John 12:47

Because the love of human praise prevented the chief rulers from believing, Jesus cried and said, He that believes in Me, believes not on Me, but on Him that sent Me: as if to say, Why are you afraid to believe in Me? Your faith through Me passes to God.

He signifies to them that He is more than He appears to be, (for to men He appeared but a man; His Godhead was hid.) Such as the Father is, such am I in nature and in dignity; He that believes in Me, believes not in Me, i.e. on that which He sees, but in Him that sent Me, i.e. on the Father. [He that believes in the Father must believe in Him as the Father, i.e. must believe that He has a Son; and reversibly, he who believes in the Son thereby believes in the Father.] And again, if anyone thinks that God has sons by grace, but not a Son equal and coeternal with Himself, neither does he believe in the Father, who sent the Son; because what he believes in is not the Father who sent Him. And to show that He is not the Son, in the sense of one out of many, a son by grace, but the Only Son equal to the Father, He adds And He that sees Me, sees Him that sent Me; so little difference is there between Me and Him that sent Me, that He that sees Me, sees Him. Our Lord sent His Apostles, yet none of them dared to say, He that believes in Me. We believe an Apostle, but we do not believe in an Apostle. Whereas the Only Begotten says, He that believes in Me, does not believe in Me, but on Him that sent Me. Wherein He does not withdraw the believer’s faith from Himself, but gives him a higher object than the form of a servant, for that faith.

He that believes on Me, believes not in Me, but on Him that sent Me: as if He said, He that takes water from a stream, takes the water not of the stream, but of the fountain. Then to show that it is not possible to believe on the Father, if we do not believe in Him, He says, He that sees Me, sees Him that sent Me. What then; Is God a body? By no means; seeing here is the mind’s vision. What follows still further shows His union with the Father. I am come a light into the world. This is what the Father is called in many places. He calls Himself the light, because he delivers from error, and disperses the darkness of the understanding; that whosoever believes in Me should not abide in darkness.

Whereby it is evident, that He found all in darkness. In which darkness if they wish not to remain, they must believe in the light which is come into the world. He says in one place to His disciples, you are the light of the world; but He did not say to them, you are come a light into the world, that whosoever believes on you should not abide in darkness. All saints are lights, but they are so by faith, because they are enlightened by Him, from Whom to withdraw is darkness.

And to show that He does not let His despisers go unpunished, from want of power, He adds, And if any man hear My words and believe not, I judge him not.

i.e. I judge him not now. He does not say, I judge him not at I the last day, for that would be contrary to the sentence above, The Father has committed all judgment to the Son. And the reason follows, why He does not judge now; For I came not to judge the world, but to save the world. Now is the time of mercy afterward will be the time of judgment.

But that this might not serve to encourage sloth, He warns men of a terrible judgment coming; He that rejects Me, and hears not My words, has one that judges him.

Mean time they waited to know who this one was; so He proceeds: The word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him at the last day. He makes it sufficiently clear that he Himself will judge at the last day. For the word that He speaks, is Himself. He speaks Himself, announces Himself. We gather too from these words that those who have not heard, will be judged differently from those who have heard and despised.

I judge him not; the word that I have spoken shall judge him: for I have not spoken of Myself. The word which the Son speaks judges, because the Son did not speak of Himself: for I have not spoken of Myself: i.e. I was not born of Myself.

I ask then how we shall understand this, I will not judge, but the word which I have spoken will judge? Yet He Himself is the Word of the Father which speaks. Is it thus? I will not judge by My human power, as the Son of man, but as the word of God, because I am the Son of God.

Or, I judge him not, i.e. I am not the cause of his destruction, but he is himself, by despising my words. The words that I have just said, shall be his accusers, and deprive him of all excuse; the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him. And what word? This, viz. that I have not spoken of Myself, but the Father which sent Me gave Me a commandment what I should say, and what I should speak. All these things were said on their account, that they might have no excuse.

When the Father gave the Son a commandment, He did not give Him what He had not: for in the Wisdom of the Father, i.e. in the Word, are all the commandments of the Father. The commandment is said to be given, because it is not from him to whom it is said to be given. But to give the Son that which He never was without, is the same as to beget the Son who never was not.

Since the Son is the Word of the Father, and reveals completely what is in the mind of the Father, He says He receives a commandment what He should say, and what He should speak: just as our word, if we say what we think, brings out what is in our minds. And 1 know that His commandment is life everlasting.

If life everlasting is the Son Himself, and the commandment is life everlasting, what is this but saying, I am the commandment of the Father? And in the same way in the following; Whatsoever I speak therefore, even as the Father said to Me, so I speak, we must not understand, said to Me, as if words were spoken to the Only Word. The Father spoke to the Son, as He gave life to the Son; not that the Son knew not, or had not, but that He was the Son. What is meant by, as He said to Me, so I speak, but that I am the Word who speaks. The Father is true, the Son is truth: the True, begat the Truth. What then could He say to the Truth, if the Truth was perfect from the beginning, and no new truth could be added to Him? That He spoke to the Truth then, means that He begat the Truth.

26. For I ask again, in what manner this is said, “If any man hear not my words, I will not judge him?” For perhaps He has said here, “I will not judge him,” in the same sense as there, “It is not mine to give.” But what follows here? “I came not,” He says, “to judge the world, but to save the world;” and then He adds, “He that rejecteth me, and receiveth not my words, hath one that judgeth him.” Now here we should understand the Father, unless He had added, “The word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day.” Well, then, will neither the Son judge, because He says, “I will not judge him,” nor the Father, but the word which the Son hath spoken? Nay, but hear what yet follows: “For I,” He says, “have not spoken of myself; but the Father which sent me, He gave me a commandment, what I should say, and what I should speak; and I know that His commandment is life everlasti …

29. Therefore both ways of speaking may be used; the Son of man will judge, and, the Son of man will not judge: since the Son of man will judge, that the text may be true which says, “When the Son of man shall come, then before Him shall be gathered all nations;” and the Son of man will not judge, that the text may be true which says, “I will not judge him;” and, “I seek not mine own glory: there is One that seeketh and judgeth.” For in respect to this, that in the judgment, not the form of God, but the form of the Son of man will appear, the Father Himself will not judge; for according to this it is said, “For the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son.” Whether this is said after that mode of speech which we have mentioned above, where it is said, “So hath He given to the Son to have life in Himself,” that it should signify that so He begat the Son; or, whe …

19. Moreover, so far as regards the Lord’s discourses, he does not cease to ascend to the sublimer and more extended utterances of which, from this point also, He delivered Himself. For he inserts a lofty address which the Lord spoke on the occasion when, through Philip and Andrew, the Gentiles expressed their desire to see Him, and which is introduced by none of the other evangelists. There, too, he reports the remarkable words which were spoken again on the subject of the light which enlightens and makes men the children of light. …

6. Let us hear, then, the Beginning who speaks to us: “I have,” said He, “many things to say of you and to judge.” You remember that He said, “I do not judge any one.” See, now He says, “I have many things to say of you and to judge.” But, “I do not judge” is one thing: “I have to judge” is another; for He had come to save the world, not to judge the world. In saying, “I have many things to say of you and to judge,” He speaks of the future judgment. For therefore did He ascend, that He may come to judge the living and the dead. No one will judge more justly than He who was unjustly judged. “Many things,” said He, “have I to say of you and to judge; but He that sent me is true.” See how the Son, His equal, gives glory to the Father. …

But as I was saying, He who was thus great and powerful desired an harlot. I speak of our human nature under that name. If a man indeed desire an harlot he is condemned, and doth God desire one? Yea verily. Again a man desireth an harlot that he may become a fornicator: but God that He may convert the harlot into a virgin: so that the desire of the man is the destruction of her who is desired: but the desire of God is salvation to her who is desired. And why did He who is so great and powerful desire an harlot? that He might become the husband thereof. How doth He act? He doth not send to her any of His servants, He sendeth not angel, archangel, Cherubim, or Seraphim; but He himself draws nigh Who loves her. Again when thou hearest of love, deem it not sensuous. …

Seest thou the accuracy of prophetical language? how, because Christ called John, Elias, by reasoning of their community of office, lest thou shouldest suppose this to be the meaning of the prophet too in this place, He added His country also, saying, “the Tishbite;”whereas John was not a Tishbite. And herewith He sets down another sign also, saying, “Lest I come and utterly smite the earth,” signifying His second and dreadful advent. For in the first He came not to smite the earth. For, “I came not,” saith He, “to judge the world, but to save the world.”

[2.] Nicodemus yet lingers below, has yet human thoughts concerning Him, and speaks of Him as of a Prophet, imagining nothing great from His miracles. “We know,” he says, “that Thou art a Teacher come from God.” “Why then comest thou by night and secretly, to Him that speaketh the things of God, to Him who cometh from God? Why conversest thou not with Him openly?” But Jesus said nothing like this to him, nor did He rebuke him; for, saith the Prophet, “A bruised reed shall He not break, and smoking flax shall he not quench; He shall not strive nor cry” ( Isa. xlii. 2, 3; as quoted Matt. xii. 19, 20 ): and again He saith Himself, “I came not to condemn the world, but to save the world.” ( c. xii. 47 .)

Ver. 47 . “If any man hear not Me, and believe not, I judge him not, for I came not to judge the world, but to save the world.” [2.] For lest they should think, that for want of power He passed by the despisers, therefore spake He the, “I came not to judge the world.” Then, in order that they might not in this way be made more negligent, when they had learned that “he that believeth is saved, and he that disbelieveth is punished,” see how He hath also set before them a fearful court of judgment, by going on to say,

17. The Jews then, when they heard ‘One,’ thought like Sabellius that He said that He was the Father, but our Saviour shews their sin by this argument: ‘Though I had said “God,” you should have remembered what is written, “I said, Ye are gods;”’ then to clear up ‘I and the Father are One,’ He has explained the Son’s oneness with the Father in the words, ‘Because I said, I am the Son of God.’ For if He did not say it in words, still He has referred the sense of ‘are One’ to the Son. For nothing is one with the Father, but what is from Him. What is that which is from Him but the Son? And therefore He adds, ‘that ye may know that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me.’ For, when expounding the ‘One,’ He said that the union and the inseparability lay, not in This being That, with which It was One, but in His being in the Father and the Father in the Son. …

18. Perhaps they will have so little shame as to say, that this utterance belongs not to the Son but to the Word; but from what preceded it appeared plainly that the speaker was the Son. For He who here says, ‘I came not to judge the world but to save,’ is shewn to be no other than the Only-begotten Son of God, by the same John’s saying before, ‘For God so loved the world that He gave His Only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. He that believeth on Him is not condemned, but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the Name of the Only-begotten Son of God. …