John 5:31-40 If I bear witness of myself, my witness is not true.… I. WHAT IS MEANT HERE BY LIFE? As death is put for evil, so is life for all that is good (Deuteronomy 30:15). And seeing that the happiness which God hath prepared for His people consists in the full enjoyment of all that is good, it is called life; and eternal life, because it shall last for ever. Though it be perfected only in the other world it is begun in this. At our new birth, when we are made God's children by adoption and grace the Holy Spirit is breathed into us and becomes the principle of eternal life in us (John 5:47, 54; 5:24; 1 John 3:15). II. THIS LIFE IS TO BE HAD IN CHRIST JESUS, AND IN HIM ONLY (John 17:2; John 14:6; Colossians 3:4; 1 John 5:20). All things related to it are founded in Him. He purchased life for us, promised it to us, prepares it for us and us for it, and bestows it upon us. To make this clear — 1. Man created in the image of God was immortal; but the first man in whom all the rest were contained by sinning made himself and his posterity obnoxious to the death God had threatened. 2. But Jesus Christ, the second Adam, having taken away the sin of the world, hath thereby abolished death, so that man by Him may have life again. 3. Christ being now by the right hand of God, exalted to be a Prince and a Saviour, confers upon the penitent believer this life. III. THOSE WHO WOULD HAVE THIS LIFE MUST GO TO CHRIST FOR IT. 1. By coming to Him He means believing in Him as — (1) Our Prophet, assenting to all He has revealed to us. (2) Our Lord and Master, obeying all that He commands. (3) Our Priest, and trusting in His merits. 2. By thus coming to Him He gives us grace to repent, power to resist temptation, His Holy Spirit to guide us into all truth, to strengthen our faith, and to guide us to heaven. IV. NEVERTHELESS MEN WILL NOT GO TO CHRIST FOR LIFE. 1. The truth of this proposition is proved by our Lord's assertion, and is confirmed by experience. 2. The reasons. (1) Because men are so stupid as not to care for it; they look no further than what just lies before them, and go on eating and drinking, and sleeping and playing, till death comes and carries them to a place they never thought of in their lives (Deuteronomy 32:28, 29). (2) But if they cannot with all their art keep their conscience quiet they flatter themselves with hopes that they will do well enough without troubling themselves about going to Christ, for they are moral. (3) And of those who have some sense of their sins many think that their good works counter- balance them. (4) But there are others who are poisoned with heretical opinions, denying Christ's Divinity and Atonement. (5) The greatest reason, however, is that they have things which they deem of greater moment (Luke 14:18-20; but Matthew 16:26). (Bp. Beveridge.) Parallel Verses KJV: If I bear witness of myself, my witness is not true. |
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