John Calvin Commentary John 5:20

"For the Father loveth the Son, and showeth him all things that himself doeth: and greater works than these will he show him, that ye may marvel." — John 5:20 (ASV)

For the Father loveth the Son. Everybody sees how harsh and far-fetched is the exposition of this passage which is given by the Fathers. “God,” they say, “loves himself in the Son.” But this statement applies beautifully to Christ as clothed with flesh, that he is beloved by the Father.

What is more, we know that it is by this excellent title that he is distinguished both from angels and from men, This is my beloved Son (Matthew 3:17). For we know that Christ was chosen, that the whole love of God might dwell in him, and might flow from him to us as from a full fountain.

Christ is loved by the Father, as he is the Head of the Church. He shows that this love is the cause why the Father does all things by his hand. For when he says that the Father shows to him, this word must be understood to denote communication, as if he had said, “As the Father has given to me his heart, so he has poured out his power on me, that the Divine glory may shine in my works, and — what is more — that men may seek nothing Divine but what they find in me.” Indeed, outside of Christ it will be in vain to seek the power of God.

He will show him greater works than these. By these words he means that the miracle, which he had performed in curing the man, was not the greatest of the works enjoined on him by the Father; for he had only given in it a slight taste of that grace of which he is properly both minister and Author, namely, to restore life to the world.

That you may wonder. By adding these words, he indirectly charges them with ingratitude for despising so illustrious a demonstration of the power of God; as if he had said, “Though you are dull and stupid, yet the works which God will afterwards perform by me will draw you, however reluctantly, into admiration.” Yet this appears not to have been fulfilled, for we know that seeing, they saw not; as Isaiah also says that the reprobate are blind amidst the light of God. I reply, Christ was not at that time speaking of their disposition, but only threw out a suggestion as to the splendor of the demonstration which he would soon afterwards give that he was the Son of God.