We would suppose that a man who proved his mission by doing great works would be generally and readily credited.
Yet we read of the Lord Jesus Christ that “though He had done so many miracles before them, yet they believed not on Him” (John 12:37).
Now, is this not remarkable?
John the Baptist did no miracle, and yet all believed that he was a prophet.
But in the case of Christ, by whom miracles so many and so great were done, He was not believed in.
Why the difference?
John, though a highly blessed servant, and the forerunner of the Lord, was only a man.
Christ, while truly man, was also “God manifest in flesh”; and therefore, alas! His rejection.
The carnal mind, though it may garnish the sepulchres of the righteous, is essentially “enmity against God,” is not subject to His law, nor can be!
Hence, when here and attested by miracles, He was discredited. Such is man.
A credence that is begotten of miracles is of no saving value; it is not faith at all.
Miraculous demonstrations appeal to the senses, but do not reach the conscience. They may terrify, as in the case of the jailor at Philippi, but they do not in themselves produce conviction of sin, or lead the soul to God. Their effect is but superficial and transitory. “Neither will they be persuaded though one rose from the dead” is certainly true. The greatest miracle cannot thus “persuade.” If otherwise, then the blessed Lord would have been universally accredited.
Alas! the case stood differently—“so many miracles.”
1. Turning water into wine (John 2).
2. Healing the nobleman’s son (John 4).
3. Curing the impotent man (John 5).
4. Feeding the five thousand (John 6).
5. Giving sight to the blind man (John 9).
6. Raising Lazarus from the dead (John 11).
And yet “they believed not on Him”!
Why not?
The evidence was enough, and the proof more than abundant; but the heart was impregnable to such external means.
As then, so now. We see no miracles, but we hear the story of divine love.
Christ incarnate, heard, seen, and handled, having come in grace to man, was the only magnet then.
Christ dead, risen, glorified, having made expiation by His precious blood, is the only Mediator now.
Love is the loadstone; there is no miracle so effective as the “omnipotence of loving-kindness.”
“And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto Me” (John 12:32).