The Theology of Unbelief

As the final warning before Jesus spends the remainder of His time with His disciples, He will come out of hiding and appeal to the people to believe in Him. John records that despite seeing Jesus's many signs, they did not believe. Just like God's people after Egypt did not have hearts to believe or eyes to see, so do the people of Jerusalem here. This unbelief fulfilled the words of Isaiah in chapter 53 of his prophecy. The Arm of the Lord is Christ and He has appeared before multitudes but He has not been "revealed" to them. In fact, John shows God blinded their eyes and hardened the peoples' hearts. The divine activity of God and a person's faith or lack thereof are directly correlated. However, Scripture makes it clear that even though God is sovereign over belief and unbelief, men are still responsible for their sin. John then demonstrates Isaiah said these things because He saw the glory of God: who was Christ on the throne in the Isaiah 6 vision. The glory Isaiah saw when Christ was on the throne is Isaiah 6 is the glory seen in the miracles Jesus performed for the people. Rejecting the signs of Jesus is rejecting the glory of Jesus, rejecting the glory of Jesus is rejecting the Father. If only the people saw the glory of the Son of God the way Isaiah did. Maybe they too would recognize their sin and need of cleansing from our gracious Lord. Nevertheless, John says ruling men in Judea had some level of belief but they loved the glory of men over the glory of God. And as the glory of God is Jesus as Isaiah showed us, they then love men over the Son of Man, the Messiah. Jesus makes His final appeal to the people to believe in Him because of His Father.