Study inJohn’s Gospel

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An UnbelievingCommunity

Chap 12v37-50

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IntroductionJesus' last public sermon contained a reminder of his teaching, and a challenge to respond to him. And as such it properly closes the middle section of John's Gospel. A section, that began with Christ's call to a man born blind now ends with these words v36: "Put your trust in the light while you have it, so that you may become sons of light."

John seems unwilling to conclude this section of the Gospel without further comment. He too wants to see men and women exercise faith in Jesus. But why were they not responding?

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IntroductionIn the course of a conversation with an elderly Christian gentleman, he asked, with tears welling up in his eyes, “Why is it that knowing all that Jesus has done, does there seem to be so little evidence of saving faith in the lives of so many?”

Others have asked the same question, not about the unchurched and untaught but, of those who have attended church services all of their lives.

And it is to address this great and perplexing problem that John adds his comments in v37-50 where clearly the issue is one of unbelief.

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Unbelievable UnbeliefOf course, the unbelief of the Jews is a recurring theme throughout this gospel. But as Jesus brings his public ministry to a close, John is staggered by the fact that even after Jesus had performed many miraculous signs in their presence, they still would not believe in him v36-37.

The strangeness of Israel's unbelief did not escape the attention of the early preachers of the gospel, most of whom were Jews. It was a source of great puzzlement and anguish to them. For clearly they regarded Jesus as God’s Messiah, who had come to bless Israel.

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Unbelievable UnbeliefAnd John, writing around 90 AD, addresses this critical question, “Why have so few from the nation of Israel believed?” In his reply, he makes it clear that the unbelief of the Jews did not take God by surprise. Some 600 years earlier the prophet Isaiah places these words in the mouth of the coming Messiah, and suffering servant:

"Lord, who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?” John 12v37-38.

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Unbelievable UnbeliefThese words of rejection are all the more significant because of context from which they are taken. They come from Isa. 53, a passage, which graphically describes the manner in which the Messiah would become the great substitutionary and atoning sacrifice for sin. He is

“led like a lamb to the slaughter… and was pierced for our transgressions and crushed for our iniquities and the punishment that brought us peace was laid on him.”

And so it is clear that God’s Messiah would be rejected in the first instance by the very people to whom he had been promised as Saviour.

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Unbelievable UnbeliefAnd so the answer given to the question, "Lord, who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?" is not, “his own people will believe”. For he was "despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not" Isa. 53v3.

The bulk of the Jews rejected their Saviour Messiah despite the compelling nature of his ministry. Jesus’ teaching was not believed and his sign miracles were discounted.

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Unbelievable UnbeliefDoes this mean that God engineered Israel’s negative response? Are we helpless victims living in a deterministic universe where our choices are not real? Are we not ultimately accountable for our behaviour? A friend of an Iranian acquaintance was caught stealing in the bazaar in Tabriz. He explained the situation like this. “His friend only stole because Allah willed it, and then his friend was caught because Allah willed that too”.

It seems a neat way of abdicating all human responsibility and God ends up taking the blame! This is not the direction of John’s thought. He has made it clear that anyone who walks away from God does so because of his own desires and decisions.

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Unbelievable UnbeliefHave you ever tried to bring two magnets together only to discover that one seems to push the other away? Elementary physics tells you that it is the polarity of the magnets that causes this to happen.

Well the way to understand what is described in these verses is to see Christ approaching men as Saviour, he is holding out his arms to them but as a result of their desires and decisions, he is pushed away, they won’t allow him to get close. They prefer thedarkness of their own will to the light of God's will and so refuse Christ as Saviour.

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When God Hardens HeartsThat kind of constant rejection has its consequences. And these are outlined in v40 “He has blinded their eyes and deadened their hearts…” Someone asks, “Does this verse not explicitly state that God blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts precisely so that those identified might not see, understand, and so turn to Jesus?" Is the matter as simple as that?

First, our starting point must be the recognition that all men and woman, would not by nature, consider choosing God. Why? Because none of us are born with hearts that naturally incline towards God or righteousness. Indeed the natural bias in our hearts bends us away from God so that we naturallyput ourselves first.

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When God Hardens HeartsThe fact is that God intervenes to open a person’s eyes so that they see the truth and embrace it. He changes the bias so that we discover the wonder of God’s salvation in Christ. Now this operation is a work of sheer grace! Earlier in the gospel Jesus said, "No man can come to me, except the Father, who has sent me, draws him" John 6v44. Jesus taught that God does draw some 6v37.

Consequently, in terms of salvation, God does not blind anyone, for all men are spiritually blind to begin with. They come to Christ only when God intervenes to give them spiritual sight.

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When God Hardens HeartsSecondly, the sequence of events described in our passage is important. John moves from the unbelief of the Jews, to describe the judicial hardening of their hearts. Initially they "would not" believe. Afterwards they "could not."

If you have ever worked with clay pottery you will know that the clay is kept malleable by placing a damp cloth over it. This allows you to change the shape of the piece you are working on. But when you are sure you are finished the pot is placed in the kiln and fired. Now further change is impossible. The kiln confirms the final shape you have decided upon.

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When God Hardens HeartsSo too, God comes to men and women over a period of time and asks, “Will you change your response to my Son?”

And when they say repeatedly, “We will not because we are happy with the shape of our negative response”,then God says, “I have given you enough time to change your response. I will now take your response-shape of rejection and fire it. Your heart will become so hard that you will not be able to change your decision in the future”.

That is what is meant by judicial hardening and that is what is being described in these verses.

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When God Hardens HeartsThirdly, Jesus had earlier warned his listeners not to reject the light, arguing that if they did so, an even greater darkness than they now knew would come upon them. And so it is clear that this darkness does not produce unbelief but rather it results from it.

Therefore, we find in these verses a solemn affirmation of human responsibility and an even more solemn warning of the consequences of rejecting the light that God gives. We dare not trifle with the overtures of God's love for us or with the great grace offered to us through the Lord Jesus.

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True ConversionWhile on one hand it is true that the sovereignty of God is something over which we have absolutely no control, and our understanding of God’s ways and purposes is extremely limited. On the other hand these verses also speak of our human responsibility.

These two great truths God’s sovereignty and man’s responsibility do not contradict one another or cancel one another out but they need to be held together in working tension. They are balancing truths! And as such the response we make to God is something that must concern each of us personally.

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True ConversionHave you responded to the light you have been given? If not then allow the Isaiah quotation to unpack the spiritual process. The quotation contains four steps towards a spiritual conversion.

First, you must see with your eyes. You need some basic knowledge of spiritual truth. And that involves a recognition of the sinfulness your sin and the wonder of the forgiveness that can be yours through what Christ has accomplished by his death. This insight is impossible unless God has graciously switched on the light of spiritual understandingin your mind.With good reason the Psalmist prayed ‘open my eyes’. That is a good place to begin.

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True ConversionSecondly, you must understand with your heart. This means that you must not only hear the truth and understand it at an intellectual level; you must have a heart understanding which in turn involves making this truth your very own. That means making a personal commitment to what you know to be true. Whenever I sit down I ask myself, “Do I believe this chair is strong enough to take my weight?” This is not a theoretical or philosophical question, for my personal safety is involved when I commit myself to the truth of the chair’s strength and sit down!

Similarly I can make the truth of the gospel my own onlywhen I choose to commit myself to it.

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True ConversionThirdly, the text speaks of turning. It describes a fundamental change in direction. This is the root meaning of the biblical word “repentance”. The picture is clear. We choose to turn from following after sin and instead seek to follow Christ. It means leaving everything behind or throwing everything overboard that might prevent us from following Jesus.

God does not demand that we become strong enough to change ourselves, rather his focus is upon our will. God does not ask, “Are you able to change?” Rather he asks, “Do you want to be changed?”

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True ConversionFinally, you are ‘healed’ by God. That is another way of describing God’s ‘salvation’ – which means ‘to make whole’.

God takes sinful lives and forgives them. He takes broken lives and does for us what all the kings horses and all the kings men could not do for Humpty Dumpty, he puts us back together again. He takes hopeless lives and injects them with the sure and certain hope of glory.

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ConclusionJohn began this section quoting the words that Isaiah placed in the mouth of the Messiah, "Who has believed our message? And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?" We know how the majority of the Jews responded. But how will you respond? Your response is significant. It will shape your eternal destiny. A delayed response contributes to the hardening process. Esau discovered that too late in life when he sought repentance with tears but by that stage he was beyond change.

God holds each of us accountable for the answer we give. May God give you grace to answer, "I do believe this message." And to do so in such a way that you are committed to Christ and his teaching. Are you trusting in him alone for the salvation that can make you whole?

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