John 5:45Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

You say that by persecuting Me you prove your love for God. But I have shown that you do this because you do not love Him.

You say that I break the Sabbath and transgress the law. I have rejected this charge as well.

You claim that, because of faith in Moses, you allow yourselves such actions against Me. Again I explain to you that by this very thing you especially prove your unbelief in Moses.

I am so far from intending to oppose the law that your accuser will be no other than the very one who gave you the law.

As Christ said concerning the Scriptures, "for you think that through them you have eternal life," so He also says concerning Moses, "in whom you hope."

In every case He binds the Jews by their own words.

But they might say, how is it evident that Moses will accuse us, and that You do not boast of this in vain?

What have You in common with Moses? You break the Sabbath, which Moses laid down as something to be kept. How then can he accuse us?

And how is it evident that we shall believe in another who comes in his own name? You say all this without proofs.

But all this, Christ answers them, already follows from what came before.

Once it has been confirmed by My works, by the voice of John, and by the testimony of the Father that I have come from God, it is clear that Moses will accuse you.

Without doubt, we should not think that those who disobey Christ escape accusation before Him because He said to the Jews, "Do not think that I shall accuse you before the Father."

Otherwise what shall we say when we hear from Him: "Everyone who confesses Me before men, I also will confess before My Father who is in heaven. But whoever denies Me before men, I also will deny before My Father who is in heaven" (Mt 10:32-33)?

Should we not, with complete justice, suppose that those to whom this happens through Christ will one day be accused before God and the Father through that denial?

I think this is clear to everyone.

Therefore the Jews, who denied Christ through prolonged disobedience to Him, are certainly not free from accusation. Yet this accusation is applied to them indirectly and subtly.

Since they rejected His instruction and attached no value to His divine and heavenly teaching, they always cared for the observance of the Mosaic ordinances.

They even openly cried out: "We know that God spoke to Moses. As for this Man, we do not know where He is from" (Jn 9:29).

Therefore He sets before them a wholly unavoidable rebuke: they sin even against Moses himself, in whom they boast.

No other accuser is needed, He says. The law of Moses alone is enough against them, since they disobey it and by that very fact fall under just accusation.

This remains so even if the voice of the Judge, that is, Christ, says nothing.

But if you search Scripture without hindrance, it itself will convict you before God. Moses, in whom you hope, wrote directly of Me, and he, not I, will accuse you before My Father."

The Evangelist tells us nothing here about the consequences of this discourse.

But from what follows we see that at the next Passover the Lord could not go to Jerusalem. Even one and a half years after this discourse, the Jerusalem Pharisees still remembered it and sought Jesus' life.

Jn 7:21-23 speaks directly about one work: the healing of the whole man on the Sabbath, that is, both in body and soul; 5:14.

Thus from this time the Jerusalem Pharisees began to persecute Jesus as their most dangerous enemy. From this one may conclude that soon after that discourse the Lord was compelled to leave Jerusalem, which was hostile to Him.

Yet the seed of divine teaching undoubtedly did not remain wholly without fruit even then.

The more attentive and impartial hearers of the Lord, such as Nicodemus, received in these instructions new light for understanding the divine person of the Savior.

By this the Lord does not say that He will not accuse them before God for unbelief in Him as the Messiah. Such accusation is implied by the authority and actions of Jesus Christ as Judge; vv. 22, 30.

He indicates only that the very one in whom they most hope, Moses, will also be their accuser before God.

"I shall accuse" means for unbelief in Me as the true Messiah. The accusation is understood not only in reference to the last judgment day, but generally.

On the judgment day the Lord will appear not as accuser, but as Judge with full authority.

"There is one who accuses you" is an expressive indication that their accuser will not only exist in the future, but already exists. He has long been their constant accuser.

For this reason the present tense is used: "there is."

"In whom you hope": this accuser of yours is the one in whom you most hope. This is a striking turn of speech for the hearers.

"You hope" means you place all your hopes in him; cf. 2 Cor 1:10.

For their zeal for the law and obedience to it, Rom 9ff., the Jews hoped to receive all the blessings of the Kingdom of the Messiah.

Their lawgiver Moses was their surety for this. Their hope in him was unshakable, but instead he is their accuser.

Moses is the accuser of the Jews because he wrote of Christ, and they do not believe Christ. Therefore they do not believe him, Moses, either.

In this very unbelief toward him and toward Christ, he is their constant accuser.

Jesus is the preacher of God's goodness. Moses is the preacher of God's righteousness. Therefore it is not Christ, but Moses, who will call God's righteousness to vengeance against the Jews for all their unrighteousness.

"For if you believed Moses, you would believe Me, for he wrote of Me."

The clearest and most direct prophecy of Moses about the Messiah is his prediction of the great prophet; Deut 32:15, 18.

This meaning of the prophecy was preserved by Jewish tradition and was also shown in the new revelation; Acts 3:22-23, Acts 7:37.

By not believing in Jesus, the Jews went against this prophecy.

They do not believe in Moses' history of the fall of mankind either. Otherwise they would reverently have received Him who appeared to crush the head of the serpent.

They do not believe the promises given to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. They do not believe Israel's prophecy concerning Judah; Gen 49:10.

Otherwise they would have received with joy the One awaited by the nations.

"But if you do not believe his writings, how will you have faith in My words?"

Prejudices darken the true meaning of Moses' writings in the mind of the Jews. In their view there is no true Moses at all. They have their own Moses.

When the true Moses is shown to them, they reject him because of their prejudices.

In such a state, it is natural that they also reject Jesus, proclaimed by Moses, and do not wish to listen to Him with reverence.

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites,” the Lord said to them, “for you are like whitewashed tombs” Mt 23:27; Lk 11:44. If the teachers of Israel had studied Moses, in whom they claimed to trust, with a sense of faith, could they have failed to recognize in the Lord “the expectation of the nations”? Is 42:1-3; Gen 49:10. Was He not, according to the books of Moses, “the seed of the woman” Gen 3:15? Was He not the joyful day awaited by Abraham, Jn 8:56; Gen 17:7; 22:16-18? Was He not the Reconciler who was to arise from the seed of Judah, to whom the nations owed obedience, Gen 49:10? And finally, did not Moses point directly to Him, Deut 18:18, when he foretold to the people the Prophet whom God would raise up, who would speak the words of God? “For he wrote of Me,” says the Lord to the Jews. Beginning with the most ancient promises, Moses and the prophets spoke of the salvation of mankind in general. The particular condition of the people at a given moment in their historical life was only a secondary subject of exhortations and prophecies. The chief purpose of the sacred books of the Old Testament was the religious development of Israel. They prepared Israel to receive Him who, when He came to His own, was not received by them, Jn 1:11. But the stiff-necked people were led along a false path by their leaders. These leaders did not understand, and did not wish to understand, the moral side and purpose of the law. The Lord’s final words in this teaching strike them like thunder and leave them without reply: “If you do not believe Moses’ writings, how will you believe My words?” They could not fail to recognize that the Lord had read complete unbelief in their hearts, and the loss of the very capacity to believe. They answered nothing. But from that moment the thought of killing the Lord matures in them more and more. This thought already appears immediately after the healing of the sick man on the Sabbath, Jn 5:16. Then they enter into dispute with the Lord, and His words to them are recorded in this fifth chapter. But the thought of murder had so ripened that in chapter 7 it is said that the Lord walked in Galilee. He did not wish to walk in Judea, because the Jews sought to kill Him, and “His hour had not yet come” Jn 7:30. But as the Lord said in Lk 13:32-35: “Behold, I cast out demons and perform cures today and tomorrow, and on the third day I shall be perfected.” “Nevertheless I must journey today and tomorrow and the day following. For it cannot be that a prophet should perish outside Jerusalem.” “O Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those sent to you, how often I desired to gather your children, as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not.” “Behold, your house is left to you desolate. I say to you, you shall not see Me until the time comes when you say: Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.”