Conclusion of God's Voice Heard A Third Time

The Jew's lack of faith in Jesus fulfills the words of Isaiah about the 'eyes of people being blinded and their hearts being hardened so that they do not turn around to be healed.' Isaiah saw in vision the heavenly courts of Jehovah, including Jesus in his prehuman glory along with Jehovah. Yet, the Jews, in fulfillment of what Isaiah wrote, stubbornly reject the evidence that this One is their promised Deliverer.

On the other hand, many even of the rulers (evidently members of the Jewish high court, the Sanhedrin) actually put faith in Jesus. Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea are two of these rulers. But the rulers, at least for the present, fail to declare their faith, for fear of being expelled from their positions in the synagogue. How much such ones miss out on!

Jesus goes on to note: "He that puts faith in me puts faith, not in me only, but in him that also sent me. . . but if anyone hears my sayings and does not keep them, I do not judge him; for I came, not to judge the world, but to save the world. . .The word that I have spoken is what will judge him in the last day."

Jehovah's love for the world of mankind moved him to send Jesus so that those who put faith in him might be saved. Whether people are saved will be determined by whether they obey the things God instructed Jesus to speak. The judgment will take place "in the last day," during Christ's Thousand Year Reign.

Jesus concludes by saying: "I have not spoken out of my own impulse, but the Father himself who sent me has given me a commandment as to what to tell and what to speak. Also, I know that his commandment means everlasting life. Therefore the things I speak, just as the Father has told me them, so I speak them." John 12:28-50; 19:38, 39; Matthew 3:17; 17:5; Isaiah 6:1, 8:10.

Next time:Beginning Of A Crucial Day

The Greatest Man Who Ever Lived, 1991