31 “If I testify about myself, my testimony is not true. 32 There is another who testifies in my favor, and I know that his testimony about me is true.
33 “You have sent to John and he has testified to the truth. 34 Not that I accept human testimony; but I mention it that you may be saved. 35 John was a lamp that burned and gave light, and you chose for a time to enjoy his light.
36 “I
have testimony weightier than that of John. For the works that the
Father has given me to finish—the very works that I am doing—testify
that the Father has sent me. 37 And the Father who sent me has himself testified concerning me. You have never heard his voice nor seen his form, 38 nor does his word dwell in you, for you do not believe the one he sent. 39 You study[c]
the Scriptures diligently because you think that in them you have
eternal life. These are the very Scriptures that testify about me, 40 yet you refuse to come to me to have life.
41 “I do not accept glory from human beings, 42 but I know you. I know that you do not have the love of God in your hearts. 43 I have come in my Father’s name, and you do not accept me; but if someone else comes in his own name, you will accept him. 44 How can you believe since you accept glory from one another but do not seek the glory that comes from the only God[d]?
45 “But do not think I will accuse you before the Father. Your accuser is Moses, on whom your hopes are set. 46 If you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote about me. 47 But since you do not believe what he wrote, how are you going to believe what I say?” John 5 ( NIV )
We will go over the witnesses listed here, and how they intertwine.
Jewish
law stated that no man could testify on himself--a minimum of two was
needed--and NOT just Jewish Law, but Greek and Roman Law as well ( Lyons ) ( Stedman):
15" One witness
is not enough to convict anyone accused of any crime or offense they
may have committed. A matter must be established by the testimony of two
or three witnesses." Dt 19 (NIV )
While I do not follow Mishna teachings (the writings of the rabbis), there can be interesting things in these--for example: The Mishnah records the teaching of the rabbis that none may be believed when he testifies
of himself (Ketuboth 2.9) (Mack )
" "He is asserting that if of himself he were to bear witness to himself,
that would make it untrue” in a court of law. "...[[the]illustration where an innocent man accepts the guilty verdict of the
jury as final ;and stating that he was guilty if the jury said so], Jesus said, “My witness is not true,” and meant that, in
accordance with the law, His own testimony apart from other witnesses
would be considered invalid (or insufficient to establish truth)." (Lyons )
It
is important to note, so that we will not be swayed by false teachers
saying "look, Christ said His testimony wasn't true"; it is not that His
testimony is false--it is that people may not believe without proof. Stedman also points out that "[b]ecause we live in a fallen age, when people claim many things for
themselves, we do not know whether to believe them or not. Because we
cannot trust everybody -- it would be naive to do so -- the Law
prescribes that there must be witnesses, people who will corroborate
another's testimony." ( Stedman ) " in public affairs or jurisdictional matters the truth of one individual was not enough, how truthful it might be. " ( Contradicting Bible Contradictions)
Questioning
Christ as to whether He was the Messiah, as the leaders are in this
section, is a second stage of checking if He was the Christ--also an
example for us to remain a Berean, and look deeply at each and every
Biblical teaching and if it lines up with the Word. Check every teacher,
check every commentary--does it line up with the Word fully.
Since
He was being Questioned, Christ brings forth five different witnesses
to prove He was who He was; John, His authenticating miracles, the
Father, the Scriptures, and Moses.
Few
of the time held that John the Baptist was not an actual prophet, so
using his witness, which, surely, the leaders had heard of, was a
powerful tool.
"But if we say, 'Of human origin'--we are afraid of the people, for they all hold that John was a prophet." Matthew 21.26 ( BibleHub)
"Herod wanted to kill John, but he was afraid of the people, because they considered John a prophet." Matthew 14.5 ( BibleHub)
John the Baptist pointed out four important things about Christ:
First, he announced him to be the long-expected, long-predicted Messiah [23 John
replied in the words of Isaiah the prophet, “I am the voice of one
calling in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way for the Lord'. John
1:23 ( NIV )]
...Secondly, John announced Jesus to be "the Lamb of God." [29 The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! John 1:29 ( NIV )]
Thirdly, John announced Jesus to be the "Baptizer with the Holy Spirit," [33 And
I myself did not know him, but the one who sent me to baptize with
water told me, ‘The man on whom you see the Spirit come down and remain
is the one who will baptize with the Holy Spirit.’ John 1:33 (NIV )] ... Fourthly, John declared Jesus to be "the Son of God," [34 I have seen and I testify that this is God’s Chosen One. John 1:34 (NIV )] " (Stedman )
John
5.34 has an interesting point from Christ. He doesn't need the
testimony of humans, being that He knows who He is through and through.
However, perhaps with human testimony, Stedman states that while we
might ignore God's voice, we might hear and understand the experiences
of another human, and thus become a believer. ( Stedman)
As
a final side note, John the Baptist has been described as a lamp in
5.35, a great honor to John, for though he was not the Christ, he held
the honor of being the one to testify about the light. "John was a lamp.
He was not a light, he was a lamp. A lamp bears the light, but it is
not the light itself". ( Stedman ) (BibleStudyCourses )
"6 There was a man sent from God whose name was John. 7 He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all might believe. 8 He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light.9 The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world." John 1 (NIV )
The
second witness was Christ's authenticating miracles. Jay Mack has an
excellent page dedicated to this topic, but it is basically three
miracles that were signs to the leaders of the faith that the Messiah
had come. ( Mack ) I highly recommend reading this page, and getting a big boost to your understanding of the Word.
The third witness is God Himself, John "could have chosen either of two Greek words for
another, allos or heteros. The two words
are basically synonymous with a slight nuance. Whereas heteros means
another of a different kind, allos means another of the same kind".: (Mack
) This "another of the same kind" means, of course, God the Father.
Further, Christ is pointing out that He has fulfilled the past nine
centuries of prophecy to the letter.
It
is especially intriguing that Christ says that these people have
searched the Scriptures, they KNOW them, and were unable to see Him.
I
have, myself, read part of the Old Testament with the goal of seeing
Christ in it. I really thought it would be more difficult to see Christ
in those passages...but it was a bit of a shock to have Him leaping out
of the pages as I read. He appeared constantly.
It
may seem strange that such educated Biblical scholars could miss such
an important part of the Word...but is it really? How many people have
you known who could find any verse without the help of a internet search
engine, gave excellent theological advice...yet vanished and left God? I
have known several, and it was surprising to me that those who "knew"
so much could lose themselves and never see His Light in the Word.
Heartbreaking.
The theologian Godet comments, "We see from this passage how Jesus beheld Himself in the mirror of
the O. T. There, He recognized His own figure so clearly that He thought
it impossible to study the book sincerely and not come to Him immediately." ( Stedman)
"43 I have come in my Father’s name, and you do not accept me; but if someone else comes in his own name, you will accept him. 44 How can you believe since you accept glory from one another but do not seek the glory that comes from the only God?" John 5
Many scholars believe that the
"someone else comes in his own name, you will accept him" refers to the
Antichrist. Here Christ stands, fulfilling the truth of the Word, yet
we will not leave the glory of the world for the Glory of God. We will
wait, instead, for the one who will say the words, complete the
actions,etc., that we "long" to hear and have happen to "our glory", yet
we will be caught in destruction of the biggest lie to hit the earth.
In other words "you cannot drink the cup of God and the cup of demons " (Stedman )
The third and forth witness are really quite similar, being God and the Word.
The
fourth witness was (and is) the Tanak. The Tanak is a three fold
collection of the Old Testament; the Torah, the Prophets and the
Writings. The Tanak if taken as it is written, without our adding ideas
to it as is a "fun" common practice, will lead one to see Christ as the
Messiah. As Jay Mack pointed out, Christ has fulfilled nine centuries of
prophecy concerning the Messiah, and as such, is the Messiah. ( Mack)
"39 You study[c]
the Scriptures diligently because you think that in them you have
eternal life. These are the very Scriptures that testify about me, 40 yet you refuse to come to me to have life." John 5.
It
was the goal of the people, as of today, apparently, to "win" their way
to God, rather than simply letting God save us. How many people have
you heard, read of, or talked to, who stated that they were "pretty
good" or a "good person" and that that would save them? Or that they had
done "good" things in their lives, and that that would count enough to
save them. We are still arrogant enough to believe the lie that we can
save our own selves. While I have never had anyone say the following,
Ray Stedman has: " I have heard people say, "When I stand before God I will have a lot of
things to say to [H]im. I don't think [H]e has treated me very well. I've
had a bad deal in life and I'm going to tell [H]im so." But on that day
they will stand absolutely mute before God, their own memories
testifying that [H]e is right and they are wrong.(Stedman )
Paul writes in Galatians 3 about such things--
5"So
again I ask, does God give you his Spirit and work miracles among you
by the works of the law, or by your believing what you heard? 6 So also Abraham “believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness." Gal 3 ( NIV )
11 "Clearly no one who relies on the law is justified before God, because “the righteous will live by faith.”[f] 12 The law is not based on faith; on the contrary, it says, “The person who does these things will live by them.”[g] 13 Christ
redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for
it is written: “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a pole.”[h] 14 He
redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to
the Gentiles through Christ Jesus, so that by faith we might receive the
promise of the Spirit." Gal 3 (NIV )
Truly, while good
works are indeed good, and something we should strive to do as a good
witness of our God and His affect in our lives, we would be as lost as
the Pharisees and Sadducee of old to think that we could follow the laws
perfectly
The
Law (Torah) was and is of importance. For one, it certainly proves that
we are sinful above all else. The Law was a guardian, to help keep the
people safe until Christ came to cover our sins. "The
Torah is a tutor because all 613 commandments are
viewed as a unit and present an impossible standard. To break one is to
break them all. The only person to ever keep all 613 perfectly is the
Meshiach [Messiah]. The purpose of the Torah was to reveal the need for a
Savior. The continued failure of trying to live up to an impossible
standard should have prepared their hearts for the coming of a Prophet
like Moses..." (Mack )
24 "So the law was our guardian until Christ came that we might be justified by faith. 25 Now that this faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian." Gal 3 ( NIV )
The
fifth and final witness was Moses. The following passages are
considered, even among non-Messianic Judaism to be speaking of the
Messiah, and are classically used by messianic Jews to prove His
Messianic state ( Mack):
Gen 49:10 ( NIV), Num 24.17 (NIV ) Deut 18.15-18 (NIV )
45 “But do not think I will accuse you before the Father. Your accuser is Moses, on whom your hopes are set. 46 If you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote about me. 47 But since you do not believe what he wrote, how are you going to believe what I say?” John 5
"Accusing the Jews of
not believing in Moses seems to be a very strange thing to say. If anybody believed in
Moses, wouldn’t it be the Jews? But, in reality, it was, and is true. The Jews of Jesus’ day believed in
Moshe as he had been interpreted through the Oral Law.... Today, Orthodox Jews believe in
Moses as the Oral Law, the Gomorrah and the Talmud have reinterpreted him. They don’t believe in the
Moshe of the TaNaKh. Because if they had accepted
Moses as only the TaNaKh depicts
him, they would have recognized that Jesus was the Messiah. Like the Roman Catholic Church, they substituted their traditions for
Scripture with tragic results." ( Mack)
In other words, the
Leaders of the time had basically replaced the Tanak with their own
Tanak, much like many faiths have replaced the Bible with books or
"inspirations" of their own. If I pick up an "Our Daily Bread" and
decide it has replaced the Bible...I am going to miss some majorly
important things. Check the Bible with the Bible. Believe me, it will
line up, even if you think it won't. God's Word is so perfectly written,
and written down (but inspired by God) by so many authors, yet is
glides smoothly across the ages. Try getting that many authors to
maintain a story line that long. It won't work, and there will be major
flaws in the story line.
Putting any book at the level of (or worse, above) the authority of the Word is a deadly trap. Beware.
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