The Pulpit Commentary — John — Volume 1 — Section 455

II. Oun LoBn's EXPLANATION 011' IIIB TEAOHmG. "My teaching is not mine, but his tbe.t sent me." 1. Hie docerlne was not self-originated, though be had stuclied in no school of the rabbis. 2. lt was not hwman; for it was from the Source of all truth, God himself. 8, He claima to be merely the Messenger of his Father. He is the Word of God, who reveals the Father's mind to men. III, THE METHOD 011' VERIFYING THE DOCTRINE. "If any man willeth to do hig will, be she.II know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself.' There is e. twofold method of verification-one internal, the other external. 1. The internal verifir:ation, (1) It springs from the disposition or desire to do the will of God. (a) The will of God represents all that is included in doctrine and duty, but it specifice.lly regards man's salvation. " For this is the will of God, even your sanctifi- cation" (1 'l'hess, iv, 3). (b) It is not deed, but will, that holds the primary place in Christian life. '£he will represents the motive power; the deed is but the outcome of the will. Yet they a.re inseparably linked in the designs of grace at11 well at11 in the experience of the saints-" for it is God that worketh in you, to will and to do of his good pleasure." (2) The will to do the Divine will is the only condition of Christian insight. We cannot understand a sensation or a feeling in another man unless we have the radical element of that feeling or sensation in ourselves. Even the heathen Aristotle says, "The mind's eye is not capable of rightly judging withont moral virtue." l t follows from this fact that (a) unbelief is more the fault of the heart than of the intellect, Therefore Scripture speaks expressively "of the evil heart of unbelief" (Heb. iii. 12). (b) Religion is essentially a matter of life as well as of thought. 'l'herefore the Jews could not understand the will of God concerning the Messiah, for they were altogether out of sympathy with it. (c) Faith is, therefore, not the result of a logical operation, It is "the gift of God;" it is "given to us to believe." (3) The man who is in sympathy with God's will is, therefore, in a position to determine experi- mentally whether the doctrine of Christ is of God, or whether he is an impostor uttering merely human teaching. 2. The external verification. "He that speaketh of himself seeketh his own glory: but he that seeketh the glory of him that sent him, the same is true, and there is no unrighteousness in him." This points to the character of him who delivers the doctrine. (1) The false teacher seeks the praise of men for his own exaltation. The scribes and the Pharisees exulted in their traditions and their glosses and their interpretations of the Bible. (2) The true teacher seeks the glory of God, which is the one object of the Bible from beginning to end. This supreme aim attests at once (a) the truth of the teacher in the sphere of thought, and (b) his ,1 righteousness in the sphere of action. Thus Jesus can be "no deceiver of the people.'' Therefore bis doctrine is to be received. Vere. 19-24.-Justification of his conduct. The allusion to unrighteousness is the point of transition from Christ's teaching to his couduct. J. HE 18 0HARGED BY THE JEWS WITH BREAKING THE SABBATH LAW. 1. He had healed the impotent man at a former visit to Jerusalem on the sabbath day. "I have done one work, and ye all marvel." 2. The Jews would have stoned him as a transgressor for the act. "Why do ye seek to kill me?" He knows the designs of the rnlers, though the multitude may not have suspected them, and therefore say, "Thou hast a devil: who seeketh to kill thee?" But Jesus meekly passes over the reproach without a reply. II. HE RETORTS UPON THE JEWS EXACTLY THE BAME CHARGE. "Did not Mose~ give you the law, and yet none of you keepeth the law?" He refers to the sabbatl, law, and shows that it allowed circumci~ion to be performed on the sabbath. "For this cause bath Moses given you circumcision (not that it is of Moses, but of the fathers); and on the sabbath ye circumcise a man." 1. They ought not, therefore, to condemn in Jesus what they approved in Moses; for the healing of the impotent man we.s as necessary as the circumcision of a child on the sa.bbath. 2. The principle he lays down derives its forre from the fact that "the sabbath was made for man." Man is more than the sabbath. 3. Thefairness of Christ's argument. "Judge not accord- ing to appearance, but judge righteous judgment." The argumentum ad hominem is (1) effective WI closing the mouth of an objector, (2) and ought to prepare the way for an impartial judgment on the merits. 328 THR GOSPEL AOOO'RDYNG 'rt) ~T. JOHN. [ciH. vn. 1"'-'li8.