John 7:28-29

John 7:28-29. Jesus therefore cried in the temple-courts teaching and saying. Knowing that such words were in the mouths of the people of Jerusalem, Jesus cried aloud in the hearing of all. The word ‘teaching' may seem unnecessary: it appears to be added in order to link what is here said to the teaching of John 7:14; John 7:16: what He says is no chance utterance, but forms part of the teaching designed for this festival.

Ye Doth know me, and ye know whence I am. Jesus allows that they had a certain knowledge of Him, but He does this for the purpose of showing immediately thereafter that it was altogether inadequate and at fault. It was indeed important in one respect, for it involved the acknowledgment of His true humanity; but, denying all else, refusing to recognise Him in His higher aspect, scouting His claims to be the Sent of God, the expression of the eternal Father, it was really no more than an outward and carnal knowledge of Him. There seems to be a distinction between ‘whence I am ‘and' whence I come' (John 8:14). The latter includes more directly the idea of the Divine mission of Jesus.

And I have not come of myself, but he that sent me is true, whom ye know not. I know him, because I am from him, and he sent me. Words containing that true knowledge of Jesus which these men ‘of Jerusalem' had not. It consists in recognising in Him the ‘Sent' of Him who is ‘true,' not merely veracious or faithful, but real, who is the ground and essence of all reality, the only living and true God. In this respect those to whom Jesus was now speaking did not know Him; they beheld the outward man; they did not behold the manifestation of the eternal God. This ignorance, too, arose from the fact that they did not know God Himself. They thought that they knew Him; but they did not, for they had not penetrated to the right conception of His spiritual, righteous nature, a nature corresponding only to eternal realities, to what is ‘true.' Not knowing God, how could they know Jesus who ‘manifested' the true God, who was ‘from' the true God, and whom the true God ‘sent'? Had they known the One they would have recognised the Other (chap. John 5:37; John 8:19). The words of John 7:28-29 are thus words of sharp reproof.