Verse 55
And ye have not known him: but I know him; and if I should say, I know him not, I would be like unto you, a liar; but I know him and keep his word.
And you have not known him ... Despite all the superficial love of the law of Moses, and all the feasts and sacrifices, neither those persons then face to face with Jesus nor the nation as a whole had really come to know the Lord. In the presence of Christ that ignorance was acute; because the Saviour was one with God in all things.
A liar ... The Lord could not have concealed the truth from those men without violating his own sacred commission; and therefore there was no alternative to declaring God's message, regardless of the disaster it would bring upon the chosen nation.
But I know him and keep his word ... Westcott paraphrased this:
Even in this crisis of separation, when my words will be misunderstood and so widen the breach between us (John 8:26), I proclaim the knowledge which I have and fulfill my mission by keeping his word.[8]
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