The Son Can Do Nothing of Himself

True happiness is not found in any other reward
than that of being united with God. –
Thomas Merton

“Men of Israel, listen to these words:
Jesus the Nazarene, a man attested to you by God
with miracles and wonders and signs
which God performed through Him in your midst,
just as you yourselves know.”
Acts 2:22 NASB

Can I take a moment and challenge your theology with a statement?

When Jesus walked this earth,
he wasn’t able to heal anyone.
Nor could he cast out demons,
or raise the dead.

If you are offended by this statement;
or if you think that it totally denies the Scriptural accounts of Jesus’ life,
I totally understand.

After all, there are numerous accounts of Christ healing,
casting our demons and raising the dead!

However, truthfully - I believe just what I wrote above.
To believe otherwise
is to deny the full account
of what the Scripture says,
ndeed, what Jesus Himself said.

"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

When Jesus walked the hills of Galilee he did so wholly as a man. Although He was God, He lived his life with a self-imposed restriction of living it like a man, indeed like any other man or woman. To miss this point is to miss one of the most powerful truths of the Word of God.

“the Son can do nothing of Himself”

In the Greek the word ‘nothing’ has a forthright meaning:
it means “no thing.”
In this regard it means quite the same as it does in English,
nothing means just that, nothing or no thing!

While Christ was God indeed,
He demonstrated to us the kind of life we should lead,
by living within the same limitations of every redeemed believer.

He had no supernatural powers to draw on whatsoever.
If you ‘read the Red’ (the words of Christ in the New Testament)
you will see that He made this point over and over again.

Jesus is our ultimate role model and example
of a common man living an extraordinary life.
His life’s example is an open invitation for us to follow in His shoes,
to live a naturally supernatural existence.

Jesus performed miracles, signs and wonders
as a man who was simply living in right relationship with God.

Had he performed these feats because He was God,
then such (miracles signs and wonders)
would all be simply unreachable for us.

On the other hand…
because he did these as an ordinary man
we are responsible to follow after His example
and do them as well.

“Truly, truly, I say to you,
he who believes in Me,
the works that I do, he will do also;
and greater works than these he will do;
because I go to the Father.
John 14:12 NASB

Grabbing hold of this powerful truth
changes everything
in our thinking and our theology.

In makes us responsible indeed accountable
to carry out the works of Christ not simply the message.

It is not simply sharing the Gospel message
but demonstrating it through the power of the Gospel
which is what will change us and the world around us.

“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you;
and you shall be My witnesses
both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria,
and even to the remotest part of the earth."
Acts 1:8 NASB

"And now, Lord, take note of their threats,
and grant that Your bond-servants may speak Your word
with all confidence,
while You extend Your hand to heal,
and signs and wonders take place
through the name of Your holy servant Jesus."
Acts 4:29-30 NASB

Certainly Jesus’ humanity was different from ours:

He walked in perfect righteousness,
there was no sin separating Him from His Father or the Holy Spirit.

He was completely dependent
upon the Holy Spirit working through Him.

He walked in complete obedience to the Father’s will.

Although we walk a distinct path from the walk of Christ
we are still called to become
more and more like Christ.

“And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets,
and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers,
for the equipping of the saints for the work of service,
to the building up of the body of Christ;
until we all attain to the unity of the faith,
and of the knowledge of the Son of God,
to a mature man,
to the measure of the stature
which belongs to the fullness of Christ.
Ephesians 4:11-13 NASB

Yes we are all sinners,
but we are cleansed by the Blood of the Lamb.

Through His perfect work on Calvary
He has dealt with the power and effect of sin
for we who believe. [See: Romans 8:1-4]

We are justified before the Father by Christ’s finished work.

There remain only two substantive questions:

1. Will we walk in obedience to what God’s Word proclaims?

2. How dependent are we willing to become
to the drawing of the Holy Spirit
to see the Father’s will achieved in our lives
and in the world transformed around us?

The voice of the Spirit calls us
to make the impossible possible
to make the supernatural a natural way of life.
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