The text we are about to look at is extremely important. At the heart of this text is the deity of Christ. So let me start by apologizing, because there is no way that I can clearly bring out the depths of this text. So I ask that you read and pray over this text that the Lord may enlighten you as to the depth of its meaning.
J. C. Ryle states: "Nowhere else in the Gospels do we find our Lord making such a formal, systematic, orderly, regular statement of His own unity with the Father, His Divine commission and authority, and the proofs of His Messiahship, as we find in this discourse." [Expository Thoughts on the Gospels [Baker], 3:283]
In our last study we saw the Lord Yeshua heal the man who was by the pool of Bethesda and had been there for thirty-eight years. Our Lord commands him, "Get up, pick up your pallet and walk." And immediately the man is healed and takes up his bed and walks. It is this healing of the paralytic at the pool of Bethesda which draws considerable attention to our Lord. This miracle, which was done on the Sabbath, prompts the Jewish leaders to view Yeshua as a Law breaker. The healing of this lame man and the following Sabbath controversy have brought the nature and identity of Yeshua to a climax.
The dialogue in verses 19-47 is the most complete explanation of God the Son's relationship to God the Father in the Gospels. Yeshua's dialogue is divided into two parts: The first part includes verses 19-30 in which Yeshua addresses both the equity and the distinction between the Father and the Son. God the Father and God the Son are equal: all the Son's power and authority comes from the Father.
The second part includes verses 31-47 and addresses the diversity of God the Father and God the Son. They are two distinct persons. The Son does what He has seen the Father do, and the Father bears witness to the Son.
Today we'll look at the first half of part one. Let's back up a bit and get the context here. When accused of breaking the Sabbath, because He healed a man, Yeshua didn't argue with the Jews over the way they'd misinterpreted what was actually written in the Tanakh about Sabbath. He didn't say, You guys get out your Torahs, let's have a Bible study. Let me show you what Torah actually says about the Sabbath. What He does in verse 17 is to make a statement that enrages the Jews to the point that they conspire to kill Him:
But He answered them, "My Father is working until now, and I Myself am working." John 5:17 NASB
Yeshua justified His Sabbath healing by reminding the Jews that they admitted Yahweh worked on the Sabbath. They knew the sun came up, they knew the wind blew, they knew the rain fell, they knew the grass grew, they knew Yahweh continued to do His work of judgment and His work of redemption. They knew Yahweh was working on the Sabbath. This explains the violence of their reaction in verse 18. The Sabbath privilege was peculiar to Yahweh, and no one was equal to Yahweh.
In claiming the right to work even as His Father worked, Yeshua was claiming to be Yahweh, the I Am! Now the Jews knew exactly what He was saying. He is saying that as the eternal God does His work all the time, so He is claiming to do the same thing, to work the same pattern that Yahweh works. This shocked and angered the Jewish leaders, but it shouldn't surprise us if we are familiar with the New Testament.
As we look at the New Testament we see that Yeshua is credited with doing the same things that the Tanakh credits to Yahweh. As we have already seen in this study, Yeshua is credited with creating the universe:
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. John 1:1-3 NASB
The "Word" here is Christ. "In the beginning was the Word"—here John/Eleazar uses the Greek verb eimi, which means: "to be" or "to exist" and suggests continued existence. At the beginning of eternity, when there was nothing else, "the Word" existed, just as Yahweh has.
"And the Word was with God"—the theological importance of these words is that they distinguish God the Word from God the Father. In other words, John is telling us that although the Godhead is One Holy and Eternal God, God the Word and God the Father are not the same Person.
"And the Word was God"—this statement could not be much clearer! In fact these four Greek words may be the clearest declaration of the deity of Yeshua in all the Scripture. The Greek verb eimi, (was) means: "to be" or "to exist," and suggests continued existence. So the Word always existed as Yahweh.
The Word who was with God and is God created all things, and He not only created them but He also sustains them:
God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world. And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power. When He had made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, Hebrews 1:1-3 NASB
In one of the most remarkable statements ever said about Him, it says that speaking of Christ, He "Upholds all things by the word of His power"—the word "upholds" is the Greek word, phero, which means: "supporting or maintaining." It is used here in the present tense, implying continuous action. What is in view is Divine providence. Everything in the universe is sustained at this moment by our Lord Yeshua. Can you imagine what would happen if He relinquished His sustaining power to the laws of the earth and the universe? We would go out of existence.
So Yeshua's claim to be doing what His Father was doing shouldn't shock us as it did the Jewish leaders. What Yeshua explained in His response to the Jews, and what we understand today under the term Trinity, is that there are separate persons in the Godhead who at one and the same time are totally interrelated and interdependent. There are not three gods—there is one God; but that one God comprises three distinct but equal and interdependent persons.
Back to John 5:17, by calling God "My Father" Yeshua is claiming the status of divine son-ship for Himself. He is declaring Himself equal with God, for although the Son is less than the Father in His humanity:
"You heard that I said to you, 'I go away, and I will come to you.' If you loved Me, you would have rejoiced because I go to the Father, for the Father is greater than I. John 14:28 NASB
He is equal to God the Father in His divinity:
"I and the Father are one." John 10:30 NASB
As a result of saying this, the Jews again sought to kill Him. When Yeshua asked for which of the many good works from the Father they were stoning Him, they replied:
"For a good work we do not stone You, but for blasphemy; and because You, being a man, make Yourself out to be God." John 10:33 NASB
Yeshua also said:
Yeshua said to him, "Have I been so long with you, and yet you have not come to know Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; how can you say, 'Show us the Father'? John 14:9 NASB
This means that Yeshua implicitly claimed equality with Yahweh!
Many who call themselves Christians today don't get this, but the Jewish leaders understood His claims! Yeshua was clearly saying that He is Yahweh!
"My Father is working until now, and I Myself am working"—this is what really sets the Jewish authorities off. Yeshua is not just a Sabbath-breaker; He is a blasphemer! The Jews understood His words to mean nothing short of peculiar personal Sonship, and thus equality of nature with God. To the contemporary western mind, the idea of "son" connotes a different person, but the ancient eastern mind thought of a "son" as the extension of His father. The word connoted identification with, rather than distinction from. The ancients considered a good son as one who followed in his father's footsteps exactly.
By calling Yahweh His father and claiming to do the work of Yahweh He is considered to have blasphemed God, which incurred the death penalty:
'Moreover, the one who blasphemes the name of the LORD shall surely be put to death; all the congregation shall certainly stone him. The alien as well as the native, when he blasphemes the Name, shall be put to death. Leviticus 24:16 NASB
This is why the Jews respond as they do in:
For this reason therefore the Jews were seeking all the more to kill Him, because He not only was breaking the Sabbath, but also was calling God His own Father, making Himself equal with God. John 5:18 NASB
Yeshua's contemporaries clearly see Him as claiming to be equal with God. Liberal interpreters who say that Yeshua never claimed to be God have a difficult time with this passage. He has clearly claimed to be God! There was never any question in the Jews minds that He said He was God. They got it. That's what they said was His ultimate blasphemy. They said He makes Himself equal with God.
Notice something very important that is NOT in this text, Yeshua doesn't respond by saying, "No, no, no you guys have me all wrong, I'm not claiming to be God, that would be blasphemy." Instead of disagreeing with them Yeshua's response in this text is to defend His deity. Do you remember what Thomas said to Yeshua after his resurrection?
Thomas answered and said to Him, "My Lord and my God!" John 20:28 NASB
What was Yeshua's response to Thomas calling Him God?
Yeshua said to him, "Because you have seen Me, have you believed? Blessed are they who did not see, and yet believed." John 20:29 NASB
Yeshua doesn't correct him, because He is God. But notice how an angel responds to worship:
I, John, am the one who heard and saw these things. And when I heard and saw, I fell down to worship at the feet of the angel who showed me these things. But he said to me, "Do not do that. I am a fellow servant of yours and of your brethren the prophets and of those who heed the words of this book. Worship God." Revelation 22:8-9 NASB
So this angel corrects John for worshiping him, because only God is to be worshiped but Yeshua doesn't correct Thomas for calling Him God or the Jewish leaders for saying that He was making Himself equal with God, because He is God. Believers, please get this, Yeshua the Christ claimed to be Yahweh!
C.S. Lewis said, "'I'm ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don't accept His claim to be God." That's the one thing we mustn't say,"' Lewis says. "A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said wouldn't be a great moral teacher. He'd either be a lunatic - on the level with a man who says he's a poached egg - or else he'd be the devil of hell."
J.B. Phillips saying something along the same line said, "He would be a man afflicted with folie de grandeur." "You must take your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a demon or you can fall at his feet and call Him Lord and God. But lets don't let us come with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He hasn't left that open to us."
The heart and soul of the Christian faith, the heart and soul of the Gospel is a right view of Yeshua the Christ. There are some who see Yeshua as a man only, a good man, a great teacher, an excellent example of moral conduct. But you can't say any of these things about a man who claimed to be God. We have already seen in this Fourth Gospel that Yeshua took the sacred name of God and applied it to Himself, the I AM, over and over again. He referred to Himself as the I AM, the very sacred name of God that a Jew wouldn't even speak because it was too sacred. Yeshua took it and claimed it for Himself. Yeshua claimed to be Yahweh, not to be another God equal to Yahweh, but to be Yahweh.
Alright so Yeshua was first accused of breaking the Sabbath, and of instructing the healed paralytic to do the same. But after our Lord defends His actions to the Jewish authorities, they considered Him guilty of an even greater offense—claiming to be equal with God. For the Jews, there is no more serious offense than blasphemy. The words of the rest of this text (verses 19-47) are Yeshua's response to the accusations of blasphemy made against Him:
Therefore Yeshua 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. John 5:19 NASB
Yeshua introduced His reply with another solemn affirmation, "Truly, truly" — this literally is "Amen, amen." The term "amen" is a transliteration from Hebrew. It originally meant trustworthiness. It came to be used to affirm a truth. This double "Amen" found in the initial position in a sentence was a unique way of drawing attention to Yeshua's significant, trustworthy statements, or revelation from Yahweh. He uses this solemn affirmation three times in this text, here and in 5:24,25. To a Hebrew the number 3 was the number or divine perfection.
"The Son can do nothing of Himself"—what does that say? Well it says that He does not act independently. It says He can't act independently. He can do nothing of Himself. Yeshua began by assuring the Jewish leaders that He was not claiming independence from the Father. He was definitely subordinate to Him, and He followed the Father's lead. It was also impossible for the Son to act independently, or to set Himself against the Father as against another God. It is impossible for the Son to act independently of the Father, because they share the same nature.
The Greek text of verses 19-23 is structured around four gar ('for' or 'because') statements. The first introduces the last clause of verse 19.
"For whatever the Father does, these things the Son also does in like manner"—in Yeshua, we see Yahweh. Whatever Yeshua did was an act of Yahweh; whatever He said was the word of Yahweh. There was no moment of His life and no action of His which did not express the life and action of the Father.
This is another claim to deity; for the only one who could conceivably do whatever the Father does must be as great as the Father, as divine as the Father.
Carson says, "It is impossible for the Son to take independent, self-determined action that would set Him over against the Father as another God, for all the Son does is both coincident with and coextensive with all that the Father does."
This verse supports the doctrine of the impeccability of Christ. Theologians argue whether or not Yeshua could have sinned. I believe that Christ could not have sinned, He was impeccable. The Son can do nothing but what He sees the Father doing. That's all He can do. He can only do what the Father does. The Father cannot sin and Yeshua never acts independently of the Father.
but so that the world may know that I love the Father, I do exactly as the Father commanded Me. Get up, let us go from here. John 14:31 NASB
To see Yeshua in action is to see Yahweh in action. To accuse Yeshua of sin is to accuse God of sin. To accuse Yeshua of violating the Sabbath is to accuse God of violating the Sabbath. To accuse Yeshua of blasphemy is to call God a blasphemer. Yeshua is not another God. He is one with His Father. He must therefore act and speak like God, because He is God. He cannot act contrary to His nature. He must act as God the Father acts. The Father and the Son are of one essence:
Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Yeshua, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, Philippians 2:5-6 NASB
The word "existed" is the Greek word huparcho, this is not the commonest word for "being" in the Greek, that would be the verb "eime," but it is a verb that stresses the essence of a person's nature, it is to express the continued state of a thing, it is unalterable and unchangeable. Paul said, "Yeshua unalterably and unchangeably exists in the form of God." This speaks of His pre-existence.
The word "form" is morphe. It has nothing to do with shape or size. Multin and Milligan say that "morphe" is a form which truly and fully expresses the being which under lies it. It refers to the essence or essential being. Yeshua pre-existed in the essence of God.
When Paul uses hupareco; being, and morphe; form he is saying something very specific; he is saying that Yeshua the Christ has always existed in the unchangeable essence of the being of God. Yeshua the Christ is God and always was. This is the heart and soul of the Christian faith—Yeshua is Yahweh.
The emphasis in this section of John 5 is on Yeshua being an extension of His Father, and the legitimacy of His continuing His Father's work, even on the Sabbath.
It is impossible for the Son to take independent, self-determined action that would set Him over against the Father as another God:
"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 5:20 NASB
The second "For" (gar) explains how it is that the Son can do whatever the Father does: it is because the Father loves the Son and shows Him all He does. That the Father loves the Son has already been stated in 3:35, but there he used the verb agapao, where here He uses the verb phileo. Phileo is not love in the sense of a self sacrificing expression of the will toward a person, but the love of affection and also a love that expresses a common delight in the same things.
So the Father's love for the Son is displayed by the fact that He shows Him all that He Himself is doing. I would think that this refers particularly to the incarnation, because before His incarnation Yeshua and the Father possessed all knowledge inherently.
"And the Father will show Him greater works than these, so that you will marvel"—what are "these" in this verse? The healing of the paralytic by the pool and commanding him to carry his mat on the Sabbath. And the "greater works" are listed in verses 21 and 22. The first one is the power of life and resurrection. The second is the authority of judgment, verse 22. There were two things, according to the rabbis of the time, that marked out God from humans: firstly, that He alone was the life-giver, and, secondly, that He was the judge of all. These things, the rabbis said, could not be done by any human; they were entirely God's prerogative.
This word "marvel" is from the Greek word thaumazo, which was characteristically used when the object of perception was extremely unusual. For instance, it is the word used of the disciples reaction after Yeshua had calmed the storm on the sea with a word. What Yeshua is about to do will cause them to marvel:
"For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son also gives life to whom He wishes. John 5:21 NASB
The third "For" (gar) introduces an illustration of the principal truth articulated in verses 19-20, the Son does what the Father does.
The Jews acknowledged that only Yahweh could raise the dead (2 Kings 5:7; Ezek. 37:13). This involves overcoming the forces of sin and death. Yeshua claimed that authority now, and He demonstrated it later (11:41-44).
Rabbi Johanan asserted that three keys remained in God's hand and were not entrusted to representatives: the key of the rain cf. Dt. 28:12), the key of the womb (cf. Gn. 30:22), and the key of the resurrection of the dead (cf. Ezk. 37:13, SB 1. 523-524, 737, 895).
We see this view of the Jews in the story of Naaman. Naaman was a general in the Syrian army, and he was a leper. One day a Syrian girl who was the maid of the wife of Naaman said, "Would God that Naaman would visit the prophet in Samaria because he would recover him of his leprosy." Somehow the word came to the King of Syria who wanted Naaman healed so he determined to send Naaman with some gifts to the prophet in Samaria in order that there he might be healed. So Naaman went with a bunch of money to the King of Samaria and gave him a letter written by the King that said:
He brought the letter to the king of Israel, saying, "And now as this letter comes to you, behold, I have sent Naaman my servant to you, that you may cure him of his leprosy." 2 Kings 5:6 NASB
Well the first thing the King did was to interpret this as a cause in order that Syria might have something against Samaria and come down and fight and take them.
When the king of Israel read the letter, he tore his clothes and said, "Am I God, to kill and to make alive, that this man is sending word to me to cure a man of his leprosy? But consider now, and see how he is seeking a quarrel against me." 2 Kings 5:7 NASB
This King understood that to make alive is a prerogative of God. He understood:
'See now that I, I am He, And there is no god besides Me; It is I who put to death and give life. I have wounded and it is I who heal, And there is no one who can deliver from My hand. Deuteronomy 32:39 NASB
"The LORD kills and makes alive; He brings down to Sheol and raises up. 1 Samuel 2:6 NASB
It's the prerogative of God to give life, but Yeshua says, "The Son also gives life to whom He wishes"—He can only say this because He is equal to God.
Who are the "dead" who are referred to in this verse? I think the primary reference is to the spiritually dead, but Yeshua can give physical and spiritual life.
"Son also gives life to whom He wishes"—shouldn't this say, The Son gives life to whoever believes in Him? No, because we cannot believe in Him or know the Father unless the Son wills it:
"All things have been handed over to Me by My Father, and no one knows who the Son is except the Father, and who the Father is except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son wills to reveal Him." Luke 10:22 NASB
Now you may be thinking, But John 3:16 says, "…that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life." So doesn't belief bring life? No, God's love brings life so that we can believe.
"Son also gives life to whom He wishes"—if Yeshua was not God this would be the declaration of a mad man. What mere man could claim that He could give life to whoever He wished? His power to give physical life to Lazarus shows us that He also has the sovereign power to give spiritual life to those who are spiritually dead.
"For not even the Father judges anyone, but He has given all judgment to the Son, John 5:22 NASB
This verse begins with the last of the four "gar" connectives. That role once belonging to the Father—the judgment of all men—has now been given over to the Son exclusively. The roles of the Father and the Son are parallel in verse 21, but there is a distinction between them in this verse. The Father and the Son both give life, but the Father has committed "all judgment to the Son." This was something new to Jews. They held that the Father was the Judge of all people:
"Far be it from You to do such a thing, to slay the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous and the wicked are treated alike. Far be it from You! Shall not the Judge of all the earth deal justly?" Genesis 18:25 NASB
Throughout the pages of the Tanakh God had frequently exercised judgment in the lives of His covenant people and in the surrounding nations. But at the end of the age, there would be the last, great judgment, when all would be judged, both small and great ( Rev. 20:11-15). Here, however, the Son insists that the office of judge, whether in the present or at the last day, has been entrusted to Him:
so that all will honor the Son even as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him. John 5:23 NASB
The reason why the Father has entrusted all judgment to the Son is now disclosed: it is so that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father. Subordination usually results in less honor. The Father has guaranteed that the Son will receive equal honor
with Himself by committing the role of judging entirely to Him. Therefore failure to honor the Son reflects failure to honor the Father and honoring the Son honors the Father.
How can Yeshua say this is light of:
"I am the LORD, that is My name; I will not give My glory to another, Nor My praise to graven images. Isaiah 42:8 NASB
Yahweh will not share His honor with another. So for Him to share His honor with the Son must mean that the Son and the Father are one in essence. What man or what created being could say that we should honor him just as we honor the Father? Clearly, Yeshua is claiming to be Yahweh!
When you read a liberal theologian who says, "Well Jesus never claimed to be God." Anyone who says that doesn't know the Bible. Over and over Yeshua claims to be Yahweh. He does it all through this text. He insists that He is to be worshiped in the same way Yahweh is. He is to be honored, praised, adored, respected, trusted, obeyed in the same way as God the Father.
So, when the person says Yeshua is not God of very God, he's not only not honoring the Son, but he's dishonoring the Father. Now that's a serious thing. So when a man says, "God is God. But Yeshua is ONLY the Son of God," denying Him the honor of the Father, he's not only not honoring Christ; he's dishonoring God the Father.
"He who hates Me hates My Father also. John 15:23 NASB
There are those who claim to be within evangelical Christianity who teach that Jews don't have to believe in Christ, that somehow if they're just good Jews and they believe the Tanakh and believe in the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of Israel, the Creator God of the Tanakh that God doesn't require them to believe in Yeshua. This is heresy at its most destructive level.
The Houston newspaper quoted John Hagee as saying: "I'm not trying to convert the Jewish people to the Christian faith." The paper went on to quote Hagee as saying: "In fact, trying to convert Jews is a 'waste of time.' The Jewish person who has his roots in Judaism is not going to convert to Christianity. There is no form of Christian evangelism that has failed so miserably as evangelizing the Jewish people. They (already) have a faith structure. Everyone else, whether Buddhist or Baha'i, needs to believe in Jesus. But not Jews. Jews already have a covenant with God that has never been replaced by Christianity."
And he calls himself a friend to Israel! He's their worst enemy, telling them they don't need their Messiah. Once Messiah came the person, Jew or Gentile, who does not believe in Him dishonors the Father:
He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life. 1 John 5:12 NASB
No one can know God who does not know His Son, and conversely, no one can honor or praise the Father who does not honor and praise the Son! Anyone who says that they worship God, but who deny the deity of Christ, have neither the Father nor the Son!" These people include Muslims, Jews, Mormons, Jehovah's Witnesses, and Unitarian Universalists.
So what works does the Son do? The same that the Father does—and the same that the rabbis recognized as legitimate works of God on the Sabbath. Because Yahweh was okay to work on the Sabbath so is Yeshua.
"Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life. John 5:24 NASB
This verse, introduced by the solemn formula, "Truly, truly" develops one theme introduced in the preceding verses.
"He who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me"—the Greek construction makes this a single, coordinate description. Just as the Son healed the invalid by the pool of Bethesda by His word, so also is it His word that brings eternal life.
Hearing Yeshua's word is identical to hearing God's word, since the Son speaks only what the Father gives Him to say. The Son represents the Father to humankind, so when we place faith in the Son, we are placing it in the Father as well. Hearing in this context, as often elsewhere, includes belief which brings eternal life.
What does "from death to life" mean? Christ has rescued us from the fallen family of Adam and He has reinstated us in the divine family of God the Father:
even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), Ephesians 2:5 NASB
The two conditions of eternal life are (1) knowledge of the revelation made by the Son, and (2) belief in the truth of it, that is, belief in the word of the Father who speaks through the Son. Therefore the believer's basis of eternal security, and his or her assurance of eternal life, both rest on the promise of the Son.
The believer, "Does not come into judgment"—because his judgment has already been paid in full by Christ:
Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Romans 8:1 NASB
Believers stand before God as righteous as Christ is righteous.
So we have seen that the Son does what the Father does; The Son raises the dead and gives life just as the Father does; The Son has been given the Father's authority to judge; The Son is to be honored just as the Father is honored. In fact, not to honor the Son is not to honor the Father.
If we look at these affirmations of Christ and compare them to the Tanakh's concept of Yahweh we find that Yeshua is here claiming to have the power and authority that is Yahweh's alone. It is Yahweh who has the power of life and death; Yahweh is the source and giver of life, Yahweh is the one who brings life out of nothing or less than nothing. It is Yahweh who is the Judge of all the earth, to whom all are accountable. It is Yahweh who alone is worthy of honor and worship and praise, and who alone must be honored as Yahweh. Yet here Yeshua claims that all of this right and power and authority, all of this pre-eminence and respect, has been given to Him by His Father and must be accorded to Him by man.
Whoever doesn't come to the Son, doesn't have life. This is the Christian message:
Yeshua said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me. John 14:6 NASB
"And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved." Acts 4:12 NASB
Our text this morning in John 5:19-24 makes it very clear that Yeshua is Yahweh! To view Him as any less than the Father is to not honor the Father or Son. The only reason that He shares Yahweh's honor is because He is Yahweh!