But though he had done so many signs before them, they believed not on him,
John's Gospel reaches a pause here: the Lord has finished speaking in public, and the writer stops to weigh the result of everything Israel had seen. The verdict is bleak: full evidence met by full refusal. It leaves us with a question we still ask — why doesn't proof produce faith?
Verse 36 ends the Lord's public preaching. What follows is not more story, but comment on it:
The public ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ closes with the words of the Lord in verse 36... From verse 37 down to verse 43, we can see that the Holy Spirit is commenting on the staggering fact that so few people believed in Him.
John writes of a great number of signs, yet his own book records only a handful. Older translations call them "miracles." That gap tells us how he expected to be read:
"Many miracles," John says; yet he has mentioned distinctly very few. When he wrote "so many miracles," he surely counted on his readers knowing some, if not all three, of the other Gospels. His Gospel has its special place in the New Testament. But it was never meant to replace the use of those written by Matthew, Mark and Luke.
He did the signs "before them" — in front of the very people who refused Him. That is what makes their unbelief so grave:
This was the result of the only perfect testimony ever given in this world — the words, the ways, and the signs of the Son of God. And no one here could plead blank ignorance as an excuse. God had done everything possible to prepare the way by prophecy, and to stir up attention by sign, grace and truth, among a people used to divine intervention. But man's unbelief, left to itself and to Satan, can shut out every sight and sound from God.
If miracles could create faith, this verse could not exist. One writer explains what a miracle can and cannot reach in a person:
Miraculous displays appeal to the senses, but they do not reach the conscience. They may terrify, as with the jailer at Philippi, but in themselves they do not produce conviction of sin or lead the soul to God. Their effect is only surface-level and short-lived. "Neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead" is certainly true. The greatest miracle cannot persuade. If it could, then everyone would have accepted the blessed Lord.
Another writer draws the practical conclusion. The lack was never in the evidence:
All this proves that the natural man — even the religious man — is completely unable in himself to receive the things of God, or to know anything about them. The Jews set themselves up as judges. They said in effect to Jesus, "Show us a sign that we may believe You." But when the sign came, they were as far from believing as ever. It shows that what is needed is not miracles on the outside, but the work of the Holy Spirit within, before we can receive God's testimony.
The words carry grief, and where they lead is final:
There seems to be a particular sadness in the words that begin this section of Scripture — a tone of mixed regret and pity running through them... As though everything had been tried, but with no result. He performed miracle after miracle, as undeniable proof that He was the sent One of the Father. At last nothing more remained to be done, and patience had reached its utmost limit. Then a blindness set in as God's judgment, and it left every rejecter of the testimony in utter darkness.
The verses that follow say they "could not believe." One writer keeps the order clear, pointing back to Pharaoh, the king who resisted God in Egypt:
The divine comment is solemn: His many miracles did not persuade them to believe Him personally, as Isaiah 53:1 had prophesied. No doubt many knew this prophecy, but blindly fulfilled it in refusing Him. More solemnly still we are told "they could not believe," because God had blinded their eyes and hardened their heart (vv. 39-40). But we must not suppose that God did this without reason. Just as Pharaoh first hardened his own heart against God before we read of God hardening his heart (Ex. 5:1-2; Ex. 7:3), so when the Jews hardened themselves against the Lord Jesus, then God confirmed their blindness by blinding them in judgment.
- Signs given. The Lord worked far more signs than John records, and He did them in front of the whole nation. John could assume his readers knew the other Gospels.
- Signs refused. This was perfect testimony to a people prepared by prophecy. No one could plead ignorance.
- Signs cannot save. Miracles reach the senses but not the conscience. Belief built on them is short-lived — even the Lord Himself was turned away.
- Something else is needed. The cure is not more proof outside, but the Holy Spirit's work inside, before anyone can receive God's testimony.
- Then the blinding. Blindness in judgment fell only after they refused the evidence. As with Pharaoh, man hardened himself first, and God confirmed it.
that the word of the prophet Esaias which he said might be fulfilled, Lord, who has believed our report? and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
The nation had seen sign after sign from Jesus, and still would not believe. John explains that with words Isaiah wrote centuries earlier, and they raise the hardest question of all: why does evidence not produce faith?
(Older translations read "who has believed our report." The quotes below follow that wording.)
Isaiah asks two questions. Each one names a gift the people had received and thrown back.
First, according to the prophet Isaiah, they had rejected both the "report" of the Lord, and the "arm of the Lord". In the wonderful words of the Lord they had heard the report; in the many signs they had seen the arm of the Lord. They refused outright to accept the report as coming from God, saying that the Lord's words came from the devil (John 8:49, 52). They rejected the arm of the Lord by crediting His works to the power of the devil (John 10:20-21).
"The arm of the Lord" is not a figure of speech about strength in general. It is a name, and the shock of the verse lies in where that name landed.
"The arm of the Lord" is a divine title. In chapter 51 of the prophecy, Isaiah calls on the arm of the Lord to wake up and deliver the people as in the ancient days… At the Red Sea the arm of the Lord showed such glorious power that even the doubters in Israel's army must have been convinced. But now, where do we see the arm of the Lord? Not in the thunder, the lightning, the earthquake or the fire. Not in the mighty wind that divided the sea, but in a Babe in the manger at Bethlehem.
Isaiah does not ask whether God reveals His arm. He asks to whom. The answer sets a condition, and it shuts nobody out.
The arm of the Lord is revealed to souls where there is repentance and faith in the report which God sends. Isa. 53:1; Rom. 10:16. Even the distant islands of the nations are to trust in it — that is, sinners everywhere in creation. Isa. 51:5.
Isaiah's question expects an answer, and that answer is not "nobody."
By the Spirit, the prophet foresaw that the nation would refuse the Lord's testimony, and that only a remnant would accept it. Christ is "The Arm of the Lord." He had the divine power that did the great signs: opening the eyes of the man born blind, and raising Lazarus from death and decay. Yet no one knew Him except those whose eyes God in grace had opened.
Isaiah wrote this unbelief down in advance. That did not cause it, and it does not excuse it. God had left them nothing to plead.
This was the result of the only perfect testimony ever given in this world: the words, and ways, and signs of the Son of God. And it did not happen where people could plead complete ignorance as an excuse. It happened where God had done all He could to prepare the way by prophecy, and to wake up attention by sign, grace, and truth, among a people used to seeing God step in. But man's unbelief, left to itself and Satan, can shut out every sight and sound from God.
John says first that they would not believe. Only later does he say they could not. That order matters.
It also helps to note that Scripture always keeps this order. God does not show His sovereignty until man's will sets itself against His. It is when man will not that he cannot.
More signs would not have helped them. The problem was never the evidence.
They refused that testimony. Only then do we read, "Therefore they could not believe." All this proves that the natural man — even the religious man — has no power in himself to receive the things of God, or to know anything about them. The Jews set themselves up as judges and said to Jesus, in effect, "Show us a sign so that we may believe You." But when the sign came, they were as far from believing as ever. It shows that what we need is not miracles outside, but the work of the Holy Spirit inside, before we can receive God's testimony.
- Report. Isaiah's first question names what they heard — the Lord's words. They refused them, and said the devil was behind them.
- Arm. Isaiah's second question names what they saw — His works of power. The same power that once divided the sea now stood among them in lowliness, and they refused that too.
- Revealed. God reveals His arm where there is repentance and faith in the message He sends — and that welcome reaches sinners everywhere.
- Remnant. The prophet foresaw both the refusal and the few — those whose eyes God in grace had opened.
- Order. They would not believe first; only then came the word that they could not. What no sign can do outside a person, the Spirit does inside.