[count-your-change]

There in those verses from John you quote you'll note that it was Jesus’ enemies that made an accusation that Jesus was making himself equal to the Father by Jesus saying he was doing what his Father had been doing all along, working, “My has kept working and I keep working”.
Some work was permitted on the Sabbath, the kind Jesus did in imitation of his Father.

These were, no doubt, the same ones that accused Jesus of being a drunk and demon possessed.
But Jesus made no declaration of equality with God here.

The ability to resurrect and judge, Jesus says is an ability given to him by God, a grant, something Jesus did not have until it was given him. Jesus does not act on his own initiative but as was granted him.

In fact, Jesus adds that having life in himself was a gift, a possession given him from God, not something Jesus already had.

So in everything there quoted Jesus is saying he is in a subservient position to his Father. Jesus’ ability to resurrect, to judge, to have life in himself, to work on the sabbath...all these are grants or gifts given him, something he doesn't possesse until they are given him.

John's words about Christ reflect just what Paul said about “eikon” and “charakter”, it shows what something is like, an image, picture, a likeness like an engraving, not the same as or equal to the thing represented.

[aruanan]

There in those verses from John you quote you'll note that it was Jesus’ enemies that made an accusation that Jesus was making himself equal to the Father by Jesus saying he was doing what his Father had been doing all along, working, “My has kept working and I keep working”.

You didn't see what Jesus did to reinforce that he considered himself exactly what they had said about him. He said that they should honor him in the same way they honor the Father. True, these things like raising the dead and judging everyone are things given him. That doesn't mean that at one point Jesus or the Son of God did not have them and then at another point he did. They are offices that pertain to who he is. Like the firstborn from the dead and the firstborn over all creation. The latter doesn't mean he was created first before the rest of creation but that he has preeminence and authority over all creation. This point is hammered again and again throughout the gospels and the various letters. The other, JW idea, that Jesus was a demiurge, is nowhere to be found. Talk about not seeing the forest for the trees.

Again, to draw you back to something both you and the other guy never focus on: Elizabeth, the wife of a Jewish priest, acknowledged that Mary was the mother of her Lord. The only Lord for a Jewish priest was Yahweh, maker of heaven and earth, the king of the universe, the one who delivered their people from Egypt, who gave Moses the law, who established his covenant with Abraham and later with the other patriarchs. You just cannot get around that.