and because I speak the truth, ye do not believe me.
Jesus has just told these listeners who their father is. Now He names the reason they will not believe Him: people usually reject a message because it is false, but here the truth itself is what they cannot accept.
Everything hangs on that one connecting word. One writer points out what the verse does not say:
Notice the force of verse 45: it is not, "although I tell you the truth," but "because I tell the truth, you do not believe me." They had become so used to falsehood that, when truth is presented, it is the very thing they will not believe! A lie would be much easier for them to accept.
Why would truth itself drive people away? Because of what truth does to the world it shines on:
But truth can never be popular in this world. Even philosophers are puzzled that men love lies for the lie's own sake, when lies bring them neither pleasure, as they do the poet, nor profit, as they do the merchant. Truth shows men's follies and hidden motives too clearly, and sheds too broad a light on the play-acting of the world, for the world ever to welcome it… The truth exposes all human over-valuing, self-conceit and false fancies; and things that sparkle and look bright by the world's candlelight lose their shine in the light of day. Men cannot afford this, for it strips the world of its glory and shows it up as a cheap counterfeit.
The verse just before this one described a liar. Jesus is his complete opposite:
Jesus alone among men is the Truth; He is not only God, but the One who reveals God to man. In Him is no sin, nor did He sin, and no deceit was found in His mouth. He was in every respect the plain opposite of the devil, who, whenever he speaks falsehood, speaks out of his own store, because he is a liar and the father of it. Jesus is the truth, and makes it known to those who otherwise cannot know it. "But because I tell the truth, you do not believe me." How terrible, yet how just, is God's judgment of such people!
So unbelief is not a failure of understanding. The words are not hard. The will refuses them:
Why is it that people, then as now, do not understand the Scriptures? Not really because of difficult expressions. It is the truth that grates on the reluctant will of man. This is the source of all unbelief. The will resists, and refuses to face the terrible fact of man's ruin. It is the pride that rejects God's grace and will not bend to its own need of it. So the guilt of unbelief is not that man's understanding is weak. It is that he does not fear God and does not believe His love.
These men were not irreligious. They had a mark of privilege to boast in, and old false impressions die hard:
Experience of human nature tells us that false impressions of a superstitious kind are harder to get rid of than any others. They suit human nature and prop up human nature, whereas the truth is enjoyed spiritually and is foreign to human nature. "But because I tell the truth, you do not believe me." The Jews were circumcised, the Gentiles were not: that was something they could boast in and hold onto, when all its value was gone.
If the will is the barrier, evidence alone will not break through. The same writer holds two things together: man is responsible, and God gives life:
Man is responsible because God has given full and adequate evidence, suited to man (John 5:33-40). But man's will and desires are such that he loves darkness rather than light. And so God's power gives life sovereignly (John 5:21; see John 3:11; 3:32; 8:45). Conscience is the way in for light, and there is no other — except that love draws. God is love as well as light, and reveals Himself in Christ.
- Because, not although. Truth was not the obstacle Jesus overcame; truth was the reason they refused Him. A lie would have gone down more easily.
- Truth exposes. It shows up men's follies and hidden motives. It strips the shine off what the world calls bright, so it can never be popular.
- Truth has a Person. The liar speaks out of his own store. Jesus alone is the Truth, and He makes God known to those who could not otherwise know Him.
- Truth meets the will. Unbelief is not weak understanding. It is a will that grates against the truth, and pride that refuses its own need of grace.
- Truth needs love. Conscience is the only way in for light. But love draws, and God gives life sovereignly, because He is love as well as light.
Which of you convinces me of sin? If I speak truth, why do ye not believe me?
Jesus is speaking to openly hostile critics. He asks them to name one sin in Him, then asks why they refuse His word.
The question would be simple to answer about anyone else.
His challenge to them then is most appropriate. Could any of them convict Him of sin? This would be the easiest thing in regard to any other person. But they can point no finger at any occasion of sin in Him. Then it follows that everything He says is truth.
He could ask it because His life lay open to people who badly wanted to find a fault.
During His three and a half years of ministry the Saviour lived in the fierce glare of hostile criticism. He did not live a withdrawn, strict life as John the Baptist did; the desert was not His home; He moved freely in and out among the people. All the facts of His life were therefore fully known. If His foes could have discovered a single flaw in Him, how it would have delighted their evil hearts! But He was God's holy One. The Passover lamb had to be "without blemish." Only such a lamb could picture One who was holy in nature and stainless in all His ways. In the end His judge had to say he found no guilt in Him. His enemies could only produce the appearance of a charge by paying men to lie in court.
He asked others for what He never once asked for Himself.
Never once did He confess sin; never once asked for pardon, though He required both of all others. For everyone else, coming back humble and repentant, like the prodigal son, was the one road He marked out. It leads to the peace and rest of the Father's forgiveness. Yet He never gave a hint, He never breathed a prayer, that implied that He needed this. He declared plainly that He always did the things that pleased His Father. He had power on earth to forgive sin, but needed no forgiveness Himself.
The unanswered question points past good behaviour to who He is.
Again, His challenge, "Which one of you convicts Me of sin?" remains unanswered — we well know why. But a man without sin in a fallen world is a divine Person.
The second question appeals to what He said, not to who backed Him. In men's eyes He had no standing with any recognised authority.
Even the Lord's appeal in His own case was to the truth He spoke: "If I tell the truth, why do you not believe Me?" When He came forward in the Jewish synagogues, or elsewhere, He was, in men's eyes, only a poor carpenter's son. No school or group of men had approved Him. All the weight of authority was ever against Him. He disclaimed even "receiving testimony from men." God's word alone should speak for God. And how did His teaching prove itself? By the fact that it was truth. Truth was to make its way with those who are true. God will not leave people in ignorance and darkness if they are seeking to do His will.
Put the two questions together and only one explanation survives.
They refuse to believe the Lord who had told them the truth. Why then, if they could not convict Him of error, did they not believe on Him? There can only be one answer: the one who refuses to believe in Jesus is not of God, for he that is of God hears His words.
The questions were meant to expose them, and they did. Their charges against Him rebounded onto themselves.
Finally, the Lord goes on to challenge them, to lay bare their groundless malice... He was the Holy One, no less than the Truth, and surely both go together... Instead of convicting Christ of sin, they were themselves slaves of sin. Instead of speaking truth, they rejected Him who is the Truth. Instead of hearing the words of God, they hated Him who spoke them.
Earlier in the same chapter He had spoken to a woman caught in adultery.
Never was a person so accessible, such a Minister of good, and at the same time so holy, so absolutely apart from sin. Even to His enemies He could say, "Which one of you convicts Me of sin?" Almost in the same breath He said to the convicted sinner, "Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more."
- Challenge. He invited His enemies to name one sin, and no one answered — a question anyone else on earth would have lost.
- Evidence. He lived in full public view under hostile watch. His accusers had every motive to find a fault, and even His judge found none.
- Person. A man without sin in a fallen world is a divine Person; He asked others to confess sin, but never confessed any Himself.
- Consequence. If no one can convict Him of sin, His words must be true. Unbelief is left with no argument, only exposure.
- Grace. The same lips that could face down every accuser said to a guilty woman, "Neither do I condemn you."
He that is of God hears the words of God therefore ye hear [them] not, because ye are not of God.
Jesus is deep in a bitter argument with His opponents. He closes it by tracing their unbelief to its source: where a person comes from decides what he can hear. The verse raises a hard question — is hearing God's word the proof of belonging to God, or the cause of it?
The force of the verse rests on one claim inside it. The words Jesus speaks are God's own words, not a man's ideas about God.
The whole of the New Testament presents the testimony of Christ as a testimony that is directly divine. 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. He could tell it because He came down from heaven, and spoke what He had seen, heard, and known there.
That claim is not a threat but a gift:
From verse 11 to the end, it is wonderful to see these evil men arguing with Jesus. They drive Him into a corner, as it were, and force Him to tell them what He is... He lets them know that "Whoever is of God hears the words of God." God's words! What infinite grace! A person speaking God's words among men.
The verb is not about sound reaching the ear. It means taking the words for what they are.
"Whoever is of God hears the words of God" — recognises and receives them, pays attention to them, as such. "The reason why you do not hear them is that you are not of God." Our Lord knew this. He knew His words were of God — otherwise He would not be true at all.
The Lord's statement is not an insult thrown in anger. It is a principle so obvious that His hearers had no reply, only resentment.
Nothing is harder for a man to admit than evil in himself. Nothing offends him more than another man saying evil of him and leaving him no way out. So it was now with the Jews whom the Lord denied to be of God, since they did not hear His words... For the ground taken was beyond dispute. Who could doubt that whoever is of God hears the words of God? How solemn, then! One who spoke as no one ever did declared with holy calmness that they did not hear because they were not of God. Conscience might wince, but refused to bow.
The same writer sets out what these men did instead, and where it left them:
Instead of proving Christ guilty of sin, they were themselves slaves of sin; instead of speaking truth, they rejected Him who is the Truth; instead of hearing the words of God, they hated Him who spoke them, because they were not of God but of the devil... To be not of God is to be wholly without good, and left in evil, exposed to its consequences. That is the judgment of Him who will not, cannot, change in His hatred of it.
Their problem was never a shortage of intelligence or education. One writer locates it in the will.
The ability to receive and understand the divine Word lies in the willingness to understand it in order to do it. Our Lord says: "If anyone's will is to do God's will, he will know whether the teaching is from God or whether I am speaking on my own authority." He also says: "Why do you not understand what I say? It is because you cannot bear to hear my word," and "Whoever is of God hears the words of God; the reason why you do not hear them is that you are not of God" (John 7:17; 8:43, 47).
This reverses the usual order of learning:
Notice here that understanding the meaning of the word is the way to grasp the force of the words. One does not learn the definitions of words and then the things; one learns the things, and then the meaning of the words is clear.
Jesus is no longer here in person. So how does the test work now? One writer traces it forward:
When the Lord was on earth, those who were of God showed it by hearing Him with the hearing of faith. When the Apostles were here, those who were of God showed it by hearing them with the hearing of faith. Now that they are gone, we have the Apostolic writings, the inspired Scriptures. Those who are of God show it by hearing them with the hearing of faith... An earthly king may speak in person. He may speak through the lips of his authorised ministers. Or they may put the message in writing. The manner differs, but the authority of the message does not.
- Source. Jesus does not offer opinions about God. He speaks God's own words, brought down from heaven by One who had seen and heard there.
- Grace. A Man stood among His enemies speaking God's words. That is infinite grace, not just a verdict.
- Hearing. To "hear" here is to recognise, receive and attend to the words as God's — not simply to catch the sound.
- Will. People fail to take in divine words not for lack of ability but for lack of willingness to do what they hear.
- Now. The same test runs on. First Christ's voice, then the apostles', and today the Scriptures. Those who are of God hear, and that hearing marks them out.