28 Then Jesus, still teaching in the temple courts, cried out, "Yes, you know me, and you know where I am from. I am not here on my own, but he who sent me is true. You do not know him, 29 but I know him because I am from him and he sent me."
In our verses for today we find Jesus lifting His voice in an effort to arouse the Jews from wallowing in their perverse ignorance and persistent blindness to the Evidence before them that demanded a verdict. It was as if He were saying: “You think you know me and where I am from because you know where I have been raised and who my relatives of the flesh are but, quite frankly, you are simply clueless.” The reality was they knew very little of His Divine nature and of His unity with the Father. Clearly Jesus states He was sent from God whom He knows and who is true. There was intimate union between Jesus and the Father. The gospel of John is replete with this theme – thirty-nine times John refers to Jesus as the One that God had sent thus affirming Jesus’ Deity and His heavenly origin as well as God’s love and plan for redemption of mankind.
31 "The one who comes from above is above all; the one who is from the earth belongs to the earth, and speaks as one from the earth. The one who comes from heaven is above all. 32 He testifies to what he has seen and heard, but no one accepts his testimony. 33 The man who has accepted it has certified that God is truthful. 34 For the one whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for God gives the Spirit without limit. 35 The Father loves the Son and has placed everything in his hands. John 3:31-35 (NIV)
Jesus’ words that God had sent Him were much more than a mere assertion of a prophet’s commission. It was rather a declaration that He indeed was the Sent One, the Messiah, the Prophet that would be greater than Moses, the Promised One.
“I am the Seed of the woman sent to bruise the serpent’s head. I am He whom the Father covenanted and engaged to send for the redemption of a lost world. I am He whom the Father hath sent to be the Savior of lost man. I proclaim myself the Sent One – the Christ of God.” J.C. Ryle
Jesus charges these unbelieving Jews with ignorance of the God that they so zealously claim to serve and for whose honor they professed to be jealous. All of their boasting and zeal amounted only to lots of thunder but with no rain. As the house built upon the sand will not stand, neither would their hope and trust in their Law and Religion as they rejected God’s only Remedy for mankind. Sadly, they did not really know God; stumbling over the “stumbling stone”, they rejected God’s Messenger of Truth – as Truth was standing right before their eyes and they would not accept Him. Paul tells us in Romans:
1 Brothers, my heart's desire and prayer to God for the Israelites is that they may be saved. 2 For I can testify about them that they are zealous for God, but their zeal is not based on knowledge. 3 Since they did not know the righteousness that comes from God and sought to establish their own, they did not submit to God's righteousness. 4 Christ is the end of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes. Romans 10:1-4 (NIV)
Paul, like Jesus, had a deep spiritual burden for the salvation of the people of Israel. He was fully aware of their zeal having himself been a participant but it was a zeal which lacked full knowledge as they continually pursued righteousness through their own works. They refused to turn to Christ for righteousness apart from which they could not be saved. Not much has changed in 2,000 years – man still refuses his only Surety. Salvation comes through Christ alone. All of us are born with the terminal disease of sin – hopelessly broken and in need of a Savior. We are incapable of saving ourselves no matter how hard we work or how zealous we are. Peter filled with Spirit tells us in Acts:
12 Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved." Acts 4:12 (NIV)
Our Savior also plainly tells us:
6 Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7 If you really knew me, you would know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him." John 14:6-7 (NIV)
Salvation, contrary to what many people may believe, is not obtainable in many ways - Jesus being our only access to the Father – He is the One and Only from the Father, full of grace and truth. Jesus is the perfect manifestation of God therefore to believe in Jesus is to believe in God. We find in John a most remarkable statement from the mouth of our Savior:
44 Then Jesus cried out, "When a man believes in me, he does not believe in me only, but in the one who sent me. 45 When he looks at me, he sees the one who sent me. 46 I have come into the world as a light, so that no one who believes in me should stay in darkness. John 12:44-46 (NIV)