If I had not done among them the works which no other one has done, they had not had sin; but now they have both seen and hated both me and my Father.
The Lord is telling His disciples why the world will hate them. He traces that hatred back to its source. People had watched Him do what no one else had ever done — and they hated Him for it. The verse raises a hard question — how can seeing more of God leave people worse off rather than better?
The Lord has just spoken of His words. Here He adds what His hands had done. Commentators note that words and works reach people differently.
And there was this further aggravation of their sin — the works He had done. Fitting words have a strong effect on some people. Works reach others even more deeply — works that express not only power, but goodness, holiness and love. Here they had words and works in perfect harmony, each confirming the other, such as were never seen except in Jesus the Son of God.
Older translations read "they had not had sin." Either way, the words do not mean these people would have been innocent. They mean their sin had not yet come out into the open.
It is not that they would not have been sinners. No — but "they had not had sin." So He says in another place, "If you were blind, you would have no guilt" (John 9:41). God came near to man in the Person of His Son. Man was able to say, "This is the heir" — yet he also said, "Come, let us kill him." So, "they have no excuse for their sin." Those who say they see have no excuse. Confessed blindness is not the difficulty; professed sight is. Sin stays where there is only a claim to see. A man who is blind, and knows it, can have his eyes opened. But what can be done for someone who thinks he sees, when he really does not?
The works were not just impressive. They showed who He was.
Every page of the Gospels tells us He was the God-man. On one side, He was a homeless stranger, a weary Man sitting at Samaria's well. He was hungry in the desert and slept in the boat. He groaned and wept tears of sorrow and sympathy. On the other side, He worked miracles, cleansed lepers, opened blind eyes, raised the dead to life, and showed His power over the winds and the waves. In a word, He declared by His mighty acts that though He was a man, He was also God.
Why does the Lord move from "hated me" to "hated... my Father"? Because the works were not His alone; they carried the Father's glory into plain view.
The Father's glory shone out in the works — the Son at work, the voice and the works together. It was no longer only the Son's voice, with the Father still behind. Now the works that witnessed to the Father were added. They saw, and they hated. Their alienation was total: they were cut off from the blessedness they had seen, the whole revelation of the Father and the Son in Him.
They had no excuse left.
If the Lord had not done among them the works no other man had done, they might have stayed as they were. They might have refused to believe in Him and not been guilty before God. They would still have been the object of God's patience. But in fact they had seen and hated both the Son and the Father. The Father had been fully revealed in the Son. If, when God was revealed in full and in grace, they rejected Him, what else could be done but to leave them in sin, far from God? If He had been revealed only in part, they would have had an excuse. They might have said, "Ah, if He had shown grace, if we had known Him as He is, we would not have rejected Him." They could not say that now.
One writer sets this rejection beside the worst sins recorded earlier in Scripture.
"If I had not done among them the works that no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin," said the Lord Jesus. It is as though the sin of Cain, of the world before the flood, of Babel, of Sodom and Gomorrah, of Tyre and Sidon, of Pharaoh, of Jeroboam, of Ahab, could not be put in the same scale or measured by the same measure. It is as though every earlier act of transgression, disobedience and blasphemy were now eclipsed.
The Lord's own grief is in these words.
How sharp His sorrow must have been — not only because they hated Him with such violence, but because they hated His Father too.
- Seen. The works were not hidden; the Father's glory was on public display in what the Son did.
- Unique. No one else had done them, so no one could claim the evidence was ordinary or ambiguous.
- Exposed. Without His words and works, their sin would have stayed hidden — that does not mean they were innocent.
- Hated. Rejecting the Son was not a partial refusal; the hatred fell on the Father whom He revealed.
- Eclipsed. Beside the rejection of the One who had shown them grace, every earlier sin in Scripture weighs less.
But that the word written in their law might be fulfilled, They hated me without a cause.
Jesus has just shown that His words and works left the world without excuse for hating Him. Now He points to Israel's own Scriptures, which foretold that hatred and called it hatred without a cause.
The words He quotes are not from the five books of Moses, yet He calls them "their law." The New Testament often uses "law" that broadly.
The New Testament sometimes uses the term "law" for other parts of the Old Testament besides the five books of Moses. The Lord said, "Is it not written in your Law, 'I said, you are gods'?" — yet that quotation came from the Psalms (John 10:34). First Corinthians 14:21 does the same.
So their own law condemned them. Their hostility did not derail God's plan; it carried it out.
Yet God was in perfect control. He had foretold this in "their law," where the psalm presents the Messiah saying, "They hated Me without a cause" (Ps. 35:19). So the Jews unknowingly fulfilled their own Scriptures by their hatred and rejection of Christ. Nothing can thwart the fulfilment of the word of God.
"Without a cause" does not mean the hatred had no source. It means the reason cannot be found in the One they hated.
The world as a whole had no hope left, for by their own law they hated Christ without a cause. So the world's hatred is no longer ignorance: it is sin. It is a causeless hatred. Sadly, we, even as Christians, may at times give the world cause for hatred, but in Christ there was no cause. There is indeed a cause for the hatred, but it lies not in the One who is hated, but in the hearts of those who hate.
The hatred was not merely failure to keep rules. Something worse was exposed when God came near in kindness.
That is how causeless man's hatred was, right in the presence of divine grace. A full display of grace can end no other way. The mind of the flesh is hostile to God. Not only is there refusal to submit to His law, but hatred of His love; and this was now proved. Only Jesus, present in this way, speaking and working among men as He did, could prove it fully. They had seen Him, and the Father in Him — and they had hated both! Hatred of the Father and the Son is in itself irreparable, complete, and final.
The love was given freely, and the hatred came back just as freely.
The love was freely given, and here was the desperate evil. "They hated Me" — the state foretold — freely, "without a cause." What a word! It is sad and awful, and it humbles us about man's evil nature and corruption. They hated the blessed perfection of Jesus, freely and without a cause. They hated the Lord freely — evil moving of itself, with nothing to cause it.
He did not merely quote the psalm. He felt its words to the full.
On the cross the Lord felt to the full the hatred of the Jewish nation towards the godly remnant. His infinite perfection let Him say in an absolute way that they hated Him "without a cause." Those who sought to destroy Him were His enemies for no just reason. His enemies were many and strong. He had to meet not just the hostility of one man, but at the cross the hatred of a whole nation, led by its powerful leaders.
The same expression has a bright side. God's own act toward the believer is also without a cause.
"All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by His grace as a gift" — freely, without a cause — "through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus." Of the Lord it is said that they hated Him "without a cause." God justifies the believer "without a cause." What wonderful grace!
He warned His followers to expect the same.
Was He fiercely opposed and hated? He was — so much so that the Scripture came true: "They hated me without a cause" (John 15:25). He warns us too, with His own lips, "Because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you" (John 15:19).
- Their law. "Law" here covers the wider Old Testament, including the Psalms. The words that condemn them come from the very book they boasted in.
- Their cause. The hatred had no cause in Christ. Its cause sat in the hearts of those who hated, which makes it sin and not ignorance.
- Their proof. Perfect love on display drew out more than law-breaking. It drew out hatred of that love — the fullest test the human heart has ever faced.
- Their fulfilment. By rejecting Him they carried out the Scripture they claimed to keep, without knowing it. Nothing can stop God's word from coming true.
- Our gift. The same "without a cause" describes how God justifies the believer: freely, with no cause in us. It also explains why the world still hates those Christ has chosen out of it.
But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who goes forth from with the Father, *he* shall bear witness concerning me;
The promise of the Helper comes right after a warning. The Lord has told His followers that the world will hate them as it hated Him. Against that hatred He sets a Person: One He will send from the Father to bear witness about Him.
The ESV calls Him the Helper. Older translations say Comforter. One Greek word lies behind both:
The Greek word for "Comforter" is parakletos. It is the same word used to describe our Lord in 1 John 2:1: "If anyone does sin, we have an ADVOCATE [parakletos] with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous." The meaning of the original Greek word is One called alongside to help. Is the word "Comforter" enough for this meaning? We think not. We have no word in the English language that quite conveys the full meaning.
The same word puts a Paraclete in two places at once:
Christ is our Paraclete (Advocate) in this sense on high. The Holy Spirit is our Paraclete (Comforter) down here, living within us. What He does answers to what our Advocate does with the Father. So He is charged with our interests below, as Christ is above.
Notice the pronoun. The Spirit is sent, He proceeds, He bears witness:
Though the Father and the Son are One in divine essence, so that Jesus could say, "I and the Father are one," yet in person they are distinct... Our Lord also spoke of the Spirit's personal actings: "He will teach you all things... He will bear witness about me. He will guide you into all the truth."... What language could show us more plainly that a Person is acting? And who, I ask, but One who was God, could teach all things, and guide into all truth? It is "He," "He," "He," all through.
Three chapters of this same conversation describe the Spirit's coming. This verse is the middle one:
In John 14, our Lord identifies "another Comforter" as the Holy Spirit (verse 26)... So in John 14 the Father would send Him in the Son's Name. In John 15, the Son would send Him as from the Father. And in John 16, He would come... How blessed is the inter-communion of the Persons of the Godhead!
The language of proceeding and being sent raises a question about rank within the Godhead:
In this present age the Holy Spirit also takes a place that looks like a lower one. He "proceeds from the Father" and is "sent" by the Father and the Son... All such expressions seem to put the Spirit in a lower place, as others seem to do with the Son. But it is only in appearance. It has to do with the place they have taken and the part they play in carrying out the divine purposes, not in any way with the dignity of their Persons. The Father, Son and Holy Spirit are coequal in deity.
Placed where it is, the promise answers two problems at once — a violent world and frail disciples:
Knowing the wickedness of the world and the weakness of the disciples He says, "I will send" to you the Comforter "from the Father, the Spirit of truth," and the Lord adds, "He will bear witness about Me." However weak the disciples may be, however strong the world may be, "He will bear witness about Me."... The world will crucify Him in the lowest place on earth. Heaven will crown Him in the highest place in glory. And the Holy Spirit would come to bear witness of His glory. The Son had come from the Father to bear witness of the Father: the Holy Spirit was coming from the Father to bear witness to the Son.
The apostles could report what they had seen and heard:
The Spirit of Truth is the fitting witness to Christ as He is above; the disciples also testify, as His companions, chosen from the beginning... For as such they could not go beyond what they had seen and heard... The Spirit of Truth who proceeds from the Father would not only strengthen them to do that task perfectly, but would add a testimony of another kind altogether, of a blessedness never known before, as sent by Christ Himself from the Father.
That witness has a purpose for us:
Coming from the glory, He would bear witness to Christ. He would bear testimony to the glory into which He has entered for us, that our souls might be formed by it. What could we know of this but for Him?... The Spirit loves to bring before us the blessedness which is now His, and to assure our hearts that all is ours because we are in Him before God.
- Called alongside. Parakletos means One called alongside to help. Christ is our Advocate above; the Spirit is our Helper here.
- A "He," not an it. He is sent, He proceeds, He testifies, He guides into all truth. Only a Person can act like that, and only God.
- Sent, yet equal. The Son sends Him from the Father. Being sent describes the part He plays, not a lower dignity: Father, Son and Spirit are coequal.
- Witness against hatred. The world hates and the disciples fail, yet the promise stands: He will bear witness about Christ.
- News from the glory. The apostles told only what they had seen. The Spirit comes from where Christ now is, and tells of the glory He has entered.
and ye too bear witness, because ye are with me from [the] beginning.
The Lord has just promised the coming of the Holy Spirit, who will testify about Him. Then, without a pause, He adds His disciples to the witness stand. What could they add to the Spirit's testimony, and what qualified them to give it?
The Spirit and the disciples do not repeat each other. Each speaks from a place the other cannot occupy.
The apostles had authority and could say so. The Spirit of truth would testify, and so would they: "you also will bear witness, because you have been with Me from the beginning." They bore their witness through the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit was sent down to bear witness of what Christ is in heaven. The apostles bore witness of what He was on earth.
If the Spirit's testimony lacks nothing, the disciples' witness looks redundant. One writer raises that objection and answers it.
The previous verse mentions the coming of the Holy Spirit and the testimony He would render. His testimony is perfect, so would any further testimony be needed? Yes, there were men chosen to bear witness. They had the privilege of hearing, seeing and even handling these things, as they kept company with their Lord from the beginning, in the days before the Spirit was given.
Which beginning? One writer rules out the widest sense.
"That which was from the beginning" does not mean the beginning of creation, as in Genesis 1 and John 1. It means the beginning of the revelation that has reached us in the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. Anyone who doubts this can turn to John 15:27.
The beginning here is the disciples' first days with Jesus. Their witness covers all of it, not only its climax.
So they were called to bear witness of Him — "because you have been with Me from the beginning." It was not only the great display at the end. The truth was there from the beginning; grace and truth were always in Him.
Their time with Him from the start left something behind. It is why we can read their account today.
The Lord had chosen the twelve as His disciples, but also as His witnesses. He said, "You also will bear witness, because you have been with Me from the beginning" (John 15:27). Men who had been witnesses from the beginning wrote Matthew's Gospel and John's Gospel.
The verse sits inside a chapter about the world's hatred. To be a witness is to step into the line of fire. One writer separates two kinds of hatred: what a disciple meets, and what a witness meets.
They were now entering the path of testimony, which always involves suffering… The hatred of the world and the love of Christ press them so much the more together. But there is also the hatred that comes upon them in testifying, not as disciples so much as witnesses. They witnessed of what they had known of Christ here, and of what the Spirit taught them of Christ on high. The result would be: "They will put you out of the synagogues."
We were not there. The disciples had a qualification no one can repeat. Yet the verse still reaches us in two ways. First, the subject of the testimony has moved:
They bore witness to Him in the days of His flesh, but after Pentecost they were called to testify of Him in glory. This is where we all come in. As a qualification for their work, they had to be with the Lord when He was here… But as witnesses to Christ glorified we are all brought in.
Second, one condition has not changed. Being with Christ still stands behind any witness.
It is true that we have not been with Jesus in the literal way the disciples were. They kept company with Him from the beginning of His ministry. Still, it remains true in a moral sense: if we are to bear witness for Christ before men, we too must be with Christ in secret. When the Holy Spirit had come, Peter and John bore a striking witness to Christ before the persecuting religious world. It was so striking that their persecutors "recognized that they had been with Jesus" (Acts 4:13).
- Two witnesses. The Spirit testifies of Christ in heaven; the disciples testify of Christ on earth. One Christ, two vantage points.
- Qualified by company. Their credential was time spent with Him — they had heard, seen and handled what they reported.
- Empowered by the Spirit. They bore their witness through the Holy Spirit. His perfect testimony did not replace theirs; it carried it.
- Written down. That eyewitness testimony is why we have the Gospel accounts.
- Costly, and still ours. Witnessing puts you on the path of suffering. The qualification still stands: be with Christ in secret, and people will see it.