Please turn with me in your Bibles to John 5, beginning at verse 31. Jesus says, “If I alone bear witness about myself, my testimony is not true. But there is another who bears witness about me, and I know that the testimony that he bears about me is true. You sent to John, and he has borne witness to the truth. Not that the testimony that I receive is from man, but I say these things so that you may be saved. He was a burning and shining lamp, and you were willing to rejoice for a while in his light. But the testimony that I have is greater than that of John, for the works that the Father has given me to accomplish, the very works that I am doing, bear witness about me that the Father has sent me. And the Father who sent me has himself borne witness about me. His voice you have never heard; his form you have never seen; and you do not have his word abiding in you, for you do not believe the one whom he has sent. You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life, and it is they that bear witness about me. Yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life. I do not receive glory from people, but I know that you do not have the love of God within you. I have come in my Father’s name, and you do not receive me. If another comes in his own name, you will receive him. How can you believe when you receive glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the only God? Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father; there is one who accuses you: Moses, on whom you have set your hope. For if you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote of me. But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words?”
This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.
Let us pray. Heavenly Father, you have given us your words, the Sacred Scriptures, the words in which we do find the secrets and the means and the way to eternal life through faith in your Son Jesus. Open our hearts to receive your word, but especially to hear and believe and live out because of you. We pray this in Jesus’s name. Amen.
So the whole of John chapter 5 is actually one interconnected story. It is like a legal case. It begins with Jesus healing the paralytic at Bethesda as his third sign, thereby demonstrating his sovereign authority as the Lord of the Sabbath. For healing during the Sabbath deed to violate the divine prescription of rest, this alleged transgression is what initially prompted the Jews to begin persecuting Jesus. Yet when Jesus responded to their complaint, saying, ‘My Father is working until now, and I am working,’ this led to the Jews seeking all the more to kill him because not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.
Then Jesus defended himself against them and justified his activity by clearly explaining who he is and what his work is. After claiming to be God’s Son and the Son of Man from Daniel’s next vision—a claim that his Jewish hearers would have immediately considered to be blasphemy and reasonable justification for their charge against him—Jesus next says, “If I alone bear witness about myself, my testimony is not true,” meaning if I’m the only one saying this about me, then my testimony should not be considered reliable or believable and should not be accepted as truth. What he’s really saying is, “Don’t trust me and my word simply because I’m the one saying it. Do not just accept my word as a matter of faith because there’s actually a lot of evidence out there proving why you should believe.”
Taking everything about Christianity on faith is a claim that many people levy against Christians, arguing that we have little to no firm evidence related to our religion. They say that we take the simple fact of Jesus’s life, death, and resurrection on faith. But while there is no verified tomb or physical evidence of his death—because, you know, that kind of defeats the purpose of the story—we do have eyewitness testimony to his death and resurrection recorded in Scripture.
Meanwhile, the official governmental act of Jesus’s execution by the Roman authorities at the order of Pontius Pilate has also never been seriously disputed. Then we have later testimonies that affirm Jesus’s factual existence and lasting impact, documented by enemies of Christianity, which mention the beliefs and practices and other testimonies about the early Christian lives.
They also say that we take the reliability of our Scripture on faith, that our assertive claims to the inerrancy and infallibility of Scripture are impossible. However, documentary evidence continues to grow, supporting Scripture’s accurate transmission and preservation. We keep finding older and older New Testament manuscripts that match more recent copies. The Dead Sea Scrolls, which date from the first and second centuries BC, have been thoroughly examined, and those manuscripts have been found to match the more recent standardized text of the Old Testament Jewish Scriptures, which have been in use since the 6th century AD.
They say that our Bible, with its canon of 66 books, is merely a collection of man-made and humanly decided books of wisdom. They argue that during the 4th century AD, the church edited, chose, redacted, and tried to destroy certain texts that did not suit its preferred narrative, rejecting and suppressing alternative gospels and other truths about Jesus, calling them heresy.
While it’s true that numerous texts were rejected as heresy and others were declared to be non-canonical yet still beneficial, edifying, and helpful, there were different lists of the accepted canonical texts circulated by several ancient church fathers before the 4th century. But the New Testament canon that was finally affirmed only consists of the books that were universally accepted and used as Scripture by the church. That’s why whenever we talk about the canon, we are careful to say that we have received these texts rather than that we chose them, because we believe that these texts, these books, were specifically selected, protected, and preserved by the Holy Spirit for us; a fact testified to by the ancient church’s universal agreement and acceptance of them as being authoritative. Who can agree on 66 things now?
So really, we have a lot of evidence for our faith. The point is we have so much evidence; we have this evidence, and we have very good reasons to believe the things that we believe about God, about Jesus, and about the Holy Scriptures. While our salvation is by faith alone, in Christ alone, our faith in Jesus is not something that is held by blind faith alone. Our faith is supported through reason, accepted, and proven evidence that justifies our belief.
So in order to prove his defense and conclude his argument, Jesus tells us plainly: don’t just take my word for it because I’m not the only one saying this. He freely admits that self-serving testimony is not considered credible, while self-incriminating testimony would be considered credible. It is our sinful human nature that causes us to exaggerate or embellish the truth in order to make ourselves look better, isn’t it? Therefore, we place very little weight upon the positive things a person says about themselves, often dismissing it as merely bragging unless there is more credible evidence supporting their claims.
Next, Jesus calls witnesses to defend his claim of divine authority in judgment and the permission to do good things, to do good works on the Sabbath. However, since according to Jewish law, only on the evidence of two or three witnesses shall a charge be established, and because his claims would be considered blasphemy if untrue and punishable by death, he calls three specific expert witnesses whose authority and credibility could not be denied.
Jesus declares, “There is another who bears witness about me, and I know that the testimony that he bears about me is true. You sent to John, and he has borne witness to the truth.” The first witness he calls is John the Baptist, bringing back to our remembrance when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, “Who are you?” causing him to confess that he was not the Christ and tell them, “I baptize with water, but among you stands one that you do not know, even he who comes after me, the strap of whose sandal I am not worthy to untie.” John accused them of not recognizing the Messiah even while he stood in their midst. Then he publicly testified about Jesus, specifically proclaiming, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world,” and testifying, “I saw the Spirit descend from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him, and I have seen and borne witness that this is the Son of God.”
So the Baptist was an expert witness selected by the other side—the Jews, the priests, the Pharisees. They all went to John because they believed he had some kind of authority; they understood he was a prophet, a true prophet, a status that Jesus affirms and emphasizes by saying that John was a burning and shining lamp, and you, his detractors, were willing to rejoice for a while in his light. The Baptist was a witness whose testimony that they believed was credible, so his testimony helped to build up Jesus’s case.
Next, Jesus moved on to a second witness, but the testimony that I have is greater than that of John, for the works that the Father has given me to accomplish, the very works that I am doing, bear witness about me that the Father has sent me. The next witness that testifies supporting his claim of divinity were all the signs, all the works, wonders, and miracles that Jesus was doing both in Galilee and Jerusalem. His changing of the water into wine, changing the ritual waters into a wine of celebration, provided evidence for his covenant mediatorial accord. His healing of the royal official’s son merely through the declaration of his authoritative word gave evidence for his authority as the divine logos, the Creator who spoke all creation into existence. His healing of the paralytic provided evidence of his sovereign authority as the Lord of the Sabbath. Meanwhile, driving out the money changers and sacrifice sellers from the temple was enough evidence for the Pharisees and rulers of the Jews to confess, “We know that you are a teacher come from God because no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.”
See, no one ever denied the fact of his miracles in the Gospel, even though they record the denial of their meaning. So by doing these miracles publicly, by performing these signs and wonders, Jesus proved his power and capability as a prophet and as the Son of Man, their hoped-for Messiah King.
Jesus’s third and final witness testifying to the fact that he was sent from God is the Lord God himself. The Father who sent me has himself borne witness about me; however, his voice you have never heard; his form you have never seen; and you do not have his word abiding in you, for you do not believe the one whom he has sent. The third witness testifying to the truth about Jesus is the evidence of Scripture—evidence that they were sinfully refusing to believe or trust, the Verbum Dei, the word of God. They did not believe, understand, or accept what Scripture was prophesying about Jesus, leading him to countercharge them with blasphemous failure to trust God’s promises.
“You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life, and it is they that bear witness about me. Yet you refuse to come to me that you might have life.” Jesus compares his detractors to the Israelites of the Exodus, to those who did initially hear the Lord speak from within the cloud on top of the mountain but who were so terrified and afraid that they begged him to stop and to only speak to them through a mediator, through Moses. If they had really heard, listened to, and received what God said, then they would not have done what they did next because they proved that they did not have his word abiding in them.
They proved they didn’t obey because they immediately crafted an idol to worship. Moses was up on the mountain talking with God, and they proved that they did not trust the Lord’s command to take possession of the land of Canaan because of their fear of men. They wanted to elect a new leader and return to bondage in Egypt instead because they did not believe the promises of God that Moses brought them.
Now the Jews of Jesus’s day were proving the same thing again because, just like them, they also did not believe Moses. They refused to believe the testimony of Scripture concerning Jesus. They wrongly believed that they could earn life by keeping all of God’s rules perfect, but they misunderstood the reason why God gave them so many details and seemingly convoluted rules—not for them to actually keep, but to prove that they could not keep them all. That was Paul’s argument in Romans: that this intricate law was given to increase the trespass, making it impossible for sinful humanity, for us, to claim to be righteous on account of our own obedience, and so that where sin increased, grace abounded all the more.
So that as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Then Jesus continues explaining, “It is they—the Scriptures—that bear witness about me; yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life.” This leads us to the other half of why the law was so difficult—to drive us into the arms of Jesus, the second Adam and our righteous mediator, the only man able to perfectly keep the law and share his righteousness with us through mercy and grace.
God gave us the law through Moses so that we would be forced to admit that we cannot do it on our own. The rules were not given to make eternal life possible but to make eternal life something that we cannot achieve ourselves, so that we would look to Christ and put our faith and hope in his perfect obedience. The Jews could not see Jesus’s righteousness; they did not recognize him as the Woman’s Seed who would crush the Serpent’s head. They did not understand or believe the prophets because they didn’t recognize Isaiah’s prophecies being fulfilled within the signs that Jesus did, nor did they accept the signs as evidence of him being one like the Son of Man, the one to whom the Ancient of Days gave authority, power, and dominion. Yet, regardless of whether or not the Jews accepted it, these three witnesses could not be argued with because the evidence was made publicly plain for everyone to see.
Even when the evidence is not questioned, the interpretation of the evidence may still be disputed. We are very blessed because we have the Holy Spirit, and we have the evangelists interpreting it for us. But not everyone is or was so fortunate. Like Jesus, he calls them out for their hypocrisy, attacking their credibility and authority to judge him, saying, “I do not receive glory from people. But I know that you do not have the love of God within you. I have come in my Father’s name, and you do not receive me. If another comes in his own name, you will receive him. How can you believe when you receive glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the only God?”
Glory, honor, and respect are three synonyms describing something greatly desired. I mean, people have sought and tried to claim these for themselves since time immemorial. We teach that respect is earned, not given. We say, “Give respect to get respect.” And concerning our governing authorities, we’re told that we ought to honor and respect the office regardless of who sits in it. But what is the true source of glory? Is glory something that we can create or increase, or is it something that’s just redistributed?
The whole Scripture shows and teaches us that it is the Lord God who possesses all glory and honor. Meanwhile, to him, all glory and honor is owed; all of the glory belongs to God for everything always. So what is glory really? The Hebrew term for glory is “kabod,” and it describes a sense of great weightiness, an abundance of value. It suggests glory involving the carrying of a burdensome responsibility, whereas the Greek term for glory is “doxa,” which describes a sense of radiant splendor suggesting a visible, awe-inspiring brilliance of life.
Considering these two expressions of glory, possessing the most burdensome weight of authority like Atlas with the world resting on his shoulders, and being the most brilliant radiant light shining in the midst of darkness like the sun, they offer the simplest description of God’s glory. Human glory is just a received sliver of God’s glory given and shared as an appointed and ordained authority, with responsibility subordinate to and flowing from the divine source.
Therefore, we do respect, honor, and obey everyone with authority over us—our parents, employers, governors, emperors, and presidents—so long as the exercise of their commands remain in accord with the Word of God. Whenever Scripture speaks about us giving God glory and honor, it describes us giving back something that is already his own. Giving God the glory means that we must humble ourselves necessarily because, by returning the limited glory that he has shared with us, we diminish our own glory as a vessel to our Sovereign.
So when Jesus says, “I do not receive glory from people,” it’s because his glory is God’s glory. But the Jews—the ones who should have been glorifying him as the Lord, gladly, particularly since he came in the Father’s name—they refused to receive him because they were a proud, stiff-necked people who preferred to receive glory from one another. Their failure to accept Jesus, through the lack of love for God in their hearts, further proved their lack of fidelity to the one true King.
Previously, the Jews had rejected and killed God’s ambassadors and emissaries in the persons of the prophets, and now they were rejecting God’s Son. Instead of seeking the glory and favor of God, they preferred the secondhand glory and favor of sinful, self-righteous, and self-justifying men. They preferred to trade in ever-diminishing glory, one that is constantly fading and dissipating out into the world before it is returned to God by the inanimate creation.
Jesus, the just judge, did not bear a grudge against them, nor would he even hold this against them, telling them, “Don’t think that I will accuse you to the Father.” He’s not the one who will accuse them in the divine court because they have another accuser. He warns them that the one who accuses you is Moses, on whom you’ve set your hope. They claimed to trust Moses; they claimed to trust and obey his word. They expected that through obeying and keeping the commandments, they would earn eternal life. They wanted Moses’s glory, but they had no legitimate claim upon it, as Jesus explained to them.
“For if you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote of me. But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words?” They claimed to believe Moses, the man whom they knew brought God’s word and holy commandments to Israel, the man whom the Lord knew face to face. Yet when the prophet like Moses appeared, with God’s word in his mouth, speaking all that the Lord commanded him, they refused to listen to him.
So yes, God would judge and condemn them. Their faith, they knew, was based on Moses’s writings, and even though they believed that his words were true, they did not believe his words. They did not follow him or understand, which is why they did not recognize, receive, or believe Jesus Christ.
Please understand that the ancient Israelites of Moses’s day and the Jews of Jesus’s time were not that different in disbelieving the evidence put before them. Like John the Baptist, the ancient Israelites had Aaron who told them that Moses was sent by the Lord, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He told them why he believed this: because God had called him out into the wilderness to come find his brother that had been lost in exile for 40 years. But they didn’t really believe and obey God.
Like the many signs that Jesus was doing, the ancient Israelites saw all the miracles, wonders, and signs that Moses performed in Egypt and in the wilderness, yet they did not believe the signs, and they did not obey God. Like reading and hearing the Scriptures, the ancient Israelites heard God himself speak from the top of Mount Sinai, but even still, they did not believe God’s word, and they did not obey the Lord. Truly, the Jews of Jesus’s day were little different from the Israelites of Moses.
And if they were so alike to their ancestors, then perhaps today we Christians also run the risk of the same disbelief. I mean, today we have pastors who preach Jesus Christ and the whole counsel of God every week, but do we really believe? Do we listen and earnestly repent of and mortify our sins, seeking to obey God? Do we truly seek to love our neighbors as we love ourselves, as we should be loving God?
We no longer have extraordinary, spectacular miracles, wonders, and signs being performed in the world around us. Instead, we rely on the testimonies of eyewitnesses who experienced them 2,000 years ago. But do we believe their testimony? Do we recognize and see the ordinary miracles that are still happening all around us—births, the healing of illness, the comfort and peace we receive when mourning, our daily provision of food and water and air and sunshine, or the salvation and regeneration of those who were once lost?
Do we give glory to God for these miracles, knowing that apart from his will and power, none of it would be possible? Do we believe this and so obey and love the Lord?
We possess the completed canon of Scripture, received and used by the church fathers since the lifetime of the apostles. But do we believe that these are still the only true and relevant authoritative Scripture for our present modern lives? Do we believe the testimony of Moses and the prophets, the evangelists and the other writers of Scripture? Do we know it and believe it well enough to live according to the truth it contains?
Are we willing to believe that our Bible, containing the words of Jesus, is the written word of God telling us the words of eternal life—words which, if we obey them and truly have faith in Jesus Christ as they command us, trusting in him alone, that by them we shall live?
These are the questions we each must answer: Do I believe this? And do I live my life this way? Jesus here has made his case for why we should be believing him. He’s presented the evidence to us, and we, as the jury, must decide whether or not we believe Jesus’s testimony that he is both God the Son and the Son of Man, and therefore the righteous judge of all mankind, at whose word the dead shall be raised—the wicked to eternal condemnation and the elect to an eternal life of blessedness in Christ’s eternal Kingdom.
The decision is yours, and the time for it is now. What is your decision? Is Jesus the Lord of the Sabbath and the just judge of mankind?