ACC ~ John 5 v19

JESUS DOES THE WILL OF GOD THE FATHER

CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA: Jesus, as it were, gently lowers the honor befitting the Only Begotten while at the same time raising the nature of humanity, being at once Lord and also considered among servants. He says that the Son can do nothing of himself but what he sees the Father do. For whatever works the Father does the Son does as well. Since he is able to accomplish the works of God the Father and to work in concert with the One who begot him, he reveals the identity of his essence. For things that have the same nature with one another will work alike. But for those who do not share a common nature, their mode of working will not be the same. Therefore as true God of true God the Father, he says that he can do those things equally with him. But, so that he may appear not only equal in power to the Father, but like-minded in all things and sharing one will with the Father, Jesus says that he can do nothing of himself, but what he sees the Father do. COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 2.6. [1]

[1] LF 43:246-47**.

BEING OF ONE ESSENCE

CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA: When… a person says that he cannot carry an enormously heavy piece of wood he establishes his innate weakness. But another says (being by nature a reasonable person and born of a father of a reasonable nature), “I cannot do anything on my own that would contradict the nature of my parent.” The words “I cannot” express the stability of essence and its inability to be anything it is not…. This is how you should hear Christ saying, “The Son can do nothing of himself but what he sees the Father do.” COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 2.6. [1]

[1] LF 43:253*.

INABILITY TO ACT CONTRARY TO FATHER

CHRYSOSTOM: But why didn’t he say that “he does nothing contrary” instead of “he cannot do”? It was so that he might again show the invariableness and exactness of the equality, for the expression does not impute weakness to him. On the contrary, it shows his great power. HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 38.4. [1]

[1] NPNF 1 14:134.

SHARED SUBSTANCE IMPLIES SHARED WORK

AUGUSTINE: Now we understood that the Father does not do something separately, which, when the Son has seen it, he, too, does after having examined the work of his Father. Rather, he said, “The Son cannot do anything of himself, but only what he sees the Father doing,” because the whole Son is from the Father, and his whole substance and power is from him who begot him. He had said that he does these things in the same way that the Father does, so that we do not think that the Father does some things and the Son other things. Rather, with the same power [1] the Son does the very same things that the Father does when the Father does them through the Son. TRACTATES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 21.2. [2]

[1] See Ambrose On the Christian Faith 1.2.13 (NPNF 2 10:203).

[2] NPNF 1 7:138*.

NO EQUALITY IF FATHER AND SON ARE THE SAME PERSON

AMBROSE: The Son, therefore, is both entitled and proved the equal of the Father—a true equality, which both excludes difference of Godhead and discovers, together with the Son, the Father also, to whom the Son is equal. For there is no equality where there is difference, nor again where there is but one person, inasmuch as none is by himself equal to himself. And so, the Evangelist has shown why it is fitting that Christ should call himself the Son of God, that is, make himself equal with God. ON THE CHRISTIAN FAITH 2.8.69. [1]

[1] NPNF 2 10:232*.

LIKE FLAME AND LIGHT

AUGUSTINE: The works of the Father and the Son are inseparable. But this phrase “the Son cannot do anything of himself” is what would be the case if he were to say, “The Son is not of himself.” For if the Son is, he was born; if he was born, he is of him from whom he was born. But, nonetheless, he begot an equal to himself. For nothing was lacking to him who begot; neither did he who begot one coeternal search for a time to beget. He who brought forth the Word from himself also did not search for a mother to beget. Nor did the Father beget a lesser Son by preceding him in age. Perhaps, someone says, after many centuries, in his old age God had a Son. As the Father is without old age, even so the Son is without growth; neither has the one grown old nor has the other grown. But an equal begot an equal; an eternal, an eternal.

How does an eternal, someone says, beget an eternal? It does so in the same way a temporal flame generates temporal light. For the generating flame is of the same duration as the light that it generates. The flame does not precede in time the generated light. Rather, the light begins from the instant when the flame begins. Give me flame without light, and I give you God the Father without the Son. TRACTATES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 20.8.1-2. [1]

[1] FC 79:171*.

THE POWERLESS POWER OF CHRIST

THEODORET OF CYR: The Word, therefore, came down, not as he is in himself, but by becoming flesh—not the form of God but the form of a slave. [1] This, then, is the one who said that he could do nothing on his own, because lack of power is a sign of weakness. For as darkness is to light and death is to life, in the same way weakness is opposed to power. And yet Christ is God’s power. [2] Power is usually not powerless, for, if power were weak, what would have power? When the Word proclaims that he can do nothing, therefore, he is clearly not attributing lack of power to the divinity of the only begotten One but is testifying that the lack of power is due to the weakness of our nature. And the flesh is weak, as Scripture says: “The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.” [3] DIALOGUE 48. [4]

[1] See Phil 2:6-8.

[2] See 1 Cor 1:24.

[3] Mt 26:41.

[4] FC 106:80-81*. See also FC 106:227.

NO DIMINUTION IN POWER OR AUTHORITY

THEODORE OF MOPSUESTIA: Now, if he had wanted to signify a diminution of his strength and power, he should have said, “But only what the Father orders” or “what [the Father] gives him the power to do.” But now he added, “but only what he sees the Father doing,” which indicates similarity. Actually, if he does only what he sees the Father doing, he evidently possesses a perfect similarity with the Father in his action. And this would be impossible if he did not have the same power. COMMENTARY ON JOHN 2.5.19. [1]

[1] CSCO 4 3:110-11.

CHRIST’S POWER NOT AT CROSS-PURPOSES WITH THE FATHER’S

AMBROSE: Let unbelievers meditate on the fact that, both by nature and sovereignty, the Son is one with the Father and that his power at work is not at cross-purposes with the Father, inasmuch as “whatever the Father does, the Son does as well.” For no one can do in the same way the same work that another had done unless he shares in the unity of the same nature, but at the same time also is not inferior in the method of working. ON THE CHRISTIAN FAITH 4.5.60. [1]

[1] NPNF 2 10:269**.

Jn