John Calvin Commentary John 8:28

"Jesus therefore said, When ye have lifted up the Son of man, then shall ye know that I am [he], and [that] I do nothing of myself, but as the Father taught me, I speak these things." — John 8:28 (ASV)

When you have exalted the Son of man. Offended at that stupidity which the Evangelist has described, Christ again declares that they do not deserve for Him to open His mouth to speak to them anymore. “You now,” He says, “have all your senses — as it were — fascinated, and, therefore, you understand nothing of all that I say; but the time will yet come, when you will know that a Prophet of God has lived among you, and has spoken to you.” This is the manner in which we ought to deal with wicked men; we ought expressly to summon them to the judgment seat of God.

But this knowledge, of which Christ speaks, comes too late, when the reprobate and unbelievers, dragged to punishment, reluctantly acknowledge that God, to whom they ought to have mildly given honor and reverence, is their Judge. For He does not promise them repentance, but declares that, after they have been struck with new and unexpressed horror at the wrath of God, they will be aroused from that sleep in which they now repose.

Thus Adam’s eyes were opened, so that, overwhelmed with shame, he sought in vain for places of concealment and was ultimately convinced that he was ruined. Yet that knowledge of Adam, which was in itself useless, turned to his advantage through the grace of God; but the reprobate, being overwhelmed with despair, have their eyes opened only for this purpose: that they may perceive their destruction.

To this kind of knowledge God conducts them in a variety of ways. Sometimes it happens that, constrained by heavy afflictions, they learn that God is angry with them; sometimes, without any outward punishment, He inwardly torments them; and, at other times, He permits them to sleep until He calls them out of the world.

By the term exalt, Christ points out His own death. He mentions His death to warn them that, though they destroy Him according to the flesh, they will gain nothing by it; as if He had said, “Now you treat Me with haughty scorn while I speak to you; but before long your wickedness will proceed further, even so far as to put Me to death. Then you will triumph, as if you had gained your wish, but within a short time you will feel, to your utter ruin, how widely My death differs from destruction.” He employs the word exalt in order to vex them the more. Their intention was to plunge Christ into the lowest hell.

He tells them that they will be completely disappointed, and that the event will be altogether contrary to what they expect. He may, indeed, have intended to allude to the outward form of His death, that He was to be lifted up on the cross; but He looked chiefly to the glorious result of it, which soon afterwards followed, contrary to the expectation of all.

True, indeed, in the cross itself He gained a splendid triumph over Satan, before God and the angels, by blotting out the hand-writing of sin, and cancelling the condemnation of death (Colossians 2:14); but it was only after the Gospel had been preached that this triumph began to be made known to men.

The same thing that happened shortly afterwards — that Christ rose from the grave and ascended to heaven — is what we ought to expect daily; for, notwithstanding all the contrivances of wicked men to oppress Christ in His Church, not only will He rise in spite of them, but He will turn their wicked efforts into the means of promoting the progress of His kingdom.

That I am. I have already stated that this does not refer to Christ’s divine essence, but to His office; which appears even more clearly from what follows, when He affirms that He does nothing but by the command of the Father; for this means that He was sent by God and that He performs His office faithfully.

And that I do nothing of myself. That is, I do not put Myself forward to attempt anything rashly. Again, the word speak, refers to the same thing, that is, to the office of teaching; for when Christ wishes to prove that He does nothing but by the commandment of the Father, He says that He speaks as He has been taught by Him.

The meaning of the words, therefore, may be summed up thus: In all these proceedings, which you condemn, no part is My own, but I only execute what God has enjoined upon Me; the words which you hear from My mouth are His words, and My calling, of which He is the Author, is directed by Him alone.

Let us remember, however, what I have sometimes mentioned already: that these words are accommodated to the capacity of the hearers. For, since they thought that Christ was only one of the ordinary rank of men, He asserts that whatever in Him is divine is not His own; meaning that it is not of man or by man; because the Father teaches us by Him, and appoints Him to be the only Teacher of the Church; and for this reason He affirms that He has been taught by the Father.