John 5:14-17: The Son's Activity and the Sabbath

The lecture begins with a discussion of the passage in John 5 where Jesus tells the healed paralytic to sin no more, lest a worse thing come upon him. Bishop Williamson establishes the context of the healing and the subsequent accusation by the Jews that Jesus broke the Sabbath. He emphasizes the link between sin and illness, arguing that the consequences of sin are the primary cause of bodily afflictions. He then moves to the theological implications of Jesus' response, particularly regarding the nature of God's work and the Son's imitation of the Father.Bishop Williamson outlines a detailed analysis of the Son's activity in relation to the Father, using the concept of the intellectual and desiring faculties. He discusses the nature of the Holy Trinity, explaining that the Father and the Son are identical in all activities, differing only in their internal relations. He critiques modern philosophical views that separate the faculties of the soul, arguing that human knowledge is a complex interaction of the intellect and the senses. He then digresses into a discussion on the nature of human love, describing it as a mixture of physical and spiritual components, and warns against the errors of modern philosophy that divorce the heart from the mind. He also touches upon the nature of the angelic and human intellects, distinguishing between the different ways they acquire knowledge, and concludes by asserting that the Son's actions are a direct reflection of the Father's own eternal activity.He concludes by addressing the accusation of blasphemy against Jesus for claiming God as his Father. He explains that the Jews understood exactly what Jesus was saying: that he was making himself equal to God. He reaffirms the traditional doctrine that the Son's work is the same as the Father's work, governing and conserving the universe even on the Sabbath. He leaves the audience with the understanding that the Son's authority is divine and that his actions, including the healing on the Sabbath, are consistent with the eternal, unchanging will of the Father.