The glory of the person of Christ shines with rich luster here. It is not merely His nearness of relation to His people as distinguished from John, nor His increase while the greatest of woman-born decreases. He is superior to all comparison. “He that cometh from above is above all.” (Ver. 31.) Neither Adam nor Abraham, Enoch nor Elijah, could take such a ground. They, like John, did not come from above, nor could any one of them be said to be above all. Nor could our blessed Lord Himself be so described, as born of Mary and heir of David, had He not been God—the great theme of our Gospel. But this it has been the grand aim to show He is, a truth of the deepest moment, we can say boldly, not only to us the children but to God the Father. For thus and now are to be solved all the questions that had ever risen between. God and man, insoluble till He appeared, and appeared a true man, who is no less truly God, and thus both “from above” and “above all.”
And it was fitting that John the Baptist's own lips should give utterance to the incontestable supremacy of the Lord Jesus in presence of his own disciples jealous of their leader's honor. Hence follows the explanation: “he that is of the earth is of the earth, and speaketh of the earth: he that cometh of heaven is above all.” (Ver. 31.) The Lord may vindicate John; but John asserts the glory of Jesus who had lost none of His intrinsic and supreme dignity by deigning in divine love to become man. Like all other men John could not claim to have any other origin naturally than the earth. Jesus alone is out of heaven; for such is the virtue of His person that He raises up humanity into union with His divine nature, instead of being dragged down by it into its degradation as some have vainly dreamed.
Nor is it of His person only that we are here taught. His testimony is invested with kindred value. “And what he hath seen and heard, this he testifieth; and no one receiveth his testimony.” (Ver. 32.) His is the perfection of testimony; for what was there of God, of the Father, and this in heaven, that the Son had not seen and heard? There could be no conceivable defect here in the glory whence He came, and in the grace with which He made all known to man. How withering therefore the sad result! For surely beforehand it must have been universally anticipated that all but the most besotted would eagerly welcome such a witness of things divine, heavenly and eternal. But such is man's estate through sin, not only the savage and the brutal, not only the idolater or the skeptic, but those who pique themselves on their religion, whether it be theory or practice, ordinances or tradition, effort, ecstasy or experience,— “no one receiveth his testimony.” How solemn the sentence! and the more so as being the unimpassioned utterance of holiness. Doubtless they knew not what they did in their dislike of, or indifference to, His testimony; but what a state man must be in, to have the heavenly and divine Savior thus bearing witness of things most deeply needed by himself in relation to God and heaven and forever, without ever finding out the worth of the testifier or of the testimony! It is not that grace did not open some hearts, here and there, now and then: but the point which is noted is the rejection of His testimony by man, not the reserve of sovereign mercy when all was lost in sin and ruin.
Faith is in no way a growth natural to the heart of sinful man. Without faith it is impossible to please God, and without His grace faith is impossible, such faith at least as pleases Him. For they that are in the flesh cannot please God, and who are not in flesh till brought to God? Man conscious of sin and shrinking from divine judgment dislikes the God whose punishment he dreads. His grace he sees no reason, as far as he is concerned, for believing; and no wonder he sees none, for it would not be God's grace if there were a ground for it in himself. Grace excludes the desert of him to whom it is shown; and this is as offensive to his own. Self-sufficiency as it supposes love in Him whose displeasure he knows he deserves. Thus there is no disposition in his heart to believe in God's grace, ample to make him doubt, and the more as he reasons on what God must be and on what he himself has been toward God. Christ is not seen to change all, as the manifestation of love, and His death the ground of that righteousness which justifies the believer, spite of past ungodliness.
His testimony therefore puts the heart thoroughly to the test; for it tells the truth of the sinner as decidedly as it announces the grace of God; and the heart resists the one and distrusts the other. The last thing submitted to is to think ill of oneself, and well of God. But this is just the effect of receiving the testimony of Christ. We then begin to take God's aide against ourselves; for if there is genuine faith, there is genuine repentance, without which, indeed the faith is human and worthless, as in John 2, where men believed beholding the signs wrought, and Jesus did not trust Himself to them. Such faith is not of God's Spirit, but merely of the mind drawing a conclusion from the probabilities of the case. In it man judges; which pleases him, instead of his being morally judged, which is humbling and offensive. He sees no sufficient reason to reject the evidence; and, his will goes along with it, be believes accordingly. As this was the case with many in Jerusalem at the passover, so is it with multitudes throughout Christendom now and ever since. The vague creed which prevails generally awakens enough neither of interest nor of opposition to put men to the test. But when any great truth, even of that creed, is pressed on the conscience or comes distinctly before the heart, it will then be seen how little men believe what they in words accredit, only because they never seriously apply it to their souls before God.
Take the simple truth, for instance, of our Gospel, the Word, who was God made flesh and dwelling among us, or again remission of sins in His name the message to every soul, the possession of every believer: who doubts either as long as they are preached abstractedly in the pulpit? But the moment a soul receives them for his own soul, and, though feeling and owning his sins more than ever, blesses God for forgiveness and rejoices in Christ, while he worships God and the Lamb, others shrink back and cry presumption! as if such truths were never intended for the heart and life and lips of every day, but only as a religious service or rather a form for the multitude keeping holiday.
The fact is however that the grace and truth which came by Jesus Christ, being perfect in themselves and in Him whose glory is adequate to display and make them good, as well as perfectly adapted to man, sinful and lost as he is, test him absolutely, “and no one receiveth his testimony.” Where the quickening power of the Spirit acts, it is far otherwise. So proper is it to win the heart, that he who is not won shows that his will is against God and His grace and truth in Christ, hatred naturally and soon following. He who bows, being begotten by the word of truth, judges himself. He has received not men's word, but, as it truly is, God's word which effectually works in the believer; or, as it is put here, “he that hath received his testimony hath set to his seal that God is true.” (Ver. 88.)
This is the essential character of real living faith. His testimony is received because He gives it: nothing more simple, but we are not simple; nothing more right and due to Him, but we have been all wrong, and most wrong to Him. It is received because He says it, not because it seems reasonable or wise or good, or for evidence of any kind; though one need not say there are the fullest evidences; and the testimony is that which alone could suit God or man, if one be a sinner, the other a Savior where His testimony is received. A divine faith is due to a divine testimony; but the faith which is grounded on human motives is not divine: only that which is founded on God's word truly searches heart and conscience. When a man is broken down to feel his own state of sin, as well as what he has done against such a God, the heart desires that the good news of the gospel should be the truth, instead of yielding to the indifference or active repugnance natural to it; and this is to believe with the heart.
Further the ground of confidence is laid plainly and expressed fully. We are not left to inference. “For he whom God sent speaketh the words of God; for God giveth not the Spirit by measure.” (Ver. 34.) To receive the words of Jesus then is to receive those of God. What possible ground is there for hesitation? To faith alone belongs absolute certainty. And of this the Spirit is the power, as in Him perfectly, so in and by us as far as flesh is judged. He was the holy vessel of the Spirit, so that the testimony was poured out as pure as it was poured in, or rather as it is in Him who is Himself the truth. As for what inspired men have written, it is just the same. “If any man think himself to be a prophet, or spiritual, let him acknowledge that the things that I write unto you are the commandments of the Lord.” (1 Cor. 14:3737If any man think himself to be a prophet, or spiritual, let him acknowledge that the things that I write unto you are the commandments of the Lord. (1 Corinthians 14:37).) In all others, whatever the power, there is no such guarantee against infirmity or mistake, though one may be perfectly kept and guided, where only and simply dependent: so real is the connection between the truth and the Spirit.
We have had the supremacy of Jesus, and His testimony, so thoroughly marking Him off from all others. But there is more. He is “the Son,” and the especial object of divine affection and honor. This follows; and here accordingly we rise far above His position either as the Messiah, the Bridegroom on the one hand or the heavenly prophet on the other, whose testimony absolutely detected every child of Adam, while it brought him that received it to the knowledge of God and His mind with divine certainty. Hence we hear of the Father and the Son. “The Father loveth the Son and hath put all things in his hands.” (Ver. 35.) Jesus is the heir of all, as the Son of the Father in a sense peculiar to Himself, the true Isaac who abides ever, the beloved Son who has all that He Himself has, and has all given to be in His (the Son's) hand.
Consequently it is no question here of blessing for any measured time or for glory on earth under His reign as king. All things come to the point at once and for ever before Him who is the object of testimony, and not the testifier merely. “He that believeth on the Son hath eternal life.” One need not then wait for the blessing in the days of the kingdom. Then no doubt Jehovah will command blessing, even life for evermore. But he that believes in the Son has eternal life now. For the same reason it is of all things the most fatal to refuse subjection to His person now. Therefore is it added, “and he that believeth not on the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him.” (Ver. 36.) If disobedience is intended, it is to Himself as well as to His words, as indeed by the obedience of faith the apostle Paul meant not practical obedience, however important in its place and season, but subjection to Himself—to the truth revealed in Him. He that refuses Him in unbelief abides in unremoved death and the wrath of God, who cannot but resent such insult of heart to His Son.