He that believeth on the Son of God
As a divine person who came in the flesh, and obeyed the law, and
brought in everlasting righteousness, and obtained life and
salvation for men: he that with the heart believes in him for
righteousness, and eternal life, he being the Son of God, truly
and properly God, and so able to save all that believe in him,
hath the witness in himself;
of the need he stands in of Christ, and of the suitableness,
fulness, and excellency of him; the Spirit of God enlightening
him into the impurity of his nature, his impotence to do anything
spiritually good, his incapacity to atone for sin, and the
insufficiency of his righteousness to justify him before God; and
convincing him that nothing but the blood of the Son of God can
cleanse him from sin, and only his sacrifice can expiate it, and
his righteousness justify him from it, and that without him he
can do nothing; testifying also to the efficacy of his blood, the
completeness of his sacrifice and satisfaction, the excellency of
his righteousness, and the energy of his grace and strength: so
he comes to have such a witness in himself, that if ten thousand
arguments were ever so artfully formed, in favour of the purity
of human nature, the power of man's free will, and the
sufficiency of his righteousness, and against the sacrifice and
righteousness of Christ, the dignity of his person, as the Son of
God, which gives virtue to his blood, sacrifice, and
righteousness, they would all signify nothing to him, he would be
proof against them. And such an one very readily receives into
him the testimony God gives of his Son, of the glory and
excellency of his person, and retains it in him. The Alexandrian
copy and the Vulgate Latin version read, "hath the witness of God
in him"; to which the Ethiopic, version agrees, and confirm the
last observation:
he that believeth not God;
does not receive his testimony concerning his Son: the
Alexandrian copy, and two of Stephens's, and the Vulgate Latin
version read, "he that believeth not the Son"; and the Ethiopic
version, his Son; and the Arabic version, "the Son of God"; and
so is a direct antithesis to the phrase in the former clause of
the verse:
hath made him a liar;
not the Son, but God, as the Arabic version renders it, "hath
made God himself a liar"; who is the God, of truth, and cannot
lie; it is impossible he should; and as nothing can be, more
contumelious and reproachful to the being and nature of God, so
nothing can more fully expose and aggravate the sin of unbelief,
with respect to Christ, as the Son of God:
because he believeth not the record that God gave of his
Son;
at the times and places before observed.