What do you think of Jesus Christ? Where do you stand with Him? It’s a rather forward question, is it not? It can also be a little awkward. Apparently, that question can even be awkward for ministers.

Thomas B. Woodward has passed on an interesting story from his own ordination into the Episcopal priesthood:

When I was undergoing my pre-ordination examination with my bishop and “a learned presbyter,” all was proceeding smoothly and according to expectations until someone mentioned Jesus Christ in responding to one of the set questions. The learned presbyter leaned forward in his overstuffed chair and addressed the other candidate for ordination in the room. “Well, Alan,” he said, “that is quite interesting: ‘Jesus Christ.’ That certainly raises an interesting question. Alan, ‘what think ye of Christ?'”

Other than the muffled coughs from the bishop, a certain quiet settled over the office. The bishop himself seemed embarrassed that the question had been asked. Alan seemed terrified at having to answer such a private and personal question. I was relieved that it was Alan and not I who had been addressed. The bishop, however, saved the situation by interrupting Alan’s soft mutterings with an innocuous question about protocols in hospital calling. Alan had been assisted in escaping what St. Peter could not.[1]

It is a sad state of affairs when the question, “What think ye of Christ?” becomes awkward even for the clergy, but apparently it happens. In truth, lots of people try to avoid the question, and, as in the story related above, lots of people find lots of interesting ways to steer clear of it.

Even so, make no mistake: everybody things something about Jesus. Everybody stands somewhere in relation to Jesus, either in a position of disbelief, or a position of belief or somewhere in the middle.

Everybody stands somewhere along the spectrum of belief. In fact, in our text this morning, Jesus addresses the three major areas along the spectrum of belief. He discusses those who do not believe. He discusses those who partially believe. Finally, He discusses what true belief is.

As we consider the spectrum of belief, ask yourself this question, “Where am I on this spectrum? Where do I stand in relation to Jesus? Who is Jesus to me?”

John begins by speaking of those who did not and would not believe:

³⁷ Though he had done so many signs before them, they still did not believe in him,

Have you ever known anybody like this? Are you like this? There are people who simply refuse to believe the truth about Jesus. In the face of all the evidence, they simply will not believe. And let us not kid ourselves with the notion that if we would have been alive two thousand years ago and if we had witnessed the miracles of Jesus personally, it would be easier for us to believe. That simply is not true. Belief is a matter of the heart and it has very little to do with evidence in most cases. If a man or woman does not want to believe, nothing will compel him or her to do so. Such was the case with these Jews in John 12. Such is the case today.

John goes on to say that their disbelief was foretold by the Old Testament prophet Isaiah. But while it was foretold, it was also deserved.

³⁸ 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?” ³⁹ Therefore they could not believe. For again Isaiah said, ⁴⁰ “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.” ⁴¹ Isaiah said these things because he saw his glory and spoke of him.

John says, then, three things of the disbelief of the Jews:

·        It was prophesied of old.

·        It involved a divine hardening of their hearts.

·        The divine hardening was itself due to their own wickedness.

It is very important that we not misunderstand what is being said here. Let us first realize that Isaiah’s prophecy did not lead to their disbelief. Rather, their disbelief led to the prophecy. The truth of the prophecy was grounded in the truth of their disbelief. John alludes to two of Isaiah’s prophecies and notes that they were fulfilled in the Jews’ disobedience:

“Lord, who has believed what he heard from us, and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?”

and

“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.”

The early church Fathers took great pains to show that Isaiah’s prophecy was not some kind of curse or hex that made it necessary for the Jews’ not to believe. On the contrary, the prophecy was simply predictive of what would, in fact, be the case. For instance, Theodore of Mopsuestia wrote:

“He does not mean this was the reason for their unbelief. Indeed how could their mind be forced to not believe against their will in order to fulfill the prophecy? The fact that the Jews did not believe the things that happened [in their midst] is nothing new. In fact, this had long been predicted and was well known. He quoted the prophet Isaiah because Isaiah had foretold that it would be difficult to find believers among the Jews.”[2]

Furthermore, John Chrysostom wrote that “it was not ‘because’ Isaiah spoke that they did not believe. Rather, it was because they were not about to believe, which is why [Isaiah] spoke.” He also wrote that the fact that “it was impossible for the prophet to lie” is not the reason why “it was impossible for them to believe.”[3]

It must also be understood that Isaiah was not teaching that God is the cause of their sin of disbelief when he prophesied:

“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.”

We instinctively revolt at the idea of God hardening somebody’s heart because we instinctively assume the innocence of the party whose heart is hardened. But Scripture and reason and history and the teaching of God’s Word all teach the contrary. God’s hardening of a heart is not separate from the rebellion of man. They are responsible for their hard hearts, not God. God’s hardening of their hearts was in full recognition of their refusal to believe, their desire to reject, and their hatred of God’s precious Son. For this reason, the church Fathers likewise sought to express that while God hardened their hearts, it was due to their unbelief. God Himself did not cause their unbelief because God does not cause sin.

St. Augustine wrote that “God, foreseeing the future, predicted by the prophet the unbelief of the Jews, but did not cause it. God does not compel people to sin, because he knows they will sin.” Augustine also suggested that “they could not” is essentially the same thing as “they would not,” since their sins held them culpable for their hardening. Cyril of Alexandria said of this text that, “even though we should accept the supposition that God blinded them, it must be understood that God allowed them to suffer blinding at the hands of the devil as a result of their evil character.”[4]

Indeed, the early Christians pointed to passages in Ezekiel and elsewhere that spoke of God’s desire for people to know Him and be saved:

For I have no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the Lord GOD; so turn, and live.” (Ezekiel 18:32)

Say to them, As I live, declares the Lord GOD, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live; turn back, turn back from your evil ways, for why will you die, O house of Israel? (Ezekiel 33:11)

We rightly think of Paul’s words in 1 Timothy 2 as well:

³ This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, ⁴who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.

Make no mistake: the divine hardening of their hearts was nothing less than divine acknowledgment of that which the Jews had already embraced. They could not accuse God of not letting them believe or of forcing them to disbelieve. They had nobody to blame but themselves. Their disbelief was foretold, but it was also deserved. It was deserved because it was embraced and it was embraced because it was desired.

We all know people who seem to have been hardened. They have walked in unbelief so long and rejected the calling of the Holy Spirit for so long that they almost seem to have passed a point of no return. Their rejection of Jesus has calcified and hardened and they will not come. They and they alone are culpable, not God. His hardening of their hearts and blinding of their eyes is nothing short of an acknowledgment of their own desire to be hard-hearted and blind.

To refuse to belief is to embrace the soul-condemning, spirit-blinding darkness. It may be that you are here this morning and you have rejected Jesus. You have turned from Him. Maybe thus far through this service you have been aware of this. You feel your disinterest. You can taste mocking words in your mouth. You are in the process of rejecting Christ right now at this very moment.

To you I would caution this: do not harden yourself and so invite the hardening of God. Do not reject and pass beyond hearing. Do not turn and pass beyond coming.

I also say this to you: if you hear the gospel this morning and if you see Jesus, come to Him, run to Him, cling to Him, and beg His mercy.  If you come, He will not turn you out. If you call, He will not refuse to answer.

Jesus will save you today. Jesus will take you into His grace today!

Between the poles of belief and disbelief, we find partial belief. Partial belief is a step, but not an embrace. It refers to those who believe enough to whisper but not enough to cling. It refers to those who can no longer deny the deity and power and glory of Christ, but who have yet to embrace Christ for themselves. Here is John’s description of these partial believers:

⁴² 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; ⁴³ for they loved the glory that comes from man more than the glory that comes from God.

They believe, but they fear. Because they fear, they do not fully come. In time, it seems that some of these did, in fact, come. Perhaps others fell away. They had a kind of belief that was not belief, a kind of faith that teetered on the edge of actual faith.

Notice the two reasons John gives for these partial believers’ partial belief:

·        Fear (v.42, “but for the fear of the Pharisess”)

·        Love of glory (v.43, “for they loved the glory that comes man more than the glory that comes from God”)

These are the two great reasons that always condemn the partial believer to their partial belief. And notice the singular fruit of partial belief:

·        Silence (v.42, “but for fear of the Pharisees, they did not confess it”)

The partial believer fears man more than God and loves man’s glory more than God’s glory. The inevitable result is silence: “they did not confess it.”

Partial belief is the great malady of our age. The partial believer is the man who tells himself he has believed, but who’s belief has not taken root and born fruit. The partial believer is the woman who says that her faith and her convictions are real, but they are private. She will not speak the name of Jesus aloud. She does whatever she can to avoid the awkwardness of actually having to stand with Jesus. She will timidly sing the hymns among church folk, but she will not speak the gospel where it will cost her something.

The partial believer is the man who gives ascent but who has no conviction, the man who says “I believe,” but who says it in a whisper, almost inaudibly. The cat has the partial believer’s tongue more than the Holy Spirit has his heart. His fear outweighs his conviction and his hunger for survival is greater than his hunger for Christ.

The partial believer is the man who tries that tragic, modern end-run around conviction: the separation of his life into the “secular” and the “spiritual.” He tries to do the impossible: he tries to serve two masters.

By confining his religious convictions to a self-constructed “spiritual” realm, he tries to have his cake and eat it too. In so doing, he tries to let Jesus in while consigning Him to the attic, away from the peering eyes of his visiting friends and family. He wants Jesus, but he prefers that Jesus stay in the backroom, the one with “Jesus’ Room” written over the door. In this way he can convince himself that all is well with his soul. For Jesus is never allowed out of His room to visit with his “secular” friends and his “secular” life and his “secular” world.

He does let Jesus come out into the living room when the overtly Christian friends are over. After all, not only can Jesus cause no mischief here, He can also be a means to personal profit. In playing this game, the partial believer uses Jesus when it is beneficial to do so and ignores Jesus when it is beneficial to do so.

Are you a partial believer? Are you a silent, secret, timid, opportunistic believer? Are you trying to live in the murky middle? If so, let me remind you of Jesus’ chilling caution to the lukewarm Laodicean believers in Revelation 2:

¹⁵ “‘I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot! ¹⁶ So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth.

I believe we can rightly take this warning, substitute the word “beliefs” for “works,” and the spirit of the text will remain the same:

¹⁵ “‘I know your beliefs: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you believed either coldly or hotly! ¹⁶ So, because you believe lukewarmly, and neither hotly nor coldly, I will spit you out of my mouth.

Beware the lure of partial belief!

Against disbelief and partial belief, Jesus calls for genuine belief and acceptance:

⁴⁴And Jesus cried out and said, “Whoever believes in me, believes not in me but in him who sent me. ⁴⁵And 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.

Jesus is asserting that He has not made up His teachings, that He has not fabricated His authority, that He is not just some religious teacher spinning a yarn. On the contrary, to believe in Jesus is to believe in God the Father. To accept Jesus is to do nothing less than to accept God. To come to the Son is to come to the Father.

Jesus is the light, and light penetrates the darkness so that we might step out of the darkness and into the light. Jesus calls for belief: real, authentic, true, unadulterated belief!

Jesus came to save, to call the world to believe and trust in Him. He did not come to condemn, as He explicitly says:

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.

Do you see? Jesus does not condemn those who will not believe. His words condemn them. By speaking the truth, by shining the light in the darkness, by showing the way out, it became necessarily true that the rejection of that truth, the rejection of that light and the rejection of that way out was itself an embrace of condemnation.

The doctor who announces a cure to a disease does not condemn the one suffering from the disease if they reject the cure. On the contrary, the ones suffering from the disease condemn themselves when they reject the good news that has been offered. So it is with Jesus: Jesus offers the cure, the way out, the answer, the solution. He does not offer it to condemn, but in offering it it means that all who reject it are condemned.

This is because the words of Jesus are the words of God, and the answer Jesus offers to man’s predicament is God’s own answer:

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.”

How beautiful! How glorious! “And I know that his [the Father’s] commandment is eternal life.”

Jesus came to shout light into darkness, to shout life into death, to shout salvation into the dark pit of damnation! Jesus came to reveal the will of the Father, and the will of the Father is eternal life.

Where do you stand on the spectrum of belief? Where do you stand with Jesus? He has spoken life and light and truth…why would you choose death and darkness and a lie? He has spoken resurrection and eternal life…why would you choose death and death eternal?

---