John 5:36-38 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

But I have greater witness than that of John The testimony of one who has infinitely greater authority and power than he; for the works which the Father hath given me to finish The miracles which he hath commissioned me to perform; bear witness of me In a manner most convincing to every unprejudiced mind; that the Father hath sent me As his Ambassador to men, with full authority to reveal his will. And the Father himself hath borne witness of me And that in the most public manner, namely, at my baptism. Ye have neither heard his voice, &c. As if he had said, I speak not of my supposed father, Joseph. Ye are utter strangers to him of whom I speak. Or, You show yourselves to be as ignorant of him as men are of a person they never either saw or heard. Bishop Pearce considers the clause as a parenthesis, and thinks the sense, in connection with what precedes and follows, is, “Not that my Father ever appeared visibly, or spake audibly to any of you; but he did it by the mouths of his prophets.” To their testimony, however, he had lately added his own voice from heaven. But the sense in which Dr. Whitby takes the words, seems to connect them more naturally with the preceding verse: thus, “Nor are you to expect that the Father should testify of me otherwise than by his works, for that which was granted to your fathers belongs not to you, namely, to see his glory and hear his voice out of the midst of the fire. And have not his word abiding in you You do not show a due regard even to those sacred oracles, which you acknowledge to be divine; either you do not cordially believe them, or they have not that influence upon your spirit and conduct which, in all reason, they ought to have.” The scriptures of the Old Testament, if they had understood, believed, and laid them to heart as they ought to have done, would, doubtless, have disposed them to receive Christ. But this revelation of the divine will was not in them. It was among them, in their country, in their hands, but not in their hearts; they beheld it with their eyes, and it sounded in their ears; but it did not rule in their souls. But how did it appear that they had not the word of God abiding in them? it appeared by their not believing and receiving him whom God had sent. There was so much said in the Old Testament concerning Christ, to direct people when and where to look for him, and so to facilitate the discovery of him, that if they had duly considered those things, they could not have avoided the conviction that Jesus was the Christ, and that he was sent of God; so that their not believing in him, and receiving his doctrine, was a certain sign that the word of God did not abide in them. Observe, reader, 1st, The indwelling of the Word and Spirit, or grace of God in us, is best tried and known by the effects which it produces: particularly by our receiving whom and what he sends, the messengers, the commands, the threatenings, the promises, the providences, which he sends; and especially Christ whom he has sent. 2d, If his word abide in us, if we converse with it by frequent meditation, consult it upon every occasion, and conform to it in our conversation, we shall then readily receive the testimony of the Father concerning Christ, and therefore shall believe in and receive him in all the characters and offices which he sustains, and in which he is offered to us in the gospel.