John 5:17 Commentary and Bible Study

Here we have Christ’s great revelation of himself – his statement of his divinity. It is a mistake to think that Christ was never explicit about his divinity. It is true that towards the end of his life, before his betrayal, before Calvary, the Jews constantly tried to get him to make an explicit statement that he was the Son of God. He would answer, ‘You have said it’ – you have said that I have made such a claim. He would kind of affirm it, but not in the clear terms that they wanted, because of course they were looking for something which they could make into a charge against him. But it would be wrong to think that he always tended to talk in riddles about his being divine, because here at the very beginning it is so clear.When Christ cleansed the Temple, he had made a clear statement of his divinity then: he referred to ‘My Father’s house’, and they knew what he meant, that he was the Son of God. Now he does it again in terms so clear and so straightforward: ‘My Father worketh hitherto, and I work.’ The significance of this is tremendous. He says to the contentious, Jewish leaders, ‘My Father works on the Sabbath.’ You accuse me of breaking the Sabbath, but my Father is always at work, including on the Sabbath. Of course he is! The world is sustained on the Sabbath day as on every other day. Wonderful things happen even on the day of worship. And here is his claim to Sonship, ‘My Father worketh on the Sabbath, and so, of course, I do also. ‘How can you attack me for benevolent work on the Sabbath? Just as the Father performs acts of benevolence, on the Sabbath, so does the Son.’ And so actually should you, is the implication of the Lord to those Jewish leaders. They had such extraordinary interpretation of the Sabbath day. They understood exactly what he meant. The way he said, My Father. Not our Father, my Father. He was making himself the Son of God.