Getting Closer to Jesus: John 12 is a pivot point in the Gospel of John that marks Jesus’s last public movements before his arrest, crucifixion and post-resurrection appearances. It is one of the most stunning accounts you will find in Scripture because of the unbelief of the characters in this chapter.
Jesus has just performed the greatest miracle you could ever hope for: the raising of Lazarus from the tomb four days after he had died. Yet the reaction of Judas, the priests, and the Pharisees, respectively, to this outstanding miracle is flat-out rejection of Jesus’ deity, if not blind hatred of him. Their unbelief is stunning, given the fact that the now-resurrected Lazarus is standing before their very eyes, living proof of Jesus’s authority and power over death.
Fortunately, this story is more than the sad history of the Jewish establishment’s rejection of Jesus. As is always the case with Scripture, there are valuable lessons to be learned from this about the willful unbelief of humanity and the unstoppable purposes of God.
The first lesson we learn is that miracles alone will never lead people to the full surrender of their lives to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. People often demand a miracle before they will place faith in Christ, but the record of the gospels indicates that miracles alone won’t wash away willful unbelief. They should—but they don’t. Time and again, Jesus performed a miracle, only to have people, in the very next moment, demand not another sign, but a sign—as if the one he had just given hadn’t been given at all. Such is the utter blindness of illogical unbelief. Beware, the next time you find yourself insisting that God grant you your miracle.
The second lesson we learn is that the motives of sinful people will always irreconcilably conflict with the purposes of a holy God. When human beings’ agenda collides with God’s agenda—and it always does, sooner or later—something’s got to give. The Jewish leaders were more interested in protecting their religious and political way of life than in discovering the life of abundance that the Messiah had come to reveal. In this case, unbelievably, they not only rejected Jesus, but the creatures killed the Creator! Keep in mind that early and often in your voyage of faith, you will be called to untether from the shores of comfort and risk what you cling to in order to go with God.
But the third lesson we learn here is that even the inflexible unbelief of man always gets leveraged for the irrepressible glory of God. That is why Jesus quotes Isaiah in John 12:40, “God has blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts—so they can’t see, can’t understand, can’t turn to me and have me heal them.”
Now this is one of the Bible’s hard sayings that seems to say God predestines some people to unbelief. But understand that Isaiah’s complaint springs from the broken heart of a prophet who is bewildered that his message and his calls to repentance only made the people of Israel worse, not better. Yet in their painful and willful rejection of the word of the Lord, Isaiah knew that even this could not take place outside God’s purpose nor thwart his unstoppable plan. Nothing can—which means we best get on board with God’s agenda. So, in that sense, even when people rejected Isaiah’s message, their unbelief was still contained within God’s purpose.
That is not to say that humanity’s unbelief is God’s purpose; rather, it is to say that God sovereignly uses even our unbelief for his sovereign purpose. For instance, in Romans 11, the Apostle Paul said that God used the unbelief of the Jews for the conversion of the Gentiles. God didn’t predestine certain people to unbelief—they chose unbelief—but he used their unbelief to further his agenda. In John 12, the Jews’ unbelief isn’t God’s fault; it’s the Jews’ fault. Yet even then, God is so great that not even this sin of stunning unbelief is outside his power, so he leverages it to bring about the cross and the redemption of all who believe.
Now, if all this is theologically true, what does it mean for you practically? Simply this: God will leverage humankind’s unbelief for his ultimate glory—even yours. But you have a choice. You can either stubbornly hold on to your unbelief—that is, where your agenda conflicts with God’s—or you can surrender it to Jesus so that you can get on board with God’s glorious plan.
What is your area of unbelief, the place where you are fiercely clinging to your agenda? Have you ever withheld money from missional work because it was dedicated to something that you “needed” to do? Have you ever held back from an appeal to serve in your spiritual community because you felt unqualified or too busy or frankly just didn’t want to make the commitment? Have you ever criticized a change in the church that the pastor felt was necessary to reach more outsiders because it conflicted with your comfort and your preferred style of worship? There are a hundred ways we hold on to our unbelief—with spiritual justification—but here’s what Jesus said in John 12:24-25 about letting go of your agenda for God’s:
Listen carefully: Unless a grain of wheat is buried in the ground, dead to the world, it’s never any more than a grain of wheat. But if it’s buried, it sprouts and reproduces itself many times over. In the same way, anyone who holds on to life just as it is destroys that life. But if you let it go, reckless in your love, you’ll have it forever, real and eternal.
If you hold on to what you want, you’ll kill any chance of what God wants for you! To experience the resurrected life—not just in eternity, but now—you must die to your unbelief.
Before you finish this post, I implore you to determine that your agenda and unbelief will no longer control you.
Take the Next Step : Where are you stubbornly holding on to your own spiritual agenda, and thus, expressing willful unbelief? Ask God to reveal to you where you need to surrender your preferences to his ways. Then be ready to obey him ruthlessly.
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