John 5:20-21
For the Father loves the Son and shows him all he does. Yes, and he will show him even greater works than these, so that you will be amazed. For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son gives life to whom he is pleased to give it.
One of the greatest themes of the Gospels is the complete unity between God the Father and God the Son. The theological term for this is homoousios. It simply means God and Christ are of the same substance. This is not only a great theological truth but also a deep comfort to believers.
The manner in which Jesus deals with and loves us is exactly the same way the Father views and adores us. They are inseparable from each other. God is not somewhere above plotting something different for creation that Christ on earth did not say or teach.
In John 5, Christ was accused by the religious authorities of being a Sabbath breaker. Earlier in the chapter, Jesus healed a man who was paralyzed. But Christ is of course Lord of the Sabbath, and as the Gospels unveil, the Lord over creation and life. He told the authorities they will see “even greater works” and “will be amazed.”
Jesus alluded to the fact that even those who deny him or impugn his teachings, or even those who are in the grave, will one day see the full truth of his relationship with the Father. For believers, the essence of the Father’s eternal unity and love for Christ is everything. He delights in the ways and works of his Son because they are fully from the Father and in his nature. Even more amazing is that God delights in Christ as one who is now fully human. Christ has united humanity eternally within the Trinitarian relationship. That is great news for humankind. It means that the Godhead will never be without us. We’re included!
If you want to know God the Father, look no further than Christ. The Apostle Paul called him the “image of the invisible God.” Christ allows us to know God and to be remade in his image. Furthermore, he brings the love and compassion of the Father to us and speaks it to us in the language and through a human body we can understand.
That Christ can resurrect the dead is an essential seal of his oneness with the Father. John’s Gospel powerfully points to Christ as Creator and Redeemer, fully God. It’s a great book to read to leave behind the false and scarier conceptions of God sometimes transmitted by a broken and lost culture. God not only wills to be in relationship with us, but His deep desire is to be united to us through eternity
