“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 before his crucifixion, surely indicates it is significant and we ought to listen
up!
I
am going to prove to you that this saying of Jesus 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 be 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 Jesus' enemies admitted
Jesus was “performing many signs” (John 11:47). John himself says the raising
of Lazarus was a “sign” (John 12:18). A sign is an attesting miracle. Jesus’
mighty miracles were proof that God had sent him. So, by rejecting Jesus,
they were sinning against a clear bright light and deadening their own
consciences.
In
this context, Jesus “cried aloud”. He wants them to hear he really had been
“sent” by
their God -Yehovah. Which is to say, Jesus was making the stupendous claim that
he was the bone fide ambassador of the One True God of Israel - Yehovah. His
works and his words were performed because he had been “commissioned” as God’s-Yehovah’s
true representative or agent.
THE
PRINCIPLE OF AGENCY
Because
we come from another culture and another generation many times removed
from Jesus’ day, 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 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.”
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 specialized sense when the patriarch as lord of his
household deputized 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.”
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 God and his Father Yehovah; 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, a centurion came to him, appealing to him,
and saying, ‘Sir, my servant is lying paralyzed at home, suffering great pain.’
And he said to him, ‘I will come and heal him.’ But the centurion answered
and said, ‘Sir, I am not qualified for you to come under my roof, but just
say the word and my servant will be healed. For I too, am a man under authority,
with soldiers under me; and I say to this one, ‘Go!’ and he goes, and to
another, ‘Come!’ and he comes, and to my slave, ‘Do this!’ and he does it”. (Matthew
8:5-9).
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 7:1).
Without
the crucial knowledge of the Hebrew law of agency - that the agent is as the
principal himself - the modern reader thinks he/she spots a contradiction. 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 me 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”?)
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 (Hebrew 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! What they do is what God Himself does. But in the Hebrew mind, there is
no confusion as to the actual identity of Who the Principal is and who His
agents are.
ANGELIC
AGENCY
This
Hebrew “law of agency” also holds good when God-Yehovah 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” (Exodus 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. 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 Yehovah 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, 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-Yehovah?
Who said, “I am God-Yehovah” 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 the principal God Yehovah Himself.
In Hebrew thinking, to pay homage to the angel-agent commissioned by God-Yehovah
is to give the ultimate honor to God-Yehovah. 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-Yehovah!
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?” - www.thebiblejesus.org) We know this is the case because
the Bible insists, “No one has ever seen God” (John 1:18; I John 4:12; I Timothy
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 the
principal himself.
JESUS
THE MESSIAH IS THE SUPREME EXAMPLE OF DIVINE AGENCY!
Now
we are getting closer to understanding John 12:44 and Jesus’ claim to be the agent
of the One God of Israel Yehovah.
One
of the arguments for the popular notion that Jesus is God-Yehovah 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-Yehovah. If God-Yehovah alone is the Saviour (Is. 43:11) and
Jesus is our Saviour, then Jesus must be God-Yehovah, right? If God-Yehovah is
the Shepherd (Psalm 23; Ezekiel 34:11ff) and Jesus is “the good Shepherd”, then
Jesus must be the God of Israel Yehovah, right? If every knee will bow and
every tongue confesses that Yehovah is God, and since every knee and tongue will
do this before Jesus, then surely Jesus is himself God-Yehovah, right? If God-Yehovah
is the Judge of
all the earth (Genesis 18:25) and everybody will one day stand before Jesus as
Judge (2 Corinthians 5:10), then surely Jesus is God-Yehovah, right? No!
And
what about all the OT passages that tell us that God-Yehovah 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:
“On
that day His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, which is in front of Jerusalem
on the east; and the Mount of Olives will be split in two … (Zechariah
14:4).
Surely,
if “His feet” in Zechariah 14 are Yehovah’s feet, then Jesus must be God-Yehovah,
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-Yehovah’s feet, for he too has been
“sent” as the ultimate agent of the one God-Yehovah. 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 ‘savior’,
and Joshua is ‘savior’ and all the judges of Israel are each called ‘savior’ (Acts
7:35, Judges 3:9,15; Nehemiah 9:27, etc.). When God-Yehovah sends somebody to
deliver His people that agent is called ‘savior’ (often translated as
‘deliverer’). The fact Jesus is called ‘savior’ does not prove he is God-Yehovah
anymore than Moses who is called ‘savior’ proves he is God-Yehovah.
This
principle is very clear when Jesus is spoken of as the judge of the world. Jesus clearly
claims agency when he says his God and Father Yehovah has “given” him all
authority to judge. Paul also says that God-Yehovah:
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, is Yehovah, the God, and Father of
Jesus (Ephesians 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-Yehovah,
but never claimed himself to be that One True God-Yehovah, and never imagined
his followers would confuse his identity as none other than that God’s-Yehovah’s
anointed agent.
Yes,
Jesus is functionally God-Yehovah to us. So, when he speaks, God-Yehovah speaks
to us. When he acts, God-Yehovah 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
This
by the way brings us to the oft-quoted words of Jesus, “I and my Father are one”
(John 10:30). If I have heard it once, I have heard it dozens of times quoted as
a sure-fire proof-text that, Jesus is God-Yehovah. 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 Messiah, tell us plainly” (v. 24). Jesus replies by claiming to do his work
by the Name
or under the authority of his God and his Father Yehovah, 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
can 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 the 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 to him
by his God and his Father Yehovah.
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 be God-Yehovah” (v. 33). But please
don’t stop 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-Yehovah
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-Yehovah
who “sent” him. No
other agent sent by God-Yehovah before him comes near to the superior status
of Jesus as God’s Son. He is fully authorized and fully empowered to do God’s work
and accomplish his God-Yehovah-given mission to the sheep of his Father. This
passage is another classic instance of the principal/agent law we have noted.
Understanding
Jesus and his relationship to the One God and Father he beautifully represents.
As God’s -Yehovah’s appointed Messiah, Jesus supersedes all other agents who
came before him. This 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-Yehovah who sent him as His perfect agent. This “law of
agency” is surely a master key to being greater than Moses, greater than any
angel. As God’s-Yehovah’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!
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 the request of Jesus, the sons of Zebedee,
or their mother? You now have the key!
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), 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; Exodus
13: 21 with Exodus 14: 19; Exodus 23:21-23, 30-31; I Samuel 13: 3 & 4 where
Jonathan as Saul’s son and agent does the actual killing, but king Saul as the
principal is the one ultimately attributed
with the victory. 2 Samuel 3:18; 2 Kings 14:27; 1 Chronicles 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.
Written
by Greg Deuble and edited by Bruce Lyon
