Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of John 12:50
And I know that his commandment is life everlasting: whatsoever I speak therefore, even as the Father said unto me, so I speak.
50. And I know ] The Son’s testimony to the Father. ‘The commission which He hath given Me is eternal life.’ (See on Joh 3:16.) His commission is to save the world.
as the Father said ] The same distinction as in the previous verse: the matter of the revelation comes from the Father, the external expression of it from the Son.
With this the first main division of the Gospel ends. Christ’s revelation of Himself to the world in His ministry is concluded. The Evangelist has set before us the Testimony to the Christ, the Work of the Christ, and the Judgment respecting the work, which has ended in a conflict, and the conflict has reached a climax. We have reached the beginning of the end.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Is life everlasting – Is the cause or source of everlasting life. He that obeys the commandment of God shall obtain everlasting life; and this is his commandment, that we believe in the name of his only-begotten Son, 1Jo 3:22. We see here the reason of the earnestness and fidelity of the Lord Jesus. It was because he saw that eternal life depended on the faithful preaching of the message of God. He therefore proclaimed it in the face of all opposition, contempt, and persecution. And we see also:
- That every minister of religion should have a deep and abiding conviction that he delivers a message that is to be connected with the eternal welfare of his hearers. And,
- Under the influence of this belief, he should fearlessly deliver his message in the face of bonds, poverty, contempt, persecution, and death.
It may not be improper to remark here that this is the close of the public preaching of Christ. The rest of his ministry was employed in the private instruction of his apostles, and in preparing them for his approaching death. It is such a close as all his ministers should desire to make a solemn, deliberate, firm exhibition of the truth of God, under a belief that on it was depending the eternal salvation of his hearers, and uttering without fear the solemn message of the Most High to a lost world.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 50. I know that this commandment is life everlasting] These words of our Lord are similar to that saying in St. John’s first epistle, 1Jo 5:11-12. This is the record, that God hath given unto us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He that hath the Son hath life. God’s commandment or commission is, Preach salvation to a lost world, and give thyself a ransom for all; and whosoever believeth on thee shall not perish, but have everlasting life. Every word of Christ, properly credited, and carefully applied, leads to peace and happiness here, and to glory hereafter. What an amiable view of the Gospel of the grace of God does this give us? It is a system of eternal life, Divinely calculated to answer every important purpose to dying, miserable man. This sacred truth Jesus witnessed with his last breath. He began his public ministry proclaiming the kingdom of God; and he now finishes it by asserting that the whole commission is eternal life; and, having attested this, he went out of the temple, and retired to Bethany.
THE public work of our Lord was now done; and the remnant of his time, previously to his crucifixion, he spent in teaching his disciples-instructing them in the nature of his kingdom, his intercession, and the mission of the Holy Spirit; and in that heavenly life which all true believers live with the Father, through faith in the Son, by the operation of the Holy Ghost.
Many persons are liberal in their condemnation of the Jews, because they did not believe on the Son of God; and doubtless their unbelief has merited and received the most signal punishment. But those who condemn them do not reflect that they are probably committing the same sort of transgression, in circumstances which heighten the iniquity of their sin. Will it avail any man, that he has believed that Christ has come in the flesh to destroy the works of the devil, who does not come unto him that he may have life, but continues to live under the power and guilt of sin? Paradoxical as it may seem, it is nevertheless possible, for a man to credit the four evangelists, and yet live and die an infidel, as far as his own salvation is concerned. Reader, it is possible to hold the truth in unrighteousness. Pray to God that this may not be thy condemnation. For a farther improvement of the principal subjects of this chapter, see the notes on verses 24, 32, and 39. Joh 12:24; Joh 12:32; Joh 12:39
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
I am assured that the way to life everlasting is to obey his commandments; and that makes me speak, and deliver all that, and nothing but that, which I have in charge from my Father:
as the Father said unto me, so I speak. Therefore look you to it, in rejecting me, you reject my Father, whom you own and acknowledge for your God; and in disobeying me, you disobey my Father, and him whom you own as your Father also.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
And I know that his commandment is life everlasting,…. By “his commandment” is not meant the law; that indeed is often styled the commandment; and it is the commandment of God; and many excellent things are said of it; and among the rest it is called “life”, De 30:15, but not everlasting life: it only promised a continuation of natural life to man, on condition of obedience to it; more than this it did not promise to Adam, in innocence; and what it promised to the obedient Israelites, was only a prolongation of natural life in the land which God gave unto them: but it neither promises, nor gives spiritual life to the fallen sons of Adam; it leaves men as it finds them, dead in trespasses and sins; and cannot communicate either a life of sanctification, or of justification to them; nor does it so much as give them any hopes of life, or show where it is to be had; nor is everlasting life to be obtained by the works of it: justification is not by the works of the law; nor salvation by works of righteousness done by men; and consequently eternal life is never to be attained unto by obedience to the commands of the law: it is so far from being in this sense life everlasting, that it is the ministration of condemnation and death. But the Gospel is here meant, and is called a commandment; not that it has the nature of a law, or consists of precepts, as the law does; but because it is by the commandment of the everlasting God published by Christ, and his apostles. Christ, as appears from the preceding verse, had a commandment from his Father, what he should say and speak; now, not the doctrine he delivered was the commandment itself, but it was a commandment of the Father that he should deliver that doctrine; besides, the word “commandment” sometimes signifies no other than a doctrine, as in Ps 19:8; and the sense is, that the doctrine of the Gospel, which Christ had in commission from the Father to preach, is life everlasting; and is so called, because it is a means of quickening sinners with a spiritual life, which issues in an eternal one; it is the savour of life unto life, and the Spirit which giveth life, and is the ministration of it; and it is a means of implanting the graces of the Spirit of God in the heart, which sprung up unto everlasting life; and of bringing souls to the knowledge of Christ, which is the beginning, pledge, and earnest of eternal life: and besides all this, it gives an account of the nature of eternal life; it directs the way unto it, which is by Christ, and describes the persons who shall enjoy it; showing, that their title to it is the righteousness of Christ, and their meetness for it the regenerating grace of the Spirit; and that all that believe in Christ shall have it:
whatsoever I speak therefore, even as the Father said unto me so I speak; and no otherwise, and therefore ought to be received, and not rejected. This is to be understood not of what Christ spoke in common conversation, but in the ministry of the word, even of the doctrines of the Gospel, which were given him by his Father, and which he knew were agreeable to his mind and will, and to his council and covenant, and to everything done and agreed therein, to which he was privy: these he delivered as he received them, and both as to matter and manner, as it was his Father’s will and pleasure he should: he preached the righteousness of God, and hid it not; he declared his faithfulness, and his salvation, and concealed not his lovingkindness and truth, Ps 40:9. Now, though it is a sufficient ground of faith to receive and believe the doctrines of the Gospel, because Christ has spoken them, who is truth itself; yet it is a further confirmation of them, that they are what his Father, the God of truth, said unto him: and his delivering them as he had them from him, is an instance of his faithfulness to him that sent him; and should be imitated by his ministers, who ought to declare the whole counsel of God, and keep back nothing they have received from Christ, and which may be profitable to the souls of men.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Life eternal ( ). See John 3:15; Matt 25:46 for this great phrase. In 6:68 Peter says to Jesus, “Thou hast the words of eternal life.” Jesus had just said (6:63) that his words were spirit and life. The secret lies in the source, “as the Father hath said to me” ().
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
1) “And I know that his commandment,” (kai oida hoti he entole autou) “And I perceive or know that his commandment,” to those who are lost, the purpose, intent or object of it, Joh 3:17; Joh 12:48.
2) “Is life everlasting (zoe aionios estin) “Is (exists as) eternal life,” results in eternal life for those who hear, repent, believe, receive, or obey Him and His words, which I have given to the world, Mat 4:17; Luk 13:3; Luk 13:5; Luk 14:35; Mat 11:18; Joh 6:37.
3) “Whatsoever I speak therefore,” (ho oun ego lalo) “Then what things I speak,” and everything that I speak, have Divine authority behind them, even as He spoke to you all at my baptism, “Hear ye Him,” and as my mother told the servants, “whatsoever He saith unto you, do it,” Mat 3:17; Joh 2:5; Joh 6:63.
4) “Even as the Father said unto me,” (kathos eireken moi ho pater) “Just as the Father has directed me,” Joh 8:38; Joh 5:30; Gal 4:4-5; Joh 17:4-5.
5) “So I speak.” (houtos lalo) “Thus I speak,” Joh 14:10; Joh 14:24, and you all are my friends if you do what I tell you to do, Joh 15:14; Joh 13:34-35; Heb 10:7. He was to announce to them that the Father had offered eternal life to every man, as a gift, through faith in Him, Joh 10:27-29; 1Jn 5:12; 1Jn 5:11.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
50. And I know that his commandment is eternal life. He again applauds the fruit of his doctrine, that all may more willingly yield to it; and it is reasonable that wicked men should feel the vengeance of God, whom they now refuse to have as the Author of life.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(50) And I know that his commandment is life everlasting.i.e., the commission of the Messianic work. It is better to read here, as before, eternal life. (Comp. Joh. 3:15, et al.) The Son speaks not of Himself, but He speaks as executing this commission, which brings spiritual and eternal life to the world. It could not be otherwise. This commandment being eternal life, the whole teaching of the Messiah must simply be an utterance of it.
As the Father said unto me, so I speak.This clause answers to what I should say and what I should speak in the last verse. The external revelation is regarded as the work of the Son. That which the Father says is the truth revealed, and the matter and form are here identified.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
50. Commandment is life everlasting God’s divine, authoritative word implanted within our soul is eternal life in its very element and essence.
As the Father said so I speak And therefore rejecting my words is rejecting God’s words, and rejecting me is rejecting God. When Israel therefore rejected Christ she rejected the ancient Israel’s God; and all history since proclaims that she is of God rejected. And this thus far concludes our Evangelist’s history of the public ministry of Jesus to his countrymen and the world. It is a conclusion for weeping, and yet he is solemnly calm.
Through the remainder of this entire Gospel, (Joh 12:13-21,) being nearly half of the whole, we have Jesus’s private ministry within his apostolic college, until he comes forth for the sacrifice, with the consummation.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘And what I say, therefore, I say as the Father has told me I must’.
Jesus confirms that all He has said has been because God has instructed Him in what to say and has made Him say it under the divine necessity. He is God’s mouthpiece, God’s voice.
So John stresses at the end of this section which began with Joh 1:1, and ends here, both the Messiahship and Sonship of Jesus, and the essence of His teaching, along with the certainty that it has come directly from the Father, and is in accordance with His Father’s instruction. This is the message for which He will die, and now His ministry is complete He can go on to the preparation of His disciples for His final act.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
REFLECTIONS
Ponder well, my soul, the many blessed things contained in this chapter concerning thy God and Savior. And while thou beholdest the gracious condescension of Jesus in the days of his flesh, granting his sweet presence and divine discourses, in supping with his people, as in the house of Lazarus, and Simon the Leper; do not for a moment question, but that now, in the day of his power, he will come, as he hath said, and sup with his people, and cause them by faith to sup with him. And what though thou hast no costly ointment, as Mary had, to anoint thy Lord’s feet, yet, when Jesus comes, he will bring everything that is blessed with him. Remember, that thy Lord comes not to receive, but to give, not that He may be made more blessed, for that is impossible, but that thou mayest be made more happy. It is enough when through his grace enabling them, his people lay low at his feet, and while the king sitteth at the table of his own providing, he will cause the spikenard of his own graces, called forth into exercise from thine heart by his Holy Spirit, to send forth the smell thereof
Blessed Lord Jesus! may I never forget that soul trouble of thine which is here spoken of! Give me grace to meditate on the wondrous subject. Oh! for a solemnity of soul always suited to the contemplation. The very recollection is enough to damp all unsuited and unbecoming lightness of mind at all times. Did Jesus feel soul-heaviness on the account of his redeemed, and shall they be light minded? Did Jesus groan, and shall I be unconcerned? Blessed be my God and Father, who so graciously answered his dear Son by a voice from heaven. And blessed be the Lord for his mercy to all his redeemed by the act, since it came for their sakes. And oh! for grace, to rejoice with a joy unspeakable, and full of glory, in what God the Father then declared to his dear Son, concerning his Mediator-office and character, that the Lord had glorified his name, and will glorify it again, yea, forever! And blessed be God for that precious assurance, more precious than the gold of Ophir, it was the glory of Christ, which Esaias saw when he spake of Him. It is, and everlastingly must be the glory of Christ, which is the joy of all his people. Oh! thou dear Lord! write these blessed words of thine in my heart, to lift up my soul with joy forever: I am come (saith my Lord,) a light into the world, that whosoever believeth on me shall not abide in darkness.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
50 And I know that his commandment is life everlasting: whatsoever I speak therefore, even as the Father said unto me, so I speak.
Ver. 50. See Trapp on “ Joh 12:49 “
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
50. ] See ch. Joh 6:63 (and note), 68. On , ch. Joh 3:11 ; Joh 5:32 ; Joh 8:55 .
The is , results in, not as a means merely, but in its accomplishment and expansion, eternal life: see ch. Joh 3:15 ; Joh 5:24 ; Joh 6:40 .
Thus all who do not believe are without excuse; because Jesus is not come, and speaks not, of Himself, but of the Father, Whose will and commandment respecting Him is, that He should be, and give, Life to all. They who reject Him, reject Life, and (ch. Joh 3:19 ) prefer darkness to Light.
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Joh 12:50 . . “And I know that His commandment is life eternal,” that is, the commandment which Jesus had received (Joh 12:49 ) was to proclaim life eternal. This was His commission; this was what He was to speak. He was to announce to men that the Father offered through Him life eternal. “Therefore whatever I speak, as the Father hath said to me, so I speak.”
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
His commandment, &c. Figure of speech Ellipsis. App-6. The result of obeying His commandment is life everlasting. Compare 1Jn 3:23; 1Jn 5:11.
everlasting. Greek. aionios. Same as “eternal” in Joh 12:25. See App-151.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
50.] See ch. Joh 6:63 (and note), 68. On , ch. Joh 3:11; Joh 5:32; Joh 8:55.
The is, results in, not as a means merely, but in its accomplishment and expansion, eternal life: see ch. Joh 3:15; Joh 5:24; Joh 6:40.
Thus all who do not believe are without excuse;-because Jesus is not come, and speaks not, of Himself, but of the Father, Whose will and commandment respecting Him is, that He should be, and give, Life to all. They who reject Him, reject Life, and (ch. Joh 3:19) prefer darkness to Light.
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Joh 12:50. , life everlasting) Wherefore he who despises the words of Christ, despises life everlasting. For life everlasting rests upon the experimental knowledge of the Father and the Son: ch. Joh 17:3, This is life eternal, that they might know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
Joh 12:50
Joh 12:50
And I know that his commandment is life eternal: the things therefore which I speak, even as the Father hath said unto me, so I speak.-Jesus knew the commandment was from God and that it would give or lead all who followed it to life everlasting. The following teaches the same thing: And the witness is this, that God gave unto us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He that hath the Son hath the life; he that hath not the Son of God hath not the life. (1Jn 5:11-12). The laws that God gave to Jesus grew out of the principles that moved God. Jesus was God in the flesh, showing what the principles and life of God would be in the flesh. For man to receive these principles into his heart and to live them is to make him like God in character and will fit him to live with God forever. [Jesus said, My words are spirit and they are life. There are life-giving principles in the word of God when received in the heart and become the law of life. John here closes his record of the revelation of Jesus to the world.]
Questions on John Chapter Twelve
E.M. Zerr
1. To what place did Jesus come?
2. When was this with reference to the passover?
3. Tell who lived here.
4. What is said of Lazarus?
5. How was Jesus now entertained?
6. What position did Lazarus have on this occasion ?
7. Describe what Mary did.
8. Who complained?
9. Was he sincere?
10. Tell of his character.
11. For what occasion was the act of Mary?
12. How did Jesus reason on the matter?
13. What attracted many Jews here now?
14. State the conspiracy of the chief priests.
15. What was the reason?
16. Into what city did Jesus enter next day?
17. How was he received?
18. What was his means of conveyance?
19. Was this event to be expected?
20. When did the disciples understand about this?
21. What people gave their testimony?
22. State the unpleasant observation of the Pharisees.
23. Who are said to have come to the feast to worship?
24. Was this lawful?
25. To whom did they appeal?
26. State their request.
27. By whom was it passcd on to Jesus?
28. Repeat the announcement of Jesus.
29. What object was used for an illustration?
30. To what event did he refer?
31. Who will lose, or keep, his life?
32. The servants of Jesus should do what?
33. If they do, what will be their reward?
34. What did Jesus say of his soul?
35. Repeat his request.
36. And the reply.
37. How did this affect the people?
38. State the explanation of Jesus.
39. Who was to be cast out?
40. How was Jesus to draw men to him?
41. To what did this refer?
42. What misunderstanding did the people have?
43. State the admonition Jesus gave them.
44. How did his miracles affect the masses?
45. Who had prophesied this?
46. What blindness was foretold?
47. State the motive for this perverseness.
48. What did some of the rulers do?
49. And what did they not do?
50. What was the reason?
51. Tell what love was the cause of this.
52. Belief in Jesus means what other belief?
53. What does he say about light?
54. What will be done to the unbeliever?
55. Why will Jesus not jndge him?
56. What constitutes rejecting Jesus?
57. By what will the guilty be judged?
58. At what time will he ce judged?
59. By what authority did Jesus speak?
60. From what comes life everlasting?
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
his: Joh 6:63, Joh 6:68, Joh 17:3, Joh 20:31, 1Ti 1:16, 1Jo 2:25, 1Jo 3:23, 1Jo 3:24, 1Jo 5:11-13, 1Jo 5:20
Reciprocal: Deu 18:18 – he shall Pro 3:22 – life Pro 4:4 – keep Pro 7:2 – Keep Ecc 7:12 – the excellency Joh 5:32 – and I Joh 6:40 – and believeth Joh 7:16 – My Joh 8:28 – and that Joh 8:38 – speak Joh 17:7 – are Act 5:20 – all Act 11:14 – words
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
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Jesus could speak in this positive manner about the laws of his Father, because he was with Him from the beginning, and had direct and personal knowledge of their eternal character. (See Joh 1:1; Joh 1:14.)
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Joh 12:50. And I know that his commandment is eternal life: whatsoever I speak therefore, even as the Father hath said unto me, so I speak. The substance of the Divine commandment is contained in the word of Jesus, and His word gives life eternal, His word is life (chap. Joh 5:24, Joh 6:63; Joh 6:68).