Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father: there is one that accuseth you, even Moses, in whom ye trust.
This saying belongs to the discourse Christ gave after healing the impotent man at the pool of Bethesda, when the Jews accused Him of breaking the Sabbath. It was addressed to the Jewish leaders who were determined to take His life. Even while facing that murderous intent He fully set forth His Sonship, His relation to the Father, and His equality with the Father.
He declared that He would not accuse them to the Father and had no need to do so. The one who accused them was Moses, in whom they trusted and whom they professed to believe, who already stood as their accuser before God. This applied to rulers claiming Moses' authority, to the Pharisees, and to the people who trusted in his writings.
Moses accuses them because his writings testify of Christ and write about Him, so that rejecting Christ contradicts professed belief in Moses. Those writings present types of the Messiah and promises of His coming. Had they truly believed Moses they would have believed Christ and welcomed Him as the One of whom Moses wrote.
Their refusal to accept Jesus therefore exposed that they did not truly believe Moses and his writings. That unbelief condemned them and explains why they did not and could not believe Christ's words. The testimony of Moses left them without excuse for their opposition to Him. Its condemnation of their course only made them more bitter, deepening their blind opposition and rage against Him.
This saying belongs to the discourse Christ gave after healing the impotent man at the pool of Bethesda, when the Jews accused Him of breaking the Sabbath. It was addressed to the Jewish leaders who were determined to take His life. Even while facing that murderous intent He fully set forth His Sonship, His relation to the Father, and His equality with the Father.
He declared that He would not accuse them to the Father and had no need to do so. The one who accused them was Moses, in whom they trusted and whom they professed to believe, who already stood as their accuser before God. This applied to rulers claiming Moses' authority, to the Pharisees, and to the people who trusted in his writings.
Moses accuses them because his writings testify of Christ and write about Him, so that rejecting Christ contradicts professed belief in Moses. Those writings present types of the Messiah and promises of His coming. Had they truly believed Moses they would have believed Christ and welcomed Him as the One of whom Moses wrote.
Their refusal to accept Jesus therefore exposed that they did not truly believe Moses and his writings. That unbelief condemned them and explains why they did not and could not believe Christ's words. The testimony of Moses left them without excuse for their opposition to Him. Its condemnation of their course only made them more bitter, deepening their blind opposition and rage against Him.