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John 12:48, “The one who rejects me and does not receive my words has a judge; the word that I have spoken will judge him on the last day.”
Short Thoughts:
The word of Christ cannot be ignored and will confront us on the last day, to our vindication or condemnation.
Long Thoughts:
The one who rejects me and does not receive my words has a judge; the word that I have spoken will judge him on the last day.
Here Jesus creates a link between Himself (the light of the world, the revelation of the Father) and His words, such that, to reject Jesus is here connected closely—if not made synonymous with—a rejection of His words. There is no receiving Jesus apart from receiving (which implies keeping) His words, His teaching, His commandment(s).
And so strong is the link between Christ and His words that the word of Christ—the word that He has spoken, the word that is preserved for us in perfect sufficiency in scripture—will be the judge of those who rejected Him. His word is truth, it stands, it remains, it cannot be obscured, it cannot be sponged out, it cannot be overridden, we all must reckon with the invincible reality of the word of Christ.
And what is this word? And is there a difference between the words of Christ and the word of Christ? I won’t get into it all now, but in the past I’ve done studies of the word “word” in John’s gospel (logos) and it seems that “word” singular usually refers to Christ’s teaching as a body. Furthermore, it seems that “word” points to Christ’s teaching about Himself….about who He is as the Son, Savior, and Revealer, sent from the Father. So, it seems to me that the words of Christ—collectively referred to as the word of Christ—is His body of teaching which can be summarized as a witness of Who He Is. This is what is received or rejected—the Son’s witness to His own identity, as corroborated by signs and scripture and the Father Himself. And this is what is kept / obeyed or disobeyed. And how do we keep this word? We believe, we receive, and we conform to the same image.
For I have not spoken on my own authority, but the Father who sent me has himself given me a commandment—what to say and what to speak.
Jesus’ word is so invincibly sure because it—like all of His life—does not flow from His own authority, but from the Father. Jesus’ witness to Himself….the radical “I Am” statements, the claims to equality with the Father, the claims to have authority to lay down and take up His life, the demand that He receive the same honor as the Father, etc. etc. these things do not flow from Himself as their source, rather, they are sourced in the Father….Jesus’ words are the words that GOD the FATHER has given Him to speak. Therefore, they are infinitely weighty and must / will be reckoned with by every soul.
Note also the idea of obedience. Christ is the perfect image of God, in part, because He is the perfect obeyer of God.
And I know that his commandment is eternal life.
Here is an interesting summing up of what has come before. The commandment, in this context, refers to Jesus’ words. And we’ve already said that Jesus’ words are ultimately a revelation of Himself. And before that we said that to perceive Jesus is to perceive the Father in Him, which—to receive—is eternal life. In other words: The Father’s commandment = Jesus’ words (word) = Jesus’ self-revelation = The Father’s revelation in the Son = Light = Eternal Life.
What I say, therefore, I say as the Father has told me.
And here is a final statement as to Christ’s authority. It flows from the Father. At every turn, what we do and how we respond to Jesus is a direct action or response to the Father. This is crucial to understand and central to every teaching that John gives.
