Why Jesus gets rejected
By its rejection of the one sent by God, the world’s ignorance of God was revealed (21; 8:19; 16:3) for the works of Jesus were the works of the Father. So to reject Jesus was to reject God too (23,24; 14:10). It’s because Jesus is one with his Father that not recognising him is rebellion against God himself. Therefore, by their refusal to believe in Jesus, their sin was both multiplied and exposed (22,24).
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This does not mean that if Jesus hadn’t come then they would have been without sin. But to reject Jesus’s words and his works is the rejection of God’s fullest revelation and therefore leaves them without any excuse. The same point is made by Jesus to some Pharisees after the healing of the blind man in John 9: “For judgement I have come into this world, so that the blind will see and those who see will become blind... Now that you claim you can see, your guilt remains.” (9:39-41).
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It remains true today. The light has come into the world but goes unrecognised (1:10-11), because people prefer darkness to light (3:19-21). However, all who are willing to receive him are brought into his family, children of God, called into the light to bear fruit in the darkness (1:12; Eph.5:8-9).