All-Knowing Yet Distrusting:
The Savior Confronts Spurious Faith
John 2:23–25
© Mike Riccardi
Introduction
Well, it was wonderful to be back together in GraceLife last week! Sundays in July always provides a profitable change-of-pace, along with some interesting seminars. But I’m always quite ready to be back in GraceLife. It is a joy to be together as a fellowship group, it is refreshing to see you all, and it reminds me, once again, that GraceLife is the best part of my life here at Grace Church.
Well, back before our latest iteration of Sundays in July, we were making our way through the opening chapters of the Gospel of John. So would you turn with me in your Bibles to John chapter 2. Our text this morning is John chapter 2, verses 23 to 25. And I’ll begin our time by reading our passage for this morning. John chapter 2, verses 23 to 25. “Now when He [that is, Jesus] was in Jerusalem at the Passover, during the feast, many believed in His name, observing His signs which He was doing. 24But Jesus, on His part, was not entrusting Himself to them, for He knew all men, 25and because He did not need anyone to testify concerning man, for He Himself knew what was in man.”
“He gets us.” I’m sure many of you have heard of the quasi-Christian advertisement campaign that goes by that name. Each year around Super Bowl time, this organization purchases ad space and runs commercials explaining how Jesus understands what it’s like to go through what we go through. One commercial features a slideshow of still photos depicting the difficulties of poverty. And at the end, text appears, assuring us that “Jesus struggled to make ends meet, too. He gets us.” Another cycles through photos of street gangs, while comparing Jesus to a gang leader that was hated by religious authorities. The final words are, “Jesus was wrongly judged. He gets us.” And of course, Jesus does know what it’s like to be poor, and to be misjudged. But the message behind these ads is clear: “Jesus knows what it’s like to struggle like you do, and so you’re OK with Him.”
There’s a similar slogan that’s been around a bit longer: “God knows my heart.” Someone who professes to be a Christian is confronted about patterns of sin they’re persisting in—maybe dishonesty, the use of foul language, drunkenness, fornication, or even just neglecting the Word and forsaking the assembly of the saints. And rather than be honest with themselves and admit the Lord is displeased with them for disobeying His Word, they excuse their sin by insisting, “Well, God knows my heart.” In other words, “I know that I’m disobeying God’s revealed will in the Bible, but I still believe God is pleased with me, because He sees past my actions and into my heart. And so He knows I’m sincere, and that I believe in Him and love Him—even though my actions don’t communicate that.”
“He gets us.” “God knows my heart.” In both cases, people who profess to believe in Jesus fool themselves into thinking that God’s knowledge of them will yield His favorable estimation of them. Well, our passage this morning must be one that is most troubling to those with this perspective, because here is a passage of Scripture in which God the Son is said to have full knowledge of the hearts of people, verse 24: “For He knew all men”; Verse 25: “For He Himself knew what was in man.” And these are the hearts of those who profess to believe in Him, verse 23: “Many believed in His name.” And yet Jesus’ verdict is not some indulgent pat on the head: “Oh, sweetheart. I understand. Kids will be kids.” No! Because He knew all men, and because He knew what was in man—even these who professed to believe in His name—precisely because He “gets” you and “knows your heart”—He didn’t trust anything about them! Verse 24: “But Jesus was not entrusting Himself to them.” They believed in Him, in some sense, but because He knew them, He didn’t believe in them.
And this text is not only disconcerting to foolish professing Christians who persist in patterns of sinning and kid themselves that God will approve of them anyway. It’s also extremely unsettling to genuine Christians, who hate their sin, and who struggle mightily to put it away; whose hearts are sensitive to the presence of the sin that remains in their flesh, and who are apt to wonder whether their inability to overcome certain sin struggles calls their sincerity of their faith into question.
Remember: John is writing His Gospel, chapter 20 verse 31, so that his readers “may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing [they] may have life in His name.” Back in chapter 1 verse 12, we learned that as many as believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God. But here is a text that says many believed in His name, and Jesus doesn’t believe in them! That is positively disturbing! There is a kind of “believing” that Jesus doesn’t believe in—a kind of believing that isn’t the true faith that results in spiritual adoption and eternal life. That should make every last one of us ask, “Which kind of faith do I have? And how do I know?” “And if I don’t have the right kind of faith, where can I go to get it?” These are questions that the Apostle John will answer for us, as He displays to us the “glory of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.”
And even the memory of that verse—the theme verse of the Gospel of John: chapter 1 verse 14—it reminds us where we are in John’s narrative. Chapter 2, verses 1 to 11, brought a close to that first week of Jesus’ early ministry—New Creation week—which began in chapter 1 verse 19. That first section of chapter 2 also forms the beginning of what is commonly called “The Book of Signs.” Traditionally, commentators recognize seven signs in John 2 to 12, which manifest the glory of Jesus and demonstrate that He is the promised Messiah. The first of those signs comes in verses 1 to 11, where Jesus turns the water into wine at the wedding at Cana.
And though it isn’t traditionally recognized as a sign, Jesus’ cleansing of the temple—which we see in verses 12 to 22—is a remarkable display of His glory. At the outset of His public ministry, the Lord and Messiah comes to His own Father’s house and cleanses the temple of the defilement and desecration by single-handedly driving out everyone who was turning the temple into a marketplace! The Jews ask for a sign to demonstrate that He has authority to do this, and He makes cryptic reference to His own death and resurrection, which will serve as the ultimate display of His glory as the promised Messiah and Son of God.
Well, verse 13 sets the cleansing of the temple at a time when the Passover was approaching. Verse 13: “The Passover of the Jews was near, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.” And we mentioned when we treated that text that, in Israel’s history, there always seemed to be a cleansing of the temple from idolatry ahead of the celebration of the Passover. Well, verse 23 picks up where verse 13 left us: “Now when He was in Jerusalem at the Passover, during the feast.” And again, while He was there, “many believed in His name, observing His signs which He was doing. But Jesus, on His part, was not entrusting Himself to them, for He knew all men, and because He did not need anyone to testify concerning man, for He Himself knew what was in man.”
And this passage breaks down into two main components—two truths that John wants us to apprehend—which display the glory of the only begotten from the Father, and which will expose false faith, and engender true faith—the kind of faith which unites us to Jesus, whereby we receive eternal life in His name.
I. The Glory of Jesus’ Omniscience (vv. 24b–25)
And that first truth is the glory of Jesus’ omniscience. And this first truth comes in the second part of the passage. It acts as the ground or the reason for why Jesus didn’t trust in the faith of the many who believed because of His signs. Again: starting in the second half of verse 24 and through to verse 25: “…for He knew all men,” “and…He did not need anyone to testify concerning man, for He Himself knew what was in man.”
These are truly remarkable, astounding claims for John to be making about Jesus, here. And they are designed to show us His glory. “This Jesus? The carpenter? The son of Mary, and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon, the man whose sisters we know (Mark 6:3)? This guy knows all men?” Only God is omniscient! Jeremiah 17:10 says, “I, Yahweh, search the heart. I test the mind, even to give each man according to all his ways.” In 1 Kings 8:39, Solomon prays at the dedication of the temple: “Hear in heaven Your dwelling place, and forgive and act and render to each according to all his ways, whose heart You know, for You alone know the hearts of all the sons of men.” God alone knows the hearts of all men!
The rabbis had a saying, that “seven things are concealed from the eyes of man.” One of them was the day of death, another was the day of consolation, another was the depth of judgment. But one of them was “what is in the heart of his neighbor” (Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael, Tractate Vayassa 6). The contents of other people’s hearts are concealed from the eyes of man. Only God knows men’s hearts. But this Jesus knew all men, and knew what was in man. Which means what? It can mean nothing other than that Jesus is Almighty God: that He is the eternal Word, who was in the beginning with God, and was God, become flesh.
And we see abundant evidence of Jesus’ omniscience, even if we constrain ourselves to the Gospel of John alone. In John 4:17–18, He tells the woman at the well how many men she has fornicated with. In John 5:42, He tells the Pharisees, “I know you, that you do not have the love of God in yourselves.” He can see into the heart, and know whether or not love for God is there. In John 6:64, He tells His disciples, “There are some of you who do not believe.” And John adds, “For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were who did not believe, and who it was that would betray Him.” Jesus could see into the heart and know whether true faith resided there or not. He knew who would never believe in Him—the reprobate whom the Father had not chosen and had not given to Him—and even knew that Judas was the one who would betray Him. In chapter 13 verse 1, we’re told that Jesus knew “that His hour had come that He would depart out of this world to the Father.” In 13:11, it says He knew it was Judas who was betraying Him. And in chapter 16 verse 30, the disciples give us a comprehensive statement when they say to Jesus, “Now we know that You know all things.” And in chapter 21 verse 17, as Jesus restores Peter by questioning him about whether he loves Him, Peter replies by saying, “Lord, You know all things; You know that I love You.” “You can see into my heart and know that there is love there, even if my actions have been so pathetic and pitiful so as not to show it. Lord, You know all things!”
This is nothing less than the ascription of divine omniscience to Jesus.
Now you say, “But what about Matthew 24:36, where Jesus says He doesn’t know the day or the hour of His return? How can He know all things, according to John 16:30 and 21:17, and not know the time of His return?” The answer is not that God the Son surrendered or dialed back or limited His omniscience in order to become truly human. As we’ve just seen, the disciples explicitly ascribe omniscience to Him during the state of His humiliation. Any notion that He retained the attribute of omniscience, but just didn’t use it all the time, doesn’t fit with these passages of Scripture.
And it’s actually serious Christological error. It’s called “kenotic Christology,” and it strikes at the truth of the hypostatic union—that essential doctrine of the Christian faith that teaches that the incarnate Christ is one single person subsisting in two whole, perfect, and distinct natures: divine and human. Any construal of the incarnation as a “net negative,” where the Son ceases to be or to do something proper to His divine existence, is a species of this error. To say, “Christ limited the use of His omniscience in His incarnation,” is to deny what cannot be denied—that He ever and always remained fully God—in order to affirm what must be affirmed—that He was indeed truly man, consubstantial with us. It’s impossible for God to limit or restrict or dial back His omniscience; that would be to become less God. And the Son did not become less God in order to be truly man.
Instead, He assumed a full and true human nature (which includes the property of ignorance) into personal union with—right alongside—the divine nature (which includes the attribute of omniscience). In other words, because Jesus is truly and fully God and truly and fully man, Scripture sometimes makes statements about the one person that are true only because of His divine nature, and other times makes statements of Him that are true only because of His human nature. So, in Matthew 24:36, He is said to be ignorant of the time of His return; and that’s true by virtue of His human nature. But here in John 2:24–25, He is said to know what was in all men; and that’s true by virtue of His divine nature. Those aren’t contradictory; Matthew affirms something that is proper to His humanity, and John affirms something that is proper to His deity. And it is dead wrong to say that one of those things (ignorance or omniscience, humanity of deity) must be limited or curtailed in order to say that the other one is genuine.
Alright. It’s important for you to know the theology. As difficult as it may sound, these are the foundations of the Christian faith, and we delight to know them—as they reveal our Savior to us in wonderful contour and beautiful sharpness. But we don’t press after them for the sake of mere head knowledge. We must come to adore the One we see. We need to behold the glory of Jesus’ omniscience. This One, who on the one hand was a man like us—born of a woman, growing from childhood to adulthood, who ate and drank and slept like we do—knew all men! Matthew Henry said, “He knew all men, not only their names and faces, as it is possible for us to know many, but their nature, dispositions, affections, designs, as we do not know any man, scarcely ourselves. He knows all men, for his powerful hand made them all, his piercing eye sees them all—sees into them.”
Consider how glorious Jesus is for this—how far His strength exceeds our weakness, how far His knowledge exceeds our ignorance! We do need people to testify concerning man, because we can’t see into one another’s hearts. Think about how easily we are deceived—how much faith and trust and confidence and hope we can place in a person, only for them to later reveal themselves to be untrustworthy; to not be who they held themselves out to be; to betray; to disappoint. No one has ever deceived our Lord Jesus!
It’s truly amazing. We’ve talked about it before, but there is an overwhelming emphasis in John’s Gospel on the concept of witness. John the Baptist came as a witness to testify about Christ. The Father testifies to Jesus, the works Jesus performs testify of Him. The Scriptures testify of Him. The crowds see His miracles and testify of Him. People need witnesses to testify, because we don’t know what’s true just by looking. As a pastor, so much of what I do in counseling is conflict resolution. Fellow church members, a husband and a wife, a parent and a child are at odds, and they’ve come to their pastor to help mediate for them. And I ask them, “What’s the problem? What’s the source of the conflict?” And one says, “Well, we were discussing this issue, and he said such-and-such.” And the other says, “I did not say that!” And the other says, “Yes you did!” It wasn’t long ago that I was counseling one couple, and I told them, “If you two witnessed a crime and were both called to testify in a court of law, the criminal would go free.” They would just give opposite reports of the identical event that they both lived through. And my job is so often to find the truth in between two biased and divergent accounts, while being bound by Scripture to believe the best of both of them. If I could just see into their heart, and know who’s aiming to deceive, life would be so much easier!
And when we find a person who seems to be especially blessed with discernment—someone who can see through deception and hidden motives and discern people’s true intent or their true character—we’re impressed with that person! We say, “Wow, that man is so wise!” “She has such discernment!” “He can cut through the fog and see right to the issue at hand!” Jesus is infinitely more worthy of our esteem and admiration. He sees every man and every woman perfectly. He knows their motives and their true intentions without error. Calvin said: We have to judge by the fruit; Jesus sees to the very roots. No one can pull the wool over His eyes. No one can dupe Him. He is not susceptible to flattery or manipulation. We ought to stand in awe of the glory of Jesus’ omniscience.
But we also ought to recognize that Jesus doesn’t just know all men perfectly; He also perfectly knows you, individually. He is the God of whom Zechariah 4:10 says, “the eyes of Yahweh…range to and fro throughout the earth.” He is of the same essence as the Father, whom Jesus says in Matthew 6, “sees what is done in secret” (vv. 4, 6, 18). “There is no creature hidden from His sight,” Hebrews 4:13, “but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do.” Friends, there is absolutely nothing you can do that Jesus doesn’t see. In those times, when you think you’re alone, when you’re hidden away from every other fellow mortal in the world, the Lord Jesus is with you! His eyes are upon you! Or even when you’re with others, but you’re pretending, or lying, or deceiving—even when you are able to fool others—He sees the heart. You can’t fool Him. Galatians 6:7: “Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap.” You can’t sow hidden wickedness and reap blessing, because the Lord Jesus knows all men, and He knows what is in men.
And so, dear friends, if the Righteous Judge is always watching—if, truly, you can’t hide—then live a life of integrity. The One who matters most sees everything, as surely as if there was a movie of your life and heart playing on a screen in heaven. So you might as well be the same person in private that you are in public.
But at the same time, while Jesus’ omniscience is bad news for His enemies, oh what good news it is for His friends—for those who have washed your sins away in His blood, who have been clothed with His perfect righteousness through faith alone! This Jesus knows you, believer, thoroughly and totally! Better than your spouse knows you, better than your best friend knows you, He knows every nook and cranny of your heart! Every angry thought, every evil desire. And He loves you. He is willing to keep you. It’s so absolutely staggering that it borders on the miraculous.
You say, “If my fellow church-members could know my heart the way I know my heart, I doubt I’d have many friends!” Dear friend, there is One who does know your heart—better than you know your own heart—and He does love you, still! He is the most glorious Man in the universe! the loveliest soul in existence! He is the most noble, the most holy, the One who is most repulsed by sin of any kind, and He knows everything about you (He knows what is in man)! And He still loves you! He still accepts you! He still calls you to come into His arms, you who are weary and heavy-laden, and He promises rest. He still says, “The one who comes to Me I will in no wise cast out.” He still says, “My blood has paid for this one! My righteousness covers this one!” He looks at you, with the penetrating gaze of omniscience, and He still says, Hebrews 2:11, “I am not ashamed to call him ‘Brother’! I am not ashamed to call her ‘Sister’!”
Oh, we are meant to marvel at the glory of Jesus’ omniscience! And we are meant to rejoice in His grace! And we are to let that drive us to trust Him, and to love Him, and to follow Him with our whole heart!
II. The Grief of Spurious Faith (vv. 23–24a)
Well, that brings us to the second truth of our passage. We’ve seen the glory of Jesus’ omniscience. In the second place, consider the grief of spurious faith. We see that in verse 23 and the first part of verse 24. “Now when He was in Jerusalem at the Passover, during the feast, many believed in His name, observing His signs which He was doing.”
Again, we saw in verse 11 that the first of these “signs” that Jesus was doing was turning the water into wine. These were miracles—works of power—that displayed to the world the divine glory of Jesus. And we’re not told what other miraculous works Jesus was doing at this particular point in His ministry. Remember, John 20 verse 30 says that Jesus performed “many other signs…in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book.” John 21:25 says if everything Jesus did was written in detail, the world couldn’t contain the books that would be written. But it must have been that after His first sign of turning the water into wine, He began doing the kinds of miracles that would characterize His later ministry. Jesus Himself summarizes them in Matthew 11:5. He speaks of giving sight to the blind, making the lame walk, cleansing the lepers, causing the deaf to hear, and raising the dead.
And so as the people were observing the signs which He was doing, verse 23 says, “many believed in His name.” And in one sense, this is not surprising; it makes sense. The Old Testament prophesied that the coming of Messiah would be marked by the working of miracles that testified to His divine identity. Isaiah 35:5–6 says that in the time of Messiah “the eyes of the blind will be opened and the ears of the deaf will be unstopped. Then the lame will leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute will shout for joy.” Jesus is doing all these things. And so in John 7, verse 31, the crowds observe the miracles and they say, “When the Christ comes, He will not perform more signs than those which this man has, will He?” “He’s doing what the Word of God predicts the Messiah will do! He must be the Messiah!”
And so, verse 23, “many believed in His name.” They regarded Him, in many cases, as a great prophet come from God, a teacher who could expound the law. Some, probably even at this early moment, would have believed that He was the promised Messiah. And yet, we get this bewildering comment in verse 24: “But Jesus, on His part, was not entrusting Himself to them.” And this word that gets translated “entrusting,” is the same exact word translated as “believing” in verse 23. Many believed in Him, but He didn’t believe in them. They entrusted themselves to Him, but He didn’t entrust Himself to them. He didn’t receive them into the band of His disciples. You see, there is a kind of faith that Jesus has no faith in. There is a kind of believing that Jesus doesn’t believe in.
And as I said before: that is positively terrifying. John’s whole purpose for writing this Gospel is, chapter 20 verse 31, so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ! and that such believing would result in eternal life in Jesus’ name. And here we learn of a kind of believing that does not result in eternal life! Again, in chapter 1 verse 12, we read, “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name.” And here we learn that many “believed in His name”—the identical phrase—and rather than giving them the right to become children of God, Jesus doesn’t believe in them! And remember, this isn’t because of some defect in Jesus’ knowledge. His rejection of this “many” who “believed in His name” is grounded in His omniscience. Because He knew all men, and because He knew what was in man, He didn’t believe in these professing believers.
How can this be? Well, it’s because not everything that is called faith is true faith. There is such a thing as false faith, as spurious faith, as I’ve called it. You see this proven in a number of passages of Scripture. Turn over to John chapter 8. Jesus is teaching the people in response to the antagonism of the Jewish leaders. He says in verse 24: “Unless you believe that I Am,”—unmistakably identifying Himself as Yahweh, the God of Israel—“Unless you believe that I Am, you will die in your sins.” Verse 28: “When you lift up the Son of Man”—a reference to the resurrection—“then you will know that I Am.” And verse 30: “As He spoke these things, many came to believe in Him.” Very similar language to our passage. And then look at verse 31: “So Jesus was saying to those Jews who had believed Him, ‘If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine.’” What’s the implication? “If you don’t continue in My word, then you are not truly disciples of Mine.” Genuine faith, that marks out a true disciple of Jesus, continues in Jesus’ word. It perseveres. It walks in the way of obedience to His commands. And so you can believe Him, in some sense, and yet if your belief isn’t marked by continuing obedience, it’s not true faith. Do you see that in the text?
And you can also turn over to James chapter 2. This is that classic portion of Scripture in which the Apostle James explains that the so-called “faith” of professing Christians who fail to make progress in practical holiness—who continue to walk in patterns of unrighteousness—is not true and saving faith. He says in verse 17, “Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead, being by itself.” You say, “Wait a minute! I believe that Jesus is Messiah! I believe that He is the One sent from God!” And James says, while believing true doctrine is essential for salvation, it is not sufficient for salvation. Verse 19: “You believe that God is one. You do well; the demons also believe, and shudder.” See what he’s saying? “You believe in the true doctrine of monotheism. Good! You ought to believe that! But do you know who else believes in monotheism? The demons. And it doesn’t do them any good. Their faith in true doctrine results in the terror of the certainty of their final judgment!” And his point is: your faith, if it’s not accompanied by the evidences of true faith—like persevering obedience—can result in the same.
That is a dead faith, verse 17, verse 26. That is a demonic faith, verse 19. That’s a useless faith, James says in verse 20: Don’t you recognize, you fool, that “faith without works is useless”? Those who profess faith, but who don’t live the life which genuine saving faith produces, prove themselves to be false believers, false disciples, ones whose professions of faith should not be trusted. Luke 6:46: “Why do you call Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say?” “Don’t call Me your Master if you don’t behave like My slave.” Matthew 7:21–23: “Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord,’ … And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart for Me, you who practice lawlessness.’”
You say, “Wait a minute. Are you mixing faith and works? Are you saying that obedience is a part of saving faith?” Not at all. You won’t find a greater proponent of sola fide than me. If my justification depends on my works at all, I’m lost! No, I’m saying what the great reformer and champion of justification by faith alone, John Calvin, said, when he wrote, “It is therefore faith alone which justifies, and yet the faith which justifies is not alone” (as in Schreiner, Faith Alone, 62). In other words, salvation is not a result of good works, as Ephesians 2:9 says. But good works are the necessary result of salvation. Ephesians 2:10: “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” And so, we’re justified by faith alone, but we’re justified by faithalone. True faith, not demon faith. Living faith, not dead faith. Saving faith is the sole instrument of justification, but it will always evidence itself in the fruit of righteousness wrought by the Holy Spirit. And if it doesn’t, well, that kind of believing is a faith that Jesus has no faith in.
So, there is such a thing as false faith—a non-saving faith, that’s really no true faith at all. But here in our text, the problem with the faith of the professing believers isn’t so much that it’s not accompanied by works, but that it’s grounded upon signs. And on the one hand, it’s a bit surprising that that’s a problem, because Jesus says things like John 10:38: “…though you do not believe Me, believe the works, so that you may know and understand that the Father is in Me, and I in the Father.” On the other hand, it fits with Jesus’ attitude toward sign-driven faith elsewhere. In John 4:46, the royal official came to beg Jesus to heal his sick son. And in verse 48, Jesus replies, seemingly a bit annoyed: “Unless you people see signs and wonders, you simply will not believe.” He laments that faith comes only from signs. That’s even clearer in Mark chapter 8. In Mark 8:11 it says, “The Pharisees came out and began to argue with Him, seeking from Him a sign from heaven, to test Him. Sighing deeply in His spirit, He said, ‘Why does this generation seek for a sign? Truly I say to you, no sign will be given to this generation.’” Twice in the book of Matthew, Jesus said, “An evil and adulterous generation craves for a sign” (12:39; 16:4).
Why? Because sign-driven faith—both then and now—is fundamentally a me-centered faith. On the one hand, Pastor John always used to say, “That’s not faith; that’s doubt seeking confirmation.” On the other hand, it’s: “What can the miracle worker do for me?” “I want to hang around the guy who can make wine out of water. It’ll be a party all the time!” “I’ll follow the one who can feed 5,000 people with five loaves and two fish. We’ll never go hungry!” “I’m throwing my lot in with the man who raises the dead. That’s the best life insurance policy there is!” At the very least, “The miracle worker draws a crowd. And maybe I can ride the coattails of His fame! Maybe get my own spinoff ministry!” Do you see? “I’ll ‘believe’ in Jesus, if He fulfills all my natural desires—for health, wealth, and prosperity! In fact, we should even make a guy like this King!” (John 6:15).
Look back at our text, chapter 2 verse 25. “He did not need anyone to testify concerning man, for He Himself knew what was in man.” And just keep reading, remembering that the chapter and verse divisions are not original. Chapter 3 verse 1: “Now there was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews; this man came to Jesus by night and said to Him, ‘Rabbi, we know that You have come from God as a teacher; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him.’” It’s no accident that chapter 3 verses 1 and 2 follow chapter 2 verses 23 to 25. We have “a man” who believes true things about Jesus on the basis of “signs.” And he sounds great! Nicodemus acknowledges Jesus is a Rabbi, a worthy teacher, and that God is with Him. You’d think Jesus would be thrilled!
But what does He say? Verse 3: “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” “You think you can see these miracles, Nicodemus? The spiritual sight you need to look through the signs and not merely to the signs—you can’t have that kind of sight unless you’re born all over again.” True and saving faith is not merely a fascination with the spectacular. It’s not mere attraction to the showy and the flashy. It’s not just intellectual admiration of Jesus’ power. Saving faith is beholding, with the eyes of your heart, the loveliness, and sufficiency, and worthiness of Jesus to be everything for you that you lack: forgiveness, and wisdom from God, and righteousness, and sanctification, and joy (cf. 1 Cor 1:30). It is the act not just of the mind, but of the mind that assents, the heart that happily embraces, and the will that subjects and entrusts all that you are to all that He is.
What is a sign, anyway? It’s something that stands for something, that signifies something, that points to some truth that you are to understand by means of the sign. A sign points to what it signifies—to the significance. If your response to seeing signs is to fall in love with the sign, you’ll miss the significance they’re pointing to!
When my kids were infants, I can remember pointing to something that I wanted them to see. “John! Look at the bird!” or “Olivia, look at the teddy bear!” And before a certain age, they would see my hand go up and my finger pointing, and they’d look, where? Not at the thing I was pointing at, but at my finger! It’s a milestone thing. Before 9 to 12 months, babies don’t quite get that the point of pointing is to look at the thing you’re pointing to. They look at the finger. That’s what sign-driven faith is. It’s preoccupation with the finger, and missing what the finger is pointing to. You were never designed to look to the sign; you were designed to look through the sign to what it was pointing to—namely, the glory of Jesus, as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth! The glory that melts the heart of stone! the glory that breaks the chains of slavery to sin! the glory that satisfies the soul, and so fills it with sweetness, that it leaves no room for anxiety, or despondency, or impatience, or ambition, or immorality, or greed, or pride!
You’re supposed to look beyond the bread that fed 5,000 people lunch, through to the One who is Himself the bread of life come down from heaven! And if you feast upon Him by faith, you will never be hungry again. Sign-driven faith wants bread for lunch and wine for drink. True and saving faith wants the bread of life and the fountain of living waters.
Conclusion
Dear people, don’t worship the finger! Look at what the finger is pointing you to. But understand: no one can see the kingdom of God—no one can see what the signs are pointing to—unless He is born again. Dear sinner, if you look upon Jesus, and you don’t see the end of your sin—someone who makes sin look ridiculous and disgusting—and if you don’t see the fullness of your righteousness, such that you abandon all hope of ever contributing anything to commend yourself to God, you need to be born from above. If you look upon Jesus, and all you see is someone who can meet your physical needs and fleshly desires for comfort, happiness, and ease; or some kind of meal ticket whose coattails you can ride to make a name for yourself, you need to be born all over again! Something is so wrong with the way you were born the first time, that you have to be re-created—re-generated, by the power of the Holy Spirit of God!
Jesus didn’t “need anyone to testify concerning man, for He Himself knew what was in man.” What is in man? What does Jesus see when He looks into the heart of the man or woman who is not united to Him by faith? Genesis 6:5: “Then Yahweh saw…that every intent of the thoughts of [man’s] heart was only evil continually.” Jeremiah 17:10 says, “I, Yahweh, search the heart.” What does He find? The verse just before, Jeremiah 17:9, says, “The heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick.” Mark 7:21, Jesus Himself tells us, “From within, out of the heart of men, proceed the evil thoughts, fornications, thefts, murders, adulteries, deeds of coveting and wickedness, as well as deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, and foolishness.” Oh, God knows your heart! Jesus—“He gets us,” alright! That’s what He sees, dear unbeliever. That is Jesus’ estimation of your heart: it’s full of madness, and mischief, and evil (Boice, 182).
And so don’t be amazed that Jesus says to you that you must be born again. Bow before the God of heaven, and cry out to Him for mercy. Ask Him to do for you what you cannot do for yourself—to grant you the new birth, to create in you a new heart. Look along the signs and through the signs to the glory of the Person they point to—to the One who lived the perfect life of righteousness that you were commanded to live but failed to live; who died the perfectly sufficient, substitutionary and sacrificial death that you were required to die but could never survive; and who rose from the grave by His own power and authority, victorious over sin and death. And turn from your sin. Disown the idols that you’ve been worshiping; put them away. And put all your trust in Christ alone for righteousness. Let His life and His death be your only plea in the courtroom of heaven. And you will be saved! It’s as Jesus Himself said in John 6:40: “Everyone who beholds the Son”—beholds the Son; not just the signs, but the Son they point to—“Everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him will have eternal life, and I Myself will raise him up on the last day.”
And dear believer—my fellow brothers and sisters—go on looking to that same glorious Savior. And find in Him all the satisfaction of your soul; the strength for holiness; all your hope for the future, both in this life and the next! Find in Him all your assurance of salvation, all your consolation and comfort through the trials of our pilgrimage; all your peace and steadfastness in the turbulence of this strange land of our sojourn. Find in Him all the fullness and the sweetness of this life—the marrow and fatness of this life: life as it was meant to be lived! O, thanks be to God for Jesus Christ! Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!