Musings From the Gospel of John – Number 30

The Scriptures covered in this post are from John 12:34-50

This post will be a little on the long side but please bear with me because there is a lot to cover in this particular last section of John Chapter 12.

John 12:34-36 NASB

“The crowd then answered Him, “We have heard from the Law that the Christ is to remain forever; and how is it that You say, ‘The Son of Man must be lifted up’? Who is this Son of Man?”

“So Jesus said to them, “For a little while longer the Light is among you. Walk while you have the Light, so that darkness will not overtake you; also, the one who walks in the darkness does not know where he is going. While you have the Light, believe in the Light, so that you may become sons of Light. These things Jesus proclaimed, and He went away and hid Himself from them.”

The Apostle John tells us that the crowd says to Jesus that they had heard from the Law that the Christ, which is the Messiah that is to come, is to remain forever; and how is it that You say, “The Son of Man must be lifted up (which as you recall signified the kind of death by which He was to die (John 12:33). So the crowd says to Jesus “Who is this Son of Man?”

The fact the the crowd knew that the promised Messiah would reign forever could have easily been taken from a number of Old Testament statements about the Messiah like the Messianic Psalm 110:4 which states “The Lord has sworn and will not change His mind, “You are a priest forever According to the order of Melchizedek.” If you are not aware of the significance of the Priesthood of Melchizedek, may I suggest you check out my following post on this subject here.

Notice that Jesus does NOT directly answer their question about who the Son of Man is. Just to refresh your memory on the term “Son of Man”, that Jesus frequently used about Himself, I will provide a link that covers the use of this term in a post that I did here. Please take the time to read this post because if you are not familiar with the term “Son of Man”, you will lose some of the significance of the exchange between some within the crowd and Jesus.

Instead of responding to their question about “who the Son of Man” is, what Jesus does do, is answer them as follows in John 12:35-36 where He focuses on Himself being the “light” and “life” of God in their presence:

“So Jesus said to them, “For a little while longer the Light is among you. Walk while you have the Light, so that darkness will not overtake you; also, the one who walks in the darkness does not know where he is going. While you have the Light, believe in the Light, so that you may become sons of Light. These things Jesus proclaimed, and He went away and hid Himself from them.”

Of course, the Light that Jesus is referring to is Himself. And the objective of believing in the Light is so that they may become sons of the Light. The light that Jesus speaks of is the eternal life within Himself that Jesus brought to us from His Father through His Word and His power to bestow this life to us, and in us, who believe in Him as recorded in John 1:4-5 which reads” In Him was life, and the life was the Light of mankind. And the Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not grasp it.”

Peter was aware of this when Jesus’ teachings caused some believers to walk away and Jesus asked Peter if he too would go. Remember what Peter answered in John 6:68 NASB? “Simon Peter answered Him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have words of eternal life.”

John 12:37-41 provides additional insight into why so many of the Jews did not comprehend who Jesus was or believe in Jesus, and it reads as follows:

“But though He had performed so many signs in their sight, they still were not believing in Him. This happened so that the word of Isaiah the prophet which he spoke would be fulfilled: “Lord, who has believed our report? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?” For this reason they could not believe, for Isaiah said again, “He has blinded their eyes and He hardened their heart, so that they will not see with their eyes and understand with their heart, and be converted, and so I will not heal them.” These things Isaiah said because he saw His glory, and he spoke about Him.”

Isaiah 53:1 and Isaiah 6:9-10 are the verses quoted directly above. It’s interesting to note that John tells us that Isaiah said these things because he saw the glory of Jesus, the Messiah and he (Isaiah) spoke about Him (Jesus), the Messiah.

John 12:42-43 NASB reads as follows: “Nevertheless many, even of the rulers, believed in Him, but because of the Pharisees they were not confessing Him, so that they would not be excommunicated from the synagogue; for they loved the approval of people rather than the approval of God.”

Note that while many did not believe, there were also many Jews, even some of the rulers, that did believe in Jesus but because of the Pharisees they would not verbally confess Jesus as the Messiah because of the fear of being excommunicated from the synagogue, which was a really big thing. If you were excommunicated from the synagogue, other Jews would not talk to you or trade goods with you. Hence their decision not to voice their belief in Jesus was swayed by their preference to be found acceptable in the eyes of their fellow Jews versus being approved of by God.

John 12:44-50 NASB reads as follows:

“Now Jesus cried out and said, “The one who believes in Me, does not believe only in Me, but also in Him who sent Me. And the one who sees Me sees Him who sent Me. I have come as Light into the world, so that no one who believes in Me will remain in darkness. If anyone hears My teachings and does not keep them, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world, but to save the world. The one who rejects Me and does not accept My teachings has one who judges him: the word which I spoke. That will judge him on the last day. For I did not speak on My own, but the Father Himself who sent Me has given Me a commandment as to what to say and what to speak. And I know that His commandment is eternal life; therefore the things I speak, I speak just as the Father has told Me.”

What Jesus says here is totally in line with what John records Jesus saying previously in John 5:19-23 and later on in John 14:7-15 about all that He said and all that he did, being from God the Father. Jesus actually tells us that He does absolutely nothing on His own but everything that He says and does is in total compliance with what His Father has commanded Him to do. What you see when you look at Jesus is the will of the Father being complied with in word and deed, by the Son, so much so that Jesus could say, “He who has seen me has seen the Father’.

If you believe in Jesus, you believe in the Father who sent Jesus.
If you believe in Jesus, and see Him for who He is, you see the Father.
If you believe in Jesus, His life is in you and we live in His light.
If you do not believe in Jesus, His life is not in you and you live in darkness.
The words that Jesus spoke are from God our Father and these words (commandments) when followed by faith and trust in Jesus, bring eternal life.
The words that Jesus spoke, when rejected, are a rejection of the Son and the Father and consequently eternal life via His Holy Spirit within us, in God’s presence, is not available to those who do not believe.

More to follow.

Worthy is the Lamb! Blessings!