John 5:23 Commentary and Bible Study

And why has the Father done this? ‘That all men should honour the Son, even as they honour the Father.’ To these unbelieving, Jewish leaders, Christ is saying, ‘If you will not honour the Son of God now, you will at the end of time. You will fall down before me, before you are sent away from my presence to everlasting judgment, because you will find that the Father, who you claim to believe in, has ceded the task of judging all who resist the truth, to me. He has done it so that all men should honour the Son.’ These are powerful words. Is it not amazing that even as he said these things, they didn’t organise the Temple police – armed men – to rush and take him? It was almost more than they could bear to hear – it inflamed them so much – but they were prevented from taking action by the power of God, by the power of Christ himself. He was determined that early in his ministry he would say all these things to them, so plainly, however provocative it turned out to be. There is an implicit picture here of a king who assigns to his adult son all executive power in the kingdom, and makes him the regent, the acting king. Father and son consult together; they agree on everything, but if there is anything to be done in the kingdom that requires the king’s presence – if there is a war to fight, or a rebellion to quell – it will be the regent who will go and do that. Now, it is not a perfect picture, because the aging father is older than his regent son, and more senior, whereas there is no difference between God the Father and God the Son, for they are equally eternal, equally divine, nevertheless, the king-regent picture helps. If the prince regent goes out to subdue unrest, and the citizens in some rebellious part rejects the regent, they are rejecting the old king, because they are one, they are engaged in total agreement in what they are doing.