Until Jesus had come men had never had the opportunity really and fully to know God; they had never fully heard the voice of God, and they had never seen fully demonstrated the kind of life which God wished them to live.[1] When the time had come, Jesus came to the world and clearly demonstrated the truth of God in this world. Jesus taught the truth of God with his word and life and showed us God.
But the world rejected Jesus. Rejecting Jesus is rejecting God. The Son and the Father cannot be separated nor divided.
What is the sin that Jesus speaks of from today’s passage?
Sin is defined solely as hatred of Jesus and, consequently, as hatred of the Father who sent him.[2] The hatred of the Lord is a transgression. If the one great commandment is love, the one great transgression is hatred.[3]
The Lord said that this is to fulfill what was written in their Law: ‘They hated me without reason’ (Psalm 35:19; 69:4). It was written in “their law, the sacred Scriptures they acknowledged.[4]Possession of the Scriptures adds to the guilt of those who reject Christ rather than granting indulgences because the warning of the word had been fulfilled.
There are many in this world who aggressively oppose Christ; yet many live ignoring Christ as if Christ never came. Not only the first but also the latter cannot escape the Lord’s accusation of sin. Not thinking it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God (Romans 1:28), not loving Christ as Christ loved us but hating him without a reason is an evident sin. The Lord shed his precious blood on the cross and clearly demonstrated his love for us in the whole world. We are without excuse before the telltale love of the Lord that cannot be uncovered.
The Son who came to show the love of God, who took the path of self-denial with the form of servant – to pay him with a cross was the crime of crimes.[5]
Furthermore, this sin was committed by the brothers of the same faith convinced that they are offering a service to God. Who drove Christ to the cross? It was not the authorities of the world who did not know God but the core of the religious authorities. It is one of the tragic ironies of history that from time to time the phenomenon recurs: people who are convinced that they are serving God oppose in the strongest way the real servants of God.[6]
The word of Jesus spoken to the Pharisees after healing the man blind from birth overlaps with today’s message: “Jesus said, “If you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin; but now that you claim you can see, your guilt remains” (9:41).
[1] Barclay, The Gospel of John, 218.
[2] J. Ramsey Michaels, John: New International Biblical Commentary (Peabody: Hendrickson Publishers, Inc, 1984), 276.
[3] Michaels, John, 276.
[4] Phillips, Exploring the Gospel of John, 296.
[5] Phillips, Exploring the Gospel of John, 295.
[6] Morris, Reflections on the Gospel of John, 537.