AN EXPOSITION
OF THE GOSPEL OF
JOHN (18: 33-37.)
By
ROBERT GOVETT, M.A.
33,
34. ‘Pilate entered in therefore
again into the Praetorium, and called Jesus, and said unto him - "Thou
art
the King of the Jews?" Jesus answered him - "Of thyself
sayest
thou this; or did others say it to thee about Me?"’
Pilate’s
words should be read as an interrogation put in the form of
affirmation, as
when we say - ‘You are going to
We
may state it thus - ‘Dost thou
put the question of thy
own proper motion?’ Then that may arise (1) from
faith, accepting
the Scriptures of the Jews, as foretelling a universal king of David’s
line;
or (2) from Roman and political unbelief; through jealousy of Jesus’
pretensions, as hostile to the Emperor.
The
Roman’s reply seems to be especially directed primarily to negative the
first
of these points. And the second part of the reply removes the
other. Thus He leaves the Jews as the sole authors of this
accusation.
35,36. ‘Pilate
answered - "Am I a Jew? Thine own nation and the chief
priests have
delivered Thee up to me: what hast Thou done?" Jesus answered
- ‘My
kingdom cometh not of this world; if it were out of this world, then
would My
servants have fought, in order that I should be delivered up to the
Jews, but
now My kingdom is not from hence.’
The
first part of Pilate’s reply is a proud denial of his having any
sympathy with
Jewish fables and superstitions. He neither knew nor cared
anything about
Moses and the prophets. He was a servant of the fourth great
empire of
Daniel, and believed nought about any greater empire of God, that
should dash
to earth that of
He
tells Jesus, that the accusation was put into His mouth by the nation
and
rulers of
The
Saviour’s reply is one which is much quoted by anti-millerians.
To their
eyes it demolishes all ideas
of any [millennial] reign
of Christ in person over
These
words refer not only to the twelve and our Lord’s prohibition of the
sword in
the Garden to them; but also to His refusal to attempt to set up the
How
shall we take the ‘now’
in the Lord’s closing
words? 1. Is it a particle of time?
‘For the
present
My kingdom is not from this world.’ No!
For the source of
the Lord’s kingdom would always abide the same; always would its source
be
heavenly. The Father’s will is to bestow it on the Son, and
His decree is
that it should be established, not by the armies of
men, but by the host
of angels from on high. (2) The last
clause, ‘not from
hence,’ establishes
the
rendering here given; and the sense - ‘Heaven, not
earth, is the source of our Lord’s future kingdom.’
For
the Saviour could not deny that His kingdom was one day to rule over
the
Our
Lord does not answer the question, ‘What
He had done?’
till His next reply. What is the Saviour’s kingdom? ‘A
kingdom,’ most [of
the regenerate]
reply, ‘in the hearts of His
people.’ Nay,
the kingdom is to be seen when
He is beheld coming in the clouds,
with power of His angels, casting His foes into the furnace of fire,
and rewarding His
well-behaved and
faithful servants (Matthew 24. 25.) Says
Pilate, ‘Thy people, O king,
have themselves delivered
Thee up to me, as an offender to be slain!’ And
Jesus, while
owning Himself ‘King of the Jews,’
as the
Prophet had declared, must yet say, that on worldly grounds His
servants would
have fought against the Jews, as
against enemies. ‘All the
foundations are out of course.’ That
‘Jesus is the King of
37. ‘Pilate saith therefore
unto Him, "Thou art a King then." Jesus answered, "Thou sayest
that I am a King. I was for this purpose born, and for this
purpose came
into the world, in order that I should bear witness to the
truth. Every
one that is of the truth heareth My
voice."’
Jesus
had thrice spoken of ‘His
kingdom.’ But
if so, He owned Himself to be a King.
Jesus
admits it. In what sense?
Some pervert
His words, as if the following sentiments of our
Lord were descriptive
of the
nature of His
kingdom. As
though He had said, ‘I am King
in a figurative
sense. I reign spiritually
in the hearts
of My people.
I am King: but My
realm is that of grace and truth.’
Now if this were
the only passage, there might be some appearance of truth in such a
view. But when we bring
[in many] other passages, it is
apparent that this is a mistake. The
only shelter which the sentiment can find lies in this, that the
present
time is the time of the kingdom in
mystery, and the
present day is that of ‘the
word of
the kingdom.’
But
it must never be forgot, that both in the other Gospels and in
this, Jesus was asked whether He were ‘the
King of the Jews.’
To that
question Jesus answered in the affirmative.
Therefore it is
certain, that Jesus’ kingdom is not only or chiefly a figurative one,
but a
real and literal one [hereafter],
(1) over the nation of
The
nature of the kingdom, then, is wholly misapprehended by
those who make it
something figurative and present. This is not truly
the time of the
Saviour’s [coming
millennial]
kingdom. We are to pray for its coming;
not for its extension.
The kingdom, generally, means the
kingdom in manifestation, not ‘the word
of the kingdom’ only.
It
is to overturn the kingdoms of the earth when it comes; not as now, while in
mystery: its adherents lying
passive in the hands of the kings of the earth, and refusing to take
power in,
and over, the world.*
[*This is why
Christians should
refuse to vote or take part in World Politics.
By participating in political activity, they spoil their
testimony
relative to the coming millennial
Jesus
was offered all the kingdoms of the world by Satan, and He might have
taken the
kingdom over
This
was ‘the good confession’
before Pilate, which
cost our Lord His life, (1Tim.
6: 13).
(1)
In Daniel 7: 14-27,
‘the Son of Man’ as
‘Ancient of Days,’
puts down by force and
justice the fourth empire, and its
blaspheming King; while He gives the kingdom which He has taken away
from the
Blasphemer, to His fellow-kings. (2) So in the parable of the
Pounds (Luke 19.)
The nobleman is gone to heaven to obtain
His kingdom. He
does not exercise
it while in heaven: it is only at
His return, after the reception of His
kingdom, that He exercises
it. And how does He manifest it? By
exalting His friends and faithful
servants; and by destroying His foes. That is, His
kingdom never
means an inward and invisible kingdom in the hearts of [regenerate] believers.
(3)
While Paul* proclaims
Jesus as being now the ‘Priest
after the order of Melchizedek,’ he speaks also
of the day when the Kingly side of
that title shall appear. For
Melchizedek was both
Priest and King, of which the history of Abraham gives us a typical
glimpse.
He brings blessings to Abraham and his sons, after their Gentile foes
are cut
off (Heb. 7: 1).
[*There is no clear evidence that Paul
was the writer of
Hebrews.]
(4)
His kingdom is
to manifest itself in
resurrection [of the dead, and in rapture of the
living (Rev.
20: 4; 1 Thess. 4: 15,
16)], at His coming with
the trump of heaven. It is to be based on the
principle of righteousness;
in opposition to that of mercy, now in force.
Christ is to reign, not
only spiritually over friends, but specially in
the putting down by power and
righteousness, all
enemies. So says Paul, 1Cor. 15:
24-28 - ‘Then
cometh the end, when He shall
deliver up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when
He shall have put down all rule and all authority and power. For
He must reign till He
hath put all enemies under His feet. The
last enemy that shall be
destroyed is death. For He (God)
hath put all things
under His
(Christ’s)
feet. But
when He saith, all things are put under Him,
it is
manifest that He is excepted, which did put all things under
Him. And
when all things shall be subdued unto Him, then shall the Son also
Himself be
subject unto Him that put all things under Him, that God may be all in
all.’
(5) The same thing appears in Rev.
11: 15-18,
when the seventh trump sounds; then
the kingdoms of the earth
became, by the putting forth of God’s might, and
the recalling of the
power lent in Noah’s day to the sons of men - ‘the
kingdoms of the Lord, and of His Christ.’ At
that time the
nations are not converted and obedient, but are angry with God, and God
is
angry with them, even to the cutting off of their armies by
battle (Rev. 19: 11-21;
Isaiah 34.). Then appears the
other side of the matter - the kingdom comes, as the
time of the reward
prepared for God’s [worthy] saints of [all] previous dispensations.*
(6) Accordingly,
the thing is shown in the Apocalypse in detail by Christ coming with
His armies
out of the sky; when, finding the hosts of earth arrayed against Him
under two
leaders of especial wickedness, He casts the two into the lake of fire,
and
slays the rest; His title then becoming openly ‘King of
kings and Lord of lords’ (Rev.
19: 16).
(7) After
that, and the imprisonment of Satan,
the kingdom is fully manifested. Christ
reigns, and His martyrs who suffered for, and
served, Him, sit on thrones,
and reign with Christ (20:
4-6). They
then exercise justice: - not as now, suffer
oppression patiently.
[That is, all
whom our Lord will
judge
worthy to be with Him at
that
time: “For I tell you
(‘disciples’, verses 1
& 2) that UNLESS
YOUR RIGHTEOUSNESS
surpasses that (standard of righteousness) of the Pharisees and the teachers of
the law, YOU
will certainly not enter:”
(Matt. 5: 20,
N.I.V.). The
Pharisees taught the law but did not practice
it; and to interpret the “righteousness”
in this
context, as implying it is the impeccable
and imputed
righteousness of Christ, would make nonsense of our
Lord’s teaching and
warnings to His own disciples!]
‘The kingdom,’ therefore is
to be taken
in its usual and literal sense.
(1)
The future
But to return
to our Lord’s words.
Lest Pilate and others
should imagine that His kingly aspect was the only one attaching to
Him, He
proceeds to assert at greater length that side of His mission, which
John’s
Gospel especially unfoulds
- His being a witness
to the truth of God as the Only-begotten
Son. This feature can
only belong to His kingdom during the time of mystery. The
receivers of
the witness of Christ in this day are preparing to be fellow-kings (not
merely
‘subjects.’
As is generally
said) with Christ ‘They
lived and reigned
with Christ,’ who
suffered with Him in the day of mystery (2 Tim. 2:
12; Rev. 20: 4-6).
Jesus
then, sets Himself forth in a new light, and that in a way adapted to
lead to
the salvation of Pilate as the man.
Jesus
is the Witness. So Isaiah said He should be (Isaiah
55: 4), ‘Behold, I
have given Him for a witness
to the people, a leader and commander to the people.’
This is a
passage taken from the general call of the prophet to the sons of men,
to seek
in the Son of God that satisfaction which can be found alone in
Him. There
also is, first, a reference to the millennium in the expression ‘the sure mercies of David’
- that is, the restoration
of His kingdom for ever,* as God promised. Then comes
the notice of the Lord’s establishing Christ as a witness to the
nations (Rev. 1: 5, 6).
[* That is,
for as long as this
present earth exists. After
the
millennial kingdom ends and a ‘new
heaven and a new
earth’ (Rev.
21: 1) are created,
Christ’s kingdom is eternal.]
Jesus
was ‘born’ a king,
and with an object before His
own mind, as well as before His Father’s. He existed before
He was ‘born.’
He came into the world in pursuance of an
object given Him of the Father.
The
then present work of our Lord was that of the peaceful, suffering
witness,
testifying to unpopular truth. This
testimony is carried on still
in Christ’s members; by the [Holy] Spirit given to testify
to [eternal] salvation now,
and to the [millennial] kingdom
to come. This attitude is something quite different
from kingly rule
and power. It is ‘the word
of the
kingdom’ now; the power of it comes only when
Christ returns (Matt. 13: 19).
Jesus,
then, in verse 37
is stating to Pilate, not
the aim of His kingdom; but of His
coming the first time in
the flesh. It will be another thing by
and bye, when He comes ‘the
second time’ in His kingdom, of which the
Transfiguration was a type (Matt.
16: 13; 17: 9).
‘To bear witness to the truth.’ Many
in our days profess to be
fond of the truth, and to be seeking it, but to be sceptical of finding
it.
Jesus came not to seek it; but, as having full possession of
it before He
was born. He came to dispense it to others by His testimony.
‘The
truth’ - means that it is a
great body and one system; religious truth concerning God and man.
Here
was the answer to Pilate - ‘What
hast thou done?’
‘Every one that is of the truth heareth
my voice.’
Here
was the appeal to Pilate that he might be saved. Jesus’
witness was
delivered not to
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