And ye will not come to me, that ye might have life.
Eternal life is found in Christ Himself alone and is received only by personally coming to Him in humble faith, surrender and obedience. It was spoken to Jewish leaders who diligently searched the Scriptures for the Messiah while He stood present among them, yet they would not recognize and accept Him. They refused because they felt no need of Him, trusted their own righteousness and traditions, loved the world, and hardened the will against conviction. He uttered this refusal with weeping compassion after leaving heaven and paying an infinite ransom to bring salvation within their reach, longing to save all yet forcing none. Whoever persists in refusing is left responsible for his own ruin, for today is the day of visitation, and the same warning now entreats every unready soul to come at once for rest, healing and power.
Setting and Original Hearers
The words belong to the discourse Jesus gave after He healed the disabled man at the pool of Bethesda, for which healing the Jews accused Him of breaking the Sabbath. They were spoken to Pharisees, scribes and Jewish leaders who were searching the Scriptures for evidence about the Messiah while Christ Himself stood present among them, yet they failed to recognize Him by faith and rejected Him. They refused to come to Him for life although He longed to save them, and although the Scriptures they searched testified of Him. Their refusal came from failing to study and understand God's word rightly, from trusting their own traditions and distorted interpretations, from searching with a mistaken expectation about His coming, and from resisting reproof and refusing to obey its requirements. Moses' writings pointed to Jesus, so that by refusing to heed those writings they refused His words.
The address was to the Jewish nation in the generation of His earthly ministry, when He was in their midst working the works of God. Because they had the Word of God and rejected not only delegates, servants and prophets but Christ Himself, that refusal made them the most guilty and made the time of His presence their most solemn period of responsibility. It was His verdict upon the nation in its last test as a nation, when light from the living oracles shone upon them and He spoke to them and did among them works no man ever had done or could do, yet they would not receive Him. Their time of warning, patience, appeals and forbearance was drawing to a close, and their unwillingness left Jerusalem alone responsible for her own destruction. His humble and poor appearance disappointed their expectations, and so they refused Him who came to give them life.
The words are His sorrowful closing verdict at the end of His earthly work when Jerusalem's day of probation had ended. For three years He had sought fruit and found none, with one object ever upon His soul to present heaven's solemn warnings and gracious invitations and to awaken comprehension that He was the promised Messiah, the only hope of Israel. He greatly desired them to receive His words, graciously invited them, carried them on His heart, and did all He could to save them. For them He clothed His divinity with humanity, the Prince of heaven humbling Himself to take the form of a servant to convince His thankless, disobedient people that He was their only hope. Though reluctant to pronounce doom, He was forced at the close to declare that they would not come to Him that they might have life, and the same refusal is repeated by those who tread the ground of the Jewish leaders in making light of warnings and rejecting entreaties for salvation.
The words are also His weeping lament over Jerusalem at His triumphal entry, spoken to the city and the nation. In love He again and again averted the bolts of justice and waited for penitence and repentance, bearing with them as a father bears with his own son, yet Israel defiantly resisted all His pleadings. Their refusal to come to Him for life forged their own fetters, sealed their own doom, and gathered about them the cloud of wrath seen in the coming terrible destruction of the doomed city with its thousands and thousands involved.
What Coming and Life Mean
Life is found in Christ Himself alone and is received by coming to Him, for He is the source of life and eternal life is God's gift through Him. That life was provided through the death of the only begotten Son as Substitute and Surety, accepted for sinners, and was purchased at infinite cost, so refusing it does not lessen its value or remove responsibility. Pardon, peace, and cleansing from all sin and unrighteousness by His efficacious blood are promised to all who come in His name, believe the Word, and confess sins, while clinging to unbelief, doubt, and uncertainty blocks reception of His love and leaves the soul dead in trespasses and remaining in sin. It is not gained by mere casual reading of the Scriptures that testify of Him, but by devoting time to earnest investigation with prayer for quickened understanding, together with self-examination and prayer, in order to obtain growth in grace, knowledge of the divine will, and spiritual strength. Unwillingness to come, rather than any failure of His desire to save, explains impenitence and apostasy, for He longs to gather and save but men resist Him and keep apart criticizing His words and works instead of receiving Him into the spiritual life and feeding upon Him.
The life He gives is the peace of Christ for the soul's need and the living water that truly quenches spiritual thirst, and those who refuse to come go instead to broken cisterns that can hold no water, seeking satisfaction where it cannot be satisfied. He calls careworn, sorrowful, thirsting, weary, burdened and oppressed souls to come for life, peace, joy, mercy, strength and rest, for He is the water of life that answers the soul's thirst. Those who meet His conditions are to trust the burden of sin to Him rather than continue carrying it themselves, for seeking satisfaction in things that cannot give life leaves the soul unsatisfied and men manufacture needless grievous burdens for themselves. Refusing Him means remaining without that gift, without pardon and rest, under a cloud of condemnation.
Coming to Him means responding to His loving call with humility and faith, accepting Him as a personal Saviour, believing He died to save, believing His promises, and learning through personal experience what He is. It means choosing to come as one is and give self to Him, for He does not force anyone and each must choose, and grasping His promises by living faith brings peace, rest, and assurance in this life and eternal life in His kingdom. It requires wholehearted surrender, including giving up idols and entrusting burdens and care to Him, opening the door of the heart to His knocking without delay, surrendering to God, confessing backslidings and sins, and turning fully to Him who will make free. It means looking to Jesus in trials, trusting the heavenly Father, studying the Word with a teachable spirit, praying and watching unto prayer, and going forward to work out salvation with fear and trembling while God works within to will and to do His good pleasure. Those who know the truth must obey the call to go work in the vineyard and take the knowledge of truth to those in darkness without God and without hope, for by working as well as praying they obtain greater knowledge, have understanding opened to perceive truth in its beauty, and become better prepared than by remaining in meetings apart from consecrated labor in destitute fields.
To come for life is to trust His Word implicitly, believe He will do as He has said and give rest, and after complying with the conditions roll the burden of sins upon the Saviour instead of carrying it longer. It is to take His yoke, unite with brethren under that yoke, learn His meekness and lowliness of heart, and so find rest for the soul, because His yoke is easy and His burden is light. Refusing to come and wear His yoke leaves in darkness, while coming and keeping hold of His strength makes children of light who are all light in the Lord, have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness but reprove them, awake from sleep and death to receive His light, take fewer burdens, walk unitedly and circumspectly, and work not in own strength but with Him as helper and sufficiency.
Coming gives life because His righteousness brings life and healing, taking away sin and putting His righteousness in its place, so those who have received Christ must walk in Him in whom all fullness dwells. It means humbling self, repenting and being converted, learning His lessons of self-denial and self-sacrifice, eating His flesh and drinking His blood which is His Word, and representing the meek and lowly Saviour in word and deed, for unless proud, self-exalted, self-willed ones reform and come they must perish. It means coming just as one is without delay and without waiting for special agony or feeling, repenting, looking to Him and believing in Him as personal Saviour, and committing the soul to Him, and as the sinner advances Christ advances to meet him, forgives whatever sins have been committed, washes them away in His blood, and as the great Physician saves to the uttermost because He knows how to deal with every disorder and sin. His dying love proves His willingness to save and His resurrection and ascension prove His power to save, while to refuse to come leaves the soul in a Christless, unforgiven state. Knowing the words of Scripture only in theory, without receiving Christ as personal Saviour and experiencing the Word's power to change heart and character, is not eternal life, for reliance on human traditions and distorted interpretations blinds to the truth testified in Scripture and leaves without the life sought. Wise conceit, claim to know the law while not knowing the Scriptures nor the power of God, teaching for doctrine the commandments of men and misrepresenting His character, and trusting in own righteousness which cannot enter the kingdom, keeps separate from God, and that separation is the spiritual darkness covering the earth, since sin is death and righteousness is life. Afflicted souls can receive healing by coming, but remain without it because they will not come, though He invites the weary and heavy laden.
Coming for life means receiving the truth as it is in Jesus, following on to know the Lord, and keeping His commandments including the Sabbath, and claiming to be Christian without obedience is not coming to Him. The life He offers is a life that measures with the life of God, a treasure in the heavens that fails not, and receiving the answer means life and rejecting it means death, for there is no second probation. Refusal may parallel the Jews' refusal of Christ by refusing Sabbath truth after recognizing its claim because respected religious leaders do not accept it, and turning away from known light leaves accountable for rejecting it even when light and evidence are before them. He has made every provision for His people to have life, help, blessing, courage and faith, but many who profess to keep His holy law will not come into His presence to receive it, and because they remain away and do not live according to light given they transgress the law, so the most precious blessings and exalted privileges promised to those who love truth and obey it in love are changed into curses. This is why they lack spiritual sinew and muscle, remain without spiritual moisture, dry and sapless, and bear backslidden, mournful testimonies, when God would have it otherwise.
Reasons for Refusing Christ
They would not come although the Scriptures testified of Him, because they failed to study and understand God's word rightly and resisted its reproof and demands, preferring their own traditions and refusing to obey its requirements. They searched the Scriptures for evidence about the Messiah while He stood among them, yet with mistaken expectation about His coming they missed the life they sought, for Moses' writings pointed to Jesus and to refuse those writings was to refuse His words. Reliance on human traditions and distorted interpretations blinded them, so that knowing the words of Scripture in theory without receiving Christ as personal Saviour and experiencing the Word's power to change heart and character left them without eternal life. Though they kept religious forms and offered sacrifices that pointed to Him in whom their hope of eternal life was centered, they did not acknowledge Him as Saviour, and without faith in God's promise their offerings were meaningless. To refuse to obey His word and to reject His plain truths that expose sin is to reject Him, as the Jewish leaders did at His first advent, closing the open way by turning from truth and light because His teaching did not meet their expectations.
They would not come because they were wise in their own conceit, claiming to know God's law while not knowing the Scriptures nor the power of God, teaching for doctrine the commandments of men and misrepresenting His character and attributes. Trusting in their own righteousness, which cannot enter the kingdom of heaven, kept them from receiving the righteousness of Christ which brings life and healing, taking away sin and putting His righteousness in its place; that separation from God is the spiritual darkness covering the earth. Their spiritual sickness required His teaching for healing and soundness of principle, but they believed they were already spiritually well and needed no enlightenment. The self-righteous Pharisees felt no need of His help and would not accept the salvation He offered, while the poor publicans and sinners, knowing they needed help, accepted His instruction and aid.
They would not come because things of time and sense claimed attention, for although crowds sought Him for temporal blessings they sought earthly good while neglecting eternal riches. Unwillingness to accept truth and practical godliness does not make the truth false, yet few accepted the world's Redeemer because those who prize earthly good over eternal riches remain unwilling to accept practical godliness. They turn away and choose the pleasures of this life instead of accepting salvation and its gifts, seeking own pleasure in vain talk, laughter, fashion, and amusements instead of coming to Christ for life. Jerusalem's refusal to be saved by accepting His redemption grieved Him as a man of sorrows acquainted with grief, so that He wept over the city after a life of good works and great sacrifice to save others, even spending entire nights on the damp ground in agonizing prayer. His costly sacrifice was made so they could be saved, yet turning to self-pleasure instead of Him leaves them without life.
They would not come from pride, stubbornness, selfishness, and attachment to their own opinions, which blinded them to truth and made them resist further light, so that they refused to walk in the light of truth and therefore did not receive life from Jesus the Light of life. Their spiritual blindness developed as they resisted the Holy Spirit and refused to yield, a chosen rejection of the light and evidence God had given them, which outward religious practices could not remedy. Though His works of mercy and the evidence of His divine mission were before them and His words convicted them of the truth, prejudice and resistance to the Holy Spirit kept them from coming to Him, binding them in unbelief and rejecting the blessings He came to bring. Pride, prejudice, self-sufficiency, and resistance to God's warnings can keep those who claim spiritual knowledge from accepting what they need, when they reject Christ's counsel and do not let His truth change their lives. That rejection brought Jerusalem's destruction, which Christ saw clearly and mourned.
They would not come by turning from divine wisdom to human beings and human resources for help, wisdom, and solace for woe, slighting the love and mercy provided for them and dishonoring Him by distrust, refusing to make Him their confidant and burden-bearer though in humanity they will find no solace and though God pities them in their need. Christ pities their need and desires their trust, and He will never neglect the poor fainting soul who comes to Him but gives life to all who come. They refuse Him by holding to self, placing their own ideas and works above His words and works, neglecting His words and thereby losing Christ the vital essence of the message and extinguishing His love from the heart. Such self-interest keeps His religion from taking hold in the heart, leaves God's love poorly represented, and neglects those who suffer. Though Christ died for them as Sin-Bearer and they could place their sins on Him, they may still choose to keep their sins and be lost by rejecting His salvation, for those who know they are guilty may still refuse to humble themselves and confess but reject the light and continue in wrongdoing.
The refusal is willful, for people may prefer false security and self-deception because they do not want their deeds exposed. The church likewise refuses to search Scripture or listen to truth when it would reprove its works, choosing the world's customs and approval instead, though numbers and material prosperity do not prove God's favor.
Christ's Grief and Costly Love
He uttered the refusal with sorrow, with quivering lips and weeping, as a man of sorrows whose tender and compassionate heart grieves that those He came to save will not hear truth and come to Him for life. His sorrow when loved ones will not hear is far keener than human sorrow because His nature is higher and holier, and His many disappointments over few showing interest in His mission, though every soul was precious in His sight, made Him such a man of sorrows. He speaks sadly and mournfully and with pitiful tenderness over proud, self-exalted and self-willed leaders, warning and graciously inviting those who stray with eternal rewards for obedience, yet they refuse and are left without the life He offers. He speaks plain and decided truth without holding back, with convincing earnestness that draws the desponding near and fills them with hope and courage, never to give needless pain to any trembling sensitive soul, but with sorrow toward those who reject Him and make light of His words, whose refusal is bound up with lack of love for God.
He had left honor and glory and majesty to come to earth for them, clothing His divinity with humanity and hiding divinity under humanity, the Prince of heaven humbling Himself to take the form of a servant to convince His thankless, disobedient people that He was their only hope. He lived a life of continual trial, and labored and interceded and endured hardship to relieve the fallen race, for three years seeking fruit and finding none while presenting heaven's solemn warnings and gracious invitations to awaken comprehension that He was the promised Messiah. He paid a heavy ransom by sacrifice to rescue men from the penalty of sin and bring salvation within their reach, carrying them on His heart and doing all He could to save them. He died for sinners before they could make themselves good, and His death is the remedy for sin so that those who look to Him and believe are saved.
His unwillingness is never the cause of impenitence and apostasy, for He longs to gather and save everyone and seeks the lost, yet many refuse to come and only a few receive His offers of mercy. He freely receives all who come confessing their sins, advances to meet the sinner, forgives and washes away sins, and fills with His Spirit, life, love and joy, and He will never neglect the poor fainting soul who comes but gives life to all who come. To refuse is to slight the love and mercy provided and to dishonor and insult the One who has done so much by distrust, refusing to make Him confidant and burden-bearer and turning from His promises and the fullness of His love to human beings and human resources for help, wisdom and solace for woe, though in humanity there is no solace and though God pities them in their need. He yearns to relieve human suffering and willingly gives Himself to bring salvation within reach, yet He does not force anyone and no one will be saved against his will; each must choose to come as he is, believe He died to save him and give himself to Him, grasping His promises by living faith, which brings peace, rest and assurance in this life and eternal life in His kingdom.
With hungry, loving wishfulness He desires to save the human family, lost and ruined through sin and guilty as transgressors of God's law, and He sorrows in heart that so few appreciate that love and refuse to be found by Him. Coming to Him for life means seeking Him with the whole heart, hating sin while seeking to save sinners, being saved from sins and not in sins, and finding in Him everlasting strength that begins where mortal strength has failed. When one soul so learns of Him and comes, His heart is made glad and there is joy and singing in the heavenly courts.
Responsibility and Coming Judgment
Jerusalem's destruction followed its own refusal to come to Christ, the Holy One of Israel and Redeemer, for life. He had called the people to repentance and was willing to bring salvation within their reach, but they rejected Him, so their ruin was their own responsibility for rejecting pardon. The Jewish people rejected Him despite the evidence and blessings received, blinded by false hopes of a temporal kingdom so that they did not know their King, and their stubborn refusal to accept His teachings determined their fate. In rejecting Christ they rejected the only provision Heaven had made for salvation and cut themselves off from life, refusing not only delegates, servants and prophets but Christ Himself in person. Because they had the Word of God while He was in their midst working the works of God, that refusal made them most guilty and made that generation's time His presence their most solemn period of responsibility. His mercies and invitation gave opportunity to repent and know what would bring peace, but unbelief and resistance hardened them into impenitence, and rejecting His messengers and warnings was rejecting the Master who sent them, bringing its own sure result and the doom pronounced over Jerusalem upon those who perished in sins.
If a person is destroyed he alone is responsible, because he will not come to Christ that he might have life. The call thou, even thou, applies to each person individually, for Christ stoops from His throne yearning with tenderness and pity over those who have no pity for themselves. Each has a day of visitation which is today, the present time and not tomorrow, and if he will hear Christ's voice without hardening his heart and receive Him as Saviour this day, peace, heaven and pardon of transgressions are his. That peace is his own peace, the gift of Christ to be taken, which money cannot buy and intellect cannot reach and wisdom cannot bribe. Refusal despite light, mercy, warnings and privileges leaves men accountable for what they could have received and hardens the heart into indifference, unbelief and impenitence, leaving them in darkness without life instead of receiving His light. The Jewish leaders illustrate this, for their claim to Abrahamic descent and religious privilege could not give life while they remained unconverted and self-righteous, and their chosen rejection of light and evidence, resisting the Holy Spirit and refusing to yield, brought judgment which Christ saw and mourned.
God bears patiently during probation, coming in love, mercy and judgment, testing by blessings bestowed and blessings removed and working by the Holy Spirit with wonderful blessings and unacknowledged mercies to awaken desire to impart entrusted light and bring needed change of action. Repeated messages, entreaties, patient efforts, threatened judgments and present mercy call to change, but refusal to respond hardens the heart and leaves people unready for the passing of probation. Those who claim to be His servants yet depart from His way will have none of His counsel, despise all His reproofs, grieve His Spirit by failure to respond to His love, and refuse to learn the lesson He seeks to teach. To refuse to come to Him for life is thus to refuse His counsel and the life He offers, and if they are destroyed they themselves are responsible and it is their own fault. When it is clear men will not turn, judgment comes, as guilt reaching its full measure brought the end of opportunity.
That rejection did not at once end opportunity. Even after priests, rulers and people would not come to Jesus to receive life, though He freely received those who came confessing their sins and had lived a life of self-denial, self-sacrifice and humiliation on their behalf as the Scriptures declared, the guilty and deceived were to have still another opportunity. They were still to be invited through His disciples to accept the Son of God, confess Him before men, and receive remission of sins obtainable only through Christ and everlasting life. His disciples were to carry that message of mercy to them and to all nations.
Warning and Call Today
The refusal belongs to those who search the Scriptures and have great light yet will not come to the One who alone gives life, and their remaining without life is culpable neglect. It is the trouble of some who have been honored of God but have not become one with Christ and do not reflect His glory, because His instruction is not palatable to them and they do not walk in the light received. The rebuke means refusing to come in humility and contrition to receive life, and the warning reaches every soul given a glimpse of heavenly truth not to turn away or disobey the light. At the close of three years seeking fruit and finding none, with solemn warnings and gracious invitations anxiously laboring to awaken a thankless disobedient people to comprehend the only hope of Israel and promised Messiah, divinity clothed with humanity as the Prince of heaven humbled to a servant carrying them on His heart and doing all that could be done to save them, doom was reluctantly pronounced over Jerusalem for refusing to come for life. That same refusal is repeated today by those who tread the ground of the Jewish leaders in making light of warnings and rejecting all entreaties for salvation, including church members who have neglected spiritual duty and must awaken without delay.
The instruction in John 5 and 6 is the mystery of godliness and must be studied, made part of life, and brought into daily experience to gain power to distinguish the true from the false in days of peril. Eternal life is not gained by mere casual reading, but time must be devoted to earnest investigation of the Scriptures with prayer for quickened understanding, together with self-examination and prayer, and coming to obtain growth in grace, knowledge of the divine will, and spiritual strength. More light is given as opportunities are used to receive it, and those who refuse opportunities for heavenly light, comfort, and knowledge are accountable as if they had heard and rejected the message, showing no desire for reproof, warning, or consolation. Knowing the words of Scripture in theory without receiving a personal Saviour and experiencing the Word's power to change heart and character is not eternal life, for reliance on human traditions and distorted interpretations blinds to the truth that Scripture testifies of Christ and men must come and believe. Coming means looking to Jesus in trials, trusting the heavenly Father, studying the Word with a teachable spirit, praying and watching unto prayer, and going forward to work out salvation while God works within to will and do His good pleasure. Those who know the truth must obey the call to go work in the vineyard and carry truth to those in darkness without God and without hope, for by working as well as praying greater knowledge is obtained, angels open the understanding to perceive truth in its beauty, and workers are better prepared than by remaining in meetings apart from consecrated labor in destitute fields.
It is a direct question to those unready to meet the Lord, asking them to come that they might have life, desiring His name glorified in them and the light of heaven to fill their souls. It is truth of special interest to enlighten those who need reconversion before they can become righteous, a personal appeal not to reject but to come in faith and receive salvation. It offers life to an unconverted youth with warning that refusal leaves the soul unsaved, so that if lost he alone is responsible by his own refusal. It addresses those claiming to be servants yet departing from the way, who though visited in love, mercy, and judgment and tested by blessings bestowed and blessings removed, and wrought upon by the Spirit and wonderful blessings to awaken desire to impart entrusted light, will learn nothing, will have none of His counsel, despise all reproof, grieve His Spirit by failure to respond, and refuse to come to receive life, so that if destroyed they are responsible. With tears it calls one on the enemy's side to stop insulting grace and make a decided radical change, opening the heart's door without delay, surrendering, confessing backslidings, turning fully, and being made free. The call is to heed messages leading to light, take up neglected work, make a change and be placed in right relation to God instead of gathering burdens that will crush to death.
Refusing to come leaves the power to resist temptation and control passions unreceived, for that power comes from Christ alone and educational opportunities cannot change the heart or benefit one persisting in unbelief and forbidden conduct. Preferring evil practices to the way set out in the Word rejects that help and can lead others wrong. He is Restorer and divine Healer, able and willing to give life and relief, and those coming in faith may receive grace and salvation, cooperating by using the natural remedies provided, while sufferers seeking relief elsewhere without turning in faith remain unhelped. Coming means receiving truth as it is in Jesus, following on to know the Lord, and keeping the commandments including the Sabbath, for claiming to be Christian without obedience is not coming, and the life offered measures with the life of God as unfailing heavenly treasure, so that receiving means life and rejecting means death with no second probation. The same refusal parallels turning from Sabbath truth after recognizing its claim because respected religious leaders do not accept it, and turning from known light leaves accountability for rejecting it.
The invitation calls careworn, sorrowful, thirsting, weary and oppressed souls to come for life and peace, the living water that truly quenches spiritual thirst, while those refusing go to broken cisterns that hold no water seeking satisfaction where it cannot be found. This call to the waters, to the water of life, is to be spoken to the sick and suffering in healing ministry to save souls. Workers should remember One who left honor and glory and majesty, found few with interest though every soul was precious, saw things of time and sense blind eyes to His merit, and became a man of sorrows whose sorrow over loved ones refusing truth is keener than human sorrow because His nature is higher and holier, and that remembrance should keep them from discouragement in proclaiming truth. Like searching a flourishing pretentious fig tree for fruit to satisfy hunger and finding none, He hungered in soul over a nation for whom He had done so much yet few responded, because of their wicked spirit. Those laboring for souls are to share His sufferings and discouragements, draw souls with faith and hope and earnest persevering entreaties, and after doing all possible not worry and fret over disappointment but rest and trust and believe while the Spirit works with those for whom they labor.
Eternal life is found in Christ Himself alone and is received only by personally coming to Him in humble faith, surrender and obedience. It was spoken to Jewish leaders who diligently searched the Scriptures for the Messiah while He stood present among them, yet they would not recognize and accept Him. They refused because they felt no need of Him, trusted their own righteousness and traditions, loved the world, and hardened the will against conviction. He uttered this refusal with weeping compassion after leaving heaven and paying an infinite ransom to bring salvation within their reach, longing to save all yet forcing none. Whoever persists in refusing is left responsible for his own ruin, for today is the day of visitation, and the same warning now entreats every unready soul to come at once for rest, healing and power.
Setting and Original Hearers
The words belong to the discourse Jesus gave after He healed the disabled man at the pool of Bethesda, for which healing the Jews accused Him of breaking the Sabbath. They were spoken to Pharisees, scribes and Jewish leaders who were searching the Scriptures for evidence about the Messiah while Christ Himself stood present among them, yet they failed to recognize Him by faith and rejected Him. They refused to come to Him for life although He longed to save them, and although the Scriptures they searched testified of Him. Their refusal came from failing to study and understand God's word rightly, from trusting their own traditions and distorted interpretations, from searching with a mistaken expectation about His coming, and from resisting reproof and refusing to obey its requirements. Moses' writings pointed to Jesus, so that by refusing to heed those writings they refused His words.
The address was to the Jewish nation in the generation of His earthly ministry, when He was in their midst working the works of God. Because they had the Word of God and rejected not only delegates, servants and prophets but Christ Himself, that refusal made them the most guilty and made the time of His presence their most solemn period of responsibility. It was His verdict upon the nation in its last test as a nation, when light from the living oracles shone upon them and He spoke to them and did among them works no man ever had done or could do, yet they would not receive Him. Their time of warning, patience, appeals and forbearance was drawing to a close, and their unwillingness left Jerusalem alone responsible for her own destruction. His humble and poor appearance disappointed their expectations, and so they refused Him who came to give them life.
The words are His sorrowful closing verdict at the end of His earthly work when Jerusalem's day of probation had ended. For three years He had sought fruit and found none, with one object ever upon His soul to present heaven's solemn warnings and gracious invitations and to awaken comprehension that He was the promised Messiah, the only hope of Israel. He greatly desired them to receive His words, graciously invited them, carried them on His heart, and did all He could to save them. For them He clothed His divinity with humanity, the Prince of heaven humbling Himself to take the form of a servant to convince His thankless, disobedient people that He was their only hope. Though reluctant to pronounce doom, He was forced at the close to declare that they would not come to Him that they might have life, and the same refusal is repeated by those who tread the ground of the Jewish leaders in making light of warnings and rejecting entreaties for salvation.
The words are also His weeping lament over Jerusalem at His triumphal entry, spoken to the city and the nation. In love He again and again averted the bolts of justice and waited for penitence and repentance, bearing with them as a father bears with his own son, yet Israel defiantly resisted all His pleadings. Their refusal to come to Him for life forged their own fetters, sealed their own doom, and gathered about them the cloud of wrath seen in the coming terrible destruction of the doomed city with its thousands and thousands involved.
What Coming and Life Mean
Life is found in Christ Himself alone and is received by coming to Him, for He is the source of life and eternal life is God's gift through Him. That life was provided through the death of the only begotten Son as Substitute and Surety, accepted for sinners, and was purchased at infinite cost, so refusing it does not lessen its value or remove responsibility. Pardon, peace, and cleansing from all sin and unrighteousness by His efficacious blood are promised to all who come in His name, believe the Word, and confess sins, while clinging to unbelief, doubt, and uncertainty blocks reception of His love and leaves the soul dead in trespasses and remaining in sin. It is not gained by mere casual reading of the Scriptures that testify of Him, but by devoting time to earnest investigation with prayer for quickened understanding, together with self-examination and prayer, in order to obtain growth in grace, knowledge of the divine will, and spiritual strength. Unwillingness to come, rather than any failure of His desire to save, explains impenitence and apostasy, for He longs to gather and save but men resist Him and keep apart criticizing His words and works instead of receiving Him into the spiritual life and feeding upon Him.
The life He gives is the peace of Christ for the soul's need and the living water that truly quenches spiritual thirst, and those who refuse to come go instead to broken cisterns that can hold no water, seeking satisfaction where it cannot be satisfied. He calls careworn, sorrowful, thirsting, weary, burdened and oppressed souls to come for life, peace, joy, mercy, strength and rest, for He is the water of life that answers the soul's thirst. Those who meet His conditions are to trust the burden of sin to Him rather than continue carrying it themselves, for seeking satisfaction in things that cannot give life leaves the soul unsatisfied and men manufacture needless grievous burdens for themselves. Refusing Him means remaining without that gift, without pardon and rest, under a cloud of condemnation.
Coming to Him means responding to His loving call with humility and faith, accepting Him as a personal Saviour, believing He died to save, believing His promises, and learning through personal experience what He is. It means choosing to come as one is and give self to Him, for He does not force anyone and each must choose, and grasping His promises by living faith brings peace, rest, and assurance in this life and eternal life in His kingdom. It requires wholehearted surrender, including giving up idols and entrusting burdens and care to Him, opening the door of the heart to His knocking without delay, surrendering to God, confessing backslidings and sins, and turning fully to Him who will make free. It means looking to Jesus in trials, trusting the heavenly Father, studying the Word with a teachable spirit, praying and watching unto prayer, and going forward to work out salvation with fear and trembling while God works within to will and to do His good pleasure. Those who know the truth must obey the call to go work in the vineyard and take the knowledge of truth to those in darkness without God and without hope, for by working as well as praying they obtain greater knowledge, have understanding opened to perceive truth in its beauty, and become better prepared than by remaining in meetings apart from consecrated labor in destitute fields.
To come for life is to trust His Word implicitly, believe He will do as He has said and give rest, and after complying with the conditions roll the burden of sins upon the Saviour instead of carrying it longer. It is to take His yoke, unite with brethren under that yoke, learn His meekness and lowliness of heart, and so find rest for the soul, because His yoke is easy and His burden is light. Refusing to come and wear His yoke leaves in darkness, while coming and keeping hold of His strength makes children of light who are all light in the Lord, have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness but reprove them, awake from sleep and death to receive His light, take fewer burdens, walk unitedly and circumspectly, and work not in own strength but with Him as helper and sufficiency.
Coming gives life because His righteousness brings life and healing, taking away sin and putting His righteousness in its place, so those who have received Christ must walk in Him in whom all fullness dwells. It means humbling self, repenting and being converted, learning His lessons of self-denial and self-sacrifice, eating His flesh and drinking His blood which is His Word, and representing the meek and lowly Saviour in word and deed, for unless proud, self-exalted, self-willed ones reform and come they must perish. It means coming just as one is without delay and without waiting for special agony or feeling, repenting, looking to Him and believing in Him as personal Saviour, and committing the soul to Him, and as the sinner advances Christ advances to meet him, forgives whatever sins have been committed, washes them away in His blood, and as the great Physician saves to the uttermost because He knows how to deal with every disorder and sin. His dying love proves His willingness to save and His resurrection and ascension prove His power to save, while to refuse to come leaves the soul in a Christless, unforgiven state. Knowing the words of Scripture only in theory, without receiving Christ as personal Saviour and experiencing the Word's power to change heart and character, is not eternal life, for reliance on human traditions and distorted interpretations blinds to the truth testified in Scripture and leaves without the life sought. Wise conceit, claim to know the law while not knowing the Scriptures nor the power of God, teaching for doctrine the commandments of men and misrepresenting His character, and trusting in own righteousness which cannot enter the kingdom, keeps separate from God, and that separation is the spiritual darkness covering the earth, since sin is death and righteousness is life. Afflicted souls can receive healing by coming, but remain without it because they will not come, though He invites the weary and heavy laden.
Coming for life means receiving the truth as it is in Jesus, following on to know the Lord, and keeping His commandments including the Sabbath, and claiming to be Christian without obedience is not coming to Him. The life He offers is a life that measures with the life of God, a treasure in the heavens that fails not, and receiving the answer means life and rejecting it means death, for there is no second probation. Refusal may parallel the Jews' refusal of Christ by refusing Sabbath truth after recognizing its claim because respected religious leaders do not accept it, and turning away from known light leaves accountable for rejecting it even when light and evidence are before them. He has made every provision for His people to have life, help, blessing, courage and faith, but many who profess to keep His holy law will not come into His presence to receive it, and because they remain away and do not live according to light given they transgress the law, so the most precious blessings and exalted privileges promised to those who love truth and obey it in love are changed into curses. This is why they lack spiritual sinew and muscle, remain without spiritual moisture, dry and sapless, and bear backslidden, mournful testimonies, when God would have it otherwise.
Reasons for Refusing Christ
They would not come although the Scriptures testified of Him, because they failed to study and understand God's word rightly and resisted its reproof and demands, preferring their own traditions and refusing to obey its requirements. They searched the Scriptures for evidence about the Messiah while He stood among them, yet with mistaken expectation about His coming they missed the life they sought, for Moses' writings pointed to Jesus and to refuse those writings was to refuse His words. Reliance on human traditions and distorted interpretations blinded them, so that knowing the words of Scripture in theory without receiving Christ as personal Saviour and experiencing the Word's power to change heart and character left them without eternal life. Though they kept religious forms and offered sacrifices that pointed to Him in whom their hope of eternal life was centered, they did not acknowledge Him as Saviour, and without faith in God's promise their offerings were meaningless. To refuse to obey His word and to reject His plain truths that expose sin is to reject Him, as the Jewish leaders did at His first advent, closing the open way by turning from truth and light because His teaching did not meet their expectations.
They would not come because they were wise in their own conceit, claiming to know God's law while not knowing the Scriptures nor the power of God, teaching for doctrine the commandments of men and misrepresenting His character and attributes. Trusting in their own righteousness, which cannot enter the kingdom of heaven, kept them from receiving the righteousness of Christ which brings life and healing, taking away sin and putting His righteousness in its place; that separation from God is the spiritual darkness covering the earth. Their spiritual sickness required His teaching for healing and soundness of principle, but they believed they were already spiritually well and needed no enlightenment. The self-righteous Pharisees felt no need of His help and would not accept the salvation He offered, while the poor publicans and sinners, knowing they needed help, accepted His instruction and aid.
They would not come because things of time and sense claimed attention, for although crowds sought Him for temporal blessings they sought earthly good while neglecting eternal riches. Unwillingness to accept truth and practical godliness does not make the truth false, yet few accepted the world's Redeemer because those who prize earthly good over eternal riches remain unwilling to accept practical godliness. They turn away and choose the pleasures of this life instead of accepting salvation and its gifts, seeking own pleasure in vain talk, laughter, fashion, and amusements instead of coming to Christ for life. Jerusalem's refusal to be saved by accepting His redemption grieved Him as a man of sorrows acquainted with grief, so that He wept over the city after a life of good works and great sacrifice to save others, even spending entire nights on the damp ground in agonizing prayer. His costly sacrifice was made so they could be saved, yet turning to self-pleasure instead of Him leaves them without life.
They would not come from pride, stubbornness, selfishness, and attachment to their own opinions, which blinded them to truth and made them resist further light, so that they refused to walk in the light of truth and therefore did not receive life from Jesus the Light of life. Their spiritual blindness developed as they resisted the Holy Spirit and refused to yield, a chosen rejection of the light and evidence God had given them, which outward religious practices could not remedy. Though His works of mercy and the evidence of His divine mission were before them and His words convicted them of the truth, prejudice and resistance to the Holy Spirit kept them from coming to Him, binding them in unbelief and rejecting the blessings He came to bring. Pride, prejudice, self-sufficiency, and resistance to God's warnings can keep those who claim spiritual knowledge from accepting what they need, when they reject Christ's counsel and do not let His truth change their lives. That rejection brought Jerusalem's destruction, which Christ saw clearly and mourned.
They would not come by turning from divine wisdom to human beings and human resources for help, wisdom, and solace for woe, slighting the love and mercy provided for them and dishonoring Him by distrust, refusing to make Him their confidant and burden-bearer though in humanity they will find no solace and though God pities them in their need. Christ pities their need and desires their trust, and He will never neglect the poor fainting soul who comes to Him but gives life to all who come. They refuse Him by holding to self, placing their own ideas and works above His words and works, neglecting His words and thereby losing Christ the vital essence of the message and extinguishing His love from the heart. Such self-interest keeps His religion from taking hold in the heart, leaves God's love poorly represented, and neglects those who suffer. Though Christ died for them as Sin-Bearer and they could place their sins on Him, they may still choose to keep their sins and be lost by rejecting His salvation, for those who know they are guilty may still refuse to humble themselves and confess but reject the light and continue in wrongdoing.
The refusal is willful, for people may prefer false security and self-deception because they do not want their deeds exposed. The church likewise refuses to search Scripture or listen to truth when it would reprove its works, choosing the world's customs and approval instead, though numbers and material prosperity do not prove God's favor.
Christ's Grief and Costly Love
He uttered the refusal with sorrow, with quivering lips and weeping, as a man of sorrows whose tender and compassionate heart grieves that those He came to save will not hear truth and come to Him for life. His sorrow when loved ones will not hear is far keener than human sorrow because His nature is higher and holier, and His many disappointments over few showing interest in His mission, though every soul was precious in His sight, made Him such a man of sorrows. He speaks sadly and mournfully and with pitiful tenderness over proud, self-exalted and self-willed leaders, warning and graciously inviting those who stray with eternal rewards for obedience, yet they refuse and are left without the life He offers. He speaks plain and decided truth without holding back, with convincing earnestness that draws the desponding near and fills them with hope and courage, never to give needless pain to any trembling sensitive soul, but with sorrow toward those who reject Him and make light of His words, whose refusal is bound up with lack of love for God.
He had left honor and glory and majesty to come to earth for them, clothing His divinity with humanity and hiding divinity under humanity, the Prince of heaven humbling Himself to take the form of a servant to convince His thankless, disobedient people that He was their only hope. He lived a life of continual trial, and labored and interceded and endured hardship to relieve the fallen race, for three years seeking fruit and finding none while presenting heaven's solemn warnings and gracious invitations to awaken comprehension that He was the promised Messiah. He paid a heavy ransom by sacrifice to rescue men from the penalty of sin and bring salvation within their reach, carrying them on His heart and doing all He could to save them. He died for sinners before they could make themselves good, and His death is the remedy for sin so that those who look to Him and believe are saved.
His unwillingness is never the cause of impenitence and apostasy, for He longs to gather and save everyone and seeks the lost, yet many refuse to come and only a few receive His offers of mercy. He freely receives all who come confessing their sins, advances to meet the sinner, forgives and washes away sins, and fills with His Spirit, life, love and joy, and He will never neglect the poor fainting soul who comes but gives life to all who come. To refuse is to slight the love and mercy provided and to dishonor and insult the One who has done so much by distrust, refusing to make Him confidant and burden-bearer and turning from His promises and the fullness of His love to human beings and human resources for help, wisdom and solace for woe, though in humanity there is no solace and though God pities them in their need. He yearns to relieve human suffering and willingly gives Himself to bring salvation within reach, yet He does not force anyone and no one will be saved against his will; each must choose to come as he is, believe He died to save him and give himself to Him, grasping His promises by living faith, which brings peace, rest and assurance in this life and eternal life in His kingdom.
With hungry, loving wishfulness He desires to save the human family, lost and ruined through sin and guilty as transgressors of God's law, and He sorrows in heart that so few appreciate that love and refuse to be found by Him. Coming to Him for life means seeking Him with the whole heart, hating sin while seeking to save sinners, being saved from sins and not in sins, and finding in Him everlasting strength that begins where mortal strength has failed. When one soul so learns of Him and comes, His heart is made glad and there is joy and singing in the heavenly courts.
Responsibility and Coming Judgment
Jerusalem's destruction followed its own refusal to come to Christ, the Holy One of Israel and Redeemer, for life. He had called the people to repentance and was willing to bring salvation within their reach, but they rejected Him, so their ruin was their own responsibility for rejecting pardon. The Jewish people rejected Him despite the evidence and blessings received, blinded by false hopes of a temporal kingdom so that they did not know their King, and their stubborn refusal to accept His teachings determined their fate. In rejecting Christ they rejected the only provision Heaven had made for salvation and cut themselves off from life, refusing not only delegates, servants and prophets but Christ Himself in person. Because they had the Word of God while He was in their midst working the works of God, that refusal made them most guilty and made that generation's time His presence their most solemn period of responsibility. His mercies and invitation gave opportunity to repent and know what would bring peace, but unbelief and resistance hardened them into impenitence, and rejecting His messengers and warnings was rejecting the Master who sent them, bringing its own sure result and the doom pronounced over Jerusalem upon those who perished in sins.
If a person is destroyed he alone is responsible, because he will not come to Christ that he might have life. The call thou, even thou, applies to each person individually, for Christ stoops from His throne yearning with tenderness and pity over those who have no pity for themselves. Each has a day of visitation which is today, the present time and not tomorrow, and if he will hear Christ's voice without hardening his heart and receive Him as Saviour this day, peace, heaven and pardon of transgressions are his. That peace is his own peace, the gift of Christ to be taken, which money cannot buy and intellect cannot reach and wisdom cannot bribe. Refusal despite light, mercy, warnings and privileges leaves men accountable for what they could have received and hardens the heart into indifference, unbelief and impenitence, leaving them in darkness without life instead of receiving His light. The Jewish leaders illustrate this, for their claim to Abrahamic descent and religious privilege could not give life while they remained unconverted and self-righteous, and their chosen rejection of light and evidence, resisting the Holy Spirit and refusing to yield, brought judgment which Christ saw and mourned.
God bears patiently during probation, coming in love, mercy and judgment, testing by blessings bestowed and blessings removed and working by the Holy Spirit with wonderful blessings and unacknowledged mercies to awaken desire to impart entrusted light and bring needed change of action. Repeated messages, entreaties, patient efforts, threatened judgments and present mercy call to change, but refusal to respond hardens the heart and leaves people unready for the passing of probation. Those who claim to be His servants yet depart from His way will have none of His counsel, despise all His reproofs, grieve His Spirit by failure to respond to His love, and refuse to learn the lesson He seeks to teach. To refuse to come to Him for life is thus to refuse His counsel and the life He offers, and if they are destroyed they themselves are responsible and it is their own fault. When it is clear men will not turn, judgment comes, as guilt reaching its full measure brought the end of opportunity.
That rejection did not at once end opportunity. Even after priests, rulers and people would not come to Jesus to receive life, though He freely received those who came confessing their sins and had lived a life of self-denial, self-sacrifice and humiliation on their behalf as the Scriptures declared, the guilty and deceived were to have still another opportunity. They were still to be invited through His disciples to accept the Son of God, confess Him before men, and receive remission of sins obtainable only through Christ and everlasting life. His disciples were to carry that message of mercy to them and to all nations.
Warning and Call Today
The refusal belongs to those who search the Scriptures and have great light yet will not come to the One who alone gives life, and their remaining without life is culpable neglect. It is the trouble of some who have been honored of God but have not become one with Christ and do not reflect His glory, because His instruction is not palatable to them and they do not walk in the light received. The rebuke means refusing to come in humility and contrition to receive life, and the warning reaches every soul given a glimpse of heavenly truth not to turn away or disobey the light. At the close of three years seeking fruit and finding none, with solemn warnings and gracious invitations anxiously laboring to awaken a thankless disobedient people to comprehend the only hope of Israel and promised Messiah, divinity clothed with humanity as the Prince of heaven humbled to a servant carrying them on His heart and doing all that could be done to save them, doom was reluctantly pronounced over Jerusalem for refusing to come for life. That same refusal is repeated today by those who tread the ground of the Jewish leaders in making light of warnings and rejecting all entreaties for salvation, including church members who have neglected spiritual duty and must awaken without delay.
The instruction in John 5 and 6 is the mystery of godliness and must be studied, made part of life, and brought into daily experience to gain power to distinguish the true from the false in days of peril. Eternal life is not gained by mere casual reading, but time must be devoted to earnest investigation of the Scriptures with prayer for quickened understanding, together with self-examination and prayer, and coming to obtain growth in grace, knowledge of the divine will, and spiritual strength. More light is given as opportunities are used to receive it, and those who refuse opportunities for heavenly light, comfort, and knowledge are accountable as if they had heard and rejected the message, showing no desire for reproof, warning, or consolation. Knowing the words of Scripture in theory without receiving a personal Saviour and experiencing the Word's power to change heart and character is not eternal life, for reliance on human traditions and distorted interpretations blinds to the truth that Scripture testifies of Christ and men must come and believe. Coming means looking to Jesus in trials, trusting the heavenly Father, studying the Word with a teachable spirit, praying and watching unto prayer, and going forward to work out salvation while God works within to will and do His good pleasure. Those who know the truth must obey the call to go work in the vineyard and carry truth to those in darkness without God and without hope, for by working as well as praying greater knowledge is obtained, angels open the understanding to perceive truth in its beauty, and workers are better prepared than by remaining in meetings apart from consecrated labor in destitute fields.
It is a direct question to those unready to meet the Lord, asking them to come that they might have life, desiring His name glorified in them and the light of heaven to fill their souls. It is truth of special interest to enlighten those who need reconversion before they can become righteous, a personal appeal not to reject but to come in faith and receive salvation. It offers life to an unconverted youth with warning that refusal leaves the soul unsaved, so that if lost he alone is responsible by his own refusal. It addresses those claiming to be servants yet departing from the way, who though visited in love, mercy, and judgment and tested by blessings bestowed and blessings removed, and wrought upon by the Spirit and wonderful blessings to awaken desire to impart entrusted light, will learn nothing, will have none of His counsel, despise all reproof, grieve His Spirit by failure to respond, and refuse to come to receive life, so that if destroyed they are responsible. With tears it calls one on the enemy's side to stop insulting grace and make a decided radical change, opening the heart's door without delay, surrendering, confessing backslidings, turning fully, and being made free. The call is to heed messages leading to light, take up neglected work, make a change and be placed in right relation to God instead of gathering burdens that will crush to death.
Refusing to come leaves the power to resist temptation and control passions unreceived, for that power comes from Christ alone and educational opportunities cannot change the heart or benefit one persisting in unbelief and forbidden conduct. Preferring evil practices to the way set out in the Word rejects that help and can lead others wrong. He is Restorer and divine Healer, able and willing to give life and relief, and those coming in faith may receive grace and salvation, cooperating by using the natural remedies provided, while sufferers seeking relief elsewhere without turning in faith remain unhelped. Coming means receiving truth as it is in Jesus, following on to know the Lord, and keeping the commandments including the Sabbath, for claiming to be Christian without obedience is not coming, and the life offered measures with the life of God as unfailing heavenly treasure, so that receiving means life and rejecting means death with no second probation. The same refusal parallels turning from Sabbath truth after recognizing its claim because respected religious leaders do not accept it, and turning from known light leaves accountability for rejecting it.
The invitation calls careworn, sorrowful, thirsting, weary and oppressed souls to come for life and peace, the living water that truly quenches spiritual thirst, while those refusing go to broken cisterns that hold no water seeking satisfaction where it cannot be found. This call to the waters, to the water of life, is to be spoken to the sick and suffering in healing ministry to save souls. Workers should remember One who left honor and glory and majesty, found few with interest though every soul was precious, saw things of time and sense blind eyes to His merit, and became a man of sorrows whose sorrow over loved ones refusing truth is keener than human sorrow because His nature is higher and holier, and that remembrance should keep them from discouragement in proclaiming truth. Like searching a flourishing pretentious fig tree for fruit to satisfy hunger and finding none, He hungered in soul over a nation for whom He had done so much yet few responded, because of their wicked spirit. Those laboring for souls are to share His sufferings and discouragements, draw souls with faith and hope and earnest persevering entreaties, and after doing all possible not worry and fret over disappointment but rest and trust and believe while the Spirit works with those for whom they labor.