Christ's Lamentation Over Those Who Will not Come to Him
E. J. Hartland. John 5:31-40 If I bear witness of myself, my witness is not true.… The discourse from which these words have been taken arose out of a conflict between our blessed Lord and the Pharisees respecting the observance of the Sabbath. I. We have, in the words before us, CHRIST'S EXPLANATION OF MAN'S INVETERATE SPIRITUAL MALADY. 1. Apart from Christ, men are spiritually dead. In forms, more or less repulsive, we find spiritual death wherever we look, in the world at large or in our own circle of friends. Intellectual life is not wanting. Never, perhaps, was there a period in the history of our race when intellectual life existed in a form more vigorous. Moral life is not wanting. One of the indirect results of the spread of the gospel is to enlighten the conscience even of those who do not receive it. But they have no spiritual life. God is not the object of their supreme affection. And, alas! this spiritual death is not confined to the world. Look for a moment at the Church. 2. Now, what is our Lord's explanation of the solemn fact that spiritual death thus so generally obtains, notwithstanding that He has brought life within the reach of men and offered it to them in His gospel? He does not say that it is because they have never read the revelation of the Father's love in Him, that they are as they are. But He says, "Ye will not come to Me, that ye might have life." 3. But let us look at this solemn truth as it affects the anxious inquirer after salvation. It is only because men do not come to Christ for salvation, and therefore have no life, that the ordinances of the house of prayer are so often, and to so many, empty, fruitless exercises. Again: with how many questions does the inquirer after salvation often trouble and perplex his mind, from all of which he would be delivered, if he would only come for life simply and in faith to Christ. For instance, he sometimes perplexes himself as to the nature of conversion, and wonders, and asks himself whether it has taken place in his case. Regeneration takes place in the very act of receiving Christ as our life. Coming to Jesus for life and salvation is not the result, but the very means of the new birth. II. We have in the words of our text, CHRIST'S LAMENTATION OVER THE CAUSE OF THE CONTINUED SPIRITUAL DEATH OF MEN. "Ye will not come to Me, that ye might have life." I cannot discern, my brethren-, in the utterance of these words by our blessed Lord, the tones of wrath. Oh, no! sadness must have covered His face with gloom as, looking over the reckless multitude, He said, "Ye will not come to Me, that ye might have life." Christ might justly have spoken in anger. He would probably have done so had He been less holy and Divine than He was. 1. This complaint seems to open to us the very heart of Christ in its aspect towards men. It reveals to us the intensity of His love. The greatest joy He can possess is to impart Divine life to sinners, who are perishing because they have it not. The greatest grief which can oppress Him is to find His love, which would have given this life, despised and spurned. This has been so beautifully illustrated by a living writer, by a reference to one of the most familiar scenes of domestic life, that I must adopt his illustration, though not in his words. One of the deepest joys of a mother's heart is to nourish her babe from her own breast. It is a double grief! He grieves for the death of the dead, and the loss of His own life-giving! How deep and tender, therefore, the love of Jesus for perishing men! 2. In the second place, the complaint of Jesus suggests the solemn thought that the sinner's death is the sinner's fault! Possibly, you sometimes think that a portion of the fault, at least, may lie upon your minister. Possibly you sometimes blame the Church. There are so many frailties in those who compose it, that they are a stumbling block in you! The fault of your death is not to be found anywhere but in yourself! (E. J. Hartland.) Parallel Verses KJV: If I bear witness of myself, my witness is not true. WEB: "If I testify about myself, my witness is not valid.