THE FOUR WITNESSES
John chapter 5, v. 31 to 47
In Jewish, Greek and Roman law the testimony of a witness was not received in his own case (Deuteronomy 19: 1, Matthew 18: 16, 2 Corinthians 13: 1; 1 Timothy 5: 19). Yet in John 8: 12-19 Jesus claims that His witness concerning Himself is true because the Father gives confirmation of his message, the Father and the Son being the two Witnesses (chapter 8: 17). It is a paradox and yet true.
Here the Lord yields to the rabbinical demand for proof outside of Himself, for they would not accept His own witness (chapter 3:11). He declares to them that He has the witness of the Father (verses 32, 37, chapter 8:17), John the Baptist (verse 33), His works (verse 36), and the Scriptures (verse 39), particularly that of Moses (verse 45).
As regards John the Baptist, this was an official and permanent fact for they themselves had sent a committee to John and he had borne personal witness to them, which must be recognised as trustworthy by the Sanhedrin (chapter 1:19-28). His witness was of permanent and abiding value, this having been the purpose of his mission (chapter 1:7).
But He does not receive the witness simply from a man, like John: he was the least of the witnesses, yet he was given, and the others, so that they might believe and be saved. This was the purpose of Christ's coming, that the world might be saved (chapter 3:17). He felt keenly the task laid on him by the Father (chapter 3:35) and claimed at the end that he had performed it (chapter 17:4; 19:30).
At this time John had been imprisoned, his active ministry was over and his purpose had been accomplished - that is why the past tense is used in verse 35. John was not the Light (chapter 1:8) but a lamp, or candle, shining in the darkness.
Like a lamp that is lit and burns, and so is consumed, he announced the coming of the Lamb of God to bring salvation to those who found themselves in the darkness of sin, like these Jews. They became willing to accept John, because of his temporary popularity (chapter 1:19, Mark 1:5; Matthew 3:5; 11:7; 21:26), but the brightness of John's shining did not really enlighten their minds. Their interest in him was a frivolous, superficial, and short-lived excitement, only for an hour, then they turned against him.
When the Light comes, the lamp is no longer needed. And so when the Lord Jesus, who by his own claim is the Light of the World (chapter 8:12, 9:5; 12:46) began His ministry, John was extinguished. All believers are in a sense the light of the world (Matthew 5:14) because the world gets the Light of Christ through us.
But good as the witness of John was, Christ had superior testimony.
Although He held that the highest form of faith did not require works for evidence (chapter 2:23; 10:38; 14:11), the works themselves:
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bore the seal of the Father's approval (chapter 5:20,36; 10:25),
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they proved that the Father had sent Him, and
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to reject their witness was wrong (chapter 10:25; 10:37; 15:24), for they were His credentials. He moved out into the crowds, into the highways and the byways, and as He moved along, people were healed. The claims made that there are those today who have the same power that Jesus had is blasphemy in this context, because the uniqueness of the miracles which He performed attested that He was the Son of God.
The Father Himself had borne witness. Rather than the voice of the Father at his baptism (Mark 1: 11), the transfiguration (Mark 9:7), or at the time of the visit of the Greeks (chapter 12:28), His language indicates that He was referring to the witness of the Father in the heart of the believers (1 John 5:9, 10). God's witness did not come by audible voice nor visible form (chapter 1: 18; 6:46; 1 John 4:12), of Himself, but the Lord later said that those who had seen Him had seen the Father (chapter 14:9), meaning both the Father's voice and form as distinct from the Son.
God's word had come to them through the centuries by the prophets, but it did not abide in them (chapter 10:35; 15:3; 17:6; 1 John 1:10; 2:14), for although they may have known it well enough, they chose not to believe the one whom He sent: the Messiah. Although He had given them God's word, they rejected both His person and God's word (chapter 14:9-10).
They searched the Scriptures (Matthew 21:42; Luke 24:27), He told them, because they thought they had eternal life in them: certainly their rabbis made a mechanical use of the letter of Scripture as a means of salvation. But the true value of the Scriptures is in their witness to the Messiah, and they would not come to Him in order that they might have life (chapter 20:31): He was rejected by them because they loved darkness rather than light (chapter 3:19).
He did not expect mere honour and praise from men (verse 34), for His motive was not ambition. Unlike the Jews (chapter 12:43; Matthew 6:1) He sought not His own glory, but the glory and fellowship of the Father (chapter 1:14; 2:11; 7:18). He knew them, as only God can, and recognised that they did not love God and hence did not receive Him, Who came in the Father's name.
Seven times in this Gospel the Lord spoke of the "Name" of the Father (chapter 5:43; 10:25; 12:28; 17:6, 11, 12, 26).
The religious leaders of the Jews of that day were ready to receive Messianic upstarts which all came "in their own name", whoever he was. They were credulous about the false Messiahs, incredulous about Himself Who provided all this evidence. Some day the Antichrist will come in his own name, will have an image made of himself, and the world, having rejected Christ, will accept him.
They were not true Jews (Romans 2:29; Esther 9:28) because they did not seek the honour that comes from God only, but preferred the praise of men (Matthew 6:1; 23:5), like the Pharisees who feared to confess Christ (chapter 12:43).
Even Moses, on whom they had set their hope, wrote of Him (Deuteronomy 18: 18, John 3:14, John 8: 56): if they did not believe what he wrote, how would they believe His words about Abraham foreseeing Christ's day? The Lord clearly confirms here the fact that Moses wrote portions of the Old Testament (see also Luke 24:27, 44 for the same idea). The authority of Moses was the greatest of all for Jews. There was no answer from the rabbis to this conclusion of Christ.
When a man begins to make an attack upon the Old Testament, he really is making a subtle attack on the Lord Jesus: there are many men who very foolishly begin to question the Old Testament and do not realise that the Old Testament is the foundation of the Gospel of Christ.
R David Jones
31 "If I bear witness of Myself, My witness is not true.
32 "There is another who bears witness of Me, and I know that the witness which He witnesses of Me is true.
33 "You have sent to John, and he has borne witness to the truth.
34 "Yet I do not receive testimony from man, but I say these things that you may be saved.
35 "He was the burning and shining lamp, and you were willing for a time to rejoice in his light.
36 "But I have a greater witness than John's; for the works which the Father has given Me to finish - the very works that I do - bear witness of Me, that the Father has sent Me.
37 "And the Father Himself, who sent Me, has testified of Me. You have neither heard His voice at any time, nor seen His form.
38 "But you do not have His word abiding in you, because whom He sent, Him you do not believe.
39 "You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me.
40 "But you are not willing to come to Me that you may have life.
41 "I do not receive honour from men.
42 "But I know you, that you do not have the love of God in you.
43 "I have come in My Father's name, and you do not receive Me; if another comes in his own name, him you will receive.
44 "How can you believe, who receive honour from one another, and do not seek the honour that comes from the only God?
45 "Do not think that I shall accuse you to the Father; there is one who accuses you - Moses, in whom you trust.
46 "For if you believed Moses, you would believe Me; for he wrote about Me.
47 "But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe My words?"