Let’s read John 5:19-31 I love this passage because what Muslims like to do and Jehovah’s Witnesses like to do is quote the first part of verse 19 and stop. Then Jesus replied “I assure you the son is not able to do anything on his own” and they stop there. “You see, he can’t be God because he can’t do anything on his own. God can do everything.” But wait, let’s finish it. The son is not able to do anything on his own but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, the son also does these things in the same way. When we read the statement in context, it affirms two basic truths. Number one. The son is not an independent deity doing what he wants; he always does the Father’s will to the Father’s delight and pleasure. Number two. All he can do is what the Father does, something that no creature can ever say with a sincere heart. Can you imagine any creature saying “I can only do what God does and whatever he does I can do in the same way?” Does that sound like a creature? What does that sound like? That sounds like someone who believes he’s fully God and has the same ability that the Father has and yet he doesn’t act independently from the Father. Neither does the Holy Spirit.
For the Father loves the Son and shows him everything he is doing and he was shown greater works than these so that you will be amazed. Just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so the son also gives life to anyone he wants. Does that sound like a creature who thinks he’s impotent or does this sound like a person who thinks he can do whatever the Father does such as give life. And he gives it to whom He desires, whom he’s pleased to give it to.
Although he says “I don’t do anything on my own initiative; I can only do what the Father does, is that a denial of his duty or simply an affirmation of the perfect union enjoyed by the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit?
Jesus says “As the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the son to have life in himself” and he says in John 5:25 with 28 to 29 a time is coming where those in their graves will hear his voice in the context meaning the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live come out of their graves. In John 52:5 and 28 to 29, Jesus says “a time is coming and it is now here where the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, those in the graves will hear his voice and come out to live.” You’re telling me that the Son, by just the power of his voice, will raise all the dead from their graves and yet this is supposedly a denial of the perfect union and the deity of the Father, Son, Holy Spirit? Isn’t it true that one of the names of Allah is that he is the raiser of the dead and the life giver? Yes, that’s one of his names and attributes.