Unbelief, Faith, and Judgment

(John 12:37-50)

By Dr. Hal Harless

Foundation Fellowship of Greenville, TX

January 30, 2010

 

I.  Introduction

A.  Please turn to John 12:37. 

While you are turning.... 

Aaron Burr, the third vice president of the United States, was reared in a godly home and admonished by his grandfather Jonathan Edwards to accept Christ.  But he refused to listen.  Instead, he declared that he wanted nothing to do with God and said he wished the Lord would leave him alone.  He did achieve a measure of political success in spite of repeated disappointments.  But he was also involved in continuous strife, and when he was forty-eight years old, he killed Alexander Hamilton in a duel.  He lived for thirty-two more years, but through all this time he was unhappy and unproductive.  It was during this sad chapter in his life that he declared to a group of friends, "Sixty years ago I told God that if He would let me alone, I would let Him alone and God has not bothered about me since."  Aaron Burr got what he wanted.[1]

 

What a terrible choice to push God away!  What a horrible condition to be in when will not believe becomes cannot believe!

II.  Exposition

A.  Background

1.  Jesus' public ministry in John's gospel (John 2:1-12:36) is over.

2.  We are in Jerusalem.

3.  Today, John puts a period on the end of the sentence by summarizing the public ministry of Jesus Christ.

4.  He does that by briefly touching on three subjects in a way that ties up all of the loose ends.

a.  Unbelief

b.  Faith

c.  Judgment

B.  Exposition: A summary of Jesus' public ministry: unbelief, faith, and judgment (John 12:37-50)

1.  The unbelief of many (John 12:37-41)

a.  So many signs, so little faith (John 12:37)

                ³⁷ But though He had performed so many signs before them, yet they were not 0believing in Him (John 12:37).

 

1)  One has observed that "the key word in this section is believe; it is used eight times."[2] 

2)  John complained that, although Jesus had performed many signs, Israel did not believe in Him. 

a)  Their unbelief was both national and irrational.[3] 

b)  The Gk. verb translated "had performed" is in the perfect tense, which indicates their permanent nature.[4] 

c)  The Gk. word translated "signs" means "a sign or distinguishing mark whereby someth[ing] is known, sign, token, indication."[5] 

3)  Jesus' miracles demonstrated that He was who He claimed to be. 

a)  Jesus said, "though you do not believe Me, believe the works, so that you may know and understand that the Father is in Me, and I in the Father" (John 10:38). 

b)  In this gospel, John has given us seven representative signs although there were many other miracles; "there are also many other things which Jesus did, which if they were written in detail, I suppose that even the world itself would not contain the books that would be written" (John 21:25).[6] 

4)  However, most of Israel and the Jewish religious authorities did not respond in faith. 

a)  John said in the prologue, "He came to His own, and those who were His own did not receive Him" (John 1:11). 

b)  They would not believe, and, as we will see, came to a place where they could not believe.[7]

5)  This has implications for "power evangelism" or "signs and wonders." 

a)  God is indeed still working miracles. 

b)  However, as Ironside noted, "Miracles alone will never convince if people refuse the Word.  No signs, no wonders, no miracles, will ever reach their consciences if they are determined to go on in their sins and refuse to repent."[8] 

c)  Jesus observed that "if they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be persuaded even if someone rises from the dead" (Luke 16:31).

d)  Signs and wonders will not convince those who refuse to listen to the word.

b.  Isaiah's prediction of Israel's unbelief (John 12:38)

³⁸ This was to fulfill the word of Isaiah the prophet which he spoke: "LORD, WHO HAS BELIEVED OUR REPORT? AND TO WHOM HAS THE ARM OF THE LORD BEEN REVEALED?" (John 12:38).

 

1)  John pointed out that this unbelief fulfilled Isaiah's prophecy. 

a)  This is a quote from Isa 53:1. 

b)  Paul quoted the same verse in Romans, "However, they did not all heed the good news; for Isaiah says, 'LORD, WHO HAS BELIEVED OUR REPORT?'" (Rom 10:16). 

2)  In Paul's quote, the responsibility is squarely on Israel for not heeding the good news.

a)  "But as for Israel He says, 'ALL THE DAY LONG I HAVE STRETCHED OUT MY HANDS TO A DISOBEDIENT AND OBSTINATE PEOPLE'" (Rom 10:21). 

b)  God foreknew, but did not cause their unbelief.

c.  Isaiah's explanation of Israel's unbelief (John 12:39-41)

³⁹ For this reason they could not believe, for Isaiah said again, ⁴⁰ "HE HAS BLINDED THEIR EYES AND HE HARDENED THEIR HEART, SO THAT THEY WOULD NOT SEE WITH THEIR EYES AND PERCEIVE WITH THEIR HEART, AND BE CONVERTED AND I HEAL THEM."  ⁴¹ These things Isaiah said because he saw His glory, and he spoke of Him (John 12:39-41).

 

1)  John also pointed out that they were no longer able to believe and again quoted Isaiah in support.  This has been translated, "they were unable to believe" (HCSB, NJB).

2)  God had judicially blinded and hardened them in their unbelief. 

a)  This is a quote from Isaiah 6:10. 

b)  God frequently punishes persistent rejection of the truth by hardening (Exod 9:12; Rom 1:24, 26, 28; 2 Thess 2:8-12).[9] 

c)  They had come to a point of being blinded and are now consequently blind. 

i)  The Gk. verb translated "blinded" is in the perfect tense, i.e., they have reached a state where their blindness is continuous.[10] 

ii)  This did not occur in eternity past, and it always happens because of persistent rejection of Jesus (see Matt 13:13-15; Mark 4:12; Luke 8:10; Acts 28:24-28; Rom 11:7-11).

iii)  As the saying goes, "If you live in a graveyard too long you stop crying when someone dies."

iv)  Only this could explain the way that they saw and yet did not comprehend Jesus' miracles. 

d)  The Gk. verb translated "hardened" is an aorist tense, a snapshot action, and "describes the formation of a callus in a part of the body."[11] 

i)  Barclay translates this, "He has made them impervious to all appeal" (Barclay). 

ii)  They had reached a climactic point of hardness that would allow them to collaborate with Rome in killing their own Messiah.

3)  John explained that the glory of Yahweh that Isaiah saw (Isa 6:1-5) was actually the glory of Jesus Christ.[12]  This means that Jesus is Yahweh![13] 

a)  The author of Hebrews said the same thing, "But of the Son He says, 'YOUR THRONE, O GOD, IS FOREVER AND EVER, AND THE RIGHTEOUS SCEPTER IS THE SCEPTER OF HIS KINGDOM'" (Heb 1:8). 

b)  Once again we have come full circle to the prologue of John's gospel, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God....  And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth" (John 1:1, 14).

4)  John explained that Isaiah "saw His glory, and he spoke of Him".  Isaiah had prophesied:

·        In that day the Branch of the LORD will be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the earth will be the pride and the adornment of the survivors of Israel (Isa 4:2).

·        Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: behold, a virgin will be with child and bear a son, and she will call His name Immanuel (Isa 7:14).

·        For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us; and the government will rest on His shoulders; and His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.  There will be no end to the increase of His government or of peace, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness from then on and forevermore.  The zeal of the LORD of hosts will accomplish this (Isa 9:6-7)

·        Then a shoot will spring from the stem of Jesse, and a branch from his roots will bear fruit.  The Spirit of the LORD will rest on Him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and strength, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the LORD.  And He will delight in the fear of the LORD, and He will not judge by what His eyes see, nor make a decision by what His ears hear; but with righteousness He will judge the poor, and decide with fairness for the afflicted of the earth; and He will strike the earth with the rod of His mouth, and with the breath of His lips He will slay the wicked.  Also righteousness will be the belt about His loins, and faithfulness the belt about His waist.   Then in that day the nations will resort to the root of Jesse, Who will stand as a signal for the peoples; and His resting place will be glorious (Isa 11:1-5, 10).

·        Behold, a king will reign righteously and princes will rule justly (Isa 32:1).

·        Behold, My Servant, whom I uphold; My chosen one in whom My soul delights.  I have put My Spirit upon Him; He will bring forth justice to the nations.  He will not cry out or raise His voice, nor make His voice heard in the street.  A bruised reed He will not break and a dimly burning wick He will not extinguish; He will faithfully bring forth justice.  He will not be disheartened or crushed until He has established justice in the earth; and the coastlands will wait expectantly for His law (Isa 42:1-4).

·        Listen to Me, O islands, and pay attention, you peoples from afar.  The LORD called Me from the womb; from the body of My mother He named Me.  He has made My mouth like a sharp sword, in the shadow of His hand He has concealed Me; and He has also made Me a select arrow, He has hidden Me in His quiver.  He said to Me, "You are My Servant, Israel, in Whom I will show My glory."  ⁴ But I said, "I have toiled in vain, I have spent My strength for nothing and vanity; yet surely the justice due to Me is with the LORD, and My reward with My God."  And now says the LORD, who formed Me from the womb to be His Servant, to bring Jacob back to Him, so that Israel might be gathered to Him (For I am honored in the sight of the LORD, and My God is My strength), He says, "It is too small a thing that You should be My Servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to restore the preserved ones of Israel; I will also make You a light of the nations so that My salvation may reach to the end of the earth."  Thus says the LORD, the Redeemer of Israel and its Holy One, to the despised One, to the One abhorred by the nation, to the Servant of rulers, "Kings will see and arise, princes will also bow down, because of the LORD who is faithful, the Holy One of Israel who has chosen You" (Isa 49:1-7).

·        Behold, My servant will prosper, He will be high and lifted up and greatly exalted.  Just as many were astonished at you, My people, so His appearance was marred more than any man and His form more than the sons of men.  Thus He will sprinkle many nations, kings will shut their mouths on account of Him; for what had not been told them they will see, and what they had not heard they will understand.  Who has believed our message?  And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?  For He grew up before Him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of parched ground; He has no stately form or majesty that we should look upon Him, nor appearance that we should be attracted to Him.  He was despised and forsaken of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and like one from whom men hide their face He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.  Surely our griefs He Himself bore, and our sorrows He carried; yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.  But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, and by His scourging we are healed.  All of us like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; but the LORD has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him.  He was oppressed and He was afflicted, yet He did not open His mouth; like a lamb that is led to slaughter, and like a sheep that is silent before its shearers, so He did not open His mouth.  By oppression and judgment He was taken away; and as for His generation, who considered that He was cut off out of the land of the living for the transgression of my people, to whom the stroke was due?  His grave was assigned with wicked men, yet He was with a rich man in His death, because He had done no violence, nor was there any deceit in His mouth.  But the LORD was pleased to crush Him, putting Him to grief; If He would render Himself as a guilt offering, He will see His offspring, He will prolong His days, and the good pleasure of the LORD will prosper in His hand.  As a result of the anguish of His soul, He will see it and be satisfied; by His knowledge the Righteous One, My Servant, will justify the many, as He will bear their iniquities.  Therefore, I will allot Him a portion with the great, and He will divide the booty with the strong; because He poured out Himself to death, and was numbered with the transgressors; yet He Himself bore the sin of many, and interceded for the transgressors. (Isa 52:13-53:12).

·        The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me, because the LORD has anointed me to bring good news to the afflicted; He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to captives and freedom to prisoners; to proclaim the favorable year of the LORD and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn, to grant those who mourn in Zion, giving them a garland instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the mantle of praise instead of a spirit of fainting.  So they will be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that He may be glorified (Isa 61:1-3).

 

2.  The cowardly faith of some (John 12:42-43)

⁴² Nevertheless many even of the rulers believed in Him, but because of the Pharisees they were not confessing Him, for fear that they would be put out of the synagogue; ⁴³ for they loved the approval of men rather than the approval of God (John 12:42-43).

 

a.  Even among the Jewish religious authorities, many had trusted Jesus. 

1)  The term "rulers" may even indicate that John is referring to members of the Sanhedrin or at least rulers in the synagogues.[14] 

2)  Barclay translates this as "national leaders" (Barclay). 

3)  The Pharisees had sneered, "No one of the rulers or Pharisees has believed in Him, has he?" (John 7:48).  Now, "nevertheless many even of the rulers believed in Him." 

4)  We know that there were men like Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea. 

5)  There were Pharisees and even priests in the early church (Acts 6:7; 15:5). 

b.  However, under pressure from the Pharisees, they were keeping quiet about their faith. 

1)  They were afraid of being excommunicated from the synagogue. 

2)  The Gk. word translated "would be put out of the synagogue" (aposynagōgos) is "a religious technical term relating to Jewish disciplinary measures in varying degrees of severity expelled from the synagogue; (completely) excommunicated; cut off from the rights and privileges of a Jew; put under the ban or curse."[15]

c.  The reason for their fear was that they were more concerned with human approval than with divine.  Jesus had challenged this attitude, "How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and you do not seek the glory that is from the one and only God?" (John 5:44).

3.  Jesus' final public word on faith and judgment (John 12:44-50)

a.  Faith in Jesus is faith in the Father who sent Him (John 12:44-46).

                ⁴⁴ And Jesus cried out and said, "He who believes in Me, does not believe in Me but in Him who sent Me.  ⁴⁵ He who sees Me sees the One who sent Me.  ⁴⁶ I have come as Light into the world, so that everyone who believes in Me will not remain in darkness" (John 12:44-46).

 

1)  Jesus taught that faith in Him was equivalent to faith in the One who sent Him, i.e., God the Father.  John stated in 1 John, "Whoever denies the Son does not have the Father; the one who confesses the Son has the Father also" (1 John 2:23).

2)  Furthermore, Jesus taught that the one who sees Him sees the One who sent Him. 

a)  Jesus told Philip, "Have I been so long with you, and yet you have not come to know Me, Philip?  He who has seen Me has seen the Father; how can you say, 'Show us the Father '?" (John 14:9). 

b)  Paul wrote, "He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation" (Col 1:15). 

c)  The author of Hebrews said, "And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature" (Heb 1:3). 

d)  Again, John takes us back to the prologue, "No one has seen God at any time; the only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him" (John 1:18).

3)  Jesus said that He came into the world as the Light. 

a)  The word "I" is emphatic.  Wuest translates it as, "I, in contradistinction to all others" (NTET). 

b)  The Gk. word translated "who believes" means "to consider someth[ing] to be true and therefore worthy of one’s trust."[16]  Wuest translates it as, "everyone who places his trust in me" (NTET). 

c)  John wrote in this gospel's prologue, "In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men.  The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it" (John 1:4-5). 

d)  Jesus said, "I am the Light of the world; he who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life" (John 8:12). 

e)  Paul wrote that "God, who said, 'Light shall shine out of darkness,' is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ" (2 Cor 4:6). 

f)  Light reveals, and the one who trusts in Jesus Christ does not remain unenlightened because Jesus Christ has been revealed to them.

b.  Jesus' word will judge the one who rejects Him (John 12:47-48).

⁴⁷ "If anyone hears My sayings and does not keep them, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world, but to save the world.  ⁴⁸ He who rejects Me and does not receive My sayings, has one who judges him; the word I spoke is what will judge him at the last day" (John 12:47-48).

 

1)  The word "judge is repeated four times in these two verses.[17] 

a)  Not keeping Jesus' sayings is parallel to rejecting Him and not receiving His sayings in the next verse. 

b)  Jesus' primary purpose is not to judge the world, but to save.  Jesus said to Nicodemus:

For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him.  He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God (John 3:17-18).

 

c)  Jesus Christ came to save, not judge; nevertheless, the one who rejects Jesus will face judgment.

2)  The one "who rejects" Jesus "and does not receive" His sayings is the same as the one who hears His "sayings and does not keep them" (John 12:47). 

a)  The word that Jesus spoke will judge that one at the final judgment. 

i)  The Lord told Moses concerning Messiah:

I will raise up a prophet from among their countrymen like you, and I will put My words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him.  It shall come about that whoever will not listen to My words which he shall speak in My name, I Myself will require it of him (Deut 18:18-19).

 

ii)  God promised that He would take vengeance on the one who would not listen to this second Moses. 

iii)  Moreover, in the Targums, Aram. paraphrases of the OT, God's memra or word punishes those who refuse to listen. 

(a)  Two of the Targums read, "And the man who does not listen to his words, which he [the future prophet] will speak in the name of my memra [word], I in my memra [word] will be avenged of him" (Deut 18:19 Tg. Neof.), and, "my memra will take revenge on him" (Deut 18:19 Tg. Ps.-J.).[18] 

(b)  Another Targum has, "And the man who will not hearken to My words which he will speak in My Name, My Word will require it of him" (Deut 18:19 Tg. Onkelos, trans. J. W. Etheridge). 

iv)  Ironside commented, "If you spurn the Word, God has no other message for you."[19] 

v)  The word of the Word will be the judge of the one who rejects the word.

c.  Jesus' word is the word of the Father who sent Him (John 12:49-50).

⁴⁹ "For I did not speak on My own initiative, but the Father Himself who sent Me has given Me a commandment as to what to say and what to speak.  ⁵⁰ I know that His commandment is eternal life; therefore the things I speak, I speak just as the Father has told Me" (John 12:49-50).

 

1)  Jesus said that He spoke, not on His own initiative, but at the Father's command. 

a)  Jesus said, "When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am He, and I do nothing on My own initiative, but I speak these things as the Father taught Me" (John 8:28).

b)  See also John 8:26, 38; 7:16; 3:11.

2)  Jesus was fully aware that the content the Father commanded Him to speak was eternal life. 

a)  The Gk. word translated "life" (zōē) means "transcendent life" or "supernatural life."[20] 

b)  This has been translated, "I know that his command leads to eternal life.  So whatever I say is just what the Father has told me to say" (NIV, see also NLT). 

c)  Therefore, since the subject was so important, Jesus communicated exactly as the Father told Him.

II.  Applications

A.  What this says about Jesus Christ ...

1.  God foreknows, but does not cause unbelief. 

2.  Jesus Christ reveals God to us.

a.  Faith in Jesus is faith in the Father who sent Him.

b.  Seeing Jesus is seeing God the Father.

c.  Jesus' word is exactly the word of the Father who sent Him.

B.  What this says to us ...

1.  There is a serious danger of becoming so hardened through rejecting truth that one cannot believe; "will not" can become "cannot."

2.  Signs and wonders will not convince those who refuse to listen to the word.

3.  The word of the Word will be the judge of the one who rejects the word.

4.  In the words of Jesus Christ, nothing less than eternal life is a stake.