44Then Jesus cried out, "When a man believes in me, he does not believe in me only, but in the one who sent me. 45When he looks at me, he sees the one who sent me. 46I have come into the world as a light, so that no one who believes in me should stay in darkness.
47"As for the person who hears my words but does not keep them, I do not judge him. For I did not come to judge the world, but to save it. 48There is a judge for the one who rejects me and does not accept my words; that very word which I spoke will condemn him at the last day. 49For I did not speak of my own accord, but the Father who sent me commanded me what to say and how to say it. 50I know that his command leads to eternal life. So whatever I say is just what the Father has told me to say."
Dig Deeper
What if they’re telling the truth? That’s a question that we probably find ourselves asking more often than we might even think. A few years ago I was up late one night, not able to sleep so I flipped on the television set. As I scrolled through the channels I realized that there was not much of anything to watch. I eventually settled on a channel that was airing an info-mericial. The claims they were making were amazing, in fact almost too good to be true. Anyone, even me, could make hundreds of thousands of dollars, if not more, with just a few hours of work a week. Imagine that. I could become a millionaire in a few short years and only had to work a few hours here and there. As I watched on, I began to think about how ridiculous these claims were. I could buy access to this sure-fire method of becoming rich and I only had to pay $169 (US) in order to get the system. I had almost completely dismissed this half-hour commercial as a ridiculous get-rich-quick scheme that would not work, when a thought flashed through my mind. What if it’s true? What if I could earn that kind of money with virtually no work or effort required? What would that mean for my family? Dare I consider the implications of their claims being true? Now I was left with the choice of simply dismissing the claims or looking into them. Although I did not ever believe that there was any credibility to this system, I decided to do a little research before I summarily dismissed it. It took just a few minutes online to discover that this was indeed a ridiculous scam, but at least I had checked it out.
John has shown us time and again how the religious and political leaders of Jesus’ day rejected him, his words, and his claims time and again. They simply knew that he couldn’t be right. He couldn’t possibly be telling the truth. There was no way that he was one with the Father, perfectly doing His will and work for which Jesus was sent. I can’t help but wonder if they ever stopped, if even for a moment, and allowed themselves to wonder. What if he’s right? What’s if he’s telling the truth? What if he is who he says he is and can do what he says he can do? What would be the implications of that? Sadly, John also makes it clear that they never really considered that to the point of seriously checking out Jesus’ claims. The haunting thought hovers just above this entire passage, and in fact the entire book: What if hearing and rejecting Jesus’ words, his logos, really would mean being judged by those very words?
Some commentators point out that Jesus’ words in this passage are probably some sort of summary statement in John’s mind of Jesus’ teaching. They are likely correct in that view. John has reported in verse 36 that Jesus hid himself from the crowd and so it seems unlikely that he would return to public teaching here. What is probably the case is that John has taken these words from Jesus from an earlier time and used them here as a fitting summary of Jesus’ public teaching. It is a fitting and emphatic end to the first section of John’s Gospel. The rest of the Gospel will switch focus from the seven signs to Jesus’ final week, final instruction to his disciples, his crucifixion and resurrection.
Jesus cries out to those around him that the defining issue concerning Jesus is faith in God. If Jesus was simply running around putting forth his own ideas and teachings, then people would simply be having faith in him or rejecting him. Yet, it is not that simple. Jesus has said time and again that he is sent from the father, is doing the Father’s will, and sharing in the Father’s work. Thus, his words are the Father’s words. He only speaks what the Father has told him to say, so when they reject his words, they are really rejecting the words of the Father. When a man believes in me, says Jesus, he does not believe in me only, but in the one who sent me.
Jesus represents the Jewish idea of identification quite will here, where the one being sent represents the one who sent him. If one accepts Jesus, they accept the Father. Conversely, to reject faith in Jesus is to reject the Father. They are so closely aligned in mission, work, and in every other way, that to see the Son is to see the Father. We can know what the Father is like and what he does, because we know can see the works of the Son.
Before Jesus came, the whole world was in a state of darkness with no hope or possibility of removing ourselves from the darkness in which we live. It is into that darkness that the light has come. Jesus isn’t just a teacher of light or someone that brought light with him. Jesus is the light, and he came into the world as a light so that no one who believes in him should stay in darkness. My youngest son likes to sleep with a very dim nightlight into his room. It makes everything in the room kind of murky, with long, dark shadows all over the room. A dim and shadowy light like that doesn’t distinguish much between the light and dark parts of the room. But when his light switch is turned on, a bright light shines on the whole room. Jesus is the bright light that came into the world and clearly demonstrated the new creation of God so when people shrunk back from that light and crawled into the darkness, there was no question that they desired and wanted the darkness. It doesn’t take much effort to get out of a dim light, but it takes concerted effort to get away from a bright and powerful light.
Jesus was the light of God and he was the word, the logos, the very ordering principle of the universe. When someone hears Jesus’ words, but does not keep them, he does not judge them. Jesus did not come to condemn the world, it stands condemned and dead in sin already (cf. Jn. 3:17-21). Jesus came to offer salvation not judgment, but that very declaration will be the standard by which the world will be judged. His point is that he is not arbitrarily going around condemning those who reject his words as though he is simply angry when people don’t believe him. Jesus speaks the words of the Father; the word of the Father is the absolute standard between light and darkness in the world, so when people reject the words of Jesus, they reject the absolute will and standard of the Father. They have rejected His salvation and stand already condemned and judged by the very word they rejected.
Jesus’ command, which is really the command of the Father, leads to eternal life because the Father’s command is eternal life. The words of God are the life of the age to come because they are the revelation of His will. Those who believe and accept those words have eternal life based on their mere belief in those words.
Jesus has stressed again and again, and John brings it out here one more time, that Jesus has never been about self-exaltation or drawing attention or even converts to himself. He has always said just what the Father has told him to say. His mission, his words, his entire ministry is not human in origin, but heavenly. It all comes from the Father and is directed towards the Father. You simply cannot separate the Father from the Son, so when the Jews rejected the Son, claiming it was because they embraced the Father, they were dead wrong and making the choice to remain in darkness.
Then it all comes back around to the logos. Is it the logos of God or the logos of man? Whose words does Jesus speak and what does it mean if he was who he said he was? What if those were the words of the One he said they were? The one thing that those who rejected Jesus had refused to consider was the fact that he could do what he said he could do. They could see the signs and wonders, yet would not accept that he was the Son of God. The question that they would apparently not consider, but that John clearly wants his readers to ponder is this: What if those very words of Jesus that he has recorded were the words of God? What if those very words will stand as our judge one day? What if?
Devotional Thought
Do you accept the words of Jesus as the very words of God by which we will be judged one day or do you show contempt for them based on your actions? Before you answer that question, think about this question: Do you accept ALL of the words of Jesus as the very words of God by which we will all be judged one day. It is very easy for us today to declare and even believe that we have accepted Jesus’ teachings, but in reality, we marginalize the most challenging parts and appease ourselves by embracing the rest of it. If that sounds like something you do on occasion, think of this: partial obedience is disobedience.
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