And if also I judge, my judgment is true, because I am not alone, but I and the Father who has sent me.
Jesus has just told the Pharisees that they judge by human standards, while He judges no one. Yet He adds that if He did judge, His verdict would stand — and His reason is not His own authority, but that He is not alone.
He came for a purpose other than judging. Yet His presence exposed everyone who came near Him.
Again, He says, "I judge no one. Yet even if I do judge, my judgment is true" (John 8:15-16). The purpose of His mission was not judgment but salvation. Yet the effect of His life was judgment on everyone He met. No one could stand in the light of Christ's moral glory and escape judgment at the very center and source of his being. When Peter saw himself in that light, he exclaimed, "Depart from me for I am a sinful man, O Lord" (Luke 5).
His refusal to judge was not weakness or inability. It was deliberate, and it had a motive.
Notice that our Lord does not rest here on His divine authority or nature, but on His witness. He was able to bear that witness because of His closeness to God, even the Father, from whom He came and to whom He went. He spoke as a faithful witness, a witness of the truth, and He was the Truth. He knew, and they did not; yet they judged, and He did not. But that was love, because He came as a witness and a Saviour, not a judge. Yet, if He had judged, His judgment was true. Notice again: not simply because He was God. That is not the point put forward here. It is because He, the Son, Jesus, was not alone. Even so, He did have the ability to judge: "I and the Father who sent me."
Saying "I judge no one" and "my judgment is true" in two sentences looks like a contradiction. It holds together because of who He is one with, and because of a day still to come.
In the case of the woman the Lord had refused the place of Judge. It will be His in a coming day, but not today; and He refuses it again in front of the Pharisees in verse 15. Yet even while refusing it, His words sound like a paradox. He states that His judgments are true, because He is so completely one with the Father who had sent Him. In the age to come all judgment will be His, yet He will carry it out in full accord with the Father.
What drove their judging is also what made them unable to bear Him.
Self is the source and object of all the activity of the flesh, according to which the Jews were judging. Christ brought love as well as light into the world. He was judging none; He was serving all. This made Him intolerable to the self-complacent. Yet He is to be the Judge of all... "Yet even if I do judge, my judgment is true, for it is not I alone who judge, but I and the Father who sent me." Everyone accepted the principle that two or three witnesses settle every word. The Lord appeals to that here, pointing out that their own law counts the witness of two men as true (verse 17). How much more, then, the testimony of the Father and the Son!
Others put the same contrast in terms of what each side was capable of. They had no power to see beyond the visible.
They would judge matters only by their natural senses, which could never discern the things of God. He Himself, however, though the Light of the world, judged no man: He had come to save, not to judge. In the future of course He will judge. If and when He judges, His judgment is absolutely in truth, for He judges in perfect co-ordination with the Father, not independently.
Not being alone is more than a legal point here. It describes how the Son lived all the way through.
Not only was His witness true, but His judgment was true, a judgment in which He was not alone, for the Father was with Him in it. How different their judgments in the flesh! The Father is His constant companion; He is not alone (John 8:29; John 16:32). He always has the joy and support of the Father's company. What a thing for our hearts to dwell on: the joy of divine Persons who are the source of the eternal life that is ours to enjoy, and who make it known. The Father is with Him, and He makes the Father known — and that is the proof that His word is true.
- Mission — His mission was salvation, not judgment; that is why He refused the place of judge in the case of the woman.
- Effect — Still, no one could stand in the light of His moral glory and escape judgment at the very centre of his being.
- Ground — His judgment is true, and not simply because He is God. That is not the point here. It is true because He is not alone: the Father who sent Him is in it with Him.
- Contrast — the Jews judged out of self, the source and object of all the activity of the flesh; He judged none and served all.
- Coming day — the place He refused then will be His in the age to come, and even then He will judge in full accord with the Father.
And in your law too it is written that the testimony of two men is true
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
I am [one] who bear witness concerning myself, and the Father who has sent me bears witness concerning me.
The Pharisees had just told Jesus that no one can trust a man who testifies about himself. He answers by naming two witnesses — Himself, and the Father who sent Him — and so meets their own legal standard for evidence.
The objection was not random. His opponents had picked up something He Himself had said in an earlier dispute and threw it back at Him.
They turn His own words in John 5:31 against Himself, but most unfairly. There He was speaking of testimony that stands alone and is merely human — the kind vanity gives itself. Here, as He goes on to show, He has the highest support of all: God Himself.
One question settles the tension between the two statements: did He ever stand alone?
Earlier He had said that if He bore witness of Himself, His witness was not true — that is, not valid (John 5:31). Now He insists that in doing this, His witness is true. The answer is not hard. If He were only a witness independent of the Father, His witness would carry no weight. But in fact His witness was not simply "of Himself" — not an independent witness. It was in total unity with the Father, from whom He had come and to whom He was going.
The rule He quotes is a rule about how evidence reaches other people, not about whether a fact is real.
The testimony of one man might be true — absolutely; just as true in itself as that of two. But it would not be true in the same way to others: it would need confirmation. The Lord appeals therefore to another testimony — His Father's. This confirmed His own so fully that no more testimony could be needed.
He satisfies their standard, and in doing so overwhelms it.
Everyone accepted the rule that two or three witnesses settle every matter. The Lord appeals to it here: "And in your law too it is written that the witness of two men is true" (verse 17). How much more, then, the testimony of the Father and the Son!
The Father's testimony was not just an idea. He had already spoken aloud, and would speak again.
Speaking of the Father led on to the double testimony to the Lord, following the principle laid down in the law. Did they want two witnesses about Him? He would supply them. They were Himself and His Father… That had already happened at His baptism by John, the son of Zacharias (Matthew 3:17). On the mountain where He was transfigured, the same testimony came a second time (Matthew 17:5). And the Father's voice would be heard again (John 12:28).
Other writers see that witness running through everything Jesus said and did.
The Father Who had sent Him supported His witness, bearing witness to Him in the words and works of the Lord.
Notice what the sentence assumes about the Speaker. No servant of God had ever set himself beside the Father as a matching witness.
Had anyone ever claimed to know the Father? Could a mere son of man join himself with the Father like this, with no thought of sin or of an offering for sin? No — the One who speaks this way, though truly Man, is greater than man… See what man's wickedness and Satan's hatred brought about! The holy covering is torn away, and the divine Person shines out!
They answered by asking where His Father was — and the question condemned them.
"They said to Him then, Where is Your Father? Jesus answered, You know neither Me nor My Father. If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also" (verse 19). Such ignorance of the only true God and of Jesus Whom He sent is death — eternal death. It is all the more solemn because He said it not to pagans, but to Jews who had the words of God… Their words and actions showed that they were completely cut off from the Father and did not know Him.
- Two. Their own law asked for two witnesses; He answers with two — Himself and the Father who sent Him.
- Valid. One man's word can be true and still need confirming to others. So He calls in a second witness.
- Confirmed. The Father spoke aloud at the baptism and on the mountain, and would speak again. Writers also see that witness in the Lord's words and works.
- Greater. No mere man could set himself beside the Father as an equal witness; the claim itself shows who is speaking.
- Blind. Their reply, "Where is your Father?", proved they knew neither Witness. Knowing the Father starts with knowing the Son.