Is your hope in being good? Is your confidence in doing good? Do you call yourself Christian and have evidence upon evidence to back it up? You visit the sick and imprisoned. You care for orphans. You pray with people on the street. You carry food and blankets to give the homeless people you meet. You rarely miss church, serve on three church councils, and you’re the head of the children’s ministry.
Some of those things may indicate your religion, but they do not reveal Christ in you. Jesus was still teaching after the Jewish leaders had become upset about Him referring to God as His Father. He was teaching them about who He is as the Son of God. Verse 30 reads,
“I can do nothing on my own. As I hear, I judge, and my judgment is just, because I seek not my own will but the will of him who sent me.”
First Jesus told them He was here doing the will of God. Everything He did, said, and was occurred because the Father wanted it. He then went on to offer them proof that He is the Son of God if only they would be willing to hear it, see it and believe it. He said His word wasn’t proof but there were other witnesses to his authenticity. First there was John the Baptist. Verses 32-35 read,
“There is another who bears witness about me, and I know that the testimony that he bears about me is true. 33 You sent to John, and he has borne witness to the truth. 34 Not that the testimony that I receive is from man, but I say these things so that you may be saved. 35 He was a burning and shining lamp, and you were willing to rejoice for a while in his light.”
John told people the Messiah was coming and once Christ’s identity was shown to John, He told everyone that Jesus was the Savior. But Jesus didn’t only have the testimony of a man. He had more evidence to the veracity of His claims. Verse 36 reads,
“But the testimony that I have is greater than that of John. For the works that the Father has given me to accomplish, the very works that I am doing, bear witness about me that the Father has sent me.”
Jesus very actions attested to who He is. Not just the miracles. There were plenty of men doing miracles. Although Jesus’ miracles were different. They were varied, they were without pomp, and they were based on His own authority. Other miracle workers had to pray and use spectacle and ceremony to bring about the one type of miracle they could perform. But Jesus spoke with power and it was so. The works he was doing was everything leading to His death and resurrection for our redemption. His resurrection was all the proof anyone could ever need to know that He is the Son of God.
The third witness to Jesus Christ is God the Father. Verses 37-38 read,
“And the Father who sent me has himself borne witness about me. His voice you have never heard, his form you have never seen, 38 and you do not have his word abiding in you, for you do not believe the one whom he has sent.”
Jesus told them although they’d never heard His voice or seen Him that if they truly had faith in Him, if they actually sought His will and purpose they would recognize Him. But instead of seeking God and His will through a relationship they sought to follow the law. Verses 39-40 read,
“You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, 40 yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life.”
Jesus told them they had completely missed the mark concerning God and His will. They tried to please God by glorifying the law. Instead they left out Love and ignored that God is Love. Jesus came in the Father’s name. He fulfilled the scriptures. He accomplished God’s will, His amazing love and the people failed to see He was God because they had exalted the law so high that it had become their warped god.
Jesus received His glory from God. The Jewish leaders, the Pharisees, and the councils received their recognition from people. People lauded them for their piousness, their generosity, and their amazing abilities to uphold the law. But to seek God means not wanting acclaim from men, it means seeking God’s desire and will. It means pursuing Godly love. Verses 41-44 put it like this,
“I do not receive glory from people. 42 But I know that you do not have the love of God within you. 43 I have come in my Father's name, and you do not receive me. If another comes in his own name, you will receive him. 44 How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the only God?”
Jesus continued and told them if they truly knew the scriptures, even the scriptures would tell them He is Christ, the Son of God. Moses wrote about Jesus and the people refused to believe his words manifested right before them. Verses 45-47 read,
“Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father. There is one who accuses you: Moses, on whom you have set your hope. 46 For if you believed Moses, you would believe me; for he wrote of me. 47 But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words?”
Think about this. People use the Bible to hate. They use the Scriptures to try and disprove Jesus today just as they did when Jesus taught this. It is not preaching laws, rules, or morality to people that will lead them to the Truth. Jesus is revealed in you by your testimony, life, and Holy Spirit.
Your life changed when you were saved. That declares Jesus to the world. But it can’t stand alone and uncorroborated by your life and actions. Does your life speak to the change in you? Are your deeds and the purpose of those deeds showing God’s love? Is the fruit of love borne out in your life? Is the Holy Spirit in you, leading you, changing you, and flowing out of you?
When people see you, meet you, and speak to you, do they encounter Jesus? Or perhaps do they encounter a person who does good? Is it you or God that gets the glory when you do good things? Is your hope in Jesus or in your good life?