Expository Thoughts
friend of Peter, James, and John—it would be impossible to imagine a more favorable position for a man's soul. Yet if anyone ever fell hopelessly into hell, and made shipwreck at last for eternity, that man was Judas Iscariot. The character of that man must have been black indeed, of whom our Lord could say he is "a devil."
Let us settle it firmly in our minds, that the possession of religious privileges alone is not enough to save our souls. It is neither place, nor light, nor company, nor opportunities, but grace that man needs to make him a Christian. With grace we may serve God in the most difficult position—like Daniel in Babylon, Obadiah in Ahab's court, and the saints in Nero's household. Without grace we may live in the full sunshine of Christ's countenance, and yet, like Judas, be miserably cast away. Then let us never rest until we have grace reigning in our souls. Grace is to be had for the asking. There is One sitting at the right hand of God who has said— "Ask, and it shall be given you." (Matt. 7:7.) The Lord Jesus is more willing to give grace than man is to seek it. If men have it not, it is because they do not ask it.
Technical Notes:
66. From that time many of his disciples went back and walked with him no more. 67. Then Jesus said to the twelve, Will ye also go away? 68. Then Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. 69. And we believe and are sure that you are that Christ, the Son of the living God. 70. Jesus answered them, Have I not chosen you, the twelve, and one of you is a devil? 71. He spoke of Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon, for he it was who should betray him, being one of the twelve.
66.-[From that time.] It is doubtful whether the Greek words here might not have been better translated, "Upon this," "After this conversation." [Many of His disciples.] This expression shows that the number of persons who followed our Lord about, and professed themselves His disciples, must have been large.
[Went backward.] This is a metaphorical expression, signifying "retreat, desertion, forsaking a position once occupied." It is the same that is rendered in the account of the Jews coming to take our Lord in the garden, "they went backward and fell to the ground."
(John xviii.6.)
[Walked with Him no more.] The simplest view of this expression is that these deserters from our Lord walked no longer in His company as He went about teaching, as they had done, but returned to their own homes. No minister of the Gospel should feel surprised if the same thing happens to him.
Not a few of these very "disciples" probably had been forward in wishing to make our Lord a "king," the day before. Such is popularity: here today and gone tomorrow!
67.—[Then Jesus said...go away?] We cannot suppose that our Lord asked this as if He did not know what the Apostles were going to do.
We may be sure that He who "knew from the beginning who they were who did not believe" (verse 64), knew the hearts of His Apostles. The question was evidently asked to prove His chosen followers and to draw forth from them an expression of feeling. (See
John vi.6.)
The word "will" here would be more accurately rendered, "Do you wish?" "Have you a will?"
We should note that this is the first time St. John speaks of "the twelve." We know, from the other Gospels, that "the twelve" were employed in distributing the loaves and fishes to the five thousand.
(Luke ix.12,17.)
68.—[Then Simon Peter answered Him.] The fervor and impetuosity of Peter's character comes out here as in other places in the Gospels. He is the first to speak, and to speak for his brethren as well as himself. Only the night before this very scene, he had been the first, in the storm on the lake, to say "Lord, if it be You, bid me to come to You on the water." (Matt. xiv.28.) And here, in like manner, he is the first to profess loudly his determination not to go away, and his faith in Christ. [To whom shall we go?] This question is a strong burst of feeling. "To what teacher, to what master, to what leader shall we go, if we leave You? Where are we to find anyone like You?
What could we gain by leaving You?" The question was one which might well be asked, when we remember the state of the Jewish nation and the universal prevalence of Pharisaism or Sadduceeism.
But this is not all. It may always be asked by true Christian men when tempted to give up Christ's service. True Christianity undoubtedly has its cross. It entails trial and persecution, But to whom shall we go if we give up Christ? Will Infidelity, Deism, Socinianism, Romanism, Formalism, Rationalism, or Worldliness give us anything better? There is but one answer: They cannot!
[You have the words of eternal life.] This would be more literally rendered, "You have words of eternal life." "You possess instruction about everlasting life such as we can hear nowhere else, and such as we find soul-comforting and edifying. The sayings that fall continually from Your lips, about eternal life, are such as we cannot leave." Our Lord's expression should be remembered, "I have given to them the words which Thou gavest Me." (John xvii.8.)
69.—[And we believe and are sure.] This would be more literally rendered, "We have believed and have known." Moreover, the "we" is emphatic. "Whatever others may please to think, however many may go away and forsake You after following You for a little, it is not so with us. We have believed and known, and do believe and know."
[You are that Christ, the Son of the living God.] This might equally well have been rendered, "You are the Christ." The sentence is a noble confession when we remember the time in which it was made and the universal unbelief of the leaders of the Jewish nation.
We may remember that it is precisely the same confession that is recorded to have been made by Peter, after which our Lord said to him, "Blessed are you, Simon Barjona, for flesh and blood has not revealed it to you, but my Father who is in heaven." (Matt. xvi.17.)
We must not, however, misunderstand the extent of Peter's confession. He declared his faith that our Lord was the Anointed
Messiah, the Son of the living God. The Messiahship and divinity of Christ were the points on which he and the other apostles laid firm hold. But the sacrifice and death of Christ and His substitution for us on the cross were not things which he either saw or understood at present. (See Matt. xvi.22,23.) (a) We should notice that a man's heart may be right towards God while he remains very ignorant of some great doctrine of the Christian faith. It certainly was so with Peter and the apostles at this time. (b) We should also notice that there is nothing man is so backward to see as the sacrifice of the death of Christ, the substitution, and the atonement. It is possible to be right about Christ's divinity and Messiahship and yet be in the dark about His death. (c) We should notice how ignorant Christians often are of the state of others' souls. Peter never suspected any one of the twelve to be a false apostle. It is a fearful proof that Judas must have been, in all outward demeanor and profession, just like the rest of the apostles.
70.—[Have I not chosen you twelve?] I do not think that the "choosing" here spoken of means anything more than selection for office. The word is evidently used in this simple sense in Luke vi.13: "Of them He chose twelve, whom He called apostles." Acts vi.5: "They chose Stephen, a man full of faith." Acts xv.22: "It pleased the apostles...to send chosen men of their own company to Antioch." I say confidently that in each one of these cases the Greek word rendered "chosen," the very same word that is used here, can mean nothing more than "chosen or selected for an office." This I believe, with Poole, Henry, and Hutcheson, is the meaning here. I disagree with Alford's remark that "the selection of the twelve was the consequence of the giving of them to Him by the Father," and that Christ's "selecting, and the Father's giving, and the Father's giving and drawing, do not exclude final falling away." This remark is built on the gratuitous assumption that Christ's "choosing," here spoken of, is the same as that "choosing unto salvation" which is the special privilege of believers. Of that "choosing unto salvation," our Lord speaks in another place, where He carefully draws the distinction between the true disciples and the false: "I speak not of you all: I know whom I have chosen." (John xiii.18.)
Of that choosing unto salvation, Judas was not a partaker. Of the other choosing unto office, as in the verse before us, undoubtedly he was a partaker.
Burgon and many others agree with Alford and dwell on the expression before us as an apparent proof that men "chosen to salvation" may fall away. But their reasoning appears to me inconclusive.
Even Quesnel, the Romanist Commentator, remarks: "The being duly called to the ecclesiastical office is not sufficient, if a man live not suitably to that holy vocation." Toletus, and Spanish Jesuit, says much the same.
[One of you is a devil.] This is a singularly strong expression and gives an awfully vivid impression of the wickedness of Judas. Of course, he was not literally and really "a devil," but a man. The meaning is: "One out of your number is so completely under the influence of the devil, such a servant of the devil, that he deserves to be called nothing less than a devil." Our Lord, in another place, says of the wicked Jews, "Ye are of your father, the devil." (John viii.44.)
So St. Paul says to Elymas, "You child of the devil." (Acts xiii.10.)
When we read at a later period, "The devil having now put into the heart of Judas Iscariot to betray Him" (John xiii.2), it must mean the final working out of a wicked purpose, which under the influence of the devil Judas had long had in his heart. Let us note that even now
Judas is called "a devil," long before our Lord's betrayal and crucifixion. This helps to show that he never was a faithful disciple, even from the first.
Let us note that the only other expression of our Lord which at all approaches the one before us in strength, is the one which on another occasion our Lord applies to His zealous apostle Peter: "Get you behind Me, Satan." (Matt. xv.23.) While we condemn the wickedness of Judas, let us not forget that even a true-hearted apostle may so far err and be mistaken that he needs to be sharply rebuked and called "Satan." A thoroughly bad man is "a devil," but even a good man may need to be called "Satan!" Rollock observes that Jesus never used so strong an expression about His open enemies who went about to slay Him. It was a hypocrite and a false apostle whom He called "a devil." Nothing is so wicked as false profession.
71.—[He spoke of Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon.] The word "Iscariot," according to some, means "a man of Kerioth." Kerioth was a town of Judah. (Josh. xv.25.) According to others, it means "a man of Issachar." According to Lampe and others, it is a Syriac word meaning "the bearer of the purse." We are told that "he had the bag."
(John xiii.29.) It is remarkable that four times in his Gospel St. John calls Judas "the son of Simon." We do not exactly know why, unless it is that Simon was a person well known by name, or that St. John wished to make it quite clear that Judas Iscariot was not St. Jude, the faithful apostle and cousin of Christ, by naming his father. There is no proof whatever that Judas was the son of "Simon the Canaanite," the apostle; though it is somewhat curious that in the list of apostles given by Matthew and Mark, Simon and Judas Iscariot are named in close juxtaposition. (Matt. x.4, Mark iii.18.) [It was he who should betray Him.] This would be more literally rendered, "He was about to betray Him." The expression seems to imply that to betray such a master as Christ was so eminently a work of the devil, that the betrayer ought to be spoken of as "a devil."
The frequency of our Lord's warnings and hints addressed to Judas
Iscariot is very remarkable. Rollock observes what an awful proof it is of the hardness of the heart that a man so warned should not be consciencestricken and repent.
John – Chap. 7
JOHN 7:1-13
The Feast of Tabernacles
After this Jesus traveled throughout Galilee. He stayed out of Judea because the Jewish authorities wanted to kill him. Now the Jewish feast of Tabernacles was near. So Jesus' brothers advised him, "Leave here and go to Judea so your disciples may see your miracles that you are performing. For no one who seeks to make a reputation for himself does anything in secret. If you are doing these things, show yourself to the world." (For not even his own brothers believed in him.)
So Jesus replied, "My time has not yet arrived, but you are ready at any opportunity. The world cannot hate you, but it hates me, because I am testifying about it that its deeds are evil. You go up to the feast yourselves. I am not going up to this feast yet, because my time has not yet fully arrived." When he had said this, he remained in Galilee.
But when his brothers had gone up to the feast, then Jesus himself also went up, not openly but in secret. So the Jewish authorities were looking for him at the feast, asking, "Where is he?"
There was a lot of grumbling about him among the crowds. Some were saying, "He is a good man," but others, "He deceives the common people." However, no one spoke openly about him for fear of the Jewish authorities.
The chapter we now begin is divided from the preceding one by a wide interval of time. The many miracles which our Lord wrought, while He "walked in Galilee," are passed over by John in comparative silence. The events which he was specially inspired to record are those which took place in or near Jerusalem.
We should observe in this passage the desperate hardness and unbelief of human nature. We are told that even our Lord's "brethren did not believe in Him." Holy and harmless and blameless as He was in life, some of his nearest relatives, according to the flesh, did not receive Him as the Messiah. It was bad enough that His own people, "the Jews sought to kill Him." But it was even worse that "His brethren did not believe."
That great Scriptural doctrine, man's need of preventing and converting grace, stands out here, as if written with a sunbeam. It becomes all who question that doctrine to look at this passage and consider. Let them observe that seeing Christ's miracles, hearing
Christ's teaching, living in Christ's own company, were not enough to make men believers. The mere possession of spiritual privileges never yet made any one a Christian. All is useless without the effectual and applying work of God the Holy Spirit. No wonder that our Lord said in another place, "No man can come to me, except the Father who has sent me draw him." (John 6:44.)
The true servants of Christ in every age will do well to remember this. They are often surprised and troubled to find that in religion they stand alone. They are apt to fancy that it must be their own fault that all around them are not converted like themselves. They are ready to blame themselves because their families remain worldly and unbelieving. But let them look at the verse before us. In our Lord
Jesus Christ there was no fault either in temper, word, or deed. Yet even Christ's own "brethren did not believe in Him."
Our blessed Master has truly learned by experience how to sympathize with all his people who stand alone. This is a thought "full of sweet, pleasant, and unspeakable comfort." He knows the heart of every isolated believer, and can be touched with the feeling of his trials. He has drunk this bitter cup. He has passed through this fire. Let all who are fainting and cast down, because brothers and sisters despise their religion, turn to Christ for comfort, and pour out their hearts before Him. He "has suffered Himself being tempted" in this way, and He can help as well as feel. (Heb. 2:18.)
We should observe, for another thing, in this passage, one principal reason why many hate Christ. We are told that our Lord said to His unbelieving brethren, "The world cannot hate you; but me it hates, because I testify of it, that the works thereof are evil."
These words reveal one of those secret principles which influence men in their treatment of Christ. They help to explain that deadly enmity with which many during our Lord's earthly ministry regarded
Him and His Gospel. It was not so much the high doctrines which He preached, as the high standard of practice which He proclaimed, which gave offence. It was not even His claim to be received the Messiah which men disliked so much, as His witness against the wickedness of their lives. In short, they could have tolerated His opinions if He would only have spared their sins.
The principle, we may be sure, is one of universal application. It is at work now just as much as it was eighteen hundred years ago.
The real cause of many people's dislike to the Gospel is the holiness of living which it demands. Teach abstract doctrines only, and few will find any fault. Denounce the fashionable sins of the day, and call on men to repent and walk consistently with God, and thousands at once will be offended. The true reason why many profess to be infidels, and abuse Christianity, is the witness that Christianity bears against their own bad lives. Like Ahab, they hate it, "because it does not prophesy good concerning them, but evil." (1 Kings 22:8.)
We should observe, lastly, in this passage, the strange variety of opinions about Christ, which were current from the beginning. We are told that "there was much murmuring among the people concerning him—for some said, He is a good man others said, No, but he deceives the people." The words which old Simeon had spoken thirty years before were here accomplished in a striking manner. He had said to our Lord's mother, "This child is set for the fall and rising again of many in Israel—and for a sign which shall be spoken against—that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed."
(Luke 2:34, 35.) In the diversities of opinion about our Lord which arose among the Jews, we see the good old man's saying fulfilled.
In the face of such a passage as this, the endless differences and divisions about religion, which we see on all sides, in the present day, ought never to surprise us. The open hatred of some toward Christ— the carping, faultfinding, prejudiced spirit of others—the bold confession of the few faithful ones—the timid, man-fearing temperament of the many faithless ones—the unceasing war of words and strife of tongues with which the Churches of Christ are so sadly familiar—are only modern symptoms of an old disease. Such is the corruption of human nature, that Christ is the cause of division among men, wherever He is preached. So long as the world stands, some, when they hear of Him, will love, and some will hate—some will believe, and some will believe not. That deep, prophetical saying of His will be continually verified— "Do not think that I am come to send peace on earth; I came not to send peace, but a sword." (Matt.
10:34.)
What do we think of Christ ourselves? This is the one question with which we have to do. Let us never be ashamed to be of that little number who believe on Him, hear His voice, follow Him, and confess
Him before men. While others waste their time in vain jangling and unprofitable controversy, let us take up the cross and give all