A Summary of Unbelief

John 12:37-43

Today in our study of the Gospel of John we are at the end of John 12. This chapter records the very last public teaching of Jesus in the Gospel of John. It contains a bold affirmation of His identity, and gives a final call for those who would believe on Him to come to Him. From here to the end of John, the only public appearances of Jesus will be at His trial and His crucifixion. Even after His resurrection, Jesus only appeared to those who would believe. The time is short. The hour is at hand and last words of Jesus carry great weight. Listen as I read John 12:35-50.

35 Then Jesus said to them, “A little while longer the light is with you. Walk while you have the light, lest darkness overtake you; he who walks in darkness does not know where he is going. 36 While you have the light, believe in the light, that you may become sons of light.” These things Jesus spoke, and departed, and was hidden from them.

37 But although He had done so many signs before them, they did not believe in Him, 38 that the word of Isaiah the prophet might be fulfilled, which he spoke: “Lord, who has believed our report?
And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?”

39 Therefore they could not believe, because Isaiah said again:

40 “He has blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts,
Lest they should see with their eyes,
Lest they should understand with their hearts and turn,
So that I should heal them.”

41 These things Isaiah said when he saw His glory and spoke of Him.

42 Nevertheless even among the rulers many believed in Him, but because of the Pharisees they did not confess Him, lest they should be put out of the synagogue; 43 for they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God.

44 Then Jesus cried out and said, “He who believes in Me, believes not in Me but in Him who sent Me. 45 And he who sees Me sees Him who sent Me. 46 I have come as a light into the world, that whoever believes in Me should not abide in darkness. 47 And if anyone hears My words and does not believe, 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 words, has that which judges him–the word that I have spoken will judge him in the last day. 49 For I have not spoken on My own authority; but the Father who sent Me gave Me a command, what I should say and what I should speak. 50 And I know that His command is everlasting life. Therefore, whatever I speak, just as the Father has told Me, so I speak.”

As that passage stresses, some would hear these words of Jesus but not believe. Next time we will study those last public words of Jesus from John 12:44-50. But before we get there, we find that the apostle John pauses in the narrative and gives a summary and a commentary that helps explain why it was that so many did not believe on Him. The sad outcome of Jesus’ public ministry is summed up in John 12:37. “But although He had done so many signs before them, they did not believe in Him.” In John 12:37-43 the apostle will show how Israel’s refusal to belief in Jesus confirms that He is the Christ.

Remember that the purpose of John’s Gospel is “that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name,” (John 20:31). But John also warned us from the beginning (John 1:10-11), “He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him.”

John 12:37-43 is a comment by the apostle John under inspiration of the Holy Spirit, on the outcome of the Christ’s public ministry. John helps us understand the difficult question of why the Jews rejected Jesus as their Messiah. And it also serves as a call to believe on Jesus today before it is too late.

First let’s look at:

I. The summary of their unbelief (John 12:37)

John writes (John 12:37), “But although He had done so many signs before them, they did not believe in Him.” John states clearly what we have seen over and over again in the Gospel: that many who heard Jesus, who saw His miracles, and who even heard the voice of God did not believe in Jesus. Notice the characteristics of this unbelief. First, it is a persistent unbelief. The verb “believe” is constructed in such a way as to communicate that the Jews kept on and kept on in unbelief. The picture is one of constant refusal to believe. It is one thing to be slow to believe – many of us are. It is another thing to continue to refuse to believe when the evidence has been clearly given.

And the evidence was overwhelming. John exclaims, “He had done so many signs before them.” So secondly, it was an unbelief that was in spite of the signs our Lord had performed. The first 12 chapters of John have been called the “book of signs” because they record seven miraculous signs that Jesus did that point to the fact that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. Not every miracle that the Lord performed is told to us in this Gospel. As John tells us near the end of his account (John 20:30), “And truly Jesus did many other signs in the presence of His disciples, which are not written in this book.” But as we said, John’s purpose in writing about the signs he chose is so that people would believe.

So, why then didn’t most people believe after they saw these things He had done?

Stop and think of the many things that we have read already about our Lord in the Gospel of John:

In John’s opening statement in John 1 he set forth Jesus as the divine Word who became flesh so that we beheld His glory.
Then, John the Baptist testifies about Jesus, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29) and “I have seen and testified that this is the Son of God,” (John 1:34). after testifying that the Holy Spirit identified Jesus at His baptism and the voice of the Father testified of Him (see also 3:22-36).
Jesus proved His omniscience by His witness to the very thoughts of Nathanael as he sat under the fig tree (John 1:50-51).
Then there was the first sign when Jesus turned water into wine at the wedding of Cana; showing Jesus’ authority and His creative power (2:1-12).
Then Jesus went to Jerusalem and cleansed the temple; showing His authority over His Father’s house (2:13-25).
In John 4 Jesus again revealed His all-knowing power to the woman at the well—so that she ran into the town of Samaria and declared “Could this be the Christ?” (4:29), drawing the whole town out to meet Him and believe on Him.
Then our Lord healed a nobleman’s son in Capernaum from a distance, showing His power to heal by merely speaking the word (4:43-54).
In John 5 Jesus healed the infirm man at the pool of Bethesda (5:1-18) on the Sabbath day causing the religious leaders to want to kill Him (v. 16).
Jesus again revealed His power in the feeding of the five-thousand (6:1-14) in such a way as the people sought to make Him king and declare, “This is truly the Prophet who is to come into the world” (v. 14).
In John 7 Jesus testified of Himself (John 7:10-39) in such a way as to cause those who sought to arrest Him exclaim, “No man ever spoke like this Man!” (John 7:46). And in John 8 Jesus would declare His eternal preexistence, “Most assuredly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM.” (John 8:58).
In John 9 Jesus healed a man born blind (9:1-41) in such a way as to cause the man to fall down and worship Him as the Son of God (v. 38). In John 10 Jesus would declare, “I am the Good Shepherd” (John 10:11) and “I and My Father are one” (John 10:30).
Jesus’ greatest sign came in John 11 when He raised His friend Lazarus from the dead (11:1-44) so that many believed on Him as ‘the Resurrection and the Life’ (v. 45).
And here in John 12, we saw the way He rode into the city of Jerusalem in fulfillment of the prophecies of Zechariah (12:12-36); causing the people to cry out, “Hosanna! ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD!’ The King of Israel!” (v. 13).

And in the face of all this evidence and much more, many did not believe. His own people for whom He came and revealed Himself through these signs and words so disbelieved Him as to eventually crucify Him.

So we see in John 12:37 the summary of the Jews’ unbelief. It was a persistent unbelief and it was unbelief in spite of the overwhelming evidence that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of God. That leads us to ask, “Why?” Why did most of the Jews persist in unbelief in spite of the evidence?

The answer, John writes, is that there is a purpose in their unbelief.

II. The purpose of their unbelief (John 12:38-41)

It may seem a bit odd for John to emphasize how the Jews refused to believe in Jesus as the Christ. After all, the point of John’s Gospel is to convince people reading it that Jesus is the Christ. The Jews were the people who were to bring forth the Christ. The Jews were the people among whom the Christ worked. When the Greek came to see Jesus in this chapter, Jesus implies that the glory of the Son of Man will spread also to the Gentiles. But that time has not yet come. The focus is first of all on the Jews. You’d think if the Jews accept Jesus, that would be a strong argument in favor of accepting Jesus as the Christ. And if the Jews reject Jesus it might be reason for us Gentiles to reject Him as well.

But John turns that argument completely on its head. He shows how Israel’s unbelief actually proves all the more that Jesus is indeed the Christ. How?

First, the unbelief of the Jews should come as no surprise, because Israel’s unbelief and rejection of Jesus as their Messiah was foretold by Old Testament prophecy. It was “that the word of Isaiah the prophet might be fulfilled, which he spoke: ‘Lord, who has believed our report? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?’” (v. 38).

This is a quote from one of the most beloved passages of the Old Testament—Isaiah 53. It’s a passage that describes our Lord’s vicarious suffering for us in vivid terms; and also tells us of the redemption He accomplished through His death. The prophet Isaiah begins that passage by saying,

Who has believed our report?
And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
For He shall grow up before Him as a tender plant,
And as a root out of dry ground.
He has no form or comeliness;
And when we see Him,
There is no beauty that we should desire Him.
He is despised and rejected by men,
A Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.
And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him;
He was despised, and we did not esteem Him (Isaiah 53:1-3).

That passage from Isaiah is describing the dismay of the prophet Isaiah over the fact that so few believe the testimony God had given His servants regarding the promised Christ. When Israel as a whole rejected the Christ, Isaiah 53:1 was ‘fulfilled’, was ‘realized’, that’s when this ‘prophecy’ became ‘reality’.

“Lord, who has believed our report?” It’s a rhetorical question, a question to which the answer is obvious. “Who has believed?” “No one has believed.” If Israel had all believed in Jesus, if the Jews as a whole had put their faith in the Jesus as the Christ, He could not fulfilled this prophecy of the Servant of the Lord in Isaiah. See how John turns it around? The unbelief of Israel does not undermine the claim of Jesus to being the Messiah, the Christ, it strengthens that claim!

Then there’s the second part to the quote. “And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?” The “arm of the Lord”, refers to God’s power. It was the “arm of the Lord” that delivered Israel from Egypt. In Deuteronomy 26:8 Moses writes, “So the LORD brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and with an outstretched arm, with great terror and with signs and wonders,” (also Exo. 6:6; Deut. 4:34; 5:15; 7:19). The “arm of the Lord” is the Jewish expression for God’s presence in power. That’s the connection to “signs”. In view of John’s Gospel one could paraphrase the quote of Isaiah “And to whom have the signs from the Lord been revealed?” In one sense the answer to that question is “To everyone”! The Jews all saw and heard of the many signs that Jesus performed revealing the arm of the Lord. In another sense the answer to that question is “to no one”. For while they saw the signs they did not believe what they revealed. People failed to see how the signs they saw were proof that Jesus was the Christ.

John wants his readers to know that the rejection of our Lord by the nation Israel was no failure on His part, but the fulfillment of Scripture. It not only did happen—it had to happen. Israel’s lack of faith had a purpose. It fulfilled the rejection of the Servant of the Lord prophesied by Isaiah. So one reason we’re given for why people didn’t believe on Jesus is because it was promised in the Old Testament that they wouldn’t.

But why is that they wouldn’t? What caused them to fail to believe when such overwhelming evidence of His identity had been given to them? John goes on to tell us, “Therefore they could not believe, because Isaiah said again: ‘He has blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts, lest they should see with their eyes, lest they should understand with their hearts and turn, so that I should heal them’” (John 12:39-40). Here, John not only lets us know that the Scriptures promised that they wouldn’t believe, but that God Himself blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts, so that they could not believe.

Again John quotes from Isaiah. This time from Isaiah’s vision of the Lord “high and lifted up” at the very beginning of his prophetic ministry in Isaiah 6. At that time, the prophet was called by God to a very difficult task. God told him, “Go, and tell this people: ‘Keep on hearing, but do not understand; keep on seeing, but do not perceive.’ Make the heart of this people dull, and their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and return and be healed” (Isaiah 6:9-10). What a dreadful task! Isaiah asked, “Lord, how long?” (v. 11)—that is, how long would he have to proclaim a message that the people wouldn’t hear? God answered, “Until the cities are laid waste and without inhabitant, the houses are without a man, the land is utterly desolate, The Lord has removed men far away, and the forsaken places are many in the midst of the land” (v. 12). In other words, the proclamation of truth from God would itself reveal the hardening of the heart and would lead to judgment. But inherent in the judgment would be the promise of mercy. He said, “But yet a tenth will be in it” (that is to say that, in the population, there would remain a remnant through which God would work), “and will return and be for consuming, as a terebinth tree or as an oak, whose stump remains when it is cut down. So the holy seed shall be its stump” (v. 13). Jesus Himself is that promised “holy seed“. But their eyes were blinded and hearts were hardened to the message of His coming. Only some would hear and believe it, most would persist in unbelief.

Jesus Himself testified to this very thing in His earthly ministry. In Matthew 13, when the disciples asked Him why it was that He taught the people in what seemed like confusing parables, “He answered and said to them, “Because it has been given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given. For whoever has, to him more will be given, and he will have abundance; but whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him. Therefore I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand,” (Matthew 13:11-13). Jesus went on to quote this passage in Isaiah; saying that “in them“—that is, in the people who were even then hearing His teaching and were not understanding—”the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled” (Matt. 13:14). But then Jesus went on to tell His disciples, “But blessed are your eyes for they see, and your ears for they hear; or assuredly, I say to you that many prophets and righteous men desired to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it,” (Matt. 13:16-17).

The consequence for refusing to believe in God and obey Him becomes the God-ordained inability to trust in God and obey Him. This blinding of their eyes and hardening of their hearts is the judgment that God imposes on the sin of Israel. It happened in the days of Isaiah – Isaiah was the prophet who very clearly spoke of the coming exile from the Promised Land. And still the people did not repent, so that the exile became a reality.

There’s a repeat of this in all its fullness in the days of Jesus the Christ. A very parallel repeat: Jesus was the Servant of the Lord who very clearly spoke of God’s departure from Israel when the temple would be destroyed. Jesus is that temple of the Lord. It’s a repeat because Israel’s worship of God was a sham. Sadducees did not believe the teachings of the Bible, priests were in it for the money, and Pharisees were for the most part hypocrites who preached the truth but did not live it. If you refuse to believe, God will make it so that you are not able to believe. And the inability to believe means that God does not heal. God only heals those who repent. If repentance is absent, salvation is absent.

God’s judgment on their sin is for them to remain in their sin. When sinners suppress the truth (Rom. 1:18), refusing to believe the light that God has given (Rom. 1:21), God gives them over to be hardened and blinded in their own sin (Rom 1:24). Steven Cole writes, “God’s judicial hardening is not the capricious manipulation of an arbitrary Sovereign toward morally neutral or good people, but rather His holy condemnation of guilty people who are condemned to the judgment that they themselves have chosen.” (paraphrasing the argument of D.A. Carson).

The purpose of their unbelief was because it fulfilled scripture, because God hardened their hearts in their sin, and thirdly because it displayed the glory of God.

John tells us this remarkable fact: “These things Isaiah said when he saw His glory and spoke of Him,” (John 12:41). When did Isaiah see the glory of Jesus? I think it was in both Isaiah 6 and Isaiah 53.

In Isaiah 6 he saw the marvelous vision of the Holy God:

“In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, and the train of His robe filled the temple. Above it stood seraphim; each one had six wings: with two he covered his face, with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one cried to another and said: ‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of His glory!’ And the posts of the door were shaken by the voice of him who cried out, and the house was filled with smoke” (Isaiah 6:1-4).

John is letting us know that it was none other than our Lord Jesus—in His preincarnate glory—that Isaiah spoke of seeing. But it was this same Isaiah that also saw His glory in the suffering servant in Isaiah 53. Right before prophesying of Jesus’ rejection, suffering, and substitutionary death for our sins, Isaiah writes (Isaiah 52:13), “Behold, My Servant shall deal prudently; He shall be exalted and extolled and be very high.” The cross displayed the glory of the Lord. Remember Jesus said about the time of His death (John 12:23), “The hour has come that the Son of Man should be glorified.” And signifying by what death He would die Jesus said, “And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all peoples to Myself.”

The same God who is Holy, Holy, Holy is also the Lord who suffered and died for our sins on the cross. The fact of Israel’s lack of faith does not undermine the claim that Jesus is the Christ of God. People did not believe on Him because, in His sovereign wisdom, this very same glorious Lord did not give them the ability to do so. He decreed that the preaching of His identity would harden their hearts—at least for a time, in order that His purposes might be served. God foreknew and used the unbelief of His own covenant people so that they would reject and crucify the Messiah resulting in atonement for the sins of the world. The unbelief and evil deeds of sinners never frustrate the purposes of our sovereign God, but actually fulfill His purposes (1 Pet. 2:8).

Paul also mentions this same passage from Isaiah (see Romans 10:16). And it led to his marvelous explanation that “blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in,” (Romans 11:25). God still loves His chosen people; and their blindness is only temporary—so that the Gentiles might hear of the Redeemer and believe on Him. But the point is that the whole matter of seeing and not believing is a work of God—in some cases as a judgment from Him, and in some cases as a means of drawing others to Him.

In 2 Corinthians 4:4,6, Paul writes, “…whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them. …. For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”

Satan has blinded unbelievers so that they cannot see the glory of Christ. But when we believe, it is because God has shone in our hearts to reveal His glory in Christ. Isaiah was granted a vision of Jesus’ glory. The beginning of faith is when God opens your eyes to see something of Jesus’ glory. When you see His glory on the cross, you may believe in Him for eternal life.

So we have seen the summary of their unbelief and the purpose of their unbelief. Finally we see the imperfect faith of some who believed.

III. Their imperfect belief (John 12:42-43).

John next goes on to say that some did indeed believe on Jesus. John writes, “Nevertheless even among the rulers many believed in Him,” (v. 42a). Among them we would certainly count Nicodemus—one of the rulers of the Jews who spoke with Jesus—seemingly secretly—at night in John 3. We would also count Joseph of Arimathea, who we’re told was “a disciple of Jesus, but secretly, for fear of the Jews,” (John 19:38).

But this leads us to yet one more reason why some do not believe. Even among the rulers of the people who did believe, we’re told, “but because of the Pharisees they did not confess Him, lest they should be put out of the synagogue; for they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God,” (John 12:42b-43). One reason that people do not believe on Jesus today—and even why some who do believe are hesitant to testify of that belief—is because of the fear of man. Proverbs 29:25 says, “The fear of man brings a snare, But whoever trusts in the Lord shall be safe.” Jesus Himself once spoke to the religious leaders and asked them, “How can you believe, who receive honor from one another, and do not seek the honor that comes from the only God?” (John 5:44). In Mark 8:38, Jesus said, “For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him the Son of Man also will be ashamed when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels.”

I think John included these verses to warn those who say they believe, but are afraid to confess Christ, that they will face Jesus in judgment someday (John 12:48). He wants us to see that true faith sees Jesus’ glory and confesses Him, no matter what the cost. True Christians are not ashamed to confess Christ before this adulterous and sinful generation. Man’s approval may last a few years; God’s approval lasts forever.

Let me conclude by asking you three questions about your relationship with Jesus Christ:

Are you obeying the light that God has given you or could you be suppressing the truth because you love your sins?
Have you seen the glory of God in Jesus Christ who died for your sins? If so, have you believed on Him for eternal life?
Are you living for the glory of men or the glory of God?