Verses 36b through 43 speak of the unbelief of religion and God’s judgment upon that unbelief. Regardless of how much the Lord as life worked in wonders, miracles, and signs, the religious people would not go along with Him. No matter how much the Lord did, the religious people would not respond. They simply did not receive Him, but on the contrary, they rejected Him. Isaiah had prophesied this already. He said, “Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?” (Isa. 53:1). The arm of the Lord is the Lord Jesus Himself. The Lord is the arm of God to do things and to deliver, but no one in the religious world could recognize this arm. No one would respond to, receive, or accept this arm. They simply rejected it. Although this arm is salvation, even the Savior and the Deliverer Himself, the religious people rejected Him.
As a result, blindness and hardness of heart have come upon them (v. 40; Isa. 6:10). This is God’s judgment exercised over their unbelieving rejection of the Lord. Blindness and the hardening of the heart are a punishment to the unbelieving ones. Thus, religion has no belief; it has only blindness.
Verse 41 says that Isaiah saw His glory and spoke concerning Him. The words His glory confirm that the Lord Jesus is the very God, Jehovah of hosts, whose glory Isaiah saw (Isa. 6:1, 3). This glory was seen and appreciated by Isaiah, but it was not loved by the Lord’s weaker believers (vv. 42-43). They loved the glory of man more than the glory of God, which was the living Jesus before them. If they had appreciated and loved the Lord Jesus as the glory of God, they would not have cared for the glory of man or feared being cast out of the synagogue.
In verses 44 through 50 we see life’s declaration to the unbelieving religion. Here the Lord makes a final declaration to the religious people. After this declaration, for the remainder of the Gospel of John, the Lord has nothing to do with the religious people.
First, He declared that He is the manifestation of the living God (vv. 44-45). He is the Son of God, which means that He is the manifestation of God. Whoever sees Him sees God, and whoever receives Him receives God because He is the manifestation of God to man.
Second, He declared that He came to this world as the shining light that man might not remain in darkness (vv. 46, 36). If people will receive this light, they will have God. He is the manifestation of God as light, and if you receive Him as light, you will have God. If a man believes in Him, he will not remain in darkness. However, if you refuse to receive Him as light, you simply reject God and will be overtaken with darkness. He comes as light. If you receive Him, you will have God and will become one of the sons of light.
Third, He declared that He came to man with living words and that whoever receives His words will have eternal life now and forever and that whoever rejects His words will be judged by them in the last day (vv. 47-50).
What is the meaning of this declaration? It is simply that the Lord told the Jewish people that He is the manifestation of God coming to them as light. If they receive Him, they will have God and become the children of God. But if they reject Him, they will be overtaken by darkness. Moreover, the commandment that God gave to Him to speak is to them eternal life if they receive it. Otherwise, that very word will become a sentence of judgment upon them in the last day. This is the final declaration the Lord made to the religious people. At this juncture, the Lord is finished with the religious people. Beginning with chapter thirteen, the Lord is continually with His disciples, no longer having anything to do with the Jewish people.
There are, therefore, four points to this chapter. The first point shows what the real church life is. The second reveals how the Lord produces and increases the church. The third discloses that the religious people will not go along with the Lord no matter how much He as life does for them in the signs. Finally, the last point indicates how the Lord was forced to make a declaration to the religious crowd that He is the manifestation of God coming to them as light; that if they receive Him, they will become the sons of light, and that if they do not receive Him, they will be overtaken by darkness; that He comes to them with the commandment of God to speak living words to them; and that if they receive His words, those words will become eternal life to them, but if they reject them, those very words will judge them in the last day.