The Word will determine everyone's ultimate destiny. John 12:47-48; 5:24John 12:47"And if anyone hears My sayings, and does not keep them, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world, but to save the world.
We have seen truths of the unbeliever and believer concerning negative vs. positive volition, but for the nation of Israel at the time this monumental statement of salvation is said, negative volition means the destruction of the greatest nation on earth, God’s client nation Israel.
A client nation must always guard the gospel. If it doesn’t it will eventually lose its status and be destroyed. The status of a client nation means great prosperity and protection under God’s Sovereignty.
A nation that does not guard the gospel will eventually lose out as a nation. So this means rejection by the part of the nation in general.
Now, in this verse, Christ makes an astonishing statement concerning the judgement that has been given to Him.
As God, TLJC has all authority. But you must remember that He came to earth to save you. Just you.
When He says this He is talking from His humanity, but not from His deity He could have used His deity at any time but He chose not to during the first advent.
In deity this is what He was to Israel. A wonderful Giver of unfailing love. The representative of God’s grace to Israel. He often introduced Himself as the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
Abraham: Abraham answered the call of God only to delay so that he could stay with his father. After the death of his father he finally made it to the land God desired only to complain to God that he didn’t have an heir. After God had answered Abraham’s fear by saying that his offspring would be like the stars of heaven, he again failed to believe. God was then silent to Abraham for many years in which time Abraham learned to trust God. When God returned and spoke to him he was a much more mature man and again God had promised him a son. Abraham laughed at the fact that a 99 year old man could have a son. God reaffirmed His promise and left. God returned and promised again; this time Sarah laughed but despite all this God is faithful and a year later Isaac was born. Years later, Abraham would willingly sacrifice this son.
Isaac: Isaac favored one son above another. He was more impressed with manliness than he was with spirituality, though neither son had much going for them spiritually. Isaac made one decision that put him in God’s hall of fame: when he was fooled by Jacob into giving the blessing of inheritance to Jacob he did not change his mind when he discovered the plot, but knew it was the hand of God.
Jacob: Jacob was a liar and a schemer for most of his life. He deceived his father into thinking he was the oldest and by means of his deception he secured the blessing. He schemed and lied to Laban, his uncle. He lived in fear of his brother Esau and sent women to meet him as a coward, even after God had shown him the entire angelic army that surrounded him in protection. Eventually the Lord wrestled with him and his faith increased. He was a changed man, although his scheming was not completely over. He was eventually wrestled by the Lord and finally found some faith. Finally in Egypt with his 12 sons on his death bed he was blessed by God to give one of the greatest prophecies in the Bible concerning the 12 tribes and more importantly the Lion of Judah.
The point is that all three men made big blunders and many of them. All three lacked faith when they should have been strong and all three were graced out by God because eventually all three would respond to that grace.
In all human history as well as angelic history, God has found response in His grace. Those who have rejected Him have rejected grace and in all cases sought for some type of salvation on their own.
By doing so, they have become their own judge and jury, and have frequently judged others because of their arrogance.
Rom 2:1 Therefore you are without excuse, every man of you who passes judgment, for in that you judge another, you condemn yourself; for you who judge practice the same things.
Rom 2:2 And we know that the judgment of God rightly falls upon those who practice such things.
Rom 2:3 And do you suppose this, O man, when you pass judgment upon those who practice such things and do the same yourself, that you will escape the judgment of God?
Rom 2:4 Or do you think lightly of the riches of His kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance?
As I said, it is always God’s grace that gets responses.
Job 33:28 He has redeemed my soul from going to the pit, And my life shall see the light.'
Ps 130:3 If Thou, Lord, shouldst mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand?
Ps 130:4But there is forgiveness with Thee, That Thou mayest be feared.
Isa 30:18 Therefore the Lord longs to be gracious to you, And therefore He waits on high to have compassion on you. For the Lord is a God of justice; How blessed are all those who long for Him.
Ps 18:35 Thou hast also given me the shield of Thy salvation, And Thy right hand upholds me; And Thy gentleness makes me great.
2 Peter 3:9 The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.
A part of that grace is discipline. Most folks don’t see that as grace, but since it is a part of His love and His love is reflected by grace then all divine discipline is a loud call to grace.
Heb 12:5 and you have forgotten the exhortation which is addressed to you as sons, "My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, Nor faint when you are reproved by Him;
Heb 12:6 For those whom the Lord loves He disciplines, And He scourges every son whom He receives."
You must love that discipline and never think of it as judgment. The Lord disciplines you because He loves you and it always becomes a patch on a leaky spiritual life. Once the leak is fixed the soul of the believer always turns back to the grace of God in blessing and not the grace of God in discipline.
Prov 12:1 Whoever loves discipline loves knowledge, But he who hates reproof is stupid.
This is how the Lord Jesus Christ as God the Son, the one who is the executer of the plan of God, dealt with Israel. And the presentation of the Messiah to Israel in humanity meant even more grace was shown to them as He came, as He says in verse 47, “I did not come to judge but to save.”
Now this becomes a bit tricky since He is the One who judges. But the word “come” is clearly speaking of His first advent. Therefore, one of the two reasons He says this is that He must be judged for the sins of the world first. Once He is judged by the Father then His word is free to do the judging.
Interestingly He was given the right to judge. Now this is subtle and its subtlety gives us even more insight into His very soul.
Job 21:22 Can anyone teach God knowledge, In that He judges those on high?
Ps 58:11 And men will say, "Surely there is a reward for the righteous; Surely there is a God who judges on earth!"
Ps 82:1 God takes His stand in His own congregation; He judges in the midst of the rulers.
John 5:22 "For not even the Father judges anyone, but He has given all judgment to the Son,
The One who had the right to judge did not. He chose to take all of man’s sins upon Himself.
But because of His work the line in the sand was drawn. Either believe on Him for eternal salvation or reject Him for eternal damnation. This now becomes the issue after the cross is completed.
Therefore, judgment of mankind was no longer the Lord’s choice, but the choice of each man or woman since the cross was complete and the gospel was made known to all the world.
John 5:23 in order that all may honor the Son, even as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him.
John 5:24 "Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life.
John 5:25 "Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God; and those who hear shall live.
John 5:26 "For just as the Father has life in Himself, even so He gave to the Son also to have life in Himself;
John 5:27 and He gave Him authority to execute judgment, because He is the Son of Man.
John 5:28 "Do not marvel at this; for an hour is coming, in which all who are in the tombs shall hear His voice,
John 5:29 and shall come forth; those who did the good deeds to a resurrection of life, those who committed the evil deeds to a resurrection of judgment.
By revealing through His voice and His word the issue in judgement means that nothing of this issue has been hidden or kept secret from man.
The purpose of the first advent is to provide salvation for mankind and Christ in fulfilling that purpose must be judged rather than do any judging Himself.
So does the Lord judge, of course He does, but when He speaks loudly the foundation of blessing and cursing, eternal life and eternal judgement, promotion and demotion, and He completes the cross, he is allowing His words to do the judging.
You may have heard your parents or a teacher ask you the question: “What did I say?”
The Lord taught throughout His entire ministry and then after His resurrection, ascension, and session, He sent His entire revelation to mankind through God the HS to the writers of scripture.
The issue of the cross, salvation by faith, the plan of God by means of imputed righteousness and blessing, and even insight into the eternal state for believer and unbeliever have been clearly proclaimed.
God the Father gave all judgement to the Son and the Son fulfilled the cross and proclaimed so much doctrine that all judgement was given to the word.
So now the issue is the Gospel for the unbeliever and the doctrines of the PPOG for the believer. These words will determine everyone’s ultimate destiny!
In other words, Christ is not arbitrarily judging one from another like the hyper-Calvinists like to say, but all judgment has fallen upon the gospel, which is made effectual by the completion of the cross, and the doctrines which are made effectual by the plan that Christ fulfilled.
That same plan that Christ live was extended to the Church through union with Christ.
Because the words in both cases, the gospel and the plan, have been made known to you, you are without excuse when it comes to being the greatest creature that glorifies God to the maximum. There are no excuses. So, if you are making any… stop now!
Verse 48 shows the Lord ready to stand on His word!
The Lord is confident and does not need to hide anything concerning Himself or His justice in dealing with fallen man.
And added to this is the time in human history when Christ says this, which is the week before He goes to the Cross.
It is a fact, at this particular time that Christ has to be judged Himself first before anyone else can be judged.
So these priceless words spoken to Jerusalem are sufficient to judge mankind because they reveal the work of Christ on the cross, and these same words will judge Jerusalem after the Lord is finished.
John 12:48"He who rejects Me, and does not receive My sayings, has one who judges him; the word I spoke is what will judge him at the last day.
This therefore becomes a record of the future judgment of those who reject Jesus Christ as saviour.
The verb “reject” is very important in this verse.
“He who rejects me” – present active participle of a)qetew[atheteo] [a = negative; qetew= from tiqhmi[tithemi] which means to appoint, to place, to assign, allocate] – It means to “not be appointed.”
Those who do not appoint Christ are those who refuse to assign Him His proper place, which is Messiah. The Celebrity of the universe, the promised One to Israel, the God/Man, and Israel’s true King.
He is talking to Israel, therefore instead of using a negative with pisteuw[pisteuo = lack of faith] He uses a)qetew [atheteo] to indicate that the Jews reject Jesus Christ by failing to assign to Him His proper place of Messiahship.
This is why Jesus wept over Jerusalem. He knew the consequences of their rejection of Him. This city, that as God He always loved, and as man He always adored, would be completely destroyed and most of these, by some estimates 3 million people, would suffer greatly in death and in some cases even resort to cannibalism to survive death when the Romans cut off the city’s supply.
We will see Him for the second time in this last week of His life throw the money changers out of the temple. He loved the temple because He loved what it represented – Him, and Him as Messiah with redemption in His hand.
John 12:48"He who rejects Me, and does not receive My sayings, has one who judges him; the word I spoke is what will judge him at the last day.
“and does not receive” -- present active participle of lambanw, [lambano] which means here with the negative to reject a gift. So they reject the Father’s gift by failing to assign to Him His proper place of Messiahship, the son of David.
“has One [God the father] who judges him” – God the Father will actually be responsible for the administration of the 5th cycle of discipline.
“the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day” – Jesus Christ will very definitely face these people who have rejected Him at the last judgment and at that time they will have a clear understanding as to why they are there; they have rejected the only saviour.
John 12:49"For I did not speak on My own initiative, but the Father Himself who sent Me has given Me commandment, what to say, and what to speak.
John 12:50"And I know that His commandment is eternal life; therefore the things I speak, I speak just as the Father has told Me."
Before we approach the final 16 hours of the life of our Lord during the first advent it would be prudent to examine the events of the days of the Passion week leading up to this night.
The first day was His entry into Jerusalem on the colt of an ass. We have studied this.
That night He returned to Bethany and spent the night with His disciples. Early the next morning He returned to Jerusalem.
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