John 5:44

"That is why," He says, "you do not believe Me, because you do not hope to receive from Me any worldly pleasure." And in another sense: "You do not believe Me because you love glory from one another." For the rulers and teachers, desiring themselves …

How faulty then is the boasting temper, and that eagerness for human praise, which likes to be thought to have what it has not, and would fain be thought to have all that it has, by its own strength. Men of such temper cannot believe; for in their hearts, they are bent solely on gaining praise, and setting themselves up above others.

The best way of guarding against this sin, is to bring to our consciences the remembrance, that we are dust, and should ascribe all the good that we have not to ourselves, but to God. And we should endeavour always to be such, as we wish to appear to others. Then, as they might ask, Wilt thou accuse us then to the Father? He anticipates this question: Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father.

He concludes: How can people like you believe, when you crave praise from each other, i.e., human praise, and yet not even ask for that one praise which is from God alone? which is true glory. The reason they could not believe in Christ was …

While ye receive honour - That is, while ye seek the praise of men rather than the praise of God. At the feast of pentecost, kept in commemoration of the giving the law from Mount Sinai, their sermons used to be full of the praises of the law, and of the people to whom it was given.

The Cure at the Pool of Bethesda. 1 After this there was a feast of the Jews; and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 2 Now there is at Jerusalem by the sheep market a pool, which is called in the Hebrew tongue Bethesda, having five porches.

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How can ye believe, which receive honour one of another?....

How can ye believe, which receive honor, etc. - The grand obstacle to the salvation of the scribes and Pharisees was their pride, vanity, and self-love. They lived on each other’s praise. If they had acknowledged Christ as the only teacher, they must have given up the good opinion of the multitude; and they chose rather to lose their souls than to forfeit their reputation among men! This is the ruin of millions.

This passage concludes our Lord Jesus Christ's wondrous defense of His own divine mission. It is a conclusion worthy of the defense, full of heart-searching appeals to the consciences of His enemies, and rich in deep truths. A mighty sermon is followed by a mighty application. Let us mark, in this passage, the reason why many souls are lost. The Lord Jesus says to the unbelieving Jews—"You will not come to me that you might have life." These words are a golden sentence, which ought to be engraved in our memories, and treasured up in our minds.

How can ye believe, &c.--(See on Joh 5:40, 41). The "will not" of Joh 5:40, and "cannot" here are just different features of the same awful state of the human heart.

if another shall come, &c.--How strikingly has this been verified in the history of the Jews! "From the time of the true Christ to our time, sixty-four false Christs have been reckoned by whom they have been deceived" [BENGEL].

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This passage concludes our Lord Jesus Christ's wondrous defense of His own divine mission. It is a conclusion worthy of the defense, full of heart-searching appeals to the consciences of His enemies, and rich in deep truths. A mighty sermon is followed by a mighty application. Let us mark, in this passage, the reason why many souls are lost. The Lord Jesus says to the unbelieving Jews—"You will not come to me that you might have life." These words are a golden sentence, which ought to be engraved in our memories, and treasured up in our minds. It is lack of will to come to Christ for salvation that will be found, at last, to have shut the many out of heaven. It is not men's sins. All manner of sin may be forgiven. It is not any decree of God. We are not told in the Bible of any whom God has only created to be destroyed. It is not any limit in Christ's work of redemption. He has paid a price sufficient for all mankind. It is something far more than this. It is man's own innate unwillingness to come to Christ, repent, and believe. Either from pride, or laziness, or love of sin, or love of the world, the many have no mind, or wish, or heart, or desire to seek life in Christ. "God has given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son." (1 John 5:11.) But men stand still, and will not stir hand or foot to get life. And this is the whole reason why many of the lost are not saved. This is a painful and solemn truth, but one that we can never know too well. It contains a first principle in Christian theology. Thousands, in every age, are constantly laboring to shift the blame of their condition from off themselves. They talk of their inability to change. They tell you complacently, that they cannot help being what they are! They know, undeniably, that they are wrong, but they cannot be different! It will not do.

OUR Savior was addressing Himself to Pharisees who would not receive Him, and who, no doubt, pleaded that they could not believe on Him. They had just seen a very notable miracle worked by Him—a man who had been sick many years had been suddenly restored and that by a word. That miracle, being of the same nature as the wonderful works of the great Father, a miracle of tenderness and Omnipotence, ought to have convinced them that Christ was the Son of God.

OUR Savior was addressing Himself to Pharisees who would not receive Him, and who, no doubt, pleaded that they could not believe on Him. They had just seen a very notable miracle worked by Him—a man who had been sick many years had been suddenly restored and that by a word. That miracle, being of the same nature as the wonderful works of the great Father, a miracle of tenderness and Omnipotence, ought to have convinced them that Christ was the Son of God. They saw the miracle, however, and instead of drawing the proper inference, they began to quibble at the Master because He had performed it upon the Sabbath Day. The teaching of our Lord's wonderful work of mercy and power was lost upon them. They could not, they would not see the finger of God in the miracle. Before this miracle had occurred, John the Baptist had come—the Elijah who was foretold to herald the Messiah. These Pharisees had felt a partial belief in John and the popular voice compelled them to stifle any unbelief concerning him which may have lingered in their hearts. They dared not say that his ministry was altogether of man, and consequently they were posed by the Savior's question, "The ministry of John, was it from Heaven or of men?" They could not answer the question because if they denied his mission, the people would cry out against them. But, on the other hand, if they confessed that John came from Heaven, our Lord's reply would have been, "Why, then, did you not believe him and accept his testimony concerning Me?" They had, therefore, in addition to the miracle which Jesus worked, the testimony of John the Baptist, but still they could not believe. In addition to this, these men were exceedingly well acquainted with the Scriptures. The scribes made it their business to transcribe the Old Testament. They learned chapters and books by heart.

Which receive honour one of another - Who are studious of praise, and live for pride, ambition, and vainglory. This desire, Jesus says, was the great reason why they would not believe on him. They were unwilling to renounce their worldly honors, and become the followers of one so humble and unostentatious as he was. They expected a Messiah of pomp and splendor, and would not submit to one so despised and of so lowly a rank. Had the Messiah come, as they expected, with pomp and power, it would have been an honor, in their view, to follow him; as it was, they despised and rejected him. The great reason why multitudes do not believe is their attachment to human honors, or their pride, and vanity, and ambition. These are so strong, that while they continue they cannot and will not believe. They might, however, renounce these things, and then, the obstacles being removed, they would believe. Learn: 1. A man cannot believe the gospel while he is wholly under the influence of ambition. The two are not compatible. The religion of the gospel is humility, and a man who has not that “cannot” be a Christian. 2. Great numbers are deterred from being Christians by pride and ambition. Probably there is no single thing that prevents so really young men from becoming Christians as this passion. The proud and ambitious heart refuses to bow to the humiliating terms of the gospel. 3. Though while a man is under this governing principle he cannot believe the gospel, yet this proves nothing about his ability to lay that aside, and to yield to truth. that is another question. A child cannot open a trunk when he gets on the lid and attempts to raise his own weight and the cover of the trunk too; but that settles nothing about the inquiry whether he might not get off and then open it. […]