Jean 5:30

I can of My own self do nothing; as I hear I judge

Christ’s present judgment

This verse is a conclusion of this part of Christ’s apology for His curing of the man, and commanding him to carry his bed on the Sabbath day, and for His asserting His unity and equality with the Fathel; wherein, from the former purpose, be sums up these conclusions:

1.

That He is inseparable from the Father in operation (Jean 5:19), having no private power of His own (as they conceived of Him as a mere man); but the same in essence, power, and operation with Him.

2. That He is in all the Father’s counsels, and hath the power of administration of all things communicate to Him from the Father, which is pointed out under the name of hearing, as it is Jean 5:19, by seeing, to hold forth the spirituality of the way of communicating, and His infinite comprehension of all that is communicate, as hearing and seeing all.

3. That His government and administration is most just, as seeking no satisfaction to any will of His own, contrary to, or diverse from the Father’s, as He is God; and that He doth this not only as God simply, but as God now incarnate also, being the same still With the Father, and acting in all things according to the will of God. And though as man, He have a will distinct from His will as God, and so diverse from the Father’s will, yet that did act in subordination to the will of God (Matthieu 26:39).

Whence learn:

1. The divinity of Christ is a truth that may no ways be quarrelled with, and doth call for our second and serious thoughts; therefore doth He recapitulate His apology, that this truth may be inculcate.

2. Such is the strict conjunction and perfect unity of the Father and the Son, that the Son neither doth, nor can do anything without the fellowship of the Father; so that in all His working the Father is to be seen and taken up; for “I can of Mine own self do nothing,” saith He.

3. Christ, in the administration of all things, and executing of His purposes in this life, and at the day of judgment, is upon the Father’s counsel, acting from Him, and all Christ’s administrations are upon counsel and conclusion taken betwixt the Father and the Son, for, saith he, “As I hear, I judge.”

4. Christ’s administrations and sentences are all just and right, doing injury and violence to no man, nor ought they to be stumbled at by any, for, “My judgment is just,” saith He.

5. The reason of the justice of Christ’s judgment is because it is agreeable to the will of the Father, with whom He is one, and whose will is the rule of justice, as being supreme and absolute Lord; which will Christ, being incarnate and God-man, did conform Himself unto in all things, for, “My judgment is just, because I seek not Mine own will” (nor have any will, contrary to, or diverse from His, as hath been explained), “but the will of the Father, which hath sent Me.” (G. Hutcheson.)

Christ’s present judgment

Note

1. There is a moral difference in the judgment of men concerning Divine truth.

2. Diversity of judgment is dependent on moral condition.

3. Moral condition is resolvable into one of two great principles of action--self-seeking or God-seeking.

4. Adoption of the Divine will is the essential condition of just judgments.

Their principles

1. Explain the perversion of the Bible by its avowed disciples.

2. Indicate the method in which the gospel should be preached.

3. Supply a test of fitness for the work of the gospel ministry.

4. Show the necessity of Divine influence. (W. H. Van Doren, D. D.)

The unclouded heart

1. For the training of goodness, the ancient reliance was on the right discipline of habit and affection: the modern is rather on the illumination of the understanding. Vice is made a blunder of intellect, and, like optical delusions, to be cured by the most approved instruments for seeing.

2. This prescription is attractive from its apparent simplicity. It seems to take away all mystery from the moral emotions. But its value disappears the moment we use is, as, say, the miser, the cheat, the insane candidate for glory. When has it ever made such generous, just, and meek. It is true that you have only to give the slave of passion a different view of the objects of his desire and he is set free. It is equally true that you have only to make the paralytic run and he will be well.

3. Christ, reversing the order of the explanation, placed the truth in a juster point of view. He knew that if sometimes because the reason is darkened the passions are awake, it more often happens that because the passions are awake the reason is darkened. Pure sympathies make a clear intellect. When auditors, feeling that, “never man spake like this man,” asked, “how knowest this man letters?” etc., He said, “My judgment is just because I seek not Mine own will,” etc.; and He instructed others how to gain a like discernment: “If any man do His will,” etc. “Whatever be the word on which the judgment may be engaged, it will be invariably ordered by the sympathies of a just, disinterested, and holy mind.

4. Even in His abstruser toils, these are the wise man’s mightiest power. The most turbid clouds which darken reason are those which interest, fear, and ambition spread, and these the pure affections sweep away. How often will a child penetrate the centre of some great truth. A pure-hearted man will be a right-minded man.

5. All the great hindrances to impartiality in the quest of truth have their seat in some class of selfish feelings. The excessive eagerness about reputation produces a thousand pitiable distortions of understanding. In one it takes the shape of a determination to be original and so extinguishes his perception of all ancient excellence, in another it passes into the pride of being moderate and sound, and so he dreads eccentricities far more than falsehoods. And what is partizanship but a collection of selfish feelings, fatal to all the equities of reason.

6. But the mere absence of selfishness is not the only condition for a just judgment. Inpartiality will accomplish nothing without impulse. Clearness of intellectual view will be found not-in one who follows the light without the deep love of it, but in Him who seeks the will of One who sent Him, and who trusts it with a “love that casteth out fear!”

I. ON QUESTIONS OF PRACTICAL MORALS this principle holds good. The moral habits and tastes of men form their opinions much more frequently than their opinions form their habits, so that their theoretical sentiments are little more than a systematic defence after the act. Any moral practice may be recommended; yet how many things we palliate would be condemned by the very act of expounding them to others--duelling, e.g. It is fearful to reflect how the moral sentiments are modified by the atmosphere of social influence; how the indications of the unperverted conscience may become obscured or lost, and the possibility of remorse killed out.

II. IN ITS JUDGMENT OF HUMAN CHARACTER the same principle rules. The pure affections still the confusion of the senses and remove all motive for not seeing men and life exactly as they are. One who looks on the world as his appointed post of strenuous duty and feels on him the Divine charge to leave it better than he found it must close neither eye nor heart against its ills; and as for its charities and virtues, delighting in them all, he discerns them all; bringing as they do the refreshment of a generous veneration what temptation has he to doubt or decry them. To the selfish, on the other hand, men are tools and have to be flattered into service, and accustomed to speak of good qualities which they do not possess, the mind dwells to such an extent on the negation of excellence that it ceases to believe in it, and thus the nobler half of human nature undergoes permanent eclipse.

III. Those who “seek their own will,” are liable to error respecting those CHANGES IN SOCIETY which are brought about by the nobler forces of the human will. It is happy for the world that over the vision of its greatest enemies, their own selfishness spreads a film concealing the powers which will effect their over-throw. In spite of all the pampered despot’s vigilance, conspiracy, conducted by lean and praying patriots, has gone on unnoticed before his very eyes, and suddenly the tempest bursts. It is of the very nature of guilty power to be surprised by the apparition of high-minded virtue in a people. Conclusion:

1. Selfishness under the form of jealousy draws another cloud over the judgment and hides from it all that is fairest in kindred minds.

2. But our judgments will not be right unless our sympathies be not only disinterested but pure. In addition to not seeking our own will, we must seek God’s. The partialities of the affections are nobler every way than those of self-love; but they are partialities still; and while they make our judgments merciful, may prevent their being just. (J. Martineau, D. D.)