J
O H N
CHAP. VIII.
In this
chapter we have, I. Christ's evading the snare which the Jews laid for him, in
bringing to him a woman taken in adultery, ver. 1-11. II. Divers discourses or
conferences of his with the Jews that cavilled at him, and sought occasion
against him, and made every thing he said a matter of controversy. 1.
Concerning his being the light of the world, ver. 12-20. 2. Concerning the
ruin of the unbelieving Jews, ver. 21-30. 3. Concerning liberty and bondage,
ver. 31-37. 4. Concerning his Father and their father, ver. 38-47. 5. Here is
his discourse in answer to their blasphemous reproaches, ver. 48-50. 6.
Concerning the immortality of believers, ver. 51-59. And in all this he
endured the contradiction of sinners against himself.
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The
Woman Taken in Adultery.
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1 Jesus went unto the mount of Olives.
2 And early in the morning he came again into the temple, and all the people
came unto him; and he sat down, and taught them. 3 And the scribes
and Pharisees brought unto him a woman taken in adultery; and when they had
set her in the midst, 4 They say unto him, Master, this woman was
taken in adultery, in the very act. 5 Now Moses in the law
commanded us, that such should be stoned: but what sayest thou? 6
This they said, tempting him, that they might have to accuse him. But Jesus
stooped down, and with his finger wrote on the ground, as though he
heard them not. 7 So when they continued asking him, he lifted
up himself, and said unto them, He that is without sin among you, let him
first cast a stone at her. 8 And again he stooped down, and wrote
on the ground. 9 And they which heard it, being convicted
by their own conscience, went out one by one, beginning at the eldest, even
unto the last: and Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the
midst. 10 When Jesus had lifted up himself, and saw none but the
woman, he said unto her, Woman, where are those thine accusers? hath no man
condemned thee? 11 She said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said unto
her, Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more.
Though Christ was basely abused in the foregoing chapter, both by the rulers
and by the people, yet here we have him still at Jerusalem, still in the
temple. How often would he have gathered them! Observe,
I. His retirement in the evening out of the town (v. 1): He went
unto the mount of olives; whether to some friend's house, or to some booth
pitched there, now at the feast of tabernacles, is not certain; whether he
rested there, or, as some think, continued all night in prayer to God, we are
not told. But he went out of Jerusalem, perhaps because he had no friend there
that had either kindness or courage enough to give him a night's lodging;
while his persecutors had houses of their own to go to (ch. vii.
53), he could not so much as borrow a place to lay his head on, but what he
must go a mile or two out of town for. He retired (as some think) because he
would not expose himself to the peril of a popular tumult in the night. It is
prudent to go out of the way of danger whenever we can do it without going out
of the way of duty. In the day-time, when he had work to do in the temple, he
willingly exposed himself, and was under special protection, Isa. xlix. 2. But
in the night, when he had not work to do, he withdrew into the country, and
sheltered himself there.
II. His return in the morning to the temple, and to his work there, v.
2. Observe,
1. What a diligent preacher Christ was: Early in the morning he came again,
and taught. Though he had been teaching the day before, he taught again
to-day. Christ was a constant preacher, in season and out of season. Three
things were taken notice of here concerning Christ's preaching. (1.) The time:
Early in the morning. Though he lodged out of town, and perhaps had
spent much of the night in secret prayer, yet he came early. When a
day's work is to be done for God and souls it is good to begin betimes, and
take the day before us. (2.) The place: In the temple; not so much
because it was a consecrated place (for then he would have chosen it at
other times) as because it was now a place of concourse; and he would
hereby countenance solemn assemblies for religious worship, and encourage
people to come up to the temple, for he had not yet left it desolate. (3.) His
posture: He sat down, and taught, as one having authority, and as one
that intended to abide by it for some time.
2. How diligently his preaching was attended upon: All the people came unto
him; and perhaps many of them were the country-people, who were this day
to return home from the feast, and were desirous to hear one sermon more from
the mouth of Christ before they returned. They came to him, though he came
early. They that seek him early shall find him. Though the rulers were
displeased at those that came to hear him, yet they would come; and he
taught them, though they were angry at him too. Though there were
few or none among them that were persons of any figure, yet Christ bade them
welcome, and taught them.
III. His dealing with those that brought to him the woman taken in
adultery, tempting him. The scribes and Pharisees would not only not hear
Christ patiently themselves, but they disturbed him when the people were
attending on him. Observe here,
1. The case proposed to him by the scribes and Pharisees, who herein contrived
to pick a quarrel with him, and bring him into a snare, v. 3-6.
(1.) They set the prisoner to the bar (v. 3): they brought him a
woman taken in adultery, perhaps now lately taken, during the time of the
feast of tabernacles, when, it may be, their dwelling in booths, and their
feasting and joy, might, by wicked minds, which corrupt the best things, be
made occasions of sin. Those that were taken in adultery were by the
Jewish law to be put to death, which the Roman powers allowed them the
execution of, and therefore she was brought before the ecclesiastical court.
Observe, She was taken in her adultery. Though adultery is a work of
darkness, which the criminals commonly take all the care they can to conceal,
yet sometimes it is strangely brought to light. Those that promise themselves
secrecy in sin deceive themselves. The scribes and Pharisees bring her to
Christ, and set her in the midst of the assembly, as if they would leave her
wholly to the judgment of Christ, he having sat down, as a judge upon
the bench.
(2.) They prefer an indictment against her: Master, this woman was taken in
adultery, v. 4. Here they call him Master whom but the day
before they had called a deceiver, in hopes with their flatteries to
have ensnared him, as those, Luke xx. 20. But, though men may be imposed upon
with compliments, he that searches the heart cannot.
[1.] The crime for which the prisoner stands indicted is no less than
adultery, which even in the patriarchal age, before the law of Moses, was
looked upon as an iniquity to be punished by the judges, Job xxxi.
9-11; Gen. xxxviii. 24. The Pharisees, by their vigorous prosecution of this
offender, seemed to have a great zeal against the sin, when it appeared
afterwards that they themselves were not free from it; nay, they were within full
of all uncleanness, Matt. xxiii. 27, 28. Note, It is common for those that
are indulgent to their own sin to be severe against the sins of others.
[2.] The proof of the crime was from the notorious evidence of the fact, an
incontestable proof; she was taken in the act, so that there was no
room left to plead not guilty. Had she not been taken in this act, she might
have gone on to another, till her heart had been perfectly hardened; but
sometimes it proves a mercy to sinners to have their sin brought to light,
that they may do no more presumptuously. Better our sin should shame
us than damn us, and be set in order before us for our conviction than
for our condemnation.
(3.) They produce the statute in this case made and provided, and upon which
she was indicted, v. 5. Moses in the law commanded that such should
be stoned. Moses commanded that they should be put to death (Lev.
xx. 10; Deut. xxii. 22), but not that they should be stoned, unless the
adulteress was espoused, not married, or was a priest's daughter, Deut. xxii.
21. Note, Adultery is an exceedingly sinful sin, for it is the rebellion of a
vile lust, not only against the command, but against the covenant, of our God.
It is the violation of a divine institution in innocency, by the indulgence of
one of the basest lusts of man in his degeneracy.
(4.) They pray his judgment in the case: "But what sayest thou,
who pretendest to be a teacher come from God to repeal old laws and enact new
ones? What hast thou to say in this case?" If they had asked this
question in sincerity, with a humble desire to know his mind, it had been very
commendable. Those that are entrusted with the administration of justice
should look up to Christ for direction; but this they said tempting him,
that they might have to accuse him, v. 6. [1.] If he should confirm
the sentence of the law, and let it take its course, they would censure him as
inconsistent with himself (he having received publicans and harlots) and with
the character of the Messiah, who should be meek, and have salvation, and
proclaim a year of release; and perhaps they would accuse him to the Roman
governor, for countenancing the Jews in the exercise of a judicial power. But,
[2.] If he should acquit her, and give his opinion that the sentence should
not be executed (as they expected he would), they would represent him, First,
As an enemy to the law of Moses, and as one that usurped an authority to
correct and control it, and would confirm that prejudice against him which his
enemies were so industrious to propagate, that he came to destroy the law
and the prophets. Secondly, As a friend to sinners, and, consequently, a
favourer of sin; if he should seem to connive at such wickedness, and let it
go unpunished, they would represent him as countenancing it, and being a
patron of offences, if he was a protector of offenders, than which no
reflection could be more invidious upon one that professed the strictness,
purity, and business of a prophet.
2. The method he took to resolve this case, and so to break this snare.
(1.) He seemed to slight it, and turned a deaf ear to it: He stooped down,
and wrote on the ground. It is impossible to tell, and therefore needless
to ask, what he wrote; but this is the only mention made in the gospels of
Christ's writing. Eusebius indeed speaks of his writing to Abgarus, king of
Edessa. Some think they have a liberty of conjecture as to what he wrote here.
Grotius says, It was some grave weighty saying, and that it was usual for wise
men, when they were very thoughtful concerning any thing, to do so. Jerome and
Ambrose suppose he wrote, Let the names of these wicked men be written in
the dust. Others this, The earth accuses the earth, but the judgment is
mine. Christ by this teaches us to be slow to speak when difficult cases
are proposed to us, not quickly to shoot our bolt; and when provocations are
given us, or we are bantered, to pause and consider before we reply; think
twice before we speak once: The heart of the wise studies to answer.
Our translation from some Greek copies, which add, mh
prospoioumenoV (though most copies have it not),
give this account of the reason of his writing on the ground, as though he
heard them not. He did as it were look another way, to show that he was
not willing to take notice of their address, saying, in effect, Who made me
a judge or a divider? It is safe in many cases to be deaf to that which it
is not safe to answer, Ps. xxxviii. 13. Christ would not have his ministers to
be entangled in secular affairs. Let them rather employ themselves in any
lawful studies, and fill up their time in writing on the ground (which nobody
will heed), than busy themselves in that which does not belong to them. But,
when Christ seemed as though he heard them not, he made it appear that he not
only heard their words, but knew their thoughts.
(2.) When they importunately, or rather impertinently, pressed him for an
answer, he turned the conviction of the prisoner upon the prosecutors, v.
7.
[1.] They continued asking him, and his seeming not to take notice of
them made them the more vehement; for now they thought sure enough that they
had run him aground, and that he could not avoid the imputation of
contradicting either the law of Moses, if he should acquit the prisoner, or
his own doctrine of mercy and pardon, if he should condemn her; and therefore
they pushed on their appeal to him with vigour; whereas they should have
construed his disregard of them as a check to their design, and an intimation
to them to desist, as they tendered their own reputation.
[2.] At last he put them all to shame and silence with one word: He lifted
up himself, awaking as one out of sleep (Ps. lxxviii. 65), and said
unto them, He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at
her.
First, Here Christ avoided the snare which they had laid for him, and
effectually saved his own reputation. He neither reflected upon the law nor
excused the prisoner's guilt, nor did he on the other hand encourage the
prosecution or countenance their heat; see the good effect of consideration.
When we cannot make our point by steering a direct course, it is good to fetch
a compass.
Secondly, In the net which they spread is their own foot taken. They
came with design to accuse him, but they were forced to accuse themselves.
Christ owns it was fit the prisoner should be prosecuted, but appeals to their
consciences whether they were fit to be the prosecutors.
a. He here refers to that rule which the law of Moses prescribed in the
execution of criminals, that the hand of the witnesses must be first upon
them (Deut. xvii. 7), as in the stoning of Stephen, Acts vii. 58. The
scribes and Pharisees were the witnesses against this woman. Now Christ puts
it to them whether, according to their own law, they would dare to be the
executioners. Durst they take away that life with their hands which they were
now taking away with their tongues? would not their own consciences fly in
their faces if they did?
b. He builds upon an uncontested maxim in morality, that it is very
absurd for men to be zealous in punishing the offences of others, while they
are every whit as guilty themselves, and they are not better than
self-condemned who judge others, and yet themselves do the same thing:
"If there be any of you who is without sin, without sin of this
nature, that has not some time or other been guilty of fornication or
adultery, let him cast the first stone at her." Not that magistrates, who
are conscious of guilt themselves, should therefore connive at others' guilt.
But therefore, (a.) Whenever we find fault with others, we ought to
reflect upon ourselves, and to be more severe against sin in ourselves than in
others. (b.) We ought to be favourable, though not to the sins, yet to
the persons, of those that offend, and to restore them with a spirit of
meekness, considering ourselves and our own corrupt nature. Aut sumus,
aut fuimus, vel possumus esse quod hic est--We either are, or have been, or
may be, what he is. Let this restrain us from throwing stones at
our brethren, and proclaiming their faults. Let him that is without sin
begin such discourse as this, and then those that are truly humbled for their
own sins will blush at it, and be glad to let it drop. (c.)
Those that are any way obliged to animadvert upon the faults of others are
concerned to look well to themselves, and keep themselves pure (Matt. vii. 5),
Qui alterum incusat probri, ipsum se intueri oportet. The snuffers of
the tabernacle were of pure gold.
c. Perhaps he refers to the trial of the suspected wife by the jealous
husband with the waters of jealousy. The man was to bring her to the priest
(Num. v. 15), as the scribes and Pharisees brought this woman to Christ. Now
it was a received opinion among the Jews, and confirmed by experience, that if
the husband who brought his wife to that trial had himself been at any time
guilty of adultery, Aquæ non explorant ejus uxorem--The bitter water had
no effect upon the wife. "Come then," saith Christ,
"according to your own tradition will I judge you; if you are without
sin, stand to the charge, and let the adulteress be executed; but if not,
though she be guilty, while you that present her are equally so, according to
your own rule she shall be free."
d. In this he attended to the great work which he came into the world
about, and that was to bring sinners to repentance; not to destroy, but to
save. He aimed to bring, not only the prisoner to repentance, by showing her
his mercy, but the prosecutors too, by showing them their sins. They sought to
ensnare him; he sought to convince and convert them. Thus the blood-thirsty
hate the upright, but the just seek his soul.
[3.] Having given them this startling word, he left them to consider of it, and
again stooped down, and wrote on the ground, v. 8. As when they
made their address he seemed to slight their question, so now that he had
given them an answer he slighted their resentment of it, not caring what they
said to it; nay, they needed not to make any reply; the matter was lodged in
their own breasts, let them make the best of it there. Or, he would not seem
to wait for an answer, lest they should on a sudden justify themselves, and
then think themselves bound in honour to persist in it; but gives them time to
pause, and to commune with their own hearts. God saith, I hearkened and
heard, Jer. viii. 6. Some Greek copies here read, He wrote on the
ground, enoV ekastou autwn taV amartiaV--the
sins of every one of them; this he could do, for he sets our iniquities
before him; and this he will do, for he will set them in order
before us too; he seals up our transgressions, Job xiv. 17. But he does
not write men's sins in the sand; no, they are written as with a pen
of iron and the point of a diamond (Jer. xvii. 1), never to be
forgotten till they are forgiven.
[4.] The scribes and Pharisees were so strangely thunderstruck with the words
of Christ that they let fall their persecution of Christ, whom they durst no
further tempt, and their prosecution of the woman, whom they durst no longer
accuse (v. 9): They went out one by one.
First, Perhaps his writing on the ground frightened them, as the
hand-writing on the wall frightened Belshazzar. They concluded he was writing
bitter things against them, writing their doom. Happy they who have no reason
to be afraid of Christ's writing!
Secondly, What he said frightened them by sending them to their own
consciences; he had shown them to themselves, and they were afraid if
they should stay till he lifted up himself again his next word would show them
to the world, and shame them before men, and therefore they thought it best to
withdraw. They went out one by one, that they might go out softly,
and not by a noisy flight disturb Christ; they went away by stealth, as
people being ashamed steal away when they flee in battle, 2 Sam. xix.
3. The order of their departure is taken notice of, beginning at the
eldest, either because they were most guilty, or first aware of the danger
they were in of being put to the blush; and if the eldest quit the field, and
retreat ingloriously, no marvel if the younger follow them. Now see here, 1.
The force of the word of Christ for the conviction of sinners: They
who heard it were convicted by their own consciences. Conscience is God's
deputy in the soul, and one word from him will set it on work, Heb. iv. 12.
Those that had been old in adulteries, and long fixed in a proud opinion of
themselves, were here, even the oldest of them, startled by the word of
Christ; even scribes and Pharisees, who were most conceited of themselves, are
by the power of Christ's word made to retire with shame. 2. The folly
of sinners under these convictions, which appears in these scribes and
Pharisees. (1.) It is folly for those that are under convictions to make it
their principal care to avoid shame, as Judah (Gen. xxxviii. 23), lest
we be shamed. Our care should be more to save our souls than to save our
credit. Saul evidenced his hypocrisy when he said, I have sinned, yet now
honour me, I pray thee. There is no way to get the honour and comfort of
penitents, but by taking the shame of penitents. (2.) It is folly for those
that are under convictions to contrive how to shift off their
convictions, and to get rid of them. The scribes and Pharisees had the wound opened,
and now they should have been desirous to have it searched, and then it
might have been healed, but this was the thing they dreaded and declined.
(3.) It is folly for those that are under convictions to get away from
Jesus Christ, as these here did, for he is the only one that can heal the
wounds of conscience, and speak peace to us. Those that are convicted by their
consciences will be condemned by their Judge, if they be not justified by
their Redeemer; and will they then go from him? To whom will they go?
[5.] When the self-conceited prosecutors quitted the field, and fled
for the same, the self-condemned prisoner stood her ground, with a
resolution to abide by the judgment of our Lord Jesus: Jesus was left alone
from the company of the scribes and Pharisees, free from their molestations, and
the woman standing in the midst of the assembly that were attending on
Christ's preaching, where they set her, v. 3. She did not seek to make
her escape, though she had opportunity for it; but her prosecutors had
appealed unto Jesus, and to him she would go, on him she would wait for her
doom. Note, Those whose cause is brought before our Lord Jesus will never have
occasion to remove it into any other court, for he is the refuge of penitents.
The law which accuses us, and calls for judgment against us, is by the gospel
of Christ made to withdraw; its demands are answered, and its clamours
silenced, by the blood of Jesus. Our cause is lodged in the gospel court; we
are left with Jesus alone, it is with him only that we have now to
deal, for to him all judgment is committed; let us therefore secure our
interest in him, and we are made for ever. Let his gospel rule us, and
it will infallibly save us.
[6.] Here is the conclusion of the trial, and the issue it was brought to: Jesus
lifted up himself, and he saw none but the woman, v. 10, 11. Though
Christ may seem to take no notice of what is said and done, but leave it to
the contending sons of men to deal it out among themselves, yet,
when the hour of his judgment is come, he will no longer keep silence. When
David had appealed to God, he prayed, Lift up thyself, Ps. vii. 6, and
xciv. 2. The woman, it is likely, stood trembling at the bar, as one doubtful
of the issue. Christ was without sin, and might cast the first stone;
but though none more severe than he against sin, for he is infinitely just and
holy, none more compassionate than he to sinners, for he is infinitely
gracious and merciful, and this poor malefactor finds him so, now that she stands
upon her deliverance. Here is the method of courts of judicature observed.
First, The prosecutors are called: Where are those thine accusers?
Hath no man condemned thee? Not but that Christ knew where they were; but
he asked, that he might shame them, who declined his judgment, and encourage
her who resolved to abide by it. St. Paul's challenge is like this, Who
shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect? Where are those their
accusers? The accuser of the brethren shall be fairly cast out,
and all indictments legally and regularly quashed.
Secondly, They do not appear when the question is asked: Hath no man
condemned thee? She said, No man, Lord. She speaks respectfully to
Christ, calls him Lord, but is silent concerning her prosecutors, says
nothing in answer to that question which concerned them, Where are those
thine accusers? She does not triumph in their retreat nor insult over them
as witnesses against themselves, not against her. If we hope to be forgiven by
our Judge, we must forgive our accusers; and if their accusations, how
invidious soever, were the happy occasion of awakening our consciences, we may
easily forgive them this wrong. But she answered the question which
concerned herself, Has no man condemned thee? True penitents find it
enough to give an account of themselves to God, and will not undertake to give
an account of other people.
Thirdly, The prisoner is therefore discharged: Neither do I condemn
thee; go, and sin no more. Consider this,
(a.) As her discharge from the temporal punishment: "If they do
not condemn thee to be stoned to death, neither do I." Not
that Christ came to disarm the magistrate of his sword of justice, nor that it
is his will that capital punishments should not be inflicted on malefactors;
so far from this, the administration of public justice is established by the
gospel, and made subservient to Christ's kingdom: By me kings reign.
But Christ would not condemn this woman, (a.) Because it was none of
his business; he was no judge nor divider, and therefore would not
intermeddle in secular affairs. His kingdom was not of this world.
Tractent fabrilia fabri--Let every one act in his own province. (b.)
Because she was prosecuted by those that were more guilty than she and could
not for shame insist upon their demand of justice against her. The law
appointed the hands of the witnesses to be first upon the criminal, and
afterwards the hands of all the people, so that if they fly off, and do not
condemn her, the prosecution drops. The justice of God, in inflicting temporal
judgments, sometimes takes notice of a comparative righteousness, and
spares those who are otherwise obnoxious when the punishing of them would
gratify those that are worse than they, Deut. xxxii. 26, 27. But, when Christ
dismissed her, it was with this caution, Go, and sin no more. Impunity
emboldens malefactors, and therefore those who are guilty, and yet have found
means to escape the edge of the law, need to double their watch, lest Satan
get advantage; for the fairer the escape was, the fairer the warning was
to go and sin no more. Those who help to save the life of a criminal should,
as Christ here, help to save the soul with this caution.
(b.) As her discharge from the eternal punishment. For Christ to say, I
do not condemn thee is, in effect, to say, I do forgive thee; and
the Son of man had power on earth to forgive sins, and could upon good
grounds give this absolution; for as he knew the hardness and impenitent
hearts of the prosecutors, and therefore said that which would confound them,
so he knew the tenderness and sincere repentance of the prisoner, and
therefore said that which would comfort her, as he did to that woman who was a
sinner, such a sinner as this, who was likewise looked upon with disdain by a
Pharisee (Luke vii. 48, 50): Thy sins are forgiven thee, go in peace.
So here, Neither do I condemn thee. Note, (a.) Those are truly
happy whom Christ doth not condemn, for his discharge is a sufficient
answer to all other challenges; they are all coram non judice--before an
unauthorized judge. (b.) Christ will not condemn those who, though
they have sinned, will go and sin no more, Ps. lxxxv. 8; Isa. lv. 7. He
will not take the advantage he has against us for our former rebellions, if we
will but lay down our arms and return to our allegiance. (c.) Christ's
favour to us in the remission of the sins that are past should be a prevailing
argument with us to go and sin no more, Rom. vi. 1, 2. Will not Christ
condemn thee? Go then and sin no more.
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Christ's
Discourse with the Pharisees.
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12 Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I
am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness,
but shall have the light of life. 13 The Pharisees therefore said
unto him, Thou bearest record of thyself; thy record is not true.
14 Jesus answered and said unto them, Though I bear record of myself, yet
my record is true: for I know whence I came, and whither I go; but ye cannot
tell whence I come, and whither I go. 15 Ye judge after the flesh;
I judge no man. 16 And yet if I judge, my judgment is true: for I
am not alone, but I and the Father that sent me. 17 It is also
written in your law, that the testimony of two men is true. 18 I
am one that bear witness of myself, and the Father that sent me beareth
witness of me. 19 Then said they unto him, Where is thy Father?
Jesus answered, Ye neither know me, nor my Father: if ye had known me, ye
should have known my Father also. 20 These words spake Jesus in
the treasury, as he taught in the temple: and no man laid hands on him; for
his hour was not yet come.
The rest of the chapter is taken up with debates between Christ and
contradicting sinners, who cavilled at the most gracious words that proceeded
out of his mouth. It is not certain whether these disputes were the same day
that the adulteress was discharged; it is probable they were, for the
evangelist mentions no other day, and takes notice (v. 2) how early
Christ began that day's work. Though those Pharisees that accused the woman
had absconded, yet there were other Pharisees (v. 13) to confront
Christ, who had brass enough in their foreheads to keep them in countenance,
though some of their party were put to such a shameful retreat; nay perhaps
that made them the more industrious to pick quarrels with him, to retrieve, if
possible, the reputation of their baffled party. In these verses we have,
I. A great doctrine laid down, with the application of it.
1. The doctrine is, That Christ is the light of the world (v.
12): Then spoke Jesus again unto them; though he had spoken a great
deal to them to little purpose, and what he had said was opposed, yet he spoke
again, for he speaketh once, yea, twice. They had turned a deaf ear
to what he said, and yet he spoke again to them, saying, I am the
light of the world. Note, Jesus Christ is the light of the world. One of
the rabbies saith, Light is the name of the Messiah, as it is written,
Dan. ii. 22, And light dwelleth with him. God is light, and Christ is the
image of the invisible God; God of gods, Light of lights. He was expected
to be a light to enlighten the Gentiles (Luke ii. 32), and so the light
of the world, and not of the Jewish church only. The visible light of the
world is the sun, and Christ is the Sun of righteousness. One sun
enlightens the whole world, so does one Christ, and there needs no more.
Christ in calling himself the light expresses, (1.) What he is in
himself--most excellent and glorious. (2.) What he is to the world--the
fountain of light, enlightening every man. What a dungeon would the world be
without the sun! So would it be without Christ by whom light came into the
world, ch. iii. 19.
2. The inference from this doctrine is, He that followeth me, as a
traveller follows the light in a dark night, shall not walk in darkness,
but shall have the light of life. If Christ be the light, then, (1.) It
is our duty to follow him, to submit ourselves to his guidance, and in
every thing take directions from him, in the way that leads to happiness. Many
follow false lights--ignes fatui, that lead them to destruction; but
Christ is the true light. It is not enough to look at this
light, and to gaze upon it, but we must follow it, believe in it, and
walk in it, for it is a light to our feet, not our eyes only.
(2.) It is the happiness of those who follow Christ that they shall not
walk in darkness. They shall not be left destitute of those instructions
in the way of truth which are necessary to keep them from destroying error,
and those directions in the way of duty which are necessary to keep them from
damning sin. They shall have the light of life, that knowledge and
enjoyment of God which will be to them the light of spiritual life in this
world and of everlasting life in the other world, where there will be no death
nor darkness. Follow Christ, and we shall undoubtedly be happy in both worlds.
Follow Christ, and we shall follow him to heaven.
II. The objection which the Pharisees made against this doctrine, and it was
very trifling and frivolous: Thou bearest record of thyself; thy record is
not true, v. 13. In this objection they went upon the suspicion
which we commonly have of men's self-condemnation, which is concluded to be
the native language of self-love, such as we are all ready to condemn in
others, but few are willing to own in themselves. But in this case the
objection was very unjust, for, 1. They made that his crime, and a diminution
to the credibility of his doctrine, which in the case of one who introduced a
divine revelation was necessary and unavoidable. Did not Moses and all the
prophets bear witness of themselves when they avouched themselves to be God's
messengers? Did not the Pharisees ask John Baptist, What sayest thou of
thyself? 2. They overlooked the testimony of all the other witnesses,
which corroborated the testimony he bore of himself. Had he only borne record
of himself, his testimony had indeed been suspicious, and the belief of
it might have been suspended; but his doctrine was attested by more
than two or three credible witnesses, enough to establish
every word of it.
III. Christ's reply to this objection, v. 14. He does not retort upon
them as he might ("You profess yourselves to be devout and good men, but
your witness is not true"), but plainly vindicates himself; and,
though he had waived his own testimony (ch. v. 31), yet here he abides
by it, that it did not derogate from the credibility of his other proofs, but
was necessary to show the force of them. He is the light of the world, and it
is the property of light to be self-evidencing. First principles prove
themselves. He urges three things to prove that his testimony, though of
himself, was true and cogent.
1. That he was conscious to himself of his own authority, and abundantly
satisfied in himself concerning it. He did not speak as one at uncertainty,
nor propose a disputable notion, about which he himself hesitated, but declared
a decree, and gave such an account of himself as he would abide by: I
know whence I came, and whither I go. He was fully apprised of his own
undertaking from first to last; knew whose errand he went upon, and what his
success would be. He knew what he was before his manifestation to the
world, and what he should be after; that he came from the Father,
and was going to him (ch. xvi. 28), came from glory, and
was going to glory, (ch. xvii. 5). This is the satisfaction of
all good Christians, that though the world know them not, as it knew him not,
yet they know whence their spiritual life comes, and whither it tends, and go
upon sure grounds.
2. That they are very incompetent judges of him, and of his doctrine, and not
to be regarded. (1.) Because they were ignorant, willingly and
resolvedly ignorant: You cannot tell whence I came, and whither I go.
To what purpose is it to talk with those who know nothing of the matter, nor
desire to know? He had told them of his coming from heaven and returning to
heaven, but it was foolishness to them, they received it not; it
was what the brutish man knows not, Ps. xcii. 6. They took upon them to
judge of that which they did not understand, which lay quite out of the road
of their acquaintance. Those that despise Christ's dominions and dignities
speak evil of what they know not, Jude, v. 8, 10. (2.) Because
they were partial (v. 15): You judge after the flesh.
When fleshly wisdom gives the rule of judgment, and outward appearances only
are given in evidence, and the case decided according to them, then men judge
after the flesh; and when the consideration of a secular interest turns
the scale in judging of spiritual matters, when we judge in favour of that
which pleases the carnal mind, and recommends us to a carnal world, we judge
after the flesh; and the judgment cannot be right when the rule is wrong. The
Jews judged of Christ and his gospel by outward appearances, and, because he
appeared so mean, thought it impossible he should be the light of the world;
as if the sun under a cloud were no sun. (3.) Because they were unjust
and unfair towards him, intimated in this: "I judge no man;
I neither make nor meddle with your political affairs, nor does my doctrine or
practice at all intrench upon, or interfere with, your civil rights or secular
powers." He thus judged no man. Now, if he did not war after
the flesh, it was very unreasonable for them to judge him after the
flesh, and to treat him as an offender against the civil government. Or,
"I judge no man," that is, "not now in my first coming,
that is deferred till I come again," ch. iii. 17. Prima
dispensatio Christi medicinalis est, non judicialis--The first coming of
Christ was for the purpose of administering, not justice, but medicine.
3. That his testimony of himself was sufficiently supported and corroborated
by the testimony of his Father with him and for him (v. 16): And
yet, if I judge, my judgment is true. He did in his doctrine judge (ch.
ix. 39), though not politically. Consider him then,
(1.) As a judge, and his own judgment was valid: "If I judge, I
who have authority to execute judgments, I to whom all things are delivered, I
who am the Son of God, and have the Spirit of God, if I judge, my judgment
is true, of incontestable rectitude and uncontrollable authority, Rom. ii.
2. If I should judge, my judgment must be true, and then you
would be condemned; but the judgment-day is not yet come, you are not yet to
be condemned, but spared, and therefore now I judge no man;" so
Chrysostom. Now that which makes his judgment unexceptionable is, [1.] His
Father's concurrence with him: I am not alone, but I and the Father. He
has the Father's concurring counsels to direct; as he was with
the Father before the world in forming the counsels, so the Father was with
him in the world in prosecuting and executing those counsels, and never left
him inops consilii--without advice, Isa. xi. 2. All the counsels of
peace (and of war too) were between them both, Zech. vi. 13. He had
also the Father's concurring power to authorize and confirm what he did; see
Ps. lxxxix. 21, &c.; Isa. xlii. 1. He did not act separately, but
in his own name and his Father's, and by the authority aforesaid, ch.
v. 17, and xiv. 9, 10. [2.] His Father's commission to him: "It is the
Father that sent me." Note, God will go along with those that he
sends; see Exod. iii. 10, 12: Come, and I will send thee, and certainly
I will be with thee. Now, if Christ had a commission from the
Father, and the Father's presence with him in all his administrations,
no doubt his judgment was true and valid; no exception lay against
it, no appeal lay from it.
(2.) Look upon him as a witness, and now he appeared no otherwise
(having not as yet taken the throne of judgment), and as such his testimony
was true and unexceptionable; this he shows, v. 17, 18, where,
[1.] He quotes a maxim of the Jewish law, v. 17. That the testimony
of two men is true. Not as if it were always true in itself, for
many a time hand has been joined in hand to bear a false testimony, 1
Kings xxi. 10. But it is allowed as sufficient evidence upon which to ground a
verdict (verum dictum), and if nothing appear to the contrary it is
taken for granted to be true. Reference is here had to that law (Deut.
xvii. 6), At the mouth of two witnesses shall he that is worthy of death be
put to death. And see Deut. ix. 15; Num. xxxv. 30. It was in favour of
life that in capital cases two witnesses wee required, as with us in case
of treason. See Heb. vi. 18.
[2.] He applies this to the case in hand (v. 18): I am one that bear
witness of myself, and the Father that sent me bears witness of me. Behold
two witnesses! Though in human courts, where two witnesses are required, the
criminal or candidate is not admitted to be a witness for himself; yet in a
matter purely divine, which can be proved only by a divine testimony, and God
himself must be the witness, if the formality of two or three witnesses be
insisted on, there can be no other than the eternal Father, the eternal Son of
the Father, and the eternal Spirit. Now if the testimony of two distinct
persons, that are men, and therefore may deceive or be deceived, is
conclusive, much more ought the testimony of the Son of God concerning
himself, backed with the testimony of his Father concerning him, to command
assent; see 1 John v. 7, 9-11. Now this proves not only that the Father and
the Son are two distinct persons (for their respective testimonies are here
spoken of as the testimonies of two several persons), but that these two are
one, not only one in their testimony, but equal in power and glory, and
therefore the same in substance. St. Austin here takes occasion to caution his
hearers against Sabellianism on the one hand, which confounded the persons in
the Godhead, and Arianism on the other, which denied the Godhead of the Son
and Spirit. Alius est filius, et alius pater, non tamed aliud, sed hoc
ipsum est et pater, et filius, scilicet unus Deus est--The Son is one Person,
and the Father is another; they do not, however, constitute two Beings, but
the Father is the same Being that the Son is, that is, the only true God.
Tract. 36, in Joann. Christ here speaks of himself and the Father as
witnesses to the world, giving in evidence to the reason and conscience of the
children of men, whom he deals with as men. And these witnesses to the
world now will in the great day be witnesses against those that persist
in unbelief, and their word will judge men.
This was the sum of the first conference between Christ and these carnal Jews,
in the conclusion of which we are told how their tongues were let loose, and
their hands tied.
First, How their tongues were let loose (such was the malice of hell)
to cavil at his discourse, v. 19. Though in what he said there appeared
nothing of human policy or artifice, but a divine security, yet they set
themselves to cross questions with him. None so incurably blind
as those that resolve they will not see. Observe,
a. How they evaded the conviction with a cavil: Then said
they unto him, Where is thy Father? They might easily have understood, by
the tenour of this and his other discourses, that when he spoke of his Father
he meant no other than God himself; yet they pretend to understand him of a
common person, and, since he appeals to his testimony, they bid him call
his witness, and challenge him, if he can, to produce him: Where is thy
Father? Thus, as Christ said of them (v. 15), they judge after
the flesh. Perhaps they hereby intend a reflection upon the meanness and
obscurity of his family: Where is thy Father, that he should be fit to
give evidence in such a case as this? Thus they turned it off with a taunt,
when they could not resist the wisdom and spirit with which he spoke.
b. How he evaded the cavil with a further conviction; he
did not tell them where his Father was, but charged them with wilful
ignorance: "You neither know me nor my Father. It is to no purpose
to discourse to you about divine things, who talk of them as blind men do of
colours. Poor creatures! you know nothing of the matter." (a.) He
charges them with ignorance of God: "You know not my Father."
In Judah was God known (Ps. lxxvi. 1); they had some knowledge of him as the
God that made the world, but their eyes were darkened that they could not see
the light of his glory shining in the face of Jesus Christ. The little
children of the Christian church know the Father, know him as a
Father (1 John ii. 13); but these rulers of the Jews did not, because they
would not so know him. (b.) He shows them the true cause of their
ignorance of God: If you had known me, you would have known my Father also.
The reason why men are ignorant of God is because they are unacquainted with
Jesus Christ. Did we know Christ, [a.] In knowing him we should know
the Father, of whose person he is the express image, ch. xiv. 9.
Chrysostom proves hence the Godhead of Christ, and his equality with his
Father. We cannot say, "He that knows a man knows an angel," or,
"He that knows a creature knows the Creator;" but he that knows
Christ knows the Father. [b.] By him we should be instructed in the
knowledge of God, and introduced into an acquaintance with him. If we knew
Christ better, we should know the Father better; but, where the
Christian religion is slighted and opposed, natural religion will soon be lost
and laid aside. Deism makes way for atheism. Those become vain in their
imaginations concerning God that will not learn of Christ.
Secondly, See how their hands were tied, though their tongues were thus
let loose; such was the power of Heaven to restrain the malice of hell. These
words spoke Jesus, these bold words, these words of conviction and
reproof, in the treasury, an apartment of the temple, where, to be
sure, the chief priests, whose gain was their godliness, were mostly resident,
attending the business of the revenue. Christ taught in the temple,
sometimes in one part, sometimes in another, as he saw occasion. Now the
priests who had so great a concern in the temple, and looked upon it as their demesne,
might easily, with the assistance of the janizaries that were at their beck,
either have seized him and exposed him to the rage of the mob, and that
punishment which they called the beating of the rebels; or, at least,
have silenced him, and stopped his mouth there, as Amos, though
tolerated in the land of Judah, was forbidden to prophesy in the king's
chapel, Amos, vii. 12, 13. Yet even in the temple, where they had him
in their reach, no man laid hands on him, for his hour was not yet
come. See here, 1. The restraint laid upon his persecutors by an invisible
power; none of them durst meddle with him. God can set bounds to the wrath of
men, as he does to the waves of the sea. Let us not therefore fear danger in
the way of duty; for God hath Satan and all his instruments in a chain. 2. The
reason of this restraint: His hour was not yet come. The frequent
mention of this intimates how much the time of our departure out of the world
depends upon the fixed counsel and decree of God. It will come, it is
coming; not yet come, but it is at hand. Our enemies cannot hasten it any
sooner, nor our friends delay it any longer, than the time appointed of the
Father, which is very comfortable to every good man, who can look up and say
with pleasure, My times are in thy hands; and better there than in our
own. His hour was not yet come, because his work was not done, nor his
testimony finished. To all God's purposes there is a time.
|
Christ's
Discourse with the Pharisees.
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21 Then said Jesus again unto them, I go my
way, and ye shall seek me, and shall die in your sins: whither I go, ye cannot
come. 22 Then said the Jews, Will he kill himself? because he
saith, Whither I go, ye cannot come. 23 And he said unto them, Ye
are from beneath; I am from above: ye are of this world; I am not of this
world. 24 I said therefore unto you, that ye shall die in your
sins: for if ye believe not that I am he, ye shall die in your
sins. 25 Then said they unto him, Who art thou? And Jesus saith
unto them, Even the same that I said unto you from the beginning.
26 I have many things to say and to judge of you: but he that sent me is true;
and I speak to the world those things which I have heard of him.
27 They understood not that he spake to them of the Father. 28
Then said Jesus unto them, When ye have lifted up the Son of man, then shall
ye know that I am he, and that I do nothing of myself; but as my
Father hath taught me, I speak these things. 29 And he that sent
me is with me: the Father hath not left me alone; for I do always those things
that please him. 30 As he spake these words, many believed on him.
Christ here gives fair warning to the careless unbelieving Jews to consider
what would be the consequence of their infidelity, that they might prevent it
before it was too late; for he spoke words of terror as well as words of
grace. Observe here,
I. The wrath threatened (v. 21): Jesus said again unto them that
which might be likely to do them good. He continued to teach, in kindness to
those few who received his doctrine, though there were many that resisted it,
which is an example to ministers to go on with their work, notwithstanding
opposition, because a remnant shall be saved. Here Christ changes his voice;
he had piped to them in the offers of his grace, and they had not
danced; now he mourns to them in the denunciations of his wrath, to try if
they would lament. He said, I go my way, and you shall seek me, and shall
die in your sins. Whither I go you cannot come. Every word is terrible,
and bespeaks spiritual judgments, which are the sorest of all judgments; worse
than war, pestilence, and captivity, which the Old-Testament prophets
denounced. Four things are here threatened against the Jews.
1. Christ's departure from them: I go my way, that is, "It shall
not be long before I go; you need not take so much pains to drive me from you,
I shall go of myself." They said to him, Depart from us, we desire not
the knowledge of thy ways; and he takes them at their word; but woe to
those from whom Christ departs. Ichabod, the glory is gone, our defence is
departed, when Christ goes. Christ frequently warned them of his departure
before he left them: he bade often farewell, as one loth to depart,
and willing to be invited, and that would have them stir up themselves to
take hold on him.
2. Their enmity to the true Messiah, and their fruitless and infatuated
enquiries after another Messiah when he was gone away, which were both their
sin and their punishment: You shall seek me, which intimates either,
(1.) Their enmity to the true Christ: "You shall seek to
ruin my interest, by persecuting my doctrine and followers, with a fruitless
design to root them out." This was a continual vexation and torment to
themselves, made them incurably ill-natured, and brought wrath upon
them (God's and their own) to the uttermost. Or, (2.) Their enquiries
after false Christs: "You shall continue your expectations of the
Messiah, and be the self-perplexing seekers of a Christ to come, when he is
already come;" like the Sodomites, who, being struck with blindness,
wearied themselves to find the door. See Rom. ix. 31, 32.
3. Their final impenitency: You shall die in your sins. Here is an
error in all our English Bibles, even the old bishops' translation, and that
of Geneva (the Rhemists only excepted), for all the Greek copies have it in
the singular number, en th amartia umwn--in
your sin, so all the Latin versions; and Calvin has a note upon the
difference between this and v. 24, where it is plural, taiV
amartiaiV, that here it is meant especially of the
sin of unbelief, in hoc peccato vestro--in this sin of yours. Note,
Those that live in unbelief are for ever undone if they die in unbelief. Or,
it may be understood in general, You shall die in your iniquity, as
Ezek. iii. 19, and xxxiii. 9. Many that have long lived in sin are, through
grace, saved by a timely repentance from dying in sin; but for those
who go out of this world of probation into that of retribution under the guilt
of sin unpardoned, and the power of sin unbroken, there remaineth no relief:
salvation itself cannot save them, Job xx. 11; Ezek. xxxii. 27.
4. Their eternal separation from Christ and all happiness in him: Whither I
go you cannot come. When Christ left the world, he went to a state of
perfect happiness; he went to paradise. Thither he took the penitent thief
with him, that did not die in his sins; but the impenitent not only shall
not come to him, but they cannot; it is morally impossible, for
heaven would not be heaven to those that die unsanctified and unmeet for it.
You cannot come, because you have no right to enter into that
Jerusalem, Rev. xxii. 14. Whither I go you cannot come, to fetch me
thence, so Dr. Whitby; and the same is the comfort of all good Christians,
that, when they get to heaven, they will be out of the reach of their enemies'
malice.
II. The jest they made of this threatening. Instead of trembling at this word,
they bantered it, and turned it into ridicule (v. 22): Will he kill
himself? See here, 1. What slight thoughts they had of Christ's
threatenings; they could make themselves and one another merry with them, as
those that mocked the messengers of the Lord, and turned the burden of the
word of the Lord into a by-word, and precept upon precept, line
upon line, into a merry song, Isa. xxviii. 13. But be ye not mockers,
lest your bands be made strong. 2. What ill thoughts they had of Christ's
meaning, as if he had an inhuman design upon his own life, to avoid the
indignities done him, like Saul. This is indeed (say they) to go whither we
cannot follow him, for we will never kill ourselves. Thus they make him
not only such a one as themselves, but worse; yet in the calamities brought by
the Romans upon the Jews many of them in discontent and despair did kill
themselves. They had put a much more favourable construction upon this word of
his (ch. vii. 34, 35): Will he go to the dispersed among the
Gentiles? But see how indulged malice grows more and more malicious.
III. The confirmation of what he had said.
1. He had said, Whither I go you cannot come, and here he gives the
reason for this (v. 23): You are from beneath, I am from above; you
are of this world, I am not of this world. You are ek
twn katw--of those things which are beneath;
noting, not so much their rise from beneath as their affection to these lower
things: "You are in with these things, as those that belong to
them; how can you come where I go, when your spirit and disposition are so
directly contrary to mine?" See here, (1.) What the spirit of the Lord
Jesus was--not of this world, but from above. He was
perfectly dead to the wealth of the world, the ease of the body, and the
praise of men, and was wholly taken up with divine and heavenly things; and
none shall be with him but those who are born from above and have their
conversation in heaven. (2.) How contrary to this their spirit
was: "You are from beneath, and of this world." The Pharisees
were of a carnal worldly spirit; and what communion could Christ have with
them?
2. He had said, You shall die in your sins, and here he stand to it:
"Therefore I said, You shall die in your sins, because you are from
beneath;" and he gives this further reason for it, If you believe
not that I am he, you shall die in your sins, v. 24. See here, (1.)
What we are required to believe: that I am he, oti
egw eimi--that I am, which is one of God's
names, Exod. iii. 14. It was the Son of God that there said, Ehejeh asher
Ehejeh--I will be what I will be; for the deliverance of Israel was but a
figure of good things to come, but now he saith, "I am he; he that
should come, he that you expect the Messias to be, that you would have me to
be to you. I am more than the bare name of the Messiah; I do not only call
myself so, but I am he." True faith does not amuse the soul
with an empty sound of words, but affects it with the doctrine of
Christ's mediation, as a real thing that has real effects. (2.) How necessary
it is that we believe this. If we have not this faith, we shall die in our
sins; for the matter is so settled that without this faith, [1.] We cannot
be saved from the power of sin while we live, and therefore shall certainly
continue in it to the last. Nothing but the doctrine of Christ's grace
will be an argument powerful enough, and none but the Spirit of
Christ's grace will be an agent powerful enough, to turn us from sin to God;
and that Spirit is given, and that doctrine given, to be effectual to those
only who believe in Christ: so that, if Satan be not by faith dispossessed, he
has a lease of the soul for its life; if Christ do not cure us, our case is
desperate, and we shall die in our sins. [2.] Without faith we cannot
be saved from the punishment of sin when we die, for the wrath of God
remains upon them that believe not, Mark xvi. 16. Unbelief is the damning
sin; it is a sin against the remedy. Now this implies the great gospel
promise: If we believe that Christ is he, and receive him accordingly, we
shall not die in our sins. The law saith absolutely to all, as Christ said
(v. 21), You shall die in your sins, for we are all guilty
before God; but the gospel is a defeasance of the obligation upon condition of
believing. The curse of the law is vacated and annulled to all that submit to
the grace of the gospel. Believers die in Christ, in his love, in his arms,
and so are saved from dying in their sins.
IV. Here is a further discourse concerning himself, occasioned by his
requiring faith in himself as the condition of salvation, v. 25-29.
Observe,
1. The question which the Jews put to him (v. 25): Who art thou?
This they asked tauntingly, and not with any desire to be instructed. He had
said, You must believe that I am he. By his not saying expressly who he
was, he plainly intimated that in his person he was such a one as could not be
described by any, and in his office such a one as was expected
by all that looked for redemption in Israel; yet this awful manner of
speaking, which had so much significancy in it, they turned to his reproach,
as if he knew not what to say of himself: "Who art thou, that we
must with an implicit faith believe in thee, that thou art some mighty HE, we
know not who or what, nor are worthy to know?"
2. His answer to this question, wherein he directs them three ways for
information:--
(1.) He refers them to what he had said all along: "Do you ask who
I am? Even the same that I said unto you from the beginning." The
original here is a little intricate, thn archn o ti
kai lalw umin which some read thus: I am the
beginning, which also I speak unto you. So Austin takes it. Christ is
called Arch--the
beginning (Col. i. 18; Rev. i. 8; xxi. 6; iii. 14), and so it agrees with v.
24, I am he. Compare Isa. xli. 4: I am the first, I am he. Those
who object that it is the accusative case, and therefore not properly
answering to tiV ei, must
undertake to construe by grammar rules that parallel expression, Rev. i. 8, o
hn. But most interpreters agree with our version, Do
you ask who I am? [1.] I am the same that I said to you from the
beginning of time in the scriptures of the Old-Testament, the same that
from the beginning was said to be the Seed of the woman, that should break
the serpent's head, the same that in all the ages of the church was the
Mediator of the covenant, and the faith of the patriarchs. [2.] From the
beginning of my public ministry. The account he had already given of
himself he resolved to abide by; he had declared himself to be the Son
of God (ch. v. 17), to be the Christ (ch. iv. 26), and the
bread of life, and had proposed himself as the object of that faith which is
necessary to salvation, and to this he refers them for an answer to their
question. Christ is one with himself; what he had said from the
beginning, he saith still. His is an everlasting gospel.
(2.) He refers them to his Father's judgment, and the instructions he had from
him (v. 26): "I have many things, more than you think of, to
say, and in them to judge of you. But why should I trouble myself
any further with you? I know very well that he who sent me is true, and
will stand by me, and bear me out, for I speak to the world (to which I
am sent as an ambassador) those things, all those and those only, which
I have heard of him." Here,
[1.] He suppresses his accusation of them. He had many things to charge
them with, and many evidences to produce against them; but for the present he
had said enough. Note, Whatever discoveries of sin are made to us, he that
searches the heart has still more to judge of us, 1 John iii. 20. How much
soever God reckons with sinners in this world there is still a further
reckoning yet behind, Deut. xxxii. 34. Let us learn hence not to be forward to
say all we can say, even against the worst of men; we may have many things to
say, by way of censure, which yet it is better to leave unsaid, for
what is it to us?
[2.] He enters his appeal against them to his Father: He that sent me.
Here two things comfort him:--First, That he had been true to his
Father, and to the trust reposed in him: I speak to the world (for
his gospel was to be preached to every creature) those things which I have
heard of him. Being given for a witness to the people (Isa. lv. 4),
he was Amen, a faithful witness, Rev. iii. 14. He did not conceal
his doctrine, but spoke it to the world (being of common concern, it
was to be of common notice); nor did he change or alter it, nor vary from the
instructions he received from him that sent him. Secondly, That his
Father would be true to him; true to the promise that he would make
his mouth like a sharp sword; true to his purpose concerning him, which
was a decree (Ps. ii. 7); true to the threatenings of his wrath against
those that should reject him. Though he should not accuse them to his
Father, yet the Father, who sent him, would undoubtedly reckon with them, and
would be true to what he had said (Deut. xviii. 19), that whosoever
would not hearken to that prophet whom God would raise up he would require
it of him. Christ would not accuse them; "for," saith he,
"he that sent me is true, and will pass judgment on them, though I should
not demand judgment against them." Thus, when he lets fall the
present prosecution, he binds them over to the judgment-day, when it
will be too late to dispute what they will not now be persuaded to believe. I,
as a deaf man, heard not; for thou wilt hear, Ps. xxxviii. 13, 15. Upon
this part of our Saviour's discourse the evangelist has a melancholy remark (v.
27): They understood not that he spoke to them of the Father. See here,
1. The power of Satan to blind the minds of those who believe not. Though
Christ spoke so plainly of God as his Father in heaven, yet they did not
understand whom he meant, but thought he spoke of some father he had in
Galilee. Thus the plainest things are riddles and parables to those who are
resolved to hold fast their prejudices; day and night are alike to the blind.
2. The reason why the threatenings of the word make so little impression upon
the minds of sinners; it is because they understand not whose the wrath is
that is revealed in them. When Christ told them of the truth of him that sent
him, as a warning to them to prepare for his judgment, which is according
to truth, they slighted the warning, because they understood not to whose
judgment it was that they made themselves obnoxious.
(3.) He refers them to their own convictions hereafter, v. 28,
29. He finds they will not understand him, and therefore adjourns the trial
till further evidence should come in; they that will not see shall see,
Isa. xxvi. 11. Now observe here,
[1.] What they should ere long be convinced of: "You shall know
that I am he, that Jesus is the true Messiah. Whether you will own it or
no before men, you shall be made to know it in your own consciences, the
convictions of which, though you may stifle, yet you cannot baffle:
that I am he, not that you represent me to be, but he that I preach myself
to be, he that should come!" Two things they should be convinced of, in
order to this:--First, That he did nothing of himself, not of
himself as man, of himself alone, of himself without the Father, with whom he
was one. He does not hereby derogate from his own inherent power, but
only denies their charge against him as a false prophet; for of false
prophets it is said that they prophesied out of their own hearts, and
followed their own spirits. Secondly, That as his Father taught him
so he spoke these things, that he was not autodidaktoV--self-taught,
but QeodidaktoV--taught
of God. The doctrine he preached was the counterpart of the counsels of
God, with which he was intimately acquainted; kaqwV
edidaxe, tauta lalw--I speak those things, not only which
he taught me, but as he taught me, with the same divine power and
authority.
[2.] When they should be convinced of this: When you have lifted up
the Son of man, lifted him up upon the cross, as the brazen serpent upon
the pole (ch. iii. 14), as the sacrifices under the law (for Christ is
the great sacrifice), which, when they were offered, were said to be elevated,
or lifted up; hence the burnt-offerings, the most ancient and
honourable of all, were called elevations (Gnoloth from Gnolah,
asendit--he ascended), and in many other offerings they used the
significant ceremony of heaving the sacrifice up, and moving it
before the Lord; thus was Christ lifted up. Or the expression denotes
that his death was his exaltation. They that put him to death thought thereby
for ever to have sunk him and his interest, but it proved to be the
advancement of both, ch. xii. 24. When the Son of man was crucified,
the Son of man was glorified. Christ had called his dying his going
away; here he calls it his being lifted up; thus the death of the
saints, as it is their departure out of this world, so it is their advancement
to a better. Observe, He speaks of those he is now talking with as the instruments
of his death: when you have lifted up the Son of man; not that they
were to be the priests to offer him up (no, that was his own act, he offered
up himself), but they would be his betrayers and murderers; see Acts ii.
23. They lifted him up to the cross, but then he lifted up himself to
his Father. Observe with what tenderness and mildness Christ here speaks to
those who he certainly knew would put him to death, to teach us not to hate or
seek the hurt of any, though we may have reason to think they hate us and seek
our hurt. Now, Christ speaks of his death as that which would be a powerful
conviction of the infidelity of the Jews. When you have lifted up the Son
of man, then shall you know this. And why then? First, Because
careless and unthinking people are often taught the worth of mercies by the
want of them, Luke xvii. 22. Secondly, The guilt of their sin in
putting Christ to death would so awaken their consciences that they would be
put upon serious enquiries after a Saviour, and then would know that Jesus was
he who alone could save them. And so it proved, when, being told that with
wicked hands they had crucified and slain the Son of God, they cried
out, What shall we do? and were made to know assuredly that this Jesus
was Lord and Christ, Acts ii. 36. Thirdly, There would be such
signs and wonders attending his death, and the lifting of him up from
death in his resurrection, as would give a stronger proof of his being the
Messiah than any that had been yet given: and multitudes were hereby brought
to believe that Jesus is the Christ, who had before contradicted and opposed
him. Fourthly, By the death of Christ the pouring out of the Spirit was
purchased, who would convince the world that Jesus is he, ch.
xvi. 7, 8. Fifthly, The judgments which the Jews brought upon
themselves, by putting Christ to death, which filled up the measure of their
iniquity, were a sensible conviction to the most hardened among them that Jesus
was he. Christ had often foretold that desolation as the just punishment
of their invincible unbelief, and when it came to pass (lo, it did come)
they could not but know that the great prophet had been among them,
Ezek. xxxiii. 33.
[3.] What supported our Lord Jesus in the mean time (v. 29): He that
sent me is with me, in my whole undertaking; for the Father (the
fountain and first spring of this affair, from whom as its great cause and
author it is derived) hath not left me alone, to manage it myself, hath
not deserted the business nor me in the prosecution of it, for do I always
those things that please him. Here is,
First, The assurance which Christ had of his Father's presence
with him, which includes both a divine power going along with him to enable
him for his work, and a divine favour manifested to him to encourage
him in it. He that sent me is with me, Isa. xlii. 1; Ps. lxxxix. 21.
This greatly emboldens our faith in Christ and our reliance upon his
word that he had, and knew he had, his Father with him, to confirm the word
of his servant, Isa. xliv. 26. The King of kings accompanied his own
ambassador, to attest his mission and assist his management, and never left
him alone, either solitary or weak; it also aggravated the
wickedness of those that opposed him, and was an intimation to them of the premunire
they ran themselves into by resisting him, for thereby they were found fighters
against God. How easily soever they might think to crush him and run him
down, let them know he had one to back him with whom it is the greatest
madness that can be to contend.
Secondly, The ground of this assurance: For I do always those things
that please him. That is, 1. That great affair in which our Lord Jesus was
continually engaged was an affair which the Father that sent him
was highly well pleased with. His whole undertaking is called the pleasure
of the Lord (Isa. liii. 10), because of the counsels of the eternal mind
about it, and the complacency of the eternal mind in it. 2. His management of
that affair was in nothing displeasing to his Father; in executing his
commission he punctually observed all his instructions, and did in nothing
vary from them. No mere man since the fall could say such a word as this (for in
many things we offend all) but our Lord Jesus never offended his Father in
any thing, but, as became him, he fulfilled all righteousness. This was
necessary to the validity and value of the sacrifice he was to offer up; for
if he had in any thing displeased the Father himself, and so had had
any sin of his own to answer for, the Father could not have been pleased with
him as a propitiation for our sins; but such a priest and such a sacrifice
became us as was perfectly pure and spotless. We may likewise learn hence that
God's servants may then expect God's presence with them when they choose
and do those things that please him, Isa. lxvi. 4, 5.
V. Here is the good effect which this discourse of Christ's had upon some of
his hearers (v. 30): As he spoke these words many believed on him.
Note, 1. Though multitudes perish in their unbelief, yet there is a remnant
according to the election of grace, who believe to the saving of the soul.
If Israel, the whole body of the people, be not gathered, yet there are
those of them in whom Christ will be glorious, Isa. xlix. 5. This the
apostle insists upon, to reconcile the Jews' rejection with the promises
made unto their fathers. There is a remnant, Rom. xi. 5. 2. The words of
Christ, and particularly his threatening words, are made effectual by
the grace of God to bring in poor souls to believe in him. When Christ told
them that if they believed not they should die in their sins,
and never get to heaven, they thought it was time to look about them, Rom. i.
16, 18. 3. Sometimes there is a wide door opened, and an effectual
one, even where they are many adversaries. Christ will carry on his
work, though the heathen rage. The gospel sometimes gains great
victories where it meets with great opposition. Let this encourage God's
ministers to preach the gospel, though it be with much contention, for
they shall not labour in vain. Many may be secretly brought home
to God by those endeavours which are openly contradicted and cavilled at by
men of corrupt minds. Austin has an affectionate ejaculation in his lecture
upon these words: Utinam et, me loquenti, multi credant; non in me, sed
mecum in eo--I wish that when I speak, many may believe, not on me, but with
me on him.
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Christ's
Discourse with the Pharisees.
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31 Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed
on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples
indeed; 32 And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make
you free. 33 They answered him, We be Abraham's seed, and were
never in bondage to any man: how sayest thou, Ye shall be made free?
34 Jesus answered them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whosoever committeth
sin is the servant of sin. 35 And the servant abideth not in the
house for ever: but the Son abideth ever. 36 If the Son
therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed. 37 I know
that ye are Abraham's seed; but ye seek to kill me, because my word hath no
place in you.
We have in these verses,
I. A comfortable doctrine laid down concerning the spiritual liberty of
Christ's disciples, intended for the encouragement of those Jews that
believed. Christ, knowing that his doctrine began to work upon some of his
hearers, and perceiving that virtue had gone out of him, turned his discourse
from the proud Pharisees, and addressed himself to those weak
believers. When he had denounced wrath against those that were hardened in
unbelief, then he spoke comfort to those few feeble Jews that believed in
him. See here,
1. How graciously the Lord Jesus looks to those that tremble at his word,
and are ready to receive it; he has something to say to those who have hearing
ears, and will not pass by those who set themselves in his way, without
speaking to them.
2. How carefully he cherishes the beginnings of grace, and meets those that
are coming towards him. These Jews that believed were yet but weak;
but Christ did not therefore cast them off, for he gathers the lambs in his
arms. When faith is in its infancy, he has knees to prevent it,
breasts for it to suck, that it may not die from the womb.
In what he said to them, we have two things, which he saith to all that should
at any time believe:--
(1.) The character of a true disciple of Christ: If you continue in my
word, then are you my disciples indeed. When they believed on him,
as the great prophet, they gave up themselves to be his disciples. Now,
at their entrance into his school, he lays down this for a settled rule, that
he would own none for his disciples but those that continued in his word.
[1.] It is implied that there are many who profess themselves Christ's
disciples who are not his disciples indeed, but only in show and name.
[2.] It highly concerns those that are not strong in faith to see to it
that they be sound in the faith, that, though not disciples of the
highest form, they are nevertheless disciples indeed. [3.] Those who
seem willing to be Christ's disciples ought to be told that they had as good
never come to him, unless they come with a resolution by his grace to abide by
him. Let those who have thoughts of covenanting with Christ have no thoughts
of reserving a power of revocation. Children are sent to school, and bound
apprentices, only for a few years; but those only are Christ's who are
willing to be bound to him for the term of life. [4.] Those only that continue
in Christ's word shall be accepted as his disciples indeed, that
adhere to his word in every instance without partiality, and abide by it to
the end without apostasy. It is menein--to
dwell in Christ's word, as a man does at home, which is his centre, and
rest, and refuge. Our converse with the word and conformity to it must be
constant. If we continue disciples to the last, then, and not otherwise, we
approve ourselves disciples indeed.
(2.) The privilege of a true disciple of Christ. Here are two precious
promises made to those who thus approve themselves disciples indeed, v.
32.
[1.] "You shall know the truth, shall know all that truth which it
is needful and profitable for you to know, and shall be more confirmed in the
belief of it, shall know the certainty of it." Note, First, Even
those who are true believers, and disciples indeed, yet may be, and are, much
in the dark concerning many things which they should know. God's children are
but children, and understand and speak as children. Did we not need to be
taught, we should not need to be disciples. Secondly, It is a very
great privilege to know the truth, to know the particular truths which
we are to believe, in their mutual dependences and connections, and the
grounds and reasons of our belief,--to know what is truth and what proves it
to be so. Thirdly, It is a gracious promise of Christ, to all who
continue in his word, that they shall know the truth as far as is needful and
profitable for them. Christ's scholars are sure to be well taught.
[2.] The truth shall make you free; that is, First, The truth
which Christ teaches tends to make men free, Isa. lxi. 1. Justification makes
us free from the guilt of sin, by which we were bound over to the
judgment of God, and bound under amazing fears; sanctification makes us
free from the bondage of corruption, by which we were restrained from
that service which is perfect freedom, and constrained to that which is
perfect slavery. Gospel truth frees us from the yoke of the ceremonial law,
and the more grievous burdens of the traditions of the elders. It makes us free
from our spiritual enemies, free in the service of God, free to
the privileges of sons, and free of the Jerusalem which is from above,
which is free. Secondly, The knowing, entertaining, and believing, of
this truth does actually make us free, free from prejudices, mistakes,
and false notions, than which nothing more enslaves and entangles
the soul, free from the dominion of lust and passion; and restores the soul to
the government of itself, by reducing it into obedience to its Creator. The
mind, by admitting the truth of Christ in the light and power, is vastly
enlarged, and has scope and compass given it, is greatly elevated and raised
above things of sense, and never acts with so true a liberty as when it acts
under a divine command, 2 Cor. iii. 17. The enemies of Christianity pretend to
free thinking, whereas really those are the freest reasonings that are
guided by faith, and those are men of free thought whose thoughts are
captivated and brought into obedience to Christ.
II. The offence which the carnal Jews took at this doctrine, and their
objection against it. Though it was a doctrine that brought glad tidings of
liberty to the captives, yet they cavilled at it, v. 33. The Pharisees
grudged this comfortable word to those that believed, the standers by, who had
no part nor lot in this matter; they thought themselves reflected upon
and affronted by the gracious charter of liberty granted to those that
believed, and therefore with a great deal of pride and envy they answered him,
"We Jews are Abraham's seed, and therefore are free-born,
and have not lost our birthright-freedom; we were never in bondage to any
man; how sayest thou then, to us Jews, You shall be made free?"
See here,
1. What it was that they were grieved at; it was an innuendo in those
words, You shall be made free, as if the Jewish church and nation were
in some sort of bondage, which reflected on the Jews in general, and as if all
that did not believe in Christ continued in that bondage, which reflected on
the Pharisees in particular. Note, The privileges of the faithful are the envy
and vexation of unbelievers, Ps. cxii. 10.
2. What it was that they alleged against it; whereas Christ intimated that
they needed to be made free, they urge, (1.) "We are Abraham's seed, and
Abraham was a prince and a great man; though we live in Canaan, we are
not descended from Canaan, nor under his doom, a servant of servants shall
he be; we hold in frank-almoign--free alms, and not in villenage--by
a servile tenure." It is common for a sinking decaying family to
boast of the glory and dignity of its ancestors, and to borrow honour from
that name to which they repay disgrace; so the Jews here did. But this was not
all. Abraham was in covenant with God, and his children by his right, Rom. xi.
28. Now that covenant, no doubt, was a free charter, and invested them with
privileges not consistent with a state of slavery, Rom. ix. 4. And therefore
they thought they had no occasion with so great a sum as they reckoned
faith in Christ to be to obtain this freedom, when they were thus
free-born. Note, It is the common fault and folly of those that have pious
parentage and education to trust to their privilege and boast of it, as if it
would atone for the want of real holiness. They were Abraham's seed, but what
would this avail them, when we find one in hell that could call Abraham
father? Saving benefits are not, like common privileges, conveyed by entail
to us and our issue, nor can a title to heaven be made by descent, nor
may we claim as heirs at law, by making out our pedigree; our title is
purely by purchase, not our own but our Redeemer's for us, under certain
provisos and limitations, which if we do not observe it will not avail us to
be Abraham's seed. Thus many, when they are pressed with the necessity of
regeneration, turn it off with this, We are the church's children; but
they are not all Israel that are of Israel. (2.) We were never in bondage
to any man. Now observe, [1.] How false this allegation was. I wonder how
they could have the assurance to say a thing in the face of a congregation
which was so notoriously untrue. Were not the seed of Abraham in
bondage to the Egyptians? Were they not often in bondage to the neighbouring
nations in the time of the judges? Were they not seventy years captives in
Babylon? Nay, were they not at this time tributaries to the Romans, and,
though not in a personal, yet in a national bondage to them, and
groaning to be made free? And yet, to confront Christ, they have the impudence
to say, We were never in bondage. Thus they would expose Christ to the
ill-will both of the Jews, who were very jealous for the honour of their
liberty, and of the Romans, who would not be thought to enslave the nations
they conquered. [2.] How foolish the application was. Christ had spoken of a
liberty wherewith the truth would make them free, which must be meant
of a spiritual liberty, for truth as it is the enriching, so it
is the enfranchising of the mind, and the enlarging of that from
the captivity of error and prejudice; and yet they plead against the offer of spiritual
liberty that they were never in corporal thraldom, as if, because they
were never in bondage to any man, they were never in bondage to any lust.
Note, Carnal hearts are sensible of no other grievances than those that molest
the body and injure their secular affairs. Talk to them of encroachments upon
their civil liberty and property,--tell them of waste committed upon their
lands, or damage done to their houses,--and they understand you very well, and
can give you a sensible answer; the thing touches them and affects them. But
discourse to them of the bondage of sin, a captivity to Satan, and a liberty
by Christ,--tell them of wrong done to their precious souls, and the hazard of
their eternal welfare,--and you bring certain strange things to their ears;
they say of it (as those did, Ezek. xx. 49), Doth he not speak parables?
This was much like the blunder Nicodemus made about being born again.
III. Our Saviour's vindication of his doctrine from these objections, and the
further explication of it, v. 34-37, where he does these four things:--
1. He shows that, notwithstanding their civil liberties and their visible
church-membership, yet it was possible that they might be in a state of
bondage (v. 34): Whosoever commits sin, though he be of
Abraham's seed, and was never in bondage to any man, is the servant of sin.
Observe, Christ does not upbraid them with the falsehood of their plea, or
their present bondage, but further explains what he had said for their
edification. Thus ministers should with meekness instruct those that oppose
them, that they may recover themselves, not with passion provoke them
to entangle themselves yet more. Now here,
(1.) The preface is very solemn: Verily, verily, I say unto you; an
awful asseveration, which our Saviour often used, to command a reverent
attention and a ready assent. The style of the prophets was, Thus saith the
Lord, for they were faithful as servants; but Christ, being a Son,
speaks in his own name: I say unto you, I the Amen, the faithful
witness; he pawns his veracity upon it. "I say it to you, who boast of
your relation to Abraham, as if that would save you."
(2.) The truth is of universal concern, though here delivered upon a
particular occasion: Whosoever commits sin is the servant of sin, and
sadly needs to be made free. A state of sin is a state of bondage. [1.] See
who it is on whom this brand is fastened--on him that commits sin, paV
o poiwn amartian--every one that makes sin.
There is not a just man upon earth, that lives, and sins not;
yet every one that sins is not a servant of sin, for then God would have no
servants; but he that makes sin, that makes choice of sin,
prefers the way of wickedness before the way of holiness (Jer. xliv. 16,
17),-- that makes a covenant with sin, enters into league with it, and makes
a marriage with it,--that makes contrivances of sin, makes
provision for the flesh, and devises iniquity,--and that makes a custom
of sin, who walks after the flesh, and makes a trade of sin. [2.] See
what the brand is which Christ fastens upon those that thus commit sin.
He stigmatizes them, gives them a mark of servitude. They are servants of
sin, imprisoned under the guilt of sin, under an arrest, in hold for it, concluded
under sin, and they are subject to the power of sin. He is a servant of
sin, that is, he makes himself so, and is so accounted; he has sold
himself to work wickedness; his lusts give law to him, he is at their
beck, and is not his own master. He does the work of sin, supports its
interest, and accepts its wages, Rom. vi. 16.
2. He shows them that, being in a state of bondage, their having a place in
the house of God would not entitle them to the inheritance of sons; for (v.
35) the servant, though he be in the house for awhile, yet, being but a
servant, abideth not in the house for ever. Services (we say) are no
inheritances, they are but temporary, and not for a perpetuity; but
the son of the family abideth ever. Now, (1.) This points primarily at the
rejection of the Jewish church and nation. Israel had been God's son,
his first-born; but they wretchedly degenerated into a servile
disposition, were enslaved to the world and the flesh, and therefore, though
by virtue of their birthright they thought themselves secure of their church
membership, Christ tells them that having thus made themselves servants they
should not abide in the house for ever. Jerusalem, by opposing the
gospel of Christ, which proclaimed liberty, and adhering to the
Sinai-covenant, which gendered to bondage, after its term was expired
came to be in bondage with her children (Gal. iv. 24, 25), and
therefore was unchurched and disfranchised, her charter seized and taken away,
and she was cast out as the son of the bond-woman, Gen. xxi. 14. Chrysostom
gives this sense of this place: "Think not to be made free from sin by
the rites and ceremonies of the law of Moses, for Moses was but a servant, and
had not that perpetual authority in the church which the Son had; but, if the
Son make you free, it is well," v. 36. But, (2.) It looks further,
to the rejection of all that are the servants of sin, and receive not
the adoption of the sons of God; though those unprofitable
servants may be in God's house awhile, as retainers to his family, yet there
is a day coming when the children of the bond-woman and of the free
shall be distinguished. True believers only, who are the children of the
promise and of the covenant, are accounted free, and shall abide for ever in
the house, as Isaac: they shall have a nail in the holy place on earth
(Ezra ix. 8) and mansions in the holy place in heaven, ch. xiv.
2.
3. He shows them the way of deliverance out of the state of bondage into the glorious
liberty of the children of God, Rom. viii. 21. The case of those that are
the servants of sin is sad, but thanks be to God it is not helpless, it is not
hopeless. As it is the privilege of all the sons of the family, and their
dignity above the servants, that they abide in the house for ever; so he who
is the Son, the first-born among many brethren, and the heir of all
things, has a power both of manumission and of adoption (v. 36): If
the Son shall make you free, you shall be free indeed. Note,
(1.) Jesus Christ in the gospel offers us our freedom; he has authority
and power to make free. [1.] To discharge prisoners; this he
does in justification, by making satisfaction for our guilt (on
which the gospel offer is grounded, which is to all a conditional act of
indemnity, and to all true believers, upon their believing, an absolute charter
of pardon), and for our debts, for which we were by the law
arrested and in execution. Christ, as our surety, or rather our bail
(for he was not originally bound with us, but upon our insolvency bound
for us), compounds with the creditor, answers the demands of injured
justice with more than an equivalent, takes the bond and judgment
into his own hands, and gives them up cancelled to all that by faith
and repentance give him (if I may so say) a counter-security to save
his honour harmless, and so they are made free; and from the debt, and
every part thereof, they are for ever acquitted, exonerated, and discharged,
and a general release is sealed of all actions and claims; while against those
who refuse to come up to these terms the securities lie still in the
Redeemer's hands, in full force. [2.] He has a power to rescue bond-slaves,
and this he does in sanctification; by the powerful arguments of his
gospel, and the powerful operations of his Spirit, he breaks the power of
corruption in the soul, rallies the scattered forces of reason and virtue, and
fortifies God's interest against sin and Satan, and so the soul is made free.
[3.] He has a power to naturalize strangers and foreigners, and this he
does in adoption. This is a further act of grace; we are not only
forgiven and healed, but preferred; there is a charter of privileges as
well as pardon; and thus the Son makes us free denizens of the kingdom
of priests, the holy nation, the new Jerusalem.
(2.) Those whom Christ makes free are free indeed. It is not alhqwV,
the word used (v. 31) for disciples indeed, but ontwV--really.
It denotes, [1.] The truth and certainty of the promise, the liberty which the
Jews boasted of was an imaginary liberty; they boasted of a false
gift; but the liberty which Christ gives is a certain thing, it is real,
and has real effects. The servants of sin promise themselves liberty, and
fancy themselves free, when they have broken religion's bands asunder; but
they cheat themselves. None are free indeed but those whom Christ makes
free. [2.] It denotes the singular excellency of the freedom promised; it
is a freedom that deserves the name, in comparison with which all other
liberties are no better than slaveries, so much does it turn to the honour and
advantage of those that are made free by it. It is a glorious
liberty. It is that which is (so ontwV
signifies); it is substance (Prov. viii. 21); while the things of the
world are shadows, things that are not.
4. He applies this to these unbelieving cavilling Jews, in answer to their
boasts of relation to Abraham (v. 37): "I know very well that
you are Abraham's seed, but now you seek to kill me, and therefore have
forfeited the honour of your relation to Abraham, because my word hath no
place in you." Observe here,
(1.) The dignity of their extraction admitted: "I know that you are
Abraham's seed, every one knows it, and it is your honour." He grants
them what was true, and in what they said that was false (that they were never
in bondage to any) he does not contradict them, for he studied to profit
them, and not to provoke them, and therefore said that which would
please them: I know that you are Abraham's seed. They boasted of their
descent from Abraham, as that which aggrandized their names, and
made them exceedingly honourable; whereas really it did but aggravate
their crimes, and make them exceedingly sinful. Out of their own mouths will
he judge vain-glorious hypocrites, who boast of their parentage and education:
"Are you Abraham's seed? Why then did you not tread in the steps of his
faith and obedience?"
(2.) The inconsistency of their practice with this dignity: But you seek to
kill me. They had attempted it several times, and were now designing it,
which quickly appeared (v. 59), when they took up stones to cast at
him. Christ knows all the wickedness, not only which men do, but which
they seek, and design, and endeavour to do. To seek to kill any innocent man
is a crime black enough, but to compass and imagine the death of him
that was King of kings was a crime the heinousness of which we want words to
express.
(3.) The reason of this inconsistency. Why were they that were Abraham's seed
so very inveterate against Abraham's promised seed, in whom they and all
the families of the earth should be blessed? Our Saviour here tells
them, It is because my word hath no place in you, ou
cwrei en umin, Non capit in vobis, so the
Vulgate. "My word does not take with you, you have no inclination
to it, no relish of it, other things are more taking, more pleasing." Or,
"It does not take hold of you, it has no power over you, makes no
impression upon you." Some of the critics read it, My word does not
penetrate into you; it descended as the rain, but it came upon them as the
rain upon the rock, which it runs off, and did not soak into their hearts, as
the rain upon the ploughed ground. The Syriac reads it, "Because you
do not acquiesce in my word; you are not persuaded of the truth of it, nor
pleased with the goodness of it." Our translation is very significant: It
has no place in you. They sought to kill him, and so effectually to
silence him, not because he had done they any harm, but because they
could not bear the convincing, commanding power of his word. Note, [1.] The
words of Christ ought to have a place in us, the innermost and uppermost
place,--a dwelling place, as a man at home, and not as a stranger or
sojourner,--a working place; it must have room to operate, to work sin
out of us, and to work grace in us; it must have a ruling place, its
place must be upon the throne, it must dwell in us richly. [2.] There
are many that make a profession of religion in whom the word of Christ
has no place; they will not allow it a place, for they do not like it;
Satan does all he can to displace it; and other things possess the
place it should have in us. [3.] Where the word of God has no place no good is
to be expected, for room is left there for all wickedness. If the unclean
spirit find the heart empty of Christ's word, he enters in, and dwells
there.
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Christ's
Discourse with the Pharisees.
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38 I speak that which I have seen with my
Father: and ye do that which ye have seen with your father. 39
They answered and said unto him, Abraham is our father. Jesus saith unto them,
If ye were Abraham's children, ye would do the works of Abraham.
40 But now ye seek to kill me, a man that hath told you the truth, which I
have heard of God: this did not Abraham. 41 Ye do the deeds of
your father. Then said they to him, We be not born of fornication; we have one
Father, even God. 42 Jesus said unto them, If God were your
Father, ye would love me: for I proceeded forth and came from God; neither
came I of myself, but he sent me. 43 Why do ye not understand my
speech? even because ye cannot hear my word. 44 Ye are of your
father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer
from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in
him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the
father of it. 45 And because I tell you the truth, ye
believe me not. 46 Which of you convinceth me of sin? And if I say
the truth, why do ye not believe me? 47 He that is of God heareth
God's words: ye therefore hear them not, because ye are not of God.
Here Christ and the Jews are still at issue; he sets himself to convince and
convert them, while they still set themselves to contradict and oppose him.
I. He here traces the difference between his sentiments and theirs to a
different rise and origin (v. 38): I speak that which I have seen
with my Father, and you do what you have seen with your father.
Here are two fathers spoken of, according to the two families into which the
sons of men are divided--God and the devil, and without controversy these are
contrary the one to the other.
1. Christ's doctrine was from heaven; it was copied out
of the counsels of infinite wisdom, and the kind intentions of eternal
love. (1.) I speak that which I have seen. The discoveries Christ has
made to us of God and another world are not grounded upon guess and hearsay,
but upon ocular inspection; so that he was thoroughly apprized of the
nature, and assured of the truth, of all he said. He that is given to
be a witness to the people is an eye-witness, and therefore unexceptionable.
(2.) It is what I have seen with my Father. The doctrine of Christ is
not a plausible hypothesis, supported by probable arguments, but it is an
exact counterpart of the incontestable truths lodged in the eternal mind. It
was not only what he had heard from his Father, but what he had seen
with him when the counsel of peace was between them both. Moses
spoke what he heard from God, but he might not see the face of God; Paul had
been in the third heaven, but what he had seen there he could not, he must
not, utter; for it was Christ's prerogative to have seen what he spoke,
and to speak what he had seen.
2. Their doings were from hell: "You do that which you have
seen with your father. You do, by your own works, father yourselves, for
it is evident whom you resemble, and therefore easy to find out your
origin." As a child that is trained up with his father learns his
father's words and fashions, and grows like him by an affected imitation as
well as by a natural image, so these Jews, by their malicious opposition to
Christ and the gospel, made themselves as like the devil as if they had
industriously set him before them for their pattern.
II. He takes off and answers their vain-glorious boasts of relation to Abraham
and to God as their fathers, and shows the vanity and falsehood of their
pretensions.
1. They pleaded relation to Abraham, and he replies to this plea. They
said, Abraham is our father, v. 39. In this they intended, (1.) To
do honour to themselves, and to make themselves look great. They had forgotten
the mortification given them by that acknowledgement prescribed them (Deut.
xxvi. 5), A Syrian ready to perish was my father; and the charge
exhibited against their degenerate ancestors (whose steps they trod in, and
not those of the first founder of the family), Thy father was an Amorite,
and thy mother a Hittite, Ezek. xvi. 3. As it is common for those families
that are sinking and going to decay to boast most of their pedigree, so it is
common for those churches that are corrupt and depraved to value themselves
upon their antiquity and the eminence of their first planters. Fuimus Troes,
fuit Ilium--We have been Trojans, and there once was Troy. (2.) They
designed to cast an odium upon Christ as if he reflected upon the patriarch
Abraham, in speaking of their father as one they had learned evil from. See
how they sought an occasion to quarrel with him. Now Christ overthrows this
plea, and exposes the vanity of it by a plain and cogent argument:
"Abraham's children will do the works of Abraham, but you do not do
Abraham's works, therefore you are not Abraham's children."
[1.] The proposition is plain: "If you were Abraham's children,
such children of Abraham as could claim an interest in the covenant made with
him and his seed, which would indeed put an honour upon you, then you would do
the works of Abraham, for to those only of Abraham's house who kept the
way of the Lord, as Abraham did, would God perform what he had spoken,"
Gen. xviii. 19. Those only are reckoned the seed of Abraham, to whom the
promise belongs, who tread in the steps of his faith and obedience,
Rom. iv. 12. Though the Jews had their genealogies, and kept them exact, yet
they could not by them make out their relation to Abraham, so as to take the
benefit of the old entail (performam doni--according to the form of the
gift), unless they walked in the same spirit; good women's relation to
Sarah is proved only by this--whose daughters you are as long as you do
well, and no longer, 1 Pet. iii. 6. Note, Those who would approve
themselves Abraham's seed must not only be of Abraham's faith, but do
Abraham's works (James ii. 21, 22),-- must come at God's call, as he
did,--must resign their dearest comforts to him,--must be strangers and
sojourners in this world,--must keep up the worship of God in their families,
and always walk before God in their uprightness; for these were the works of
Abraham.
[2.] The assumption is evident likewise: But you do not do the works of
Abraham, for you seek to kill me, a man that has told you the truth, which
I have heard of God; this did not Abraham, v. 40.
First, He shows them what their work was, their present work, which
they were now about; they sought to kill him; and three things are
intimated as an aggravation of their intention:-- 1. They were so unnatural
as to seek the life of a man, a man like themselves, bone of their
bone, and flesh of their flesh, who had done them no harm, nor given them any
provocation. You imagine mischief against a man, Ps. lxii. 3. 2. They
were so ungrateful as to seek the life of one who had told them the
truth, had not only done them no injury, but had done them the greatest
kindness that could be; had not only not imposed upon them with a lie, but had
instructed them in the most necessary and important truths; was he
therefore become their enemy? 3. They were so ungodly as to seek
the life of one who told them the truth which he had heard from God,
who was a messenger sent from God to them, so that their attempt against him
was quasi deicidium--an act of malice against God. This was their work,
and they persisted in it.
Secondly, He shows them that this did not become the children of
Abraham; for this did not Abraham. 1. "He did nothing like
this." He was famous for his humanity, witness his rescue of the
captives; and for his piety, witness his obedience to the heavenly vision in
many instances, and some tender ones. Abraham believed God; they were
obstinate in unbelief: Abraham followed God; they fought against him; so that
he would be ignorant of them, and would not acknowledge them, they were
so unlike him, Isa. lxiii. 16. See Jer. xxii. 15-17. 2. "He would not
have done thus if he had lived now, or I had lived then." Hoc Abraham
non fecisset--He would not have done this; so some read it. We should thus
reason ourselves out of any way of wickedness; would Abraham, and Isaac, and
Jacob have done so? We cannot expect to be ever with them, if we be never
like them.
[3.] The conclusion follows of course (v. 41): "Whatever your
boasts and pretensions be, you are not Abraham's children, but father
yourselves upon another family (v. 41); there is a father whose
deeds you do, whose spirit you are of, and whom you resemble." He
does not yet say plainly that he means the devil, till they by their
continued cavils forced him so to explain himself, which teaches us to treat
even bad men with civility and respect, and not to be forward to say that of
them, or to them, which, though true, sounds harsh. He
tried whether they would suffer their own consciences to infer from what he
said that they were the devil's children; and it is better to hear it from
them now that we are called to repent, that is, to change our father
and change our family, by changing our spirit and way, than to hear it from
Christ in the great day.
2. So far were they from owning their unworthiness of relation to Abraham that
they pleaded relation to God himself as their Father: "We are not born
of fornication, we are not bastards, but legitimate sons; we have one
Father, even God."
(1.) Some understand this literally. They were not the sons of the bondwoman,
as the Ishmaelites were; nor begotten in incest, as the Moabites and Ammonites
were (Deut. xxiii. 3); nor were they a spurious brood in Abraham's family, but
Hebrews of the Hebrews; and, being born in lawful wedlock, they might
call God Father, who instituted that honourable estate in innocency;
for a legitimate seed, not tainted with divorces nor the plurality of wives,
is called a seed of God, Mal. ii. 15.
(2.) Others take it figuratively. They begin to be aware now that Christ spoke
of a spiritual not a carnal father, of the father of their
religion; and so,
[1.] They deny themselves to be a generation of idolaters: "We are not
born of fornication, are not the children of idolatrous parents, nor have
been bred up in idolatrous worships." Idolatry is often spoken of as
spiritual whoredom, and idolaters as children of whoredoms,
Hosea ii. 4; Isa. lvii. 3. Now, if they meant that they were not the posterity
of idolaters, the allegation was false, for no nation was more addicted to
idolatry than the Jews before the captivity; if they meant no more than that
they themselves were not idolaters, what then? A man may be free from
idolatry, and yet perish in another iniquity, and be shut out of Abraham's
covenant. If thou commit no idolatry (apply it to this spiritual
fornication), yet if thou kill thou art become a transgressor of the
covenant. A rebellious prodigal son will be disinherited, though he be not born
of fornication.
[2.] They boast themselves to be true worshippers of the true God. We have not
many fathers, as the heathens had, gods many and lords many, and yet
were without God, as filius populi--a son of the people, has many
fathers and yet none certain; no, the Lord our God is one Lord and one
Father, and therefore it is well with us. Note, Those flatter themselves,
and put a damning cheat upon their own souls, who imagine that their
professing the true religion and worshipping the true God will save them,
though they worship not God in spirit and in truth, nor are true to their
profession. Now our Saviour gives a full answer to this fallacious plea (v.
42, 43), and proves, by two arguments, that they had no right to call God
Father.
First, They did not love Christ: If God were your Father, you would
love me. He had disproved their relation to Abraham by their going about
to kill him (v. 40), but here he disproves their relation to God by
their not loving and owning him. A man may pass for a child of Abraham
if he do not appear an enemy to Christ by gross sin; but he cannot approve
himself a child of God unless he be a faithful friend and follower of Christ.
Note, All that have God for their Father have a true love to Jesus Christ, and
esteem of his person, a grateful sense of his love, a sincere affection to his
cause and kingdom, a complacency in the salvation wrought out by him and in
the method and terms of it, and a care to keep his commandments, which is the
surest evidence of our love to him. We are here in a state of probation, upon
our trial how we will conduct ourselves towards our Maker, and accordingly it
will be with us in the state of retribution. God has taken various methods to
prove us, and this was one: he sent his Son into the world, with sufficient
proofs of his sonship and mission, concluding that all that called him Father
would kiss his Son, and bid him welcome who was the first-born
among many brethren; see 1 John v. 1. By this our adoption will be proved or
disproved--Did we love Christ, or no? If any man do not, he is so far
from being a child of God that he is anathema, accursed, 1 Cor. xvi.
22. Now our Saviour proves that if they were God's children they would love
him; for, saith he, I proceeded forth and came from God. They will
love him; for, 1. He was the Son of God: I proceeded forth from God. 'Exhlqon
this means his divine exeleusiV,
or origin from the Father, by the communication of the divine essence, and
also the union of the divine logoV
to his human nature; so Dr. Whitby. Now this could not but recommend him to
the affections of all that were born of God. Christ is called the beloved,
because, being the beloved of the Father, he is certainly the beloved of all
the saints, Eph. i. 6. 2. He was sent of God, came from him as an
ambassador to the world of mankind. He did not come of himself, as the
false prophets, who had not either their mission or their message
from God, Jer. xxiii. 21. Observe the emphasis he lays upon this: I came
from God; neither came I of myself, but he sent me. He had both his
credentials and his instructions from God; he came to gather together in
one the children of God (ch. xi. 51), to bring many sons to
glory, Heb. ii. 10. And would not all God's children embrace with both
arms a messenger sent from their Father on such errands? But these Jews
made it appear that they were nothing akin to God, by their want of affection
to Jesus Christ.
Secondly, They did not understand him. It was a sign they did not
belong to God's family that they did not understand the language and dialect
of the family: You do not understand my speech (v. 43), thn
lalian thn emhn. Christ's speech was divine and
heavenly, but intelligible enough to those that were acquainted with the voice
of Christ in the Old Testament. Those that had made the word of the Creator
familiar to them needed no other key to the dialect of the Redeemer; and yet
these Jews make strange of the doctrine of Christ, and find knots in it, and I
know not what stumbling stones. Could a Galilean be known by his speech? An
Ephraimite by his sibboleth? And would any have the confidence to call
God Father to whom the Son of God was a barbarian, even when he spoke the will
of God in the words of the Spirit of God? Note, Those who are not acquainted
with the divine speech have reason to fear that they are strangers to the
divine nature. Christ spoke the words of God (ch. iii. 34) in the
dialect of the kingdom of God; and yet they, who pretended to belong to the
kingdom, understood not the idioms and properties of it, but like strangers,
and rude ones too, ridiculed it. And the reason why they did not understand
Christ's speech made the matter much worse: Even because you cannot hear my
word, that is, "You cannot persuade yourselves to hear it
attentively, impartially, and without prejudice, as it should be heard."
The meaning of this cannot is an obstinate will not; as the Jews
could not hear Stephen (Acts vii. 57) nor Paul, Acts xxiii. 22. Note, The
rooted antipathy of men's corrupt hearts to the doctrine of Christ is the true
reason of their ignorance of it, and of their errors and mistakes about it.
They do not like it nor love it, and therefore they will not understand it;
like Peter, who pretended he knew not what the damsel said (Matt. xxvi.
70), when in truth he knew not what to say to it. You cannot hear my words,
for you have stopped your ears (Ps. lviii. 4, 5), and God, in a way of
righteous judgment, has made your ears heavy, Isa. vi. 10.
III. Having thus disproved their relation both to Abraham and to God, he comes
next to tell them plainly whose children they were: You are of your father
the devil, v. 44. If they were not God's children, they were the
devil's, for God and Satan divide the world of mankind; the devil is therefore
said to work in the children of disobedience, Eph. ii. 2. All wicked
people are the devil's children, children of Belial (2 Cor. vi. 15),
the serpent's seed (Gen. iii. 15), children of the wicked one, Matt. xiii. 38.
They partake of his nature, bear his image, obey his commands, and follow his
example. Idolaters said to a stock, Thou art our father, Jer. ii. 27.
This is a high charge, and sounds very harsh and horrid, that any of the
children of men, especially the church's children, should be called children
of the devil, and therefore our Saviour fully proves it.
1. By a general argument: The lusts of your father you will do, qelete
poiein. (1.) "You do the devil's lusts,
the lusts which he would have you to fulfil; you gratify and please him, and
comply with his temptation, and are led captive by him at his will:
nay, you do those lusts which the devil himself fulfils." Fleshly lusts
and worldly lusts the devil tempts men to; but, being a spirit, he cannot
fulfil them himself. The peculiar lusts of the devil are spiritual
wickedness; the lusts of the intellectual powers, and their corrupt
reasonings; pride and envy, and wrath and malice; enmity to that which is
good, and enticing others to that which is evil; these are lusts which the
devil fulfils, and those who are under the dominion of these lusts resemble
the devil, as the child does the parent. The more there is of contemplation,
and contrivance, and secret complacency, in sin, the more it resembles the lusts
of the devil. (2.) You will do the devil's lusts. The more there is
of the will in these lusts, the more there is of the devil in them.
When sin is committed of choice and not by surprise, with pleasure
and not with reluctancy, when it is persisted in with a daring presumption and
a desperate resolution, like theirs that said, We have loved strangers and
after them we will go, then the sinner will do the devil's lusts.
"The lusts of your father you delight to do;" so Dr. Hammond;
they are rolled under the tongue as a sweet morsel.
2. By two particular instances, wherein they manifestly resembled the devil--murder
and lying. The devil is an enemy to life, because God is the God of
life and life is the happiness of man; and an enemy to truth, because God is
the God of truth and truth is the bond of human society.
(1.) He was a murderer from the beginning, not from his own beginning,
for he was created an angel of light, and had a first estate which was pure
and good, but from the beginning of his apostasy, which was soon after the
creation of man. He was anqrwpoktonoV--homicida,
a man-slayer. [1.] He was a hater of man, and so in affection an
disposition a murderer of him. He has his name, Satan, from sitnah--hatred.
He maligned God's image upon man, envied his happiness, and earnestly desired
his ruin, was an avowed enemy to the whole race. [2.] He was man's tempter to that
sin which brought death into the world, and so he was effectually the murderer
of all mankind, which in Adam had but one neck. He was a murderer of
souls, deceived them into sin, and by it slew them (Rom. vii.
11), poisoned man with the forbidden fruit, and, to aggravate the matter, made
him his own murderer. Thus he was not only at the beginning, but from
the beginning, which intimates that thus he has been ever since; as he
began, so he continues, the murderer of men by his temptations. The great
tempter is the great destroyer. The Jews called the devil the angel of
death. [3.] He was the first wheel in the first murder that ever was
committed by Cain, who was of that wicked one, and slew his brother, 1 John
iii. 12. If the devil had not been very strong in Cain, he could not have done
such an unnatural thing as to kill his own brother. Cain killing his brother
by the instigation of the devil, the devil is called the murderer,
which does not speak Cain's personal guilt the less, but the devil's the more,
whose torments, we have reason to think, will be the greater, when the time
comes, for all that wickedness into which he has drawn men. See what reason we
have to stand upon our guard against the wiles of the devil, and
never to hearken to him (for he is a murderer, and certainly aims to do us
mischief, even when he speaks fair), and to wonder that he who is the
murderer of the children of men should yet be, by their own consent, so much
their master. Now herein these Jews were followers of him, and were murderers,
like him; murderers of souls, which they led blindfold into the ditch, and
made the children of hell; sworn enemies of Christ, and now ready to be
his betrayers and murderers, for the same reason that Cain killed Abel. These
Jews were that seed of the serpent that were to bruise the heel
of the seed of the woman; Now you seek to kill me.
(2.) He was a liar. A lie is opposed to truth (1 John ii. 21), and
accordingly the devil is here described to be,
[1.] An enemy to truth, and therefore to Christ. First, He is a deserter,
from the truth; he abode not in the truth, did not continue in the
purity and rectitude of his nature wherein he was created, but left his first
state; when he degenerated from goodness, he departed from truth, for his
apostasy was founded in a lie. The angels were the hosts of the Lord;
those that fell were not true to their commander and sovereign, they
were not to be trusted, being charged with folly and defection, Job iv.
18. By the truth here we may understand the revealed will of God
concerning the salvation of man by Jesus Christ, the truth which Christ was
now preaching, and which the Jews opposed; herein they did like their
father the devil, who, seeing the honour put upon the human nature
in the first Adam, and foreseeing the much greater honour
intended in the second Adam, would not be reconciled to that counsel of
God, nor stand in the truth concerning it, but, from a spirit of pride
and envy, set himself to resist it, and to thwart the designs of it; and so
did these Jews here, as his children and agents. Secondly, He is destitute
of the truth: There is no truth in him. His interest in the world is
supported by lies and falsehoods, and there is no truth, nothing you can
confide in, in him, nor in any thing he says or does. The notions he
propagates concerning good and evil are false and erroneous, his proofs are
lying wonders, his temptations are all cheats; he has great knowledge of the
truth, but having no affection to it, but on the contrary being a sworn enemy
to it, he is said to have no truth in him.
[2.] He is a friend and patron of lying: When he speaketh a lie he speaketh
of his own. Three things are here said of the devil with reference to the
sin of lying:--First, That he is a liar; his oracles were lying
oracles, his prophets lying prophets, and the images in which he was
worshipped teachers of lies. He tempted our first parents with a
downright lie. All his temptations are carried on by lies, calling evil
good and good evil, and promising impunity in sin; he knows them to be
lies, and suggests them with an intention to deceive, and so to destroy. When
he now contradicted the gospel, in the scribes and Pharisees, it was by
lies; and when afterwards he corrupted it, in the man of sin, it
was by strong delusions, and a great complicated lie. Secondly, That
when he speaks a lie he speaks of his own, ek
twn idiwn. It is the proper idiom of his
language; of his own, not of God; his Creator never put it into him.
When men speak a lie they borrow it from the devil, Satan fills their
hearts to lie (Acts v. 3); but when the devil speaks a lie the model
of it is of his own framing, the motives to it are from himself, which
bespeaks the desperate depth of wickedness into which those apostate spirits
are sunk; as in their first defection they had no tempter, so their sinfulness
is still their own. Thirdly, That he is the father of it, autou.
1. He is the father of every lie; not only of the lies which he himself
suggests, but of those which others speak; he is the author and founder of all
lies. When men speak lies, they speak from him, and as his mouth; they come
originally from him, and bear his image. 2. He is the father of every liar;
so it may be understood. God made men with a disposition to truth. It is
congruous to reason and natural light, to the order of our faculties and the
laws of society, that we should speak truth; but the devil, the author of sin,
the spirit that works in the children of disobedience, has so corrupted the
nature of man that the wicked are said to be estranged from the womb,
speaking lies (Ps. lviii. 3); he has taught them with their tongues to
use deceit, Rom. iii. 13. He is the father of liars, who begat them, who
trained them up in the way of lying, whom they resemble and obey, and
with whom all liars shall have their portion for ever.
IV. Christ, having thus proved all murderers and all liars to be the devil's
children, leaves it to the consciences of his hearers to say, Thou art the
man. But he comes in the following verses to assist them in the
application of it to themselves; he does not call them liars, but shows
them that they were no friends to truth, and therein resembled him who abode
not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. Two things he charges
upon them:--
1. That they would not believe the word of truth (v. 45), oti
thn alhqeian legw, ou pisteuete moi.
(1.) Two ways it may be taken;-- [1.] "Though I tell you the truth, yet
you will not believe me (oti),
that I do so." Though he gave abundant proof of his commission
from God, and his affection to the children of men, yet they would not believe
that he told them the truth. Now was truth fallen in the street, Isa.
lix. 14, 15. The greatest truths with some gained not the least credit; for
they rebelled against the light, Job xxiv. 13. Or, [2.] Because I
tell you the truth (so we read it) therefore you believe me not.
They would not receive him, nor entertain him as a prophet, because he told
them some unpleasing truths which they did not care to hear, told them the
truth concerning themselves and their own case, showed them their faces in a
glass that would not flatter them; therefore they would not believe a word he
said. Miserable is the case of those to whom the light of divine truth is
become a torment.
(2.) Now, to show them the unreasonableness of their infidelity, he
condescends to put the matter to this fair issue, v. 46. He and they
being contrary, either he was in an error or they were. Now take it either
way.
[1.] If he were in an error, why did they not convince him? The
falsehood of pretended prophets was discovered either by the ill
tendency of their doctrines (Deut. xiii. 2), or by the ill tenour
of their conversation: You shall know them by their fruits; but (saith
Christ) which of you, you of the sanhedrim, that take upon you to judge
of prophets, which of you convinceth me of sin? They accused him of
some of the worst of crimes--gluttony, drunkenness, blasphemy, sabbath-breaking,
confederacy with Satan, and what not. But their accusations were malicious
groundless calumnies, and such as every one that knew him knew to be utterly
false. When they had done their utmost by trick and artifice, subornation
and perjury, to prove some crime upon him, the very judge that condemned him
owned he found no fault in him. The sin he here challenges them
to convict him of is, First, An inconsistent doctrine. They had heard
his testimony; could they show any thing in it absurd or unworthy to be
believed, any contradiction either of himself or of the scriptures, or any
corruption of truth or manners insinuated by his doctrine? ch. xviii.
20. Or, Secondly, An incongruous conversation: "Which of you can
justly charge me with any thing, in word or deed, unbecoming a prophet?"
See the wonderful condescension of our Lord Jesus, that he demanded not credit
any further than the allowed motives of credibility supported his demands. See
Jer. ii. 5, 31; Mic. vi. 3. Ministers may hence learn, 1. To walk so circumspectly
as that it may not be in the power of their most strict observers to convince
them of sin, that the ministry be not blamed. The only way not to be
convicted of sin is not to sin. 2. To be willing to admit a scrutiny;
though we are confident in many things that we are in the right, yet we should
be willing to have it tried whether we be not in the wrong. See Job vi. 24.
[2.] If they were in an error, why were they not convinced by him?
"If I say the truth, why do you not believe me? If you cannot
convince me of error, you must own that I say the truth, and why do you
not then give me credit? Why will you not deal with me upon
trust?" Note, If men would but enquire into the reason of their
infidelity, and examine why they do not believe that which they cannot
gainsay, they would find themselves reduced to such absurdities as they could
not but be ashamed of; for it will be found that the reason why we believe not
in Jesus Christ is because we are not willing to part with our sins, and deny
ourselves, and serve God faithfully; that we are not of the Christian
religion, because we would not indeed be of any, and unbelief of our Redeemer
resolves itself into a downright rebellion against our Creator.
2. Another thing charged upon them is that they would not hear the words of
God (v. 47), which further shows how groundless their claim of relation
to God was. Here is,
(1.) A doctrine laid down: He that is of God heareth God's words; that
is, [1.] He is willing and ready to hear them, is sincerely
desirous to know what the mind of God is, and cheerfully embraces whatever he
knows to be so. God's words have such an authority over, and such an
agreeableness with all that are born of God, that they meet them, as the child
Samuel did, with, Speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth. Let the word of
the Lord come. [2.] He apprehends and discerns them, he so hears
them as to perceive the voice of God in them, which the natural man
does not, 1 Cor. ii. 14. He that is of God is soon aware of the
discoveries he makes of himself of the nearness of his name (Ps. lxxv.
1), as they of the family know the master's tread, and the master's knock, and
open to him immediately (Luke xii. 36), as the sheep know the voice of
their shepherd from that of a stranger, ch. x. 4, 5; Cant. ii. 8.
(2.) The application of this doctrine, for the conviction of these unbelieving
Jews: You therefore hear them not; that is, "You heed not, you
understand not, you believe not, the words of God, nor care to hear them, because
you are not of God. Your being thus deaf and dead to the words of God is a
plain evidence that you are not of God." It is in his word that
God manifests himself and is present among us; we are therefore reckoned to be
well or ill affected to his word; see 2 Cor. iv. 4; 1 John iv. 6. Or, their
not being of God was the reason why they did not profitably hear the words
of God, which Christ spoke; they did not understand and believe him, not
because the things themselves were obscure or wanted evidence, but because the
hearers were not of God, were not born again. If the word of the
kingdom do not bring forth fruit, the blame is to be laid upon the soil, not
upon the seed, as appears by the parable of the sower, Matt. xiii. 3.
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Christ's
Discourse with the Pharisees.
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48 Then answered the Jews, and said unto him,
Say we not well that thou art a Samaritan, and hast a devil? 49
Jesus answered, I have not a devil; but I honour my Father, and ye do
dishonour me. 50 And I seek not mine own glory: there is one that
seeketh and judgeth.
Here is, I. The malice of hell breaking out in the base language which the
unbelieving Jews gave to our Lord Jesus. Hitherto they had cavilled at his
doctrine, and had made invidious remarks upon it; but, having shown themselves
uneasy when he complained (v. 43, 47) that they would not hear him, now
at length they fall to downright railing, v. 48. They were not the
common people, but, as it should seem, the scribes and Pharisees, the men of
consequence, who, when they saw themselves convicted of an obstinate
infidelity, scornfully turned off the conviction with this: Say we not well
that thou art a Samaritan, and hast a devil? See here, see it and wonder,
see it and tremble,
1. What was the blasphemous character commonly given of our Lord Jesus among
the wicked Jews, to which they refer. (1.) That he was a Samaritan, that is,
that he was an enemy to their church and nation, one that they hated and could
not endure. Thus they exposed him to the ill will of the people, with whom you
could not put a man into a worse name than to call him a Samaritan. If
he had been a Samaritan, he had been punishable, by the beating of the
rebels (as they called it), for coming into the temple. They had often
enough called him a Galilean--a mean man; but as if that were not
enough, though it contradicted the other, they will have him a Samaritan--a
bad man. The Jews to this day call the Christians, in reproach, Cuthæi-Samaritans.
Note, Great endeavours have in all ages been used to make good people odious
by putting them under black characters, and it is easy to run that down with a
crowd and a cry which is once put into an ill name. Perhaps because Christ
justly inveighed against the pride and tyranny of the priests and elders, they
hereby suggest that he aimed at the ruin of their church, in aiming at its
reformation, and was falling away to the Samaritans. (2.) That he
had a devil. Either, [1.] That he was in league with the devil.
Having reproached his doctrine as tending to Samaritanism, here they reflect
upon his miracles as done in combination with Beelzebub. Or, rather [2.] That
he was possessed with a devil, that he was a melancholy man, whose brain was clouded,
or a mad man, whose brain was heated, and that which he said was no
more to be believed than the extravagant rambles of a distracted man, or one
in a delirium. Thus the divine revelation of those things which are above the
discovery of reason have been often branded with the charge of enthusiasm, and
the prophet was called a mad fellow, 2 Kings ix. 11; Hosea ix. 7. The
inspiration of the Pagan oracles and prophets was indeed a frenzy, and those
that had it were for the time beside themselves; but that which was truly divine
was not so. Wisdom is justified of her children, as wisdom indeed.
2. How they undertook to justify this character, and applied it to the present
occasion: Say we not well that thou art so? One would think that his
excellent discourses should have altered their opinion of him, and have made
them recant; but, instead of this, their hearts were more hardened and their
prejudices confirmed. They value themselves on their enmity to Christ, as if
they had never spoken better than when they spoke the worst they could
of Jesus Christ. Those have arrived at the highest pitch of wickedness who
avow their impiety, repeat what they should retract, and justify themselves in
that for which they ought to condemn themselves. It is bad to say and do ill,
but it is worse to stand to it; I do well to be angry. When
Christ spoke with so much boldness against the sins of the great men, and
thereby incensed them against him, those who were sensible of no interest but
what is secular and sensual concluded him beside himself, for they
thought none but a madman would lose his preferment, and hazard his life, for
his religion and conscience.
II. The meekness and mercifulness of Heaven shining in Christ's reply to this
vile calumny, v. 49, 50.
1. He denies their charge against him: I have not a devil; as Paul
(Acts xxvi. 25), I am not mad. The imputation is unjust; "I am
neither actuated by a devil, nor in compact with one;" and this he
evidenced by what he did against the devil's kingdom. He takes no notice of
their calling him a Samaritan, because it was a calumny that disproved
itself, it was a personal reflection, and not worth taking notice of: but
saying he had a devil reflected on his commission, and therefore he answered
that. St. Augustine gives this gloss upon his not saying any thing to their
calling him a Samaritan--that he was indeed that good Samaritan spoken of in
the parable, Luke x. 33.
2. He asserts the sincerity of his own intentions: But I honour my Father.
They suggested that he took undue honours to himself, and derogated from the
honour due to God only, both which he denies here, in saying that he
made it his business to honour his Father, and him only. It also proves that
he had not a devil; for, if he had, he would not honour God. Note,
Those who can truly way that they make it their constant care to honour God
are sufficiently armed against the censures and reproaches of men.
3. He complains of the wrong they did him by their calumnies: You do
dishonour me. By this it appears that, as man, he had a tender sense of
the disgrace and indignity done him; reproach was a sword in his bones, and
yet he underwent it for our salvation. It is the will of God that all men
should honour the Son, yet there are many that dishonour him; such
a contradiction is there in the carnal mind to the will of God. Christ
honoured his Father so as never man did, and yet was himself dishonoured so as
never man was; for, though God has promised that those who honour him he will
honour, he never promised that men should honour them.
4. He clears himself from the imputation of vain glory, in saying this
concerning himself, v. 50. See here, (1.) His contempt of
worldly honour: I seek not mine own glory. He did not aim at this in
what he had said of himself or against his persecutors; he did not court the
applause of men, nor covet preferment in the world, but industriously declined
both. He did not seek his own glory distinct from his Father's, nor had
any separate interest of his own. For men to search their own glory is not
glory indeed (Prov. xxv. 27), but rather their shame to be so much out
in their aim. This comes in here as a reason why Christ made so light of
their reproaches: "You do dishonour me, but cannot disturb me,
shall not disquiet me, for I seek not my own glory." Note, Those
who are dead to men's praise can safely bear their contempt. (2.) His comfort
under worldly dishonour: There is one that seeketh and judgeth. In two
things Christ made it appear that he sought not his own glory; and here
he tells us what satisfied him as to both. [1.] He did not court men's
respect, but was indifferent to it, and in reference to this he saith, "There
is one that seeketh, that will secure and advance, my interest in the
esteem and affections of the people, while I am in no care about it."
Note, God will seek their honour that do not seek their own; for
before honour is humility. [2.] He did not revenge men's affronts, but
was unconcerned at them, and in reference to this he saith, "There is
one that judgeth, that will vindicate my honour, and severely reckon with
those that trample upon it." Probably he refers here to the judgments
that were coming upon the nation of the Jews for the indignities they did to
the Lord Jesus. See Ps. xxxvii. 13-15. I heard not, for thou wilt hear.
If we undertake to judge for ourselves, whatever damage we sustain, our
recompence is in our own hands; but if we be, as we ought to be, humble
appellants and patient expectants, we shall find, to our comfort, there is
one that judgeth.
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Christ's
Discourse with the Pharisees
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51 Verily, verily, I say unto you, If a man
keep my saying, he shall never see death. 52 Then said the Jews
unto him, Now we know that thou hast a devil. Abraham is dead, and the
prophets; and thou sayest, If a man keep my saying, he shall never taste of
death. 53 Art thou greater than our father Abraham, which is dead?
and the prophets are dead: whom makest thou thyself? 54 Jesus
answered, If I honour myself, my honour is nothing: it is my Father that
honoureth me; of whom ye say, that he is your God: 55 Yet ye have
not known him; but I know him: and if I should say, I know him not, I shall be
a liar like unto you: but I know him, and keep his saying. 56 Your
father Abraham rejoiced to see my day: and he saw it, and was
glad. 57 Then said the Jews unto him, Thou art not yet fifty years
old, and hast thou seen Abraham? 58 Jesus said unto them, Verily,
verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am. 59 Then took
they up stones to cast at him: but Jesus hid himself, and went out of the
temple, going through the midst of them, and so passed by.
In these verses we have,
I. The doctrine of the immortality of believers laid down, v. 51. It is
ushered in with the usual solemn preface, Verily, verily, I say unto you,
which commands both attention and assent, and this is what he says, If a
man keep my sayings, he shall never see death. Here we have, 1. The character
of a believer: he is one that keeps the sayings of the Lord Jesus, ton
logon ton emon--my word; that word of mine
which I have delivered to you; this we must not only receive, but keep;
not only have, but hold. We must keep it in mind and memory,
keep it in love and affection, so keep it as in nothing to violate it or go
contrary to it, keep it without spot (1 Tim. vi. 14), keep it as a
trust committed to us, keep in it as our way, keep to it as our rule. 2. The privilege
of a believer: He shall by no means see death for ever; so it is in the
original. Not as if the bodies of believers were secured from the stroke of
death. No, even the children of the Most High must die like men,
and the followers of Christ have been, more than other men, in deaths often,
and killed all the day long; how then is this promise made good that
they shall not see death? Answer, (1.) The property of death is so
altered to them that they do not see it as death, they do not see the terror
of death, it is quite taken off; their sight does not terminate in
death, as theirs does who live by sense; no, they look so clearly, so
comfortably, through death, and beyond death, and are so taken up with their
state on the other side death, that they overlook death, and see it not.
(2.) The power of death is so broken that though there is no remedy, but they
must see death, yet they shall not see death for ever, shall not
be always shut up under its arrests, the day will come when death shall be
swallowed up in victory. (3.) They are perfectly delivered from eternal
death, shall not be hurt of the second death. That is the death
especially meant here, that death which is for ever, which is opposed
to everlasting life; this they shall never see, for they shall never come
into condemnation; they shall have their everlasting lot where there will
be no more death, where they cannot die any more, Luke xx. 36.
Though now they cannot avoid seeing death, and tasting it too, yet they shall
shortly be there where it will be seen no more for ever, Exod. xiv. 13.
II. The Jews cavil at this doctrine. Instead of laying hold of this precious
promise of immortality, which the nature of man has an ambition of (who is
there that does not love life, and dread the sight of death?) they lay hold of
this occasion to reproach him that makes them so kind an offer: Now we know
that thou hast a devil. Abraham is dead. Observe here,
1. Their railing: "Now we know that thou hast a devil, that thou
art a madman; thou ravest, and sayest thou knowest not what." See how
these swine trample underfoot the precious pearls of gospel promises. If now
at last they had evidence to prove him mad, why did they say (v.
48), before they had that proof, Thou hast a devil? But this is the
method of malice, first to fasten an invidious charge, and then to fish
for evidence of it: Now we know that thou hast a devil. If he had not
abundantly proved himself a teacher come from God, his promises of
immortality to his credulous followers might justly have been ridiculed, and
charity itself would have imputed them to a crazed fancy; but his doctrine was
evidently divine, his miracles confirmed it, and the Jews' religion taught
them to expect such a prophet, and to believe in him; for them therefore thus
to reject him was to abandon that promise to which their twelve tribes
hoped to come, Acts xxvi. 7.
2. Their reasoning, and the colour they had to run him down
thus. In short, they look upon him as guilty of an insufferable piece of
arrogance, in making himself greater than Abraham and the prophets: Abraham
is dead, and the prophets, they are dead too; very true, by the
same token that these Jews were the genuine offspring of those that killed
them. Now, (1.) It is true that Abraham and the prophets were great men, great
in the favour of God, and great in the esteem of all good men. (2.) It is true
that they kept God's sayings, and were obedient to them; and yet, (3.)
It is true that they died; they never pretended to have, much
less to give, immortality, but every one in his own order was gathered
to his people. It was their honour that they died in faith, but die
they must. Why should a good man be afraid to die, when Abraham is dead, and
the prophets are dead? They have tracked the way through that darksome
valley, which should reconcile us to death and help to take off the terror of
it. Now they think Christ talks madly, when he saith, If a man keep my
sayings, he shall never taste death. Tasting death means the same thing
with seeing it; and well may death be represented as grievous to several
of the senses, which is the destruction of them all. Now their arguing
goes upon two mistakes:-- [1.] They understood Christ of an immortality in
this world, and this was a mistake. In the sense that Christ spoke, it was not
true that Abraham and the prophets were dead, for God is still the God
of Abraham and the God of the holy prophets (Rev. xxii. 6); now God
is not the God of the dead, but of the living; therefore Abraham and the
prophets are still alive, and, as Christ meant it, they had not seen
nor tasted death. [2.] They thought none could be greater than Abraham
and the prophets, whereas they could not but know that the Messiah would be
greater than Abraham or any of the prophets; they did virtuously, but he
excelled them all; nay, they borrowed their greatness from him. It was the
honour of Abraham that he was the Father of the Messiah, and the honour of the
prophets that they testified beforehand concerning him: so that he certainly obtained
a far more excellent name than they. Therefore, instead of
inferring from Christ's making himself greater than Abraham that he had a devil,
they should have inferred from his proving himself so (by doing the works
which neither Abraham nor the prophets ever did) that he was the Christ; but
their eyes were blinded. They scornfully asked, Whom makest thou thyself?
As if he had been guilty of pride and vain-glory; whereas he was so far from
making himself greater than he was that he now drew a veil over his own glory,
emptied himself, and made himself less than he was, and was the greatest
example of humility that ever was.
III. Christ's reply to this cavil; still he vouchsafes to reason with them,
that every mouth may be stopped. No doubt he could have struck them dumb or
dead upon the spot, but this was the day of his patience.
1. In his answer he insists not upon his own testimony concerning himself, but
waives it as not sufficient nor conclusive (v. 54): If I honour
myself, my honour is nothing, ean egw doxazw--if
I glorify myself. Note, Self-honour is no honour; and the affectation of
glory is both the forfeiture and the defeasance of it: it is not glory
(Prov. xxv. 27), but so great a reproach that there is no sin which men are
more industrious to hide than this; even he that most affects praise would not
be thought to do it. Honour of our own creating is a mere chimera, has nothing
in it, and therefore is called vain-glory. Self-admirers are self-deceivers.
Our Lord Jesus was not one that honoured himself, as they represented
him; he was crowned by him who is the fountain of honour, and glorified
not himself to be made a high priest, Heb. v. 4, 5.
2. He refers himself to his Father, God; and to their father,
Abraham.
(1.) To his Father, God: It is my Father that honoureth me. By this he
means, [1.] That he derived from his Father all the honour he now
claimed; he had commanded them to believe in him, to follow him, and to keep
his word, all which put an honour upon him; but it was the Father that laid
help upon him, that lodged all fulness in him, that
sanctified him, and sealed him, and sent him into the world to receive all the
honours due to the Messiah, and this justified him in all these demands of
respect. [2.] That he depended upon his Father for all the honour he
further looked for. He courted not the applauses of the age, but
despised them; for his eye and heart were upon the glory which the Father had
promised him, and which he had with the Father before the world was. He
aimed at an advancement with which the Father was to exalt him, a name
he was to give him, Phil. ii. 8, 9. Note, Christ and all that are his
depend upon God for their honour; and he that is sure of honour where he is
known cares not though he be slighted where he is in disguise. Appealing thus
often to his Father, and his Father's testimony of him, which yet the Jews did
not admit nor give credit to,
First, He here takes occasion to show the reason of their
incredulity, notwithstanding this testimony--and this was their unacquaintedness
with God; as if he had said, "But why should I talk to you of my Father's
honouring me, when he is one you know nothing of? You say of him that he is
your God, yet you have not known him." Here observe,
a. The profession they made of relation to God: "You say that
he is your God, the God you have chosen, and are in covenant with; you say
that you are Israel; but all are not so indeed that are of Israel," Rom.
ix. 6. Note, Many pretend to have an interest in God, and say that he is theirs,
who yet have no just cause to say so. Those who called themselves the temple
of the Lord, having profaned the excellency of Jacob, did but trust
in lying words. What will it avail us to say, He is our God, if we be
not in sincerity his people, nor such as he will own? Christ mentions
here their profession of relation to God, as that which was an aggravation of
their unbelief. All people will honour those whom their God honours; but these
Jews, who said that the Lord was their God, studied how to put the utmost
disgrace upon one upon whom their God put honour. Note, The Profession we make
of a covenant relation to God, and an interest in him, if it be not improved by
us will be improved against us.
b. Their ignorance of him, and estrangement from him, notwithstanding
this profession: Yet you have not known him. (a.) You know
him not at all. These Pharisees were so taken up with the study of their
traditions concerning things foreign and trifling that they never minded the
most needful and useful knowledge; like the false prophets of old, who caused
people to forget God's name by their dreams, Jer. xxiii. 27. Or, (b.)
You know him not aright, but mistake concerning him; and this is as bad
as not knowing him at all, or worse. Men may be able to dispute subtly
concerning God, and yet may think him such a one as themselves, and not
know him. You say that he is yours, and it is natural to us to
desire to know our own, yet you know him not. Note, There are
many who claim-kindred to God who yet have no acquaintance with him. It
is only the name of God which they have learned to talk of, and to hector
with; but for the nature of God, his attributes and perfections, and relations
to his creatures, they know nothing of the matter; we speak this to their
shame, 1 Cor. xv. 34. Multitudes satisfy themselves, but deceive
themselves, with a titular relation to an unknown God. This Christ
charges upon the Jews here, [a.] To show how vain and groundless their
pretensions of relation to God were. "You say that he is yours, but you
give yourselves the lie, for it is plain that you do not know him;" and
we reckon that a cheat is effectually convicted if it be found that he is
ignorant of the persons he pretends alliance to. [b.] To show the true
reason why they were not wrought upon by Christ's doctrine and miracles. They
knew not God; and therefore perceived not the image of God, nor the voice of
God in Christ. Note, The reason why men receive not the gospel of Christ
is because they have not the knowledge of God. Men submit not to the
righteousness of Christ because they are ignorant of God's
righteousness, Rom. x. 3. They that know not God, and obey not the gospel
of Christ, are put together, 2 Thess. i. 8.
Secondly, He gives them the reason of his assurance that his
Father would honour him and own him: But I know him; and again, I
know him; which bespeaks, not only his acquaintance with him,
having lain in his bosom, but his confidence in him, to stand by him,
and bear him out in his whole undertaking; as was prophesied concerning him (Isa.
l. 7, 8), I know that I shall not be ashamed, for he is near that
justifies; and as Paul, "I know whom I have believed (2 Tim. i.
12), I know him to be faithful, and powerful, and heartily engaged in the
cause which I know to be his own." Observe, 1. How he professes
his knowledge of his Father, with the greatest certainty, as one that was
neither afraid nor ashamed to own it: If I should say I know him not, I
should be a liar like unto you. He would not deny his relation to God, to
humour the Jews, and to avoid their reproaches, and prevent further trouble;
nor would he retract what he had said, nor confess himself either deceived or
a deceiver; if he should, he would be found a false witness against God and
himself. Note, Those who disown their religion and relation to God, as Peter,
are liars, as much as hypocrites are, who pretend to know him, when they do
not. See 1 Tim. vi. 13, 14. Mr. Clark observes well, upon this, that it is a
great sin to deny God's grace in us. 2. How he proves his knowledge of
his Father: I know him and keep his sayings, or his word.
Christ, as man, was obedient to the moral law, and, as Redeemer, to the
mediatorial law; and in both he kept his Father's word, and his own
word with the Father. Christ requires of us (v. 51) that we keep
his sayings; and he has set before us a copy of obedience, a copy without
a blot: he kept his Father's sayings; well might he who learned
obedience teach it; see Heb. v. 8, 9. Christ by this evinced that he knew
the Father. Note, The best proof of our acquaintance with God is our obedience
to him. Those only know God aright that keep his word; it is a ruled case, 1
John ii. 3. Hereby we know that we know him (and do not only fancy it),
if we keep his commandments.
(2.) Christ refers them to their father, whom they boasted so much of a
relation to, and that was Abraham, and this closes the discourse.
[1.] Christ asserts Abraham's prospect of him, and respect to him: Your
father Abraham rejoiced to see my day, and he saw it, and was glad, v.
56. And by this he proves that he was not at all out of the way when he made
himself greater than Abraham. Two things he here speaks of as instances of
that patriarch's respect to the promised Messiah:--
First, The ambition he had to see his day: He rejoiced, hgalliasato--he
leaped at it. The word, though it commonly signifies rejoicing,
must here signify a transport of desire rather than of joy, for
otherwise the latter part of the verse would be a tautology; he saw it, and
was glad. He reached out, or stretched himself forth, that
he might see my day; as Zaccheus, that ran before, and climbed the
tree, to see Jesus. The notices he had received of the Messiah to come
had raised in him an expectation of something great, which he earnestly
longed to know more of. The dark intimation of that which is considerable puts
men upon enquiry, and makes them earnestly ask Who? and What?
and Where? and When? and How? And thus the prophets of
the Old Testament, having a general idea of a grace that should come,
searched diligently (1 Pet. i. 10), and Abraham was as industrious herein
as any of them. God told him of a land that he would give his posterity, and
of the wealth and honour he designed them (Gen. xv. 14); but he never leaped
thus to see that day, as he did to see the day of the Son of man. He could not
look with so much indifferency upon the promised seed as he did upon
the promised land; in that he was, but to the other he could not
be, contentedly a stranger. Note, Those who rightly know any thing of Christ
cannot but be earnestly desirous to know more of him. Those who discern the
dawning of the light of the Sun of righteousness cannot but wish to see his
rising. The mystery of redemption is that which angels desire to look into,
much more should we, who are more immediately concerned in it. Abraham desired
to see Christ's day, though it was at a great distance; but this degenerate
seed of his discerned not his day, nor bade it welcome when it came. The
appearing of Christ, which gracious souls love and long for, carnal hearts
dread and loathe.
Secondly, The satisfaction he had in what he did see of it: He saw
it, and was glad. Observe here,
a. How God gratified the pious desire of Abraham; he longed to see
Christ's day, and he saw it. Though he saw it not so plainly, and
fully, and distinctly as we now see it under the gospel, yet he saw something
of it, more afterwards than he did at first. Note, To him that has, and
to him that asks, shall be given; to him that uses and improves what he has,
and that desires and prays for more of the knowledge of Christ, God will give
more. But how did Abraham see Christ's day? (a.) Some understand it of
the sight he had of it in the other world. The separate soul of Abraham, when
the veil of flesh was rent, saw the mysteries of the kingdom of God in heaven.
Calvin mentions this sense of it, and does not much disallow it. Note, The
longings of gracious souls after Jesus Christ will be fully satisfied when
they come to heaven, and not till then. But, (b.) It is more commonly
understood of some sight he had of Christ's day in this world. They
that received not the promises, yet saw them afar off, Heb. xi.
13. Balaam saw Christ, but not now, not nigh. There is room to
conjecture that Abraham had some vision of Christ and his day, for his own
private satisfaction, which is not, nor must be, recorded in his story, like
that of Daniel's, which must be shut up, and sealed unto the time of the
end, Dan. xii. 4. Christ knew what Abraham saw better than Moses did. But
there are divers things recorded in which Abraham saw more of that which he
longed to see than he did when the promise was first made to him. He saw in
Melchizedek one made like unto the Son of God, and a priest for ever;
he saw an appearance of Jehovah, attended with two angels, in the plains of
Mamre. In the prevalency of his intercession for Sodom he saw a specimen of
Christ's intercession; in the casting out of Ishmael, and the establishment of
the covenant with Isaac, he saw a figure of the gospel day, which is Christ's
day; for these things were an allegory. In offering Isaac, and the ram instead
of Isaac, he saw a double type of the great sacrifice; and his calling the
place Jehovah-jireh--It shall be seen, intimates that he saw something
more in it than others did, which time would produce; and in making his
servant put his hand under his thigh, when he swore, he had a regard to
the Messiah.
b. How Abraham entertained these discoveries of Christ's day,
and bade them welcome: He saw, and was glad. He was glad of what he saw
of God's favour to himself, and glad of what he foresaw of the mercy
God had in store for the world. Perhaps this refers to Abraham's laughing when
God assured him of a son by Sarah (Gen. xvii. 16, 17), for that was not a
laughter of distrust as Sarah's but of joy; in that promise he saw Christ's
day, and it filled him with joy unspeakable. Thus he embraced the
promises. Note, A believing sight of Christ and his day will put gladness into
the heart. No joy like the joy of faith; we are never acquainted with true
pleasure till we are acquainted with Christ.
[2.] The Jews cavil at this, and reproach him for it (v. 57): Thou
art not yet fifty years old, and hast thou seen Abraham? Here, First,
They suppose that if Abraham saw him and his day he also had seen Abraham,
which yet was not a necessary innuendo, but this turn of his words
would best serve to expose him; yet it was true that Christ had seen Abraham,
and had talked with him as a man talks with his friend. Secondly, They
suppose it a very absurd thing for him to pretend to have seen Abraham, who
was dead so many ages before he was born. The state of the dead is an invisible
state; but here they ran upon the old mistake, understanding that corporally
which Christ spoke spiritually. Now this gave them occasion to despise his
youth, and to upbraid him with it, as if he were but of yesterday, and
knew nothing: Thou art not yet fifty years old. They might as well
have said, Thou art not forty; for he was now but thirty-two or
thirty-three years old. As to this, Irenæus, one of the first fathers, with
this passage supports the tradition which he says he had from some that had
conversed with St. John, that our Saviour lived to be fifty years old, which
he contends for, Advers. Hæres. lib. 2, cap. 39, 40. See what little
credit is to be given to tradition; and, as to this here, the Jews spoke at
random; some year they would mention, and therefore pitched upon one that
they thought he was far enough short of; he did not look to be forty, but they
were sure he could not be fifty, much less contemporary with Abraham. Old age
is reckoned to begin at fifty (Num. iv. 47), so that they meant no more than
this, "Thou art not to be reckoned an old man; many of us are much thy
seniors, and yet pretend not to have seen Abraham." Some think that his
countenance was so altered, with grief and watching, that, together with the
gravity of his aspect, it made him look like a man of fifty years old: his
visage was so marred, Isa. lii. 14.
[3.] Our Saviour gives an effectual answer to this cavil, by a solemn
assertion of his own seniority even to Abraham himself (v. 58): "Verily,
verily, I say unto you; I do not only say it in private to my own
disciples, who will be sure to say as I say, but to you my enemies and
persecutors; I say it to your faces, take it how you will: Before Abraham
was, I am;" prin Abraam genesqai, egw eimi,
Before Abraham was made or born, I am. The change of the word is
observable, and bespeaks Abraham a creature, and himself the Creator; well
therefore might he make himself greater than Abraham. Before Abraham
he was, First, As God. I am, is the name of God (Exod. iii. 14); it
denotes his self-existence; he does not say, I was, but I am,
for he is the first and the last, immutably the same (Rev. i. 8); thus he was
not only before Abraham, but before all worlds, ch. i. 1; Prov.
viii. 23. Secondly, As Mediator. He was the appointed Messiah, long
before Abraham; the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world (Rev.
xiii. 8), the channel of conveyance of light, life, and love from God to man.
This supposes his divine nature, that he is the same in himself from eternity
(Heb. xiii. 8), and that he is the same to man ever since the fall; he was
made of God wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption, to Adam,
and Abel, and Enoch, and Noah, and Shem, and all the patriarchs that lived and
died by faith in him before Abraham was born. Abraham was the root of the
Jewish nation, the rock out of which they were hewn. If Christ was before
Abraham, his doctrine and religion were no novelty, but were, in the substance
of them, prior to Judaism, and ought to take place of it.
[4.] This great word ended the dispute abruptly, and put a period to
it: they could bear to hear no more from him, and he needed to say no more to
them, having witnessed this good confession, which was sufficient to support
all his claims. One would think that Christ's discourse, in which shone so
much both of grace and glory, should have captivated them all; but their
inveterate prejudice against the holy spiritual doctrine and law of Christ,
which were so contrary to their pride and worldliness, baffled all the methods
of conviction. Now was fulfilled that prophecy (Mal. iii. 1, 2), that when the
messenger of the covenant should come to his temple they would not
abide the day of his coming, because he would be like a refiner's fire.
Observe here,
First, How they were enraged at Christ for what he said: They
took up stones to cast at him, v. 59. Perhaps they looked upon him
as a blasphemer, and such were indeed to be stoned (Lev. xxiv. 16); but they
must be first legally tried and convicted. Farewell justice and order if every
man pretend to execute a law at his pleasure. Besides, they had said but just
now that he was a distracted crack-brained man, and if so it was against all
reason and equity to punish him as a malefactor for what he said. They took
up stones. Dr. Lightfoot will tell you how they came to have stones so
ready in the temple; they had workmen at this time repairing the temple, or
making some additions, and the pieces of stone which they hewed off served for
this purpose. See here the desperate power of sin and Satan in and over the
children of disobedience. Who would think that ever there should be such
wickedness as this in men, such an open and daring rebellion against one that
undeniably proved himself to be the Son of God? Thus every one has a stone to
throw at his holy religion, Acts xxviii. 22.
Secondly, How he made his escape out of their hands. 1. He absconded;
Jesus hid himself; ekrubh--he
was hid, either by the crowd of those that wished well to him, to shelter
him (he that ought to have been upon a throne, high and lifted up, is content
to be lost in a crowd); or perhaps he concealed himself behind some of
the walls or pillars of the temple (in the secret of his tabernacle he
shall hide me, Ps. xxvii. 5); or by a divine power, casting a mist before
their eyes, he made himself invisible to them. When the wicked rise a man
is hidden, a wise and good man, Prov. xxviii. 12, 28. Not that Christ was
afraid or ashamed to stand by what he had said, but his hour was not yet
come, and he would countenance the flight of his ministers and people in
times of persecution, when they are called to it. The Lord hid Jeremiah and
Baruch, Jer. xxxvi. 26. 2. He departed, he went out of the temple,
going through the midst of them, undiscovered, and so passed by.
This was not a cowardly inglorious flight, nor such as argued either guilt or
fear. It was foretold concerning him that he should not fail nor be
discouraged, Isa. xlii. 4. But, (1.) It was an instance of his power over his
enemies, and that they could do no more against him than he gave them leave to
do; by which it appears that when afterwards he was taken in their pits he offered
himself, ch. x. 18. They now thought they had made sure of him and
yet he passed through the midst of them, either their eyes being
blinded or their hands tied, and thus he left them to fume, like a lion disappointed
of his prey. (2.) It was an instance of his prudent provision for his own
safety, when he knew that his work was not done, nor his testimony finished;
thus he gave an example to his own rule, When they persecute you in one
city flee to another; nay, if occasion be, to a wilderness, for so
Elijah did (1 Kings xix. 3, 4), and the woman, the church, Rev. xii. 6. When
they took up loose stones to throw at Christ, he could have commanded the
fixed stones, which did cry out of the wall against them, to avenge his
cause, or the earth to open and swallow them up; but he chose to accommodate
himself to the state he was in, to make the example imitable by the prudence
of his followers, without a miracle. (3.) It was a righteous deserting of
those who (worse than the Gadarenes, who prayed him to depart) stoned
him from among them. Christ will not long stay with those who bid him be gone.
Christ did again visit the temple after this; as one loth to depart, he
bade oft farewell; but at last he abandoned it for ever, and left it desolate.
Christ now went through the midst of the Jews, and none of them courted
his stay, nor stirred up himself to take hold of him, but were even content to
let him go. Note, God never forsakes any till they have first provoked him to
withdraw, and will have none of him. Calvin observes that these chief priests,
when they had driven Christ out of the temple, valued themselves on the
possession they kept of it: "But," says he, "those deceive
themselves who are proud of a church or temple which Christ has
forsaken." Longe falluntur, cum templum se habere putant Deo vacuum.
When Christ left them it is said that he passed by silently and unobserved; parhgen
outwV, so that they were not aware of him. Note,
Christ's departures from a church, or a particular soul, are often secret,
and not soon taken notice of. As the kingdom of God comes not, so it goes
not, with observation. See Judg. xvi. 20. Samson wist not that the Lord
was departed from him. Thus it was with these forsaken Jews, God left
them, and they never missed him.
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