Chapter 50—Among Snares
This chapter is based on
John 7:16-36, 40-53
;
John 8:1-11
.
All the while Jesus was at Jerusalem during the feast He was
shadowed by spies. Day after day new schemes to silence Him were
tried. The priests and rulers were watching to entrap Him. They were
planning to stop Him by violence. But this was not all. They wanted
to humble this Galilean rabbi before the people.
On the first day of His presence at the feast, the rulers had come to
Him, demanding by what authority He taught. They wished to divert
attention from Him to the question of His right to teach, and thus to
their own importance and authority.
“My teaching is not Mine,” said Jesus, “but His that sent Me. If any
man willeth to do His will, he shall know of the teaching, whether it
be of God, or whether I speak from Myself.”
John 7:16, 17
, R. V. The
question of these cavilers Jesus met, not by answering the cavil, but by
opening up truth vital to the salvation of the soul. The perception and
appreciation of truth, He said, depends less upon the mind than upon
the heart. Truth must be received into the soul; it claims the homage of
the will. If truth could be submitted to the reason alone, pride would
be no hindrance in the way of its reception. But it is to be received
through the work of grace in the heart; and its reception depends upon
the renunciation of every sin that the Spirit of God reveals. Man’s
advantages for obtaining a knowledge of the truth, however great these
may be, will prove of no benefit to him unless the heart is open to
receive the truth, and there is a conscientious surrender of every habit
[456]
and practice that is opposed to its principles. To those who thus yield
themselves to God, having an honest desire to know and to do His will,
the truth is revealed as the power of God for their salvation. These will
be able to distinguish between him who speaks for God, and him who
speaks merely from himself. The Pharisees had not put their will on
the side of God’s will. They were not seeking to know the truth, but to
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