The Mystery of Unbelief

Introduction
People see what they want to see, especially when it relates to the image that we have of ourselves. For example, a person might think they are pretty smart. Then they run across someone who is leagues more intelligent and super well-read. And that creates this mental discrepancy because the view of self isn’t matching reality. As so that person might resolve that dissonance by saying, “I’d read way more if I had more time.”
Or a person might think of themselves as a really good driver, but then they get in an accident that is their fault. And then out come the excuses. “I mean the sun was super bright. Even the best driver in the world would have got in an accident.”
Humans have this incredible drive to preserve consistency in their internal world.
The reason I start with this is because Jesus was the ultimate cognitive dissonance generator. Here’s how. The Pharisees and Sadducees, just like you and I and every person who’s ever lived, believe they are pretty much good people and that because of their goodness they deserve good things. I deserve to be treated nicely because I am pretty solid. That’s a pretty deeply held conviction by most people.
Jesus comes along and says, “Whoa to you Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites. You white-washed tombs. Unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Scribes and Pharisees you’re toast.”
Are we as good as we think? The gospel message challenges that deeply held belief in a pretty major way. The message of Jesus Christ is that you are actually a very bad person. Far worse, in fact than you even realize. Like far, far worse. So bad, in fact, that you deserve eternity in hell. That would be the only just and suitable way to atone for how bad you really are.
Now you want to talk about cognitive dissonance? Wow. That is snapping breakers in my brain like a chain reaction of mousetraps.
How are you going to remove that dissonance? Well, if you kill the messenger, kill the judge, if you destroy the one who is messing with your beloved self-conception, then that harmony can be restored.
This is the motive that is driving the crucifixion drama. Today in the text we are going to see the squirming that happens when that dissonance is felt.
Review
We are in John chapter 12 this morning. John 12 opens with what is known as the Triumphal Entry. Sadly, it’s more tragic than triumphant.
Why did we say that? Recall the scene: Jesus rides into Jerusalem to the shouts of, “Hosanna, save us! Save us! King Jesus!” And you’d expect that to be kind of a high water mark in the ministry of Jesus. What’s Jesus’ reaction?
He weeps. Those are tears of tragedy. Why? Well, Jesus says why. “Oh Jerusalem! Would they have known the things that made for peace. But they are hid from your eyes.” In other words, you can’t see what the real problem is. You want peace. You need peace. You have serious, serious problems, but you are chasing symptoms. You are looking for solutions in all the wrong places. You are barking up the wrong tree.
Here’s what Jesus observed: Israel sought peace through changed circumstances. They wanted a political leader who would remove the external problem. The crowds wanted a military genie. Someone who could knock off Rome and start a political Utopia.
And Jesus weeps because he knows that without dealing with the problem on the inside you can never deal with the problem on the outside. Without creating internal peace, you’ll never get external peace. That is why Jesus was weeping on the way into town. Would you have known the things that make for peace. You’re not even close.
They had a Messiah of their own making who existed in their imagination. They envision him as their cosmic genie. Jesus disappoints these expectations. Remember, when Jesus reaches Jerusalem some Greeks approach and say, "We want to see Jesus."
And Jesus says, in verse 24

He’s saying, “I’m going to die.” Your Savior is going to save by dying. Still want to follow me? And this language of death is plainly stated where we left off from the previous week.

Now apparently those listening understood exactly what he was saying because they respond with these words.

Now I want to point out something here that is quite interesting. Jesus has been claiming to be Messiah for 3.5 years. That claim is powerfully attested to by miracle after miracle including the recent raising of Lazarus.
Now he is saying in clear language, “I about to die.” That fact is also very clear. He had said it with blindly clarity just a few days earlier. It’s obvious. It’s plain in the text. But those two claims laid side by side create massive dissonance. Jesus claims to be Messiah. Jesus claims he is going to die. How can both of these things be true?
How are you going to resolve that dissonance? One of those claims has to go. My internal world is screaming at me right now. And you get two opposite reactions. You get one reaction from the crowd and another from the disciples. They both feel the dissonance but they resolve it opposite ways.
The Disciples
The crowds understood Jesus was referring to his death. Just the fact that the crowds understood him - that fact, I think is amazing. Jesus spoke of his death to his disciples in far more plain terms than these and yet when Jesus actually did die, they were bewildered, shocked, dumbfounded. They acted as though this was totally unexpected. White with shock. And yet here when the average person, the run-of-the-mill Gentile, the backwater Jew, heard these words they understood exactly what he was saying.
When Jesus said plainly to the disciples he was going to die, they could not accept that. Remember Peter? “Far be it from you Lord!” Too much dissonance. They loved the advantage they experienced as members of the inner circle. It was a massive threat to their conception of Messiah. So they just ignored the plain words. The disciples solve the cognitive dissonance by striking that claim. Nope. He must be talking about spiritual death.
The Crowds
But the crowds have the opposite reaction. They resolve the tension the opposite way. The claim is he’s Messiah. The claim is he’s going to die.
Well if he is going to die, he must not be Messiah. The Messiah must live forever. Why? Because the Son of Man in Daniel 7 doesn’t die. If you die, you can’t be Messiah. Dissonance resolved.
That’s what’s going on here. Now their reasoning is sound. The fact that Messiah remains forever is very much derived from the OT. When Messiah comes, he establishes an everlasting kingdom. The OT is littered with these sorts of promises. In fact in Daniel 7, where Jesus draws this title son of man, look at what it says:
Daniel 7

So do you see the dissonance? You claim to be the son of man. Isn’t the whole point of the son of man to setup and everlasting kingdom? Isn’t that how Messiah is going to solve our problems, by reigning forever?
Their question is totally legitimate. Now look at how Jesus responds to them. It’s almost a non-response. It’s almost ignores them completely. Who is this “Son of Man” Anyway?

Now why would Jesus answer this way? Because Jesus knows something about unbelief. Jesus understands that their is a theology behind unbelief. Jesus sees beneath the surface and can detect what’s really going on.
He knows that belief is much more an issue of the heart than the head. The motive behind their question, “Who is the Son of Man?” is not intellectual pursuit of academic integrity. Jesus has demonstrated from every conceivable angle that he was in fact who he claimed to be. They just won’t allow the claim. That won’t allow that fact to factor into their mental model of reality. Too much dissonance.
You might think, “I would never do that,” until I give you some examples. Have you ever just kind of lost discipline in your eating and you have this hunch that you are probably gaining a few extra pounds and you walk by the bathroom and you see the scale and you stare at it. And it stares back at you and kind of mocks you and you wonder what it would say and you sweat and then you just shut the door. Why don’t you step on the scale? Because you don’t want to face reality. You know that stepping on the scale will create cognitive dissonance between your mental conception of self and reality. You want to believe you weigh what it said last time. Ignorance is bliss. So you’d rather keep your internal world consistent than be forced to reckon with whatever number shows up.

Why don’t I arm wrestle my son? I’ll tell you why. Because I know I will lose but I like to think that I could still beat him. I don’t want to face the facts. You see, my heart loves an image of myself that I am defending and protecting. If I step on the scale or lose my arm wrestling match it creates dissonance because now this piece of data doesn’t match this beloved internal image of myself. So if I just avoid situations where I am confronted with that sort of thing, lie to myself, create excuses, reasons why I am the exception, justify, rationalize, I can preserve my self-image.
That’s why we said, “Belief is far more a function of the heart than the head.” If we love something enough, we won’t let the facts influence us. There’s actually a theology behind unbelief.
That’s why Jesus answers their question the way he does. Who is the son of man? Jesus give us more data. We aren’t sure. We need further convincing. Jesus knows that is not the case. They don’t need more information. They just don’t like the information they have been given.
Look at the way John phrases it back up in verse 34 it says the crowd answered, “Who is this Son of Man?”
What does it mean that the CROWD answered? Did someone count off, 1…2…3.. and then the crowd chanted the question in unison? No, John is capturing the spirit. And the spirit of the masses is they don’t want to believe. They are looking for reasons NOT to believe in the face of indisputable evidence. All the information points in one direction. They just don’t like the information.
Let me give you another example: When your child comes up to you and says, “Mom, can I watch a movie?”
“Well, you’ve already watched a movie today.”
“But my brother is watching one.”
“Well, you’re brother hasn’t watched a movie yet.”
“But you said yesterday that if I did all my homework I could watch a Disney movie and the movie I watched wasn’t a Disney movie.”
“Well, okay, I did say that. You should have used that opportunity to watch the Disney movie. Maybe tomorrow you can watch the Disney movie we talked about. Remember we said, that much media isn’t good for you.”
“Last week you let me watch two movies and I’m fine. So why not now?”
“Because I said so.”
Winning this argument is not a matter of aligning facts and information, is it? Your child doesn’t need more information. They just don’t like the information. It’s a matter of the heart. Suddenly you realize it’s an issue of submission.
Consider it: Jesus has just raised a man dead four days in the ground. You want to know what the right response is to that? Answer: whatever he says. Whatever that guy says, I believe. You don’t start peppering a guy like that with questions. You don’t start trying to show him your vast knowledge of the OT with the hopes of illuminating possible inconsistencies. You stick a microphone in his face and you hit record. And you start scribbling notes as fast as you possible can. You fall on your face and worship.
Jesus has given them all the evidence they need. The miracles prove that I am the light of the world. So follow the light. Stop talking and start listening. Follow me.
And we know this is the right interpretation because look at what he says next.

What were they being asked to believe? Two things that seem to be at total odds. Jesus is Messiah. Jesus is going to die. Can’t be. One of them has to go. Now, we know from our vantage point that those things go together. But from their vantage point they couldn’t possibly see how.
It’s the same cognitive dissonance of Abraham. Through this son, Isaac, I promise to make a great nation. Now go sacrifice him. How?
It’s the same cognitive dissonance Mary and Martha experienced. This is not a sickness that leads to death. Then Lazarus dies.
And it’s the same cognitive dissonance we experience.
Trials and conflicts are our version of this. We have two truths that seem like they can’t go together. God if you loved me, why would you allow all this difficulty in my life. Why the disease? Why the conflict? Why the pain? And yet, there we have it in words as plain as day. God causes ALL things to work together for good.
What’s the proper response when God reveals truth. Act on the truth. That’s what it means to walk in the light. Even if there’s all sorts of dissonance, press into that. Like you’re almost excited. Wow, I can’t wait to see how this resolves! I’m pressing hard into this. I’m going to pray even more. I’m going to dig deep here.
Now the disciples are asked to believe the impossible. Jesus said, "I am the Messiah promised to reign forever on the throne of David. I am going up to Jerusalem to die.” Either he won’t die. Or he’s not Messiah. Can’t be both. And everyone is trying to solve that dissonance in different ways.
The disciples say, no, no, he is Messiah. He is the promised one who will rule on David’s throne forever and I know he’s talking about dying. Maybe he’s talking about a spiritual death or something. Just ignore that part. Clearly he’s got miracle working power. Focus on that.
The crowds say, he’s predicting his death. He can’t be because the Messiah doesn’t die.
The Pharisees say, well clearly he’s not Messiah but we have this annoying problem that his miracles kind of prove he’s from God. I know, let’s destroy the evidence. They try and murder Lazarus.
“Though he had done many signs before them, they still did not believe.”
You see, belief is more a matter of the heart than the head. Even in the face of a bald face miracle, even in the face of an indisputable, no kidding around miracle, the kind of miracle that causes you to pee your pants, they can’t believe.
Now John goes on to say, this kind of rejection was predicted by the prophet Isaiah.

John is quoting from the famous passage in Isaiah 53. It’s the introductory line of this incredible suffering servant prophesy. This is the prophesy that predicts Jesus being led to the slaughter. He was silent before his shearers. His clothing was divided and lots cast for it. And this incredible prophesy begins with the prophet picking his Jaw up off the floor.
Isaiah 53

In Isaiah’s prophesy of the coming Messiah, he’s just shocked, utterly shocked that the people would reject the Messiah after the ARM and the POWER of the Lord has been revealed through him. In other words, the message of the Lord and the POWER (arm) of the Lord went forth without response. God came in the flesh and they rejected his plain words.
Now you might think, man, I would believe anything God told me. I would never reject the plain words of God. Well, that’s about to be tested. We are about to have a bit of cognitive dissonance of our own.
A thinking reader might ask, how could a whole nation reject the miracle working God-man? Some explanation must be given for the large scale unbelief that we see in Jesus day. How could so many see the works of Jesus and choose to reject him? How is it that the same crowd that shouted Hosanna on Sunday chant crucify him on Friday? John gives an answer through the prophet Isaiah:

Now you want to talk about cognitive dissonance. Let’s just let this passage breath and have its voice. John is quoting Isaiah 6:10. It’s quoted in Mark 4:12 and in Acts 28:26-27. It’s a significant passage. In verse 40, what is the pronoun “He” referencing? It’s referencing God. God has blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts. God is the one who CAUSED the unbelief. What in the world?
Let’s jump over for just a moment to Isaiah 6 so we can grab the context of this really significant passage.
Isaiah 6

Let’s grab the context here. At the beginning of the chapter Isaiah has this unbelievable vision of the Lord that causes him to bow in deep repentance and he has an incredible desire to share with the nation everything he’s seen. He essentially thrusts himself into missionary service to the Lord. God commissions him but with the chilling prospect of being ignored, scorned, and rejected by the people to whom he is to speak.
And so God commands him, go. Go do what? Then there are three commands. Make the heart dull. Make their ears heavy. Make their eyes blind. What is Isaiah going to do that will make them that way? Preach. Tell the truth. Proclaim. The very act of hearing truth hardens them to the truth.
Now you might think, “Oh phew, I thought that it was actually saying that God actually was the one who hardened their hearts.” But here’s the problem. John 12 does say that.

Is that possible? Can a just, loving, righteous, fair, kind God judicially harden people for his sovereign purposes? The answer of the Bible seems to be yes. God hardened Pharaoh’s heart. Jacob I loved; Esau I hated. Romans 9 is all about this.
Romans 9

2 Thessalonians 2

I hear breakers snapping in people’s brains. I can literally hear it. Why does this create cognitive tension in our minds? Because it attacks a deeply loved belief that we ought to get credit for our decision to believe and that it would be unjust of God to act in a way contrary to that.
It attacks this deeply loved conviction that freedom of choice should never be altered, that of anything that defines us, it’s our ability to choose. The greatest thing about me, in fact, is my ability to choose. I chose God of my own free, unaltered, unbiased influence. Did we?
Biblically speaking, can we really say that?
• 15 times in the Bible God talks about his elect.
• 3 times he talks about election.
• 5 times he talks about predestination.
• Dozens and dozens and dozens of times it talks about God causing his divine purposes to succeed.
How can we resolve this cognitive tension? Well the first thing to do is to examine whether our deeply held belief is worth loving? Is it even true? As Christians we don’t tell the Bible what to say. We let the Bible tell us what to say. It’s not like we are coming up with this idea as people. Let the text say what it is trying to say.
We don’t want to be like the person who won’t look at the scale. Look at the text. What do these verses mean?
These verses have to mean something. What do they mean? Is God asking us to surrender something we love? I think the answer is yes. And why? Because he is wanting us to love something that is even better and has even more benefit to us? We are being asked to hold some truths in tension here the same way the disciples were.
The disciples were asked to do this: Jesus is Messiah. Jesus is going to die. Can’t be. Yes, actually it can be.
God hardens hearts. Men are responsible for their sin. Can’t be. yes, it actually can be.
Both Truths in the Text
Now to be sure there is tons of mystery here. Don’t say less than what the Bible says and don’t say more. The place of least cognitive tension is letting both of these truths have their place in our minds.
In fact both of these truths are equally presented in the text.
Twice you have this incredible declaration of the sovereignty of God over men.
There’s this incredibly strong so that back in verse 37:

That word ‘so that’ (hina in Greek) indicates purpose. If I say, “I raked up the leaves so that they won’t kill my grass.” Healthy grass is the RESULT of raking. My action of raking causes healthy grass. So there is a sense in which the signs of Jesus “caused” unbelief.
And then of course verse 40,

He, that is, God, blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts. So you have this strong emphasis on God’s sovereignty. So then of course they are not responsible, right? Who can resist God? But that’s not what the text says.

Who is responsible according to this text for the unbelief? Well you see they couldn’t help it because God hardened them. No. There is a judgment being pronounced. You are guilty because you loved the glory of men more than truth.
Guilty. The Pharisees like many of us, even though we know something is true, won’t believe it, can’t believe it because we love men. We love the praise of men and therefore can’t confess something true.
God hardened. Men are responsible. Yes. Both are true.
If that’s not enough evidence that God holds us fully responsible for our VERY REAL CHOICES, the next six verses are deep appeals to our will. They are appeals to our decision making ability. Jesus crying out and asking men to believe in him.

If that is not a genuine entreaty to believe, I don’t know what is. Is this just the play acting of a sovereign God pulling the puppet strings of mortal men? Are we just dancing to the tune of his sovereign strings? This text on human responsibility has just as much authority as the text we just read on God’s sovereignty. Listen further.

These two verses imply that if you didn’t hear the words, you can’t be judged by them. That’s the idea. I can’t hold you responsible for that which you did not know. Which of course implies that I can hold you responsible for what you know. That is human RESPONSIBILITY.
This tension between human responsibility and divine sovereignty is drawn even tighter by what he says next. This is the culmination of the fascination in my mind. In Isaiah 6 God told Isaiah that the very act of speaking the truth would harden their hearts. Here in John 12 it’s taken a step further to say it is God himself who actively hardens their hearts and presumably by the same method, hearing truth. Here you have truth itself, power itself, God himself, embodied in the person of Jesus showcased before them and it is that showcasing of truth that God uses to drive you further into unbelief.
And that would seem totally unfair. How could I be held responsible if God is the one who hardens? What’s the answer? You will be held responsible for the words you hear. They will be your judge because you chose not to respond. And that will be just of God to do so.
That’s cognitive dissonance.

Those are all true statements. We hold those in tension not because they make sense but because that is what God says is true. Now Jesus ends with an appeal to his authority.

In other words, let the truth of Scripture trump even your own reasoning ability. Use your logic to conclude, it’s time to abandon my logic. Let’s end where we started. The gospel comes at us with a message that creates incredible dissonance.
We think we are pretty good people and that because of our goodness others should treat us well. But the gospel says you are actually bad. In fact you are far worse that you could ever have imagined. So bad that the only just and right atonement for that badness would be to send you to hell for eternity.
The Pharisees try to murder the judge. They try to remove the dissonance by murdering the messenger.
But the message is not merely, you are bad. That is part of the message. But look what it says. I know that his commandment is eternal life. Even though my sin deserves eternal death, there is an offer here of eternal life. And how is that eternal life experienced? By belief in Jesus Christ.
It’s the entire message of the book of John. Believe. We are bad and deserve cursing. That badness was laid on Christ. He who knew no sin became sin that we might become the righteousness of God. We are righteous because of Christ. We are good because the goodness of Jesus has been imputed to us.
Do you see the mystery of the gospel? The paradox built into the paradox. Would that we had known the way of peace. The way of peace is through the death of God. Through spilled blood of Jesus the Messiah we know peace. This is the path to eternal life.
We are now going to just exalt. If that is true, there is no fear. There is no paradox. There is no cognitive dissonance. Now we know why the Savior had to die. Now we know how it can be that we are deserving of hell but get heaven.
It’s because of Jesus. All our trust is in his blood. All our trust is in his finished work.