?" Donahue's indictment of God's love comes from ignorance of the Scriptures, for Jesus' claim of equality with the Father make the Father a sharer in Jesus' sacrifice, pain, and love. Jesus' claim to equality with the Father demands that we see two hearts beating as one.
That is a beautiful thought, and the opening words of verse 20 take us into the inner workings of this oneness: "the Father loves the Son and shows Him all he does." The word translated "loves" here is not the expected word, AGAPE, normally used to describe love in the Godhead. Rather, it is the term for friendship love, PHILE0. From our human level we understand this as a personal love between friends who delight in sharing everything. Jesus is a separate person, He has power to act on His own, but by virtue of the love and identity within the Godhead, He does no action that the Father does not also do. Those who were with Christ saw the Father. They saw the Father's smile. They heard the Father’s teaching. They observed the Father's tender touch and trembled before His wrath. If we want to see what the Father does, all we have to do is look at Christ! That is the answer to Donahue's question. In Jesus Christ we see the likeness of God the Father.
As I have noted above, many religious people refuse to accept the Biblical teaching of the deity of Christ. The teachings of Jehovah's Witnesses adamantly reject the deity of Christ. In their writings, they make the following statements: "Jesus was the "Son of God." Not God himself. The very fact that he was sent proves he was not equal with God but was less than God the Father. The Bible shows that there is only one God...'greater than His Son'...And that the Son, as the First-born, Only-begotten and 'the creation by God," had a beginning. That the Father is greater than the Son is reasonable, easy to understand and is what the Bible teaches." One can immediately detect the heresy of this kind of teaching because it is direct conflict with the very words of Jesus!
The Fourth Gospel repeatedly traces Jesus' speech and action to what He "saw" and "heard" (while with the Father), and in that connection there is no reason to think of a parable. Vs. 30 mentions "hearing"

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which is parallel to "seeing" in vs. 19. In 3:32 "seeing" and "hearing" occur together, while 8:26, 40; 15:15 mention only "hearing." These texts expressly associate this "seeing" and "hearing" with Jesus' relationship to the Father, clearly not by means of a parable, but by direct reference to God as the Father. Hence it can be said that the Son speaks and acts in accord both with what He has seen and heard from the Father and with what the Father will show Him.
Dr. Barnes in his commentary on John, makes the following statement pertaining to the relationship between Jesus and the Father:

"The Son--" whom He had just impliedly affirmed to be equal with God--did nothing of Himself; that is, nothing without the appointment of the Father; nothing contrary to the Father, as He immediately explains. When it is said that He can do nothing of Himself, it is meant that such is the union subsisting between the Father and the Son that he can do nothing independently or separate from the Father. Such is the nature of this union that He can do nothing which has not the concurrence of the Father, and which He does not command. In all things He must, from the necessity of His nature, act in accordance with the nature and will of God. Such is the intimacy of the union, that the fact that He does anything is proof that it is by the concurring agency of God. There is no separate action--no separate existence; but, alike in being and in action, there is the most perfect oneness between Him and the Father."
Christ's claim to absolute equality with God only fanned the horrid flame of the enmity in those Jewish zealots--they "sought the more to kill Him." A similar scene is presented to us at the close of John 8. Immediately after being told that the Lord Jesus said "Before Abraham was I am" (another formal avowal of His absolute Deity) we read, "Then took they up stones to cast at Him (vv. 58,59). So again in the tenth chapter we find that as soon as He had declared "I and the Father are one" Then the Jews took up stones again to stone Him (vv. 30,31). Thus did the carnal mind of man continue to display its inveterate enmity against God.
THE SON CAN DO NOTHING OF HIMSELF. This we have attempted to show means, "the Son cannot act independently of the Father." And why could He not? Because in will He was absolutely ONE with the Father. If He were God the Son then His will must be in perfect union with that of God the Father, otherwise, there would be two absolute but conflicting wills, which means that there would be two Gods, the one opposing the other; which in plainer language still, would be affirming that there were two Supreme Beings which is, of course, a flat contradiction of terms.
I linger long on this very important matter...the deity of Jesus Christ, because, again I say, many who call themselves Christian

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deny the deity of Christ. The Mormon Church teach the following:
"First, Mormonism teaches that Jesus Christ was a created being, not eternal God as the Bible clearly instructs and that He was the first and foremost of subsequent billions of spirit children created through sexual intercourse between the male and female earth gods. In Mormonism Jesus is also seen as the brother of Satan! As one Mormon writer states: "As for the devil and his fellow spirits, they are brothers to men and also to Jesus and sons and daughters to God in the same sense that we are." In essence then, the difference between Christ and the devil in Mormonism is not one of kind, but only one in degree. Mormonism also teaches that Jesus is a saved being. Because Jesus was only one more spirit offspring of the male and female earth gods (like all men and women) He too had to earn His salvation. Here is what we find in their writings: "Jesus Christ is the Son of God...He came to earth to work out His own salvation...After His resurrection, He gained all power in Heaven." And "by obedience and devotion to the truth, He [Jesus] attained that pinnacle of intelligence which ranked Him as a God.
Some Mormons have also taught that Jesus Christ was a polygamist having several wives, another unbiblical doctrine. The early Mormon apostle Orson Pratt claimed that Jesus Christ was married at Cana of Galilee, that Mary and Martha (and others) were His wives, and that He had children. Thus, Jesus "was a Polygamist" who proved it by marrying many honorable wives."
In television campaigns, parachurch events and clergy fellowships all across the United States, Mormons are presenting themselves as mainstream Christians. Is it unloving or backward to say they aren’t real Christians? In contrast to Christian monotheism--the belief in one God--Mormonism teaches that God was once a man who lived on another planet and was exalted to the status of God, and that Mormon men can also become gods upon death and resurrection.
James White in his book entitled: "IS THE MORMON MY BROTHER? answers the question with these words:
"Mormonism is not Christianity. It is fundamentally different. Christianity worships one God. Christianity knows that there is one God who has eternally been God and is the Creator of all things--exhaustively. Everything else in the Christian faith, from the Trinity to the Atonement to the Gospel of the Resurrection, flows from and is defined by this fundamental truth. Mormonism is a false religion with a false god. And choosing to worship a false god is a fearful choice. The true God takes His sole rights to worship very seriously. When speaking to the idols, God says, "He who chooses you is an abomination (to-evah). The teaching that God was once a man and that men can become gods involves simple idolatry, for it makes God something that He is not and lowers Him to the level of His creation. There is no salvation is such a god!

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The colossal claim Jesus sets before us in the passage we are studying is that He is equal with Father. Even if we have already embraced this truth, we must repeatedly affirm it. We must daily appropriate the reality that JESUS IS GOD! He is the King of kings and Lord of lords. That must be a constant reality in our lives. We as believers must affirm who Jesus Christ is. He is Supreme. "Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father." (Phil. 2:9-11)
"Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world.
By this you know the Spirit of God; Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has, in the flesh is of God,
and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is the Spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard was coming, and is now already in the world"
(1 John 4:1-4)
For John Christian belief could be summed up in one great sentence: "THE WORD BECAME FLESH AND DWELT AMONG US" (John 1:14). Any spirit which denied the reality of the Incarnation was not of God. To be of God a spirit must acknowledge that Jesus in the Christ, the long-promised Messiah of the Old Testament prophecies. To be of God a spirit must acknowledge that Jesus has come in the flesh. It was precisely this that the Gnostics could never accept. Since, in their view, matter was altogether evil, a real incarnation was an impossibility, for God could never take flesh upon Himself. Augustine was later to say that in the pagan philosophers he could find parallels for everything in the New Testament except for one saying--"The Word became flesh." As John saw it, to deny the complete manhood of Jesus Christ was to strike at the very roots of the Christian faith.
In the closing of this lesson, let us consider some of the clear and unmistakable claims made in the Scriptures for the deity of Christ. When Jesus told his Jewish opponents that Abraham had seen His (Christ's) day, they challenged Him, "You are not yet fifty years old, and have you seen Abraham" (John 8;57). Here a sufficient response to prove Jesus' eternity would have been, "Before Abraham was, I was." But Jesus did not say this. Instead, He made a much more startling assertion: "Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM" (John 8:58). Jesus combined two assertions whose sequence seemed to make no sense: "Before something in the past happened [Abraham was], something in the present happened [I am]." The Jewish leaders recognized at once that He was not speaking in riddles or uttering nonsense; when He said, "I AM," He was repeating the very words God

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used when He identified Himself to Moses as "I AM WHO I AM" (Exodus 3,14). Jesus was claiming for Himself the title, "I AM," by which God designates Himself as the eternal existing One, the God who is the source of His own existence and who always has been and always will be. When the Jews heard this unusual, emphatic, solemn statement, they knew that He was claiming to be God!
Another strong statement in Jesus' claim to deity is found at the end of Revelation, "I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end." (Rev. 22:13). When this is combined with the statement of God the Father in Revelation 1:8, "I am the Alpha and the Omega," it also constitutes a strong claim to equal deity with God the Father. Sovereign over all of history and all of creation, Jesus is the beginning and the end.
Further evidence of claims to deity can be found in the fact that Jesus calls Himself "THE SON OF MAN." This title is used eighty-four times in the four gospels but only by Jesus and only to speak of Himself. This unique term has as its background the vision in Dan. 7 where Daniel saw one like to a "SON OF MAN" who "came to the Ancient of Days" and was given "dominion and glory and kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve Him; His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away" (Daniel 7:13-14). This passage clearly speaks of someone, who had heavenly origin and who was given eternal rule over the whole world. The high priests did not miss the point of this passage when Jesus said, "Hereafter you will see the Son of man seated at the right hand of Power, and coming on the clouds of heaven" (Matt. 26:64). The reference to Daniel 7:13-14 was unmistakable, and the high priest and his council knew that Jesus was claiming to be the eternal world ruler of heavenly origin spoken of in Daniel's vision. Immediately they said, "He has uttered blasphemy...He deserves death" (Matt. 26:65-66). Here Jesus finally made explicit the strong claims to eternal world rule that were earlier hinted at in His frequent use of the title "SON OF MAN" to apply to Himself.
The first three verses of Hebrews are emphatic in saying that the Son is the One whom God "appointed the heir of all things, through whom also He created the world" (Heb. 1:2). This Son, says the writer, "reflects the glory of God and bears the very stamp, the exact duplicate, of His nature, upholding the universe by His world of power" (Heb. 1: 3). Jesus is the exact duplicate of the "nature" of God, making Him exactly equal to God in every attribute.
Our lesson today has brought us to the very heart, the very foundation of our Christian faith! Jesus Christ was God in human flesh! When we see Christ, we see God!