John 5: 30a
” By myself I can do nothing…”
Sometimes the mysteries of God are revealed in as few as six words. “By myself I can do nothing…”, is such a phrase. Here are the words of a man who has moments before said he only does what he sees his father doing. In fact, he has already said, “… the Son can do nothing by himself…” (v19) so he is repeating himself here. Normally Jesus repeats himself because what he is saying is important and something we should pay attention to.
It is a remarkable thing to do: to claim to be the Son of God, to claim you are able to give life to whom you are pleased to give it and to claim that people who believe in you will have eternal life, and then… then to point out that, “By myself I can do nothing…”
Do you ever feel that way? Do you feel that you are not able to do anything some days? Some weeks? Some years? Have you ever realized that no matter how much power and authority you might have, by yourself you can do nothing?
Some people are proud of their independence. Some are “survivalists,” able to survive on next to nothing. Some, I hear, can survive on eating bugs and grubs. (Not so different from John the Baptist.) Yet even the toughest superhero has limits. Even the most powerful people in the world are confronted with things that they cannot do or change.
Here is Jesus, the most powerful man in the universe saying, “By myself I can do nothing…”
Q: What is needed for Jesus to be able to do anything?
To be in the will of God…good example for us
I believe Robster could be on the right track. Jesus, ‘the man” is declaring He has no power go His own. All power displayed through Him comes from God. Speaking the truth in humility and being an example for us all.
It occurred to me, He may also be speaking as a member of the Holy Trinity where All are involved in the act of any One Member. Some interesting writings on this are as follows, for those who might be interested.
1. The Trinity is not belief in three gods. There is only one God, and we must never stray from this.
2. This one God exists as three Persons.
3. The three Persons are not each part of God, but are each fully God and equally God. Within God’s one undivided being there is an “unfolding” into three interpersonal relationships such that there are three Persons. The distinctions within the Godhead are not distinctions of his essence and neither are they something added onto his essence, but they are the unfolding of God’s one, undivided being into three interpersonal relationships such that there are three real Persons.
4. God is not one person who took three consecutive roles. That is the heresy of modalism. The Father did not become the Son and then the Holy Spirit. Instead, there have always been and always will be three distinct persons in the Godhead.
5. The Trinity is not a contradiction because God is not three in the
same way that he is one. God is one in essence, three in Person.
One God and One Only
Exists in three Persons
Equal and Eternal
Worthy of equal praise and worship
Distinct yet acting in unity
Constituting the one true God of the Bible
In the Holy Scriptures the work of creation is attributed to the Father ( Gen. 1:1 ), to the Son ( Col. 1:16 ), and to the Holy Spirit. ( Job 26:13 and Psa. 104:30 ) The incarnation is shown to have been accomplished by the three Persons in full accord ( Lk. 1:35 ), though only the Son became flesh to dwell among us. At Christ’s baptism the Son came up out of the water, the Spirit descended upon Him and the Father’s voice spoke from heaven. ( Mt. 3:16-17; top ) Probably the most beautiful description of the work of atonement is found in Hebrews 9:14 , where it is stated that Christ, through the Eternal Spirit, offered Himself without spot to God; and there we behold the three Persons operating together.
The resurrection of Christ is likewise attributed variously to the Father ( Acts 2:32 ), to the Son ( Jn. 10:17-18 ), and to the Holy Spirit. ( Rom. 1:4 ) The salvation of the individual man is shown by the apostle Peter to be the work of all three Persons of the Godhead ( 1 Pet. 1:2 ), and the indwelling of the Christian man’s soul is said to be by the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. ( Jn. 14:15-23; top )
Thank you Robster & Ron!
It was interesting to me that Jesus alone could do nothing. I can relate to that. What Jesus needs, as both Ron and Robster point out is to be in the will of his Father. I would add being in relationship with his Father is also key. (Ron’s point.) I think that as Christians our effectiveness is totally dependent on these two things.
I would like to think if Jesus is doing things today and doing them through people then the Holy Spirit would be at work. Completing the trinity.