John 5:31 - Meaning and Application

In these verses, our Lord Jesus proves and confirms the authority he had already claimed, showing that he was sent by God as the Messiah. He first sets aside his own testimony about himself (John 5:31): “If I testify about myself, though what I say is perfectly true (John 8:14), you will not accept it as valid proof in the ordinary way of judging among people.”

This says something sad about human honesty. If we are honest, we must admit that self-love is often stronger than love for truth. That is why a person’s own testimony about himself is often treated with suspicion. Yet it also honors the Son of God. Even though he is the faithful witness, the truth itself, and could rightly ask for belief on his own word, he kindly gives other proof to strengthen our faith.

Then he brings forward other witnesses that show he was sent by God. First, the Father himself testified about him (John 5:32). Christ says, “There is another who testifies.” This means God the Father, because Christ speaks of his own witness together with the Father’s witness (John 8:18). The Father sealed Christ’s commission in more than one way, including the voice from heaven, and still continues to bear witness by the signs of his presence and favor with Jesus.

This shows who God is willing to support. He bears witness to those he sends and uses, since every true commission from God comes with proof. He also honors those who bear witness to him, as Christ did. And he gives special help to those who do not seek their own glory, as Christ did not. Jesus was fully certain that the Father’s witness about him was true. He had no doubt at all about his divine mission, and the devil never succeeded in making him question that he was the Son of God.

Then Christ points to John the Baptist, who testified about him (John 5:33). John came to bear witness to the light (John 1:7). His role was to prepare the way for Jesus and direct people to him, saying, “Look, the Lamb of God.” John’s testimony was public and formal. The Jewish leaders had sent priests and Levites to question him, so he had a clear chance to speak openly. It was also a true testimony. He bore witness to the truth, saying the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

Christ does not even need John’s witness for himself, but he uses it for our benefit. He says, “I do not receive testimony from man,” meaning that he does not depend on human approval or proof. Still, he mentions these things so that people may be saved. His whole aim in speaking like this was not to defend his own life, but to rescue others. He uses John’s witness because John was one of their own, and they had reason to respect him. Christ wants even his enemies to be saved. His word is the usual means by which salvation comes, and in his word he kindly works within our weakness and limited understanding.

John’s testimony was also especially suited to the people he was speaking to, because they respected John Baptist, John the forerunner of Jesus (John 5:35). Christ says, “He was a lamp among you.” John was a burning and shining light. Christ often spoke well of John, and he does so here even though John was now in prison and under a dark cloud. We should be ready to honor all who serve God faithfully.

John was a light, not the source of light himself like Christ, but a smaller light given to guide others. His task was to bring light into a dark world by telling people the Messiah was coming. He was like the morning star, announcing the sunrise. He was a burning light, which shows sincerity. False fire may shine, but only true fire burns. It also shows zeal and activity, because he was full of love for God and concern for people. Fire is always at work, and so is a faithful minister.

He was also a shining light. That can mean his good example, since our light should shine before others (Matthew 5:16), or his wide influence on many people. Even though he wanted to live quietly and stayed in the wilderness, his teaching, baptism, and way of life made him well known. He became remarkable to the whole nation.

The people were for a time excited about him. They were willing to rejoice in his light. At John’s appearance, they were stirred up and pleased. They were glad they had such a man among them, a man who brought honor to their nation. They were eager to celebrate him, almost like children making a loud fuss over a new fire.

But their interest did not last. It was only for a season, only for a little while. They liked John for a short time, but soon grew tired of him and his message. Later they said he had a demon, and now they had him in prison. Many people seem deeply moved by the gospel at first, but later despise and reject it. It is common for people who make a great show of religion at the start to cool off and fall away. These people were pleased with John’s light, but they never walked in it, and so they did not stay with it. They were like the rocky ground.

When Herod was friendly to John the Baptist, the people praised him. But once he fell under Herod’s anger, he lost their favor. Some take the phrase here to mean that they were willing to support John for worldly reasons. They were glad to have him, hoping to use him as a tool. Through his influence and under the protection of his name, they may have hoped to shake off Roman rule and regain their nation’s civil freedom and honor.

Christ mentions their respect for John to condemn them for now opposing himself, even though John had testified about him. If they had kept honoring John as they should have, they would have accepted Christ. He also points to how quickly their respect faded to show that God was right to take away John’s ministry from them and hide that light away.

Christ’s own works gave a greater witness to him (John 5:36). He says, “I have a testimony greater than John’s,” for if we believe the witness of God-sent men like John, then God’s own direct witness is greater (1 John 5:9). John’s witness was less forceful and less important, but Jesus still chose to use it. We should welcome every help that strengthens faith, even if it does not prove everything by itself. We should not dismiss one support just because another is stronger. We need them all.

This greater witness was the work the Father gave him to finish. In a broad sense, it was the whole course of Jesus’ life and ministry. He revealed God and God’s will, established his kingdom among people, reformed the world, broke Satan’s power, restored fallen humanity toward its original purity and happiness, and poured God’s love and brotherly love into human hearts. All of this work, which he summed up at his death by saying, “It is finished,” was from first to last a work worthy of God. Everything he said and did was holy and heavenly, and divine purity, power, and grace shone through it. That showed beyond doubt that he was sent by God.

More specifically, the miracles he performed proved his divine mission. These works were given to him by the Father, meaning he was both appointed and empowered to do them. As Mediator, a go-between who represents God to people and people to God, he received both his commission and his power from his Father. They were given to him to finish, meaning he had to do all the wonders that God’s plan had already decided should be done. His completing them showed divine power, because God’s work is perfect. These works testified about him and proved that he was sent by God and that what he said about himself was true (Hebrews 2:4; Acts 2:22).

The Father sent him as a father sends a son to take possession for himself, not merely as a master sends a servant on an errand. If God had not sent him, he would not have backed him up and confirmed him with the works he gave him to do. The one who made the world will never deceive the world.

Jesus then gives fuller support from his Father’s own testimony (John 5:37). “The Father who sent me has borne witness about me.” A ruler does not usually go after his ambassador to confirm his authority in person. But God was pleased to bear witness to his Son himself by a voice from heaven at his baptism: “This is my beloved Son” (Matthew 3:17). The Jews spoke of Bath-kol, the “daughter of a voice,” meaning a heavenly voice, as one way God made his will known. In that way God publicly and solemnly owned Christ, and he repeated that witness again (Matthew 17:5).

Those whom God sends, he will bear witness about. Wherever he gives a commission, he will also seal it. The God who has never left himself without witness (Acts 14:17) will not leave his servants without witness when they go on his errand. Where God calls for belief, he will not fail to give enough evidence, as he has done concerning Christ. What had to be witnessed about Christ was mainly this, that the God we had offended was willing to receive him as Mediator. God himself has given us full assurance of that, and he was best suited to do it, by declaring himself pleased with Christ. If we are satisfied with him, the matter is settled.

Someone might ask, if God himself bore witness to Christ, why was he not received by the Jewish nation and their leaders? Christ answers that this should not seem strange, and their unbelief could not weaken his truth, for two reasons. First, they were not familiar with such direct revelations of God and his will. “You have never heard his voice at any time, nor seen his shape.” Though they claimed a relationship with God, they were as unfamiliar with him as we are with a person we have never seen or heard. In effect, Jesus says, “Why should I speak to you about God’s witness to me? You know nothing of him and have no real fellowship with him.” Ignorance of God is the real reason people reject the message God has given about his Son.

A right understanding of natural religion, the knowledge of God available from creation and conscience, would show such strong harmony with Christianity that it would greatly prepare us to receive it. Some take this another way: the Father bore witness to Christ by a voice and the descent of a dove, which was so unusual that they had never seen or heard anything like it. Yet for Christ’s sake that voice and appearance were given. They could have heard and seen them, as others did, if they had paid close attention to John’s ministry, but by ignoring it they missed that witness.

Second, they were not moved even by the ordinary ways God had revealed himself to them. “You do not have his word living in you” (John 5:38). They had the Old Testament Scriptures. Should they not have been ready to receive Christ through them? Yes, if the Scriptures had truly shaped them. But the word of God was not in them. It was among them, in their land and in their hands, but not in them, in their hearts. It did not rule their souls, but only reached their eyes and ears. What did it profit them to have God’s oracles entrusted to them (Romans 3:2) if those oracles did not rule within them? If they had, they would have gladly received Christ.

The word also did not remain with them. Many people let God’s word come into them and make some impression for a while, but it does not stay. It is not always within them like someone at home. It comes and goes like a traveler passing through. If the word remains in us, if we think on it often, consult it in every situation, and shape our conduct by it, then we will readily receive the Father’s witness about Christ (John 7:17).

But how did it show that God’s word did not live in them? It showed itself in this: “Him whom he has sent, you do not believe.” The Old Testament said so much about Christ, and gave so many clear signs of when and where to look for him, that if they had really thought about it, they could not have escaped the conclusion that Christ was sent by God. Their failure to believe in Christ was strong proof that God’s word was not living in them.

Note that the presence of God’s word, Spirit, and grace in us is best tested by its results. One of the clearest tests is whether we receive what God sends, his commands, his messengers, his providences, and especially Christ, whom he has sent.

The last witness Jesus calls is the Old Testament, which spoke about him, and to it he appeals, “Search the Scriptures” (John 5:39). This can be read in two ways. First, it may mean, “You do search the Scriptures, and that is good. You read them daily in your synagogues, and you have rabbis, teachers, and scribes who make it their work to study and explain them.” The Jews praised the growth of Scripture study in the days of Hillel, who died about twelve years after Christ was born. They counted some men on the Sanhedrin as the pride of their wisdom and the glory of their law. Christ admits that they did search the Scriptures, but they did it to win honor for themselves. In effect, he says, “You search the Scriptures, and if you were not willfully blind, you would believe in me.” It is possible for people to study the words of Scripture carefully and still remain strangers to its power.

Or, as we usually read it, “Search the Scriptures.” Then Christ is giving an appeal. “You say you receive and believe the Scripture; then let us settle this by it, if you are willing to go beyond the outward words and search into them.” When we appeal to Scripture, Scripture must be searched. We should search the whole Bible, compare one passage with another, and let one passage explain another. We should also examine each passage closely, and not stop with what it seems to say at first glance, but ask what it truly means.

This is also advice, indeed a command, to all Christians: search the Scriptures. All who want to find Christ must search them, not only read them or hear them, but search them. That means diligence, hard work, close attention, and a real desire to find something. We should read the Bible looking for spiritual gain and often ask, “What am I searching for here?” We should search as people look for hidden treasure (Proverbs 2:4), or as those who dig for gold, silver, or pearls (Job 28:1-11). This is what honored the Bereans (Acts 17:11).

There are two things we should keep in view when we search the Scriptures: heaven as our goal, and Christ as our way. We should search the Scriptures for heaven as our great end. “In them you think you have eternal life.” The Scripture tells us about an eternal future and offers us eternal life in that future. It gives the map of that life, the promise that secures it, the path that leads to it, and the foundation of the hope for it. That is worth searching for, because we are sure to find it there.

But Christ says to the Jews, “You think you have eternal life in the Scriptures,” because they were mistaken at this point. They did believe in eternal life and based that hope on the Scriptures, but they missed the truth by thinking that reading and studying Scripture by itself was enough. A common but false saying among them was, “Whoever has the words of the law has eternal life.” They thought heaven was guaranteed if they could recite certain passages by memory, especially as handed down by tradition. As they thought the ordinary people were cursed because they did not know the law this way (John 7:49), so they assumed the educated were surely blessed.

We must also search the Scriptures for Christ, who is the new and living way to that end. “These are they which testify of me.” The Old Testament Scriptures testify of Christ, and through them God bears witness to him. The Spirit of Christ in the prophets spoke beforehand about him (1 Peter 1:11), together with God’s plans and promises about him and the earlier signs pointing to him. The Jews knew very well that the Old Testament pointed to the Messiah, and they carefully noted the passages that seemed to do so, yet they failed badly in applying them.

So we should search the Scriptures, and we may hope to find eternal life in that search, because they testify of Christ. For eternal life is to know him (John 17:3). Christ is the treasure hidden in the field of Scripture, the water in its wells, and the milk in its breasts.

To this witness Jesus adds a rebuke for their unbelief and sin, shown in four ways. First, they ignored him and his teaching: “You are unwilling to come to me, that you may have life” (John 5:40). They searched the Scriptures and believed the prophets, who plainly pointed to him, and yet they refused to come to him. Their distance from Christ was due not so much to a lack of understanding as to a stubborn will.

This is spoken as a complaint. Christ offered them life, and they would not accept it. There is life to be had with Jesus Christ for needy souls, the life of pardon, grace, comfort, and glory. Life is the fullest good of our being, and it includes all happiness. Christ is our life. Those who want this life must come to Jesus Christ for it. Coming to him includes the mind’s agreement with Christ’s teaching and the witness given about him, the will’s consent to his rule and grace, and the heart’s matching trust and obedience.

The only reason sinners die is that they refuse to come to Christ for life and happiness. It is not because they cannot, but because they will not. They will not accept the life offered, because it is spiritual and from God. They will not agree to the terms on which it is offered, or use the means appointed for receiving it. They will not be healed, because they will not follow the way of healing. And the stubborn refusal of sinners to accept grace is a deep sorrow to the Lord Jesus, and he complains of it.

Those words, “I receive not honor from men” (John 5:41), are added to remove an objection. Some might think Jesus was seeking his own glory and making himself the center of a party by requiring everyone to come to him and praise him. But he was not hunting for human applause. He did not want worldly show and splendor, the kind the Jewish people expected from their Messiah.

He had even told the people he healed not to spread the news, and he withdrew when some wanted to make him king. He had no applause from men anyway, and much of what he got from them was shame and disgrace, because he made himself nothing. He did not need human praise. It added nothing to his glory, since all the angels of God worship him.

Then comes their lack of love for God (John 5:42). “I know you,” Jesus says, “that you do not have the love of God in you.” Why should he wonder that they would not come to him, when they lacked even the first basic mark of true religion, love for God? One main reason people reject Christ is that they do not love God. If we truly loved God, we would love the one who perfectly shows what God is like, and we would hurry to the one who alone can bring us back into God’s favor.

Jesus had already charged them with not knowing God (John 5:37), and here he says they do not love him either. This shows that people do not love God because they do not want to know him. The charge against them is plain: “You do not have the love of God in you.” They claimed to love God deeply, and thought they proved it by zeal for the law, the temple, and the Sabbath. Yet they were really without love for God. Many make a strong show of religion, but their neglect of Christ and their contempt for his commands show that they do not love God. They hate his holiness and treat his goodness lightly.

It is the love of God in us, love settled in the heart as a living and active power, that God accepts. That is the love he pours into believers’ hearts (Romans 5:5). Christ proves this charge from his own knowledge. He searches the heart and knows what is in man. He sees through every mask, and he can say to each person, “I know you.” He knows people better than their neighbors do. The crowds may have thought the scribes and Pharisees were very devout, but Christ knew there was no love of God in them.

He also knows people better than they know themselves. These Jews had a high opinion of themselves, but Christ knew how corrupt they were inside, no matter how fine they looked outside. We may fool ourselves, but we cannot fool him. He knows even those who do not know him and will not know him. He looks at people who keep their eyes away from him, and he calls them by their true name.

Another charge against them is that they were ready to welcome false Christs and false prophets, while stubbornly resisting the true Messiah (John 5:43). “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.” This is astonishing. God’s people had committed two great evils, as in Jeremiah 2:12-13. First, they abandoned the fountain of living waters, because they would not receive Christ, who came with his Father’s authority and worked for his Father’s glory. Second, they dug broken cisterns, because they listened to anyone who came pushing himself forward in his own name.

Those are false prophets who come in their own name, who were never sent, and who work only for themselves. It is just with God to allow such people to be deceived by false teachers if they do not receive the truth with love (2 Thessalonians 2:10-11). The errors of antichrist are a fitting judgment on those who do not obey the teaching of Christ. People who shut their eyes to the true light are often handed over to chase false lights, led astray by every useless glow.

This is also a sad sign of human folly. Many reject old truth, yet love new error. They despise manna and feed on ashes. After the Jews rejected Christ and his gospel, they were constantly troubled by false Christs and false prophets (Matthew 24:24). Their eagerness to follow such people helped bring on the confusion and unrest that led to their ruin.

Jesus also charges them with pride, vain glory, and the unbelief that grows from them, in John 5:44. Having sharply rebuked their unbelief, he now goes to the root of the problem. They looked down on Christ because they admired themselves too much. He had nothing to gain from human honor, but they set their hearts on it. “You receive honor from one another” means they looked for a Messiah in outward display and hoped to get worldly honor through him.

They received honor in several ways. They wanted it and aimed at it in everything they did. They also gave honor to others only so those people would return it. They were careful to keep honor inside their own circle, as if they owned it. And whatever respect came their way, they kept for themselves instead of passing it on to God, like Herod did. To idolize people and their opinions, and to want to be idolized by their praise, is a kind of idolatry that stands against Christianity as plainly as any other.

They also neglected the honor that comes from God alone. They did not seek it or care about it. True honor is the honor that comes from God, the real and lasting honor. Those are truly honorable whom God brings into covenant and fellowship with himself. All believers in Christ share in this honor, because through him they receive what comes from God. He is never unfair. Wherever he gives grace, he also gives glory.

This honor from God is what we must seek. We must aim for it, live for it, and accept nothing less. We should count it our reward, just as the Pharisees counted the praise of men. Those who will not come to Christ, and those who chase worldly honor, show plainly that they are not seeking the honor that comes from God. That is their folly, and it leads to ruin.

This is also why they did not believe. How can you believe, Jesus asks, when you are so set in this way?

The difficulty of believing comes from our own corruption. We make faith hard for ourselves, and then complain that it cannot be done. A great obstacle to faith in Christ is the desire for worldly honor. How can people believe when they make the praise of others their idol? When serious godliness is unfashionable and widely opposed, when Christ and his followers are treated as strange, and to be a Christian is almost to stand out like a speckled bird, how can those believe whose highest aim is to look good in the eyes of others?

The last witness Christ calls is Moses (John 5:45). The Jews had great respect for Moses and claimed to be his disciples, even while opposing Christ. But Jesus shows them that Moses was actually a witness against unbelieving Jews and brought their case before God. This can be understood in two ways. First, Moses, that is, the law, accuses them, because the law shows what sin is. It condemns them, and for those who trust in it, it becomes a ministry of death and condemnation. But Christ’s gospel is not meant to accuse us. Jesus did not come as a fault-finder or as someone looking for crimes. He came as an advocate, not an accuser, to bring God and humanity together, not to set them farther apart. How foolish, then, were those who clung to Moses against Christ and wanted to live under the law (Galatians 4:21).

Second, Christ is showing how unreasonable their unbelief was. He is not saying that he needs to appeal against them to God, as though he had to take his case to a higher court. No, they were already accused and condemned in heaven’s court, and Moses himself gave enough evidence to convict them of unbelief. They were mistaken about Christ, since he did not use his standing in heaven to call down judgment on those who opposed him. He came to save, not to punish. They were also mistaken about Moses, as if Moses would support them in rejecting Christ. Instead, Moses was the one who accused them, and he was the very one they trusted in.

The lesson is plain. People often rely on outward privileges and advantages while rejecting Christ and his grace. The Jews trusted Moses and thought that having his law and ceremonies would save them. But anyone who depends on such things without obeying them will find that those very privileges rise up against them. What they counted on for safety will become a witness against them.

Moses was also a witness for Christ and for his teaching, because he wrote about him (John 5:46-47). Moses spoke of Christ as the promised Seed of the woman, the Seed of Abraham, the Shiloh, and the great Prophet. The ceremonies in Moses’ law were also pictures of the one who was to come. The Jews tried to use Moses as the support for their rejection of Christ, but Jesus shows that Moses wrote for Christ, not against him.

Christ also charges the Jews with not truly believing Moses. He had said they trusted Moses, but now he shows that they did not really believe him. They trusted Moses’ name, but they did not receive his teaching in its true meaning. They did not properly understand or believe what Moses wrote about the Messiah. And Christ proves this by their disbelief in him. If they had truly believed Moses, they would have believed Christ. The surest test of faith is what it produces. Many say they believe, but their actions prove otherwise. If they had believed the Scriptures, they would have acted differently. And anyone who truly believes one part of Scripture will receive the whole of it. The old Testament promises were so fully fulfilled in Christ that rejecting Christ was really rejecting those promises too.