Five-year Bible reading plan for 12 June 2004

King James Version (en)

King James Version (en)

John, Chapter 12, verses 37-50

³⁷ The Jews are generally blinded, ⁴² yet many chief rulers believe, but do not confess him, ⁴⁴ therefore Jesus calleth earnestly for confession of faith

³⁷But though he had done so many miracles before them, yet they believed not on him:

³⁸That the saying of Esaias the prophet might be fulfilled, which he spake, Lord, who hath believed our report? and to whom hath the arm of the Lord been revealed?

³⁹Therefore they could not believe, because that Esaias said again,

⁴⁰He hath blinded their eyes, and hardened their heart; that they should not see with their eyes, nor understand with their heart, and be converted, and I should heal them.

⁴¹These things said Esaias, when he saw his glory, and spake of him.

⁴²Nevertheless among the chief rulers also many believed on him; but because of the Pharisees they did not confess him, lest they should be put out of the synagogue:

⁴³For they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God.

⁴⁴Jesus cried and said, He that believeth on me, believeth not on me, but on him that sent me.

⁴⁵And he that seeth me seeth him that sent me.

⁴⁶I am come a light into the world, that whosoever believeth on me should not abide in darkness.

⁴⁷And if any man hear my words, and believe not, I judge him not: for I came not to judge the world, but to save the world.

⁴⁸He that rejecteth me, and receiveth not my words, hath one that judgeth him: the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day.

⁴⁹For I have not spoken of myself; but the Father which sent me, he gave me a commandment, what I should say, and what I should speak.

⁵⁰And I know that his commandment is life everlasting: whatsoever I speak therefore, even as the Father said unto me, so I speak.

Read more:John, Chapter 13

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12

12:37 Though he had done so many miracles before them - So that they could not but see them.

12:38 The arm of the Lord - The power of God manifested by Christ, in his preaching, miracles, and work of redemption. Isa 53:1.

12:39 Therefore now they could not believe - That is, by the just judgment of God, for their obstinacy and wilful resistance of the truth, they were at length so left to the hardness of their hearts, that neither the miracles nor doctrines of our Lord could make any impression upon them.

12:40 Isa 6:10; Mat 13:14; Act 28:26.

12:41 When he saw his glory - Christ's, Isa 6:1, etc And it is there expressly said tobe the glory of the Lord, Jehovah, the Supreme God.

12:44 Jesus said with a loud voice - This which follows to the end of the chapter, is with St. John the epilogue of our Lord's public discourses, and a kind of recapitulation of them.Believeth not on me - Not on me alone, but also on him that sent me: because the Father hath sent the Son, and because he and the Father are one.

12:45 And he that seeth me - By the eye of faith.

12:47 I judge him not - Not now: for I am not come to judge the world.See, Christ came to save even them that finally perish! Even these are a part of that world, which he lived and died to save.

12:50 His commandment - Kept, is life everlasting - That is the way to it, and the beginning of it.

Topics:

End of the World

NOTES

The evangelist describes the reasons for unbelief in Jesus quite exhaustively. He divides all unbelievers into two categories: those who do not want to see the truth and those who...

The evangelist describes the reasons for unbelief in Jesus quite exhaustively. He divides all unbelievers into two categories: those who do not want to see the truth and those who are simply afraid. The second case is more or less understandable: in every age fear and cowardice have been among the chief obstacles on the path of righteousness, preventing those who walk or want to walk that path from making the right decisions. The first category is more complicated. It is probably hard to imagine a person who in ordinary life voluntarily blinds himself or simply closes his eyes so that, no longer seeing the reality around him, he can replace that vision with fantasies. And understandably so: in everyday life the consequences of such an act can be most unexpected and unpleasant. Yet in spiritual life many people apparently make just this choice, and quite often, although the consequences here are hardly less serious. Why is that?

The Athenian philosopher Socrates, who lived five centuries before the birth of Christ, seems already to have understood the reason for such behavior. He said that people often take a small good for a great one and a great evil for a small one, as well as the reverse, simply because what is large looks smaller at a distance than it really is. This applies to spiritual life just as much as to everyday life.

Giving up comfortable and familiar views and a settled worldview, especially a religious one, is at the very least uncomfortable. The day of Judgment seems so distant, so small compared with this discomfort, that... it is disregarded—perhaps in the hope that by the time it comes, things will somehow have settled down, worked themselves out, and resolved themselves, and that we will somehow enter the Kingdom after all at little cost, without any particular sacrifice or loss.

And it is best to get rid of those who, as the saying goes, care far too much. There will be no quiet life with them anyway. How to get rid of them is merely a technical question.

There are only two causes of unbelief: unwillingness to see the obvious, and fear. But if we think about it, it is not hard to understand that the root is one, and it is precisely fear. Only, as we see, fear comes in different forms. There is fear...

There are only two causes of unbelief: unwillingness to see the obvious, and fear. But if we think about it, it is not hard to understand that the root is one, and it is precisely fear. Only, as we see, fear comes in different forms. There is open, unconcealed fear: in such cases a person usually admits simply and directly that he refuses to see and hear certain things only because he is afraid. He understands that once he hears and sees something, he will have to draw certain conclusions from what he has seen and heard, and then change something in his life, and the changes can bring at least undesirable consequences. Here everything is clear: a person does not want to listen to Jesus or follow Him because he does not want extra problems. This is, of course, bad, but still not the same as in the second case. Here everything is fairly open, and the fearful person understands it all himself: he knows that he is being cowardly and realizes what his problem is. Besides, although overcoming such fear is not easy, in general it is not so difficult either: this is precisely an external fear; it binds a person from outside, frightening him above all with external consequences.

The second cause is more serious and deeper. Here too there is fear, but a different kind, an inner fear. From the outside such a person may fear nothing at all. He may not tremble at the thought of the consequences of his choice. But such a person can fear for his inner world, and fear very much.

Usually the first type of fear seizes a secular, unbelieving person who tends to rely on external things and to attach great importance to what can easily be lost in the event, for example, of persecution. The second fear is more characteristic of a religious person, for whom the chief value is his inner world. Such a person is certain that this world cannot be taken from him even if his life is taken, and therefore he has nothing to fear from outside. But from within, the world of a religious person is very vulnerable, and such a person constantly watches carefully to make sure that no one somehow destroys his religiosity. If he senses in someone's words a threat to his religiosity, he at once becomes blind and deaf, simply for the sake of self-preservation.

Only the Savior can free us from both of these fears, for He can unite everyone who trusts Him to the life of His Kingdom. And the breath of the Kingdom that has entered a person's heart cannot be taken away from that person or destroyed. Then fear disappears too, because there is nothing more to fear.

Everyone is familiar with the situation when you offer someone something important, beautiful, valuable, necessary, or tasty, and the person refuses. One of the most typical reactions can be formulated childishly like this...

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