Philip Schaff's Popular Commentary (4 vols)

John 12:41

John 12:41. These things said Isaiah, because he saw his glory; and he spake concerning him. When we remember that the chapter of Isaiah from which the quotation of John 12:39-40 is taken is that in which the prophet sees the glory of the Lord, it may appear at first sight as if it were only the glorious vision there beheld by him that is here referred to. Yet it is impossible not to feel that this 41 st verse, connected as it is in the closest manner with the words immediately preceding it, must really refer to that work of Christ to which the Evangelist had applied the prophet's words; and that ‘His glory' must point to the glory of the self-manifestation of Jesus by means of the ‘signs' of John 12:37 (comp. chap. John 2:11). It is clear, therefore, that John intentionally unites that Jesus who is the ‘I' in ‘I shall heal them' with ‘the Lord' spoken of in Isaiah 6:1, etc. unites, in short, the Incarnate Word as Messiah and Prophet and the Divine Word in His glory, ‘sitting on a throne high and lifted up, and His train filling the temple.' But that is precisely the lesson of his whole Gospel; and it is this truth, so deeply imbedded in it, that gives unity and force to the passage we have been considering.

One point must still be briefly noticed in connection with these verses. If the Jews were thus doomed to unbelief, where was their guilt? The answer is, that they are supposed to have wilfully rejected the revelation and grace of God before that point of their history is reached which is now in the eye both of prophet and Evangelist. Their whole previous training ought to have prepared them for receiving the claims of Jesus. They abused that training; they ceased to be ‘of the truth;' they blinded themselves; and judicial blindness followed. It is only necessary to add that what we have spoken of as a ‘previous' training may belong to the order of thought rather than to that of time. Almost at the very instant when the Almighty appeals to me by the presentation of Jesus, He may be appealing to me by His providence, His grace, the general working of His Spirit, so as to make me ready to receive Jesus; these dealings I may so use that the bent of my character may at once appear, and if I am judicially doomed to darkness, the very sentence that dooms me is the consequence of my own folly and sin.

Continues after advertising

BibliaPlus

Philip Schaff's Popular Commentary (4 vols)

John 12:41

Old Testament

New Testament