# John 5.30 **Book:** [John](/codex/john-the-apostle/) · ASV / WEB / KJV / YLT ## Verse **ASV:** > 30. I can of myself do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and my judgment is righteous; because I seek not mine own will, but the will of him that sent me. (John 5:30, ASV) **WEB:** > 30. I can of myself do nothing. As I hear, I judge, and my judgment is righteous; because I don’t seek my own will, but the will of my Father who sent me. (John 5:30, WEB) **KJV:** > 30. I can of mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and my judgment is just; because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me. (John 5:30, KJV) **YLT:** > 30. 'I am not able of myself to do anything; according as I hear I judge, and my judgment is righteous, because I seek not my own will, but the will of the Father who sent me. (John 5:30, YLT) ## Immediate context (±2 verses) **ASV:** > 28. Marvel not at this: for the hour cometh, in which all that are in the tombs shall hear his voice, 29. and shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of judgment. 30. I can of myself do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and my judgment is righteous; because I seek not mine own will, but the will of him that sent me. 31. If I bear witness of myself, my witness is not true. 32. It is another that beareth witness of me; and I know that the witness which he witnesseth of me is true. (John 5:28-32, ASV) **WEB:** > 28. Don’t marvel at this, for the hour comes, in which all that are in the tombs will hear his voice, 29. and will come out; those who have done good, to the resurrection of life; and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of judgment. 30. I can of myself do nothing. As I hear, I judge, and my judgment is righteous; because I don’t seek my own will, but the will of my Father who sent me. 31. “If I testify about myself, my witness is not valid. 32. It is another who testifies about me. I know that the testimony which he testifies about me is true. (John 5:28-32, WEB) **KJV:** > 28. Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, 29. And shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation. 30. I can of mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and my judgment is just; because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me. 31. If I bear witness of myself, my witness is not true. 32. There is another that beareth witness of me; and I know that the witness which he witnesseth of me is true. (John 5:28-32, KJV) **YLT:** > 28. 'Wonder not at this, because there doth come an hour in which all those in the tombs shall hear his voice, 29. and they shall come forth; those who did the good things to a rising again of life, and those who practised the evil things to a rising again of judgment. 30. 'I am not able of myself to do anything; according as I hear I judge, and my judgment is righteous, because I seek not my own will, but the will of the Father who sent me. 31. 'If I testify concerning myself, my testimony is not true; 32. another there is who is testifying concerning me, and I have known that the testimony that he doth testify concerning me is true; (John 5:28-32, YLT) ## Setting - **Speaker:** Jesus, near the end of His sustained Christological self-disclosure discourse (vv. 19-47) - **Audience:** the same Jewish leaders who had escalated to murder-intent in v. 18 - **Location:** Jerusalem, c. AD 28 - **Time period:** events c. AD 28 at "a feast of the Jews"; composed c. AD 85-95 - **Narrative context:** the closing-summary verse of the first half of the Christological cascade (vv. 19-30), before Jesus turns to the *witnesses* who confirm His claims (John the Baptist, His works, the Father's voice, the Scriptures, Moses, vv. 31-47). Verse 30 *recapitulates* v. 19 in first-person, Jesus restates the Son's perfect-cooperative-unity with the Father from His own personal perspective. The "I can of mine own self do nothing" is identical in force to v. 19's "The Son can do nothing of himself"; the structure is the *inclusio* of the cascade's first movement. ## Theological reading John 5:30 is the **first-person companion** to John 5:19. The Father-Son cooperative-working principle that the third-person v. 19 establishes (the Son does only what He sees the Father doing) is here restated in first-person (I can do nothing of myself; I seek not mine own will). The verse anchors three theological themes: (a) the Christological unity-of-will between Father and Son, (b) the *kenotic* shape of Jesus's incarnate life, (c) the model for Christian discipleship. ### The same-unity force as 5:19 The hermeneutical caution that applies to v. 19 applies here: read in isolation, the verse sounds subordinationist. Read in context, in the middle of a discourse where Jesus is defending His divine-equality claim, it is the *unity-with-the-Father* claim that *strengthens* the divine-equality. The "not my will" is the *perfect-conformity* of the incarnate Son's will with the eternal Father's will, not a *separation* of two divine wills. The doctrine of the *two wills of Christ* (dyothelitism, the position vindicated at the Sixth Ecumenical Council, Constantinople III, AD 680-681) reads this verse as the *human* will of Jesus perfectly submitted to the *divine* will of the Father-Son-Spirit. The single Person of Christ has two natures and therefore two wills (one divine, one human); the human will perfectly conforms to the divine will in every moment. John 5:30 is one of the principal proof-texts for the human-will-of-Christ that the monothelite controversy disputed. ### Patristic and Reformed reading **Athanasius** (*On the Incarnation of the Word*, c. AD 318): the verse displays the *condescension* of the divine Word, who in His incarnate humanity submits to the Father's will, not because of any deficiency in His divine being but because of the *purpose* of His incarnation (to model perfect obedience and to accomplish the redemptive work the Father has decreed). **Augustine** (*Tractates on John* 23): the *"not my will"* is the human-will conformity of the incarnate Son; the divine will of the Son is identical with the Father's. The two-natures Christology is required to read the verse correctly. **Maximus the Confessor** (7th c., the principal anti-monothelite theologian): the verse is the *single most important proof-text* for the human will of Christ that perfectly cooperates with the divine will. Without two wills, the *kenotic* obedience the verse displays is incoherent. **John Calvin** (*Commentary on John*): the verse is the model for Christian sanctification, the renewed will perfectly seeks God's will rather than self-will. The Christological foundation grounds the soteriological pattern. ### Apologetic deployment The verse defeats two readings: 1. **The Arian/JW "Jesus is subordinate and therefore not God" reading.** Counter: the "not my will" is unity-of-will between Father and Son, not separation-of-being. The Son's voluntary submission to the Father within the incarnation is the *modeling* of perfect obedience for the redeemed, not a statement of inequality-of-being. 2. **The Gnostic / contemporary spiritual-progressivism reading.** Some contemporary spiritualities present Jesus as a model of "follow your own truth" / "live your authentic self." The verse forecloses this: Jesus models *not* self-determination but *submission-to-the-Father's-will*. The Christian disciple's spiritual life is conformity to God's will, not assertion of one's own will. ### The Gethsemane echo The verse anticipates Jesus's Gethsemane prayer: *"Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done"* (Luke 22:42). The same *not-my-will-but-thine* structure that defines Jesus's whole-life-pattern in John 5:30 reaches its climactic moment in Gethsemane on the eve of the crucifixion. The voluntary self-offering of John 10:17-18 and the not-my-will of Luke 22:42 are the *same* Christological pattern at the moment of supreme cost. ### Oneness Pentecostal reading In the Oneness framework, John 5:30 displays the one God's intra-incarnational dynamic: the Son-manifestation (the divine in flesh) submits to the Father-source (the divine in transcendence). The submission is not between two persons but within the one God's incarnational economy. See [Trinity vs Oneness vs Modalism vs Arianism](/codex/trinity-vs-oneness-vs-modalism-vs-arianism/). ### Canonical-theological connections - **John 5:19**, third-person companion (rich hub) - **John 5:17**, the trigger verse (rich hub) - **John 4:34**, *"My meat is to do the will of him that sent me"* - **John 6:38**, *"I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me"* - **John 8:28-29**, *"I do nothing of myself"* + *"I do always those things that please him"* - **Luke 22:42**, Gethsemane: *"not my will, but thine, be done"* - **Hebrews 5:8**, *"learned he obedience by the things which he suffered"* - **Philippians 2:5-8**, kenosis: the obedient self-emptying ## Key words - [G1342 - dikaios](/codex/g1342-dikaios/), *dikaios* (Strong's G1342). Also appears in: [Matthew 1](/codex/matthew-1/), [Matthew 9.13](/codex/matthew-9-13/), [Matthew 23](/codex/matthew-23/). - [G2920 - krisis](/codex/g2920-krisis/), *krisis* (Strong's G2920). Also appears in: [Matthew 5.21-22](/codex/matthew-5-21-22/), [Matthew 23](/codex/matthew-23/), [Mark 3.20-30](/codex/mark-3-20-30/). - [G3962 - pater](/codex/g3962-pater/), *pater* (Strong's G3962). Also appears in: [Matthew 5.48](/codex/matthew-5-48/), [Matthew 6.25-26](/codex/matthew-6-25-26/), [Matthew 6.25-34](/codex/matthew-6-25-34/). ## See also - [John 5.19](/codex/john-5-19/), third-person companion (rich hub) - [John 5.17](/codex/john-5-17/), trigger verse (rich hub) - [John 5.23](/codex/john-5-23/), Father-Son co-honor (rich hub) - [John 6.44](/codex/john-6-44/), Father-drawing (rich hub) - [Christs Deity](/codex/christs-deity/) / [Christology](/codex/christianity/) / [Hypostatic Union](/codex/hypostatic-union/), broader frame - [Trinity vs Oneness vs Modalism vs Arianism](/codex/trinity-vs-oneness-vs-modalism-vs-arianism/), multi-position - [Sanctification](/codex/sanctification/), the believer's not-my-will-but-thine pattern derived from Christ - [Jesus](/codex/jesus/), speaker - [Council of Chalcedon](/codex/council-of-chalcedon/), two-natures formula - [Conversation Scenarios](/codex/conversation-scenarios/), §6 (JW) deploys this verse against subordinationist readings ## Quoted in **Arguments and defeaters:** - [Jesus is Not a Human Sacrifice (Defeater)](/codex/jesus-is-not-a-human-sacrifice-defeater/) - [No One Can Die For Another Objection Defeater](/codex/no-one-can-die-for-another-objection-defeater/) **Concepts:** - [Christian Muslim Defender](/codex/christian-muslim-defender/) - [Jesus Said](/codex/jesus-said/), via [John 5](/codex/john-5/) - [Penal Substitutionary Atonement](/codex/penal-substitutionary-atonement/) **Lexicon:** - [G2920 - krisis](/codex/g2920-krisis/), via [John 5.22-30](/codex/john-5-22-30/), [John 5.29-30](/codex/john-5-29-30/) - [H8085 - shama](/codex/h8085-shama/) **Passages:** - [1 Corinthians 15.50](/codex/1-corinthians-15-50/) - [John 5.17](/codex/john-5-17/) - [John 5.19](/codex/john-5-19/) - [John 8.29](/codex/john-8-29/)