"He saw his glory" Whose glory? John 12:37-45 does NOT claim that "Jesus is Yahweh"

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 John 12:37-45

“Deity of Christ” believers have claimed that Isaiah saw Jesus, the second person of the Godhead, in Isaiah’s vision of God in Isaiah 6. “Isaiah said this because he saw his glory and spoke of him” (John 12:41). But his in John 12:41 does not refer to Yahweh’s glory, but to the Messiah’s glory.

John does not quote or refer to Isaiah 6:1, where Isaiah saw Yahweh in a vision. Instead, John quotes Isaiah 6:10 and 53:1, which relate to the people’s rejection of the message of Yahweh’s Sent Servant. What was true in Isaiah’s day was also true in Jesus’ and John’s day. That is, people rejected the message delivered by Yahweh’s sent messenger.

 

John 12:41 quotes Isaiah 6:10 and 53:1 (again, not Isaiah 6:1) with reference to the reaction of some people to the miracles that Jesus performed. Even with all the miracles, “they did not believe in him” (John 12:37). This is what Isaiah “saw” in his prophecies: the rejection of God’s message spoken by God’s servant-messenger, even though that message was accompanied by miraculous signs.


Jesus is parallel to Isaiah, not Yahweh. Both Jesus and Isaiah were sent by Yahweh with a message, and that message was rejected by many, especially the leaders.

 

Further, “he saw his glory and spoke of him”—John quotes Isaiah 6:10 and 53:1 to describe not only the rejection but also the subsequent glory of the Messiah. “Isaiah said this because he saw his (that is, the suffering servant’s, the Messiah’s) glory and spoke of him (the Messiah).” The Messiah and his message would be rejected, and he would suffer. But afterward the suffering servant would receive glory, a glory given to him by Yahweh (Isa. 52:13; 53:6, 10–12). This is the glory of the Messiah, God’s sent servant, that Isaiah prophetically saw and of which he spoke.

 

That Jesus viewed himself as the Sent Servant who spoke and worked for God is clear as the passage continues. Jesus claimed, “He who believes in me does not believe in me, but in Him who sent me. And he who beholds me beholds the One who sent me... I have not spoken on My own authority; but the Father who sent me gave me a command, what I should say and what I should speak” (John 12:44–45, 49). These declarations come from the Servant sent by God, who represents God but is not God himself.

 

Like Israel and Isaiah, Jesus was God’s servant, the Light of the World: “I have come as Light into the world, that everyone who believes in Me may not remain in darkness” (John 12:46). Compare Isaiah 42:6 concerning God’s servant—God’s chosen one, upon whom God put His Spirit: “And I will appoint you as a covenant to the people, as a light to the nations” (Isa. 42:6; cf. Isa. 9:2).

 

Another way to say all this is that John 12:37–41 quotes passages from Isaiah concerning God’s sent servant, the rejection of that servant, and the servant’s eventual success and glory. John is referring to events specifically associated with Yahweh's servant, not Yahweh Himself.

 


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