Verse 39: ^“Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me.”

Many people read and study the Scriptures, memorize them, and discuss them because they believe in so doing they show that they are children of God. However, you can read the Scriptures from front to back, believe that in them you have eternal life, but unless the LORD has opened your Spiritual eyes to see in them the glory and beauty of the LORD Jesus and His effectual redemption and justification of sinners He came to save, knowing the Scriptures and citing them is NOT salvation.

Verse 40: “And ye will not come to me, that ye might have life.”

Man’s will is not free but bound by the sin and depravity of the heart. Left to themselves, sinners will NOT come to Christ. They will come to a profession, a congregation, a decision, but to come to Christ is impossible unless the Spirit of God draw them effectually to Him.

Verse 41: “I receive not honor from men.”

So hardened is the depravity of sinner’s hearts that they prefer their own honor to that of Christ alone. He came unto His own (the Jewish generation), and they did not receive Him or honor Him. Yet, our LORD did not come to win a popularity contest, nor was He affected either by the smiles or frowns of men. He came to accomplish the will of His Father and does draw honor from the hearts of His people, by His Spirit, when He is pleased to reveal Himself in them.

Verse 42: “But I know you, that ye have not the love of God in you.”Reprobate sinners neither are objects of God’s Love, nor do they love the True God. They love their notions of God and prefer to believe a lie than to love Him as He reveals Himself in His Word.

Verse 43: “I am come in my Father’s name, and ye receive me not: if another shall come in his own name, him ye will receive.”

The religious generation in Christ’s day had a system of honoring and preferring one another, even as in our day, and yet when HE came to them, HIM they would not hear.

Verse 44: “How can ye believe, which receive honor one of another, and seek not the honor that cometh from God only?”