25 Jesus answered them, “I told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in My Father’s name, they bear witness of Me. 26 But you do not believe, because you are not of My sheep, as I said to you.
Jesus now answered the Jews request from verses 25 to 30 to reveal Himself as the Messiah.
10:25
Jesus answered them,
Jesus responded to the Jews’ request that He declare clearly that He was the Messiah. They wanted Him to make a pronouncement about His Messiahship.
“I told you,
When Jesus said, “I told you,” He did not refer to a previous explicit and public statement. They would have misunderstood Him if He had made this claim. The term “Messiah” to them could not embrace His rejection and a delayed kingdom to come. However, Jesus had told them by His entire ministry in both words and deeds. Yet Jesus did reveal that He was the Messiah personally to His disciples (Jn 1:41, 49; 4:42). He also declared Himself to the Samaritan woman (Jn 4:26). and to the man born blind (Jn 9:35ff). However, He did not reveal this to the public.
The Jews’ request for Jesus to declare Himself as the Messiah was unneeded. He had presented clear evidence of His Messiahship previously. He spent three years doing this. There is no point in reiterating the truth to people who will not believe. He had explicitly said, “Before Abraham was, I am” (Jn 8:58).
Rejection of Christ was not due to empirical evidence but to hostility toward His claims. If people had been open to His claims, they would have embraced Him as Savior.
and you do not believe.
Jesus asserted three times that these Jews did not “believe” (10:26,38). Their obstinacy toward Him was apparent. The Lord would later show the consequences of their unbelief.
It was not more information that the Jews needed; they needed a change in spiritual nature. Their unbelief branded them as those from a different flock. They belonged to pseudo shepherds.
Jesus healed the crippled man and the blind man from birth (among other things) yet the Jews did not deem those healings sufficient enough for them to believe in Jesus. Each successive miracle only hardened their hearts.
Had the Jews approached Jesus with positive volition, they would have believed in Him. Unbelief has a blinding effect on the soul. It stultifies the soul. The entire thing is a vicious cycle, as Jesus said in John 8:43. They did everything in their power to negate Jesus’ claims.
The point is not that the Jews were incapable of belief but that their unwillingness to believe led to their exclusion from eternal life. Unbelief is the effect, not the cause. So long as they were not willing to accept the testimony of Jesus, belief was impossible on their part (Jn 5:44).
The works [miracles] that I do in My Father’s name,
Both Jesus’ words (v. 27) and His works (miracles) are from the Father. There is authority in what He did.
they bear witness of Me.
Jesus’ miracles testify clearly to who He is.
10:26
But [strong contrast] you do not believe,
Jesus’ enemies did not have biblical perception to know what was true about Him. They clearly ignored both His words and miracles. The issue was belief, not adequate witness (previous verse).
because you are not of My sheep,
Jesus referred to the shepherd/sheep relation earlier in the chapter. Genuine sheep respond to Jesus with positive volition (Jn 10:3,4).
as I said to you.
The reason for the Jews’ lack of spiritual perception was that those who do not believe are not part of the flock.
PRINCIPLE:
God offers salvation and man can respond to it.
APPLICATION:
There is an incorrect doctrine called “reprobation” (that some are predestined to be damned). This is sometimes called “double predestination.” Verse 26 does not teach this doctrine. Later in John 10:38 Jesus continued to offer salvation to the Jews.
People reject Christ from their own volition. God does everything necessary to bring them to faith. It is the work of the Spirit to enlighten, convict, and work on the soul. God draws all men to Himself (Jn 6:44; 12:32).
By virtue of faith some come to believe in Jesus and become members of the family of God. They were born again by belief in Jesus (Jn 3:16-18).
