Commentaries:
Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown
Father loveth . . . and showeth him all, etc.—As love has no concealments, so it results from the perfect fellowship and mutual endearment of the Father and the Son (see on John 1:1; John 1:18), whose interests are one, even as their nature, that the Father communicates to the Son all His counsels, and what has been thus shown to the Son is by Him executed in His mediatorial character. "With the Father, doing is willing; it is only the Son who acts in Time" [ALFORD]. Three things here are clear: (1) The personal distinctions in the Godhead. (2) Unity of action among the Persons results from unity of nature. (3) Their oneness of interest is no unconscious or involuntary thing, but a thing of glorious consciousness, will, and love, of which the Persons themselves are the proper Objects.
show him greater things, etc.—referring to what He goes on to mention (John 5:21-31), comprised in two great words, LIFE and JUDGMENT, which STIER beautifully calls God's Regalia. Yet these, Christ says, the Father and He do in common.
the Son can do nothing of himself—that is, apart from and in rivalry of the Father, as they supposed. The meaning is, "The Son can have no separate interest or action from the Father."
for what things, etc.—On the contrary, "whatever the Father doeth that same doeth the Son,"
likewise—"in the like manner." What claim to absolute equality with the Father could exceed this: not only to do "the same things," but to do them as the Father does them?
Other Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown entries containing John 5:20:
Philippians 2:11
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