JOHN 7:40-53 Differing Opinions About Jesus When they heard these words, some of the crowd began to say, This really is the Prophet! Others said, This is the Christ! But still others said, No, for the Christ doesn’t come from Galilee, does he? Don’t the scriptures say that the Christ is a descendant of David and comes from Bethlehem, the village where David lived? So there was a division in the crowd because of Jesus. Some of them were wanting to seize him, but no one laid a hand on him. Then the officers returned to the chief priests and Pharisees, who said to them, Why didn’t you bring him back with you? The officers replied, No one ever spoke like this man! Then the Pharisees answered, You haven’t been deceived too, have you? None of the rulers or the Pharisees have believed in him, have they? But this rabble who do not know the law are accursed! Nicodemus, who had gone to Jesus before and who was one of the rulers, said, Our law doesn’t condemn a man unless it first hears from him and learns what he is doing, does it? They replied, You aren’t from Galilee too, are you? Investigate carefully and you will see that no prophet comes from Galilee! And every man went unto his own house. These verses show us, for one thing, how useless is knowledge in religion, if it is not accompanied “by grace in the heart. We are told that some of our Lords hearers knew clearly where Christ was to be born. They referred to Scripture, like men familiar with its contents. Has not the Scripture said that Christ comes of the seed of David, and out of the town of Bethlehem, where David was? And yet the eyes of their understanding were not enlightened. Their own Messiah stood before them, and they neither received, nor believed, nor obeyed Him. A certain degree of religious knowledge, beyond doubt, is of vast importance. Ignorance is certainly not the mother of true devotion, and helps nobody toward heaven. An unknown God can never be the object of a reasonable worship. Happy indeed would it be for Christians if they all knew the Scriptures as well as the Jews seem to have done, when our Lord was on earth! But while we value religious knowledge, we must take care that we do not overvalue it. We must not think it enough to know the facts and doctrines of our faith, unless our hearts and lives are thoroughly influenced by what we know. The very devils know the creed intellectually, and believe and tremble, but remain devils still. (James 2:19.) It is quite possible to be familiar with the letter of Scripture, and to be able to quote texts appropriately, and reason about the theory of Christianity, and yet to remain dead in trespasses and sins. Like many of the generation to which our Lord preached, we may know the Bible well, and yet remain faithless and unconverted. It would be well for the Church of Christ if ministers and teachers of religion would strive more to speak after their Lords pattern. Let them remember that elegant bombastic language, and a sensational, theatrical style of address, are utterly unlike their Master. Let them realize, that an eloquent simplicity is the highest attainment of public speaking. Of this their Master left them a glorious example. Surely they need never be ashamed of walking in His steps. These verses show us, lastly, how slowly and gradually the work of grace goes on in some hearts. We are told that Nicodemus stood up in the council of our Lords enemies, and mildly pleaded that He deserved fair dealing. Does our law judge any man, he asked, before it hear him, and know what he does?” Excerpt From: J. C. Ryle. The Gospel of John
Posted on: Fri, 10 Oct 2014 01:46:07 +0000
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