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There are many voices. They all want to be heard. Mostly they are voices with a negative message with respect to Jesus. Their message is often nothing more than a hollow, negative assertion that “Jesus is not God.” Others will actually bring a morsel of a scripture to support their assertion such as the one which is the focus of this article.
These words spoken by Jesus that the Son can do nothing of Himself is just one example heard from those voices. Although many Christians are familiar with these words many of them have never wondered or have never seen the need to examine the meaning of these words. They fall easy prey to the message of those voices. Certainly, those who seize these words to make their assertions to deny the deity of Jesus have themselves not done anything to examine the meaning of these words. The conclusion extracted from these words is that this is an acknowledgment by Jesus of his inferiority and weakness on the level of a human being, not God, but is this the case? Here is a broader scope of the passage from John 5:19-21.
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. 20 "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. 21 "For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son also gives life to whom He wishes.
unity and harmony
Jesus notes the single reason why the Son can do nothing of Himself. Anything that the Son does is contingent on the Father initializing the action which the Son then does _ in real time, together with the Father, simultaneously. The imagery is one of synchronicity and of unity and harmony between the Father and Son. It was not up to the Son to determine or choose the things that he did even if it were to please the Father. Everything he did was just as he saw the Father do.
weakness or inferiority?
This is not a position or admission of weakness or inferiority by Jesus. Clearly, what Jesus is indicating is that the time while the Son was on earth to fulfill the will of the Father was not a time during which the Father sat back while the Son fulfilled his will. The Father, Jesus revealed, was actively engaged and working in what the Son was doing. Does it seem incongruous that God is working? After all didn’t he rest on the seventh day? There is something very significant about this close collaborative work between Father and Son.
a prophet, the prophet and Jesus
What is as much overlooked and overrun, at least in discussions in which I have engaged, is the assumption by Unitarians and Trinitarians alike to declare and refer to Jesus as a prophet. While Jesus refers to himself as a prophet [1] this appears to be only as the people thought of him as a prophet. Those words are seized as another glee-filled example of mistaken notions as to what constitutes a prophet and how the Father communicated with the Son. You can read the scripture regarding what constitutes a prophet in Numbers 12 and my blog article on the same topic here. Unlike the prophets to whom God revealed himself through visions and dreams, the Father and Son had a real time contiguous relationship and connection with each other. There were no visions and dreams between Father and Son. Jesus, in accordance with Numbers 12, was no more a prophet than Moses. See the references to the prophet [2] by Peter and Stephen in Acts 3 and Acts 7 in what is generally assumed to be an allusion or reference to Jesus as a prophet or the prophet. However, those references to the prophet in the book of Acts are enclosed parenthetically by references to the prophetS, not a single prophet. Both passages in Acts reveal that the prophecy of Moses to a prophet in Deuteronomy 18 was not to a single prophet, but to the succession of prophets which God would sent to Israel long after the death of Moses. Those prophets, like Moses and like Jesus who were not prophets, were no less for Israel to be heed and obey as messengers of God.
Therefore, there is little surprise and even less to wonder about when such an important foundation and understanding of what constitutes a prophet is missing with respect to Jesus. So, too, there is an even more serious and consequential misunderstanding of the Son and why he declares that he can do nothing of Himself and that declaration by Jesus seized as an opportunity to assault his deity.
numeric quantitative values
A key major problem and a flaw shared by so-called Unitarians and so-called Trinitarians is their irresistible allure to ascribe numeric quantitative values to the word, one. For instance, the former tout and boast their numeric value of one (such as God is one from the Shema) while the latter sheepishly tout and boast that God is one, but _ three in one. Both, so-called Unitarians and so-called Trinitarians believe in this manner that they have understood and clarified the God who is one and whom they both love. However, neither of these two groups represent a cohesive comprehensive account of the plural and singular forms in the Shema. Some are oblivious to these forms while others, like one rabbi, boast that “we just ignore it.” I will add, as I have often noted, that these original language single word definitions in isolation are hardly any more helpful than to ascribe numeric quantitative values to a word.
conclusion
I have no doubt that some who seize the words of Jesus that he can do nothing of Himself and who subsequently deny the deity of Jesus, love God. However, this does not diminish or minimize a mistaken notion founded on a superficial glance of those words. Merely declaring that Jesus is not God sounds like the schoolyard taunt which invites the response, “Is too!” “Is not!” in the manner of children.
Jesus provides a fuller understanding for us as to what he meant when he spoke those words. The reason why the Son can do nothing of Himself is only because whatever he does is as the Father Himself is doing in real time. It is not an obscure mystery. It is unfortunate that these words are misunderstood in much the same way as what it is that constitutes a prophet. It is a false declaration to proclaim Jesus as a prophet. Actually, it seems (not that it's been necessarily thought out this way) more like kind of a trade off, stripping Jesus of his deity, but declaring or allowing for him the designation of prophet. It's like a gesture of withholding the loaf while generously giving out crumbs. Therefore it is not surprising to hear this similar misunderstanding about the deity of Jesus and instead make the false declaration that Jesus is not God since "the Son can do nothing of Himself."
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