17  Witnesses to the Deity of Christ  (John 5:30–47)

“I can do nothing on My own initiative. As I hear, I judge; and My judgment is just, because I do not seek My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me. If I alone testify about Myself, My testimony is not true. There is another who testifies of Me, and I know that the testimony which He gives about Me is true. You have sent to John, and he has testified to the truth. But the testimony which I receive is not from man, but I say these things so that you may be saved. He was the lamp that was burning and was shining and you were willing to rejoice for a while in his light. But the testimony which I have is greater than the testimony of John; for the works which the Father has given Me to accomplish—the very works that I do—testify about Me, that the Father has sent Me. And the Father who sent Me, He has testified of Me. You have neither heard His voice at any time nor seen His form. You do not have His word abiding in you, for you do not believe Him whom He sent. You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; it is these that testify about Me; and you are unwilling to come to Me so that you may have life. I do not receive glory from men; but I know you, that you do not have the love of God in yourselves. I have come in My Father’s name, and you do not receive Me; if another comes in his own name, you will receive him. How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and you do not seek the glory that is from the one and only God? Do not think that I will accuse you before the Father; the one who accuses you is Moses, in whom you have set your hope. For if you believed Moses, you would believe Me, for he wrote about Me. But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe My words?” (5:30–47)

A singularly tragic theme in Scripture is that of God’s unrequited love for wayward Israel. His people, whom He graciously chose for Himself (Deut. 7:7–8), repeatedly proved unthankful and unfaithful to Him in return. After God delivered them from Egypt, cared for them in the wilderness, and brought them into the Promised Land, “the people served the Lord all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders who survived Joshua, who had seen all the great work of the Lord which He had done for Israel” (Judg. 2:7).

But all too soon spiritual apostasy and rank idolatry began to manifest itself. After Joshua and his contemporaries died

As the centuries passed, the spiritual climate in Israel only worsened. Times of genuine repentance and spiritual refreshment were few and far between. Writing seven hundred years after Joshua, the prophet Isaiah pictured Israel’s apostasy in a parable:

Through the prophet Jeremiah, God gave a similar indictment: “Surely, as a woman treacherously departs from her lover, so you have dealt treacherously with Me, O house of Israel,’ declares the Lord” (Jer. 3:20; cf. 5:11–12). Instead of serving the Lord wholeheartedly, the nation “profaned the sanctuary of the Lord” (Mal. 2:11) and served other gods instead.

The Hebrew Scriptures frequently depict Israel as a harlot, who left her husband, the Lord, and committed adultery with idols. In fact, the Old Testament uses the term “harlot” to refer to spiritual adultery more frequently than to physical adultery. For instance, in Ezekiel 6:9, God said of Israel, “I have been hurt by their adulterous hearts which turned away from Me, and by their eyes which played the harlot after their idols” (cf. 20:30). Later in Ezekiel’s prophecy, two graphic and riveting chapters are devoted to Israel’s unfaithfulness (16, 23), with the nation depicted as an unfaithful wife who became a “bold-faced harlot” (16:30), forsaking the Lord to commit adultery with other nations and their idols.

But Israel’s spiritual adultery and apostasy never caused God to stop loving His people or forsake His unconditional promises to them. Despite their blasphemous worship of a golden calf after the Exodus, the Lord “did not forsake them in the wilderness” (Neh. 9:19). Despite their repeated idolatry throughout the period of the judges, God eventually “could bear the misery of Israel no longer” (Judg. 10:16) and delivered them from their oppressors. And despite their stubborn rebelliousness during the divided kingdom, God patiently withheld the judgment His wayward people deserved; He “was gracious to them and had compassion on them and turned to them because of His covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and would not destroy them or cast them from His presence until now” (2 Kings 13:23).

Even though Israel “acted arrogantly and did not listen to [God’s] commandments but sinned against [His] ordinances, … and … turned a stubborn shoulder and stiffened their neck, and would not listen,” God, “in [His] great compassion … did not make an end of them or forsake them, for [He is] a gracious and compassionate God” (Neh. 9:29, 31). “Many times,” the psalmist wrote, “[God] would deliver [Israel]; they, however, were rebellious in their counsel, and so sank down in their iniquity. Nevertheless He looked upon their distress when He heard their cry; and He remembered His covenant for their sake, and relented according to the greatness of His lovingkindness” (Ps. 106:43–45). To His people’s fearful cry, “The Lord has forsaken me, and the Lord has forgotten me” (Isa. 49:14), God replied comfortingly, “Can a woman forget her nursing child and have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, but I will not forget you. Behold, I have inscribed you on the palms of My hands” (vv. 15–16).

Perhaps the most vivid and unforgettable illustration of God’s faithfulness is found in the marriage of the prophet Hosea to his unfaithful wife Gomer. Through the retelling of his own heartbreak, Hosea unfolded the poignant story of God’s continuing love for His people, despite the fact that “they [had] played the harlot, departing from their God” (4:12; cf. 1:2; 3:1; 5:3–4; 6:10; 9:1).

In two dramatic passages in Jeremiah, God made it unmistakably clear that He will never abandon Israel:

In the New Testament the apostle Paul echoed those Old Testament promises, stating definitively, “I say then, God has not rejected His people, has He? May it never be! … God has not rejected His people whom He foreknew….For I do not want you, brethren, to be uninformed of this mystery … that a partial hardening has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in; and so all Israel will be saved” (Rom. 11:1–2, 25–26).

The parable of the landowner pictured Israel’s ultimate act of apostasy, the rejection of the Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ:

Yet even that did not cause God to abandon Israel. The church has always included a handful of individual Jewish believers. Moreover, the day is coming when the entire nation will be saved (Rom. 11:26), when God declares, “they will look on Me whom they have pierced; and they will mourn for Him, as one mourns for an only son, and they will weep bitterly over Him like the bitter weeping over a firstborn” (Zech. 12:10), and “a fountain will be opened for the house of David and for the inhabitants of Jerusalem, for sin and for impurity. … They will call on My name, and I will answer them; I will say, ‘They are My people,’ and they will say, ‘The Lord is my God’” (13:1, 9).

Even during the darkest days of Israel’s apostasy there was always a remnant of true believers (cf. 1 Kings 19:14, 18), and that was the case during Christ’s earthly ministry too. Here and there, like scattered outposts of light in the darkness, were those who believed in Him and were saved. John has already introduced some of them: the disciples (1:35–51; 2:11), a few Samaritans (4:29, 39–42), and a royal official and his household (4:53). Most of the Jewish people, however, did not savingly hear Christ’s word (5:24–25), and therefore remained dead in their sin. Inevitably, for many, especially the religious leaders, spiritual deafness and blindness expressed itself in active hostility to the relentless confrontation of our Lord’s ministry. And not to be for Him was, de facto, to be opposed. As He Himself declared, “He who is not with Me is against Me; and he who does not gather with Me, scatters” (Luke 11:23).

From verse 17 to the end of the chapter, Jesus defended Himself for healing a lame man on the Sabbath (5:1–16), an act which the Jewish authorities considered a blatant violation of Sabbath law (5:16). Jesus, however, did not break any biblical regulations, but rather the rabbinic traditions that had developed around them. Yet the Lord did not defend Himself by noting that distinction. Instead, He asserted His equality with the Father, and thus His right to work on the Sabbath just as the Father did (v. 17). Shocked by what they considered a blasphemous claim to deity, the Jews felt justified in redoubling their efforts to kill Jesus (v. 18). Jesus responded by strengthening His claims to equality with God by doing equal works, equally giving life, receiving equal honor, and equally executing final judgment on all (vv. 19–29).

Verse 30 summarizes the Son’s claim to be equal with the Father. Contrary to His opponents’ accusations, He did not act on His own initiative, but rather always and only in complete conjunction with the Father (cf. v. 19). Therefore by accusing Him of wrongdoing, the Jewish leaders were simultaneously accusing the Father as well. Since the immediate context involves the Son’s activity as judge (vv. 27–29), the Lord used that as an illustration and a warning, declaring, “As I hear, I judge; and My judgment is just, because I do not seek My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me.” Since Jesus always acts in perfect harmony with the will of the Father who sent Him, His judgment is always just. And it will be justly executed on those who reject and oppose Him.

When the Lord said, “If I alone testify about Myself, My testimony is not true,” He did not mean to imply that His self-witness is unreliable (cf. 8:14). His point was that His Jewish opponents claimed His own self-testimony was not sufficient. The issue was not whether that testimony was true in itself, but whether His opponents would believe Him. So He offered more testimony as evidence.

In verses 33–47 Jesus called on additional confirmation from four unimpeachable sources to corroborate His claims: the forerunner’s witness, the finished works, the Father’s word, and the faithful writings.

THE FORERUNNER’S WITNESS

“You have sent to John, and he has testified to the truth. But the testimony which I receive is not from man, but I say these things so that you may be saved. He was the lamp that was burning and was shining and you were willing to rejoice for a while in his light.” (5:33–35)

The purpose of John the Baptist’s ministry was to prepare the nation for the Messiah (1:23), and to identify Him when He came (1:31). Therefore “John testified about Him and cried out, saying, ‘This was He of whom I said, “He who comes after me has a higher rank than I, for He existed before me” ’” (1:15), and,

The Jewish authorities had sent a delegation to John, and he had testified to the truth:

John’s testimony supported Jesus’ claims to be the Messiah. Since he was generally regarded by the people as a prophet of God (Matt. 21:26; Luke 20:6)—the first one in four centuries—his testimony carried considerable weight. The authorities acknowledged John’s importance by sending a delegation to hear him. But just like their fathers had rejected the prophets God sent to them (cf. 2 Kings 17:13–14; 2 Chron. 24:19; Jer. 7:25–26; 25:4; 29:19; 44:4–5), they rejected John’s witness.

Jesus, of course, did not depend on human testimony to establish His claim to deity, either in the eyes of others, or in His own mind. There certainly was no deficiency in the testimony of the Father (v. 37) that needed to be supplied by human testimony. The testimony from His works (v. 36) and from His Father (v. 37) was of far greater significance than that from any man. Thus, He cited the testimony of John the Baptist not to make up any lack, but to confirm by the mouth of one already recognized as God’s true prophet that same truth concerning Himself. He did so for the sake of His hearers—that they might be saved on account of John’s faithful witness (cf. 1:35–37).

Having highlighted John’s testimony to Him, Jesus in turn gave testimony to John (cf. Matt. 11:7–14). His words were both a tribute to the Baptist, and a rebuke to the Jewish leaders for rejecting his witness. John was (the past tense verb forms may indicate that he had by this time been imprisoned or executed) the lamp that was burning and was shining. His burning inner zeal made him a shining light in a dark world. Unlike Jesus, who is the Light (phos; the essence of light) of the world (8:12; cf. 1:4–9; 9:5; 12:35–36, 46), John was a lamp (Juchnos; a small, portable oil lamp). He was not the source of the light, but a reflector of it (cf. 1:6–8). Just as a lamp lights the way for people, so John lit the way to Jesus (1:31).

The Lord ended His tribute to John with a rebuke of the Jewish leaders, noting that they were willing to rejoice only for a while in his light. Like moths to a lamp, the people flocked excitedly to hear John who, as noted above, was the first prophet in nearly four hundred years. Their excitement peaked when he proclaimed the imminent arrival of the long-awaited Messiah (Mark 1:7–8). But his stern call for personal repentance (Matt. 3:1–2), his stinging denunciation of the nation’s hypocrisy (Matt. 3:7; Luke 3:7), and his shocking practice of baptizing Jews (the Jews baptized Gentile proselytes, but regarded fellow Jews as already part of God’s kingdom people, and hence not in need of baptism) alienated many of the people. Eventually, John’s fearless condemnation of Herod Antipas’s unlawful marriage (Mark 6:17–18) led to his arrest and execution. The thrill seekers may have rejoiced temporarily in John’s ministry, but they missed its purpose—to point out Jesus as the Messiah. They were superficially drawn to John (cf. those similarly drawn to Jesus in 2:23–25), but they lacked genuine repentance. Ultimately, they turned away from the light of truth that John reflected, because they loved the evil deeds of darkness (3:19).

THE FINISHED WORKS

“But the testimony which I have is greater than the testimony of John; for the works which the Father has given Me to accomplish—the very works that I do—testify about Me, that the Father has sent Me.” (5:36)

John the Baptist’s testimony carried considerable weight; after all, he was the greatest man who had ever lived up to his time (Luke 7:28). But the testimony which Jesus was about to introduce was far greater than

the testimony of John. More convincing than the greatest prophet’s testimony to Christ were the very works that He did (cf. Acts 2:22). For instance, Jesus’ miracles prompted Nicodemus to confess, “Rabbi, we know that You have come from God as a teacher; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him” (3:2). John 7:31 records that “many of the crowd believed in Him; and they were saying, ‘When the Christ comes, He will not perform more signs than those which this man has, will He?’” Even Jesus’ bitter enemies “the chief priests and the Pharisees convened a council, and were saying, ‘What are we doing? For this man is performing many signs’” (11:47). As He did here, the Lord Himself repeatedly pointed to His miraculous works as confirmation of His claim to be the Son of God and the Messiah (cf. 10:25, 37–38; 14:11; Matt. 11:3–5). The gospels record at least three dozen of those miracles, and Jesus performed countless others that Scripture does not record (20:30).

That Christ did only the works which the Father had given Him to accomplish in no way implies that He is inferior to the Father (1:1; 5:18; 10:30; cf. Phil. 2:6; Col. 2:9). As noted in the discussion of 5:26 in chapter 16 of this volume, Jesus voluntarily gave up the independent use of His divine attributes during the Incarnation. That self-emptying included submission to the Father’s will and the Spirit’s power. Throughout His earthly ministry, Jesus was conscious of carrying out the mission that the Father had given Him in the energy of the Spirit (Luke 4:14). In John 4:34 He told the disciples, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to accomplish His work,” while in 14:31 He added, “I do exactly as the Father commanded Me.” In His High Priestly Prayer to the Father Jesus declared triumphantly, “I glorified You on the earth, having accomplished the work which You have given Me to do” (17:4).

Because Jesus’ works were in perfect harmony with the will of His Father, they testified that the Father sent Him. Not only were His works supernatural; they were also in keeping with God’s exact wishes. Yet, despite Jesus’ incredible works—unmatched by anyone else (15:24) and unexplainable outside of God’s power—there were many who still rejected Him (cf. 1:11).

THE FATHER’S WORD

“There is another who testifies of Me, and I know that the testimony which He gives about Me is true. … And the Father who sent Me, He has testified of Me. You have neither heard His voice at any time nor seen His form. You do not have His word abiding in you, for you do not believe Him whom He sent.” (5:32, 37–38)

In addition to the witness of John the Baptist and the evidence of Jesus’ works, there is another who testifies that He is the Son of God and the Messiah. Moreover, the testimony He gives about Jesus is infallibly true. That the Father who sent Jesus has testified of Him is of infinitely greater importance than any human testimony. The gospels record two specific instances in which the Father gave verbal testimony to the Son: at His baptism and at His transfiguration, when “a voice out of the heavens said, ‘This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased’” (Matt. 3:17; 17:5; cf. 2 Peter 1:17).

Jesus’ statement, You have neither heard His voice at any time nor seen His form, was a further rebuke to the unbelieving Jews. No one can see God in the full glory of His infinitely holy essence (Ex. 33:20; John 1:18; 1 Tim. 6:16; 1 John 4:12). However there were times, throughout Israel’s history, when God audibly or visibly interacted with His people. For example, He spoke to Moses (Ex. 33:11; Num. 12:8), the Israelites of the exodus (Deut. 4:12, 15; 5:5), and the prophets (Heb. 1:1). He also appeared, in some physical manifestation of His presence, to Jacob (Gen. 32:30), Gideon (Judg. 6:22), Manoah (Judg. 13:20), and others (Gen. 16:13; Ex. 24:9–11; Isa. 6:5). Yet the unbelieving Jews of Jesus’ day, who had both the Old Testament Scriptures and the full revelation of God in Jesus Christ (1:18; 14:9; cf. Col. 2:9; Heb. 1:3), did not have God’s word abiding in them, for they did not believe Him whom God sent. They refused to listen to Jesus, God’s final revelation to mankind (Heb. 1:2). And, in so doing, they displayed their total ignorance of God, since those who reject Jesus cannot know the Father (cf. 5:23; 8:19; 14:6; 15:23).

On the other hand, those who love the Son have the internal witness of God in their hearts as to who Jesus is. To the Romans Paul wrote, “The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God” (Rom. 8:16; cf. 1 Cor. 2:6–15). In his first epistle John also wrote of this internal witness:

THE FAITHFUL WRITINGS

“You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; it is these that testify about Me; and you are unwilling to come to Me so that you may have life. I do not receive glory from men; but I know you, that you do not have the love of God in yourselves. I have come in My Father’s name, and you do not receive Me; if another comes in his own name, you will receive him. How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and you do not seek the glory that is from the one and only God? Do not think that I will accuse you before the Father; the one who accuses you is Moses, in whom you have set your hope. For if you believed Moses, you would believe Me, for he wrote about Me. But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe My words?” (5:39–47)

Merely knowing the facts of Scripture, without fully embracing them in the heart (Josh. 1:8; Pss. 1:2; 119:11, 15, 97) and acting on them, will not bring the blessings of salvation. In the words of Aelfric, a tenth-century English theologian, “Happy is he, then, who reads the Scriptures, if he convert the words into actions.”

Though the Greek verb translated you search could be either imperative or indicative in form, it is best understood in the latter sense. Jesus was not commanding them to search the Scriptures, but noting that they were already doing so in a desperate and futile search for the key to eternal life (cf. Matt. 19:16; Luke 10:25). Ironically, with all their fastidious effort they utterly failed to grasp that it is those very Scriptures that testify about Jesus (1:45; Luke 24:27, 44; Rev. 19:10). The Pharisees in particular were fanatical in their preoccupation with Scripture, studying every line, every word, and even the letters in an empty effort to understand the truth.

The Bible cannot be properly understood apart from the Holy Spirit’s illumination or a transformed mind. The Jews’ zeal for the Scripture was commendable (cf. Rom. 10:2), but because they were unwilling to come to Jesus (cf. 1:11; 3:19), the sole source of eternal life (14:6; Acts 4:12), it did not result in salvation. Clinging to their superficial system of self-righteousness by works, in their stubborn unbelief, they became ignorant of “God’s righteousness and [sought] to establish their own” (Rom. 10:3). But self-righteousness cannot save anyone, since “all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment” (Isa. 64:6) and because “whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles in one point, he has become guilty of all” (James 2:10). Thus, salvation comes not from “having a righteousness of [one’s] own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith” (Phil. 3:9; cf. Rom. 3:20–30).

The religious leaders refused to acknowledge their utter unrighteousness and inability to do anything about it, and to cry out for God’s mercy and grace revealed through the Lord Jesus. They clung tightly to their deception about what was required to enter God’s kingdom of salvation. Furthermore, because Jesus did not conform to their messianic expectations, the Jewish leaders turned their backs on Him. The Lord understood their hearts perfectly; His declaration, I do not receive glory from men is yet another illustration of His omniscient knowledge of men’s thoughts and motives (cf. 2:25; 21:17). He did not want public praise and hypocritical honor from those who privately repudiated Him (cf. Matt. 22:16). The Lord knew that any respect from them was worthless because they did not have the love of God in themselves. Quoting Isaiah’s prophecy, Jesus expressed God’s utter loathing for such counterfeit spirituality: “This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far away from me. But in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the precepts of men” (Matt. 15:8–9).

That Jesus came in the Father’s name, and they still did not receive Him further exposed His hearers’ hardness of heart. Ironically, as the Lord pointed out, if another came in his own name, they were perfectly willing to receive him. Over the centuries there have been many false messiahs (as many as sixty-four according to some Jewish historians [Leon Morris, The Gospel According to John, The New International Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1979), 333 n. 122]). The first-century Jewish historian Josephus noted an increase in false messiahs in the years leading up to the Jewish revolt against Rome (A.D. 66–70). Sixty years later another messianic pretender, Simon Bar Kochba, appeared. Even Rabbi Akiba, the most esteemed rabbi of the time, believed Bar Kochba to be the messiah—until his revolt was crushed by the Romans with catastrophic results for the Jewish people. False messiahs will proliferate as the second coming draws near (Matt. 24:23–24), culminating in the ultimate false messiah, the Antichrist (2 Thess. 2:3–12).

Jesus’ pensive question, “How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and you do not seek the glory that is from the one and only God?” offers a crucial reason for their rejection of Him. Jesus said in effect, “How can I be glorified as your Lord, when you are seeking glory?” The question is a rhetorical one; obviously, those engaged in seeking glory from one another do not humble themselves in order to believe in the glorious Lord Jesus—which is the only way to seek the glory that is from the one and only God. Paul further explained this in his words to the Corinthians:

The glory that is from God shines in the face of Jesus Christ. This is the “gospel of the glory of Christ.”

Not to seek that honor and glory that comes from God in Jesus Christ is culpable ignorance that will be severely judged. But Jesus will not need to accuse them before the Father; someone else will do that. The Lord stunned them by identifying that accuser as Moses—the very one in whom they had set their hope. It is difficult to imagine how profoundly shocked and outraged the Jewish leaders must have been by Jesus’ statement. In their minds, it was utterly incomprehensible to think that Moses—whom they proudly affirmed as their leader and teacher (9:28; cf. Matt. 23:2)—would one day accuse them before God. But had they truly believed Moses, they would also believe Jesus, for he wrote about Him. Jesus probably did not have one particular passage (such as Deut. 18:15) in mind, but rather the entire Pentateuch that, along with the rest of the Old Testament, points unmistakably to Him (cf. Luke 24:27).

Jesus’ opponents ignored the clear evidence from the Old Testament that He was the Messiah. But at a deeper level, they also misunderstood the purpose of the Mosaic law. They saw keeping it as a means to salvation, but that was never its intent. The law was given to reveal man’s sinfulness and utter inability to save himself. As Paul wrote in Galatians 3:24, “The Law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ, so that we may be justified by faith.” It could never save, since any violation puts people under damnation’s curse (Gal. 3:10; cf. Rom. 3:19–20).

It should come as no surprise that those who did not believe Moses’ writings would not believe Christ’s words either. If they rejected the truths taught by Moses, whom they revered, they could hardly be expected to accept the teaching of Jesus, whom they reviled. Leon Morris writes,

The sobering reality is that those who reject Moses’ teaching about Jesus will face eternal judgment—a truth taught in the story of the rich man and Lazarus. Desperate to spare his brothers the torment he was enduring, the rich man pleaded with Abraham,

The Jewish religious teachers and authorities would express their ultimate rejection of both Moses and Jesus when they used their perverted understanding of the law to justify His execution: “The Jews answered [Pilate], ‘We have a law, and by that law He ought to die because He made Himself out to be the Son of God’” (John 19:7). They rejected the fourfold testimony of John the Baptist, Jesus’ works, the Father, and the Scriptures to Christ’s deity. As a result, in the most heinous act of apostasy in history, they crucified their own Messiah (Acts 2:23).