For
if you believed Moses, you would believe me; for he wrote about me. But if you don’t believe his writings, how will you believe my words?
John 5:46-47
John 5 [39.] “You search the Scriptures, because you think that in them you have eternal life; and these are they which testify about me. Yet you will not come to me, that you may have life. I don’t receive glory from men. But I know you, that you don’t have God’s love in yourselves. I have come in my Father’s name, and you don’t receive me. If another comes in his own name, you will receive him. How can you believe, who receive glory from one another, and you don’t seek the glory that comes from the only God?
John 5 [45.] “Don’t think that I will accuse you to the Father. There is one who accuses you, even Moses, on whom you have set your hope. For if you believed Moses, you would believe me; for he wrote about me. But if you don’t believe his writings, how will you believe my words?”
John 6 [1.] After these things, Jesus went away to the other side of the sea of Galilee, which is also called the Sea of Tiberias. A great multitude followed him, because they saw his signs which he did on those who were sick. Jesus went up into the mountain, and he sat there with his disciples. Now the Passover, the feast of the Jews, was at hand. Jesus therefore lifting up his eyes, and seeing that a great multitude was coming to him, said to Philip, “Where are we to buy bread, that these may eat?” This he said to test him, for he himself knew what he would do.
Meaning:
Jesus had healed a man at the pool of Bethesda on the Sabbath. The religious leaders were angry, and “For this cause therefore the Jews sought all the more to kill him, because he not only broke the Sabbath, but also called God his own Father, making himself equal with God” (John 5:18). In reply Jesus calls his witnesses: John the Baptist, his own works, the Father, and the Scriptures. He ends with Moses.
- “There is one who accuses you, even Moses”
The leaders saw themselves as faithful followers of Moses. Jesus turns this around. Moses, on whom they had “set your hope,” would be their accuser, because they rejected the one Moses had written about.
- “for he wrote about me”
Moses promised, “Yahweh your God will raise up to you a prophet from among you, of your brothers, like me. You shall listen to him” (Deuteronomy 18:15). His writings also contain the Passover lamb and the bronze serpent, of which Jesus said, “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up” (John 3:14). Philip recognised this early: “We have found him, of whom Moses in the law, and the prophets, wrote: Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph” (John 1:45).
- “how will you believe my words?”
If they would not believe the written words of Moses, which they claimed to honour, they would not believe the spoken words of Jesus either. Jesus makes the same point in the parable of the rich man and Lazarus: “If they don’t listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded if one rises from the dead” (Luke 16:31).
The Significance of John 5:46-47
- Reading the Old Testament with Christ
After his resurrection Jesus showed his disciples what Moses had written: “Beginning from Moses and from all the prophets, he explained to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself” (Luke 24:27). The whole Bible is one story pointing to him.
- Faith rests on the written word
Unbelief is not usually a lack of evidence but an unwillingness to receive it. Those who take Scripture seriously will find that it leads them to Jesus.
Cross-References:
Deuteronomy 18:15: “Yahweh your God will raise up to you a prophet from among you.” Moses writes about Christ.
Luke 24:27: “Beginning from Moses and from all the prophets.” Jesus explains the Scriptures.
Luke 16:31: “If they don’t listen to Moses and the prophets.” Scripture is enough.
John 1:45: “We have found him, of whom Moses in the law, and the prophets, wrote.” Philip’s discovery.
Conclusion: Jesus told his opponents that Moses wrote about him, so that rejecting Jesus was in fact rejecting Moses. The law and the prophets point to Christ, and those who believe what Moses wrote will believe Jesus’ words.
PIB Scriptures are derived from the World English Bible