44 And Jesus cried out and said, “Whoever believes in me, believes not in me but in Him who sent me. 45 And whoever sees me sees Him who sent me. 46 I have come into the world as light, so that whoever believes in me may not remain in darkness. 47 If anyone hears my words and does not keep them, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world but to save the world. 48 The one who rejects me and does not receive my words has a judge; the word that I have spoken will judge him on the last day. 49 For I have not spoken on my own authority, but the Father who sent me has Himself given me a commandment - what to say and what to speak. 50 And I know that His commandment is eternal life. What I say, therefore, I say as the Father has told me.”
Jesus’ public teaching had reached its end. He now withdrew probably to Bethany with His disciples for a few days in preparation for the events that would unfold during Holy Week. Despite all that Jesus had done and taught during the past three years, the words of John 1:11 sadly, were true. “He came to His own, and His own people did not receive Him.” Now, as Jesus was about to go to the cross, He made one final, public declaration in which He vindicated Himself against those who would soon condemn Him, while at the same time He gives words of encouragement to those who did believe in Him.
In His statement recorded at the end of John 12, Jesus talks about not only the people’s failure to believe, but also with the reasons why they should have believed in Him. “Whoever believes in me, believes not in me but in Him who sent me. And whoever sees me sees Him who sent me. I have come into the world as light, so that whoever believes in me may not remain in darkness.” (John 12:44-46)
Three times in verses 44-50 Jesus refers to God as the One who sent Him. You often hear people complaining that if God exists, why doesn’t He do something about all the evil and suffering in the world. The simple answer to that question is that He has done something about it. He sent His only Son into the world to deal with the problem of sin and the eternal condemnation our sin deserves, and the ultimate betrayal is to reject the atoning sacrifice of Jesus. The greatest sin - that one sin for which there is no forgiveness - is the sin of unbelief. The Bible teacher Gabriel Hughes wrote recently, “A day will come when you will find out that Jesus Christ is God, His true Church was right all along, and the Bible is His word and not a book of fairy tales. That day will be either when you repent or perish.”
The Gospel has always been an offensive and confrontational message. Just as Jesus offended and confronted the Pharisees, He continues to do so today, because His truth exposes the true state of the sinful heart. No one likes to be challenged, and we are probably most uncomfortable when our sin is exposed and our false beliefs are shown to be what they really are - lies that we have bought into, so the big question when it comes to evaluating the claims of Jesus is this: Did Jesus really speak for God? The answer is that He did, and the proof that He did were the miracles He performed. His unquestionable supernatural powers are what validate His claims. So the bottom line is, reject Jesus Christ, and you have rejected God Himself.
Jesus not only spoke for God, but He also revealed God to us. Verses 44-45 again, “Whoever believes in me, believes not in me but in Him who sent me. And whoever sees me sees Him who sent me.” In other words, it is impossible to believe in God if you do not believe in Jesus. Any religion or faith system which rejects Jesus Christ as God, but claims to believe in God is a false religion which worships a god of their own making. They do not believe in the one, true God. To believe in Jesus is to believe in God the Father, and you cannot believe in the Father unless you give equal honour to the Son. In one sense, we cannot see God the Father because He is Spirit, and therefore invisible. But Jesus came into the world to show us what God is like, not in a physical sense, but morally, as Jesus reveals the character and nature of God to us. As He said to Philip in John 14:9, “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.”
If you want to know what God is like, look at Jesus. Everything that we need to know about the Father has been revealed to us in His Son. As Colossians 1:15 tells us, Jesus is the image of the invisible God, and Hebrews 1:3, “He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of His nature.”
The 17th century theologian John Owen wrote, “In Christ we behold the wisdom, goodness, love, grace, mercy and power of God all working together for the great work of our redemption and salvation.”
We were created by God in His own image. This doesn’t mean we bear a physical resemblance to God, but we were designed to be a perfect vehicle for God’s self-expression in the world. Just as Jesus is the exact representation of God, so we are to be the same. Of course, the problem is sin. Because sin ruined our God-resembling role, He sent His Son into the world as a man. What this means is that Jesus not only reveals God to us but also He also reveals what we are meant to be like. When we see Jesus, we shouldn’t only say, “This is what God is like,” but also, “this is what I was meant to be like.”
One of the tragic consequences of sin is that we who were made to reveal God, now need to have God revealed to us. We have become alienated from the God who created us to reflect His perfect, holy nature, but because of His great love for us, God sent Jesus into our world to restore to us not only the knowledge of God, but also to reconcile us to God through the forgiveness of our sins. Being reconciled to God the Father through the saving work of God the Son is our only hope of salvation, which means the severity of the sin of unbelief cannot be over-emphasised, as all that is left for those who reject Jesus is a godless life of increasing darkness in this life, and then eternal damnation in a very real place called hell.
But the opposite applies to those who do believe in Jesus, as He said in verse 46. “I have come into the world as light, so that whoever believes in me may not remain in darkness.” The world, our hearts and our lives have been darkened by the curse of sin, but Jesus is the answer to the darkness. He came, quite literally, into a world full of darkness and sin as the source and centre of life, peace and holiness, so that those who receive and believe in Him are delivered from spiritual darkness.
Despite what the unbelieving world teaches, when we are apart from God, we are living in deepest darkness. Apart from Christ, the world has no real answers to the big questions in life. Take God out of the equation, and there is no understanding of life, death and eternity, but those who come to Christ in faith are no longer groping around in the dark looking for truth, because they have found the truth in Him.
Jesus was sent by God, He revealed God, and He brought light to the world. He is the only hope we have of salvation and eternal life with the Father, which again, is why unbelief is the greatest of all sins, the result of which is eternal condemnation. But to believe in Christ is to believe the Father who sent Him, the result of which is salvation.
Jesus then says something in verses 47 and 48 which at first, might sound a bit confusing. “If anyone hears my words 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 receive my words has a judge; the word that I have spoken will judge him on the last day.”
This can be confusing, because there are other passages of Scripture which make it clear that Jesus will indeed judge the world on the last day. 2 Timothy 4:1 says that Jesus will judge the living and the dead, and Jesus Himself said in Matthew 25:31-32, “When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, then He will sit on His glorious throne. Before Him will be gathered all the nations, and He will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.”
So what does He mean in John 12:47 when He says, “If anyone hears my words and does not keep them, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world but to save the world?” Jesus is not denying the future judgment here, but His point is that while rejecting Him leads to condemnation, it was not for condemnation that He came the first time. The purpose of Jesus’ first coming was not to judge the world but to save. He did not sit in judgment on those who refused to hear His words or believe in Him, but this does not mean that He will not condemn unbelievers when He returns. The first time He came as the Saviour, but when He returns it will be to judge those who do not believe.
Also, when Jesus says in verse 48, “The word that I have spoken will judge him on the last day,” He means that the message they heard but rejected will stand in judgment against them. This is a serious warning to those who hear the Gospel message but reject it. People often ask the question, “What about those who never hear the Gospel, and what about children who die before they have a proper understanding of sin?” You can add to that another question which many find offensive, but it needs to be asked: “What about children who are murdered in the womb?”
Yes, there are some people who never hear the Gospel presented to them, but Paul teaches in Romans 2 that our consciences bear witness against us. We know instinctively what’s right and what’s wrong, because this is something God has given to us all. Romans 2:14-15 says, “When Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law. They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them.” God, in His eternal wisdom, who is never unjust, knows perfectly how these words apply to those who have never heard the Gospel proclaimed, but know the difference between right and wrong.
Also, Revelation 20:12 tells us that those who have never heard the Gospel will be judged for all their sins. “I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done.”
Again, God is perfectly just, and no one will be judged unfairly, but the warning Jesus gives in John 12 is aimed specifically at those who have heard the Gospel but have chosen to reject it. He is speaking about the sin of unbelief. Those who reject the Gospel will be judged for the very words of grace that they spurned. The non-believing world lives as if this life is all there is, but the warning given to us in the Bible is very clear: There will be a last day, and the Day of Judgment is coming. For now, we have a choice whether to believe in Jesus Christ or not, but this opportunity will not last forever.
Martyn Lloyd-Jones said, “From beginning to end the message of the Bible is that there is to be an end to the world, and that the end is judgment. The Christ of God will come back into this world and He will return to judge it. The world is under judgment. And it is going to perish. All that is opposed to God is going to be judged and it is going to be destroyed.”
If this is true, (and it is) then we should live with the reality of Judgment Day in the forefront of our minds. This applies to both Christians and non-Christians. If you have yet to accept God’s gracious offer of salvation through Jesus Christ, you need to know that it is He and He alone who has the power to save you. You need a Saviour and it is only Jesus Christ who speaks good news, because He alone died for the forgiveness of your sins.
Christians, however, should also live with an awareness that this life as we know it will eventually come to an end. Don’t envy the non-believing world which wears a thin veneer of happiness, because that’s all it is - a veneer which is an imitation of the real thing. We are to live with the anticipation of the joy of eternity with God. As Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 7:31, “The present form of this world is passing away.”
Jesus makes it clear that unbelievers are responsible for their rejection of His Gospel. He said to Nicodemus in John 3:19, “This is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil.” The mantra of the world is, “It’s my life.” They want to be their own master, so they reject the lordship of Christ. And in order to do so, they will do whatever it takes to resist submitting to the authority of the God who gave them life itself.
The problem is a love of sin. Even though Jesus proved He came from God, even though He meets our greatest need, and despite the fact that He shines His true light to lift us out of the darkness, many refuse to bow before Him and give Him the honour He is due, and it is this defiance which will ultimately judge them. A. W. Pink wrote, “Every man who hears the Gospel ought to believe in Christ, and those who do not will yet be punished for this unbelief.”
To hear the Gospel means you are responsible to God for your response to that message. This was Jesus’ warning in His final public teaching before going to the cross, and His appeal applies to each of us today. He said in verses 49-50, “I have not spoken on my own authority, but the Father who sent me has Himself given me a commandment - what to say and what to speak. And I know that His commandment is eternal life. What I say, therefore, I say as the Father has told me.”
There are all kinds of opinions of who Jesus is, and many question and even reject His authority, but He never wavered in His determination to fulfill the will of His Father. There are many who flatly reject the Christian teaching that salvation comes only through faith in Jesus, but this claim is made by God Himself, and He has given us no other means of salvation.
This means we should never apologise for the exclusivity of the Gospel message. We are to faithfully and unashamedly proclaim salvation through Jesus Christ. It’s a simple message, really, perfectly summed up by Paul and Silas in Acts 16:31 - “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved.” Just after Jesus had fed the crowd and walked on water in John 6 they asked Him a question: “What must we do, to be doing the works of God?” Jesus’ answer was, “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent.” (John 6:28–29)
It’s interesting that the Gospel is usually presented as an invitation from God, and in a sense, this is true, but Paul said to the Athenians in Acts 17:30-31, “He commands all people everywhere to repent, because He has fixed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom He has appointed; and of this He has given assurance to all by raising Him from the dead.” James Montgomery Boice wrote, “This is not something to be toyed with; this is not something to be delayed. God is our master, and He orders us to turn from sin and to respond to Him.”
At the end of your life, when all is said and done, only one thing will matter. Your eternal destiny hinges on who you say Jesus Christ is. If He is Saviour and Lord, and you have been granted repentance and saving faith, you are saved. But if you persist in the unforgivable sin of unbelief, you will spend eternity separated from the God who loved you enough to send His own Son to die for you. Turn to Christ while you still have the opportunity.
It is here where John closes the first half of his Gospel, which is sometimes called The Book of Signs. There is a definite break between the first 12 chapters and the remaining 9 chapters. Chapter 13 begins The Book of the Passion, which details the events of the cross and resurrection.
Up until now Jesus has presented Himself to the Jews, primarily through the signs He performed. As we’ve seen throughout this series, John, inspired by the Holy Spirit, has chosen to focus on seven specific signs which progressively reveals Jesus to be who He claimed to be: the Son of God who has come into the world.
Each of these signs shows us what happens when a repentant sinner believes in Jesus Christ, so as we close today we will look briefly at each of these seven signs and what they mean.
1. The changing the water into wine at the wedding in Cana of Galilee in chapter 2 is a picture of the sinner who is a stranger to divine joy being transformed by the power of Christ.
2. The healing of the nobleman’s son in chapter 4 depicts the sinner as being sick and in need of spiritual health.
3. The healing of the lame man at the pool of Bethesda in chapter 5 shows us that because of our sin, we have no strength, are helpless, and unable to do anything about it. We need Jesus to cure us of our spiritual lameness.
4. Jesus fed the crowd of 5000 in chapter 6. This illustrates that without Jesus, the sinner is without spiritual food, and He is the one who provides food for the soul so that we will never be spiritually hungry again.
5. Jesus walked on the Sea of Galilee and calmed the storm in chapter 6. Because of our sin we are in mortal danger, but Christ rescues us from the storm of condemnation.
6. He healed a man blind in chapter 9. This man pictures the blindness of the human heart until it is touched by the power of Christ. We cannot see our own sin and the depravity of our hearts until the light of Christ reveals our true state.
7. And then as Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead in chapter 11, we are reminded that before coming to faith in Jesus, we are dead in our trespasses and in sins. We need to be spiritually raised and born again in order to be saved.
The point of all of these signs and all of the teachings of Jesus in John 1-12 are intended to prove that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. Each of us is to decide whether we believe Him or not.
Judgment on unbelief is inevitable. The Gospel will stand in judgment against those who refuse it, because no one will be able to say, “I didn’t know.” No one will be able to plead ignorance. So embrace the Gospel and the hope it offers you while you can. Jesus came to rescue you from the depravity of your sin and to reconcile you to the Father. He came to lift you out of your helplessness. He conquered death itself, and He offers you the promise of life eternal.
Homegroup Study Notes
Read John 12:44-50
Three times in this passage, Jesus says that the Father sent Him.
Why is it important for us to understand this truth?
This is not the first time in John’s Gospel that Jesus refers to Himself as the light in a dark world.
Discuss the spiritual darkness we see in the world today.
How has God, through Jesus, brought light into your life?
The first time Jesus came into our world, He came as the Saviour, but He will return as the Judge.
How different will His second coming be?
Read verse 48 again.
How will the word He has spoken stand in judgment against those who do not believe in Jesus, and what does this tell us about those who reject the Gospel?
The world tells us that belief in Jesus is not as important as doing the right thing and being the best people we can be.
What is fundamentally wrong with such a statement?
Why is the sin of unbelief the greatest of all sins?