John 5:19-47

The performance of the miracle of healing on the sabbath had roused the active opposition of the Jews to Jesus, and that again had led to the great declaration contained in John 5:17, in which Jesus announces His equality with God. This announcement only excites the Jews to greater rage; and Jesus is thus led, according to His custom in this Gospel, to present in still fuller and more forcible terms the truth by which their anger and opposition had been aroused. The discourse may be divided into three subordinate parts (1) John 5:19-29, where, with a thrice repeated ‘Verily, verily'(the progress of the thought is pointed out in the Exposition), Jesus speaks of Himself as the Worker of the Father's works, the Revealer of the Father's glory; (2) John 5:30, a verse at once summing up what has preceded from John 5:19, and introducing the remainder of the discourse; (3) John 5:31-47, where Jesus passes from the ‘greater works' that He does to the witness borne to Him by the Father, pointing out at the same time the true nature of the evil principles within the Jews which prevented their receiving that witness.