Verse 1 – the feast of the Jews was probably the Passover.
Verse 2 – Jesus is going through a gate. When Nehemiah built the walls they built five gates, and the first gate they built was the sheep gate because the sheep gate spoke of salvation. This was the gate that the sheep came but Jesus Christ is the good shepherd ands this is always associated with salvation. So He makes a very dramatic entrance into Jerusalem.
“Bethesda” means “House of Mercy.” This pool located at the sheep gate was a very beautiful marble pool. A porch is simply a columnade and there were five different columnades around this pool, each of which would accommodate a large number of people.
Verse 3 – “In these” – the five porches around the pool – “lay a great multitude of impotent folk.” The word “impotent” means people who are ill. They are described: “of blind, of halt, withered.” After the word “withered” put a period. The phrase “waiting for the moving of the water” is not found in the original. This is a superstition, which existed at the time, and someone actually wrote the superstition into the Bible. This is a superstition that people believed in; it is not true. Neither this phrase nor verse four is found in the original text.
“blind” – powerless to see with the eyes, the picture of the unbeliever who is spiritually blind and therefore cannot see the gospel. 2 Corinthians 4:3,4; Matthew 19:14; 23:24,25; Revelation 3:17,18. Blindness is often an illustration of the unbeliever.
“halt” – powerless to walk, lame, crippled. The unbeliever cannot walk with God until he receives Christ as saviour.
“withered” – paralysis or atrophy of muscles. The unbeliever cannot work.
So here we have the three failures of the unbeliever as far as God’s plan is concerned.
Verse 5 – for 38 years there was a man there who had positive volition at the point of God-consciousness. In eternity past Jesus knew that He was going to meet that man there that day. The timing was just right. For 38 years this man had been a victim of superstition which was doing nothing for him except causing him to rot in one of these porches.
Verse 6 – “and knew” is an aorist active participle of ginwskw, which means to know from experience. The aorist tense means that in eternity past Jesus knew this.
“saw him lie” – the word for “lying there” means to be lying there according to a norm or standard. It is not the ordinary word for “lying down,” it is katakeimai, a compound verb [kata = norm or standard; keimai = the normal verb for lying down]. His norm or standard for 38 years has done him no good. Why? For 38 years he has bought a superstition which did not help him.
“Will you become well?” In other words, Do you have the volition? This is a present active indicative of the verb qelw which means a desire from his emotions. Present tense: Do you keep on having? Active voice: Do you have it as a reality? “Become” is aorist middle infinitive of ginomai. The infinitive is God’s purpose. It is the plan of God, not some superstition.
Verse 7 – “The impotent man answered.” He “had an answer,” this is an aorist passive.
“Sir” – this is “Lord,” kurioj; “I have no man, when the water is troubled, to put me into the pool” – this is the superstition which existed.
“to put me into the pool” – the verb is ballw which means to throw.
Verse 8 – “Rise,” present active imperative: Get yourself on your feet! “… pick up your bed, and keep on walking.” This is the Sabbath day; Jesus is telling him to do this on the Sabbath day. Jesus is not going to cater to the taboos of the Pharisees.
Verse 9 – “and on the same day was [kept on being] the Sabbath,” imperfect linear aktionsart.
Verse 10 – “cured,” perfect tense. Cured in the past with the result that he would never have that disease again. Passive voice: grace; he didn’t earn it or deserve it.
“It is the sabbath day, it is not lawful for thee to carry thy bed” – legalism always remonstrates and criticises grace.
Verse 11 – “He that healed me.” The Pharisees don’t go into that! He had been crippled for 38 years but they are not interested in that. They just want to know about the last part, the man who healed saying, “Take up thy bed, and keep walking.” The fact that a man has been healed and a superstition has been exposed doesn’t mean a thing to the religious crowd. They don’t care about that. The religious Jews have rejected the scripture, they have rejected doctrine, and they ignore the miracle. Why? This kind of miracle says one thing to Israel: Israel your saviour is here, your Messiah is here. But they have rejected Him, and therefore the miracle is meaningless. And if someone has violated the Sabbath they are on his back in a minute – legalism, religionism persecutes grace.
Verse 12 -- “What is that man” is “Who is this man.” This really is bothering them now and it will for a long time. Jesus knew that there was going to be trouble about this and so He disappeared into the crowd. That man carrying the bed all the way down to the temple: what does that say? It says the Messiah is here. Jesus goes into the crowd. Why? Because He is sending His messenger in ahead. This time His herald is not John the Baptist, His herald is a man carrying a bed on the Sabbath.
Verse 13 – “And he that was healed” – the word here means he was completely healed – “wist not [didn’t know] who it was: for Jesus had slipped away, into the crowd in that place.” That is why when the man turned around to point to who it was there wasn’t anyone there. But Jesus will be at the temple to meet the man again. This is the feast day, the Passover. What does the Passover depict? Jesus Christ dying for the sins of the world. Jesus Christ is the King. How does He announce His coming into Jerusalem? He was announced before by John the Baptist but now he has a new herald, a man carrying a bed on the Sabbath day. This is the man that was absolutely helpless down at the pool of Bethesda. Now look at him! Something has happened. Messiah is coming and here is the herald.
Verse 14 – “Afterward Jesus findeth him in the temple” – He sought him out -- “and he said unto him, Behold, thou art made whole” – you are healed now. Now this man has been up to something. “… sin no more” – he had been in this condition for 38 years because he had sinned – “lest a worse thing come upon thee.” Just because you are saved doesn’t mean you are going to get out from under discipline.
Verse 15 – “The man departed, and told the Jews that it was Jesus, which had made him well.” He sinned immediately because as soon as he knew it was Jesus he apparently ran and told them. There are some people who you can do a thousand things for and they will never appreciate it. As long as you are giving them attention they will tolerate you and if you don’t give them attention then you have a monster on your hands. The man departed, and it means he departed with a mission. His mission was to run and tell the religious crowd.
Verse 16 – “And therefore did the Jews persecute Jesus” – they kept right on! The next phrase, “and sought to slay him,” is not found here, it will be found later on.
“because he had done these things on the Sabbath day” – they are persecuting Him for one reason. Religion is the greatest persecutor of people in history. It is the devil’s ace trump, that is why.
Verse 17 – we have now come to one of the discourses of our Lord which is practically unknown. This is the discourse on the uniqueness of the person of Jesus Christ. This discourse results from a religious opposition. Jesus Christ performed an act of healing on the Sabbath day and the Jews who were the religious crowd couldn’t stand it. As a result they began their opposition which was based upon their failure to analyse and to understand the Old Testament scriptures which speak of the doctrine of the hypostatic union. In essence Jesus Christ is God, but as God He cannot go to the cross and die for the sins of the world so He is also man. He is the God-Man. He is different from God in that He is man; He is different from man in that He is God. He is unique.
Everything we have seen so far from the beginning of this Gospel has been the presentation of Jesus Christ to the Jewish nation. He presents Himself to them as saviour, as the fulfilment of the Davidic covenant. They have rejected these things and the rejection is led primarily by the religious crowd.
“But Jesus answered them” – “them” refers to the religious crowd. Religion is always opposed to grace. It resents grace. It always has some system of works; some system of morality, some system of do-goodism, and this system is always in opposition to the plan of God. There can never be any harmony between religion and Christianity. This phrase, “Jesus answered them,” is based upon the previous verse – “because he [the Lord Jesus Christ] had done these things on the Sabbath day.” This is imperfect linear aktionsart which means that He performed more than one miracle on the Sabbath day. We just have thew one recorded miracle to show the basis for the opposition of religion. “These things” is a reference to the performance of the miracles which demonstrated the uniqueness of the person of Christ, and this was designed to focus attention on the Lord so that people in His own generation could see Him as the saviour and believe in Him.
Now the Sabbath day was the problem. The religious crowd are very fond of their Sabbath. They had taken the Sabbath out of its biblical context and had made something out of it that was never intended.
First of all, what are the two concepts of the Sabbath? In the restoration of the earth we have six days of operation. During those six days God the Father was the designer. God the Son did all of the original creation which was a new set of animals and the man, and from the man the woman. The Holy Spirit did certain things during that time, so that at the end of six days the work of God had completely restored the earth so that it could be the place of man’s habitation. On the sixth day man was created. Although the earth had been there for millions of years it was now restored to make it habitable for man. We read that on the seventh day, Saturday, God rested. He didn’t rest because He was tired and so the resting simply meant that there was nothing left to provide. Everything was provided in six days and the reason that God rested is because the provision was complete; nothing could be added to it and nothing could be taken from it. So the whole concept of the Sabbath is grace – God doing the work. That is the true biblical meaning of the Sabbath.
But what did the religious crowd do with it? Quoting from the Talmud and the Mishnah in which we have a series of taboos:
1. It was unlawful to carry food from one house to another on the Sabbath day.
2. An ass could be let out of wherever he was kept on the Sabbath day but the trappings – the saddle, etc. – had to be put on the day before, and you could not use the animal unless he had been harnessed or saddled the day before.
3. An egg could not be boiled on the Sabbath. And when it could not be boiled on the Sabbath they had to specify a few things because apparently some of the people were cheating on them. So an egg could not be boiled by putting it near a hot kettle. Nor could you boil an egg by wrapping it in a hot cloth, nor by putting it in the sand out in the hot sun.
4. If the lights were on when the Sabbath came you couldn’t turn them off. If they were off, you couldn’t turn them on.
5. It was unlawful to move furniture on the Sabbath. There was on exception. People often lived in lofts and they wanted to go upstairs to bed and had to use ladders. So you could move a ladder on the Sabbath but you could only move it four steps. If the ladder was more than five steps from the opening above, they’d had it!
6. It was unlawful to wear any jewellery or any ornaments on the Sabbath because it might be considered carrying a burden, and you could not carry a burden on the Sabbath.
7. It was unlawful to fix a leaking water barrel on the Sabbath, and it was also unlawful to stop a wound on the Sabbath. You just had to bleed to death!
8. False teeth or gold plugs could not be worn on the Sabbath.
9. You were allowed to eat radishes on the Sabbath, and apparently a lot of the Jews liked to dip their radishes in salt, but you could not dip the radish in salt for too long a time because it was a taboo to pickle a radish on the Sabbath and if you left it in the salt too long it might become pickled. So they used to have a great theological controversy as to how long you could leave a radish in the salt before it was pickled.
10. If a lady got mud on her dress you had to wait until it dried, and then she was allowed to wrinkle up the dress in her hands once and crush it. After she had crushed it she was allowed to shake it out once.
The religious crowd are complaining because the Lord healed a man on the Sabbath and said, “Pick up your bed and walk.” They were mad, and when they found out it was Jesus they wanted to try and kill Him, get rid of Him. And who is this person they are seeking to kill? Who is this person they are accusing of violating the Sabbath? He is the Lord of the Sabbath, and the Sabbath was designed to show His grace. It is the God-Man; it is the unique person of the universe; it is undiminished deity and true humanity in one person forever.
This is why we have at the beginning of this verse, “But he answered them.” The verb to answer is the aorist middle indicative of a)pokrinomai [a)po = ultimate source; krinw would ordinarily mean to judge, but the omai suffix means not to judge but to discern] means to discern. To have discernment you have to have doctrine. Knowledge of doctrine results in discernment. So this means to discern from the ultimate source of your own inner resources. So Jesus Christ is discerning in His humanity from the fact that He has doctrine in his human spirit. He is discerning, and His answer is based upon doctrine. This particular word for answering means to give a divine viewpoint answer. Here is an answer that comes from doctrine.
“My Father worketh hitherto, and I work.” On the surface this is nothing. What does it mean? What does it say? What Jesus said right here was what caused the Pharisees to get so mad that they wanted to kill Him right then and there. This is what aroused their complete and total antagonism. They dedicated themselves to His destruction. They despised Him, they hated Him with an intense hatred as only religion can hate. No one can hate like a religious person, religion is the greatest hater of all.
There is a verb here – “worketh.” Jesus is speaking from His humanity and He says, “My Father.” The verb He uses is e)rgazomai which has a lot of meanings, but here it means to exert one’s power (usually it means to produce) or one’s ability. The Father exerts His power. And this is a perfect active indicative indicating linear aktionsart – the Father keeps on exerting His power. In other words ago, in eternity past the omniscience of the Father came up with a plan. The plan is designed in eternity past. But the omnipotence of the Father puts the plan into operation. In other words, He is saying in effect, “My Father is working today.” That was the Sabbath day. At that time (28-29 AD) there were believers scattered all over the world. Some of those believers were having problems – facing great dangers, in disaster situations. And it was the Sabbath day, and the Father was providing and caring and helping and protecting, and holding back forces of angels directed against some of these believers in parts of the earth. The Father was working all day, in other words.
“hitherto” – means here, “even til now.” This is after the healing of the impotent man. “My Father is working right now.” They knew what “My Father” meant, they knew that meant God.
“I work [keep on working] too” – when Jesus used the same verb, e)rgazomai, of His works that He has used of the Father’s works He was saying “I and the Father are co-equal and co-eternal.” If He had used a different word that may have satisfied the Jews. If He had used poiew which means to work, that would have been fine, but He didn’t. He has just spelled it out as clear as anything in the world that he and the Father had the exact same essence, and this is what aroused all of their antagonism. And He uses the same morphology – present active indicative. When He uses the same word He is saying, “We are equal.” He is saying, “I am God, the Father is God; the whole purpose of the Sabbath is for you to cool your heels, to remind yourselves of the fact that you can’t work for salvation, you can’t work for spirituality; it is to teach you grace. But I am the Lord of the Sabbath and I can do anything I want to with the Sabbath.” He deliberately told that man to carry his bed because it was contrary to the legalistic taboos. Jerusalem on the Sabbath day must have been the dullest place in all of history. The shackles of legalism which had been put on the people by the Pharisees are almost beyond comprehension. And when a man picks up a bed and carries it from the sheep gate, which represents salvation, to the temple which is supposed to represent the ministry and the work of the saviour, probably people cheered silently all over the place. Here was a man who had broken with the taboos of Judaism. Here is a man who defies the taboos of Judaism!
Many people in Jerusalem had gone on positive signals, therefore God is responsible to provide information for them at the point of gospel hearing. The gospel hearing is going to come up in the rest of the chapter, but how is Jesus going to gather a crowd and present Himself? Somewhere in the city of Jerusalem the people are now becoming alerted. There is someone here who has broken the shackles of religion. There is someone here who has destroyed the shackles of religion. And how do they know it? Because a man walked through the whole city from the gates to the temple carrying a bed. And the people knew. So every person who has positive volition is alerted, and there will very shortly be a discourse. And that very same Sabbath day a man is healed, a taboo is violated, and thousands of people in Jerusalem find Jesus Christ as their saviour. Sometimes before the gospel can be presented religion must be exposed. The gospel and religion are antithetical. One is of Satan and one is of God. The shackles have to be removed.
“I keep on working” – what was Jesus doing? Sustaining the universe – Colossians 1:17. He works every second. The reason we are here now is because Jesus Christ is working. If the Lord stopped working on the Sabbath the Pharisees would never see another Sabbath!
The religious crowd always criticised Jesus and it is recorded in all four Gospels. The Sabbath issue was always a big issue with the Jews and all four Gospel writers record the religious criticisms of Jesus. Matthew 12:2,3; Mark 2:24-27; Luke 13:15; John 5:17.
Verse 18 – the religious antagonism. “Therefore the Jews.” These are the religious Jews, not all the Jews. In Jerusalem there were many Jews who had +V at the point of God-consciousness. They will respond to the message of the Lord, they will believe in Him. But when it says “Jews” here it is referring to the religious leaders.
“sought” – imperfect active indicative, which means to keep on searching for a way to kill Him; “the more” indicates this, it is a phrase in the Greek which means intensity which rules out either a sense of humour or a relaxed mental attitude. They were so intense in their religiosity that they excluded any sense of humour, they didn’t have a relaxed mental attitude, and consequently they were on the completely wrong tack. Imagine wanting to kill the Lord of glory!
“not only had he broken the Sabbath” – the first motive of the Jews – “but said also that God was his Father, making himself equal with God.”
“to kill” – a)pokteinw [a)po = preposition of ultimate source; kteinw = sometimes just to destroy or to remove and sometimes to kill] means here to kill. There are many words for killing in the Greek but in their minds (ultimate source refers to their thinking, their mental attitude), in their mental attitude they had already killed Him. It was now just a matter of finding the mechanics for doing so. In principle they had killed Him in their minds – mental attitude sin of murder, made up of hatred plus jealousy.
“broken” – luw. It means to loosen something. So the first thing they didn’t like about Jesus was that He had relaxed the Sabbath. To loosen means to relax. Jesus relaxed on the Sabbath. To the Jews it was breaking it. The imperfect active indicative means He always was relaxed on the Sabbath.
The second reason why they didn’t like Him: “but kept on asserting [imperfect linear aktionsart] that the God was his own Father, [always] making himself [present active participle] equal with God.”
Jesus was doing on the Sabbath what the Sabbath was designed to be. The Sabbath was designed to be a grace day. Why didn’t they work on the Sabbath? Because you cannot work for salvation, or for spirituality. So the Sabbath was a grace day, a break in the routine. It was designed to commemorate grace; it was a memorial to the grace of God. The Sabbath is a reflection of the character of God. God is gracious and he Sabbath was designed for inner happiness, a relaxed mental attitude.
Verse 19 – the execution of the will of God in the life of Jesus.
“Then answered” – a)pokrinomai, to discern from the ultimate source. Jesus doesn’t answer, He discerns, and His discernment is expressed from the ultimate source of Himself – doctrine in the human spirit. This is an aorist middle indicative. Aorist tense: In this point of time He gives them the benefit of His doctrine. Middle voice: He does it Himself from the ultimate source of Himself. The indicative mood is the reality of the fact that they are hearing from the God-Man, the unique person of the universe.
“said” is imperfect linear aktionsart, which means that Jesus repeated this, He kept on saying it.
Verily, verily” – from now on throughout the Gospel of John we are going to see this phrase. It means “Truly, truly” literally, but truly, truly is an idiom. It really means “point of doctrine.”
“I say unto you” – present active indicative, “I keep on saying unto you,” dative of advantage; “The Son” – refers to the doctrine of the hypostatic union. Jesus Christ is God; Jesus Christ is man, in one person forever. So He says a very interesting thing at this point. He says, “The Son can do nothing,” but that isn’t really what it says. It says, “The Son is not able to do nothing.” Not good English, but it is good Greek. “Is not able” is present linear aktionsart which means that this is a fixed situation; “to do” is a present active infinitive which means this is a purpose or a concept or a result’ “nothing” is total orientation to the grace of God. What He is saying is, “I can’t do anything but totally orient to the grace of God.”
“of himself” – from the ultimate source of self [His humanity]. Literally, “is not able to do nothing from the ultimate source of myself.” The ultimate source of self is the humanity of Christ again. The humanity of Christ is helpless apart from the Father’s provision. This is demonstrated by what happened on the cross. When Christ was bearing our sins on the cross He was helpless. It was doctrine that kept Him there.
“but what he seeth the Father do” – is “if not unless he [the Son] sees the Father doing it.” Obviously we have a series of idioms here. But first the translation: “The Son [Jesus Christ] is not able to do nothing from the ultimate source of himself, if [3rd class condition] not unless he sees the Father doing it.”
Notice that in the English Bible there is the word “to do” twice, and this is one of the keys that unlocks the whole thing. The word in each case is the same – like e)rgazomai. Before, He used e)rgazomai of the Father, so He repeated it for Himself. Now He uses the word poiew of the Father and then turns around and uses it for Himself. Every time He uses a verb for the Father He uses the same verb for Himself. Here He does it again.
The point is that Jesus Christ does not depend upon the essence of His deity to do these things but He depended in His humanity upon the power of the Holy Spirit. All of the things that Jesus was doing He was doing from His humanity. He set aside the independent use of His own attributes. He operated strictly on His humanity so He could obey the Father. In His deity He is equal with the Father; in His humanity He obeys the Father. All of the way through this passage we are going to see obedience to the Father’s will. This passage will develop the Father’s provision – Bible doctrine and the Holy Spirit. The combination of Bible doctrine and the Holy Spirit means that He can cut it, and we have the same provision today.
What the Father does is the design for His life, and the something here is the provision – grace. Jesus Christ in His humanity lived under grace. The Father provided what He needed, so the Father did the doing.
“for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise” – we have the word “doeth” twice. Both times it is poiew, repetition of the verb. In the words, “whatsoever he sees” the word means to discern, to observe. Jesus Christ learned the Father’s plan. “Seeth” is blepw, meaning to discern. Jesus discerned from the ultimate source of Himself. How did Jesus know the Father’s plan? Jesus “grew in wisdom.” He had normal physical growth and in His humanity He was a genius but He had to learn doctrine. So the word “seeth” here is discerning what the Father wants Him to do. Jesus learned the plan in time through doctrine, and He “does” [poiew], present active indicative – He keeps right on following the Father’s plan. The same doctrine is available to us; the perfection is available to us; the same grace is available.
Verse 20 – the relationship in the incarnation. “For the Father loveth the Son.” The word “loveth” is where we get a difference of words – filew. John 3:16 – “For God so loved the world…” – a)gapaw, mental attitude love. That is all God can have for sinners. It is not a rapport type love. But what is His attitude toward Jesus Christ. It is filew – total rapport. God cannot filew the unbeliever because the unbeliever is spiritually dead. Jesus Christ was virgin-born, minus the sin nature, and right from the start the relationship of the humanity of Christ to the Father had total rapport – filew. This is something we can have with God only when we learn doctrine.
“the Son” – when you have rapport with someone you can show them things you can’t show to others. With a)gapaw you don’t have to show anything, it is just a relaxed mental attitude.
“he sheweth him” – deiknumi means to teach, to teach something of great importance. It means to teach something that is already there; to pull back the curtains and there it is. The doctrine is there but the humanity of Christ had to learn it in time, even though His deity always knew it. And when He learned doctrine a rapport was set up, and so the Father’s attitude to the humanity of Christ was filew, a rapport based on doctrine.
“all things” – the total plan of God. This means that Jesus Christ went so far with grace, further than anyone else could ever go, that the Father could show Him all things. The grace of God plus knowledge of Bible doctrine can bring you to the place where He can show you all things.
“that himself doeth” – poiew, that He has designed; “and he will shew him greater works” – reference to something in the future, the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
“than these” -- the healing of the impotent man was nothing; He is going to show Him something greater in the future.
“that ye may marvel [regard Him with admiration]” – recognition of the plan of the Father and the one who was involved in the plan of the Father, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Verse 21 – equity with the Father is resurrection and judgement. In verses 21 & 22 the fact that the Father and the Son are co-equal and co-eternal is going to be brought out by introducing two new subjects. The first of these is resurrection and the second is judgment. The Father and the Son are equal in these two areas. Why did Jesus pick resurrection and judgment? It is no accident that He picked them because in the theology of the Pharisees resurrection and judgment were dominant, and both of the theological seminaries did a great deal of teaching on these subjects. There were parts of the Sanhedrin who did not believe in resurrection and judgment but the Pharisees all believed in these things. So now Jesus is facing an antagonistic religious crowd made up of the leaders of the land and they are trying to nail Him to the wall. They are not succeeding and He is making it very clear as to who and what He is. He is equal with the Father in matters of resurrection; He is equal with the Father in matters of judgment.
The emphasis in verse 21 is on the work of the Father is resurrection and two verbs are used for the Father. The first of these is e)geirw, the word translated “raise up.” It is the simple word for resurrection, to cause to raise someone from the dead. And this is used only of the Father because it is the Father who is going to raise the humanity of the Son. But both the Son and the Father will be involved in the resurrection of, for example, all believers. So we have another word for resurrection which is actually a synonym zowpoiew [zow = life; poiew = to make or to do]. So this means to make life, to produce life, to give life. It is used for the Father and it is used for the Son. Why? Because the Father and the Son are co-equal and co-eternal in their deity.
This raises the question as to who raises the dead. First of all, the Father is involved in resurrection – 1 Thessalonians 1:10; 1 Peter 1:3; John 5:21. The Holy Spirit has a part in resurrection – Romans 8:11; 1 Peter 3:18. Jesus Christ is also involved in the resurrection of those other than Himself – John 5:21. So the resurrection, then, is a joint project of the Trinity and it emphasises the co-equality and the coexistence of the members of the Trinity.
Verse 22 – the same thing is true of judgement. “For the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son.” This is talking about the last judgement only. The Father is involved in all sorts of judgments. He judges nations because they phase out on Bible doctrine – Hosea 4:6; Isaiah 5:13. He judges with regard divine laws connected to the divine institutions. He judges people for all sorts of things. He protects the human race from self-destruction by certain types of judgments which prune out the human race and keeps it from a mass madness that would destroy it. So the Father is constantly judging. Now it was Jesus Christ who was judged for us on the cross; it was Jesus Christ who was the courtroom; it is Jesus Christ who paid the penalty for us. So at the last judgment people who reject Christ are going to stand on their own human good, either consciously or subconsciously. The work of Christ on the cross is divine good. When a person rejects Christ they are rejecting His work and they are substituting their own. The scripture indicts them by saying “Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us.” So human good is not judged at the cross, human good is rejected at the cross because human good can never be the basis of appropriating salvation. And since human good cannot be the basis of appropriating salvation, since it is apart from human works, human good is not judged; it is a part of the sin nature which is not judged. So at the last judgement we have a second resurrection. And who is on the throne? Jesus Christ – John 5:22. Why is He the judge here? He was judged at the cross, now He is the judge of all who reject His judgment. Who rejects His judgment? All unbelievers since the beginning of time. Every time a person refuses to believe in Christ – either negative volition at the point of God-consciousness or negative volition at the point of gospel hearing, or both – he always chooses to stand upon his own works, and so when we come to the last judgment the unbeliever is there because he has rejected Christ as saviour, he has refused to accept this salvation. He cannot be judged for his sins because they were judged at the cross, and under the law of double jeopardy he can only be judged once for them. The only thing by which he can be indicted is the other part of his old sin nature operation – human good. Our righteousness are as filthy rags to God – Isaiah 64:6, they are dead works – Hebrews 6:1, and therefore the unbeliever will not be judged for his sins at the last judgement. He is judged for one thing only: human good.
“hath committed” – perfect tense. It means to give and the Father has given all judgment to the Son. The perfect tense means that since the beginning of time, and they are eternally saved. There have been unbelievers, all of whom will stand on their human good (their sins having been judged at the cross), and this is what is meant by the perfect tense – from the beginning of time to the end of time all unbelievers will be judged by Jesus Christ at the end of time.
So this is why we have both judgment and resurrection used to show this total equality.
Verse 23 – co-equality in honour. In this connection we have, once again, a verb used for the Father and the same verb used for the Son – timaw, which means to honour. It is a word which means to give honour, to show honour, to hold in the highest respect or the highest regard.
“That” introduces a purpose clause. Here is the purpose of God; “all [the word “men” is in italics. But it means all the human race] should honour the Son.” This is the first use of timaw and it is a present active subjunctive, linear aktionsart; everyone is going to honour the Son one way or another. The subjunctive mood is the potential; that honour depends upon attitude toward the cross.
This verse indicates that relationship with God the Father is based upon attitude toward the Son. To honour the Son means to believe in Him, to receive Him as saviour, to recognise Him for what He is. The word is used here because the religious crowd, the Pharisees, had studied the Old Testament scriptures and understood them well.
Verse 24 – fellowship with God comes through the Son.
“Verily, verily” – point of doctrine; “I say unto you [keep on communicating to you], He that heareth my word.” This is one of the most difficult verses to analyse because it appears to say that you have to believe in the Father to be saved. But a principle must be understood. Jesus said, “I and the Father are one.” That is, both Jesus and the Father have identical essence. The Father and the Son are in view here. They are one, and all of the way through this passage the Father sends the Son – the humanity of Christ which is sent. How can you honour the Father? The only way is to believe in the Son, and when you believe in the Son you believe in the Father. This is the one salvation verse that is a principle verse rather than a mechanical verse. Here is a verse which deals with the principle, and you cannot get to God the Father and live with Him forever unless you come through the Son. And if you honour the Son by believing in Him, then this is tantamount to believing in the Father, since Jesus says, “I and the Father are one.”
The word for “hearing” here means to hear and obey. It means to have a delineation of the gospel and to obey it. Obedience is simply faith in Christ.
“my word [the word of salvation], and believeth on him that sent me” – that is God the Father. Nowhere in the scripture does it ever say you believe in God the Father for salvation. This is for obvious reasons: Christ is the saviour. Acts 4:12. When we have believed in the Son we have believed in the Father, is what this verse is saying because it is dealing with a principle. But most of the salvation verses deal with mechanics and when they deal with mechanics it is always believe on the Son. This verse explains verse 23 and it is the principle of salvation used to illustrate the co-equality of honour between the Father and the Son.
“hath everlasting life” – present active indicative, keeps on having everlasting life.
In verses 25-27 we go back to salvation and judgment. Since they are co-equal in judgment they are also co-equal in the matter of salvation. The Father designed salvation and the Son actually executed it, and the Spirit reveals it. But in spite of these different functions in the plan of salvation this does not change the fact that each member of the Trinity is co-equal and co-eternal.
Verse 25 – “Verily, verily” – point of doctrine; “I say unto you [for your advantage], The hour is coming…” This is not a resurrection verse, it must be connected with the previous verse – hearing and obeying has to do with people who are spiritually dead. They hear the gospel and then they obey the gospel by believing in Jesus Christ. Who does this? People who are dead spiritually. The gospel is what causes dead people to hear. Then his volition goes into operation. If he goes on positive signals he believes in Jesus Christ, and having believed in Jesus Christ then he has eternal life.
“and now is [now here]” – for some of you, this is it. They are about to hear something to which they will respond. How can Jesus tell that there are people who are about to respond? Because in eternity past He knew everyone who would be standing in the temple that day – omniscience. He knew that at the point of God-consciousness many of these people living in Jerusalem many of these people had gone on +V. He also knew that whenever a person at the point of God-consciousness goes on +V God is responsible to provide information for that person by which they can be saved. Jeremiah 29; Acts 17; John 7:17. So he says, “The hour is coming, and for some of you it is here, when you are going to get gospel hearing.” And as a result of gospel hearing they are going to believe and be saved.
“when the [spiritually] dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God” – they are hearing the voice of the Son of God; “and they that hear shall live” – they will respond to the gospel.
So this is a dissertation on salvation, the principle being that eternal life comes through the Son.
Verse 26 – co-equality again. This is not difficult when we remember that the Father is eternal life. The deity of Christ is eternal life. There never was a time when the Father and the Son did not have eternal life. 1 John 5:11,12.
Verse 27 – the amplification is concluded by going back to judgment. “And he has given him [Jesus Christ] authority to execute judgment also, because he is the Son of Man.” This means very simply that Jesus Christ was judged on the cross and the Father has given Him the privilege of judging all who reject His judgment.
Verse 28 – “Marvel not at this,” stop be amazed at this. They were standing there with their mouths open.
“for the hour is coming” – this is a different hour. This isn’t the hour of salvation, this is the hour of resurrection.
“in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice” – in other words, there is another voice of the Son of God. In time on earth we hear His voice, which is the gospel, and we respond by faith. But in eternity it is again hearing His voice and this is for resurrection, specifically the resurrection of the Church. The words “in the grave” means the body is in the grave. The emphasis now goes back to the body.
“shall hear” – it is the soul that hears the voice. The soul hears the voice in heaven. 1 Thessalonians 4:13-17.
Verse 29 – “And shall come forth.” This means to come forth in a resurrection body.
Verse 28 – “Marvel not” means “Stop being amazed” – present active imperative plus the negative, and the word means to be totally astounded. This is the ordinary Greek word for total amazement. The “hour” here is the Rapture of the Church in which all believers of the Church Age that are in the graves shall hear His voice. The word a)kouw, to hear means to hear and obey, not only to hear something but also to respond to it. The souls will be in the presence of the Lord and they will come down to the earth, and from there will come up in resurrection bodies. The point is that they are hearing the voice of the Son of God with regard to matters that pertain to this life, and as the Son of God speaks everything He says is doctrine, everything He says presents the plan of God. Therefore the tremendous effect in the power of His voice is given in the fact that Jesus Christ only has to speak and the Rapture begins. With a voice that powerful the religious crowd should be listening to what He has to say at the present time. So in the next verse we have the continuation of the temple discourse.
Verse 29 – “And they shall come forth.” The Greek word is e)kporeuomai [e)k = from; poreuomai = go from one place to another] and it means to go out of a place that is not worthwhile into a state or a place that is worthwhile. In other words, a body goes out of the grave and into a resurrection concept. This is a general verse, it does not give specifics. Since the religious crowd is totally involved in a legalistic concept here is something to break that up. That is, to listen to the voice of the Son of God as He stands on the steps of the temple and declares to them the issues of eternal life. But they refuse to do so. They are totally disoriented to this concept and this plan and so Jesus is going to show them a very interesting thing. This religious crowd will continue to go on negative signals with regard to the gospel. They will continue to reject it and yet there is one time when they will obey the voice of the Son of God, for there will be a second resurrection. Jesus will say, “Rise up,” and the souls of the religious crowd will go into the bodies of these unbelievers and they will stand in their physical bodies before the great white throne – a physical body designed for suffering in the lake of fire. So they will obey His voice once.
“they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life” – the doing of good is poiew, which generally means to do; “and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation” -- the doing of evil is prassw, which generally means to practice, to establish a pattern. The verb poiew is used here for the first resurrection and prassw is used for the second resurrection. The ones in the first resurrection are said to do good, and the Greek word for good is a)gaqoj which is good of intrinsic value – divine good. There is one thing that man cannot do on his own, and that is divine good. The verb poiew is in the aorist active participle. The type of good which is mentioned is a)gaqoj which is used for divine good. Who can produce or do divine good? Only a person who is in the plan of God. To produce divine good you have to first of all receive Christ as saviour, you have to be a child of God and born into the family of God. Once you receive Christ as saviour you are in phase two of the plan of God where knowledge of doctrine plus the filling of the Holy Spirit equals the production of divine good. Only a believer can produce divine good. This doesn’t mean that every believer does but it means that he is now distinguished from the unbeliever in that way. No unbeliever can produce divine good. All the unbeliever has is an old sin nature and the old sin nature can produce human good but never divine good. So those who produce divine good are believers and they are involved in the first resurrection.
With regard to the second resurrection we have the verb prassw which means to practice, to establish or form a pattern. This, too, is an aorist active participle. In each case the aorist tense indicates facing the cross – in the first case +V, and in the second –V. In other words, they all face the cross. But when the person who becomes a believer faces the cross, for the first time he sees divine good and he believes in Jesus Christ. So at the point of salvation you depend upon the work of another, the perfect work of Jesus Christ, you depend upon what he has accomplished. Divine good is what Christ did no the cross, so once in every believer’s life he depends upon divine good. Once he enters into phase two, which is the believer in time, divine good is the order of the day as far as the plan of God is concerned. Therefore knowledge of doctrine plus the filling of the Holy Spirit equals the production of divine good. So that in phase two he can produce divine good as well. But the aorist tense takes up a point of time when he is saved, and when he is saved poiew is used because he does divine good in the sense of believing in Christ.
But the unbeliever who faces the cross goes on negative signals, and when he does he depends upon human good. At the point of the cross he depended upon human good because [prassw] he had been practicing human good all along and he was a person who used his own merit, his own ability to try to gain salvation. So here are these Pharisees, these scribes, and so on. They have always had the concept since they first entered into religion that you have to do good to be saved, you have to do good to go to heaven. So when they face the cross they have behind them a long record, many years of human good. So they look at the cross – divine good – and they say no, I prefer my backlog of human good. They had been practicing [prassw] all along.
“and they that have done evil” – this is prassw. These are the people who went on negative signals toward the cross. Evil simply refers to the old sin nature under which they have operated. Under the OSN they have produced good – human good. At the last judgement human good will be judged. Human good is not sin but it is evil because the OSN is classified as evil and anything that comes from the OSN is evil. From the evil comes sin; from the evil comes human good.
So at this point, verses 30 & 31, we have a dissertation on the humanity of Christ. In order to get to the cross and to produce divine good Jesus Christ is under orders from the Father. He is under the Father’s will and He will not go outside of the Father’s will. This means that Christ must subordinate His deity to the will of the Father, ands the only way He can do that is to not use His attributes of deity independently – doctrine of Kenosis: Jesus Christ refused to operate independently of the Father’s plan in His deity. He did not use the characteristics of His deity independently of the Father’s plan. In other words, when He performed miracles He performed them in the power of the Spirit. Whatever He did, He did in the power of the Spirit; He did not depend upon His own divine attributes. He depended upon the indwelling Holy Spirit in His humanity. This is a big issue because Satan tried to get Him to operate independently of the Father’s plan – Matthew 4, “Command these stones to be made bread.” Jesus didn’t do it because He would have been acting independently of the Father’s plan.
Verse 30 – the humanity of Christ depends on the Father. “I can” is literally, “I am not able.” When Jesus says, “I am not able,” obviously He is referring to his humanity because His deity has unlimited ability – omnipotence.
“to do” – present active indicative of poiew. The present tense indicates linear aktionsart – do constantly during the incarnation. The active voice: Jesus Christ will operate under the control of the Father; He is not able to do otherwise. The infinitive indicates this is His purpose. It is His purpose to rely upon the Father’s provision rather than use His own divine attributes independently of the Father’s plan.
“of myself” – the word “of” is the preposition a)po, the preposition of ultimate source: “I am not able to do anything from the ultimate source of myself.” Ultimate source refers to His deity, the essence of God.
How does He operate, then, in the incarnation?
“as I hear” – a)kouw, which means to hear and obey, present linear aktionsart. “What I hear, I obey” is what He is saying. He obeyed perfectly the will of the Father during the incarnation. Present tense: He keeps on doing it. Active voice: Jesus Christ produces the action. Indicative mood: the reality of the action which he produces, the reality of the fact that He did the Father’s will in every step of the incarnation, including the cross, all of the way to resurrection, ascension; and when He was ascended the Father said to Him, “Sit down.”
“I judge” – the word for judge here is a present active indicative and it means judging right then and there. Jesus is standing on the steps of the temple and here are all these religious people listening to Him, and His message is judging them right now. He is talking about the resurrection of damnation, the alternative to the cross. They have rejected the cross and He is explaining the alternative, therefore He must speak in terms of judgment. So he is judging right now, but He is not judging because of what He feels about it, He is judging because the Father has said that those who reject the Son must come under judgment. So He is not speaking from His deity, He is speaking strictly from the Father’s plan.
“and my judgment is just [righteous]” – in other words, this is the Father’s plan. The Father is perfect; His plan of perfect, therefore anyone who is judged under the Father’s plan is being judged perfectly.
“because I seek not my own will” – He is here to do the Father’s will, not His; “who hath sent me” – a)postellw, which means to send on a special official delegation. When the religious crowd heard about John the Baptist out in the desert, drawing the crowds, they sent a delegation – a)postellw. They sent a delegation to condemn John. Now the Father sends [a)postellw] a delegation of one, not to condemn but to save. This is the impact of the message of Jesus Christ. The people who reject that salvation are going to be condemned; but He was sent officially into the world to save the world, not to condemn the world.
Verse 31 – His dependence on the plan of the Father. “If” – 3rd class condition: potential – “I bear witness of myself, my witness is not true.” This means that if the Father laid out the plan and that is the way He is going to do it. His witness would not be true for one reason: because He would be operating outside of the plan of God.
1. If Jesus acts independently of the Father’s plan He is bearing witness to Himself.
2. His witness would then be insubordination.
3. Satan tempted Jesus to act independently of the Father’s plan and the Father’s provision -- turning stones into bread.
4. This is a temptation which the believer today in principle only, and generally when He starts to become a mature believer – acting independently of the Father’s plan.
5. The humanity of Christ was oriented to grace and the Father’s plan.
6. Therefore, He was subordinate to the will of the Father and the plan of the Father in His humanity.
The six witnesses to the person of the Lord Jesus Christ.
In Deuteronomy 17:6; 19:15; 2 Corinthians 13:1 we have the law of a double witness. We have heard: “In the mouth of two or three witnesses a fact will be established.” It means that one person might be prejudiced, one person might be hysterical, but when you have three people one of them is bound to be calm and emotionally uninvolved. Therefore, when you have a series of people witnessing about a fact or an alleged fact and you can get two or three to agree, the fact is established as a point of law in a court of law. This is a basic principle of justice.
There are six witnesses who stand in the history of the human race and say to us that Jesus Christ is the unique person of the universe. He is God; He is man; He is the only saviour. These six witnesses are all brought into the picture to conclude this tremendous discourse which was given originally to religious people. This discourse which is being concluded at this part of the chapter started with the religious crowd criticising Jesus Christ. Religion hates Jesus Christ.
At this point the Pharisees not only cling to the Sabbath but they cling to the law of double witness. Jesus takes the Sabbath and shows them that the Sabbath was designed for grace, not for legalism. Now He turns and shows them that the law of double witness was designed for grace and to protect people, and not to be distorted. So He presents six witnesses in the court of history.
Verse 32 -- The first witness is God the Holy Spirit, a perfect witness, a perfect person. “There is” – present active indicative of the verb e)imi, a verb of absolute status quo. It is present linear aktionsart, there always will exist, there never was a time when He didn’t exist; “another” is another of the same kind. Jesus Christ is God; the Holy Spirit is God.
“that beareth witness” – present active participle, marturew which is the key word for the rest of the passage: he who acts as a witness.
“of me” is correctly “concerning me” – peri. The witness is the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit is indwelling the humanity of Christ, and the Holy Spirit is co-equal with the deity of Christ. The Holy Spirit is operating in the humanity of Christ in the same manner the Holy Spirit operates in us when we are filled with the Spirit.
“and I know that the witness that he witnesses concerning me is doctrine” – truth.
There are two witnesses of the Holy Spirit. The first witness is the sustaining ministry of the Holy Spirit during the incarnation of Christ, and the second is the ministry of the Holy Spirit in the production of the canon of scripture – 2 Peter 1:21.
Verses 33-35 – the second witness: John the Baptist.
Verse 33 – “You sent.” They sent [a)postellw] an official delegation out into the desert to investigate the credentials of John the Baptist. They wanted a witness but they didn’t accept it after they had checked it out. John never walked into Jerusalem and onto the steps of the temple. John never went to them; they came to him. The people came to John and the religious crowd came to him. John the Baptist had the truth, Bible doctrine. They came to him. When you have the truth you don’t run around begging people to listen to it. Doctrine can stand on its own feet; it never needs any help from us. If you have something worthwhile you stand there with it and the people will come to you. Jesus Christ stands still and He calls His witnesses. Just as the people came to John the people will come to Him. John the Baptist was the perfect illustration; he stayed in one spot, out in the desert where there were no people.
“he bare witness” – perfect tense of marturew which means to communicate the gospel. The gospel is a facet or segment of Bible doctrine. Perfect tense: he communicated in the past with the result that there are people standing there listening to the voice of Jesus who were saved. Active voice: John the Baptist did the communicating. The indicative mood: the reality of his great ministry.
Basically, the message of John the Baptist was fourfold:
a) The person of Christ – John 1:29, “Behold the Lamb of God.”
b) A change of mental attitude accompanies faith – Matthew 3:2, “Repent ye.”
c) The mechanics of salvation – Acts 19:4, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
d) Occupation with Christ – John 3:30, “He must increase, I must decrease.”
“the truth” – he communicated the truth. This is a ministry which impressed the religious crowd; it impressed them. Even though the religious crowd didn’t agree, and they didn’t accept the content of his message, they were impressed with the power of it. Here is religion’s great dilemma. The message has content, the content of the gospel, but it goes forth in power. Content is doctrine; the power is the ministry of the Holy Spirit in the life of John the Baptist as he preached. They were impressed by power but they went negative on the content. What they tried to do was to convert the power (divine power) into something they could use. They couldn’t, but they tried. They were emotionally involved without being mentally involved. They never accepted the gospel but they were so impressed with John the Baptist that they sent him an official delegation.
Verse 34 – “I receive not,” lambanw means to receive, but it has other meanings. It means to take to one’s self or to sustain, and so Jesus is saying, “I am no sustained by a testimony from the immediate source of a man.” He is saying that He did not need the message of John to sustain me. He is saying that the thing that sustained John the Baptist was doctrine; the thing that sustained Him was doctrine – in His humanity. There lies the power. So He is saying to the religious crowd, “You wanted the power, but you rejected the message. I am not sustained by the power of John the Baptist, I am sustained by the doctrine” – just as John was sustained by the doctrine which he communicated.
“from man” – para, from the immediate source of man. This is referring to a public speaking situation, such as John the Baptist.
“but these things I say” – why? The thing that they missed in the message of John the Baptist. They caught the power but they missed the content of the message; they rejected it.
“that ye might be saved” – the purpose in going over the doctrine is so that they might be saved. It is the doctrine, the gospel, that saves. This is an aorist passive subjunctive. Saved in a point of time; salvation is received when we believe; salvation is potential, depending on whether a person believes or not.
Verse 35 – John the Baptist. “He was a burning and shining light.” “He” is not he at all, in the Greek it is “that one” – e)keinoj, which is not a simple pronoun. It means that one, that special one. It means someone who is special. He was special because he was the herald of the King. On the inside he was burning; on the outside he was shining. If you burn on the inside you shine on the outside. The word for burning is kaiw. This goes on on the inside, it is unseen; but you do see something on the outside. “Shining” is the verb fainw. The Christian way of life starts on the inside and works to the outside. Doctrine is on the inside; the filling of the Spirit is on the inside. This works to the outside. “He was” is imperfect linear aktionsart of the verb e)imi – past time. In other words, John’s ministry is over now. This is what he was in the past. Kaiw means to be consumed with fire and it is a reference here to the indwelling ministry of the Holy Spirit and the knowledge of doctrine. The indwelling of the Holy Spirit plus knowledge of doctrine = shining. Fainw is a present active participle. Inside we have “passive,” we receive these things – knowledge of doctrine, the filling of the Holy Spirit. When we have these things, active voice on the outside, we produce – divine good. Divine good is the production that is seen on the outside. This is what Jesus said about John the Baptist.
“ye were willing” – aorist active indicative of the verb qelw. The aorist tense is the point of time when they heard him, were impressed by his power but rejected the content of his message. Qelw means from the standpoint of their emotion. In the emotion of their souls they admired power but they would not go to the source of the power which was the cross. This describes the religious crowd who respond from the emotion of the soul without becoming involved in the volition and the mentality of the soul.
“for a season” – during the time that John ministered in the desert. The Jews were like a moth around a flame. They were attracted to John for his brightness but they did not absorb the warmth of his message. The warmth is on the inside – the power of the Spirit, the content of the message. They were entertained but not persuaded. They were impressed with the power but they rejected the message, and it is the message, the content, that counts.
“to rejoice” – they didn’t rejoice. Rejoicing is the Christian monopoly – the filling of the Spirit, inner happiness, Bible doctrine filling the facets of the soul. The word for “rejoice” is xairw. This is what the Spirit produces, and what knowledge of doctrine produces; but that isn’t the word we have here. The word used here is a)galliaw, which means to celebrate, to crave something. It is not the Greek word for inner happiness. So the celebrated, they craved something, they craved John’s power, but they did not crave John’s Christ. They craved crowds and the dynamics of John but they rejected the message. They were emotionally involved but not mentally and volitionally involved. This is always true of religion and it is a great indictment of religion.
Verse 36 – John’s power was in the message that he preached, but Jesus performed a lot of miracles. The religious crowd were never impressed with miracles. We notice in the Gospels that when Jesus performed miracles it made them mad and they wanted to kill Him. But they were impressed with John’s crowds and the power of John’s delivery. So Jesus says, All right, you were impressed with power, now I am going to call on another witness. And this is a logical witness, the witness of the works of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Literally, “But the witness that I have [keep on having] is greater [than the power of John].” The witness is the miracles of the Lord Jesus Christ. They were not designed to alleviate suffering, even though they did this. Their purpose was to focus attention on the gospel for it is the gospel which saves. Miracles won’t save. The word for “greater” here is megaj. It means more numerous, more intense, and more distinguished. This doesn’t disparage the ministry of John the Baptist. Both of them were sustained by the same Holy Spirit, both of them preached the same message, but Jesus Christ has a more distinguished, more intense, and a more numerous manifestation of power, i.e. the miracles as well as the power of delivery. And He now declares what this greater witness is.
“for the works” – e)rgon, which means “deeds, miracles.” These miracles were designed in eternity past, so Jesus brings the Father who designed them into the picture” “hath given me” – perfect tense, they were designed in eternity past for a purpose. They were to focus attention on the gospel to a very religious group of people when Christ was on earth.
“to finish” – the Father gave them in the past with the result that they have a purpose, and that purpose is to finish, i.e. to execute, to accomplish; “the same works that I do, [these] bear witness of me, that the Father hath sent me” – a)postellw, to send an official delegation. Jesus Christ is an official delegation from God the first Father to mankind, and His job is saviour. He is in contrast to the religious crowd who sent an official delegation to hear John, the herald of the King, were impressed with the power but did not become mentally involved with the message.
Verse 37 – the witness of the Father. “And the Father himself” – the word “himself” is a reflexive pronoun which takes us back to His essence. The Father is perfect; His plan is perfect. His plan includes the presentation of the Son.
“which hath sent me” – a)pastellw, sent on an official delegation. The Father sent a delegation of one, Jesus Christ, to save the world.
“hath borne witness” – perfect active indicative of marturew which means to communicate information, to get a point across. The Father is communicating to the world through His Son. The Father is revealing His love, His grace, only through the Son, only by the cross.
“of me” – should be “concerning me,” peri. Perfect tense: He did this in the past (eternity past) with results that are now apparent to these people.
Now He looks these religious people right in the eye and says they are on negative signals: “Ye have neither heard his voice at any time, nor seen his form.”
“nor seen” – perfect active indicative of o(raw [from which we get our word “horizon”]. This does not mean to see with the eye, it means to see with the mind. In other words, they have rejected the message. This is a verb for perception. The reason they haven’t seen is because they went on negative volition toward the message.
“his form” – His form is His essence. And behind His essence, therefore, the design. A perfect person designs a perfect plan. Negative volition is not impressed with knowing God’s plan, they are more interested in impressing God with who and what they are.
Verse 38 – “And ye have not his word abiding in you.” These Pharisees know the Old Testament scriptures but they are religious unbelievers, they do not have a human spirit. Therefore they are unable to relate these things to the plan of God and to the grace of God, they have not taken the first step which is salvation, and consequently, even though they know the scriptures [the Old Testament] they have not been able to correlate these things. They have from the OT, ritual, but they do not have the reality. For example, they observe the Passover but they do not have the reality of the Passover, i.e. 1 Corinthians 5:7.
How can you have the word abiding in you? It doesn’t mean resident, it means that the Word is operational. It is there; it is operational there. These religious people knew some facts, all about Moses, the Exodus, etc.
“for whom he hath sent: -- aorist active indicative of a)postellw, which means to send an official delegation [stellw = send; a)po = preposition of ultimate source]. The Father sends the Son.
“him ye believe not” – they rejected the message, they were minus faith. Present active indicative: they have continued to “believe not.” The present tense plus the negative means they have not only rejected the message once but they have rejected every witness brought before them.
Verse 39 – the Old Testament scripture is called in as a witness (Verses 39-44). “Search the scriptures” – it doesn’t say search. While we are commanded to do so this is not what is meant here. The verb is e)reunaw. It means to explore or to investigate something with which you are familiar. The Pharisees knew all sorts of little things that they knew about the scriptures but they had never investigated the scriptures to see the person there. They were using the ritual of the scripture, they were practicing Codex #3 of the Mosaic law, they added to this their own system of good deeds; therefore they needed to investigate, to explore something with which they were familiar. This is the second person plural to indicate that Jesus Christ was talking to all the chief priests, scribes and Pharisees. It is a present active imperative, which means that they would have to persist in their investigation because they had a lot of unlearning to do. A religious person has preconceived notions that are wrong.
The “scriptures” here refer to the Old Testament, and only the Old Testament.
“in them” – the content of the OT; Jesus Christ is revealed in them; “ye think” – the verb dokew means to assume. It is a sloppy form of thinking; “[that] ye have eternal life” -- they assumed that they were saved by observing ritual and by physical birth. So they were guilty of sloppy thinking.
“and they are they which testify of me” – this time the word “testify” is a present active participle. In every line of the OT you are going to find me, if you come with an open mind.
Verse 40 – again, He expresses their negative volition.
“ye will not” is a present active indicative of qelw. They are emotionally involved. This is simply emotion influencing volition to go on negative signals rather than mentality influencing volition to go on positive signals. Mentality pulls in the facts.
“come” – aorist active infinitive. You only come once in one point of time. The very second in which you believe God gives eternal life, and the 40 things God gives you are perpetuated forever. The active voice indicates that every person must make his own decision and he must do it apart from any human coercion. The infinitive expresses purpose; it is God’s purpose that people come to Christ in a moment of time.
“unto me” – proj plus the accusative means “face to face with.” So in a point of time you come face to face with God.
“that” introduces a purpose clause; “ye might have” – present active subjunctive, that you might keep on having. Subjunctive: whether you have it or not is potential, depending on whether you go on positive signals – believe, or whether you go on negative signals – qelw.
Verse 41 – “I receive not” means I do not seize, present active indicative of lambanw. “I do not grab glory from me” is what He is saying.
“from” is para, which means from the immediate source. Jesus is hitting the religious crowd where it hurts the most. They are glory-grabbers. Legalism is designed to make glory-grabbers out of them. From the immediate source of men He does not seize or grab glory.
Verse 42 – “But I know you,” perfect tense of ginwskw, “I have known you since eternity past.” Ginwskw means to know from the experience of observation. I know you from eternity past with the result that I understand you right now.
“that you have not the love of God in you” – the only kind of love they could have is a)gaph love. Rapport love is filoj, and they do not have that. This is simply going back to a mental attitude love. They do not have a)gaph love because they are negative toward doctrine, i.e. the gospel, and they are filled up with religiosity, legalism, human good, etc. Because they are negative they do not have a)gaph.
“of God” is an objective genitive and it means “toward God”; “in you” – negative volition again emphasised.
Verse 43 – “I am come.” This time He switches from the aorist tense “come,” which they had to do in a point of time, to the perfect tense. This was designed in the past with the result that I am now here. Active voice: Jesus Christ came through the virgin birth, first advent. The indicative mood is the reality of His coming.
“in my Father’s name” means representing my Father; “and ye receive me not” – present active indicative: You do not seize me, you grab glory – he uses the same word again: lambanw. You do not seize me – that would be faith in Christ.
“if” – 3rd class condition, ‘if’, maybe yes, maybe no; “another” – another of the same kind, another Jew; “shall come” – aorist active subjunctive, because it could happen many times. Many people would come claiming that they were Messiah, and they will come in their own name. They will impress with their human good, with their religiosity.
“him ye will receive” – lambanw again, future tense, indicating that they would receive such a person and it would happen many times in the future.
Verse 44 – their disorientation to grace. “How can ye believe” is literally, “How are you able to believe.” This is a question which is going to be answered by lambanw again. “How are you able” is the present active indicative of dunamai which means to have ability. Ability means that God provides the ability. He provides everything – the information, the fullness of soul, the volition, the mentality, the Holy Spirit making the gospel clear; He provides everything. “How do you have the ability to believe?” – present tense, “How do you keep on being able,” and then to the aorist because “to believe,” aorist active infinitive, occurs in a moment of time. But they do not have the ability to believe because they are on negative signals at the point of God-consciousness, negative signals at the point of gospel hearing. Therefore, they have all of this stuff in their frontal lobes and they are not even able to believe at this point. Jesus is trying to clean this stuff out so that they will be able to believe.
“which receive” – but the word isn’t receive, it is lambanw again, so seize, to grab; “honour” – doca means “glory.” They are glory-grabbers, but they are grabbing a false glory, the glory of human achievement, the glory of human ability, the glory of religiosity, the glory of a preconceived human system.
“one of another” – one of another of the same kind. In other words, they all have to get together within the framework of their religious system. When they grab glory one from another they have a mutual admiration society.
“and seek not the honour [glory]” – para, from the immediate source of – “from God only?”
Verse 45 – a final witness against them. Calling to the stand Moses, the greatest of the OT prophets and one for whom they had the highest respect.
“in whom ye trust” – e)lpizw, which means I hope so, maybe so. So the best we can do with it here is to “repose confidence.” But they are still not thinking; there is still no pisteuw here.
Verse 46 – “For had ye believed.” The word “had” is not there, it is “If you had believed,” and it is a 2nd class condition. And now He uses pisteuw for the first time: If you had believed, but you didn’t. “For if you had believed Moses [and you would not].”
“you would have believed me” – but you didn’t believe Moses and therefore you don’t believe me. Moses was one of the greatest witnesses of Christ. Deuteronomy 18, quoted by Peter in Acts 3:22 and by Stephen in Acts 7:27. Moses constantly taught about Christ. Numbers 21:4-9, quoted by Jesus Himself in John 3:14, Moses was actually teaching about the cross. Leviticus chapters 1-6, the Levitical offerings, we have the teaching of the cross; in chapter 23, the holy days which was teaching concerning Christ. Exodus 12, the Passover, and in 1 Corinthians 5:7 Christ is our Passover.
Verse 47 – “But if ye believe not,” 1st class condition [and it is true], “his writings [and you really don’t], how shall ye believe my words?” The final indictment.
There is one more witness: the feeding of the 5000 men.