I am come into the world [as] light, that every one that believes on me may not abide in darkness;
Near the end of His public ministry, Jesus calls out to the crowd one last time. The name He gives Himself is "light." Two questions follow. What is the darkness He speaks of? And why does He come as light and not as judge?
These words close the Lord's public testimony. One writer traces the claim back through the whole Gospel, and names what the light exposed:
However bright the light of the Lord was, the heart of the people was dull. "Seeing they saw, but they did not understand." They did not receive the light of God... Jesus — the Son of God, the Lord Himself — stands on earth and cries out. This is His final testimony. He gives His verdict on it, and claims once more to be the light. He had "come into the world as light." We have seen this all through, from John 1 down to John 12... The effect was plain from the first: they preferred darkness to light. So the light only made the darkness more visible.
Another writer draws out why He came, and the one door into blessing:
This is the last mention of light in John's Gospel. It recalls the purpose of His coming. He came not to condemn men but to give them light. Yet the way into the light was faith in Him. There was no other way into divine blessing.
One writer gives the word a plain definition:
By light, I mean the knowledge of God. A man's heart is in the light exactly as far as he has learned God. "God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all." We can say this now that He has been declared, for in Christ He has come out of the thick darkness into the light of revelation.
That marks a turning point in how God dealt with people. Under the law of Moses, God stayed hidden behind the curtain of the tabernacle:
Under the law God did not come out, and man could not go in. The law came out, and the prophets came out, but God Himself stayed hidden behind the veil. In Christ, God did come out. As He says in John 12:46, "I have come into the world as light." There God had come out, but man could not yet go in.
The single word "whoever" breaks the boundary of one nation:
This "light" — the truth about God — is for all. He had come into the world as light so that whoever believes in Him, Jew or Gentile, should not remain in darkness or ignorance of God.
By nature everyone starts in the dark. Faith changes where a person walks:
By nature man is in darkness. He walks in the darkness without the knowledge of God. But the believer walks in the light of the revelation of God, and so does not remain in darkness.
And there is no second light. Refuse Him, and the darkness stays:
If we do not believe in Christ as the revelation of God we must remain in our natural darkness. We can never know Him. There is no other light. Jesus is the true light. God has found a way of bringing Himself before our eyes. And all this light is given so that our souls may be saved.
Why light and not judge? One writer answers with the picture of a sunrise:
Once more, before that glory shines as the "Sun of righteousness," it rose over the horizon as "Light." "I have come into the world as light" — a Light, and not a Judge. Who that had really seen it could stay in darkness?
But refusing the light is not a neutral act. The very words that offered life become the standard of judgment later:
It is true that the Lord came not to judge but to save the world. Still, if men reject His words, those words will be a witness against the one who rejects Christ in the last day. All the more so, because they were the words the Father had given Him to speak. They were words given for life and blessing. But if rejected, they become words of condemnation.
For anyone who believes, the light is not only a rescue at the start but a guide for every step afterwards:
But once we trust Him for salvation He becomes the Way for every step of our pathway. He said "I am the light of the world: whoever follows Me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life" (John 8:12).
- Darkness — Darkness is not knowing God. By nature every person walks in it.
- Light — In Christ, God came out from behind the veil. To see Jesus is to learn what God is like.
- Whoever — The offer crosses every national line: Jew or Gentile, anyone who believes.
- Not abide — Faith does not soften the darkness. It takes you out of it, and there is no other light.
- Not a Judge — He came as light to save, not to condemn. Yet the words that offered life will judge all who reject them.
and if any one hear my words and do not keep [them], I judge him not, for I am not come that I might judge the world, but that I might save the world.
Here is a striking claim: the One with every right to condemn says He will not. Two things stand side by side — a hearer who ignores His words, and a Saviour who will not sentence him.
Commentators tie this saying to the difference between Christ's two comings.
Here is what God has done in the coming of the Lord Jesus — I mean His first coming. Everything that would have to be dealt with in judgment at His second coming has already been dealt with on the cross for the believer. He who is to come as judge has come as the Saviour. That is what I get in the gospel. He who is to come as judge has come in a wholly different way and character: He has come as a Saviour... God has dealt with the world about its sins in grace before He deals with it in judgment.
That order — grace first, judgment after — has held for a long time.
He was the Light that exposed evil. Yet if men refused to believe on Him, He was not here to judge them, as He will in a future day. He had come in pure grace, not to judge, but to save the world. Grace despised will of course bring judgment in the end. But salvation has stood open to the world for nearly two thousand years, showing the great heart of this blessed Saviour.
A person can hear the words of Christ and do nothing with them.
He has the light of life, and not life only; He is light in the Lord. So it was ruin to have heard His words and not kept them. But He came in such grace that He could add, "I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world but to save the world."
One writer points back to John 8, where Jesus' critics used a question about stoning to trap Him.
Not every question put to the Lord Jesus came from a genuine difficulty. The scribes and Pharisees asked their question in John 8:5 to trap Him. Had Jesus said, Do not stone the sinner, they would have said, You are opposing the law of Moses. Had He said, Let her be stoned, they would have said, Where is this grace you have been speaking of? How rich was the wisdom that answered the question and also reached the consciences of those who asked it! ... There was only One "without sin," but He had come "not to judge the world, but to save the world."
Declining to judge did not mean the world went unexamined. Its true condition came out anyway.
He had not come to judge the world, but so that the world through Him might be saved. Yet it had been judged — not by the Son of man sitting on a throne, but by the Son of God walking through the world in grace and truth. That walk exposed its moral and spiritual condition. Scripture records its hatred to guide the children of God, who are to walk through it as He walked.
Refusing to sentence a man now is not the end of the story.
We are warned of the judgment that must overtake the one who hears and does not believe. It is true that the Lord came not to judge but to save the world. Still, His words, if rejected, would be a witness in the last day against the one who rejects Christ. That is all the more so because they were the words the Father had given Him to speak. The Father gave them for life and blessing, but if rejected they would become words of condemnation.
That day will bring nothing new. The message He spoke in grace is the message that will judge.
At His first coming the Lord, as the Apostle of the faith we confess, spoke the word of God. When He returns to judge the world, He will judge by the word He has spoken. As He says, "The word that I have spoken will judge him on the last day." His testimony was one of grace, expressing all that God was in grace to sinners. And when He comes again, He will judge by that same word.
- The Judge came as Saviour. The One who will judge one day came first in a different character. The cross has already dealt with what would otherwise meet the believer in judgment.
- Grace runs first. God deals with the world in grace before He deals with it in judgment. Salvation has stood open for nearly two thousand years.
- The word is the offer. To hear His words and not keep them is ruin, yet even to such a person He says He does not judge him.
- The word is also the exposure. He passed no sentence, yet the Son of God walking in grace showed what the world really was.
- The word becomes the verdict. Words given for life and blessing become words of condemnation when rejected. He will judge by what He has already spoken.
He that rejects me and does not receive my words, has him who judges him the word which I have spoken, that shall judge him in the last day.
Jesus has just said He came to save the world, not to judge it. So this verse raises two questions: how the one who turns Him away already has a judge, and what "the last day" means.
Grace does not cancel judgment. It delays it, and the words spoken in kindness become the evidence.
We are warned of the judgment that must overtake the one who hears and does not believe. It is true that the Lord came not to judge but to save the world. Still, His words, if rejected, would be a witness against the one who rejects Christ in the last day. That is all the more true because they were the words the Father had given Him to speak. They were given for life and blessing; but, if rejected, they would become words of condemnation.
The one who rejects Christ already has a judge. Commentators point out the reversal here: a man who sits in judgment on Scripture has the roles the wrong way round.
The word of God is not judged — it judges. Woe to the man who hardens his heart against it! Men did just that then. Hardening their consciences against the conviction of sin, they — to use the words of the blessed Lord — rejected the counsel of God against themselves; that is, to their own eternal ruin. That word was spoken and sent in grace, and, blessed be God, it still is. It will judge them, and all who reject it, in the last day. For God knows that when He sent it in grace, He sent it with clear proof to men's hearts and consciences that it is His word.
Commentators render "rejects" as "slights" — to treat Christ as of no account. The verse gives its own reason why that is so serious: Jesus did not speak on His own authority.
How is His glory upheld when a man slights Him and does not receive His words? He already has the thing that judges him — the word. "The word that I have spoken will judge him on the last day." This is all the more certain because Jesus did not speak from Himself, as if He sought His own will or glory. He was always subject to the Father, who not only sent Him but told Him what to say and speak. And He knew the Father's commandment to be eternal life.
That day brings no new standard. Christ already spoke the word that will judge, and He Himself returns to judge by it.
At His first coming the Lord came as God's sent One, and He spoke the word of God. When He returns to judge the world, He will judge by the word He has spoken. As He says, "The word that I have spoken will judge him." His testimony was of grace, expressing all that God was in grace to sinners. And when He comes again, He will come judging by it. Having given the mind of God, He returns to heaven; and then He returns as King to judge by the word which He had spoken.
The phrase does not mark a single date. Commentators read it as a span wide enough to hold the resurrection of the saints, the thousand-year reign of Revelation 20, and this judgment.
"The last day" has a broad moral sense, like "the day of the Lord" in 2 Peter 3. But it reaches further still, taking in the resurrection of the saints, which "the day of the Lord" is nowhere said to include. Between John 6:39-40 and John 12:48 the Millennium (Revelation 20:4-5) comes in. "The last day" begins a little before it and ends a little after it. It is a general expression for the whole closing scene, when man's day is over and God acts in power, whether in blessing or in judgment.
One writer places this verse at the final judgment, where God opens the books He has kept.
The books tell their tale; a holy God has recorded everything faithfully. The Word of God will be there, even as the Lord Jesus said, "the word that I have spoken will judge him on the last day" (John 12:48). Every word heard, every chapter read, only increases responsibility, if it is not received by faith.
- Word sent — Jesus did not speak on His own authority. The Father told Him what to say, and that is what gives His word its weight.
- Word offered — the same word came in grace, given for life and blessing, and its purpose now is to save, not to judge.
- Word refused — words given for blessing become words of condemnation when a man turns them away. He already has his judge.
- Word returns — Christ spoke the mind of God, then returned to heaven. He comes again as King to judge by that same word, on "the last day" — a closing scene, not a single date.
- Word stands — Scripture is never on trial before man; it puts man on trial. Every chapter read raises the reader's responsibility.
For I have not spoken from myself, but the Father who sent me has himself given me commandment what I should say and what I should speak;
These are the last words of Jesus' public teaching in this Gospel. He traces everything He has said back to the Father who sent Him — so what does it mean for the Son of God to speak under orders?
The sentence before it warns that the word Jesus spoke will judge the one who refuses it. The word "for" carries the weight of that warning back to its source.
He has the very thing that judges him — the word. "The word that I have spoken will judge him on the last day." And it judges him all the more surely, because Jesus did not speak from Himself, as if He were seeking His own will or glory. He was always and simply subject to the Father. The Father not only sent Him; the Father also told Him what to say and speak. And Jesus knew the Father's commandment to be eternal life. Jesus was as subject to Him in His utterances as in His doings, being here to declare Him and do His will.
His hearers heard a man speaking. He tells them the source lay deeper than that. The verse names two things — what to say and what to speak — and the Father set both.
"For I have not spoken on my own authority" — that is, the word has had a deeper source than you suppose, as if it came from a man. Instead, "the Father who sent me has himself given me a commandment — what to say and what to speak." My wording, that is, as well as the things I spoke. They were God's words, as John the Baptist said.
The word "commandment" here is not one order given on one day. It covers everything He had said from the start of the Gospel.
He is here speaking of the testimony He has been giving from John 1:35 to chapter 12. He calls this testimony "a commandment," because it is what the Father laid on Him when He sent Him into the world. The Father had commanded Him what to say — what to speak. His testimony then — the word He had spoken — was the commandment of the Father.
It is striking that the Son should be under commandment at all. One writer ties this to the place He took on earth, not to what He is as God.
Christ's eternal Sonship gave His service on earth its incomparable character. In the Godhead there is one will, and so no subjection of One to Another. As God, the Son knew no subjection. But on earth, "although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered." In the lowly place of subjection He took, the Son chose to receive commandments from the Father. He obeyed them with infinite speed and infinite delight. What obedience could match this in kind or in degree?
If the Father set the content, what was it? One writer sums up that charge in a single aim.
He had a commandment from the Father about all that He was to declare. And that commandment, I have no doubt, was that He should perfectly reveal the Father in all He said and in all He did. This commandment He carried out to the letter. He says, "Whoever has seen me has seen the Father," and Peter says, "You have the words of eternal life."
He did not choose His own message. That makes this verse a test for anyone who serves God — over what we say, not only what we do.
Even our blessed Lord, the perfect Servant that He was, took this ground. He said, "The Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise." He applies the same principle to what He said: "I have not spoken on my own authority, but the Father who sent me has himself given me a commandment — what to say and what to speak." So if He only did and said what the Father gave Him to do and say, we cannot go wrong when we seek grace to follow in His steps.
- Source. His teaching did not start with Him. The word had a deeper source than His hearers supposed, and the Father set even His wording.
- Scope. The "commandment" is not one instruction. It is His whole testimony — everything He had said since chapter 1 was what the Father sent Him to say.
- Submission. As God the Son knew no subjection. On earth He chose to receive commandments and obeyed them with delight. No obedience matches it in kind or degree.
- Substance. He carried out one charge to the letter: to reveal the Father in all He said and did. So His words are words of eternal life.
- Standard. He said only what the Father gave Him to say. His servants cannot go wrong if they use the same rule for their speech as for their work.
and I know that his commandment is life eternal. What therefore I speak, as the Father has said to me, so I speak.
Jesus is closing His public ministry, and He explains why His words carry such weight: they are not His own, but the Father's charge to Him. That charge, He says, is eternal life — so what sort of "commandment" gives life instead of demanding obedience?
Verses 44–50 are not a fresh sermon but a summing up of everything that has gone before, and of the position Israel had taken by refusing Him.
In rejecting Him, they rejected the Father, for what He said were the Father's words. So He did not judge the person who heard His word and did not keep it. He had not come to judge the world but to save it. His words would judge them at the last day. Now what He said was the Father's commandment, and this commandment was eternal life. He knew it. He had faith in it. He was certain of it within Himself. So everything He said, He spoke it as the Father had spoken to Him.
The word "commandment" here does not point to a single instruction. It covers the whole of what Jesus had been saying since the beginning of the Gospel.
He is here speaking of the testimony He has been giving from John 1:35 to chapter 12. He calls this testimony "a commandment," because it is what the Father laid on Him when He sent Him into the world. The Father had commanded Him what He should say — what He should speak. His testimony then — the word He had spoken — was the commandment of the Father.
One writer names what that charge contained:
The Father gave Him a commandment about everything He was to declare. That commandment, I have no doubt, was that the Father should be perfectly revealed in Him — in all that He said and in all that He did. This commandment He fulfilled to the letter. He says, "Whoever has seen me has seen the Father," and Peter says, "You have the words of eternal life."
The word can unsettle readers who associate commandments with law and penalty. The contrast is stated plainly.
More than this: the Father's commandment is life everlasting. It is not like the ten commandments, which brought condemnation and death. It brings eternal life for the vital blessing of mankind.
The same writer describes how that commandment sounded to those who heard it.
The commandment addressed to men through Christ struck no terror into the heart of the hearer. It did not speak of death, condemnation and curse, but of peace, love and everlasting life. It was the declaration of what God was for man. Even the worst of people could listen to that, and did listen closely, for surely no one ever spoke like this Man.
If the charge given to Jesus was to make the Father known, then receiving what He says is not a step towards life but life itself.
In words and works alike, He is the revealer of the Father. And so, as the verse tells us, "His commandment is eternal life": for it is eternal life to know the Father as revealed in this way.
The closing clause is not a throwaway. Commentators read it as the same submission seen at the very start of His ministry, now shown publicly at its end.
It is the moral glory of Christ that He always applied obedience in every demand and every difficulty. At the beginning, before His public service, He stood on this. He submitted to this. By this He defeated the enemy in each one of the three great temptations… We find exactly the same unswerving obedience in public at the end.
Seen against that, the unbelief of the chapter becomes tragic rather than merely stubborn.
This is what the Jews were rejecting in refusing the Son of God. They were turning away from the divine blessing of eternal life offered to them in the Father's grace. If this shows us the utter folly of Israel, it also displays the wonderful grace of the Father and the Son. What can we say to this? The Father had sent out His well-beloved Son into the world with this great message of life eternal. He gave Him the very words to speak, so that we might know perfectly the grace of His heart.
- Charge — the "commandment" is not one rule. It is the whole testimony the Father gave the Son to speak.
- Content — that charge was to reveal the Father in all the Son said and did. He carried it out to the letter.
- Contrast — the ten commandments brought condemnation and death. This one brings life, and declares what God is for man.
- Consequence — to know the Father as the Son reveals Him is eternal life. So receiving these words is receiving life.
- Choice — the same word that gives life to those who receive it will judge those who refuse it at the last day.