John 5:31-40 If I bear witness of myself, my witness is not true.… I. Men, apart from the salvation of God, are in a state of DEATH. 1. In this plaint of the Saviour's the true condition of sinners is seen in awful distinctness. He knew what was in man. 2. The estimate of man's state and prospects is of vital importance. To deny or neglect is(1) to accuse Christ of coming into the world on a needless errand; (2) to reject the only offer of deliver- ance. II. In order to pass from death to life we must COME TO JESUS. 1. On our part it is not a word, but an act. A dead-letter knowledge destitute of moving power pervades and paralyzes the Church. 2. Beware lest you lose yourself in any mist which may gather round the expression, "Come unto Me." In the experience of life we frequently pass over from one confidence to another, and we do this as really and potentially as we come in body from one place to another. It is not an incapacity to understand such a change, it is unwillingness to make it. III. In order to live NOTHING MORE IS NEEDED than to come to Jesus. 1. No preliminary qualification is demanded. None are excluded for the presence of one quality or the absence of another. 2. To go conclusively off from self and all other confidences and cleave to the Son of God as all your salvation is all that is necessary. 3. The effects which the change produces have not produced the change. 4. It is not the coming to Christ and a better obedience that will bring life to the dead. Coming to Christ is itself alone this. IV. Those who are spiritually dead are NOT WILLING to come to Christ for life. 1. This seems strange, and the Lord Himself wondered at their unbelief. 2. The human nature of the question is graphically represented in the history of Naaman. Most men would do difficult things willingly for the sake of what they call heaven; but they are unwilling to do the easy thing God requires. 3. The want lies in the will. V. Jesus COMPLAINS that they will not come to Him for life. 1. Here the Saviour opens His heart that He may look in and see the love that fills it. 2. The upper side of religion is not a sentiment, hut a fact; such also must its under side be. The one is Christ's coming into the world to die for us; the other is our coming to Christ to live in Him. Mercy let down from heaven must be grasped by the needy on earth while it is within their reach. 3. When you neglect this great salvation you mar the Saviour's joy. (W. Arnot, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: If I bear witness of myself, my witness is not true. |
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