Before we look at John 5:17, let’s read Genesis 2:1-3. “Thus the heavens and the earth, and all the host of them, were FINISHED. And on the seventh day God ENDED HIS WORK WHICH HE HAD DONE. Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He RESTED FROM ALL HIS WORK which God had created and made” (NKJV). Considering these clear words, which tell us in no uncertain terms that “God ended His work which He had done” and “rested from all His work which He had created,” it is simply incredible that some people would teach that “the process of creation is still going on.”  

Now let’s read John 5:16-17. “For this reason the Jews persecuted Jesus, and sought to kill him, because He had done these things on the Sabbath. But Jesus answered them, ‘My Father has been working until now, and I have been working.’ Therefore the Jews sought all the more to kill Him, because He not only BROKE THE SABBATH, but also said that God was His Father making Himself equal with God.” Whatever these words mean, they can’t contradict what we just saw from Genesis 2:1-3. God DID finish the work of the physical creation in six days and then He “blessed the seventh day and sanctified it.” This means that He “set that day apart as a day of rest.” Later, the Sabbath became one of God’s Ten Commandments so Israel would remember how God rested from His work of creation. We read of this in Exodus 20:8-11, “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the LORD your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates. For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them. And RESTED THE SEVENTH DAY. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.” Again, these words are crystal-clear, teaching us that God’s work of creation was finished; His “resting on the seventh day” was proof that His work WAS DONE. The Jews persecuted Jesus because they thought He was guilty of “breaking the Sabbath” by “working on the Sabbath” (by healing a man on the Sabbath…see verses 1-12).

The real question before us is this: What DID Jesus mean when He said, “My Father has been working until now, and I have been working?” We know He wasn’t referring to the “work of creation,” so what was He referring to? I believe He was referring to “God’s work to save mankind from sin.” We know that it wasn’t long after God created Adam and Eve that they disobeyed His commandment not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Genesis 2:15-17 and 3:6) and “SIN entered into the world.” Romans 5:12 says, “Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.” The moment sin entered into the world, God’s “rest came to an end and His work to save fallen sinners began.” Men were now under the penalty of sin, as we see in Romans 6:23, “the wages of sin is death.”  To save men God would need to do a work to release them from that death sentence. There was only ONE WAY He could save men; BY TAKING MAN’S PLACE IN DEATH AND JUDGMENT. God sent His Son on that mission of love as we see in 1^st John 4:9-10, “In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten son into the world, that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” His Son willingly came into this world for that purpose. “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners” (1^st Timothy 1:15). He Himself said, “The Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10). And on the cross He “died for our sins” (1^st Corinthians 15:3). Just before He died, He cried out, “It is finished” (John 19:30). What was finished? The “work to save sinners” was finished! And because it was finished, we read in Hebrews 10:12, “But this Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, SAT DOWN at the right hand of God.” Jesus RESTED FROM HIS WORK TO SAVE SINNERS!

Yet God is still working to bring that message of salvation to lost sinners so they can “believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and be saved” (Acts 16:31). The moment a sinner believes he/she has eternal life (John 3:16; 5:24). God makes them a “new creation” as we see in 2^nd Corinthians 5:17, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a NEW CREATION; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.” Each believer can say, “For we are His WORKMANSHIP, created in Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 2:10). So, just as God “had to work to create the physical creation,” God “had to work to make a new creation” and that is what Jesus was referring to in John 5:17.  (DO)  (603.3)