John 7:15 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters

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John 7:15

Comments

Now I have to make some comment on this verse because in our translation we have the word ‘marvelled’. The Jews marvelled. Perfectly correct, but the word in the Greek can be used and is used in the New Testament in both a good sense and in a bad sense. Here we must understand it is meant in a bad sense. You can tell that quite easily because of the context, because of the way Christ defends himself against these people. So I will alter the word for our understanding – and the Jews were shocked saying, ‘How knoweth this man letters having never learned.’ Where did he get all this from? He has never been to our rabbinical schools. This is not orthodox teaching. Orthodox teaching to us is that you keep the law of God meticulously, the ceremonial law, and by so doing, God is extra pleased with you. You are already going to heaven because you are Jewish people, but you will get the very best treatment and places because you were meticulous in your following of the details of the ancient ritual which symbolised redemption. But they did not keep the moral law. They did not cleanse their heart. They did not repent of their sins. It was all outward performance. That was what the rabbinical schools taught. But Christ would teach, ‘No, people are not converted by works, by ceremonies. They are not accepted by God that way, but by repentance and faith and new life and reconciliation with God.’How does he have this learning, having never been to our rabbinical schools. This is his mere opinion. We have to admit he says it very eloquently. It is quite fascinating to listen to, but it is dangerous, and it is heretical, and we reject it. And furthermore it is insulting to us, and it puts us down, and we have got to get rid of him. They meant this insultingly. It conveys the idea that the Jews were astonished. They could not understand how he spoke so eloquently and had such knowledge of divine things. But it actually horrified them. They were trying to discredit him. They could not deal with his teaching so they discredited him.

Application

We are programmed by this world to behave in much the same way as the Jewish leaders behaved. They did not want to accept his teaching, so they discredited him. Where did he learn this? This is not official, this is not right, and that is what you and I do if we are not converted. If somebody tries to talk to us about faith and about Christ and about knowing God, we will just discredit them. We will say this person is nonsense. This person is just talking rubbish. He is not in line with what we know from science about the origin of the world and evolution. We think of all that we have been brainwashed to believe, all the unbelief and the atheism, and we despise the person who talks about faith. If only we would listen, we would hear about God and his character and nature. We would hear the outline of the plan of redemption. We would hear the Christian, the biblical view of man as depraved and sinful, and we would begin to say, this makes sense. This is authentic. This is much deeper and more profound. This explains me. This explains our need. There is a God and a Creator. But we will not listen. And they would not listen to Christ. They discredit the person.

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John 7:15 Commentary and Bible Study

The meaning of John 7:15 explained