Bible Study series: John 12:44-50. Jesus loves the world, and now his word (message) judges them. It will also judge them on the last day.
Friendly greetings and a warm welcome to this Bible study! I write to learn, so let’s learn together how to apply these truths to our lives.
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For the Greek text, click here:
At that link, I provide a lot more commentary.
In this post, links are provided for further study.
Let’s begin.
Scripture: John 12:44-50
44 Jesus shouted and said, “The one believing in me does not believe in me but in the one who sent me. 45 And the one seeing me sees the one who sent me. 46 I, as light, have come into the world, so that everyone believing in me does not stay 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 rejecting me and not receiving my word has one who judges him: the message which I have spoken judges him on the last day 49 because I have not spoken on my own, but the one who sent me, the Father himself; he has given me a commandment as to what I should say and what I should speak. 50 And I know that his commandment is eternal life. Therefore, the things which I speak, just as the Father has spoken to me, in that manner, I speak.” (John 12:44-50)
Comments:
44-45:
Jesus is not absolutely excluding himself as the one who is the object of faith, since he says that he is, in other verses (e.g. vv. 11 and 42). Rather, Jesus is proclaiming his union with the Father. Believing in Jesus is to believe in the Father, the one who sent him. For more about faith, scroll up to vv. 9-11.
Jesus is so united with the Father that if you see him—his life and teaching and demeanor and signs or miracles—you see the Father. We may not match up to Jesus’s standard, but recall Matt. 5:48: “Therefore, you shall be perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect” (Matt. 5:48).
46:
One more time, we circle back around to light and darkness. Jesus is the light, and the world is dark. He entered the dark world, and the darkness does not extinguish it. Please see vv. 35-36 for more comments.
47:
Jesus repeats what he said—or John wrote—in 3:17-18: “For God did not send the Son into the world in order to condemn it, but that the world may be saved through him. 18 The one who believes in him is not condemned; but the one who does not believe is condemned already because he has not believed in the name of the unique Son of God” (John 3:17-18)
Jesus does not have the ultimate mission to judge or condemn the world because the world, in rejecting him and his teaching places itself in the peril of judgment. When the day of judgment comes, on the last day, he will sit as judge, and he will know those who believed his word.
The verb for save is sōzō: Since the theology of salvation (soteriology) is so critical for our lives, let’s look more closely at the noun salvation, which is sōtēria (pronounced soh-tay-ree-ah and used 46 times) and at the verb sōzō (pronounced soh-zoh and used 106 times)
Greek is the language of the NT. BDAG defines the noun sōtēria as follows, depending on the context: (1) “deliverance, preservation” … (2) “salvation.”
The verb sōzō means “save, rescue, heal” in a variety of contexts, but mostly it is used of saving the soul. BDAG says that the verb means, depending on the context: (1) “to preserve or rescue from natural dangers and afflictions, save, keep from harm, preserve,” and the sub-definitions under no. 1 are as follows: save from death; bring out safely; save from disease; keep, preserve in good condition; thrive, prosper, get on well; (2) “to save or preserve from transcendent danger or destruction, save or preserve from ‘eternal’ death … “bring Messianic salvation, bring to salvation,” and in the passive it means “be saved, attain salvation”; (3) some passages in the NT say we fit under the first and second definition at the same time (Mark 8:5; Luke 9:24; Rom. 9:27; 1 Cor. 3:15).
As noted throughout this commentary, the noun salvation and the verb save go a lot farther than just preparing the soul to go on to heaven. Together, they have additional benefits: keeping and preserving and rescuing from harm and dangers; saving or freeing from diseases and demonic oppression; and saving or rescuing from sin dominating us; ushering into heaven and rescuing us from final judgment. What is our response to the gift of salvation? You are grateful and then you are moved to act. When you help or rescue one man from homelessness or an orphan from his oppression, you have moved one giant step towards salvation of his soul. Sometimes feeding a hungry man and giving clothes to the naked or taking him to a medical clinic come before saving his soul.
All of it is a package called salvation and saved.
What Is the Work of Salvation?
How Do We Respond to God’s Salvation?
Here Jesus saves us from the dark world, an in believing in him, we have eternal life, which means we can receive the life of the future kingdom right now. See vv. 25-26 for more comments.
48:
Verse 48 reminds me of these verses in Matt. 7:24-27:
24 “Therefore, everyone who hears these words of mine and does them shall be like a prudent man who built his house on the rock. 25 The rain came down and the flood came and the winds blew and beat upon that house. And it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock. 26 And everyone hearing these teachings of mine and does not do them shall be like the foolish man who built his house on the sand. 27 And the rain came down and the floods came and the winds blew and beat on that house, and it fell. And great was its collapse!”
A man’s life collapses on its own, by his refusal to obey the teaching of Jesus. His life is self-judged to be fool’s gold, when compared to the pure gold standard.
“The idea is that the same message that proclaims life and forgiveness to the believers proclaims condemnation and wrath to the unbeliever, and this judgment on the world (v. 31) is now impending” (Carson, comments on vv. 47-48).
“last day”: The resurrection of the righteous and wicked happen at the same time, on the last day. Then after judgement, the new Messianic Age is fully ushered in and implemented. This is not complicated, despite the best efforts of (usually) American Bible teachers to (wrongly) turn it into a massive, complicated teaching.
Here is a diagram of simplicity itself:
First Coming → Church Age ——————→ Second Coming
The first coming is his birth and ministry and life. You could swap out “Church Age” and insert “This Age,” as distinct from the New Messianic Age, which is ushered in right after the Second Coming and the judgement of the righteous and the wicked at the same time, which Jesus clearly teaches here. When Jesus came the first time and was in the process of inaugurating the kingdom of God, the kingdom came subtly and mysteriously. When he comes a second time, his inaugurated kingdom will be fully accomplished.
One again see John 12 for a longer discussion.
So we now live in the conflict and battle between This Age and the Inaugurated Kingdom, proclaimed by Jesus during his ministry. (They are not the same things but are at war with each other!) We are in the process of binding Satan and his demonic hordes, by expelling demons from people’s lives but mainly by preaching the gospel, so people surrender to the Son’s Lordship, and then Satan is pushed back and people experience victory in their lives. The gospel and life in the Spirit are so powerful that saved and redeemed people can experience victory over the power of sin in their lives. The presence of sin in their lives is not removed until they get their new resurrected and transformed bodies.
In John 5:28-29 and Matt. 13:41-43 and 25:31-46 Jesus talks about judgment.
Bible Basics about the Final Judgment
Also see:
Rapture = Second Coming and Happen at Same Time and on Last Day
And here:
What Is Pretribulational Premillennialism?
What Is Midtribulational Premillennialism?
What Is Posttribulational Premillennialism?
But in these eschatological (end-time) discussions:
“In essentials, unity; in nonessentials, liberty; in all things, charity (love).”
We should not lose fellowship with those with whom we differ in eschatological matters.
49-50:
The commandment that the Father gave him is the message he brought up in v. 48. The Greek word for message is logos, and we learned in John 1:1 that Jesus is the Logos, God’s self-expression. To believe in the Logos (Jesus himself) and logos (his message from the Father) is to receive eternal life.
Bruce:
The Son’s message is the commandment of eternal life; as the Father’s commandment is the commandment of eternal life, so the Son’s message is the message of eternal life. To obey the Father’s commandment, to believe the Son’s message, is to have eternal life; conversely, to disobey the Father’s commandment, to refuse credence to the Son’s message, is to forfeit life and enter into judgment. The light of life has as its counterpart the darkness of judgment.” (comments on vv. 49-50)
Now let’s look more deeply at the noun “word” or “message,” as I do in this entire commentary series. First, recall that the Logos became flesh (John 1:1-4, 14). But here it refers to the message or teaching of Jesus.
“eternal life”: please scroll back up to v. 25 for more comments.
To conclude this chapter, this summary passage is a perfect transition from the discourses with the world and sometimes friendly but often hostile crowds and “Jews” (mostly the religious establishment of Jerusalem) to the gospel of love and intimacy with the inner core of disciples.
GrowApp for John 12:44-50
1. Can you contrast your old life in darkness with your new eternal life in the light?
2. Jesus spoke what the Father did. Study Ps. 19:14. How are your words and meditations of your heart?
RELATED
14. Similarities among John’s Gospel and the Synoptic Gospels
12. Eyewitness Testimony in John’s Gospel
4. Church Fathers and John’s Gospel
3. Archaeology and John’s Gospel
SOURCES
For the bibliography, click on this link and scroll down to the very bottom:
Dr. Jim's Essential Bible Teaching 