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Jesus, The Light of the World, Part V, John 8:37-45
In our previous lesson Jesus was in discourse with the Pharisees who claimed they had never been in bondage to any man.
But the bondage Jesus talked about was their bondage to sin for sin was their master and they served their master.
They of course with a nature to sin were simply doing what their nature demanded.
God created them to serve but without a new nature they were only able to serve sin.
Now when God created all things he created beings to whom he gave a charge that they have dominion over all else that he created.
The first beings with dominion over this creation were Adam and Eve to whom he gave order to dress and keep a garden called Eden.
So by this we see in the very beginning that God created men and women to serve Him.
We were indeed created to serve God, our creator.
But Satan robbed our service to God through the act of disobedience which led us to serve Satan instead of God.
The Apostle Paul wrote of this in Rom 6:16-18,22, Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness? But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you. Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness. But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life.
So Jesus Christ has bought us and brought us back to our Creator’s purpose by the shedding of his blood and created us to be new in all things and to be conformed to the image of Christ, who is our servant example.
And as our servant example his motive for service was his love for His Father.
Read John 14:31, But that the world may know that I love the Father; and as the Father gave me commandment, even so I do.
We were created to be servants and we will be servants one way or the other, in bondage to sin or in liberty to Christ.
If in liberty to Christ we can then apply what Paul told the Ephesians in:
Ephesians 2:10, For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.
So Christ, as truth and the light of the world, continues to present truth and light to the religious hierarchy of Israel who continue to be a servant of sin by saying in:
John 8:37, 38, I know that ye are Abraham's seed; but ye seek to kill me, because my word hath no place in you. I speak that which I have seen with my Father: and ye do that which ye have seen with your father.
Herein Jesus acknowledges that these before him are the offspring of Abraham.
They are his descendants in the natural or physical sense.
But Jesus Christ is more interested in Abraham's descendants in the supernatural sense.
He gives us an important spiritual principle here.
Abraham's true children are those who follow Abraham's example of faith.
Paul amplified this in Gal 3:7, Know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham.
These men who were the seed of Abraham were not the children of Abraham in the sense of this verse!
In these men before him, the teaching of Jesus Christ had found no room, no place of acceptance.
Not even a little crack in their heart for the word to enter for they exhibit no faith.
These are they who desire to kill him.
He knows who their father is and it is not Abraham for Abraham would not desire to kill him.
An awful hatred was at work in their hearts.
But he reminds them that he can be trusted because he is a witness to that which he speaks.
What he speaks he speaks as an eye witness just like these before him do what they do because that is the character of their father the devil!
Like father, like son.
Do we not mimic our father?
Are we not chips off the old block?
Are we not acorns that fall close to the tree?
Jesus was from the Father and he revealed exactly the character of the Father.
They were of their father the devil and their character revealed exactly the character of their father whose spiritual offspring they were.
He revealed God in his manner of life; they revealed the evil one, the devil in theirs. They were the spiritual seed of the devil!
What father does your character reveal?
What father does my character reveal?
We are to examine ourselves, whether we be in the faith!
John 8:39,41a, They answered and said unto him, Abraham is our father. Jesus saith unto them, If ye were Abraham's children, ye would do the works of Abraham. But now ye seek to kill me, a man that hath told you the truth, which I have heard of God: this did not Abraham. Ye do the deeds of your father.
The true son duplicates the character of the father.
A father is pleased to see his son carry on his works.
A son who does his father's will pleases his father.
Abraham believed God and did his will.
Abraham heard God's word and believed it.
He was told to give up his own father and then he was told to give up his only son.
He obeyed God and it was accounted unto him for righteousness.
God's word found a place in Abraham and now these Jews are claiming that Abraham is their father.
But Jesus says that this cannot be for my word has no place in you!
If you were Abraham's children my word would find place in you because my word found place in Abraham.
Their testimony revealed who their father was and it was not Abraham for Abraham would not seek to kill Jesus Christ.
Anyone who has a heart of murder against someone who tries to impart the truth of God is not a heart inspired by faith but a heart inspired by the devil.
It is not the heart of Abraham.
Their father, the one whose works they perform, is a very different person from the Abraham that Moses wrote about.
So instead of receiving truth they respond in:
John 8:41b-42, Then said they to him, We be not born of fornication; we have one Father, even God. Jesus said unto them, If God were your Father, ye would love me: for I proceeded forth and came from God; neither came I of myself, but he sent me.
We take the words, "we be not born of fornication" to mean that they meant that they were not bastard Jews, whose blood had been contaminated with idolatrous alliances and compromise such as had taken place with the Samaritans.
They claimed purity with the blood line of Abraham.
None of them had joined with the sons of Ishmael like they thought Jesus was claiming they had.
The Jews cling to tradition to be their tie to the Father.
They are pure Jews in the pure line from Abraham, therefore God must be their Father.
But Jesus rebukes them for such shallow thinking.
He does not endorse the Fatherhood of God for all men saying God is not their Father.
He may be their maker and creator but they have chosen their father and it is not God, the Father.
John tells us in his first epistle, 1 John 5:1, Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God: and every one that loveth him that begat loveth him also that is begotten of him.
He tells them that their hatred of him makes it perfectly clear that they do not know the Father.
For if they knew the Father it is clear that they would love the Son.
If they knew the Father, the Father's character would be seen in them.
They would love the Son as the Father loves the Son.
But they did not love Christ and so it is today.
A man or woman, boy or girl cannot know the Father except by knowing Jesus Christ.
The Fatherhood of God for all men is a myth perpetrated by Satan himself.
The truth of the matter is that the only Fatherhood that exists for all men is the Fatherhood of Satan and the only way a man can be loosed from that Fatherhood is through his adoption by the Father in Heaven through Jesus Christ.
So Jesus retorts in John 8:43, Why do ye not understand my speech? even because ye cannot hear my word.
Why do you not recognize what I say?
It is because you do not hear my word.
You claim to be the children of the Father and my language is the language of the Father.
Why then do you not understand my speech?
Jesus asks a question and he provides the answer.
Those who are truly children of God will recognize the Father's message from the lips of Jesus.
This is true today!
If you are a child of God you can discern who speaks the Father's message.
But Jesus tells them they are incapable of understanding him because they do not hear him.
Their ear picked up what he said audibly but their heart did not apprehend it for their hearts were dead.
They were enslaved in sin and sin has no light to shine on truth.
Jesus responds powerfully to these great self-deceivers in:
John 8:44, Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it. |