Unbelief and the Purposes of God
The Problem
The Gospels are a rich source of both instruction and encouragement to the Christian’s heart. However, that does not mean that we always understand or even like what we find in them. One source of confusion and intellectual angst for many of us is found in the passages where Jesus or the evangelists suggest that God intentionally blinds the eyes of some of Jesus’ contemporaries in His earthly ministry. I hope this explication of John 12, one of these problematic passages, is useful in understanding how God may use unbelief to fulfill His purposes.
John 12:31-42
Now is the judgment of this world; now will the ruler of this world be cast out. And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” He said this to show by what kind of death he was going to die. So the crowd answered him, “We have heard from the Law that the Christ remains forever. How can you say that the Son of Man must be lifted up? Who is this Son of Man?”So Jesus said to them, “The light is among you for a little while longer. Walk while you have the light, lest darkness overtake you. The one who walks in the darkness does not know where he is going. While you have the light, believe in the light, that you may become sons of light.”
When Jesus had said these things, he departed and hid himself from them. Though he had done so many signs before them, they still did not believe in him, so that the word spoken by the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled:
“Lord, who has believed what he heard from us,
and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?”
Therefore they could not believe. For again Isaiah said,
“He has blinded their eyes
and hardened their heart,
lest they see with their eyes,
and understand with their heart, and turn,
and I would heal them.”
Isaiah said these things because he saw his glory and spoke of him. Nevertheless, many even of the authorities believed in him, but for fear of the Pharisees they did not confess it, so that they would not be put out of the synagogue;
Exposition*
Jesus’ command to believe in the light(12:35) is a response to the crowd’s question about His death: “We have heard from the Law that the Christ remains forever. How can you say that the Son of Man must be lifted up?” (12:34). That the crowd would ask such a question reveals two things clearly. First, the people understood Jesus’ messianic claims, as veiled as they may seem to modern readers. All the self-identifications as the Son of Man and the mighty signs He had performed were not lost in interpretation. Second, they understood Jesus’ reference to death on a cross. So, in the following verses (12:36b-37), the issue with their unbelief was not a misunderstanding of Jesus’ claims but a failure to believe.
John interrupts his narrative with an interpretation of the events, including two direct quotes from Isaiah (LXX). The two texts from Isaiah are relevant for this discussion because the first refers to the revelation of Jesus (or His message), and the second refers to blindness and hardness of heart. The first authorial note occurs in John 12:38, where John directly quotes Isaiah 53:1, “Lord, who has believed what he heard from us, and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?” The Isaiah passage occurs amidst the “Suffering Servant” passage, a messianic prophecy which foretells the substitutionary atonement that Christ will complete on the cross (Isa. 52:13-53:12). According to Motyer, the meaning of this verse is that even the believing company did not esteem the Servant of the Lord.[1] Therefore, some of those who reject Christ’s message and signs even in these verses may come to faith in the future. However, their eyes were blinded (Jn 12:40; Isa 6:10) to bring about the purposes of God, for they would not have condemned to death One whom they believed to be their Messiah and God.
John gives more commentary on the nature of the belief which leads to salvation (the purpose for which this Gospel was written) in verses 42-43. John statement, “many even of the authorities believed in him” (12:42), seems to contradict his earlier statement that “they still did not believe in him” (12:37), but belief in the light means more than a simple mental ascent in light of verse 43: “for they loved the glory that comes from man more than the glory that comes from God.” Though some believed that Jesus really was the Christ as He claimed, they would not follow Him and “become sons of light” for fear of the Pharisees. Because of their allegiance to the Pharisees which secured this lesser glory, “They still knew nothing of the powerful new birth that could make them children of God and enable them to enter the messianic kingdom.”[2]
[1] J. Alec Motyer, Isaiah: An Introduction and Commentary, vol. 20, Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1999), 427.
[2] D. A. Carson, The Gospel According to John, Pillar New Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1991), 451.
*This section has been adapted from Jonathan Dulin’s Thesis, The Light of the World: Jesus in Creation, Redemption, and the New Creation, submitted to Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, 2023.