Think not that I will accuse you to the Father there is [one] who accuses you, Moses, on whom ye trust;
Jesus is speaking to men who trusted the law and rejected His claims. He tells them He will not be the one to bring charges against them before the Father. The accuser they must fear is the very figure they had built their confidence on — Moses, the man who gave them the law.
Jesus refuses the role of accuser. One writer ties this to how He lived among men: He sought His Father's honour, not His own.
He did not receive testimony from men. It was with the Father He had to do, whose honour He bore. However, He would not accuse them to Him. That would have been seeking His own honour, at their expense. But it was the reception of Him as bearing His Father's honour that tried their moral character. But that in which they trusted and boasted, being of God, would be their ruin or their accusation — even Moses, for it was his business to bear witness of Jesus.
He showed the same grace to a guilty woman in the temple.
What wonderful grace! Christ did not come to accuse, nor condemn. He said to the poor trespasser in the temple, "Neither do I condemn you." Moses accused her, and his law condemned her, but Jesus came to save.
Moses had stood between God and the nation as the go-between of the law. That very office turns against them. The law he mediated exposed sin but could not repair it.
This is the law as given the second time, after the people had made the golden calf. It is not pure law. It is law modified and tempered by mercy, to give man, having failed, a means of self-recovery — if self-recovery were possible. But it was not possible for them, and is not possible for any. The mediator of this law was Moses, not Christ. The law was so useless that its own mediator must become the accuser of the people.
Their mistake was not respecting Moses too much. It was where they chose to stand.
Again Moses, instead of defending them, becomes their accuser and judge. It is always dangerous for a sinner to take his stand on the law. The law can only expose and condemn him. It has no power to pardon and forgive.
Their history with Moses did not match their claim to follow him.
Despite their boasted reverence for Moses, the people of Israel never really received him as God's messenger. They rejected him in Egypt, and later grumbled against him again and again. But when Jesus came — the true and faithful witness, the true light — the Jews used Moses' claims to reject His own. This is one of the marks of the evil heart and twisted will of man. He constantly refuses to own the rights of God. Despisers of His grace in Christ, they pretend to own His rights in the law, and use the law to reject Christ. But Jesus would not accept their pretended submission to Moses. Had they believed Moses, they would have believed Him, for Moses wrote of Him. The veil was on their hearts when they read Moses.
The same trust is alive today. One writer names what lies underneath it.
The law, as 2 Corinthians 3 tells us, was a ministry of condemnation and death. Sinful flesh cannot meet its righteous requirements. Yet men love the Moses principle! Peter's words in Acts 15:21 are as true as ever: in every city there are those who preach Moses. Everywhere people preach works as the ground of blessing before God. Confidence in Moses is really confidence in self. Men cling to the notion that flesh holds some good in it, if only it gets a fair chance.
Moses stands in contrast to Christ, and one word marks the difference.
After Israel's dreadful sin with the golden calf, we hear him say, "Now I will go up to the Lord; perhaps I can make atonement for your sin." No such uncertain words ever rested on the Saviour's lips. He first made complete atonement for His people's guilt, and then went up on high in the power of it.
- Trust decides. Whatever you set your hope on will speak at the judgment. For these men, the one they trusted became their accuser.
- Moses accuses. The mediator of the law had no power to recover them, so his office turned into a charge against them.
- Christ declines. He will not accuse them to the Father; that would be seeking His own honour, and He came to save, not to condemn.
- Self, not Moses. Confidence in law is confidence in self — the idea that flesh has some good in it if given a fair chance.
- Certainty replaces "perhaps." Moses could only hope he might make atonement. Christ made it in full, then went up on high in the power of it.
for if ye had believed Moses, ye would have believed me, for he wrote of me.
Jesus is speaking to men who prized Moses above everyone else and who had just refused Him. He tells them that Moses himself wrote about Him, so their confidence in Moses and their rejection of Him cannot stand together.
They were resting their case on Moses. One writer shows why that case collapses: the law Moses gave could not save anyone.
The mediator of the law was Moses, not Christ. The law was so completely unable to help that its own mediator must become the accuser of the people. "There is one who accuses you: Moses, on whom you have set your hope," says the Lord to Israel.
The obvious question is where in the five books Moses spoke of Christ. Commentators point to Moses' promise of a coming Prophet — and note that the New Testament itself identifies who that Prophet is.
There is one special prediction of the lawgiver. He foretold the coming of a Prophet like himself, to whom they were to listen. Both Peter (Acts 3:22-23) and Stephen (Acts 7:37) quote it... Refusing, then, to listen to Christ, they were guilty of direct disobedience to Moses. The lawgiver would be their accuser. The professed disciples of Moses, so sure they were guarding his honour, would find themselves accused before God by him!
Others read the reference more widely than one prophecy. > Moses wrote of Christ in many ways, in pictures and in prophecy, as the true and full answer to Israel's needs.
Christ gives Moses' writings a weight beyond His own spoken words. The Jews never doubted those writings — and one writer shows why that was still not faith.
Here the Son Himself gives the writings of Moses a place in testimony beyond His own words. This is not because the servant approached the Master, but because Scripture has a permanence in testimony that can belong only to the written word... Had the Jews believed Moses, they would have believed Christ. These words teach us that faith is no idle exercise, as some would make it. The Jews in no way questioned his writings; they received them as Divine. But not to doubt is far from believing. In none of his books did they see the great object of testimony in all of them: Jesus the Messiah, a man, yet far more than man, a Divine Saviour of sinners and Sacrifice for sins, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.
The Lord links His own words to the writings of Moses. One writer takes that straight into the modern argument over who wrote the first five books of the Bible.
If men refuse the earlier testimony through the servant, they will not receive the Son, when He speaks. And so indeed it is. The men today, who disbelieve the books of Moses and even deny his authorship, do not believe the words of Jesus. This is perfectly clear, since He endorses here the very thing they deny. We must make our choice between the rationalistic critics and Christ. They have stepped into the shoes of His Jewish opponents: that is all.
The phrase itself carries further weight, and it bears on how the five books hold together.
This scripture — "he wrote of Me" — shows a unity of purpose in the writings of Moses. It also shows a prophetic outlook into the future that could be nothing short of divine inspiration. However many "documents" Moses may have used in putting the Pentateuch together, all of them serve one dominant purpose: testimony to Christ.
Their unbelief cost them more than a right opinion about old books. One writer describes the loss in the language of Egypt.
His brothers should have understood that God would deliver them by His hand. But they did not understand. They did not believe Moses, and so were, in principle, still in Egypt, still in the flesh, still unredeemed. Had they believed Moses they would have believed Christ. He would have led them out, as at this time, from under the hand of Pharaoh — the power of the flesh and the world.
- Trust — they leaned on Moses, and the support gave way. The mediator of a law that could not rescue had to become their accuser.
- Testimony — Moses promised a Prophet like himself. Refusing Christ was not loyalty to Moses but direct disobedience to him.
- Test — accepting the writings as divine is not yet faith. They never doubted Moses, yet they missed the Person all his books point to.
- Two voices — Christ ties His own words to Moses' writings. Denying Moses' books means siding against the One who endorsed them.
- Result — unbelief left them, in principle, still in Egypt and unredeemed, while the true Deliverer stood in front of them.
But if ye do not believe his writings, how shall ye believe my words?
Jesus ends this exchange with a question, not a claim. He is speaking to religious leaders who prized the books of Moses. If those writings could not win their faith, what hope was there that His spoken words would?
The verse belongs to a reversal. The men who assumed Moses was on their side are told he stands against them, and the reason is that his writings point to Christ.
The Lord Jesus had not come as their adversary, to accuse them. Their actual accuser was Moses, of whom they claimed to be disciples. Moses was of course the lawgiver, and the very law he gave was their condemnation — and they could not see it. But Moses wrote of Christ in many ways, in pictures and in prophecy, as the true and full answer to Israel's needs. Moses' writings and Christ's words were perfectly in agreement. So they did not believe Christ's words because they had not believed Moses' writings.
Others add a caution about where a sinner takes his stand:
Moses becomes their accuser and judge instead of their defender. "There is one who accuses you: Moses, on whom you have set your hope" (John 5:45). It is always dangerous for a sinner to take his stand on the law. The law can only expose and condemn him. It has no power to pardon and forgive.
The leaders knew Moses' words well. What they missed was who those words were about.
The importance of the Old Testament Scriptures lies in the fact that they speak of Christ. "It is they that bear witness about me," our Lord told the religious leaders of His day. That statement carries enormous weight. They failed to grasp the meaning of what they read. They boasted in their knowledge of Moses' words. Pride and self-importance marked their approach to God. Yet they failed to see that Moses wrote of Christ.
Notice the direction of the argument. Jesus does not put His own spoken words first. He treats the written record of Moses as the greater test.
The Lord closes the discourse by bearing striking witness to the importance and value of the writings of Moses. He gives greater value to the form of Moses' communications than to the form of His own. Moses' communications were written; His were spoken. The writings of Moses and the Lord's words had the same divine authority. But inspired writing has a greater lasting value than inspired words spoken aloud.
This answers a wish many readers have — to have heard Him in person:
Let no one make light of the word out of ignorance, or think that because His word is written it is not He Himself speaking to us. What difference does the writing make? What difference there is, is in our favour. Suppose we could hear the Lord speaking to us in person, without His word in permanent written form. Would we gain? No — beyond doubt we would lose. And that is why our Lord in John 5 puts the Scripture, as a weapon to use with others, above His own words.
Jesus says Moses wrote these books, and that they speak of Him. So doubts about who wrote them land on Jesus Himself.
The way the Lord linked His words with Moses' writings is very striking. If men refuse the earlier testimony given through the servant, they will not receive the Son when He speaks. The men today who disbelieve the books of Moses, and even deny that he wrote them, do not believe the words of Jesus. This is perfectly clear, since He endorses here the very thing they deny. We must make our choice. As the love of God is in us, and as the glory of man fades in our eyes, we shall accept and believe the Holy Writings. They will lead us in faith to Christ.
The warning reaches past five books. Take away the base, and the top comes down too.
What does the Lord Himself say? He says, "If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead" (Luke 16:31). That is the power of Moses and the prophets. And again Jesus said, "If you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words?" So Satan knows what he is doing. Let him remove the foundation in these books of Moses, and he is in fact removing the very Word — or part of the Word — that we do prize. He is removing the New Testament itself.
- Written — Jesus set Moses' writings above His own spoken words: what is written stays, and we can return to it again and again.
- Wrote of Christ — their value is their subject; the men who knew the text best missed the Person it was pointing to.
- Weighed against Him — the Moses they trusted became their accuser; the law they leaned on could only condemn.
- Warning — refuse the earlier writings, and you will not receive the later words. Deny that Moses wrote of Christ, and you contradict Christ Himself.
- Welcome — as love for God grows and human reputation loses its shine, we receive the writings, and they lead us to Christ.