The teaching of the Lord Jesus was in simple words that even the young could understand, but the thoughts spoken so simply were often the most profound. Even in the accomplishment of many of His miracles, the Lord spoke simple words, but they were divinely powerful, as when He cried, “Lazarus, come forth,” and the dead man came forth. Even when the Lord spake in parables the words were plain, but the truth of God was hidden in the parable, hidden for His disciples, and hidden from the wise and prudent. In John’s Gospel, the words of the Lord bring before us the most profound revelations of God, yet His words were such that the feeblest believer can derive from them the richest food for the soul, as can also the most mature, who can understand more of their meaning. In John’s Epistles, the Spirit of God speaks through His servant in the simplest of words, as when he writes, “As He is, so are we in this world” (1 John 4:17), words which reveal the wonderful place into which the children of God have been brought before the Father. Let us look at some of the simple words spoken by the Lord in John 7:28-29.
Ye know me. The Lord spoke these words in reply to those who said, “Do the rulers know indeed that this is the very Christ? Howbeit we know this man whence he is: but when Christ comes, no man knows whence he is.” Alas! the knowledge of those who spoke concerning Jesus was only of Him in natural relationships, even as they said in John 6:42, “Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? how is it then that he says, I came down from heaven?” They did not know Him as the Son of God, come down from heaven. And is it not the same today? Christendom is largely composed of those who only know the Lord Jesus as a Man; they have no knowledge of His glory as the Son of God, not having any living link with Him, not possessing the eternal life that He manifested, and that He died to make available for those who believe in Him. Paul could write, “Though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we Him no more” (2 Cor. 5:16). Even if Paul had known Him as Israel’s Messiah in flesh, he would not now know Him in this way: he knew Him as the glorified Man in heaven, and as the Son of God.
Ye know whence I am. The Jews knew the Lord Jesus as out of Nazareth of Galilee, a very limited knowledge, for they were even ignorant of His birth at Bethlehem, and the trouble of Herod, and of all Jerusalem, at the time of His birth. They had no knowledge of His heavenly existence as Son of God, nor would they accept His testimony about His having come down from heaven. None who heard the Lord could misunderstand His claims. This is evident in chapter 5 where it is written, “Therefore the Jews sought the more to kill Him, because He not only had broken the sabbath, but said also that God was His Father making Himself equal with God.” They knew perfectly the implication of His words, that He was a divine Person, the Son, co-equal with the Father, and therefore come down from heaven. Like the Jews, many today acknowledge Him as a Man from Nazareth, but do not know Him as come from heaven to reveal God in His nature of love, and in relation to His counsels of grace for the blessing of men.
I am not come of Myself. Jesus never claimed to be the originator of His mission, but delighted to own that He came as sent from the Father. How unlike men this is! The great men of this world boast in being self-made, and as originating the systems that bear their names, whether it be in the realm of religion, philosophy or politics. But the Son of God was different from every other man; it was His pleasure to acknowledge the Father as the source of His mission, and His dependence on Him for everything. His words brought from the lips of those who were sent to take Him, “Never man spake like this man;” and His works of power caused many to say, “He has done all things well;” but neither His words nor His works were to call attention to Himself, but to Him that sent Him. What rest of heart for the Son, and what joy, to confess that He was not come of Himself! And what rest and joy for those who received the words of the Son to know that it was from the Father He had brought such grace and blessing. All that the Son was, all that He said, and all that He did expressed what God was in His compassion and goodness for men.
He that sent me is true. The things that the Son revealed could be relied on because of the character of Him that sent Him. He would not offer infinite blessing to men in grace, then refuse those who came to receive the blessing. The Father was so different in character from the men of this world! Men are not true; there is in the fallen nature of man that which makes him unreliable. This is a lesson that men must learn if they are to be blessed. In Eden, Adam turned from the God who is true, and listened to the serpent who was false, to him “who is a liar, and the father of it.” In the Son, we learn in a new way that God is true. It is not now to turn men from an earthly paradise through disobedience to His word; but to give them the richest of heavenly and eternal blessings through obedience, by receiving the words of Him whom He has sent.
The Son gloried in being the Sent One; it was His delight to carry out the Father’s will, and so often in this Gospel He speaks of being sent. Again in John 8:26, He repeats, “He that sent me is true,” and adds, “and I speak to the world those things which I have heard of Him.” It was the comfort and joy of the heart of the Son to say, “He that sent me is with me: the Father has not left me alone; for I do always those things that please Him (John 8:29). Opposed by the religious men of this world, and soon to be forsaken by His disciples, who could not stand in the face of the deadly opposition of the powers of darkness, it was the joy of the Son to know the Father with Him, the Father who had sent Him.
In the Son there was the perfect revelation of the true God; all that God is in His nature of love, and in His grace to men was fully manifested in Jesus; and the Holy Spirit has come, so that true believers have been given “an understanding, that we may know Him that is true” (1 John 5:20). Now we know God in the way He has been revealed in the Son, in the fulness of His love, and we have been brought to share the Son’s place before the Father, for “we are in Him that is true, in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and eternal life.” Here we learn the deep secret of the Father sending the Son; to bring those who believe in Him into the nearest possible place of favour, affection and relationship with the Son Himself before the Father.
“Whom ye know not.” The religious world as seen in the Jews and their leaders, spite of their profession, their sacrifices and their ceremonies, was ignorant of God. This solemn sentence by the Son of God exposed the true state of man’s religion; it lacked what was vital, the knowledge of the true God. Moreover, when the true knowledge of God came in Jesus, they refused Him, and He had to say of them, “they have both seen and hated, both me and my Father.” Until the Son came there might have been the plea of ignorance, for God had not been revealed till then, but in the refusal of the Sent One of the Father their ignorance was wilful, and coupled with hatred. The religious world of today, in Christendom, has the same words engraven on it, “Whom ye know not.” This is seen in the address to the church of Laodicea, where Christ is seen knocking outside its door. There was the loud profession of the knowledge of God in Judaism when Christ was here, just as there is in Christendom today; but where there was no living link in the heart with God, no divine life, there could not be the knowledge of God; and the test of the possession of divine life was the attitude towards the Son, even as it is now.
“But I know Him.” In the Son, and only in the Son, was there the true knowledge of God. The Jew would be willing to confess that there was no true knowledge of God outside the pale of Israel, for the oracles of God were only to be found in Israel; but with the oracles of God, the nation, and especially the Jews and their leaders were without the knowledge of God. It was of immense advantage to have the divine oracles, the Holy Scriptures, but these could only bring blessing to the soul where there was living faith in God. Where there was faith, there was the recognition of the Son as the One in whom there was the true knowledge of God, as in the case of Simeon and Anna, and later John the Baptist, and the disciples of the Lord. The world did not profit by the presence of the Son in regard to this, for the Son has to say to the Father, at the close of His ministry on earth, “Righteous Father, the world has not known Thee: but I have known Thee.” Therefore if any desire to know God they must look to the Son in whom the knowledge of God the Father is to be found. It is no use looking to the religious world, whether to Judaism or to Christendom; only in the Son, once here, but now in heaven, can we find the true knowledge of God.
“For I am from Him.” Earlier the Son had said, “I am not come of myself,” now He affirms that He was from the Father. How very solemn it was for the leaders of Israel to reject Him who was from the Father, for in refusing the Son they were refusing the Father. There was the fullest possible evidence in all that the Son was that He came from God. His character, expressed in the details of His life, lived publicly before men, was altogether unique. He could say, “Which of you convinces me of sin?” and again, “The prince of this world comes, and has nothing in me.” As to His Person, He said to them, “Before Abraham was, I am.” His works and words bore witness as to who He was and to His coming from the Father. There had been the witness of John Baptist, the Father’s voice from heaven, and the witness of the Old Testament Scriptures, all uniting to tell from whence He came. There was nothing in His walk and ways but pointed to His being out of heaven, and to His manifesting a life that had never been seen on earth before; Who but Jesus could say, “He that has seen me has seen the Father?” He was one with the Father in all His thoughts, feelings, desires, and the activities of His grace.
“And He has sent me.” Coming from the Father, He had been sent, and this to accomplish the Father’s will. More than forty times in John’s Gospel Jesus speaks of Himself as “sent,” indicating the importance the Son attached to His mission to men from the Father. For the world it was of the greatest possible moment, for “The Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world.” In no other way could salvation come to the world. The wisdom of the world was proved to be foolishness by God; what had the wise of this world, the scribe or the disputer been able to do for man? Could they bring Him salvation? Yet, when the only One who could save the world came, the wise men of this world rejected and crucified Him. But God, in His wisdom, took the very occasion of man’s rejection of His Son to procure a salvation that He could offer to all who accepted His Son. The sending of the Son expressed the infinite love of God towards men, for He sent Him to communicate eternal life to those who believe, and to be the propitiation for their sins. He sent His Son because no created being could accomplish the Father’s will, either in glorifying Him in regard to the question of sin, or in bringing His blessing to fallen men.
The more we contemplate the words of Jesus, the more we rejoice in their simplicity, and marvel at their profundity. It is but little our souls have really apprehended of the wonderful depths that lie in the simple words of Jesus, but we can drink from them that which brings refreshment and joy to the heart, and learn from them that which brings to us the wonders of divine love, and that which produces a response in praise and worship to God, and that which will enable us to be in this world more like His dear Son.
R. 28.9.62