Verse:
John 5:30
I can of mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and my judgment is just ( justify / dikaios ); because I seek ( seek / zeteo ) not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me.
Commentary by Adam Clarke
Verse 30. I can of mine own self do nothing I seek not mine own will
Because of my intimate union with God. See Clarke on John 5:19. Reader, God hath sent thee also to do his will: his will is that thou shouldst abandon thy sins, and believe in the Lord Jesus. Hast thou yet done it?
I do not, I cannot attempt to do any thing without God. This, that is, the Son of man, the human nature which is the temple of my Divinity, John 1:14, is perfectly subject to the Deity that dwells in it. In this respect our blessed Lord is the perfect pattern of all his followers. In every thing their wills should submit to the will of their heavenly Father. Nothing is more common than to hear people say, I will do it because I choose. He who has no better reason to give for his conduct than his own will shall in the end have the same reason to give for his eternal destruction. "I followed my own will, in opposition to the will of God, and now I am plunged in the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone."
John 1:14
The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
Source
Commentary by Barnes
Verse 30. Of mine own self. See John 5:19. The Messiah, the Mediator, does nothing without the concurrence and the authority of God. Whatever he does, he does according to the will of God. http://www.studylight.org/com/bnn/view.cgi?book=joh&chapter=5&verse=30#Joh5_30
As I hear I judge. To hear expresses the condition of one who is commissioned or instructed. Thus (John 8:26), "I speak to the world those things which I have heard of him;" John 8:18, "As the father hath taught me, I speak those things." Jesus here represents himself as commissioned, taught, or sent of God. When he says, "as I hear," he refers to those things which the Father had showed him John 5:20--that is, he came to communicate the will of God; to show to man what God wished man to know.
I judge. I determine or decide. This was true respecting the institutions and doctrines of religion, and it will be true respecting the sentence which he will pass on mankind at the day of judgment. He will decide their destiny according to what the Father will and wishes--that is, according to justice.
Because I seek, &c. This does not imply that his own judgment would be wrong if he sought his own will, but that he had no private ends, no selfish views, no improper bias. He came not to aggrandize himself, or to promote his own views, but he came to do the will of God. Of course his decision would be impartial and unbiased, and there is every security that it will be according to truth. See Luke 22:42 where he gave a memorable instance, in the agony of the garden, of his submission to his Father's will."the will of the Father" Psalms 40:7,8; Matthew 26:39; John 4:34; John 6:38
Luke 22:42
"Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done."
Psalms 40:7,8 Matthew 26:39
7 Then I said, "Here I am, I have come-
it is written about me in the scroll.
8 I desire to do your will, O my God;
your law is within my heart."John 4:34
Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, "My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will." John 6:38
"My food," said Jesus, "is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work.
For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me.
Commentary by Coffman
I can of myself do nothing ... My judgment is righteous ...
These words have a double application: (1) I see that nothing I can say will have any weight with you, and (2) my signs should be interpreted by you as revealing that myself alone, apart from God, could never have done such a thing as cure the invalid. If I bear witness of myself, my witness is not true ...
is the equivalent of "My witness of myself is absolutely true, because I am doing the will of God who sent me." Source
This means, "But you are rejecting my witness of myself because I am the one witnessing." It is as if Jesus had said, "Oh yes, I read what you are thinking, namely, that if I bear witness of myself, my witness is not true." Thus this verse is a line of the conversation which the Pharisees did not utter, but which Jesus read out of their hearts. Without for a moment yielding any of the authority of his own witness, the Lord immediately marshalled other witnesses. It is as if he said, "Well, all right, since you reject my witness because I gave it, we shall call other witnesses. The first to be called was God himself.
Commentary by Fourfold Gospel
I can of myself do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and my judgment is righteous; because I seek not mine own will, but the will of him that sent me3.
I can of myself do nothing. Jesus here reasserts his dependence upon the Father, not as a bare repetition of his relationship to the Father, but for the purpose of developing his relationship to men as based on or growing out of this relationship to the Father.
As I hear, I judge. The Jews, as they listened to him, were conscious that he was even then judging and passing sentence of condemnation upon them.
And my judgment is righteous; because I seek not mine own will, but the will of him that sent me. Jesus does not deny the correctness of this view, but shows that, because of his relationship or dependence upon the Father, they are getting perfect justice, for: (1) His judgment was free from all personal bias and selfish retaliation, and was (2) positively perfect, being wholly inspired by the Father's will.
Source
Commentary by John Gill
I can of mine own self do nothing and my judgment is just;
This is the conclusion of the matter, the winding up of the several arguments concerning the Son's equality to the Father, and the application of the whole to Christ. He had before been chiefly speaking of the Son, in relation to the Father, as if he was a third person; but now he applies what he had said of the Son to himself: and it is as if he had said, I am the Son that can do nothing separate from the Father, and contrary to his will, but do all things in conjunction with him; who sees all that he does, by being in him, and co-operating with him, and do the selfsame. I am the Son to whom the Father shows, and by whom he does, all he does; and to whom he will show, and by whom he will do, as a co-efficient with him, greater works than what, as yet, he has done: I am the Son that quickens whom he pleases, and to whom all judgment is committed, and have the same honour the Father has: I am he that quickens dead sinners now, and will raise all the dead at the last day; and have authority to execute judgment on all mankind: and, Christ was now before the great sanhedrim, and speaks to them in their own language, and as a superior judge to them:
``there were three courts of judicature; one that sat at the gate of the mountain of the house; and one that sat at the gate of the court; and another that sat in the paved chamber: they go (first) to that which is at the gate of the mountain of the house, and say, so have I expounded, and so have the companions expounded; so have I taught, and so have the companions (or colleagues) taught: (wemv) (Ma) , "if they hear", they say; (i.e. as one of their commentators explains it , if they know the law, and hear, or understand the sense of the law; in such a case they declare what they know;) if not, they go to them that are at the gate of the court, and say (as before).--And, "if they hear", they tell them; but if not, they go to the great sanhedrim in the paved chamber, from whence goes forth the law to all Israel.'' because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me;
in the administration of the affairs of his church, which are done in the strictest justice; just and true are all his ways, as King of saints; and in the execution of the last judgment, which will be in righteousness and truth; the judgment he passes must be right, since it is according to that perfect knowledge he has of his Father's will, which is an infallible rule of judgment: as I hear, I judge;
that is, he did not seek to gratify his own will, as distinct from his Father's, or in opposition to it; for he had no private end to answer, or separate interest, or advantage to pursue; and seeing therefore he acted according to his Father's will, and not his own, as contrary to that; his judgment must be just, and the sentence he passes right; since the will of God is indisputably such. The Vulgate Latin, and all the Oriental versions, the Alexandrian copy, and two of Beza's copies, leave out the word "father", without altering or hurting the sense at all. Source
not as he hears men, or, according to the evidence men will give one of another; for it is denied of him, that he will proceed in judgment in this manner, (Isaiah 11:3) , but as he hears his Father; for being in his bosom, and one with him, as he sees, and knows all he does, his whole plan of operations, and acts according to them; so he hears, knows, and is perfectly acquainted with all his counsels, purposes, and rules of judgment, and never deviates from them. Hearing here signifies perfect knowledge, and understanding of a cause; and so it is used in the Jewish writings, in matters of difficulty, that come before a court of judicature
Isaiah 11:3
and he will delight in the fear of the LORD .
He will not judge by what he sees with his eyes,
or decide by what he hears with his ears;
Commentary by John Wesley
I can do nothing of myself As I hear
- It is impossible I should do any thing separately from my Father. Source
- Of the Father, and see, so I judge and do; A because I am essentially united to him. See John 5:19.
John 5:19
Jesus gave them this answer: "I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does.
Commentary by John Lightfoot
I can of mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and my judgment is just; because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me. Source
[As I hear, I judge.] He seems to allude to a custom amongst them. The judge of an inferior court, if he doubts in any matter, goes up to Jerusalem and takes the determination of the Sanhedrim; and according to that he judgeth.
Commentary by Matthew Henry
4. Here is the righteousness of his proceedings pursuant to this commission, John 5:30. All judgment being committed to him, we cannot but ask how he manages it. And here he answers, My judgment is just. All Christ's acts of government, both legislative and judicial, are exactly agreeable to the rules of equity; see Proverbs 8:8. There can lie no exceptions against any of the determinations of the Redeemer; and therefore, as there shall be no repeal of any of his statutes, so there shall be no appeal from any of his sentences. His judgments are certainly just, for they are directed, Source
First, By the Father's wisdom: I can of my ownself do nothing, nothing without the Father, but as I hear I judge, as he had said before (John 5:19), The Son can do nothing but what he sees the Father do; so here, nothing but what he hears the Father say: As I hear, Secondly, By the Father's will: My judgment is just, and cannot be otherwise, because I seek not my own will, but his who sent me. Not as if the will of Christ were contrary to the will of the Father, as the flesh is contrary to the spirit in us; but,
1. From the secret eternal counsels of the Father, so I judge. Would we know what we may depend upon in our dealing with God? Hear the word of Christ. We need not dive into the divine counsels, those secret things which belong not to us, but attend to the revealed dictates of Christ's government and judgment, which will furnish us with an unerring guide; for what Christ has adjudged is an exact copy or counterpart of what the Father has decreed.
2. From the published records of the Old Testament. Christ, in all the execution of his undertaking, had an eye to the scripture, and made it his business to conform to this, and fulfil it: As it was written in the volume of the book. Thus he taught us to do nothing of ourselves, but, as we hear from the word of God, so to judge of things, and act accordingly.Proverbs 8:8
1. Christ had, as man, the natural and innocent affections of the human nature, sense of pain and pleasure, an inclination to life, an aversion to death: yet he pleased not himself, did not confer with these, nor consult these, when he was to go on his undertaking, but acquiesced entirely in the will of his Father.
2. What he did as Mediator was not the result of any peculiar or particular purpose and design of his own; what he did seek to do was not for his own mind's sake, but he was therein guided by his Father's will, and the purpose which he had purposed to himself. This our Saviour did upon all occasions refer himself to and govern himself by.
All the words of my mouth are just;
none of them is crooked or perverse.
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Prepared by William C. Barman for George Young Memorial United Methodist Church -- Palm Harbor, FL on 9/15/03; 2:20:43 PM