A new tactic. John 12:37-50

The title is "A new tactic" because up until now I have chosen something I wish to speak on and gone to get scriptures to back up my point. This however is dangerous because anyone can do it to support almost any point. In fact this is being written because of a video I saw on youtube supporting universal salvation. The video quoted John 12:47 ⁴⁷"As for the person who hears my words but does not keep them, I do not judge him. For I did not come to judge the world, but to save it." The bold was added by the video's maker. I, being astounded that the bible said this quickly went to the verse to discover the truth. As I suspected, the video's maker had added emphasis to what he wanted to make the verse say and ignored verse 48: "There is a judge for the one who rejects me and does not accept my words; that very word which I spoke will condemn him at the last day." Thus they twisted scripture in an attempt to mean that there would be no judgment even when we are clearly told there will be. Thus I will attempt in this post to quickly go through the above passage and point out the interesting stuff that I see there instead of picking scriptures and risk making the same error as witnessed above.

Verse 37 begins this section by saying that even after Jesus had performed these deeds of power there were still those who would not believe. Now I have at least one friend in particular who would probably do to use this verse to support his idea that belief / faith must be put forth by man, and can be put forth by man freely unto his salvation. This idea makes faith into a work even though we are told repeatedly that faith is not a work. Here is where reading the entire passage is vital. Continue reading through verse 49: "For this reason they could not believe..." Here we have the point I wish to make: Faith is a gift. God hardens and softens men's hearts and calls them unto salvation and gives them unto belief in Jesus for the sake of Jesus. I may later write a post on faith as a gift in which I pull from many verses, but for now I wish to continue with the passage.

Continuing through vs 41 we see "Isaiah said this because he saw Jesus' glory and spoke about him." This is important because I have actually had the displeasure to hear someone tell me that the Old Testament never referred to Christ (surprisingly enough he claimed to be christian!). This specifically ties together the old and the new so as to show that Christ did not come to abolish the law but to fulfill it. Christ didn't pop up out of nowhere; his arrival was expected for many centuries.

Now to verses 42 & 43where we see that some of the leaders believed in him but would not confess him for fear of being thrown out of the synagogue. Here the bible does not explicitly say that these men did not have salvation, but by interpreting scripture with other scripture as one ought I would say that sense they would not /(could not) confess with their mouth that they have no assurance of salvation. They were unwilling /(unable?) to take up their crosses and follow him and could not have been his disciples. These men should serve as a lesson to us not to love our life more than Christ.

I'm now going to go a little out of order and address vs 47. I have heard people use this verse to say that Christ does not judge, that we should not judge, that all have salvation...etc...yet we see that this is not the case by looking to verses 44 -46. Here Christ tells us that he came so that those who believe in him should not walk in darkness but have light. The point of 47 therefore isn't that there is no judgment, but that Christ came to save. Indeed looking to verse 48 we see that there will be judgment on the last day. (This does bring up the idea of the trinity and how all three are one and yet distinct in the God-head which I shall not get into here).

Finally we have here Christ again saying that he is one with the Father. Verses 49 and 50 tell us that Christ has brought this to us from the Father. This is both giving authority to his words and giving authority to himself since he is one with the Father. Thus none of these words are to be divorced from one another. All are greatly important and from a divine origin.

I hope ya'll found something interesting and insightful in what I have said here and that you will all take it to heart.

A Brother in Christ,
Matthew Shealy