John 5:43

Our Lord having made mention of John, and the witness of God, and His own works, many, who did not see H that His motive was to induce them to believe, might suspect Him of a desire for human glory, and therefore He says, I receive not honor from men: i.e. I do not want it. My nature is not such as to want that glory, which comes from men. For if the Son receives no addition from the light of a candle, much more am not I in want of human glory.

Or, I receive not honor from men: i.e. I seek not human praise; for I came not to receive carnal honor from men, but to give spiritual honor to men. I do not bring forward this testimony then, because I seek my own glory; but because I compassionate your wandering, and wish to bring you back to the way of truth. Hence what follows, But I know you that you have not the love of God in you.

As if to say, I said this to prove that it is not from your love of God, that you persecute Me; for He bears witness to Me, by My own works, and by the Scriptures. So that, if you loved God, as you rejected Me, thinking Me against God, so now you would come to Me. But you do not love Him. And He proves this, not only from what they do now, but from what they will do in time to come: I am come in My Father’s name, and you received Me not; if another shall come in his own name, him you will receive. He says plainly, I am come in the Father’s name, that they might never be able to plead ignorance as an excuse

As if He said, For this cause came I into the world, that through Me the name of the Father might be glorified; for I attribute all to Him. As then they would not receive Him, Who came to do His Father’s will; they had not the love of God. But Antichrist will come not in the Father’s name, but in his own, to seek, not the Father’s glory, but his own. And the Jews having rejected Christ, it was a fit punishment on them, that they should receive Antichrist, and believe a lie, as they would not believe the Truth.

Hear John, As you have heard that Antichrist shall come, even now are there many Antichrists. But what do you dread in Antichrist, except that he will exalt his own name, and despise the name of the Lord? And what else does he do, who says, “I justify;” or those who say, Unless we are good, you must perish?” Wherefore my life shall depend on You, and my salvation shall be fastened to You. Shall I so forget my foundation? Is not my rock Christ?

Here is the crowning proof of their impiety. He says, as it were, If it was the love of God that made you persecute me, you would persecute Antichrist much more: for he does not profess to be sent by the Father, or to come according to His will; but, on the contrary, usurping what does not belong to him, will proclaim himself to be God over all. It is manifest that your persecution of Me is from malice and hatred of God. Then He gives the reason of their unbelief: How can you believe, which receive honor one of another, and seek not the honor that comes from God only? another proof this, that theirs was not a zeal for God, but a gratification of their own passions.

How faulty then is the boasting temper, and that eagerness for human praise, which likes to be thought to have what it has not, and would fain be thought to have all that it has, by its own strength. Men of such temper cannot believe; for in their hearts, they are bent solely on gaining praise, and setting themselves up above others.

The best way of guarding against this sin, is to bring to our consciences the remembrance, that we are dust, and should ascribe all the good that we have not to ourselves, but to God. And we should endeavor always to be such, as we wish to appear to others. Then, as they might ask, Will you accuse us then to the Father? He anticipates this question: Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father.

For I am not come to condemn, but to save. There is one that accuses you, even Moses, in whom you trust. As He had said of the Scriptures above: In them you think you have eternal life. So now of Moses He says, In whom you trust, always answering them out of their authorities. But they will say, How will he accuse us? What have you to do with Moses, you who have broken the sabbath? So He adds: For had you believed Moses, you would perhaps hare believed Me, for he wrote of me. This is connected with what was said before. For where evidence that He came from God had been forced upon them by His words, by the voice of John, and the testimony of the Father, it was certain that Moses would condemn them; for he had said, If any one shall come, doing miracles, leading men to God, and foretelling the future with certainty, you must obey him. Christ did all this, and they did not obey Him.

Perhaps, He says, in accommodation to our way of speaking, not because there is really any doubting in God. Moses prophesied of Christ, A Prophet shall the Lord your God raise up from among your brethren like to me: Him shall you hear.

But, in fact, the whole that Moses wrote, was written of Christ, i.e. it has reference to Him principally; whether it point to Him by figurative actions, or expression; or set forth His grace and glory. But if you believe not his writings, how shall you believe My words.

As if I He said, He has even written, and has left his books among you, as a constant memento to you, lest you forget His words. And since you believe not his writings, how can you believe My unwritten words?

From this we may infer too, that he who knows the commandments against stealing, and other crimes, and neglects them, will never fulfill the more perfect and refined precepts of the Gospel.

Indeed had they attended to His words, they ought and would have tried to learn from Him, what the things were which Moses had written of Him. But they are silent. For it is the nature of wickedness to defy persuasion. Do what you will, it retains its venom to the last.

4. The Lord also spoke as follows to those who did not believe in Him: “I have come in my Father’s name, and ye have not received Me: when another shall come in his own name, him ye will receive,” calling Antichrist “the other,” because he is alienated from the Lord. This is also the unjust judge, whom the Lord mentioned as one “who feared not God, neither regarded man,” to whom the widow fled in her forgetfulness of God, that is, the earthly Jerusalem, to be avenged of her adversary. Which also he shall do in the time of his kingdom: he shall remove his kingdom into that [city], and shall sit in the temple of God, leading astray those who worship him, as if he were Christ. …

They more readily supposed that the Father acted in the Son’s name, than that the Son acted in the Father’s; although the Lord says Himself, “I am come in my Father’s name;” and even to the Father He declares, “I have manifested Thy name unto these men;” whilst the Scripture likewise says, “Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord,” that is to say, the Son in the Father’s name. And as for the Father’s names, God Almighty, the Most High, the Lord of hosts, the King of Israel, the “One that is,” we say (for so much do the Scriptures teach us) that they belonged suitably to the Son also, and that the Son came under these designations, and has always acted in them, and has thus manifested them in Himself to men. …

Consider, therefore, how many passages present their prescriptive authority to you in this very Gospel before this inquiry of Philip, and previous to any discussion on your part. And first of all there comes at once to hand the preamble of John to his Gospel, which shows us what He previously was who had to become flesh. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God: all things were made by Him, and without Him was nothing made.” Now, since these words may not be taken otherwise than as they are written, there is without doubt shown to be One who was from the beginning, and also One with whom He always was: one the Word of God, the other God (although the Word is also God, but God regarded as the Son of God, not as the Father); One through whom were all things, Another by whom were all things. …

Again, when Martha in a later passage acknowledged Him to be the Son of God, she no more made a mistake than Peter and Nathanæl had; and yet, even if she had made a mistake, she would at once have learnt the truth: for, behold, when about to raise her brother from the dead, the Lord looked up to heaven, and, addressing the Father, said, as the Son, of course: “Father, I thank Thee that Thou always hearest me; it is because of these crowds that are standing by that I have spoken to Thee , that they may believe that Thou hast sent me.” But in the trouble of His soul, (on a later occasion) He said: “What shall I say? Father, save me from this hour: but for this cause is it that I am come to this hour; only, O Father, do Thou glorify Thy name”, in which He spake as the Son. …

The name of “God the Father” had been published to none. Even Moses, who had interrogated Him on that very point, had heard a different name. To us it has been revealed in the Son, for the Son is now the Father’s new name. “I am come,” saith He, “in the Father’s name;” and again, “Father, glorify Thy name;” and more openly, “I have manifested Thy name to men.” That name , therefore, we pray may “be hallowed.” Not that it is becoming for men to wish God well , as if there were any other by whom He may be wished well, or as if He would suffer unless we do so wish. Plainly, it is universally becoming for God to be blessed in every place and time, on account of the memory of His benefits ever due from every man. But this petition also serves the turn of a blessing. …

In Genesis, to Abraham: “And the Angel of the Lord called him from heaven, and said unto him, Abraham, Abraham! And he said, Here am I. And He said, Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou anything unto him. For now I know that thou fearest thy God, and hast not spared thy son, thy beloved son, for my sake.” Also in the same place, to Jacob: “And the Angel of the Lord spake unto me in dreams, I am God, whom thou sawest in the place of God where thou anointedst me a pillar of stone, and vowedst to me a vow.” Also in Exodus: “But God went before them by day indeed in a pillar of cloud, to show them the way; and by night in a pillar of fire.” And afterwards, in the same place: “And the Angel of God moved forward, which went before the army of the children of Israel.” Also in the same place: “Lo, I send my Angel before thy face, to keep thee in the way, that He may lead thee into th …

1. Give heed, Beloved, to the lesson of the Gospel which has just sounded in our ears, whilst I speak a few words as God shall vouchsafe to me. The Lord Jesus was speaking to the Jews, and said to them, “Search the Scriptures, in which ye think ye have eternal life, they testify of me.” Then a little after He said, “I am come in My Father’s Name, and ye have not received Me; if another shall come in his own name, him ye will receive.” Then a little after; “How can ye believe, who look for glory one from another, and seek not the glory which is of God only?” At last He saith, “I do not accuse you to the Father; there is one that accuseth you, Moses, in whom ye trust. For had ye believed Moses, ye would haply believe Me also, for he wrote of Me. …

7. It is said of Antichrist, and all understand of him what the Lord said, “I am come in My Father’s Name, and ye have not received Me; if another shall come in his own name, him ye will receive.” But let us hear John too; “Ye have heard that Antichrist cometh, and even now are there many Antichrists.” What is it in Antichrist that we are in horror of, but that he is to honour his own name, and to despise the Name of the Lord? What else doeth he that saith, “It is I that justify”? We answer him, “I came to Christ, not with my feet, but with my heart I came; where I heard the Gospel, there did I believe, there was I baptized; because I believed on Christ, I believed on God.” Yet says he, “Thou art not clean.” “Why?” “Because I was not there.” “Tell me why am not I cleansed, a man who was baptized in Jerusalem, who was baptized, for instance, among the Ephesians, to whom an Epistle you rea …

3. But when it is said, “Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord, [as] the King of Israel,” by “in the name of the Lord” we are rather to understand “in the name of God the Father,” although it might also be understood as in His own name , inasmuch as He is also Himself the Lord. As we find Scripture also saying in another place, “The Lord rained [upon Sodom fire] from the Lord.” But His own words are a better guide to our understanding, when He saith, “I am come in my Father’s name, and ye receive me not: another will come in his own name, and him ye will receive.” For the true teacher of humility is Christ, who humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. But He does not lose His divinity in teaching us humility; in the one He is the Father’s equal, in the other He is assimilated to us. …

20. “Blessed be He that cometh in the Name of the Lord” ( ver. 26 ). Cursed, therefore, is he that cometh in his own name; as He saith in the Gospel: “if another shall come in his own name, him ye will receive.” “We have blessed you out of the house of God.” I believe that these are the words of the great to the little, of those great ones, to wit, who in spirit commune with God the Word, who is with God, as they may in this life; and yet temper their discourse for the sake of the little ones, so that they may sincerely say what the Apostle saith: “For whether we be beside ourselves, it is to God: or whether we be sober, it is for your cause. For the love of Christ constraineth us.” They bless the little children from the inner house of the Lord, where that praise faileth not age after age: consider therefore what they proclaim from thence.

And Christ too bestowed great care upon this point, and being seated on the Mount, He with great particularity discoursed to His disciples upon the Consummation. And wherefore? that there might be no room for those who introduce Antichrists and false Christs. And He Himself also gives many signs, one indeed, and that the most important, saying, when “the Gospel shall be preached to all nations” (from Matt. xxiv. 14 .), and another also, that they should not be deceived with respect to His coming. “As the lightning” ( ver. 27 .), He says, shall He come; not concealed in any corner, but shining everywhere. It requires no one to point it out, so splendid will it be, even as the lightning needs no one to point it out. …

Why then, you say, did God permit this to be? and what dispensation is this? And what is the advantage of his coming, if it takes place for the ruin of our race? Fear not, beloved, but hear Him saying, “In them that are perishing,” he hath strength, who, even if he had not come, would not have believed. What then is the advantage? That these very men who are perishing will be put to silence. How? Because both if he had come, and if he had not come, they would not have believed in Christ; He comes therefore to convict them. For that they may not have occasion to say, that since Christ said that He was God, although He nowhere said this openly, but since those who came after proclaimed it, we have not believed. Because we have heard that there is One God from whom are all things, therefore we have not believed. This their pretext then Antichrist will take away. …