John 5:19,20 - The Son can do nothing of His own accord

5:19

Jesus now expands His teaching on who He is and His relationship with the Father, and it is vital that we understand this. When we say of someone “he thinks he’s God!” what we mean is that he considers himself to have the rights and powers of God and acts to get his own way, or to do things his way. This is not the case with Jesus. He does have the rights and powers of God, but He does not act to get His own way, or to do things His way. Rather, “the Son can do nothing of His own accord, but only what He sees the Father doing”. There is complete unity between the Father and the Son. The Son does what the Father does. So God’s purposes are fulfilled in and through Christ.

5:20

But there is much more to this than mere copying or even obedience (though, of course, there is absolute obedience). “The Father loves the Son”, and that is why He shows the Son all that He is doing. The Father doing something and the Son doing something in many ways amount to the same thing, though of course they are also distinct. The Son died on the cross, the Father did not, but on the cross the Son was doing the Father’s work (John 3:16). “And greater works than these will He show Him, so that you may marvel”, or to put it colloquially, “you ain’t seen nothing yet”. To get a little more theological the Father is still working and the Son is still working.