John 3:33Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

If one persuaded by His words and receiving the testimony which He gives concerning Himself has set his seal and affirmed that God is true, how can Christ not be understood as God by nature? His truthfulness has been testified through faith in the very words He has just spoken. Or let our opponent answer us again. How can the divine nature be honored as true through the receiving of the testimony of our Savior? If He is not God by nature at all, then the one who believes Him as speaking the truth shows piety not toward the divine nature. Rather, according to them, he shows it toward one of the creatures, though the most excellent. But since the affirmation and confession of truthfulness belong to God when faith is given to Christ, it is evident to all that, being God, He does not seize falsely named honor from believers. Yet the enemy of truth will probably not agree with these words of ours. Refusing to acknowledge the Son as God by nature, he will strongly resist and say again: "You are misusing the word, my dear sir, and inventing intricate turns of thought, while abandoning the simple and always straightforward sense. Since the Word of God came down from heaven, clearly crying, 'I do not speak from Myself' (Jn 14:10), and, 'The Father who sent Me gave Me commandment, what I should say and what I should speak' (Jn 12:49), and again, 'All that I have heard from the Father,' I will proclaim to you (Jn 15:15). Or, as the holy Baptist himself testified immediately afterward, 'For He whom God has sent speaks the words of God' (Jn 3:34), therefore the Baptist says of Him, 'He who receives His testimony has set his seal that God is true.' For God and the Father is indeed true. But you are trying to transfer to the Son what must be referred to Another, the Father." What shall we say against this? Must the Only-begotten be numbered among the prophets, as fulfilling the ministry proper to prophets and accomplishing nothing beyond this? Who does not know that the prophets handed down divine sayings to us? What, then, will be distinctive in the Son if He performs only this one thing? How is He "above all" if He is counted with the prophets and clothed with a servile ministry? How does He, as surpassing them in glory, say in the Gospels, "If He called them gods, to whom the word of God came, and Scripture cannot be broken, do you say of Him whom the Father sanctified and sent into the world, 'You blaspheme,' because I said, 'I am the Son of God'" (Jn 10:35-36)? Here He clearly separates Himself from the company of the prophets. He says that they were called gods because the word of God came to them, but He confesses Himself to be Son. For only partial grace was distributed to the holy prophets through the Spirit. But in Christ the Savior "all the fullness of the Godhead bodily" was pleased to dwell, as Paul says (Col 2:9). Therefore "from His fullness we have all received," as John affirms (Jn 1:16). How can the Giver have equal dignity with those who receive? Or how can the fullness of the Godhead fall to the lot of a servant? Let them see from this into what dangerous blasphemy their speech can fall. How the saying, "I do not speak from Myself, but the Father who sent Me gave Me commandment, what I should say and what I should speak" (Jn 14:10; 12:49), must be understood will be explained more fully in its own time and place. In the present case, I think it right to turn the objections of our opponents to the profit of piety. On the basis of their assertions, I shall defend the dogmas of the Church. They assert that the Son received commandments from the Father and says nothing from Himself. Rather, what He has heard, as He Himself testifies in one place, this He speaks to us (Jn 8:26). Very well, let it be so. We shall agree with this, since it does no harm to the Son in regard to the mode of His being or His essence. On the contrary, in the present case it gives a fine clarification of the divine economy. Therefore, when they hear His words, "I and the Father are one" (Jn 10:30), "He who has seen Me has seen the Father" (Jn 14:9), and "I am in the Father and the Father in Me" (Jn 14:10), let them receive "His testimony." Let them set their seal that God, even the Father, is true. They compel the Son to say what He knows exactly. Let them believe the words of the Savior, who explains to us what is from God. Concerning the Savior, the blessed Baptist says, "He who receives His testimony has confirmed that God is true." If the one who believes what Christ says and affirms has confirmed that God is true, then Christ is God. Those who hear Him believe in Him as true. And since "there shall be no new god among you" (Ps 80:10), how can He be created?

Would answer, "I do not know what the 'no one' in my words means." There are, of course, men born for the wrath of God and prepared for it from the beginning. For God knew from the beginning who would believe and who would not believe. God knew from the beginning who would persevere in what he had believed, and who would fall away from faith. All men prepared for eternal life had already been numbered by God. He already knew these particular persons. If He knew this and made it known to the prophets through His Spirit, then He also made it known to John. Therefore John saw this, not with his own eyes. For in what concerned himself, he was earthly and spoke from the earth. Rather, by the grace of the Spirit which he received from God, he saw certain ungodly and unbelieving men. Seeing them remaining in their unbelief, he said, "No one receives the testimony of Him who came from heaven." No one from among whom? From among those who will stand on the left side. To them it will be said, "Depart into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels" (cf. Mt 25:41). And who are those who receive? They are those who will stand on the right side. To them it will be said, "Come, blessed of My Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world" (Mt 25:34). Thus he sees this division in the spirit, though in the human race he sees a mingling. What had not yet been separated by place, he separated in understanding and in the gaze of the heart. He sees two peoples, believers and unbelievers. He fixes his attention on the unbelievers and says, "He who comes from heaven is above all; what He has seen and heard, of that He bears witness; and no one receives His testimony" (Jn 3:31-32). Then he turned his gaze away from the left side, turned it to the right, and said, "He who has received His testimony has set his seal to this, that God is true" (Jn 3:33). And what does "has set his seal to this, that God is true" mean, except that man is false and God is true? For no man can speak what belongs to the truth unless he is enlightened by Him who cannot lie. Therefore God is true, and Christ is God. Do you wish to be convinced? Receive His testimony, and you will find this: "He who has received His testimony has set his seal to this, that God is true." Who is true? He who came from heaven and is above all is the true God. But if you do not yet understand that He is God, and have not yet received His testimony, then receive it. You will set your seal, clearly understand, and surely know that God is true. "For He whom God has sent speaks the words of God" (Jn 3:34). He Himself is the true God, and God sent Him. God sent God. Join the two together: there is one God, and the true God is sent by God. Ask about each separately: each of Them is God. Ask about both: both are God. They are not separate Gods, nor two Gods. Each separately is God, and both are God. For so great is the love of the Holy Spirit, and so great the peace of unity, that when you ask about each separately, you are answered: They are God. When you ask about the Trinity, you are answered: It is God. For if the human spirit, when joined to God, is one spirit, as the Apostle said most clearly, "He who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him" (1 Cor 6:17), how much more is the Son equal to the Father one God with Him when joined to the Father. Hear also another testimony. You know how many believers there were when they sold all they possessed and laid it at the apostles' feet, so that distribution might be made to each according to need. And you know what Scripture says about that assembly of saints: "There was one heart and one soul in the Lord" (Acts 4:32). If love made one soul out of so many souls, and one heart out of so many hearts, how great is the love between the Father and the Son? Certainly it must be greater than among those men who became one heart. If the heart of many brethren became one through love, and the soul of many brethren became one through love, will you say that God the Father and God the Son are two Gods? If They are two Gods, then there is no supreme love between Them. For if love here is so strong that it makes your soul and your friend's soul one soul, how can there not be one God, the Father and the Son, there? Let faith be far from thinking so perversely. In short, understand how excellent that love is from this. Many men have many souls, and if they love one another, they become one soul. Yet one may still say, "many souls." This can be said of men, because the union among them is not so great. But there you may say, "one God." You must not say "two Gods" or "three Gods." From there is entrusted to you such greatness and such height of love that nothing can be greater.

"He who has received His testimony has set his seal to this, that God is true." If John speaks of those who have received the testimony, then, of course, he cannot say that no one receives His testimony.

Thus, in saying that, sadly, not all receive Jesus' testimony, John quite transparently alluded to his own disciples, who had spoken to him about Jesus with such hostility and envy.

Noting with sadness such feelings in his disciples toward Jesus, John said to them: "You must believe everything that He says and will say. God has sent Him and has given Him all the power of His Spirit.

Therefore everything He says is spoken by God Himself. His words are the words of God. For He is the Son of God and has all the authority of God.

Whoever believes in Him thereby proves that he believes in God, and for this may be granted the blessedness of eternal life. But whoever does not believe in the Son rejects God, and for this he himself will be rejected by God.

Believe, then, in Jesus as the Son of God, the Christ-Messiah promised to you. Regard me, as I told you earlier, as His servant, unworthy even to loose the strap of His sandal.

Go to Him, and follow Him. He must increase, but I must decrease."

As he was ending his service to God, John in this last address to his disciples urged them to join Jesus and follow Him. These words are the testament of the greatest of the prophets.

Thus, for the Jews, John the Baptist's naming of Jesus Christ as the bridegroom had a deep and at the same time intelligible meaning. It was a confession of Christ as Messiah, the Son of God.

Soon after this, John the Baptist was confined in prison, and his disciples very likely entered the number of Christ's disciples.

The one who receives the testimony of the Lord Jesus thereby confirms, or seals, that he believes that in Christ Jesus is the fulfillment of all God's promises and all the hopes of the immortal human soul.

Whoever believes this believes "that God is true," for in the God-man the true God was manifested, who in the Old Testament promised salvation to men.