John 5:40

And ye will not come to me, that ye might have life. AND YE WILL NOT COME, [ ou (G3756 ) thelete (G2309 ) elthein (G2064 ), RATHER 'YE ARE NOT WILLING TO COME'] TO ME, THAT YE MIGHT HAVE LIFE: - q.d., 'With disregarding the Scriptures I charge you not: Ye do indeed busy yourselves about them (He was addressing, it will be remembered, the rulers-see the note at John 5:16): rightly deeming them your charter of eternal life: But ye miss the great Burden of them: Of Me it is they testify; and yet to Me ye will not come for that e...

40._And you will not come to me. _He again reproaches them that it is nothing but their own malice that hinders them from becoming partakers of the life offered in the Scriptures; for when he says that they _will not_, he imputes the cause of their ignorance and blindness to wickedness and obstinacy. And, indeed, since he offered himself to them so graciously, they must have been willfully blind; but when they intentionally fled from the light, and even desired to extinguish the sun by the darkness of their unbelief, Christ justly reproves them with greater severity....

39-44 The Jews considered that eternal life was revealed to them in their Scriptures, and that they had it, because they had the word of God in their hands. Jesus urged them to search those Scriptures with more diligence and attention. "Ye do search the Scriptures," and ye do well to do so. They did indeed search the Scriptures, but it was with a view to their own glory. It is possible for men to be very studious in the letter of the Scriptures, yet to be strangers to its power. Or, "Search the Scriptures," and so it was spoken to them in the nature of an appeal. Ye profess to receive and believe the Scripture, let that be the judge. It is spoken to us as advising or commanding all Christians to search the Scriptures. Not only read them, and hear them, but search them; which denotes diligence in examining and studying them. We must search the Scriptures for heaven as our great end; For...

Verse 40. _AND YE WILL NOT COME TO ME_] Though ye thus search the Scriptures, in hopes of finding the _Messiah_ and _eternal life_ in them, yet _ye will not come unto me_, believe in me, and be my disciples, though so clearly pointed out by them, that ye may have that eternal life which can only come through me....

AND YE WILL NOT COME ... - Though the Old Testament bears evidence that I am the Messiah; though you professedly search it to learn the way to life, and though my works prove it, yet you will not come to me to obtain life. From this we may learn: 1.That life is to be obtained in Christ. He is the way, the truth, and the life, and he only can save us. 2.That, in order to do that, we must “come to him” - that is, must come in the way appointed, as lost sinners, and be willing to be saved by him alone. 3.That the reason why sinners are not saved lies in the will. “The only reason why sinners die is because ‘they will not come’ to Christ for life and happiness: it is not because they ‘cannot,’ but because they ‘will not’” (Henry). * Si

EXPOSITION Here commences the second division of the Gospel (John 5:1) II. THE CONFLICT WITH THE CHOSEN PEOPLE IN JERUSALEM, GALILEE, AND JERUSALEM, TO THE DEATH SENTENCE RECORDED BY THE SANHEDRIN. JOHN 5:1 1. _Christ proved, by signs and wonders and testimonies, to be Source of life._ JOHN 5:1 (1)

AND YE WILL NOT COME TO ME,.... Which is to be understood, not of a corporeal coming to him; for many of the Jews did come to him in this sense; some for one thing, and some for another; some for the loaves, that they might eat and be filled; some to see his miracles, and others to partake of the benefit of them; some to hear him preach, and others to catch and cavil at what they could: nor is bare coming to hear Christ preached, or an outward attendance on, and submission to his ordinances, such a coming to him as is here designed; for with these eternal life is not connected: bodily exercise profiteth not in this way; but a spiritual coming to Christ, or a coming to him by faith is here meant; in which sense the phrase is frequently used in this Gospel, especially in the next chapter; see John 6:35; and those who come aright to Christ, come to him as the alone, able, suitable, and suff...

John 5:24. _Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life,_ If we truly believe the word of Christ, and trust in him who sent his Son into the world, we have at this moment everlasting life. John 5:24. _And shalt not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life._ What a grand verse this is! It is worthy to be written in letters of gold at every street corner; would that we all knew the fullness of its meaning by heartfelt experience! John 5:25. Verily, verily, I say unto you, The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live. For as the

CHAPTER 5 _ 1. The Healing of the Impotent Man. (John 5:1 .)_ 2. The Opposition of the Jews. (John 5:10 .) 3. His Unity with the Father. (John 5:19 .) 4. The Present Hour. Believers Delivered from Death and Judgment. (John 5:24 .) 5. The Future Hour. His Power to Raise the Dead. (John 5:26 .) 6. Witness Concerning Himself. (John 5:30 .) 7. The Witness of John. (John 5:33

WITNESS. The subject is introduced abruptly, but rises naturally out of the circumstances. The claims made, if less than the author represents them, were such as to raise the question of authority. By what authority could He substantiate them? In the first place, John the Baptist, in whose teaching the people for a time took such pleasure. His chief witness is God Himself, whose testimony is declared through the works which He enables Jesus to do, and also directly in Scripture, which they study in the hope of gaining life. And yet they reject the Prophet, whom Moses in those very Scriptures (_cf._ Deuteronomy 18:15 ff.) and many others foretold....