[and] what he has seen and has heard, this he testifies; and no one receives his testimony.
John the Baptist has just said that the One who comes from heaven is above all. Now he says what that Person does. He reports heaven itself. The verse ends with a verdict so bleak it has puzzled readers ever since — the perfect Witness meets an empty room.
Prophets before Him spoke of things still to come. The One from heaven speaks of what is already there.
John came from the earth. He was earthly in character, and spoke only of earthly things — the Messiah and His earthly kingdom. The One who comes from heaven speaks of heavenly things which He has seen and heard. A prophet like John is limited to earthly things. Even those are things still to come, which do not yet exist on earth. Christ, on the contrary, speaks of actual things which exist in heaven.
That difference is not one of degree but of source. A prophet delivered a message handed to him; Christ describes the place He came from.
Christ came from heaven, and spoke of what He Himself had seen and heard, not as a prophet — whether of future things, recalling the law of Moses, the servant of God, or of a Messiah to come, even upon the earth. No, Jesus spoke of the actual things which existed there, where He had come from. No one received His testimony, for these were heavenly things, things which existed in God's presence, of which He spoke: man did not understand them, and did not want them.
Nothing was lacking in the witness. That is what makes the closing words so heavy.
His testimony is perfect. What was there of God, of the Father, and this in heaven, that the Son had not seen and heard? There could be no defect in the glory He came from, or in the grace with which He made it all known to man. How crushing, then, is the sad result! ... But this is man's state through sin. It is not only the savage and the brutal. It is not only the idolater or the sceptic. It is also those who pride themselves on their religion — theory or practice, ordinances or tradition, effort, ecstasy, or experience. Of them all: "no one receives His testimony." Grace did open some hearts, here and there, now and then. But the point noted here is man's rejection of His testimony, not what sovereign mercy held in reserve when all was lost in sin and ruin.
The problem is not that the message was unclear. It is that the human heart has no appetite for its subject.
Put man as man in front of Christ Himself, telling these heavenly things, and man's heart will not have one of them. A man would have nothing to do with them. Put a natural man in heaven, and he would get out as fast as he could. He would not find a single thing there that he likes.
Receiving this witness costs something that mere agreement with evidence never costs.
So His testimony puts the heart fully to the test. It tells the truth about the sinner as plainly as it announces the grace of God. The heart resists the one and distrusts the other. The last thing a person submits to is to think badly of himself and well of God. But this is just the effect of receiving the testimony of Christ. We then begin to take God's side against ourselves.
Kelly draws the contrast with the crowd of John 2, who believed after seeing signs but were not trusted by Jesus — a faith "merely of the mind drawing a conclusion from the probabilities of the case."
Earlier in this chapter, verse 26 reports crowds coming to Jesus. Verse 32 seems to say the opposite.
Some have set "no one receives His testimony" against verse 26. But in verse 26 we meet with exaggerated enthusiasm.
The very next verse speaks of people who do receive the testimony.
Man was in such darkness, under the influence of the god of this world, that he refused the word spoken by the One whom God had sent. Even though the Son was rejected, it could still be said, "Whoever receives His testimony sets his seal to this, that God is true." Left to themselves, no one would have received the testimony of the Son. But God, in sovereign goodness, prepared a remnant to accept the wonderful news of the Son. And there are still those whom the Father draws to the Son to accept His testimony.
- Source. He does not pass on a message about heaven. He reports what He has seen and heard there — things that already exist in God's presence.
- Perfection. Nothing was missing in the witness — no defect in the glory He came from, and none in the grace with which He told it.
- Refusal. The failure is on man's side. Heaven holds nothing the natural heart wants. Religious people are as unwilling as anyone else.
- Test. This testimony tests people. Receiving it means thinking badly of yourself and well of God. That is not the same as being convinced by evidence.
- Exception. Some do receive it. Writers credit that to the Father drawing them to the Son, not to anything better in them.
He that has received his testimony has set to his seal that God is true;
The verse sits right after a bleak line: no one receives His testimony. So who is the exception, and what is a person doing when he sets his seal to God's word?
Read straight through, verse 32 and verse 33 look like they cancel each other out. One writer shows why they do not: one line describes man by nature, the other what God's Spirit produces.
The opening words of verse 33 appear to contradict the closing words of verse 32. But the contradiction is only in the wording. It rests on one of those general statements that appear so often in John's writings. Man in his natural condition is wholly dead and unresponsive to the divine testimony. That is the general statement at the close of verse 32. But God works by His Spirit in the hearts of some. So in practice we do find people who receive the testimony, and in doing so they set their seal that God is true. At the beginning the devil attacked the testimony God gave to Adam, and so sin came in. Faith vindicates the truth of the testimony, and so life and salvation are brought in.
Why do men turn it down? One writer points to what the testimony is about.
This testimony about heavenly things — things that exist in the presence of God — has no interest for men who neither understand nor want the things of heaven. No one, left to himself, receives the testimony of Christ. Faith alone can receive it. The one who receives the testimony does so on the authority of God; he sets his seal that God is true.
So what does the seal certify? One reference work names what the believer credits: what God says about man, and what God says about His salvation.
The believer credits what God says about man and what God says about His salvation. In doing so he attaches his seal — he vouches for the fact — that God is true.
Signing is not a formality. It commits the one who signs.
But the one who did receive His testimony was, by that act, fixing his seal to the fact that God is true. He had committed himself to this stand of confidence in Him.
So what makes faith real faith? Not the strength of the case, but the One who speaks.
This is the essential character of real, living faith. We receive His testimony because He gives it. Nothing is simpler — but we are not simple. Nothing is more right, or more due to Him — but we have been all wrong, and most wrong toward Him. We receive it because He says it, not because it seems reasonable, or wise, or good, or because of evidence of any kind... A divine testimony calls for a divine faith. Faith grounded on human motives is not divine. Only faith founded on God's word truly searches heart and conscience.
That has a sharp consequence. If I need someone else to guarantee God's word before I will trust it, my confidence is in the guarantor, not in God.
To receive the word of God on someone else's authority is to reject God's testimony. If I accept another person's account because you have put your name to it, that shows I do not believe the one who gave the account... To be saving, it must be faith in God, and "Whoever receives His testimony sets his seal to this, that God is true." The man who demands the church's authority before he will receive it has not done so.
There is no neutral verdict on a witness. Refusing the testimony is itself a judgment about the God who gave it.
As John 3:33 puts it, whoever receives His testimony sets his seal to this, that God is true. But the one who does not believe God carries the dreadful guilt of making Him a liar.
This is where assurance comes from. Taking God at His word is not presumption — it is repeating what God Himself has said.
For instance, I am a sinner — so how can I get into the Father's house? Because God has said, "I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more." Well, God is true, and He will not remember them. Do you say I am presumptuous to say so? I do not say it; God says it... So when the power of the Spirit brings the word home, I have certainty.
- Testimony. Left to himself, no one receives Christ's testimony: man by nature is dead to it.
- Signature. To receive it is to attach your seal — to vouch, with your own name, that God is true.
- Authority. The seal counts only when you take the word because God said it — not because it sounds reasonable, and not because someone else vouched for it.
- Alternative. The one who refuses does not stay neutral; he charges God with lying.
- Certainty. When the Spirit brings God's word home, certainty follows: it rests on God's truthfulness, not on ours.
for he whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for God gives not the Spirit by measure.
This verse gives the reason to trust what Jesus says: God sent Him, and God gives the Spirit without limit. Two questions follow — what makes His words unlike every prophet's before Him, and whether "without measure" is said only of Christ.
Three things stand together here, and each one is divine:
The believer has solid ground for receiving this testimony on God's authority. A Person sent by God brings a divine message, in the power of a divine Person. God sent Christ to speak God's word, in the power of the Spirit of God.
The phrase "the words of God" rules out the idea that Jesus was passing on insight that rose up from a human mind:
The whole of the New Testament presents the testimony of Christ as a testimony that comes straight from God. It is not the thoughts or longings of the human heart, but God's words. They are the words of One who could tell what was in heaven, while man was only dimly reaching after it, because He came down from heaven and spoke what He had seen, heard, and known there.
A testimony from God calls for a faith that rests on God, not on human reasons:
A divine testimony calls for a divine faith. Faith built on human motives is not divine. Only faith that rests on God's word truly searches the heart and conscience.
This stands against everything that came before. Earlier messengers each carried a portion. The Son carries the whole:
In earlier times God's messages came in pieces. Now He was not giving His Spirit by measure. Here was the Son Himself, the Beloved of the Father, and this love had put all things into His hand. So His words make known the full heart of God.
Set that beside the whole history of God speaking:
God had been giving testimony ever since He spoke to Adam about the trees of the Garden. Now it was reaching its climax in this One whom God had sent. He knew the heavenly things He spoke of by seeing them, He said them in "the words of God," and He had the Spirit without any measure or limit. So at last there was a testimony of infinite range and incomparable fullness.
The name "Christ" itself says the same thing. One writer draws it out of the fine flour and the oil:
We get the fine flour, the oil, and the frankincense on it — the perfect sweet aroma of His life to God. Not the aroma of the sacrifice, but the whole of His life, His words and works, a sinless Man passing through this world. All He said and did was by the Holy Spirit. He was the Anointed Man, which is what the name Messiah or Christ means.
Commentators differ here. Older English Bibles put the words "unto Him" in italics, to show that the translators added them. Some writers read the second half of the verse as a word about how God gives the Spirit at all:
You will note that "unto Him" is in italics. It was of course true of our Lord, but not only of Him. It marks the character of the order the Son of God brought in: those who are to share in it will also receive the Spirit. In Old Testament days God gave a servant a measure of spiritual power to do some work for Him, but He gave no one in that day the indwelling of the Spirit.
Others apply it first to Christ, yet hold the principle to be absolute, and press it against the idea that a Christian has only a portion of the Spirit:
The direct application of it is to Christ. I believe the principle to be absolute. When God gives His Spirit, He does not give Him by measure. He has given Him now, because Christ has ascended, and the Spirit is here. It is not a question of measure, but the presence of a Person who distributes, who unites, who leads, who bears witness.
This gift does not stand alone. It opens straight into the next verse, where the Father's love is named:
We have come to this great point: God does not give the Spirit by measure to His Son. Now another immense truth opens that was closed until now — "The Father loves the Son." Jesus revealed the Father, and the Spirit given fully proved Him to be the Son whom God loved. This is the blessed and glorious truth which shines on the whole and crowns it.
- Sent. The weight of the message rests on the Sender. God sent the Person, gave the message, and supplied the power.
- Spoken. His words were not human longing reaching up. They were God's own words, brought down by One who had seen heaven.
- Unmeasured. Earlier messages came in pieces. The Son has the Spirit without limit, so His testimony has infinite range and fullness.
- Anointed. The Spirit without measure marks Him as the Anointed Man. That is what the name Christ means. His every word and work was done in the Spirit's power.
- Crowned. Commentators differ on one point: does "without measure" describe only Christ, or also those who share in what the Son brought in? They agree on the crown of it — the gift proves the Father's love for the Son.
The Father loves the Son, and has given all things [to be] in his hand.
This verse closes John 3 by naming two things about Jesus: the Father's love for Him, and everything placed in His hand. Both stand behind all the Son does with people.
The verse marks a change of voice. One writer holds that John the Baptist's testimony ends with verse 34. Verse 35 comes from the Gospel writer:
The Baptist's testimony closes, without doubt, with verse 34. The Gospel writer then, guided by the Spirit of God, says, "The Father loves the Son and has given all things into His hand" (v. 35). The Lord Himself, in Matthew's Gospel, speaks in the same way — "All things have been handed over to Me by My Father" (11:27; see also Luke 10:22). But it was John, the disciple whom Jesus loved, who received the commission to reveal the Father's delight in the Son as the origin and source of the gift.
The chapter has already called Him bridegroom and heavenly witness. This verse goes higher.
He is "the Son," the special object of divine affection and honour. Here we rise far above His position either as the Messiah, the Bridegroom on the one hand, or the heavenly prophet on the other... Jesus is the Heir of all things. He is the Son of the Father in a way that belongs to Him alone — the true Isaac who remains for ever, the beloved Son who has all that He Himself has, and who has all given to be in His (the Son's) hand.
Why "all things"? Because the size of the gift shows the size of the love — and because only a divine Person could receive such a trust.
"The Father loves the Son;" for divine, infinite, unchanging, eternal love has always existed and must always exist between the Father and the Son... and to show the perfection of the love, He adds, "and has given all things into His hand." This shows us the Deity of the Son, who was able to receive all things into His hands, as no creature could do. It also shows the perfection of the Father's love, which held nothing back in giving everything into His hands. What other object could satisfy the Father's heart? Here we have perfect love in power — giving all things into His hands.
One writer sets this verse beside a later word of Jesus about what belongs to the Father.
John 16:15 gives our Lord pre-eminence from His own lips. Not of Person or relationship, which are both eternal, but of possessions. "All things that the Father has are Mine." Placing beside this the words of John 3:35, we get a most precious distinction. "The Father loves the Son and has given all things into His hand." If all things are given to Him as in Manhood, the same "all things" are HIS OWN as in Godhead.
The Bible describes the Son's place over all things in more than one way.
The Son created all things (John 1:3). All things were His, both as creator and as one with the Father. But as Man He received all things into His hand. The Father showed Him all things (John 5:20), and He had heard all things from the Father (John 15:15). Hebrews 2:8 puts all things under the feet of Jesus as Son of Man. In Ephesians 1, as the Man of God's purpose, all things are not only under His feet, but under His headship.
The gift is not only authority. It includes people.
Love confides, and love gives. Nothing is too great for love to bestow on the object of its choice. The Father's heart of infinite love has given all things into the hand of His ever-worthy Son. All things are given to Him, from authority over all flesh on the one hand to His own that are in the world on the other. How His heart was dwelling on His Father's love-gift as He exclaimed, "Yours they were, and You gave them to Me"!
This knowledge shaped what the Son did at supper.
He knew that universal glory and authority and pre-eminence were His; but that in no way altered His own personal lowliness and loveliness... "Jesus knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands," rose from supper, and stooped down, and washed the feet of His disciples. What a sight indeed! One so great and glorious at the feet of His followers!
- Love first. The verse starts with love, not with power. The giving flows from a love between Father and Son that always existed.
- Given without reserve. The Father keeps nothing back. Only a divine Person could receive such a trust; no creature could.
- Given to Him as Man. What the Son receives in manhood is already His own in Godhead. Receiving takes nothing from His glory.
- Given includes us. "All things" reaches from authority over all flesh down to His own people, whom the Father gave Him.
- Given, and He stooped. Knowing everything was in His hands, He rose from supper and washed His disciples' feet — greatness shown by service.
He that believes on the Son has life eternal, and he that is not subject to the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides upon him.
This chapter ends by dividing the whole human race in two. The dividing line is a Person. Everything turns on what a person does with the Son. Commentators press hard on three words: "has," "does not obey," and "remains."
(The writers below quote an older translation, which reads "believes not" where the ESV has "does not obey," and "abides" for "remains.")
The verse offers no middle ground:
Now we come to the result, as far as man is concerned, of the presence and work of Christ on earth, and of the going out of all in gospel testimony… For all it must be either the life or the wrath. The blessing cannot be had without faith in the Person in whom the blessing is.
The reason lies in what the Father has given the Son:
Further, as Son the Father loves Him, and has put all into His hand… He is set up as God's testimony, with God's words from heaven, from where He came… Eternal life and wrath depend on His being believed in or the contrary.
Earlier in the chapter the wording is that the believer should have eternal life. Here the tense changes, and the change matters:
If the word in John 3:15-16 is that the one who believes should have eternal life, it is very definite in John 3:36 of the same chapter that the believer on the Son has eternal life… We do not have to wait until we get to heaven to receive this divine life, or to learn whether it is ours. We have it now, and God's word assures us that we have it now.
What kind of unbelief does the verse mean? One writer answers:
The force of "the wrath of God abides on him" is that he has deserved it, and that if he rejects Christ, he lies under it still… In this last verse of the chapter "the wrath of God abides" if they do not bow to Christ's authority. It is not disobeying Him in the details of a command, or anything of that sort; the "believes not" means "is not subject to" Him.
Submission to Him is where real obedience starts, not where it ends:
Practical obedience flows from submission to His Person, and proves the reality of the heart-subjection of faith.
The change of title in the last clause is deliberate. Wrath is never named as the Father's toward His own:
He that believes not the Son — not obeying Him to whom the Father has given all things — "shall not see life, but the wrath… of God." Not the wrath of the Father. There is no wrath there, not an atom, but perfect fullness of blessing, of love. He is Father, always Father, and nothing but Father in love and perfectness: "the Father loves the Son."
This verse closes two doors. One is the idea that everyone is saved in the end. The other is the idea that the lost stop existing:
This verse entirely sets aside the notion of all being restored and eternally saved… It is quite true they shall not see life; but — tremendous fact! — "the wrath of God abides on him." This, beyond all question, flatly contradicts annihilationism. If the wrath of God is to remain on the unbeliever, it is utterly impossible that he can be made an end of. Annihilation and abiding wrath are completely incompatible. We must either erase the word "abiding" from the inspired page, or abandon the notion of annihilation entirely. To hold both is out of the question.
Yet this wrath is a present condition, and one thing can still change it:
The unbeliever is "judged already." His whole condition is settled by the very fact that he has rejected the Son of God. The wrath of God, instead of His favour, now rests on him and has become his condition. Only one thing reverses it: his coming to terms with the Son of God before it is too late. Otherwise that wrath becomes his fixed and abiding condition for an eternity without end.
Commentators differ over whether verses 35-36 continue John the Baptist's testimony or are the evangelist's own comment. One argues from the content itself:
I think the internal evidence is clear that the testimony of John the Baptist closes with verse 34, and that verses 35 and 36 are the comment of the Evangelist. For John's answer from verse 27, however given of God, does not go beyond the measure of his spiritual knowledge, while the closing verses 35 and 36 reflect the deeper and higher truth which the Lord taught His disciples.
Others hold the words are the Baptist's, and one writer notes that the question does not affect their authority — both men spoke by the same Spirit.
- Person — the verse sorts people by one thing: their response to the Son whom the Father loves and to whom He has given all things.
- Possession — "has" is present tense. The believer holds eternal life now, on the authority of God's word, and does not wait for it in heaven.
- Posture — "does not obey" means refusing to be subject to Him. Real obedience in daily life grows out of that submission and proves it genuine.
- Present wrath — wrath is not only a future warning. It rests on the unbeliever already, and it is God's wrath, never the Father's toward His own.
- Permanence — "remains" rules out both universal salvation and annihilation. Yet the condition can change: a person may still come to terms with the Son before it is too late.