"19 So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise. 20 For the Father loves the Son and shows him all that he himself is doing. And greater works than these will he show him, so that you may marvel. 21 For as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom he will. 22 The Father judges no one, but has given all judgement to the Son, 23 that all may honour the Son, just as they honour the Father. Whoever does not honour the Son does not honour the Father who sent him. 24 Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgement, but has passed from death to life.
25 “Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live.26 For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself. 27 And he has given him authority to execute judgement, because he is the Son of Man. 28 Do not marvel at this, for an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice 29 and come out, those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgement."
John 5:19-29
R.V.G. Tasker (Tyndale Commentary p 87) says that the way Jesus answers the charge of making Himself equal with God (18) 'suggests that this expression was understood by His listeners in the way the Rabbis usually understood it: A man who acted independently of God, or who rebelled against God's judgments, was said to be placing himself on an equality with God. Jesus therefore at once asserts (19) that for Him to act independently of God would be utterly impossible, because the relationship between God and Himself is a Father-Son relationship; and no son can act all the time independently of his father. In His case, moreover, the relationship is unique. In the relationship between God the Father and God the Son, the Son can, and indeed must be true to the Father's purposes and do the Father's work, because the love of the Father and the obedience of the Son are perfect. Such a divine Son is so completely controlled by the Father's love that He displays it in all that He does. Without this unique relationship, none of the works of Jesus would have been possible'. Christ, then, was saying in effect that He was not making Himself equal with God in the sense they understood the term, but was making Himself equal with God in the sense that He understood the term.