'If only Jesus would appear to me, here, right now, and do a miracle, I'd believe in him!' Would you? If after three years of miraculous signs many of his contemporaries refused to believe, probably we'd be no different: reasons for not being committed to Jesus are usually moral rather than 'evidential'. All the evidence in the world won't help if we refuse to surrender our wills to the Lord!

Read: John 12:37-50. John is closing the story of his 'Book of Signs'. Unbelief is caused, as Isaiah foretold, by spiritual blindness. Those who persist in their rejection of Christ (v. 37) become increasingly hardened. The unbelieving mind becomes a closed mind. Jesus has come as our Saviour, but many do not want to be saved. So they must wait for inevitable judgment (vv. 4748). If the proven remedy for a disease is refused, the 'condemnation' of the disease is irrevocable. Judgment is the other side of salvation. The sun does not exist to cast shadows, but warmth and light, but when the sun shines, shadows are inevitable. One of the saddest statements in the whole Bible is v.43: to sacrifice truth for the cheap praise of others is utterly tragic. Meditate: What is God like? Look at Jesus (v. 45). 'God is Christlike, and in him there is no unChristlikeness at all' (Ramsey). As the 'Jesus freaks' used to say, 'If God is like Jesus, nothing is too good to be true!'

Lord, I believe. I love you, Lord, and I will trust you forever. Amen.