The Witness of John, of the Father, and of Scriptures. John 5, 31-47.
A reference to John: V. 31. If I bear witness of Myself, My witness is not true. V. 32. There is another that beareth witness of Me; and I know that the witness which He witnesseth of Me is true. V. 33. Ye sent unto John, and he bare witness unto the truth.
The Jews might have raised the objection at this point that Jesus was speaking and testifying of Himself, but that His own testimony had no value. Compare Deut. 19, 15.
Jesus concedes in advance that from their standpoint He stands alone, and that therefore His words will not stand without corroboration from other witnesses. He was trying to place Himself entirely on their level, in order that the points which He wanted to make would be all the stronger.
At the same time it remains true that all His words are eternal truth and need no confirmation. But for the sake of the blind, hostile Jews He is perfectly willing to argue from their standpoint. And He refers to another Witness, one that is unimpeachable, whose testimony He is about to refer to and of which He knows and they must admit that there can be no question as to its certainty.
Note: It is not the least of the evils attending unbelief that it acts not only in opposition to God, but acts also inconsistently with itself. In many cases it professes to receive Scriptures in bulk, even conceding them to have come through divine inspiration; and yet believes no part separately.
Before going into detail concerning the testimony of the Father, Jesus refers them to a witness whom many of the Jews there present had seen and heard. They had sent a delegation to John, chap. 3, 25-36, to get definite information about the new Teacher, and John had repeated his former testimony concerning the divinity of Christ and carried it out at length. He had borne witness to the truth. He had stated the facts in his testimony concerning Jesus.