Or, The Paralyzing Pull of Men's Praise
Scripture: John 5:41-47
Date: April 15, 2012
Speaker: Sean Higgins
In John 5:41-47, Jesus tells us, from the human perspective, why men don’t believe. He already disclosed the divine perspective in John 3 to Nicodemus. Jesus told Nicodemus that no man can believe without being born again by the Spirit of God (John 3:3, 5, 7-8). All men are dead in their unbelief. They cannot believe without the Spirit’s powerful blowing of life into their souls.
Though men are spiritually dead, they still do a lot. Their dead souls are active but in the wrong directions. From the divine perspective, a man can’t believe and want the right things unless he is born of the Spirit. From the human perspective, a man can’t believe and want the right things because he wants glory from other men. The praise of other men is an inescapable, paralyzing pull.
There is some amazingly helpful and humiliating exposure that Jesus provides in John 5:41-47. His questions, “How can you believe?” in verse 44 and “how will you believe?” in verse 47 prepare us to see what keeps men from believing. Even though most of us are believers, to the degree we still struggle with these sorts of sins, we need this passage for life.
We come to the final part in John’s story about Jesus’ healing of a paralyzed man on a Sabbath that instigated the Jewish leaders and brought about their desire to kill Him. Starting in verse 19 we don’t hear anything else from them; verses 19-47 are a lengthy monologue from Jesus in response to their offense at His claim to divinity.
He already put all of His work into context, that He only does what His Father does (5:19), what the Father has shown Him (5:19-20), and with the authority His Father delegated to Him (5:21-22). Specifically, Father and Son are in the life-giving work which also includes the authority to judge those who reject Him (5:23-24, 27-29).
Then Jesus provided four witnesses to His authority, witnesses that the religious attackers believed to be on their side of the courtroom. Jesus brings out John the Baptist (5:33-35), His own works (5:36), His Father’s testimony (5:37-38), and the Scriptures (5:39). All of these pointed to Him as the life-giving Son of God. Jesus did not receive the testimony of “men” (5:33) because men weren’t His judge and because He had better witnesses anyway.
Now Jesus says that He does not receive glory from men (verse 41) and gets to the paralyzing cause and consequence of unbelief.
They are paralyzed by misdirected ambition; they seek glory from men. And because the praise of men is such an irresistible pull, Jesus asks, “How can you believe?”
Two things qualify Jesus to diagnose the cause of unbelief. First, He does not depend on men for glory.
I do not receive glory from people. (verse 41)
What does this mean and why does Jesus say it at this point in His long answer to the Jews? He does receive glory (Greek: Δόξαν, also worship, praise. adoration, honor, recognition), doesn’t He? In fact, because Jesus is God, Jesus expects it. Isn’t that the reason He’s going after these Jews? They did not recognize Him, they didn’t receive Him as the Messiah, they didn’t glorify Him as the Son of God. That was the problem: failure to give glory to Him as God. If He didn’t require glory from them why is He condemning them for not giving it?
The reason is that God’s glory is self-sufficient glory. Sufficient means “enough,” so self-sufficient is needing no outside help to meet one’s needs. His glory is independent. His glory is as inherent as it is genuine. And true glory cannot be taken away from or added to by men.
The same principle applies to God’s authority, the issue in John 5:19-29. Neither Father or the Son needs to win an election to take authority. God does not work to earn or fight to win authority. He does not ask to receive it nor does He need men to corroborate it. He is authority.
He is also glory. His excellence is so excellent that it needs no affirmation. If it did, it would be a lesser excellence because it would be a dependent excellence, and dependent on less-excellent beings. It is no skin off of God’s glory if men don’t give Him glory.
However, saying that God doesn’t need men to give Him glory does not mean that men don’t need to give God glory. If God’s glory exists as self-sufficient and without need for men’s affirmation, then to that extent men are obligated to affirm His glory. Stated differently, to the degree that His excellence is independently excellent we (who are less excellent) are obligated to recognize and praise His excellence. The sun doesn’t require a mirror to reflect its light to prove the brightness of its light.
[As a marginal application: There are at least two reasons not to get angry when we feel that we are unrecognized: 1) if we were truly great, we wouldn’t need the validation and 2) we’re not truly great.]
Hopefully that much makes sense. Jesus is qualified to identify the cause of unbelief because He always sails His ship in the right direction without needing the wind of men. But how does that fit with verse 42? Here is the second thing that qualifies Jesus to diagnose the cause of unbelief: He knows the hearts of men.
But I know that you do not have the love of God within you. (verse 42)
Shouldn’t verse 42 follow verse 41 with something such as, “I do not receive glory from men though all of you should and I know that you don’t.” In other words, “God doesn’t need glory though God deserves glory. You aren’t glorifying God so you aren’t glorifying Me who is God.” Instead, Jesus moves from glorifying to loving. Why?
The short answer is that love is the greatest honor. We praise what we prize. We live and die for what fills our hearts. We commend the excellence of a thing or person or God not only by being able to write about it, but also by bursting in song about it. Our affections spring to glory.
Which is one reason why Bible knowledge isn’t enough. Searching and even loving the Scriptures apart from a growing love for God is not life. There is no life without love and love is glorifying its target. Mental assent and verbal affirmation of the truth do not match the glory to God that comes from affection for the God of truth.
Though Jesus doesn’t need glory, they needed to glorify Him. Jesus knows they aren’t because He knows that they don’t love God. He has the credentials not to compromise when He identifies the cause of their unbelief.
Next Jesus shows how the cause of their unbelief comes out in their conduct.
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. (verse 43)
Nothing surprises us in the first part of the verse if we’ve been keeping score through the monologue. Jesus claimed to be God, they wanted to kill Him for claiming to be God, and since He actually was God, their desire to kill Him proved that they didn’t know God. They would have seen the connection between Father and Son if they really knew God. It’s no surprise that they don’t receive Jesus because they don’t receive the true God.
That they did not receive Jesus is worse than to reject Jesus because it implies that omission is wrong. They don’t love God so they don’t receive Jesus, who is God, or glorify Him. But what does the last part of verse 43 explain?
First, it assumes that men are glorifying, loving, receiving creatures. That’s how we’re wired (by God). We will love someone or thing, which will glorify that someone or thing, and cause us to keep that someone or thing close, to receive that someone or thing. This is another “not whether but which.” We are made to worship, built to give glory by loving what we receive.
The Jews didn’t reject Jesus because they didn’t want to give anyone glory. They didn’t deny His authority because they didn’t want any king at all; they wanted a different sort of king.
Why would they receive someone who came in his own name ? Doesn’t that seem less appealing than how Jesus came? Jesus came not in His own name. He came in humility not selfish arrogance. Doesn’t it seem strange to prefer a big ego over a modest man? Of course it does. So what makes a man who comes in his own name attractive? How does a proud person get put into power? How do self-promoting people rise to the position they desire? They depend on other people. They need the approval and acceptance and adoration of others to lift them. The religious leaders wanted a Messiah who needed them.
We like people, especially leaders, who depend on our praise because we think there is the possibility that they may return the favor. We prefer Saviors that are like us. We prefer Saviors that need us.
Jesus came with authority and glory independent of their approval. Jesus did not need them at all. Jesus came in the name of His Father, not the name of the people, which meant that He was dependent on the Father for His glory, not them.
Jesus asks the rhetorical money question in verse 44.
How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the only God? (verse 44)
This is a rhetorical question. Jesus doesn’t wonder about the answer, He indicts them by the obvious answer. Here is the reason men do not believe from the human perspective. Here is the reason men do not love, receive, or glorify God the Father or His Son. Men do not believe because they don’t want to. More specifically, they don’t believe because they don’t want to give up being needed. Men are subject to the paralyzing pull of the praise of other men.
They will take “any” glory, no article in Greek (δόξαν παρὰ ἀλλήλων λαμβάνοντες), while they do not seek the glory that comes from the only God (τὴν δόξαν τὴν παρὰ τοῦ μόνου θεοῦ οὐ ζητεῖτε). It is “one-another” glory, horizontal glory, weak glory.
It’s not that everyone wants to be the Savior or the President or even the boss. But we do want the boss to know how much the boss depends on us. We do want the President to remember how get got to be President: our vote. And we want them to know it so that they will return the favor in some way. It’s the old, “I’ll wave your glory flag if you wave mine.” We don’t want a God who could be happy without us. How can we be sure that He’ll do anything for us? How do we know that He’ll recognize our dignity, our glory?
We can’t repeat it too often that we are glory seeking machines. We want honor and praise and respect and affirmation. We want to be appreciated and adored. And we all seek it, we just seek it in different places. We can’t turn the water off, we can only channel it. On a broad level, though, there are really only two places to seek glory: from men or from God, the only God , which means that men are just men, men are not God, men are false gods.
We seek glory from men even when we give glory to men; the Jews would receive another who comes in his own name (verse 43) because they receive glory from one another (verse 44). One reason is that the one we receive/glorify may return the benefit to us. What’s the benefit of joining a fan club? Maybe that person will know who we are. Another reason we receive/give glory to men like us is that it justifies our desire to be glorified by others. This exposure is humiliating, paralyzing, and damning.
How do we seek the glory that comes from the only God ? The answer is in the previous verses. We seek glory from God by receiving His self-sufficiency, by loving Him and glorifying Him. In other words, we seek the glory from God when we gladly recognize that He doesn’t need us and that all we have is need. We glorify Him by getting our glory from Him. To borrow Edwards’ illustration, we honor a spring by depending on and delighting in it as we drink from it to quench our thirst. We don’t honor a spring by trying to impress the spring by how we describe it.
This is why men can have a love for God’s truth and not love God because they love the glory of men that comes from knowing truth. As they seek self-advancement for their Bible knowledge and they dishonor the Author of the Bible.
Maybe it seems unfair to bang on the Bible people, but that’s exactly what Jesus does.
They were paralyzed from believe in Jesus by blinding ambition and are accused by their very hope of advancement. The consequence is Mosaic judgment. “How will you believe?”
Though Jesus is authority, He is glory, He is not the accuser.
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. (verse 45)
They had set [their] hope , they had put their trust in Moses, in particular, his writings . They attacked Jesus based on the law of Moses, but Jesus reverses the accusation. They knew the right Word but the Word didn’t give them right knowledge. They were still looking for glory in all the wrong places and Jesus said Moses will accuse them.
Jesus closes His monologue with an argument from the lesser to the greater.
For if you believed Moses, you would believe me; for he wrote of me. But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words?” (verses 46–47)
They had searched the Scriptures, but life for them was in the glory that came from the searching and not from God. Yet Moses wrote of Jesus, not by name, but as the self-sufficient “I AM.” The “I AM” sayings in John’s gospel fulfill in flesh God’s covenant revelation to His people. Apparently they had not actually believed Moses. They used Moses to advance themselves and get glory from men, not to learn from Moses and seek glory from God.
Because of that they could not receive or believe or love or glorify Jesus. They did not want to because, from their perspective, that meant giving up everything they had worked for.
The need for adoration and affirmation is inescapable. A man who seeks fulfillment in pride, who sets his hope on the approval of others will not only be disappointed, he will be judged by the Fountain of life.
The paralyzation of the Jews was worse than the paralyzation of the man in the beginning of chapter 5. Their need for the praise of men cut their legs out from them and kept them from coming to Jesus for life (see 5:40).
Faith is the only antidote to seeking glory from men. We can only seek the fulfillment of those desires in by humbly believing God who IS whether we believe Him or not. When we seek His glory by faith we seek our glory from Him. Faith in Christ leads to true glory. The apostle Peter wrote,
the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory. (1 Peter 1:7-8)
I said at the beginning, most of us believe, but it is unlikely that we avoid all the traps of the flesh which cause us to be proud and paralyzed by the pull of other men’s praise. We can be just as proud about our Bible knowledge, our gifts, and the fruit of our labor. We must keep receiving Jesus, loving the Father, and seeking His glory by seeking all our glory from Him.