It was impossible that there should not be righteous dealing with human evil against God, in its sources and its streams. He bows to, as he explains, the sovereign will of God. Neither does the Spirit say exactly as the English Bible says "sons," but children. So rich and transparently divine was the grace: not some souls, more meritorious than the rest, rewarded according to a graduated scale of honour, but "of his fulness have all we received." 39 You study[ a] the Scriptures diligently because you think that in them you have eternal life. The incarnate Word was here full of grace and truth. Indeed, it is the total eclipse, not merely of law and remedial mercies, but even of promised Messianic glory, by everlasting life and resurrection at the last day. How little they conceived of what was then said and done! "He was in the world, and the world was made by him." Clarke's Commentary. Jesus saw the man, and knowing that he was long thus, prompts the desire of healing, but brings out the despondency of unbelief. I do not mean by this all individuals, but creation; for nothing can be more certain, than that those who do not receive the Son of God are so much the worse for having heard the gospel. (Ver. He is ever God; He is the Son; He quickens and raises from the dead. The Jews, with all their privileges, were strangers here. Check out LPL Financial Research's Weekly Commentary on the market: "Debt Ceiling Primer". The hour was one for faith, or unbelief. "Ye will not come to me that ye might have life." Furthermore, you do not have his word living in you; for you do not believe the one whom he sent. He could be declared only by One who was a divine person in the intimacy of the Godhead, yea, was the only-begotten Son in the bosom of the Father. It is not that He denies the truth of what they were thus desiring and attached to. So only is man born of God. When we use the term "Scriptures," we are referring to the entire Bible. Here was a meeting, indeed, between such an one and Him, the Son, true God and eternal life. 39 You study[ a] the Scriptures diligently because you think that in them you have eternal life. As this chapter sets forth the Lord Jesus with singular fulness of glory, on the side both of His Godhead and of His manhood, so it closes with the most varied and remarkable testimonies God has given to us, that there may be no excuse. There is no other way in which the new nature is made good in a soul. No doubt there are intervening applications; but such is the ultimate result of His work as the Lamb of God. No doubt Jesus Himself had the Holy Ghost given to Him, as it was meet that He in all things should have the pre-eminence; but it shows yet more both the personal glory of Christ and the efficacy of His work, that He now gives the same Spirit to those who receive His testimony, and set to their seal that God is true. Accordingly, if the law raised the question of righteousness in man, the cross of the Lord Jesus, typifying Him made sin, is the answer; and there has all been settled to the glory of God, the Lord Jesus having suffered all the inevitable consequences. Bear in mind that one of the points of instruction in this first part of our gospel is the action of the Son of God before His regular Galilean ministry. Of course it is the revelation of Christ; but here He was simply revealing the sources of this indispensable new birth. How blessed the contrast with the people's state depicted in this chapter, tossed about by every wind of doctrine, looking to "letters," rulers, and Pharisees, perplexed about the Christ, but without righteous judgment, assurance, or enjoyment! Nay, the Father has given all judgment to the Son. All others prove not only that they are bad, but that they hate perfect goodness, and more than that, life and light the true light in the Word. Truth and grace were not sought nor found in man, but began to subsist here below by Jesus Christ. If she turned aside to questions of religion, with a mixture of desire to learn what had concerned and perplexed her, and of willingness to escape such a searching of her ways and heart, He did not refrain graciously to vouchsafe the revelation of God, that earthly worship was doomed, that the Father was to be worshipped, not an Unknown. First, a new nature is insisted on the Holy Ghost's quickening of each soul who is vitally related to God's kingdom; next, the Spirit of God takes an active part not as source or character only, but acting sovereignly, which opens the way not only for a Jew, but for "every one." These are the very Scriptures that testify about me, 40 yet you refuse to come to me to have life. As the new birth for the kingdom of God, so the cross is absolutely necessary for eternal life. He said, I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Make straight the way of the Lord, as said the prophet Esaias. "They search the Scriptures, but they will not come to Jesus. No man hath seen God at any time. Even now faith knows, that instead of sin being the great object before God, ever since the cross He has had before His eyes that sacrifice which put away sin. (ver. This He does in verses 16-19. But the Scriptures point to me! In verses 37 and 38, Jesus criticized the local religious leaders for never hearing the voice of God. John 5:39. John 5:24 . It is evident that the failure of many men to find Christ is not from any deficiency in the means of discovering Him. (Verse John 3:16), Let it not be passed by, that while the new birth or regeneration is declared to be essential to a part in the kingdom of God, the Lord in urging this intimates that He had not gone beyond the earthly things of that kingdom. Pharisaic jealousy had wrought; and Jesus, wearied, sat thus at the fountain of Jacob's well in Sychar. John 5:39New International Version. Blessed servant he of an infinitely blessed and blessing Master! Christ did not wait till the time was fully come for the old things to pass away, and all to be made new. The man went off, and told the Jews that it was Jesus: and for this they persecuted Him, because He had done these things on the sabbath. John 5:28-30 Resurrection. Coming after John as to date, He is necessarily preferred before him in dignity; for He was ( ) [not come into being ( )] before Him. Her testimony bore the impress of what had penetrated her soul, and would make way for all the rest in due time. Just as distinct and beyond comparison is His testimony who, coming from heaven and above all, testifies what He saw and heard, however it might be rejected. Such shall live. And herein is that true saying, One soweth, and another reapeth. Thus in one way or the other all must honour the Son. Life resurrection will display how little they had to be ashamed of, who believed the record given of His Son; the resurrection of judgment will make but too plain, to those who despised the Lord, both His honour and their sin and shame. He was God. It was not intended for other beings it was God's free gift to man, to the believer, of course. Nicodemus, not understanding in the least such a want for himself, expresses his wonder, and hears our Lord increasing in the strength of the requirement. International Bible Study Forum. The Lord Jesus did, without question, take humanity in His person into that glory which He so well knew as the Son of the Father. The healing of the courtier's son, sick and ready to die, is witness of what the Lord was actually doing among the despised of Israel. After these things there was a feast of the Jews; and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. It was not that they were better than their neighbours. It was no longer a moot-point whether God could trust man; for, indeed, He could not. the 'bad people' and In the five porches, then, of this pool lay a great multitude of sick, blind, lame, withered, waiting for the moving of the water. Verse 39. It is not now the revelation of God meeting man either in essential nature, or as manifested in flesh; nor is it the course of dispensational dealing presented in a parenthetic as well as mysterious form, beginning with John the Baptist's testimony, and going down to the millennium in the Son, full of grace and truth. Copyright 2023, Bible Study Tools. It is our evangelist's way of indicating His Galilean sojourn; and this miracle is the particular subject that John was led by the Holy Ghost to take up. John 5:39-44. ( John 5:1-4) The pool of Bethesda. Christ here, it will be noticed, is not so much the quickening agent as Son of God (John 5:1-47), but the object of faith as Son of man first incarnate, to be eaten; then dying and giving His flesh to be eaten, and His blood to be drank. This question is raised, or rather settled, by the Lord in Jerusalem, at the passover feast, where many believed on His name, beholding the signs He wrought. John 1:20-25) John does not even speak of Him as one who, on His rejection as Messiah, would step into a larger glory. Later He was determined to be Son of God with power by resurrection of the dead. But Jesus finds him in the temple, and said, "Behold, thou art made whole: sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee." We have in the gospels a faithful record of all that Jesus began both to do and to teach, Acts 1 1. What Does It Really Mean That Your Body Is a Temple? We have seen already that thus light was shed on men. Sons they might have been in bare title; but these had the right of children. Was this false and blasphemous in their eyes? Luke 5:33-39. Sermon Bible Commentary. The contrasts are as strong, at least, as the resemblance with the healing of the centurion's servant in Matthew 13:1-58 and Luke 7:1-50, which some ancients and moderns have confounded with this, as they did Mary's anointing of Jesus with the sinful woman's in Luke 7:1-50. Do not resist evil. Flesh and world are judged morally. (Read John 5:39-44) The Jews considered that eternal life was revealed to them in their Scriptures, and that they had it, because they had the word of God in their hands. Hence, then, we have the Lord Jesus alluding to this fresh necessity, if man was to be blessed according to God. Jesus urged them to search those Scriptures with more diligence and attention. There is the need of another nature, and the only way in which this nature is communicated is by being born of water and the Spirit the employment of the word of God in the quickening energy of the Holy Ghost. (VerseJohn 4:1; John 4:1) It was strange to her that a Jew should thus humble himself: what would it have been, had she seen in Him Jesus the Son of God? But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God." Man was judged: another Man was there, the Lord from heaven, soon to stand in resurrection. This, of course, supposes the setting aside of Jerusalem, its people and house, as they now are, and is justified by the great fact of Christ's death and resurrection, which is the key to all, though not yet intelligible even to the disciples. John 5. 5:39 The indicative of eJrauna'te fits the context better (indicative and imperative forms are the same here). His own love and person were warrant enough for the simple to lift the veil for a season, and fill the hearts which had received Himself into the conscious enjoyment of divine grace, and of Him who revealed it to them. For He who spoke was divine. through "sin." Here He is not portrayed as the Son of man who must be lifted up, but as the Son of God who was given. This would make all manifest. He who owns the reality of Christ's incarnation, receives most thankfully and adoringly from God the truth of redemption; he, on the contrary, who stumbles at redemption, has not really taken in the incarnation according to God's mind. But how precious the grace, in presence of their hatred and proud self-complacency! Practical Bible study on John 5:19-47. None else could do either work: for here we see His great work on earth, and His heavenly power. But see the blessed fruit of receiving it. not the Jews only; for, as far as intelligence went, it was little better with the disciples till He rose from the dead. It is not denunciation, but the most solemn sentence in the calmest manner. "He must, increase, but I decrease." All this, however, was abstract, whether as to the nature of the Word or as to the place of the Christian. There is the nicest care to maintain His personal glory, no matter what the subject may be. Proud member Verse 40. So on the last day, that great day of the feast (the eighth day, which witnessed of a resurrection glory outside this creation, now to be made good in the power of the Spirit before anything appears to sight), the Lord stands and cries, saying, "If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink." Abstract:Editorial on the Research TopicHomeostasis and Allostasis of Thyroid Function A basic understanding of thyroid control involving pituitary thyrotropin (TSH) has become a And as life is in the person of the Son, so God in sending Him meant not that the smallest uncertainty should exist for aught so momentous. (2) Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool, which in Hebrew is called Bethesda, and that is surrounded by five covered colonnades. This the Lord refuses, and goes up the mountain to pray, His disciples being meanwhile exposed to a storm on the lake, and straining after the desired haven till He rejoins them, when immediately the ship was at the land whither they went. Here there is no John proclaiming Jesus as the One who was about to introduce the kingdom of heaven. 17.30: Slat.' Oporn Orchestra 7.48: "Paul Clifford. As a weapon of conviction, most justly had it in the mind of the Lord Jesus the weightiest place, little as man thinks now-a-days of it. Click on the Arabic text to below to see word by word details of the verse's morphology. But what we learn is, that our Lord (viewed as having entered into heaven as man on the ground of redemption, i.e., ascended, after having passed through death, into glory) from that glory confers meanwhile the Holy Ghost on him that believes, instead of bringing in at once the final feast of gladness for the Jews and the world, as He will do by-and-by when the anti-typical harvest and vintage has been fulfilled. That the Jews in the time of Jesus were expecting a future state. (Verses John 3:11-13) He (and He was not alone here) knew God, and the things of God, consciously in Himself, as surely as He knew all men, and what was in man objectively. This is a perfect illustration of John 15:5 where Jesus declared "I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit (IN THIS CASE ABIDING WAS SIMPLY OBEYING), for apart from Me you can do nothing (EVEN FISHING - BUT . Beholding Him as He walked, he says, Behold the Lamb of God! "The law was given by Moses." Welcome to the Quranic Arabic Corpus, an annotated linguistic resource for the Holy Quran. How singularly is the glory of the Lord Jesus thus viewed, as invested with the testimony of God and its crown! In a certain sense, the principle of John 4:1-54 was made true in the woman of Samaria, and in others who received Christ then. "He that believeth on him is not judged: but he that believeth not is judged already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God." Nathanael's call is just as clearly typical of Israel in the latter day. (Verses John 7:3-5) The Lord intimates the impossibility of anticipating the time of God; but then He does it as connected with His own personal glory. John 8:31-James : . Verses 39 and 40 summarize a crucial point about the difference between faith and belief. Commentary on John 5:39-44. (VersesJohn 7:33-36; John 7:33-36) Jesus was returning to Him that sent Him, and the Holy Ghost would be given. 5. What is there in God more truly divine than grace and truth? The Light, on coming into the world, lightens every man with the fulness of evidence which was in Him, and at once discovers the true state as truly as it will be revealed in the last day when He judges all, as we find it intimated in the gospel afterwards. Then, resuming the strain of verse John 1:14, we are told, in verseJohn 1:16; John 1:16, that "of his fulness have all we received." Robert, Lord Bishop of Clogher. Nothing in the slightest degree detracted from His own personal glory, and from the infinitely near relationship which He had had with the Father from all eternity. Thus, manifestly, the whole question is terminated at the very starting-point of our gospel; and this is characteristic of John all through: manifestly all is decided. behold, I say unto you, Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest. They knew what they worshipped, but not the Father, nor were they "true." "My Father worketh hitherto, and I work." Fritzsche, p. 21). In these lay a great multitude of sick people, blind, lame, paralyzed, waiting for the moving of the water. "And this is the judgment, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. His Unity with the Father. 5:2 Now there is at Jerusalem by the sheep market a pool, which is called in the Hebrew tongue Bethesda, having five porches. This only secures His honour in those that believe God's testimony to Him, the Son of God; and to these He gives life, everlasting life now, and exemption from judgment, in this acting in communion with the Father. (ver. (Verse John 3:10). Accordingly there is a four-fold testimony to Jesus: the testimony of John the Baptist; the Lord's own works; the voice of the Father from heaven; and finally, the written word which the Jews had in their own hands. But this is not the question of grace: not what she was, but what He is who was there to win and bless her, manifesting God and the Father withal, practically and in detail. This should be translated, not in the imperative, but in the indicative mood-thus, Ye search the Scriptures diligently.That these words are commonly read in the imperative mood is sufficiently known; but this reading can never accord well with the following verse, nor can the force and energy of the . Now, it is no longer a question of nature, but of relationship; and hence it is not said simply the Word, but the Son, and the Son in the highest possible character, the only-begotten Son, distinguishing Him thus from any other who might, in a subordinate sense, be son of God "the only-begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father." Thus it is a kind of transitional fact for a most important part of our gospel, though still introductory. . The Lord, it is true, could and did go farther than the prophets: even if He taught on the same theme, He could speak with conscious divine dignity and knowledge (not merely what was assigned to an instrument or messenger). The result immediately follows. 7.45: What the American Commentators Say. There is no changing or bettering the old man; and, thanks be to God, the new does not degenerate or pass away. Now they testify about me; (40) but you will not come to me so that you may receive life. In the Word was life, and the life was the light of men. In John He is One who could be described as Son of man who is in heaven; but He belonged to heaven, because He was divine. For evidently it is the theme of worship in its Christian fulness, the fruit of the manifestation of God, and of the Father known in grace. The Father seeks worshippers. Now it is that the great question is decided; now it is that a man receives or refuses Christ. But the Lord reproaches him, the master of Israel, with not knowing these things: that is, as a teacher, with Israel for his scholar, he ought to have known them objectively, at least, if not consciously. It was an extraordinary birth; of God, not man in any sort, or measure, but a new and divine nature (2 Peter 1:1-21) imparted to the believer wholly of grace. Nevertheless, the heavenly part is little dwelt on, as John's gospel displays our Lord more as the expression of God revealed on earth, than as Man ascended to heaven, which fell far more to the province of the apostle of the Gentiles. The first four chapters of John precede in point of time the notices of His ministry in the other gospels. Whosoever denieth the Son hath not the Father; he that acknowledgeth the Son hath the Father also. This will be displayed in the millennium, when the marriage will be celebrated, as well as the judgment executed (Jerusalem and its temple being the central point then). If he receives Him, it is everlasting life, and Christ is thus honoured by him; if not, judgment remains which will compel the honour of Christ, but to his own ruin for ever. Here the Lord was really owned by the multitudes as the great Prophet that should come; and this in consequence of His works, especially that one which Scripture itself had connected with the Son of David. For as the Father raiseth up the dead, and quickeneth them; even so the Son quickeneth whom he will. "For God sent not his Son into the world to judge the world; but that the world through him might be saved." (39) You study the Scriptures diligently, because you think that eternal life is found in them. It is now eternal reality, and the name of Jesus Christ is that which puts all things to a final test. The family later hosted a dinner for the honored . In John 6:1-71 our Lord sets aside Israel in another point of view. Just as in John 4:1-54, so here it is a question of power in the Holy Ghost, and not simply of Christ's person. But there was a man who had been infirm for thirty and eight years. (Ver. One of the peculiarities of our gospel is, that we see the Lord from time to time (and, indeed, chiefly) in or near Jerusalem. It is this which our Lord so emphatically marks in the case of the Jews. 4. But they learn that it was his divine Physician who had not only healed, but so directed him. No charge could be remoter from the truth. Controversy with the " Jews" who Believed. Many are convinced by this appeal. but He, who is the Word made flesh, is the only-begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father, and so competent to declare, as in fact He has. (John 2:1-25) The change of water into wine manifested His glory as the beginning of signs; and He gave another in this early purging of the temple of Jerusalem. This is indispensable; for God is a Spirit, and so it cannot but be. Were the Jews zealously keeping the sabbath? It is not merely a Messiah, who comes and offers Himself, as we find in other gospels, with most painstaking diligence, and presented to their responsibility; but here from the outset the question is viewed as closed. Here again, apart from this divine insight, the change or gift of the name marks His glory. Jesus not only could go up, as He did later, but He had come down thence, and, even though man, He was the Son of man that is in heaven. The addition of "unto him" detracts, to my mind, from the exceeding preciousness of what seems to be, at least, left open. The Lord and the disciples are next seen in the country district, not far, it would seem, from John, who was baptizing as they were. Nor will the full force of this expression be witnessed till the glorious result of His blood shedding sweep away the last trace of sin in the new heavens and the new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness. I sent you to reap that whereon ye bestowed no labour: other men laboured, and ye are entered into their labours." He is viewed as retaining the same perfect intimacy with the Father, entirely unimpaired by local or any other circumstances He had entered. Verse 39. The charge (Luke 5:33) The explanation (Luke 5:34-39) Hannah's Bible Outlines. WITNESS. * The best text omits other expressions, evidently derived from verses John 1:15; John 1:30John 1:30. "Master, eat," said they. Law, means, ordinances, could not meet the need no pool, nor angel nothing but the Son working in grace, the Son quickening. We have had his name introduced into each part of the preface of our evangelist. John 5:19-29 Four Types of Resurrections. If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe, if I tell you of heavenly things? Nothing less than everlasting life in Christ can deliver: otherwise there remains judgment. The president of the United Church of Christ writes to say he doesn't recognize the Christianity espoused by, and used as a defense for, the actions of Florida Gov. John 5:25. If He put forth His power, it was not only beyond man's measure, but unequivocally divine, however also the humblest and most dependent of men. The chapter pursues this subject, showing that it is not only God who thus deals first, with the necessity of man before His own immutable nature; next, blessing according to the riches of His grace but, further, that man's state morally is detected yet more awfully in presence of such grace as well as holiness in Christ. Man might pull Him down destroy Him, as far as man could, and surely to be the basis in God's hand of better blessing; but He was God, and in three days He would raise up this temple.