“And Jesus
cried aloud and said, ‘He who believes in me, does not believe in me, but in
Him who sent me” (John 12:44 ).
Observe that Jesus “cried aloud”
these words, “He who believes in me, does not believe in me, but in Him who
sent me.” The fact he spoke this at the top of his voice barely a week out from
his own crucifixion, surely indicates it is significant and we better listen
up!
Before proceeding to unpack these profound words from Jesus, I will make a
guess that this is not one of your all-time favourite memory verses! Chances
are you have not previously meditated on John 12:44 much (if at all). Maybe if
you are honest, you did not even realise it was in the Bible, much less from
Jesus’ own lips. But I am going to prove to you that it is a master key to
unlocking our understanding of Jesus, his relationship with God, and the
significance of all he came to be and do for us. A big statement surely! So let’s
investigate.
Jesus “cried aloud” these words after the nation had, through
their official religious and political leaders, rejected his claims to being
their Messiah. They had not only witnessed his healing and teaching credentials
fulfilling all that the prophets had previously announced, but in the immediate
context, they had seen Jesus raise Lazarus from the dead. The Gospel writer
John tells us that even Christ’s enemies admitted Jesus was “performing many
signs” (11:47 ). John himself says the raising of Lazarus was a “sign” (12:18 ). A sign is an attesting miracle.
Jesus’ mighty miracles were proof God had sent him. So, by rejecting Jesus,
they were sinning against clear light and deadening their own consciences.
In
this context Jesus “cried aloud”. He wants them to hear he really has been
“sent” by their God. Which is to say, Jesus is making the stupendous claim that
he is the bone fide ambassador of the One God of Israel. His works and his
words have been performed because he has been “commissioned”, and is therefore
God’s true representative or agent.
THE PRINCIPLE OF AGENCY
Because we come
from another culture and another generation many times removed from Jesus, it’s
easy to miss the impact of Jesus’ “loud” statement here. Indeed, few readers of
the Scriptures know the significance of the principle of agency that Jesus is
appealing to. Therefore, to understand Jesus’ claim, we first need to
appreciate the culture and mindset of that day’s original audience.
Simply
stated, in Hebrew and ancient Middle Eastern thinking, one who is ‘sent’ (the
agent) is treated as if he or she were the principal (the sender - commissioner)
himself or herself. Although the principal and the agent are two distinct
persons, they are treated as ‘one’, not literally of course, but functionally.
This is accurately stated in the words of the The Encyclopedia of the Jewish
Religion, Agent (Hebrew - Shaliah):
The main point of the Jewish law of agency is
expressed in the dictum, ‘a person’s agent is regarded as the person himself’
[Ned. 72B; Kidd, 41b]. Therefore any act committed by a duly appointed agent
is regarded as having been committed by the principal, who therefore bears full
responsibility for it with consequent complete absence of liability on the part
of the agent.” (1)
Don’t miss this vital fact: “A person’s agent is regarded as
the person himself.“
Furthermore:
In Hebrew thought a patriarch’s personality
extended through his entire household [and] … in a specialised sense when the
patriarch as lord of his household deputised his trusted servant as his malak
(his messenger or angel) the man was endowed with the authority and resources
of his lord to represent him fully and transact business in his name. In
Semitic thought this messenger-representative was conceived of as being
personally - and in his very words - the presence of the sender.” (2)
So,
when the agent acts on behalf of the one who sends him, it is as though the
principal, the master, the lord, is himself there in person speaking and
acting. Understanding this principle will help us avoid what often appear to be
contradictions in the Scriptures. Let me show you a simple instance or two
where understanding this ‘law of agency’ will keep us from error and unlock new
significance in understanding Jesus - as agent - and his relationship with
his Father God - as Principal.
THE CENTURION AND ELDERS DEMONSTRATE AGENCY
In
Matthew’s telling of the healing of the centurion’s servant, it is the
centurion who personally comes to Jesus and begs on behalf of his sick servant…
And when he had entered Capernaum
The modern reader is under no illusion that the centurion
himself made this request while literally standing right in front of Jesus. The
centurion “came to him” and spoke in the first person throughout, “”My servant
… my roof … I too …me … I say …” Jesus also spoke directly to the centurion and
“said to him”.
But when we turn to Luke’s parallel account of the same story, a
problem presents itself to the modern reader...
And a certain centurion’s
slave, who was highly regarded by him, was sick and about to die. And when he
heard about Jesus, he sent some Jewish elders asking him to come and save the
life of his slave. And when they had come to Jesus, they earnestly entreated
him, saying, ‘He is worthy for you to grant this to him; for he loves our
nation, and it was he who built us our synagogue.’ Now Jesus started on his way
with them; and when he was already not far from the house, the centurion sent
friends, saying to him, ‘Sir, do not trouble yourself further, for I am not
fit for you to come under my roof; for this reason I did not even consider
myself worthy to come to you, but just say the word, and my servant will be
healed … (Luke 7: 1f).
Without the crucial knowledge of the Hebrew law of
agency - that the agent is as the principal himself - the modern reader
thinks he spots a contradiction. For in Luke’s telling, the centurion does
not literally stand before Jesus asking for his servant’s healing. Instead, “he
sent some Jewish elders” to do the asking. “They” made the centurion’s request
known to Jesus. Then Jesus “started on his way with them” to go to the
centurion’s home. When just about at the centurion’s house, the centurion from
inside his own house sends other servants outside to tell Jesus, ”I did not
consider myself worthy to come to you …”
The Biblical way to reconcile these
apparent contradictions between the two accounts is to know that the centurion
(the principal) sends (commissions) certain Jewish elders to act on his behalf
as his agents. There is no confusion in the mind of either Matthew or Luke, for
in the Bible the one sent is “regarded as the principal himself”.
The principal
and the agent are not always clearly distinguished, and can be treated as
though they were one and the same person! Matthew’s account only mentions the
principal (the centurion) without distinguishing his agents (the Jewish elders
and house-servants). Luke mentions both the principal and the agents
separately. To listen to the elders’ was to listen to the centurion himself.
Indeed, the agents can even speak in the first person! (Is this starting to
make sense of John 12:44 where Jesus says, “He who believes in me, does not
believe in me, but in Him who sent me”?) (3.)
MOSES’ ROD ILLUSTRATES DIVINE
AGENCY
This ‘law of agency’ is scattered right throughout the entire Bible.
Let’s take an OT example.
Yehovah God tells Moses, “See I make you as God (Heb.
Elohim) to Pharaoh, and your brother Aaron shall
be your prophet” (Exodus 7:1). When Moses stands before
Pharaoh it is as if it is God Himself really standing there speaking and
acting. As the agent, Moses is sent to speak and to act, as if he were God
Himself. The agent is regarded as the principal!
Later in the chapter, Yehovah God says to Moses, “By this you will know that I am Yehovah: behold, I will
strike the water that is in the Nile , with the staff that is My hand, and it shall be turned to
blood” (v. 17).
Next, God instructs Moses to tell Aaron, “Take your staff and
stretch out your hand over the water of Egypt, over the rivers … that they may
become blood … ” (v. 19). As God’s agent, Aaron at Moses’ command stretches out
his staff before Pharaoh over the waters, but God says He is the One Who
strikes the waters with the staff that is “in My Hand“. Aaron’s action is God’s
action. Moses and Aaron are standing before Pharaoh in the very place of God
Himself. In the Hebrew mind those men are God in Egypt
ANGELIC AGENCY
This Hebrew “law
of agency” also holds good when God commissions His angels. Angels can be
spoken of as if they were God and can even speak in the first person as though
they personally were God before whom they were speaking.
A classic example is
the burning bush (that didn’t burn!) in Exodus 3. Who is it who appears to
Moses in the bush and talks to him in the first person, “I am the God of your
father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob” (Ex. 3: 6)?
The majority of evangelical commentators answer, “Why, this is Yehovah God of
course.” Even noting in verse 2 that the text specifically states, “the angel
of Yehovah appeared to him in a blazing fire from the midst of a bush” they
rush to the conclusion that this angel of Yehovah must be God in Person, or
even the pre-existent Son of God himself, because he speaks in the first person
as if he is God.
Here is a clear case of a failure to enter the Hebrew mind and
observe the ‘law of agency” in full swing. For what is happening is that the
angel in the bush has been sent as an agent by God to represent His Principal.
Remember that the agent is regarded as the principal himself. The commissioned
angel is as God Himself before Moses.
When we turn to Stephen’s inspired
commentary on the burning bush any dispute that this is the case should end.
Stephen is a man “filled with the holy Spirit”, a man “full of wisdom”, and “a
man full of faith” (Acts 6: 3,5). So I don’t want to disagree with this man!
Listen to Stephen’s explanation:
“An angel appeared to him in the wilderness of
Mount Sinai , in the flame of a burning thorn
bush. And when Moses saw it, and he began to marvel at the sight; and as he
approached to look more closely, there came the voice of Yehovah; ‘I am the
God of your fathers, the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob.’ And Moses shook
with fear and would not venture to look. But Yehovah said to him, ‘Take off
the sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy
ground. I have certainly seen the oppression of My people in Egypt, and have
heard their groans, and I have come down to deliver them; come now, and I will
send you to Egypt … [Moses] is the one whom God sent to be both a ruler and a
deliverer with the help of the angel who appeared to him in the thorn bush”
(Acts 7: 30-35).
Who appeared in the burning bush? Who spoke in the first
person as if he were God? Who said, “I am God” so “take off the sandals from
your feet for this is holy ground”?
Stephen is a Hebrew-thinking Christian,
steeped in that culture and his Scriptures, and he is convinced that the
angel-agent is as the Principal-God Himself. In Hebrew thinking, to pay homage
to the angel-agent commissioned by God is to give the ultimate honour to God.
As the agent of the One Who sent him to Moses, the angel of Yehovah is so
identified with his Principal that we find it hard to distinguish him from God!
That sent angel speaks in the first person as if he really was God!
We could
demonstrate this is the case with every angelic visitation in the Old
Testament. (Even the occasion when Abraham had lunch with God in Genesis 18
fits this pattern. You can read my full exposition of this amazing story in my
article, “Anyone Round here Seen God?”) We know this is the case because the
Bible insists, “No one has ever seen God” (John 1:18 ; I John 4:12; I Tim. 6:16). But men
have seen His angels, His agents, who acted and spoke as if they were God
Himself. This is the “law of agency”, where the agent is as the principal
himself. (4)
JESUS THE MESSIAH IS THE SUPREME EXAMPLE OF DIVINE AGENCY!
Now we
are getting closer to understanding John 12:44 and Jesus’ claim to being the
agent of the One God of Israel.
One of the arguments for the popular notion
that Jesus is God Himself is that texts attributed to God Almighty in the OT
are in the NT attributed to him, so therefore Jesus has to be God. If God alone
is the Saviour (Isaiah 43:11) and Jesus is our Saviour, then Jesus must be God,
right? If God is the Shepherd (Psalm 23; Ez:34:11ff) and Jesus is “the good
Shepherd”, then Jesus must be the God of Israel, right? If every knee will bow
and every tongue confess that Yahweh is God, and since every knee and tongue
will do this before Jesus, then surely Jesus is Himself God, right?
If God is
the Judge of all the earth (Gen: 18:25) and everybody will one day stand before
Jesus as Judge (2 Cor:5:10), then surely Jesus is God, right?
And what about
all the OT passages that tell us that God Himself is coming in “that Day” to
reign over all the earth, but when we come to the NT, those passages are now
applied to Jesus at his Second Coming? For instance, the prophet Zechariah
announces:
In that day His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives , which is in front of Jerusalem Mount of Olives will be split in its middle …
(14:4).
Surely, if “His feet” in Zechariah 14 are the LORD’s feet, then Jesus
must be God, right? Well, before jumping to that conclusion, how about we
compare Scripture with Scripture and apply the law of agency? Remember how
Aaron’s hand is spoken of as Yehovah’s Hand (Exodus 7:17 -19)? We are to understand that in
exactly the same way Jesus’ feet are said to be God’s feet, for he too has been
“sent” as the ultimate agent of the one God. The “law of agency” provides a
very reasonable and satisfying answer to the whole question.
The same applies
in the matter of Jesus being our Saviour. Moses also is called ‘saviour’, and
Joshua is ‘saviour’ and all the judges of Israel 7:35 ; Jude 3:9,15; Neh: 9:27 , etc.). When God sends somebody to
deliver His people that agent is called ‘saviour’ (often translated as
‘deliverer’).
The fact Jesus is called ‘Saviour’ does not prove he is God
anymore than Moses who is called ‘saviour’ proves he is God.
This principle is
very clear when Jesus is spoken of as the judge of the world. Jesus clearly
claims agency when he says his Father God has “given” him all authority to
judge. Paul also says that God\:
Has fixed a day in which He will judge the
world in righteousness through a man whom He has appointed [commissioned, sent,
as His agent], having furnished proof to all men by raising him from the dead
(Acts 17:31 ).
Of course there is only One ultimate Saviour of all men,
One ultimate Judge of all men, One ultimate Authority over all the Universe - the God and Father of Jesus (Eph:4: 6). And Jesus is His perfect agent who
will do the judging on behalf of the One God Who has appointed him for this
work. Or, to put it in the words of Jesus who shouted it out:
He who believes
in me does not believe in me, but in Him who sent me (John 8:44 ).
Jesus knew he was “sent” to stand
in the very place before us as though he were God, but never claimed himself to
be that One God, and never imagined his followers would confuse his identity as
none other than that God’s anointed agent.
Yes, Jesus is functionally God to
us. So, when he speaks, God speaks to us. When he acts, God acts for us.
Although perfectly one in mission the Bible never confuses their personal
identities. Nobody in Bible times for a moment imagined Jesus was Yehovah God
Himself. Certainly Jesus never did! Remember this: The agent is as the
principal himself.
John 10:30
hich by the way brings us to the
oft-quoted words of Jesus, “I and my Father are one” (John 10:30 ). (5) If I have heard it once, I
have heard it dozens of times quoted as a sure-fire proof-text that, Jesus is
God. Well, hold your horses a minute! Has anybody stopped to consider the
context of this statement?
The subject under discussion is whether Jesus really
is the Messiah who has been sent by God. The Jews say to Jesus, “How long will
you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly” (v. 24). Jesus
replies by claiming to do his work by the Name or under the authority of his
Father God, i.e. his Principal.
Jesus further explains that all the sheep who
trust in him will not perish because they are held safe in his hand. Jesus
explains the reason for their absolute safety is that the Father “has given
them to me” and that because He is “greater than all, no one is able to snatch
them out of my Father’s hand” (v. 28-29) … and so, in this way, “I and my
Father are one”.
‘Blind Freddy’ can see the obvious context concerns “the
works” of Jesus in his mission to care for God’s people. It is an unwarranted
imposition on the text to make Jesus talk about “essence” or “being” (i.e. a
question of ontology). Not at all! The subject is oneness of ministry, that is,
unity of mission between the Father who “sent” His Messiah to be His agent in
this work. This is a classic case of the law of agency, for Jesus’ power to
keep the sheep is derived from the commission given him by his Father.
Ah, it
will be objected, that the Jews then want to stone Jesus “for blasphemy, and
because you, being a man, make yourself out to God” (v. 33). But please don’t
stop 6 reading there. Jesus once again corrects their erroneous and misguided
allegations. (How often do the Jews misunderstand Jesus?) He explains that even
the magistrates and judges in the OT who were appointed by God were called
“gods” (just as Moses was called God in Exodus 7:1!) so it is only reasonable that
Jesus should be called “the Son of God” [i.e. the Messiah] for he reflects like
no other human or angel before him the Principal-God who “sent” him.
No other
agent sent by God before him, comes near to the superior status of Jesus as
God’s Son. He is fully authorised, fully empowered to do God’s work and
accomplish his God-given mission to the sheep of his Father. This passage is
another classic instance of the principal/agent law we have noted. (6)
Which
brings us full circle to John 12:44. Jesus’ own “loud” testimony is that if we
believe in him, we do not ultimately believe in him, but in the One God Who
sent him as His perfect agent. This “law of agency” is surely a master key to
understanding Jesus and his relationship to the One God and Father he
beautifully represents. As God’s appointed Messiah, Jesus supersedes all other
agents who came before him. He is greater than Moses, greater than any angel.
As God’s model agent Jesus is the perfect reflection of his Principal-God. To
hear and to see Jesus is indeed to see His Father. This is Jesus’ own “loud”
claim.
Understand John 12:44 and you have a master key to
understanding Jesus, for “he who believes in me, does not believe in me, but in
Him Who sent me”. In the Bible the agent is as the principal himself. Oh, and
don’t forget Jesus says to you and to me, “As the Father sent me, even so I
send you”, which means we stand before the lost world with all the authority as
though we are Jesus! Wow!
1. Werblowsky,
R.J.Z., Wigoder, G. The Encycopedia of the Jewish Religion. New York
2.
Johnson, R.A. The One and the Many in the Israelite Conception of God. (As
quoted in my book They Never Told Me This in Church! with permission by Juan
Baixeras, p. 65).
3. You may like to see how this key unlocks other apparent
contradictions between two accounts of the same incident, such as Matthew 20:
21 and Mark 10:35-37. Who literally comes to make request of Jesus, the sons of
Zebedee, or their mother? You now have the key!
4. In Genesis 32 Jacob wrestles
with “a man” and reports, “I have seen God face to face, yet my life has been
preserved”. Rather than jump to the conclusion of many commentators and say
Jacob physically wrestled with God Himself (an impossibility for Jesus says
“God is Spirit” in John 4: 24, and besides God Himself is All-powerful), or
even with “God the Son” before he became incarnate as Jesus, why not accept the
inspired prophet’s explanation that Jacob wrestled with God’s angelic agent
that, “he contended with God, yes, he wrestled with the angel and prevailed”
(Hosea 12: 3-4)? If you are interested, here is a sample of other Scriptures
that demonstrate the Bible’s ubiquitous testimony to the “law of agency”…
Judges 4: 15-16; Ex. 13: 21 with Ex. 14: 19; Ex. 23:21-23, 30-31; I Sam. 13: 3
& 4 where Jonathan as Saul’s son and agent 7 does the actual killing, but
king Saul as the principal is the one ultimately attributed with the victory. 2
Sam. 3:18; 2 Kings 14:27; 1 Chron. 11:14. Also compare 2 Chronicles 4:11 where
Huram finished the work king Solomon commissioned him to do, but in verses
18-19 the work is actually attributed to Solomon as though the king himself
literally did all the work! Etc., etc.
5. My NASB translation transgresses the
bounds of translation and ventures into overt commentary by its note in the
margin which reads… “Lit., neuter, a unity, or, one essence.” As the NASB
states, the adjective “one” is indeed neuter in the Greek (hen), but it is
wrong to lead the reader to think Jesus is referring to oneness of “essence” or
“being”, which of course, is what Trinitarian doctrine believes. The masculine
(heis) is always the Greek word employed for the Personal God, as for instance
Jesus’ own creedal statement about God in Mark 12: 29f.
6. In describing the
unity of his ministry with Apollos, Paul says, “he who plants and he who waters
are one (Neuter, hen) (I Cor. 3: 8). Paul says his ministry is in perfect
harmony with the ministry of Apollos, because they are “fellow-workers”,
commissioned by God Who gives their whole missionary endeavour growth and
increase. There is no suggestion from my Trinitarian friends that Paul and
Apollos are “one in essence”, of the “same substance”, or of the “one being”
when it says they “are one”! Yet this is a clear parallel to Jesus’ own mission
statement in John 10:30!!!
Written by Greg
Deuble: www.thebiblejesus.org
Edited by Bruce Lyon
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