Jesus was a devil defamer

JESUS WAS A DEVIL DEFAMER
EDITED BY GLENN PEASE
John 8:44 44Youbelong to your father, the devil, and
you want to carry out your father's desires. He was a
murderer from the beginning, not holdingto the truth,
for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks
his native language, for he is a liarand the father of
lies.
BIBLEHUB RESOURCES
Pulpit Commentary Homiletics
True Spiritual Paternity
John 8:41-47
B. Thomas
Notice -
I. THEIR MISTAKEN SPIRITUAL PATERNITY. "We have one Father,
even God." This in a sense is true.
(1) God was their Father as creatures;
(2) he was their Fatheras a nation;

(3) he was their Fatherstill in his yearning love to save and pity them. But it is
substantially hollow and false, as proved by their conduct towards Christ.
1. They failed to recognize his connectionwith God.
(1) He was the Son of God. "I came forth out of God." He was, in fact, God's
Son, as evidencedby his person and miracles.
(2) He was come on a Divine mission. Come to them, and come on a mission of
love and salvation.
(3) He was divinely sent. "Neithercame I of myself, but he sent me" - he
whom you call your Father.
2. They failed to understand his message. Although
(1) he spoke with Divine authority;
(2) with Divine simplicity;
(3) with Divine importunity and tenderness, so that he could naturally ask the
pretended children of God, "Why do ye not understand my speech?"
3. They failed to believe him and his message. Although:
(1) His characterwas perfect. "Which of you," etc.?
(2) His messagewas truthful. He could challenge them with regardto the
truthfulness of his message, as wellas the perfectionof his character, and both
deservedand demanded attention and faith.
(3) Yet they disbelieved and rejectedhim for the very reasonwhich should
induce them to believe and accepthim. "BecauseI tell you the truth, ye," etc.
4. These sadfailures flatly contradicttheir pretended relationship to God.
(Vers. 42-47.)
II. THEIR TRUE SPIRITUAL PATERNITY. "Ye are of your father," etc.
Look at the picture of the father and the children and their likeness.
1. Look at his murderous propensities.

(1) The devil is a murderer. The murderer of human bodies and souls;the
destroyerof human happiness and the Divine image in man. The Jewish
nation bore this character. From time to time they manifestedmurderous
propensities;they became the murderers of the Messiah, the Son of God and
the Lord of glory.
(2) The devil was a murderer from the beginning. Not the beginning of all
things, nor even the very beginning of his ownexistence, but the beginning of
the human race. His fall precededthat of man, and perhaps the existence of
man; but no soonerhad he perceivedAdam, young, innocent, and loyal in his
happy paradise, than the lust of murder was excitedin his breast, and he fixed
upon man as his victim, and effectedhis foul purpose in the spiritual murder
of our first parents. This was the characterofthe Jews from the beginning,
and the characterof these very persons since the beginning of Christ's earthly
existence. No soonerhad the secondAdam appeared on the scene than they
sought by every means to kill him.
(3) The devil is a most selfish and wilful murderer. This was the case with
regard to our first parents. There was no provocation, no gain beyond the
gratificationof his own selfishness andmalice. This was the case with these
Jews in the murder of their Messiah;they could find no reasonfor it but in
their own dark and selfishhatred.
2. Look at his lying propensities.
(1) The devil is a liar. He is opposedto truth, to all truth, especiallyto the
greatsystem of truth brought to light by Christ. Thus his falsehoodserves
well his murderous opposition to the redeeming truth of the gospel. In this the
heads of the Jewishnation resembled him; they murderously opposedJesus,
and he came to help murder; they bore false witness againsthim.
(2) The devil became a liar by falling from the truth He was in the truth once
and the truth in him, but abode not in it long enough to be morally safe. He
fell wilfully, of his own accord. He is a backslider, and, having fallen from
truth, he had no place to fall but into the whirlpool of falsehood, with all its
concomitantvices. How like their spiritual father were the Jewishnation!
They were born into greatreligious privileges, they had eminent spiritual

fathers, brought up under the watchful care and in the tender lap of a kind
Providence, nursed on the breast of Divine and precious promises, and
familiarized with the idea of a coming Messiah, their Divine Deliverer;but
they abode not in the truth, but wilfully fell into falsehood. It seems as if only
the children of speciallight alone are capable of becoming the veritable
children of the prince of darkness.
(3) The devil as a liar is most complete. "There is no truth in him." He is
completely lostto true, and truth to him; there is not a vestige of it in his
nature. It is so completely gone, that eternal hatred of it now sits on its old
throne, and the very thought of it is repugnant and unbearable. In this how
like their father these children were! Jesus appealedto every sentiment of
virtue and affectionin their breast, but in vain. He exhibited in his life and
characterall that is attractive in human nature, and all that is mighty and
benevolent in the Divine; but all this not only did not excite their admiration
and gratitude, but excited their most deadly hatred, which proves the sad
hollowness and falsity of their character. There was no truth in them.
(4) The devil as a liar is terribly original. "When he speaketha lie, he
speakethofhis own," etc. It is net a passing impulse, the result of temptation,
but the natural outflow, and a part and parcelof his nature. Here the problem
of the existence ofevil is somewhatsolved;we have found its father, its
original propagator. His children partake of his spiritual nature, otherwise
they would not be his children. The days of repentance, struggle, resistance,
and prayer are past; these are days of spiritual generation, and in this case the
result is a progeny of the devil. These Jews were more than under his
influence; they were his progeny. Terribly original, self-responsible,
voluntary, independent and complacentin their sin, they spoke oftheir own;
their falsehoods were their own, and their murderous act was especiallytheir
own, the outflow of their evil nature. "Let his blood be upon us," etc. The
father of murder has not finished with any one till that one carries on business
on his own footing, manufactures his own goods and disposes of them at his
own risk, and does all this naturally. Then his paternity is complete, the
relationship real, and his possessionsafe. This is the lowestpoint of moral
deteriorationreachedin this world.

LESSONS.
1. Man in this world is capable of the highest and the lowestspiritual
affinities. He may partake of the Divine or a devilish nature, may become the
child of God or the child of the devil. Truly we are fearfully and wonderfully
made.
2. Man in this world is capable of the most serious self-deceptionwith regard
to his spiritual paternity. These Jews thoughtthat they were the children of
God, while they were really the children of the devil. Such a self-deceptionis
very characteristic ofhim, whose chief delight is to lie and deceive, and is
perhaps the climax of his evil genius with regard to men. He cares but little
about the name, only let him have the game. Of all self-deceptions this is the
most miserable and disappointing!
3. No one can claim God as his Father who despises and rejects his Son. Our
conduct towards him and his gospeldecides our spiritual fatherhood at once.
4. To Christ our spiritual paternity is quite evident, which he will reveal
sooneror later. And in the light of his revelation this is not difficult for eachto
know for himself.
5. Nothing canexplain the conduct of some men towards Christ and his gospel
but a true statementof their spiritual paternity. Let this be known, and the
sequelis plain.
6. Even the children of the devil condemn him, for they do not like to own him
as their father. State the fact, they are insulted. The alliance must be unholy
and unnatural. Many of them claim God as their Father - the compliment of
vice to virtue. A compulsory admission and a full realization of this
relationship will be painful in the extreme.
7. Let his children remember that they are such by their own choice. For
spiritual generation, for goodor evil, is by and through the will. It is not fate,
but deliberate and voluntary selection. "His lusts it is your will to do." All are
either the children of God or of the devil by their own choice. Hence the
importance of a wise choice. - B.T.

Biblical Illustrator
I speak that which I have seenwith My Father; and ye do that which ye have
seenwith your Father.
John 8:38-47
The marks of Divine and diabolic relationship
J. Fawcett, M. A.
Christ had admitted (ver. 37) that the Jews were the seedof Abraham: He
now proceeds to show that they had another Father. Those who degenerate
from a virtuous stock forfeit the honours of their race. "Theseare your
forefathers if you show yourselves worthy of them."
I. THE MARKS OF THE CHILDREN OF THE DEVIL.
1. Hatred of the truth (vers. 40, 44-47). This was the realground of their
unbelief. They disliked Christ's doctrines. Had He spokenso as to gratify their
pride, they might have been disposedto acceptHim. The same principle

operates in all opponents of the gospel. The tendency of Christ's truth is still
to humble, and so it is still hated. The Jews said, "We are Abraham's seed;we
are no idolaters." And so many think it sufficient to belong to a pure Church,
to be outwardly moral; hence where the necessityof Christ and His salvation?
2. Enmity againstGod and His people. The Jews were notcontent with
rejecting Christ; they went about to kill Him. In every age he who is born
after the flesh persecutes him who is born after the Spirit. Stephen askedthe
Jews whichof the prophets their fathers had not persecuted. Theythemselves
murdered the Just One; and as they treated the Masterso they treated His
servants. The heathenfollowed their example, and these, again, were
succeededby the persecutors of Popery. And in spite of the Reformation, the
offence of the Cross has not ceased. Godlypersons in the nineteenth century
find foes in their own households, and that their religion stands in the way of
worldly advancement.
II. THE MARKS OF THE CHILDREN OF GOD.
1. Hearing the Word of God. This the Jews couldnot do, because they were
prejudiced againstit. But those who are born of God do not dictate to Him
what He should say; but, conscious oftheir own ignorance, they gladly listen
to and learn from Divine teaching.
2. Doing the works ofAbraham. His distinguishing work was faith. He
believed God, and it was counted to Him for righteousness.And what a
practicalfaith it was!Obedient, he left his father's house and offeredhis only
son. Faith expressedin obedience is the specialcharacteristic ofthe child of
God.
3. Loving Christ —(1) Becausethe Fatherloves Him. Can the children of God
do otherwise than love whom their Father loves.(2)Forwhat He is in Himself
— the altogetherlovely.
(J. Fawcett, M. A.)

Abraham is our father If ye were Abraham's children, ye would do the works
of Abraham.
The works ofAbraham and the works of the Jews
Abraham believed God; they disbelievedGod's testimony on behalf of Christ.
Abraham was just and merciful; they strove to compass the death of One
whose only offence was that He told them the truth. Abraham honoured
Melchisedec;they insulted, rejected, and killed Him of whom Melchisedec was
a type. Abraham interceded for Sodom; they shut the kingdom of God against
men.
Hereditary and spiritual interest in the covenant
Bp. Lake.
The Jew was to have a double being in the covenant, an hereditary, a
possessary;the hereditary was nothing but the birthright, which gave him jus
ad rem; he, that lineally descendedfrom Abraham, might claim to be
admitted into the covenantwhich God made with him. The possessary
consistedin his personalgrace, whichgave him jus in re, when he did not only
descendfrom Abraham, according to the flesh, but communicated also with
him in the gracesofthe Spirit. These two beings in the covenant were to
concur in every Jew;and they could not be severedwithout danger, danger
not to the covenant, but to the Jew (Romans 2:25-29;Galatians 3:9, 29).
(Bp. Lake.)
The true children of God
D. Gregg.
We have our spiritual affinities, and these determine our true relations and
standing. The Jews were notthe children of Abraham's goodqualities; they
were not the children of faith and love; they were the children of the spirit of
untruth and murder. These were qualities of the devil and not of Abraham.

The devil is the father of untruth. He lied to Eve in the gardenof Eden and to
Christ on the mountain of temptation. The devil is the father of the spirit of
murder. He tried to murder the whole human race spiritually. The disposition
which the Jews manifestedtoward Christ was altogetherun-Abrahamic; it
was Satanic, and Christ told them so. He tracedtheir pedigree back to Satan
and then He offered them freedom from the Satanic. True family likeness
consists in characterand in actions, not in bearing the same name. Sometimes
descendants are a spiritual burlesque upon ancestors. The life which they live
makes the name which they bear a laughable farce. Think of a puny sickly
dwarf bearing the name of Goliath! Think of a man bearing the name of
JonathanEdwards writing an exultant treatise upon the decline of Calvinism
and sending it broadcastthrough New England! Think of a man bearing the
honoured name of Stephen or Paul or James, men who died for the Church,
and yet living outside of the Church and despising it! We often burlesque the
names we wear;by our lives and principles and characters we often slander
the men whom we delight to call our fathers. We are often un-Abrahamic,
while we boastthat we are the children of Abraham. Let me ask a practical
question at this point. Just what is the liberty which Christ gives men through
the truth? Paul may be chosenas an answerto the question. As we become
acquainted with Paul's life through his words, we find it full to overflowing
with the spirit of freedom. He had freedom from false theologies, andfrom the
condemnation of the law, and from the fear of death, and from anxieties with
regard to the things of this life, and from caste prejudices, and from the
tyranny of the world, and from the power of evil habits, and from low and
carnalviews of the Christian's privileges and of the Christian's Christ. Now
this is not picture painting, this is not declamation, this is simply the assertion
of fact takenfrom the life of Paul. Here is the life of Paul, full and broad and
manly, built up after magnificent ideals, replete with the peace ofGod,
beautiful with the reproduction of Christly characteristics,and magnificent
with noble sacrifices forthe elevationof the human race. The Jews thought
that they were already free, they were not. This is the mistake which many in
the Christian Church make. Are you free? Your Christian professionsays,
Yes. But what does your life say? How do you perform the duties of the
Christian life? To the free Christian, every. thing is a privilege; church going,
Bible reading, prayer, religious contributing. There is a greatdifference

betweendoing things under compulsion and doing the same things because
they are privileges. Privileges are duties transfigured.
(D. Gregg.)
The children of God and of Satan
J. L. Hurlbut, D. D.
I. THE CHILDREN OF GOD (vers. 31-36). Whatdo these verses teachus
concerning the children of God? God has His children in this world, and some
of their traits are here presentedto our notice.
1. They believe in Christ (ver. 3). To believe in Christ is more than simply to
conclude in a generalway that He is worthy of credence. It means belief,
confidence, submission, obedience, all in one. This believing is the condition of
all blessings under the gospel.
2. They abide in Christ's word (ver. 31). They manifest their faith by their
fidelity. There is no "six weeks'religion" during a warm revival, dropping
into coldness and deadness whenthe meetings cease. It is a continued service
proceeding from a constantfaith.
3. They know the truth (ver. 32). The word in the original for "know" is the
verb meaning "to have full knowledge." He who learns the truth by fellowship
with Christ receives it at fountainhead, and understands it thoroughly.
4. They have freedom (vers. 32-36). Everysinner is a slave, for a power
outside of himself directs his action. The drunkard says, "I can't help myself;
an appetite drives me to drink." The passionate mansays, "I am not my own
master when I getangry." Are they not slaves to a powerabove their own
will? The free man is the disciple of Christ.
II. THE CHILDREN OF SATAN. Then there is a devil who would make men
believe that he is not, and that consequentlythey need not fear him. The
Scriptures are as clearconcerning the existence ofSatan as they are

concerning the existence of God. The traits of Satan's children, as here set
forth, are —
1. They are slaves (vers. 33-36).
2. They are enemies of Christ (ver. 37). These slaves ofSatanwere ready to
kill Christ.
3. They show a likeness to their father (vers. 39-44). These Jewsclaimedto be
the children of Abraham. "Notso," saidJesus. "If you were the children of
Abraham, you would be like Abraham. But you show the traits of your true
father, the devil."
4. They have no affinity with God. (vers. 45-47). They do not like God's truth
(ver. 45); they will not hear God's words (ver. 47). Just as oil and water will
not mix, so the children of Satan have an aloofness ofnature with respect to
God.
(J. L. Hurlbut, D. D.)
Pious relatives or friends cannot save us
J. Trapp.
It was poor comfort to Dives, in flames, that Abraham calledhim "son";to
Judas that Christ calledhim "friend"; or to the rebellious Jews that God
calledthem His people.
(J. Trapp.)
Now ye seek to kill Me
F. Godet, D. D.
Notice here the gradation.
1. To kill a man.

2. A man who is an organ of the truth.
3. Of the truth which comes from God.
(F. Godet, D. D.)
The fate of the truth teller
When the Egyptians first conquered Nubia, a regiment perished thus: The
desertwas long, waterfailed, and men were half-mad with thirst. Then arose
the mirage, looking like a beautiful lake. The troops were delighted, and
started to reachthe lake to slake their thirst in its delicious water; but the
guide told them that it was all a delusion. Vainly he appealedto them and
warned them. At last he threw himself in the way, and pointing with his finger
in another direction, said, "Thatis the way to the water";but they answered
him with blows, and leaving him dead on the sand, rushed after the phantom
lake. Eagerlythey pressedon for severaldays, when their goaldisappeared
and mockedthem. One by one they died — far from the path on which their
faithful guide lay murdered.
Unregenerate souls do not love the truth
S. Charnock.
The nature of the soil must be changedbefore the heavenly plant will thrive.
Plants grow not upon stones, nor this heavenly plant in a stony heart. A stone
receives the rain upon it, not into it. It falls off or dries up, but a new heart, a
heart of flesh, sucks in the dew of the Word, and grows thereby.
(S. Charnock.)
Men hate the truth
Senhouse., R. Smith.

As the friar wittily told the people that the truth he then preached unto them
seemedto be like holy water, which everyone calledfor apace, yet when it
came to be eastupon them, they turned aside their faces as though they did
not like it. Men love truth when it only pleads itself: they would have it shine
out into all the world in its glory, but by no means so much as peep out to
reprove their own errors.
(Senhouse.)The thief hates the break of day; not but that he naturally loves
the light as well as other men, but his condition makes him dread and abhor
that which, of all things, he knows to be the likeliestmeans of his discovery.
(R. Smith.)
Noble minds welcome the truth
J. Fletcher.
If Archimedes, upon the discoveryof a mathematical truth, was so ravished
that he cried out," I have found it, I have found it!" what pleasure must the
discoveryof a Divine truth give to a sanctified soul! "Thy words wore found
of me," says Jeremiah, "and I did eat them; and Thy word was to me the joy
and rejoicing of my heart." Truth lies deep, as the rich veins of gold do: if we
will getthe treasure, we must not only beg, but dig also.
(J. Fletcher.)
We be not born of fornication
F. Godet, D. D., T. Whitelaw, D. D.
The Jews, having nothing effectualto object, take advantage of the moral
sense in which Jesus had spokenof parentage, and try to cite it in their own
favour: If Thou wilt have it so, we will leave off speaking ofAbraham; for
after all in that spiritual sphere, of which it seems Thouart thinking, God is
our Father. To understand these words, which have been so variously
interpreted, it must be remembered that marriage with a heathen woman was,

after the return from Babylon (see Nahum and Malachi), regardedas impure,
and the children of such marriage as illegitimate, as belonging through one
parent to the family of Satan, the godof the heathen. The Jews, then, meant to
say: "We were born under perfectly legalconditions;we have no idolatrous
blood in our veins; we are Hebrews, born of Hebrews (Philippians 3:5), and
are hence by our very birth protectedfrom all paganand diabolic affiliation."
As truly as they are pure descendants of Abraham, so certainly do they
believe themselves to be descended, in a moral point of view, from God alone;
and even when rising with our Lord to the moral point of view, they are
incapable of freeing themselves from their own idea of natural parentage.
These words have been explained as signifying that the Jews were not
descended, like Ishmael, from any secondarymarriage like that of the
patriarch with Hagar — which, however, could scarcelybe called
"fornication" — or from Sarah through another man than her lawful
husband; but are probably to be understood as asserting that their pure
Abrahamic descenthad been corrupted by no admixture of heathen blood, or
better, that their relation of sonship to Jehovahhad not been rendered impure
by the worship of false gods, in which case they had been "children of
whoredom" (Hosea 2:4), but that, as they were physically Abraham's seed, so
were they spiritually God's children. This interpretation seems to be
demanded by the next words:"We have one Father evenGod." By this they
signified, not that "God alone" in opposition to heathen divinities was their
Father, but that spiritually as well as corporeally, they traced their descent
back to one parentage, as in the latter case to Abraham, so in the former case
to God (Malachi2:10).
(T. Whitelaw, D. D.)
If God were your Father ye would love Me
Love to Jesus the greattest
C. H. Spurgeon.

The order of salvation is first to believe in Christ. By this we become sons of
God, and the proof of our sonship is loving what God loves — Christ.
I. LOVE TO CHRIST IS IN ITSELF ESSENTIAL. The absence ofthis love is
—
1. The loss of the greatestofspiritual pleasures. What a loss is that of the
sense oftaste and smell? The fairest rose cannotsalute the nostrils with its
perfume, nor the most dainty flavour delight the palate. But. it is infinitely
more terrible not to perceive the fragrance of the name of Jesus, and to taste
the richness of the bread and wine of heaven.
2. A sign of very grievous degradation. It is the mark of an animal that it
cannot enter into intellectualpursuits, and when man loses the powerto love
his Godhe sinks to a level with the brutes. We greatly pity those poor
creatures who cannot reason, but what shall we think of these who cannot
love? Yet not to love Jesus reveals a moral imbecility far worse than mental
incapacity, because it is wilful and involves a crime of the heart.
3. A clearproof that the whole manhood is out of order.(1) The
understanding, were it well balanced, would judge that Christ is before all,
and give Him the preeminence.(2)If the heart were what it should be it would
love the good, the true, the beautiful, and nothing is more so than Jesus.
4. A sure tokenthat we have no part in His salvation.(1)The very first effect
of salvationis love to Jesus.(2)This love is the mainspring of the Spiritual life.
It "constrainethus," and is the grand powerwhich keeps us back from evil
and impels us towards holiness.(3)Without this love we incur the heaviest
condemnation — "If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ," etc.
II. LOVE TO CHRIST IS THE TEST OF SONSHIP. Our Lord plainly
declares that God is not the Father of those who do not love Him. The Jews
were by nature and descent, if any were, the children of God. They were the
seedof Abraham, God's chosen, had observedGod's ceremonies, bore the
mark of His covenant, were the only people who worshipped one God, and
incurred the greatestobloquy in consequence — yet as they did not love
Christ they were no sons of God.

1. The child of God loves Christ because he loves what his Father loves:his
nature, descendedfrom God, runs in the same channel, and since God loves
Christ supremely so does he.
2. He sees Godin Jesus — the express image of His Person.
3. He is like Christ. Every man loves what is like himself. If you are born of
God you are holy and true and loving, and as He is all that you must love Him.
4. He is essentiallydivine. "I proceededand came forth," etc.
5. Of His mission —(1) We must love that which comes from God if we love
God. It matters not how small the trifle, you prize it if it comes from someone
you revere. How much more should we love Him who came from God; and
came not as a relic or memorial, but as His living, loving voice.(2)Remember
the messageChristbrought — a message ofpardon, restoration, acceptance,
eternal life and glory.
6. He came not of Himself. When a man lives only to serve himself our love
dries up. But Jesus'aims were entirely for the Father and for us — so our
heart must go out towards Him.
III. THIS TEST IT IS IMPORTANT FOR US TO APPLY NOW. Do you love
Him or no? If you do then, you will —
1. Trust Him and lean on Him with all your weight. Have you any other hope
besides that which springs from His Cross?
2. Keep His Word. How about your neglectedBible? How about those parts of
Scripture you have never understood, because afraidthey were different from
the creedof your church and family?
3. Keep His commandments. Do you obey Christ? If His commands are of
little importance, then your heart is not with Him.
4. Imitate Him. It is the nature of love to be imitative. Are you trying to be
Christ-like?
5. Love His people — not because they are sweetin their tempers or belong to
your denomination, but because they are His.

6. Sympathize with His objects. Wheneverwe love anotherwe begin to love
the things which he loves. He delights to save men, do you?
7. Serve His cause. Love that never leads to actionis no love at all. Are you
speaking for Him, giving to Him?
8. Desire to be with Him.
(C. H. Spurgeon.)
If we love God we shall receive Christ
C. H. Spurgeon.
If a child were far awayin India, and he had not heard from home for some
time, and he at last receiveda letter, how sweetit would be! It comes from
father. How pleasedhe is to getit! But suppose a messengershouldcome and
say, "I come from your father," why, he would at once feelthe deepest
interest in him. Would you shut your door againstyour father's messenger?
No: but you would say, "Come in, though it be in the middle of the night, I
shall always have an ear for you." Shall we not thus welcome Jesus?
(C. H. Spurgeon.)
Men ought to love Christ as coming from God
C. H. Spurgeon.
I know when I left the village where I was first pastor, and where I had loved
the people much and they had loved me, I used to say that if I saw even a dog
which came from that parish, I should be gladto see him for I felt a love to
everybody and everything coming from that spot. How much more should we
love Christ because He came from God!
(C. H. Spurgeon.)

I proceededforth and came from God.
The inner life of Christ
J. Parker, D. D.
Notwithstanding the multitude of books written on the life of Christ we want
one more. We have outward lives more than enough that tell us about places
and date and occurrences. We wantan inner "life" of thoughts, purposes,
feelings. Until we study this inner life, all the outward life will be a plague to
our intellect and a mortification to our heart. The inward always explains the
outward.
1. Suppose we saw one of the miracles of Christ, the raising of the dead. Here
is the dead man, there the living Christ, yonder the mourning friends;
presently the dead man rises. But how? Is it trick or miracle — an illusion or
a fact? I cannot determine, because my eyes have been so often deceived. I saw
a man getup — but the conjuror comes along and says, "I will show you
something equally deceiving." I see his avowedtrick; it does baffle me; and if
then he says, "It was just the same with what you thought the raising of the
dead," he leaves me in a state of intellectual torment. Then what am I to do?
Leave the outward. Watchthe miracle Worker — listen to Him. If His mental
triumphs are equal to His physical miracles, then admire, trust, and love Him.
Take the conjuror: when on the stage he seems to be working miracles, but
when he comes offand talks on generalsubjects I feel my equality with him
rising and asserting itself. So when I go to Christ as a mere strangerand see
His miracles, I say, "This Man may be but the cleverestof the host." But
when He begins to speak His words are equal to His works. He is the same off
the platform as on. I am bound to accountfur this consistency. All other men
have been manifestations of self-inequality. We know clever men who are
fools, strong men who are weak, etc., andthis want of self-consistencyis a
proof of their being merely men. But if I find a Man in whom this inequality
does not exist, who says that if I could follow Him still higher I should find
Him greaterin thinking than is possible for any mere man to be in acting,
then I have to accountfor this consistency, whichI have found nowhere else,

and listen to His explanation of it. "I proceededforth and came from God."
That explanation alone will coverall the ground He permanently occupies.
2. It will be interesting to make ourselves as familiar with His thoughts as we
are with His works. We shall then come to value His miracles as He did. Did
He value them for their own sake? Sounda trumpet and convoke a mighty
host to see them? Never. He regardedthem as elementary and introductory —
examples and symbols. Why? Because He was greaterwithin than without.
Had He performed them with His fingers only, He might have been proud of
them, but when they fell out of the infinity of His thinking they were mere
drops trembling on the bucket. We might as well follow some poor breathing
of ours, and say, "How wonderful that sighing in the wind!" It is nothing
because ofthe greaterlife. It is very remarkable that this Man once said,
"Greaterworks than these shall ye do," but never "Greaterthoughts than
these shall ye think." Let us look at this inner life of Christ from two or three
points.
I. I watchthis man, struck with wonder at His power, and the question arises,
WHAT IS THE IMPELLING SENSE OF HIS DUTY? He answers, "Imust
be about My Father's business." Neverdid prophet give that explanation
before. In working from His Father's point of view, He gives us His key. Put it
where you like, the lock answers to it; and is no credit to be given to a speaker,
who at twelve years of age, put the keyinto the hands of inquirers, and told
them to go round the whole circle of His life with that key. Can he keepup
that strain? Listen, "My Fatherworkethhitherto and I work." CanHe
sustain that high keywhen He is in trouble? "Father, into Thy hands I
commend my Spirit."
II. Arguing from that point, if this Man is about His Father's business, WHAT
IS HIS SUPREME FEELING? Concernfor the dignity of the law? Jealousy
for the righteousness ofGod! No; from beginning to end of His life He is
"moved with compassion,"and when people come to Him they seemedto
know this sympathetically, for they cried, "Have mercy on us." He speaks like
a Son and is thus faithful to His Father's message.Whatexplanation does He
give of His own miracles, "Virtue hath gone out of Me." He did not say "I
have performed this with My fingers" — no trickster, but a mighty

sympathizer. WhateverHe did took something out of Him. Beholdthe
difference betweenthe artificial and the real. The healing of one poor sufferer
took "Virtue out of Him." What did the redemption of the world take out of
Him when He said, "My God, My God, why hast Thou forsakenMe?" The
last pulse is gone and He is self — consistentstill.
III. TO WHAT ARE ALL HIS TRIUMPHS EVENTUALLY REFERRED?
Not to intellectual ability, skill of finger or physical endurance, but to His soul
— "He shall see of the travail of His soul," etc. You know the meaning of the
word in some degree. One man paints with paint, another with His soul. One
man speaks with his tongue, another with his soul; they are the same words,
but not the same, as the bush was not the same before the fire came into it.
Thus Christ shall see the travail of His soul, etc. He was often weariedwith
journeying, when was He weariedwith miracles? His bones were tired, when
was His mind enfeebled— when did the word ever come with less than the old
emphasis — the fiat that made the sun?
(J. Parker, D. D.)
Christ's claim
J. Parker, D. D.
I. WHAT DID HE CLAIM FOR HIMSELF?
1. God announcedHimself to Mosesas "I AM" — a marvellous name, which
seemedas if it were going to be a revelation; but suddenly it returned upon
itself and finished with "THAT I AM," as if the sun were just about to come
from behind a greatcloud, and suddenly, after one dazzling gleam, hide itself
before one denser still — God's "hour" was not yet. He had said "I am," but
what He did not say.
2. Does JesusconnectHimself with this mysterious name? We cannot read His
life without constantly coming across it, but He adds to the name simple
earthly words, everything that human fancy ever conceivedconcerning
strength, beauty, sympathy, tenderness, and redemption — "I am the vine."

What a stoop! Could any but God have takenup that figure? Forgetyour
familiarity with it and then consider that One has said without qualification,
"I am the Vine," "I am the Light." We know what that is: it is here, there,
everywhere — takes up no room, yet fills all space;warms the plants, yet does
not crush a twig. The "I am" fell upon us like a mighty thundering, "I am the
Light" came to us like a child's lessonin our mother's nursery. "I am the
Door." Thatis not a mean figure, if we interpret it aright, a door is more than
a deal arrangementswinging on hinges. It is welcome, hospitality, home,
honour, sonship. "I am the Bread, the Water, the GoodShepherd, the Way,
the Truth, the Life." How any man could be a mere man, and yet take up
these figures, it is impossible to believe. It is easierto say"My Lord and My
God."
II. WHAT DOES HE CLAIM FROM MAN? Everything. In mean moods I
have wondered at His Divine voracity. Once a woman came to Him who had
only one box of spikenardand He took it all. Would your humanity have
allowedyou to do it? Surely you would have said, "Partof it; I must not have
it all." And another woman — she might have touched His heart, for she wore
widows'weeds. I expectedHim to say, "Poorsoul, I can take nothing from
you." But He took her two mites — all that she had. He is doing the same to
day. How many things has that only boy been in his father's dreams! One day
the mother feels that something is going to happen, and what does happen is a
proposalthat the boy should become a missionary! He must go. Humanity
would have spared him — but Christ takes him.
III. HOW DID THE BETTERCLASS OF HIS CONTEMPORARIES
REGARD HIM. Here is a typical man — a man of letters and of localrenown
— who says, "Rabbi, Thou art a teachercome from God." Evidence of that
kind must not go for nothing. Send men of another type — shrewd, keenmen
of the world: what say they? "Neverman spake like this Man." Here are
women coming back from having seenthe Lord: what will they say? Neveryet
did womenspeak one word againstthe Son of God! Mothers, womenof pure
souls!sensitive as keenestlife:what saw ye? "The holiness of God." Pass Him
on to a judge — cold, observant, not easilyhoodwinked. What sayestthou? "I
find no fault in Him." What is that coming? A messagefrom the judge's wife,
"Have thou nothing to do with this just person. Let Him go." Crucify Him;

will anybody speak about Him now? The centurion, accustomedto this sight
of blood, said, "Truly this was the Son of God." Put these testimonies of
observers, accumulate them into a complete appeal, and then say whether it
be not easierfor the imagination and judgment and heart to say, "My Lord
and my God," than to use meaner terms.
IV. FROM SUCH A MAN WHAT TEACHING MAY BE EXPECTED?
1. Extemporaneousness.He cannotwant time to make His sermons, or He is
not what He claims to be. Does He retire and compose elaborate sentences and
come forth a literary artist, leaving the impression that He has wastedthe
midnight oil? No; His is simple graphic talk.
2. Instantaneousnessofreply. God cannotwant time to think what He will
say? Does Christ? He answers immediately and finally. He had just thrown off
the apron; rabbinical culture He had none, and yet there was an
instantaneousnessaboutHim to which there is no parallel but in the "Let
there be light, and there was light." Give every man credit for ability, and give
this Man credit for having extorted from His enemies, "Neverman spake like
this Man."
3. What do I find in Christ's teaching? Incarnations of the Spiritual. He
Himself was an incarnation. He had to embody the kingdom of God, and
hence He said, "It is like unto" — To embody the bodiless was the all-
culminating miracle of the Peasantof Galilee.
4. Christ's is seminal teaching — that which survives all the changes of time.
Where are the grand and statelysermons of the greatDoctors? Gone into the
stately past.
V. DID THIS MAN LIVE UP TO HIS own principles? Some people say that
the teaching of Jesus conveyedhigh theories, but too romantic to be embodied
in actual behaviour. What said He? "Bless them that persecute you." Did He
do it? "When He was reviled He reviled not again." What said He? "Pray for
them that despitefully use you." Did He do it? "Fatherforgive them," etc.
(J. Parker, D. D.)

Ye are of your father the devil.
The children of the devil
J. Brown, D. D.
I. WHO IS THE DEVIL? With regardto that remarkable being termed
elsewhere "Satan," "the tempter," "the old serpent," "the destroyer," our
information, though limited, is distinct. He is a being of the angelic order,
formed, like all intelligent beings, in a state of moral integrity, who, at a
period anterior to the fall, in consequenceofviolating the Divine law, in a
manner of which we are not particularly informed, was (along with a number
of other spirits who, in consequenceofbeing seducedby him, were partakers
in his guilt) castout of heaven, placedin a state of degradationand
punishment, and reservedto deeper shame and fiercerpains, at the
Judgment. Through his malignity and falsehoodman, who was innocent, holy,
and happy and immortal, became guilty, depraved, miserable and liable to
death. Over the minds of the unregenerate he exercisesa powerful, though not
irresistible, influence, and hence is termed "the prince," "the godof this
world," etc., who leads men captive at his will. He exerts himself, by his
numerous agents, in counterworking the Divine plan for the salvation of men,
throwing obstacles ofvarious kinds in the way of their conversion, and
spreading his snares for, and aiming his fiery darts at, those who have thrown
off his yoke. Error, sin, and misery, in all their forms, are ultimately his
works;and his leading objectis to uphold and extend the empire of evil in the
universe of God.
II. WHAT IS MEANT BY HIS BEING THE JEWS'FATHER. The term is
figurative. That being is, in a moral point of view, my father, under whose
influence my characterhas been formed, and whose sentiments and feelings
and conduct are the model after which mine are fashioned. These Jewsinstead
of having a spiritual characterformed under divine influence, had one formed
under a diabolical influence; and instead of being formed in God's likeness, or
in the likeness ofAbraham his friend, they resembled the grand enemy of God
and man.

III. WHAT IS IT TO BE OF THE DEVIL? "Of" expresses a relationof
property. To be "ofthe world," is to be the world's own. "The world loves its
own " — those who are "ofit." To be "of God," or "God's," is to belong to
God, to be God's property and possession. To be "ofChrist," or "Christ's," is
to belong to Him. To be "of the devil," or "the devil's," is to belong to him, to
be, as it were, his property. All createdbeings are, and must be, in the most
important sense, God's property. The devil himself is God's, subject to His
control, and will be made to serve His purpose. But in another sense, the Jews,
and all who possessthe same character, are the property of the wickedone,""
they practically renounce their dependence on God; they deny His
proprietorship, and they practically surrender themselves to the wickedone,
yielding themselves his slaves. It is as if our Lord had said, "Ye saythat ye are
God's peculiar people, but ye are really the devil's self-soldslaves."
IV. WHAT ARE THE LUSTS OF THE DEVIL? "Lust" signifies not merely
desire, properly so called, but the objectof desire. "The lust of the eye" is a
generalname for those things which, contemplated by the eye, excite desire —
what is splendid or beautiful. "The lusts of the devil" are to be understood in
this way, not of his individual desires or longings — for how could the Jews do
these? — but of the things which are the object of his desires — such as the
establishment and permanence of error, vice, and misery among men —
whateveris calculatedto gratify his impious malignant mind, a mind of
which, as Milton powerfully expressesit, "evil is the good." To do the things
which the devil desires is to oppose truth and to increase sinand misery.
These things the Jews did — habitually did.
V. WHAT IS IT TO WILL THOSE LUSTS? The term "will" is not here the
mere sign of futurition — it denotes disposition, determination, choice. "Ye
will do the evil things which your infernal father wishes for." It is a phrase of
the same kind as:"If any man will be My disciple" (John 7:17). The Jews
were not merely occasionallyby strong temptation induced to do what is in
accordancewith the devil's desires, but their desires were so habitually
consentaneouswith his, that in seeking to gratify themselves they produced
the result which he desired. They were cheerful servants — voluntary slaves.
(J. Brown, D. D.)

Children of the devil
W. Baxendale.
It is said of Mr. Haynes, the colouredpreacher, that, some time after the
publication of his sermon on the text, "Ye shall not surely die," two reckless
young men having agreedtogetherto try his wit, one of them said, "Father
Haynes, have you heard the goodnews?" "No,"saidMr. Haynes, "whatis
it?" It is greatnews indeed, saidthe other; and, if true, your business is gone.
What is it? againinquired Mr. Haynes. Why, said the first, the devil is dead."
In a moment the old gentleman replied, lifting up both hands, and placing
them on the heads of the young men, and in a tone of solemn concern, "Oh,
poor fatherless children! what will become of you?"
(W. Baxendale.)
The devil a liar and a murderer
, Thos. Fuller.
King Canute promised to make him the highest man in England who should
kill King Edmund, his rival; which, when he had performed, and expectedhis
reward, he commanded him to be hung on the highest towerin London. So
Satanpromises greatthings to people in pursuit of their lusts, but he puts
them off with greatmischief. The promised crownturns to a halter, the
promised comfort to a torment, the promised honour into shame, the
promised consolationinto desolation, and the promised heaven turns into a
hell. The lusts of your father ye will do. — It is a frightful "will," and as
frightful a "must," which governs the soulof an ungodly man. Such a soul
either is a slave of the "must," or a free agentof the "will"; and the most
fearful feature of all is that it is guilty as being a free agent, and the more
guilty it is so much the more enslaved, and therefore the more it is free to will
by so much the more enslaved.

( Augustine.)Satanhath no impulsive power; he may strike fire till he be
weary(if his malice canweary); except man's corruption brings the tinder,
the match cannot be lighted (Acts 5:4; James 1:13-16).
(Thos. Fuller.)
He was a murderer from the beginning
ArchdeaconWatkins.
He was a murderer from the beginning (comp. Wisd. 2:23, 24; Romans 5:12).
— The Fall was the murder of the human race;and it is in reference to this, of
which the fratricide in the first family was a signal result, that the tempter is
calleda murderer from the beginning (comp. 1 John 3:8-12, where the
thought is expanded). The reference to the murderer is suggestedhere by the
fact that the Jews had been seeking to kill our Lord (ver. 40). They are true to
the nature which their father had from the beginning.
(ArchdeaconWatkins.)
He abode
Standing in the truth
NewmanSmyth, D. D.
1. This chapter shows Jesus'powerof bringing men out of their fictions of life,
and of discovering the essentialthing in life. Here He disclosesthe condition
under which it is possible for a createdbeing to stand in the truth. It is no
little thing to stand in the truth. You may have stoodon some rare evening
upon a mountain top. The mists had been lifted from the valleys, the villages,
etc., were etchedon the map before you; on the far horizon sea and sky met,
the few lingering clouds showedtheir upper edges turned to gold, while the
whole air seemedto have become some clearcrystalto let the sun shine
through. So it is to stand in the truth, and to do so were worth the effort of a
lifetime. So without long climbing Jesus stood.

2. Thus more is meant than is suggestedto us by "stand fastin the truth."
Men may only mean by that — Be obstinate on our side, standing steadfastly
in some limited conceptionof truth; or merely to stand where we are without
inquiring how the mind is to find its place, sure, serene, and sunny in the
truth; or when men are debating it may be some battle call to fight for some
truth at the expense of abiding in all truth.
3. Jesus shows the real thing to be desired in our anxiety to stand in the truth
— the truth must be in us. Having no truthfulness within the Evil One lost his
standing in the truth of God's universe without. This extremest case illustrates
the whole process ofdescentof some from truth.
I. THIS UNIVERSE IS A MORAL UNIVERSE AND A MAN TO STAND IN
IT MUST BE MORALLY SOUND. An immoral man can have no permanent
standing in a moral universe.
1. There is no untruthfulness, dishonesty, or vice in the constitution of things.
Nature invariably gives the same answer. The creationmade in truth
continues in truth. The oceantides keeptrue time and measure; the sun is
steadfast;Nature throughout is one piece of honest work, and its veracity lies
at the foundation of our industries. Every rail. road is built upon it, and every
man works in faith that earth and sky will keeptheir primal covenant.
2. Now when a man born to stand here takes up some lie into his soul, what
happens? That fate which befell the father of lies. He cannotstand. Suppose a
man conceives a fraudulent thought and says I will succeedin my business
with that fraud in my mind, what is the end? Defaulters behind prison bars
might answer. Defalcationsalways beginin a man himself, sometimes years,
before they begin at the office. The fall beganwhen he let some falsehood
come into his life; when he soughtto keepup an appearance that was not true.
At last men were shockedto discoverthat he stood not in the truth because
the truth was not in him.
3. Perhaps the end has not come yet, and men who are not truthful within
seemto stand as though the universe were in their favour. Nevertheless,
sooneror later, the end of inward untruthfulness is as certain as the law of
gravitation. The moral universe canbe relied upon to throw out eventually

every immoral man. "Without is everyone that loveth and maketh a lie." And
we do not have to wait till the lastday.(1) A man cannotstand long in the
world's credit if the truth of personalintegrity is not in him.(2) A rich or
popular man cannot stand always in goodsocietyif his heart is becoming
rotten — in the end it must casthim out.(3) Even in polities many a leaderhas
not stoodin the truth of the people's final judgment because the truth was not
in him.(4) The same condition pertains to the realm of science. Nature wants
characterin her pupil even when teaching her laws of numbers. Clerk
Maxwell's characterwas part of his fitness for high scientific work.(5)And
certainly this same law has been confirmed over and over againin the history
of literature. What a poetfor the coming years Byron might have been, had
there been in him higher and holier truth!
II. THE UNIVERSE IS A DIVINE UNIVERSE AND NO MAN CAN STAND
IN ITS TRUTH WHO WISHES TO SAY IN HIS HEART, "THERE IS NO
GOD." There is some Divine reality behind all these shifting appearances of
things. There is an expressionof Divine intelligence playing over the face of
Nature. And what is seenand touched is not half of the glory of the kingdom
of God. Faith is standing in this Diviner glory. We would all like to stand in
this truth, but John says, "If a man says, 'I love God,' and hateth his brother,
he is a liar." When a man is thinking a hateful thought, he does not then
believe in God, though he be making an argument to prove one, and saying,
"Lord, Lord!" And it is no avail for any of us to try and believe in God or the
unseen universe simply by thinking about them or discussing their natural
probabilities, unless we are first eagerto have some truth of God in ourselves,
and so by the truth within us find that we stand in the Divine truth of the
world. Live like a brute, and believe like a sonof God? Never. Does any man
want to prove the existence of God? Let bin searchthe book of his life, and if
he finds that he did some truth of God, then find God and worship Him.
III. THIS UNIVERSE IS A CHRISTIAN UNIVERSE, AND IF A MAN HAS
NOT THE SPIRIT OF CHRIST, HE CANNOT STAND IN ITS FULL,
FINAL CHRISTIANITY. All things were made by Christ, and in Him all
things consist. The universe is Christian because createdforChrist, and
reaching its consummationin Him; because Godhas shown Himself to be
Christian in His eternal thought and purpose towards the world, and because

its last greatday shall be the Christian judgment. Hence if we would stand in
this full and final truth, we must have some Christian truth in us which shall
answerto the Christian characterof the universe. If we should fail of this,
how could we hope to stand when whatever is not Christian must eventually
be castout, for Christ must reign until all enemies be put under His feet. Sin
must go, and death, and all uncharitableness, and all deceit, to make room for
a new heaven and a new earth.
(NewmanSmyth, D. D.)
He is a liar and the father thereof
S. S. Times.
Lying is well-nigh universal in the East. It is not only practised, but its wisdom
is defended by Orientals generally. "Lying is the saltof a man," saythe
Arabs. The Hindoos say that Brahma lied when there was no gain in lying;
and so far they are ready to follow Brahma's example. Yet Orientals recognize
the truth that lying is essentiallysinful, howevernecessaryit may seem. The
Arabs today will trust a Christian's word when they would not believe each
other. They also admit that a liar cannotlong prosper. And the Hindoos have
a saying that the telling of a lie is a greatersin than the killing of a Brahman.
It was an appeal to the innermost consciences ofHis Oriental hearers when
Jesus chargedthem with showing in their practice that they were children of
the father of lies.
BecauseI tell you the truth, ye believe Me not
F. Godet, D. D.
Generally, the reasonwhy a man is believed is that he speaks the truth. But
the experience ofJesus was, in the case ofthe Jews, the opposite. They were so
ruled by the lies with which their father had blinded their hearts, that it was
just because He spoke the truth that He obtained no credence from them.
The rationale of unbelief

D. Thomas, D. D.
I. REPUGNANCETO THE TRUTH (ver. 45). Had He given them popular
dogmas or speculative disquisitions, they might have believed Him; but He
gave them truth that addresseditself with imperial force to their central
being. They were living in falsehood, appearances, andshams, far awayfrom
the awful regionof spiritual realities. The truth came in direct collisionwith
their prepossessions, pride, interests, habits; and they would not have it. This
repugnance —
1. Reveals man's abnormal condition. His soul is as truly organized for truth
as his eyes for light. Truth is its natural atmosphere, scenery, food.
2. Suggestshis awful future. The souland truth will not always be kept apart.
The time must come when the intervening falsehoods shallmelt away and the
interspacing gulfs bridged over, and when the soul shall feel itself in conscious
contactwith moral realities.
II. THE PURITY OF CHRIST (ver. 46). Christ is the Truth, and His
invincible intolerance of all sin repels the depraved heart. "Menlove
darkness," etc. The first beams of the morning are not half so repulsive to a
burglar as the rays of Christ's truth are to a depraved heart. Purity makes the
hell of depravity.
III. ESTRANGEMENT FROM GOD (ver. 47). Divine filial sympathies are
essentialto true faith. The more a child loves his parent, the more he believes
in his word. Unregenerate men have not this sympathy, hence their unbelief.
They do not like to retain God in their thoughts. "He that loveth not knoweth
not God."
IV. PRIDE OF INTELLECT (ver. 48). They had said this before, and here
they pride themselves on their sagacity. "Saywe not well?" Are we not
clever? What an insight we have into character!Infidels have ever been too
scientific to believe in miracles, too philosophic to require a revelation, too
independent to require Christ, too moral to need inward reformation. "Say
we not well?" is their spirit. It comes out in their books, lectures, converse,
daily life. "We are the wise men, and wisdom will die with us." This pride is

essentiallyinimical to true faith. "Whosoevershallnot receive the kingdom of
God as a little child," etc.
V. UNCHARITABLENESS OF DISPOSITION (ver. 48). Suppose He was a
Samaritan, are they all bad? Yes, said they, and because thou art a Samaritan
thou hast a devil. This uncharitable reasoning has ever characterized
infidelity. All Christians are hypocrites, all preachers crafty mercenaries, all
churches nurseries of superstition; hence we will have nothing to do with it.
(D. Thomas, D. D.)
Which of you convincethMe of sin?
The Christ of history the revelationof the perfect man
ArchdeaconFarrar.
This sinlessnessofJesus stands alone in history in that —
I. JESUS CLAIMED IT FOR HIMSELF. Even those who have rejectedHis
Divinity admit that He was preeminently holy; yet no ether man has ever
claimed or had claimed for him this sinlessness. Onthe contrary, in
proportion to a man's saintliness he realizes the exceeding sinfulness of sin. It
is the guiltiest who do not feelguilt. The cry of the sin-wounded heart is
wrung from a David, not from a Herod; from a Fenelon, not from a Richelieu.
We hear its groaning in the poems of a Cowper, not of a Byron; in the
writings of a Milton, not of a Voltaire. That Jesus should have claimed to be
sinless, and to have actedall through on that assumption, cannever be
explained except upon the ground of His Godhead. Ii He were not sinless and
Divine, He would be lowerthan His saints, for then He would have made false
claims, and been guilty of presumptuous and dishonouring self-exaltation.
II. THIS CLAIM HAS NOT AND CANNOT BE IMPUGNED.
1. The Jews could not meet His challenge. It was not from want of desire.
There is a vein of natural baseness in fallen natures which delights in dragging
down the loftiest. Whom has not envy striven to wound? And has it not ever

been at the very highestthat the mud is thrown? Even , , Whitefield, did not
escape the pestilent breath of slander. Yet, though Jesus lived in familiar
intercourse with publicans and sinners, not even His deadliestenemies
breathed the leastsuspicionof His spotless innocence.Theysaid, in their
coarse rage,"Thouart a Samaritan," etc., but none said, "Thou art a sinner."
"Have nothing to do with that just Man," exclaimedthe Roman lady. "I find
no fault in Him," declaredthe bloodstained Pilate. "There is no harm in
Him," was the practicalverdict of Herod. "This Man has done nothing
amiss," moanedthe dying malefactor. "I have shed innocent blood," shrieked
the miserable Judas. His most eageraccusersstammeredinto self-refuting
lies; and the crowds around the cross, smiting on their breasts, assentedto the
cry of the heathen centurion, "Truly this was the Son of God."
2. Subsequent ages have concededthis sinlessness.The fierce light of unbelief
and angerhas been turned upon His life, and the microscope ofhistorical
criticism and the spectrum analysis of psychological inquiry, without finding
one speck onthe white light of His holiness. The Talmud alludes to Him with
intensestindignation, yet dares not invent the shadow of a crime. Outspoken
modern rationalists seemas they gaze at Him in dubious wonder to fall
unbidden at His feet. Spinoza sees in Him the best symbol of heavenly wisdom,
Kant of ideal perfection, Hegelof union betweenthe human and the Divine.
Rousseausaidthat, if the death of Socrateswas that of a sage, the death of
Jesus was that of a God. His transcendent holiness moved the flippant soul of
Voltaire. Strauss wrote whole volumes to disprove His Divinity, yet he calls
Him "the highest objectwe can imagine with respectto religion; the Being
without whose presence in the mind religion is impossible." Comte tried to
find a new religion, yet made a daily study of the "Imitation of Christ." Renan
has undermined the faith of thousands, yet admits "His beauty is eternal, and
His reign will never end." How canall this admiration be justified if He, of all
God's children, claimed a sinlessnesswhich, if He were not Divine, was a sin to
claim?
III. MIGHT NOT HIS VOICE ASK US ACROSS THE CENTURIES, "TO
WHOM WILL YE LIKEN ME AND SHALL I BE EQUAL?" I do not ask
what religion you would prefer to Christianity. Christianity is the true
religion, or there is none. No man would dream of matching the best thoughts

of the world's greatestthinkers, or the highest truths of the best religion, with
Christianity. Not, certainly, the senile proprieties of Confucianism, the dreary,
negatious, and perverted bodily service of Buddhism, or the mere retrograde
Judaism of the Moslem;and if not these, certainly no other.
1. But compare the founders of these religions with our Lord, The personality
of Sakya Mouni is lost in a mass of monstrous traditions; but his ideal, as far
as we candisentangle it, was impossible and unnatural. The life of Confucius
is tainted with insincerity; and he not only repudiated perfection, but placed
himself below other sages.Mohammedstands self-condemnedof adultery and
treachery. Socratesand Marcus Aurelius were the noblestcharacters of
secularhistory, but those who know them best confess that the golden image
stands on feet of clay.
2. If you turn to sacredhistory, which will you choose to compare with Him
whom, in dim Messianic hope, they saw afar off? Adam? but he lost us
Paradise. Moses?but he was not suffered to enter the promised land. David?
but does not the ghostof Uriah rise again?
3. But are there not in the long Christian centuries some as sinless as He, since
they have had His example to follow and His grace to help? Look up to the
galaxy of Christian examples, and it is but full of stars, of which eachone
disclaims all glory save such as it derives from the sun. Many have caught
some one bright colour, but in Him only you see the sevenfoldperfection of
undivided light. And none have been able to appreciate the many sided glory.
All see in Him the one excellence they most admire. The knights saw in Him
the model of all chivalry, the monks the model of all asceticism, the
philosophers the source of all enlightenment. To FenelonHe was the most rapt
of mystics, to Vincent de Paul the most practicalof philanthropists, to an
English poet "The first true gentlemanthat ever breathed." His life was the
copy over which was faintly tracedthe biography of all the greatestsaints, but
eachof them presented but a pale image of His Divine humanity. The wisdom
of apostles, the faith of martyrs, the self-conquestof hermits, were but parts of
Him. In the tenderness of Francis, the thunderings of Savonarola, the strength
of Luther, the sincerity of Wesley, the zeal of Whitefield, the self-devotion of
Howard, we but catchthe single gleams of His radiance. His life was not the

type of any one excellence, but the consummation of all. No mind has been
large enough to comprehend its glorious contradictions — its clinging
friendship and its sublime independence; its tender patriotism and
humanitarian breadth; its passionate emotionand unruffled peace;its
unapproachable majesty and childlike sweetness.
IV. WE HAVE NOT FOUND HIS EQUAL — CAN WE IMAGINE OR
INVENT IT? Has this everbeen done? The greatestpoets and thinkers have
striven to picture characters faultlesslyideal. Have they — Homer, Sophocles,
Virgil, Dante, Shakespeare,Milton — done so? No. Why? Because the ideal of
every man must be stainedmore or less with his own individuality, and
therefore imperfection. Had the evangelists invented the characterof Jesus, it
must have been so in their case, too. Christtranscends the utmost capacityof
the combined apostles. In the apocryphal gospels invention and forgery were
at work — and with what result? The "Imitatio Christi" is a precious and
profound work, yet even that realizes but one phase of the Redeemer's
holiness.
(ArchdeaconFarrar.)
The perfectcharacterof Jesus Christ
D. Trinder, M. A.
The persons thus challengedwould have been glad enough to acceptthe
challenge had the leasthope existedof their being able to convict of sin, or
even of fault, one whom they so thoroughly hated. Surely in no respectwere
the agedSimeon's words more true respecting our Lord than this: Christ's
moral and religious characteris "a light to lighten the Gentiles and the glory
of God's people Israel."
1. In the first place, we may notice its gradual even growths. Like the gentle
unfolding the bud or blossomof a tree, even in spite of obstacles, Jesus went
on from day to day, and year to year, showing more and more of that inward
perfection of heart and mind which won for Him the approbation first of His
earthly guardians, then of His Heavenly Father, and, in the end, of those who

condemned and executedHim. What, we ask, was the one quality which
marks every period of His life, and which securedthis marvellous agreement
in His praise and favour? It was innocence — simple, guileless, childlike
innocence. He is everywhere, and at all times the same, "in malice a child,"
"the Lamb of God," gentle, pure, and innocent. But with this innocence, this
simplicity, what strength, what manliness, what courage are combined! In
word and deed, in teaching and in conduct, the tenderest soulthat ever drew
the breath of heaven, the man whom children loved, and the common people
delighted to listen to, and the sick welcomed, and publicans and sinners were
attractedby; was also forwardand energetic in action, unceasing in labour,
inured to hardship, bold in declaring truth, uncompromising in speech,
fearless in opposing wrong. How are we to accountfor this remarkable union
of qualities which generalexperience has shownto be so rare that men had
come to think it incredible? Next to this comes anotherand a deeperaspectof
this part of His characteronthe side of religion. For
2. whereas in all ordinary casesrepentance forms a greatpart of religion,
Jesus owns to no sin, breathes no word of repentance, and on no occasion
expresses,howeverfaintly, the leastconsciousnessofimperfection in His
relations and behaviour towards GodHis Father. Advancing a step, we shall
be able to observe how there is exhibited in the personand character, the
works and teaching of Jesus Christ, a kind of universality, which connects
Him with mankind generally. By race He is a Jew, rearedup in the traditions
and hopes of Israel, bred up from infancy to Jewishcustoms, steepedin the
spirit of Hebrew literature; nevertheless, He does not reflectthe peculiar
dispositions of the Jew. But in Him there blend all the common traits of
humanity. The Gentile finds his true ideal in Jesus Christ equally with the
Jew. And, what is more, the men of every race and clime, and of every degree
of culture and civilization not only may, but have regarded and do regard
Him as their own, recognize Him as their brother, and follow Him as their
guide. Nor ought we to forgetthe words which Christ Himself has spoken
respecting His proper relation to mankind in general;words which, while they
give emphasis to that aspectof His moral characterand teaching which I have
dwelt upon, do in effectstate claims of the widest extent (see John 6:51; John
8:12; John 12:32; John 14:6; John 16:28; John 17:3; Matthew 10:37;Matthew

11:28). Now these sayings, with many others of like nature, have a two-fold
bearing. In the first place, they assertclaims so exalted, so imperial, so
exacting, that nothing short of the most literal and entire correspondence, in
fact, can be admitted in justification of their being laid down. Either they are
simply, literally, exactly, and absolutely true, or they must be regardedas the
ravings of a maniac or the blasphemies of an impostor. They canonly be true
on condition that the utterer is truly a Divine person. On the other hand, such
sayings, being at the time of their utterance entirely novel in themselves and
admitted to be hard to accept, must certainly have excitedin the minds of all
who heard them a keencuriosity respecting the private life and characterof
Jesus, both amongstHis disciples and His opponents. And both these classes
enjoyed abundant opportunities for scrutiny. What, then, is the result? All the
watching of His adversaries candetectno flaw in His life or conversation. The
banquet hall and the synagogue, the mountain top and the seashore, the
market and the Temple, are searchedin vain for a just recordagainstHim.
On the contrary, the better He is knownby His friends, the more highly is He
appreciated. That familiarity which scorchesand shrivels so many reputations
in the estimate of those who are admitted to close intimacy left His untouched
with damage. No little weaknessestook offthe edge of His grand public
discourses. No infirmities of temper loweredHis just claims to men's admiring
homage. He shared human pain but not human impatience. A calm evenness
of soul accompaniedHim everywhere, the offspring not so much of self-
restraint as of a perpetual sunshine beaming with love and devotion. Hardship
fails to ruffle Him. The most factious oppositionprovokes Him indeed to a
holy severity, but a severity entirely free from personalresentment or
bitterness. The terrible knowledge thatone of His own chosencompanions is
ready to betray Him haunts and oppresses His spirit, but He has no
threatenings. Even the tortures of the cross extractedno complaints from
those sacredlips, but only prayers for His murderers, and the cry of His
extreme desolationis blended with a holy confidence and subsides into hopeful
resignation. Looking back upon this poor outline of the characterof Jesus
Christ, we are entitled to ask of all who admit the facts, How do you account
for such a phenomena? under what classificationwillyou bring it? Is it of the
earth, earthy? or is it superhuman, supernatural, heavenly? The Catholic
Church, with her doctrine of incarnation, points to her Lord's character, as

delineated in the Gospels, with triumphant certainty. All who share that belief
experience no difficulty in discerning a Divine personality through the veil of
His human perfection. Jesus is Divine.
(D. Trinder, M. A.)
Does Christ here assertHis own sinlessness
W. S. Wood, M. A.
The doctrine of Christ's sinlessnessrests onfoundations far too strong to be
shakenby the removal of one stone which has been generallysupposed to
form part of them. When we read concerning Jesus (2 Corinthians 5:21;
Hebrews 4:15; Hebrews 7:26; 1 John 3:5), what need have we to demand
further documentary demonstration of a truth so explicitly stated, and so
implicitly believed by every genuine Christian? It has been held, however,
with considerable unanimity that in this passageChristHimself bears witness
to, and calls upon His adversaries, the Jews, to impugn, if they can, that
sinlessnessofHis. Yet I would submit that this is not the meaning of our
Lord's question. The whole argument is concerned, not with action, but with
speech. In ver. 43, Jesus says:"Why do ye not apprehend My language?
Becauseye cannot hear My word." Then, describing the devil, He declares:
"There is no truth in him; when he speaks falsehood, he draws out of his own
store, for he is a liar and the father of it (falsehood). But as for Me, because I
say the truth, ye do not believe Me." Then comes the question under
consideration, with the words immediately following (vers. 46, 47):"If I say
truth, why do ye not believe Me? He who is of God hears the words of God;
therefore ye hear not, because ye are not of God." And so the discourse for the
moment closes.And we see that it is the language of Jesus which is on the
rack;that truth which, as God's Prophet, He declares to unwilling ears, and
tries to drive home to sin-hardened hearts. They will not listen to Him that
they may have life. They cannot confute, yet they cavil. Though He tells them
the truth, and they cannot deny it, they wilfully refuse to believe Him, for to
do so was to condemn themselves.

(W. S. Wood, M. A.)
Christ's language about sin
W. S. Wood, M. A.
"Which of you proves Me mistakenin My language about sin?" What had He
said of sin? It is the prophet's place to rouse the conscienceofthe sinner, to
show him his guilt in its true light. And this Jesus had done. He had striven,
alas!for the most part in vain, to clearawaythe film from the eyes and hearts
of these self-righteous, self-deceivedJews, who would have all men to be
sinners save themselves. He had chargedthem, using the pitiless logic of facts,
with being neither true descendants ofupright Abraham, nor genuine
children of God, but in reality the devil's brood, and the natural heirs of his
false and murderous dispositionand designs. Forsin is of the devil; and "the
works of your father ye do" (ver. 41). Moreover, He had spokento them of
sin's necessaryissues. Like an echo of the old prophet's sentence (Ezekiel18:4,
20), had rung out His awful warning, "By (means of) your sin ye shall die";
and "Ye shall die by your sins; for if ye believe not that I am He, ye shall die
by your sins" (vers. 21, 24). But not only had He warned them. He had also
made known to them the one possible means of escape from the threatened
fate (vers. 34-36). Sin brings death in its train. Freedom from sin, and so from
death, is the gift of Jesus Christto all who put their trust in Him. It is with
such declarationas to sin, its nature and genesis, its consequences, its cure,
still sounding in their ears, and their own self-accusing conscienceready,
unless silenced, to bear Him witness, that Christ asks the Jews:Which of you
proves Me wrong in My accountand judgment of sin? If I saytruth, why do
ye not believe Me?" No answerto this appeal is possible. They know that He is
right, but decline to own that they are wrong.
(W. S. Wood, M. A.)
Christ's challenge to the world

Archbishop Trench.
He who was the Word of God never spoke words which involved
consequencesso momentous as these. This challenge was uttered in the
presence ofthose who had known Him from the first; of others who had
walkedup and down with Him every day since His ministry began; of not a
few who were watching for His halting. But one and all were silent. This was
much, but there lay in the challenge not merely a confidence that He had
given no occasionwhichany man could take hold of, but His consciousness
that He had no sin. We cannot suppose that He took advantage of the partial
acquaintance of His hearers with the facts of His life to claim for Himself
freedom from all sin, which prerogative they could not impugn, but which all
the time He knew was not rightfully His own. In this challenge He implicitly
declaredthat, being conformed in everything else to His brethren, He was not
conformed to them in this; that He was holy, harmless, undefiled, and, in the
matter of sin, separate from all his fellow men. He everywhere asserts the
same. He teaches His disciples to say, "Forgive us our trespasses";but no
word implying that He neededforgiveness everescapedHis lips. Many words
and acts, on the contrary, are totally irreconcilable with any such assumption.
He gives His life a ransom for many, which it could not be if a life forfeited.
He forgives sins, and that not in another's name, but in His own. He sets
Himself at the centralpoint of humanity, an intolerable presumption, had He
differed from others only in degree, notin kind. In every other man of
spiritual eminence there reveals itselfa sense of discord and dissatisfaction.
He sees before him heights of which he has fallen infinitely short. If he has
attained to any exemplary goodness, it has only been through failure and
error; he is at best a diamond which, if polished at all, has been polished in its
own dust. And the nobler the moral elements working in any man's life, so
much the more distinct and earnestare confessionsofsin and shortcoming.
But no lightest confessioneverfalls from His lips. There is in Him a perfect
self-complacency. He is, and is perfectly, and has always been, all which He
ought to be, or desires to be. Christ presented Himself to the world as the
absolutely sinless One, demanded to be recognizedas such by all, and bore
Himself as such, not merely to men, but to God.
I. WHAT ARE THE EXPLANATIONS OF THIS? Three only are possible.

1. That He had sin and did not know it. But this sets Him infinitely below the
saints of the New Testament, of whom one of the saintliesthas declared, "If
we say we have no sin we deceive ourselves";below the saints of the Old
Testamentwho cried out with anguish when in the presence of the Holy One;
below any of the sagesofthis world, for which of these has not ownedand
lamented the conflict of goodand evil within him!
2. That consciousofHis identity, in this matter, with other men He concealed
it; nay, made claims on His own behalf which were irreconcilable with this
consciousness;and, setting Himself forth as the exemplar to all other men in
their bearing to God, omitted altogetherthose humiliations which every other
man has felt at the best moments of his life to constitute the truest, indeed the
only, attitude which he can assume in His presence. Youwill hardly admit this
explanation.
3. But then, if you can acceptneither the one nor the other of these
explanations, you are shut up by a blessednecessityto that which the Holy
Catholic Church throughout all the world has accepted, that which it utters in
those words of adorationand praise, "Thou only art holy, Thou only art the
Lord; Thou only, O Christ, with the Holy Ghost, art most high in the glory of
God the Father."
II. THE INEVITABLENESS OF THE CHRISTIAN EXPLANATION.
1. Are any of us prepared to render unto Christ every homage short of this, to
honour Him with an affectionand a reverence yielded to no other, to
recognize Him as nearerto moral perfectionthan every other, with sin
reduced in Him to a minimum, the greatestreligious reformer, the most
original religious genius, the man most taught of God whom the world has
ever seen;but here to stop short. There is no standing ground here. If the
Gospels are a faithful record, and unless in all their main features they are so,
the whole superstructure of Christian faith has no foundation whatever —
they leave no room for any such position as this, halfwaybetweenthe camps
of faith and unbelief, which now divide the world. When the question of
questions, "What think ye of Christ?" presents itself, and will not go without

an answer, you must leave this equivocal position and declare that He was
much more than this, or that He was much less.
2. You will not deny that He said He was much more. If this He was not, then
in saying this, He deceivedothers, or else that He Himself was deceived. But
allowing to Him what you do, you have no choice but to rejectthem both.
Take Him, then, for that which He announcedHimself to be, the one Man who
could challenge all the world, "Which of you conceivethMe of sin?" the one
champion who entering the lists, and having no blot on his own scutcheon, no
flaw in his own armour, could win the battle which every other man had lost;
the one physician who could heal all others, inasmuch as He did not need
Himself to be healed; sole of the whole Adamic race who had a right to say,
"The prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in Me."
(Archbishop Trench.)
The absolute sinlessnessofChrist
Canon Liddon.
1. It has been inferred from the context that "sin" here means intellectual
rather than moral failure. But the word means the latter throughout the New
Testament;and our Lord is arguing from the absence ofmoral evil in Him
generallyto the absence ofa specific form of that evil — viz., falsehood. As
they cannot detectthe one they must not credit Him with the other.
2. It has been also thought that He only challenges the detective powerof the
Jews. Butthe challenge would hardly have been made unless the Speakerhad
been conscious ofsomething more than guiltlessness ofpublic acts which
might be pointed out as in some measure sinful. Sin is not merely a series of
acts which may be measured and dated; it is a particular condition of the will
and its presence is perceptible where there is no act of transgression. Our
Lord then claims to be sinless in a very different sense from that in which a
man might defy an opponent to convict him in a court of law.

3. But is sinlessness possible?It has been affirmed that experience says no, as
does Scripture also. But this is not at variance with the existence ofan
exceptionto the rule. And man's capacityfor moral improvement leads up to
the idea of one who has reachedthe summit. That God should have given man
this capacitypoints to a purpose in the Divine mind of which we should expect
some typical realization. Now —
I. ALL THAT WE KNOW ABOUT OUR LORD GOES TO SHOW THAT
HE WAS SINLESS. The impression that He was so was produced most
strongly on those who were brought into closestcontactwith Him.
1. After the miraculous draught of fishes St. Peterexclaims, "Departfrom me,
for I am" — not a weak and failing, but — "a sinful man." It is not Christ's
powerover nature but His sanctity that awes the apostle. Again, after the
denial, a look from Jesus sufficedto produce the keenestanguish. Had St.
Peterbeen able to trace one sinful trait, he might have felt in the tragedy the
presence ofsomething like retributive justice. It was his conviction of Christ's
absolute purity which filled him with remorse.
2. This impressionis observable in the worldly and time-serving Pilate, in the
restless anxiety of his wife, in the declarationof the centurion, and above all in
the remorse of Judas, who would gladly have found in his three years'
intimacy something that could justify the betrayal.
3. In the hatred of the Sanhedrists the purity of Christ's characteris not less
discernible. It is the high prerogative of goodnessand truth that they cannot
be approachedin a spirit of neutrality. They must repel where they do not
attract. The Pharisees wouldhave treated an opposing teacherin whom there
was any moral flaw with contemptuous indifference. The sinless Jesus excited
their implacable hostility.
4. This sinlessness is dwelt upon by the apostles as an important feature of
their message. St. Peter's earliestsermons are full of it. The climax of
Stephen's indictment was that they had murdered the Just One, the very title
that Ananias proclaimed to the blinded Saul. In his epistles St. Paul is careful
to say that God sentHis Son in the "likeness" ofsinful flesh. St. Peter dwells
on our Lord's sinlessness as bearing on His example and atoning death. In St.

John Christ's sinlessnessis connectedwith His intercession(1 John 2:1); with
His regenerating power(1 John 2:29); with the realmoral force of His
example (1 John 3:7). Especiallyis this sanctity connectedin the Epistle to the
Hebrews with His priestly office. Although tempted as we are it was without
sin. Holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners.
II. THIS SINLESSNESS HAS BEEN SUPPOSED TO BE COMPROMISED.
1. By the condition of the development of His life as man.(1) He learned
obedience by the things that He suffered, and consequentlyit has been argued
must have progressedfrom moral deficiency to moral sufficiency. But it does
not follow that such a growth involved sin as its starting point. A progress
from a less to a more expanded degree ofperfection is not to be confounded
with a progress from sin to holiness.(2)A more formidable difficulty, it is
urged, is presented by the temptation. A bona fide temptation, it is contended,
implies at leasta minimum of sympathy with evil which is incompatible with
perfect sinlessness.Either, therefore, Jesus was not really tempted, in which
case He fails as an example; or the reality of His temptation is fatal to His
literal sinfulness. But the apostles say, "He was tempted in all points without
sin." What is temptation? An influence by which a man may receive a
momentum in the direction of evil. This influence may be an evil inclination
within, or a motive presented from without. The former was impossible in the
case ofChrist; but the motive from without could only have become real
temptation by making a place for itself in the mind. How could that be while
leaving sinlessnessintact? The answeris that an impression on thought or
sense is possible short of the point at which it produces a distinct
determination of the will towards evil, and it is only when this point is reached
that sinlessnessis compromised. So long as the will is not an accomplice the
impressions of the tempter do not touch the moral being, and it is perfectly
clearin both temptations that our Lord's will throughout maintained a steady
attitude of resistance.
2. By particular acts, suchas —(1) His cursing the barren fig tree. But that
our Lord betrayed irritation is disposed of by prophetic characterofthe act
— the tree being a symbol of the fruitless Jewishpeople.(2)His expulsion of
the buyers and sellers from the temple was not the effectof sudden personal

passion, but strictly in the prophetical and theocratic spirit.(3) His driving the
devils into the swine was an interference with the rights of property only on
the denial that Jesus is God's plenipotentiary, and of His right to subordinate
material to moral interests.(4)His relation to Judas, it is said, shows a want of
moral penetration to saynothing of superhuman knowledge;or if not, why
was He chosen? The answeris that Christ was acting as God acts in
providence, not only permitting it but overruling it for final good.
3. By His denial, "Why callestthou Me good," etc. But this was merely a
rejectionof an offhand, unmeaning compliment. God alone is good: but the
Divinity of Jesus is a truth too high for mastery by one whose eyes have not
been turned awayfrom beholding vanity. But Christ again and againplaces
Himself in the position of this "goodGod," and claims man's love and
obedience as such. This claim, indeed, would be unjustifiable unless well
grounded. But the ground of it is His proved sinlessness, andwords and works
such as we should expect a superhuman sinless one to speak and do.
III. THE SINLESS CHRIST SATISFIES DEEP WANTS IN THE HUMAN
SOUL.
1. The want of an ideal. No man can attempt a sculpture, a painting, without
an ideal; and an ideal is no whit more necessaryin art than in conduct. If men
have not worthy ideals, they will have unworthy ones. Eachnation has its
ideals, eachfamily, profession, schoolofthought, and how powerfully these
energetic phantoms of the pastcan control the present is obvious to all. There
is no truer testof a man's characterthan the ideals which excite his genuine
enthusiasm. And Christendom has its ideals, But all these, greatas they are,
fall short in some particular. There is One, only One, beyond them all who
does not fail. They, standing beneath His throne, say, "Be ye followers of us as
we are of Christ"; He, above them all, asks eachgenerationofHis
worshippers and His critics, "Which of you convincethMe of sin?"
2. The want of a Redeemer. He offers Himself as such, but the offer
presupposes His sinlessness. Letus conceive that one sin could be charged
upon Him; and what becomes of the atoning characterof His death? How is it
conceivable that being consciouslyguilty, He should have willed to die for a

guilty world? He offeredHimself without spot to God — the crowning act of a
life which throughout had been sacrificial;but had He been conscious of
inward stain, how could He have dared to offer Himself to free a world from
sin? But His absolute sinlessnessmakes it certainthat He died as He lived, for
others.
3. As our ideal and Redeemer, Christis the heart and focus of Christendom.
(Canon Liddon.)
If I say the truth, why do ye not believe Me?
Nominal Christians -- real Infidels
C. H. Spurgeon.
We mourn over the professedunbelief of the age, but the practical unbelief of
professedChristians is more dangerous and lamentable. This is seenin the
number of theoreticalbelievers who are still an. converted, and in those
ProtestantChurches who say, "The Bible alone is our religion," and yet adopt
practices which are not found in it or which it condemns. To deal with the
former class:
I. THE TEXT SETS FORTHYOUR INCONSISTENCY. Ifyou say,I am not
convertedbecause I do not believe in the mission of Christ and in the
inspiration of Scripture, your position is consistentthough terrible, but where
you believe in both and remain unconverted, your position is extraordinarily
inconsistent. Remember that —
1. Christ has revealedyour need —
(1)Of regeneration.
(2)Of conversion.
(3)Of returning to God. And you believe it all. Why, then, not actupon it?
2. Christ has setforth His claims. He demands:

(1)Repentance — change of mind with reference to sin, holiness, Himself.
(2)Faith which will acceptHim as the sole Saviour and possessorofthe soul.
Are these demands hard? If they be just, why not accede to them?
3. Christ provides the remedy for your soul. He did not preacha gospelout of
the reachof sinners, but a real, ready and available salvation. You profess this
is true. Why not then receive it? The medicine offered will cure you, and you
will not receive it, although you know its healing virtue.
4. Christ reveals the freeness of His grace. You say Yes." Why then stand
shivering and refusing to lay hold? If the gospelwere hedgedwith thorns or
guarded with bayonets, you would do wellto fling yourself upon them, but
when the door is opened and Christ woos you to come, how is it you do not
enter?
5. Christ points out the danger of unregenerate souls. No preacherwas everso
awfully explicit on future punishment. You do not suspectHim of
exaggeration. Why then do ye not believe Him? Ye do not; that is clear. You
would not sit so quietly if you really believed that in an instant you might be in
hell.
6. Christ has brought life and immortality to light. What glowing pictures
does the Word of God give of the state of the blessed. You believe that Jesus
has revealedwhat eye hath not seen, etc. If you believed it you would strive to
enter into the straightgate. If Christ's word be no fiction, how can you remain
as you are?
II. YOU OFFER SOME DEFENCE OF YOUR INCONSISTENCY, BUT IT
DOES NOT MEET THE CASE.
1. "I do not feel myself entitled to come to Christ, because I do not feelmy
need as I should." This is no excuse. In matters relating to the body we feel
first, and then believe. My hand smarts, and therefore I believe it has been
wounded. But in soul matters we believe first and feel afterwards. A mother
cannot feelgrief for the loss of her child till she believes she has lost it, and it is
impossible for her to believe that and not to weep. So if you believed in your

heart sin to be as dreadful as God says it is, you would feelconviction and
repentance necessary.
2. "I do not see how faith can save me." Here, again, is no excuse. Who says
that faith saves? The Bible says Christ saves whomfaith accepts.
3. You think the goodthings promised too goodto be true; that conscious of
being a lost sinner you have not the presumption to believe that if you were to
trust Christ now you would be forgiven. What is this but to think meanly of
God? You think He has but little mercy, whereas the Book whichyou allow to
be true tells you that "though your sins be as scarlet," etc.
4. You are not quite sure that the promise is made to you. But God did not
send you the Bible to play with you, and do not the invitations say,
"Whosoeverwill?"
5. You will think of this, but the time has not yet come. If you believed as the
Bible describes that life is short, death certain, and eternity near, you would
cry out, "Lord, save, or I perish."
III. THE REAL REASON WHY SOME DO NOT BELIEVE (ver. 45). Some
of you do not believe the truth.
1. Simply because it is the truth. Some make it because it is too severe, e.g.,
"Whatsoevera man soweth, that shall he also reap."
2. The Pharisees hatedGod's truth deliberately. You say, "I do not do that."
But how long does it take to make an action deliberate. Some of you have
heard the gospelforty years, and prove that you hate the truth by living in sin.
You, young man, were impressedthe other Sunday that you must yield to
God. A companion meets you, and you did deliberately chooseyour own
damnation when you chose sin.
3. But the Pharisees scoffedatit. Yes; and is your silent contempt any better.
Conclusion:If these things be true, why not believe in them? What hinders?
(C. H. Spurgeon.)

The courage and triumph of truth
H. H. Dobney.
Truth has nothing to fear from the fullest investigation. Error may well
deprecate all searching and sifting processes;but truth, like gold, can not only
stand any fitting test, but welcome it. He who fears for Truth has scarcelyso
much as gazedon her majestic countenance, nor does he know the might of
that more than diamond mirror which she flashes on the mental eye that is
not willingly closedto her light. Give but a fair field, and then when Truth
and Error encounter, what loyal heart canfear for the result.
(H. H. Dobney.)
Conditions of belief of the truth
F. W. Robertson, M. A.
The condition of arriving at truth is not severe habits of investigation, but
innocence of life and humbleness of heart. Truth is felt, not reasonedout; and
if there be any truths which are only appreciable by the acute understanding,
we may be sore at once that these do not constitute the soul's life.
(F. W. Robertson, M. A.)Some men are physically incapacitatedfor perceiving
the truth. A man who is colourblind, e.g., is unable to distinguish the red rays
of the spectrum. A danger signalon the railway would convey no warning to a
man so constituted, and a rose for him would have little beauty. There is an
analogue to this in the moral world. While the converted man perceives the
warning of God's judgments and the beauty of the Rose ofSharon, the
carnally-minded perceives neither.
The need of spiritual insight to the discernment of the truth
J. Parker, D. D.

"Any tyro can see the facts for himself if he is provided with those not rare
articles — a nettle and a microscope."These words are Mr. Huxley's. But
why the microscope? Suppose the tyro should be provided with a nettle only?
These inquiries point in a direction which materialists are not willing to
pursue. The introduction of the microscope is an admissionthat even the
keenesteyes cannotsee certainsubstances,forms and movements, and great
store must be setby it. It requires in material investigationpreciselywhat is
demanded in spiritual inquiry. Suppose anyone should insist upon examining
the nettle without the aid of the microscope, andshould declare that he is
unable to verify Mr. Huxley's observations. Mr. Huxley would properly reply
that the inner structure and life of the nettle could not be seenby the naked
eye for they are microscopicallydiscerned. Nor canthe inquirer into spiritual
truth discern and understand without a spiritual organadapted to the
investigation.
(J. Parker, D. D.)
Love of the truth essentialto its reception
J. Parker, D. D.
To whom will nature reveal herself? To the clownor the poet? The poet gets
something out of "the meanestflower that blows." The wise man hears music
in the wind, the stream, the twitter of birds. What does the clown hear, or the
sordid man? Noises — tongues unknown and uninterpreted. Nature says
preciselywhat Christ says:"I will manifest myself to Him that loveth me."
(J. Parker, D. D.)
Unbelief, its cause
T. Carlyle.
Scepticismis not intellectual only, it is moral also — a chronic atrophy and
disease ofthe whole soul. A man lives by believing something, not by debating

and arguing about many things. A sadcase for him when all he can manage to
believe is something he canbutton in his pocket — something he caneat and
digest. Lower than that he will not get.
(T. Carlyle.)
The folly of unbelief
H. W. Beecher., C. C. Liddell.
What would you think if there were to be an insurrection in a hospital, and
sick men should conspire with sick men, and on a certain day they should rise
up and rejectthe doctors and nurses? There they would be — sicknessand
disease within, and all the help without! Yet what is a hospital comparedto
this fever-ridden world, which goes on swinging in pain through the centuries,
where men say "we have gotrid of the Atonement and the Bible?" Yes, and
you have rid yourselves of salvation.
(H. W. Beecher.)Canyou tell me anything about the revision of the Bible?
askedan intelligent working man the other day. "BecauseI've been told
they're taking out all the contradictions in it." The same man another day
expressedhis inaptitude for faith in these words:"Why, to look at them stars
and think they're all worlds, and to believe there's something beyond all that
again— it's more than I can believe." Could the attitude of unbelief have
expresseditself better? The very sight that to some minds forces home the
conviction that a God exists — the sight of the star-sownfields of heaven —
was to this man only a stumbling block and rock of offence.
(C. C. Liddell.)
He that is of God heareth God's words
Family Churchman.
I. HEARING GOD'S WORDS. Whatis implied?

1. Attention of the body.
2. Intention of the mind.
3. Retentionof the memory.
II. NOT HEARING GOD'S WORDS.
1. Some defiantly refuse to come where they may hear.
2. Others intend to disregard, loving the present world (2 Timothy 4:10).
3. Others hear for a while, but continue not in well doing.
(1)Truth is rejected, but it does not keepsilence.
(2)Truth is reviled, but it wearies not.
(3)Truth is persecuted, but it does not yield.
III. THE TEST. "Notof God." "OfGod."
1. He loves God, and so loves His Word.
2. He is in sympathy with the Word, and so delights to hear it.
3. He wants to obey the Word, and so listens to it. But the carnal mind cannot
receive the things of God. The Word rebukes him, threatens him; he hates it.
(Family Churchman.)
The hearerof God's Word
J. Slade, M. A.
The word "hear" signifies serious attention and regard (Matthew 17:5;
Leviticus 16:29; John 10:3: Revelation2:3). It is clear that all other hearing
must be unprofitable, and in respectto the Word of God condemnatory.
When man speaks, to hear without attending is useless;when God speaks,
sinful.

I. WHO THEY ARE WHO HEAR THE WORD. "He that is of God."
1. All God's true children. Not all who are brought into covenantwith God,
for such were the Pharisees.Holy ordinances do not necessarilyconvey the
continuance of sonship.
2. All who are girded and governedby God's Spirit (Romans 8:14).
3. All who love God (Luke 10:27).
II. ALL SUCH OF NECESSITYHEAR GOD'S WORDS.
1. It is not merely because they know them to be words of wisdom and life,
bringing happiness here and hereafter: there is rooted in their hearts an
intense desire for all goodand holy things, a profound respectfor all that
belongs to God. It would be repugnant to their new nature to do otherwise.
2. Their own mind immediately draws a distinction betweenthe Word of God
and that of man. The latter has to be consideredbefore it is received;the
former permits no consideration.
3. Norcan there be the leastevasionor compromise, no distinguishing
betweengreatand small.
4. There is no consultationof flesh and blood. It is the Word, and that is
sufficient (1 Thessalonians 2:13).
III. THEY WHO ARE NOT OF GOD NECESSARILYNEGLECT GOD'S
WORD.
1. It condemns many worldly pursuits and pleasures, and insists upon self-
denial and the daily cross. Assuredlynone who are not of God will listen to
this, and follow the Lamb whithersoeverHe goeth.
2. They do not understand the nature of spiritual truth; its promises and
threatenings appeal to them in vain (1 Corinthians 2:14).
3. In proportion as men are governedby natural maxims and feelings and
principles, and by their own self-will, they deprive themselves of the capacity
of appreciating God's Word.

(J. Slade, M. A.)
COMMENTARIES
Pulpit Commentary Homiletics
True Spiritual Paternity
John 8:41-47
B. Thomas
Notice -
I. THEIR MISTAKEN SPIRITUAL PATERNITY. "We have one Father,
even God." This in a sense is true.
(1) God was their Father as creatures;
(2) he was their Fatheras a nation;
(3) he was their Fatherstill in his yearning love to save and pity them. But it is
substantially hollow and false, as proved by their conduct towards Christ.
1. They failed to recognize his connectionwith God.
(1) He was the Son of God. "I came forth out of God." He was, in fact, God's
Son, as evidencedby his person and miracles.
(2) He was come on a Divine mission. Come to them, and come on a mission of
love and salvation.
(3) He was divinely sent. "Neithercame I of myself, but he sent me" - he
whom you call your Father.
2. They failed to understand his message. Although

(1) he spoke with Divine authority;
(2) with Divine simplicity;
(3) with Divine importunity and tenderness, so that he could naturally ask the
pretended children of God, "Why do ye not understand my speech?"
3. They failed to believe him and his message. Although:
(1) His characterwas perfect. "Which of you," etc.?
(2) His messagewas truthful. He could challenge them with regardto the
truthfulness of his message, as wellas the perfectionof his character, and both
deservedand demanded attention and faith.
(3) Yet they disbelieved and rejectedhim for the very reasonwhich should
induce them to believe and accepthim. "BecauseI tell you the truth, ye," etc.
4. These sadfailures flatly contradicttheir pretended relationship to God.
(Vers. 42-47.)
II. THEIR TRUE SPIRITUAL PATERNITY. "Ye are of your father," etc.
Look at the picture of the father and the children and their likeness.
1. Look at his murderous propensities.
(1) The devil is a murderer. The murderer of human bodies and souls;the
destroyerof human happiness and the Divine image in man. The Jewish
nation bore this character. From time to time they manifestedmurderous
propensities;they became the murderers of the Messiah, the Son of God and
the Lord of glory.
(2) The devil was a murderer from the beginning. Not the beginning of all
things, nor even the very beginning of his ownexistence, but the beginning of
the human race. His fall precededthat of man, and perhaps the existence of
man; but no soonerhad he perceivedAdam, young, innocent, and loyal in his
happy paradise, than the lust of murder was excitedin his breast, and he fixed
upon man as his victim, and effectedhis foul purpose in the spiritual murder
of our first parents. This was the characterofthe Jews from the beginning,
and the characterof these very persons since the beginning of Christ's earthly

existence. No soonerhad the secondAdam appeared on the scene than they
sought by every means to kill him.
(3) The devil is a most selfish and wilful murderer. This was the case with
regard to our first parents. There was no provocation, no gain beyond the
gratificationof his own selfishness andmalice. This was the case with these
Jews in the murder of their Messiah;they could find no reasonfor it but in
their own dark and selfishhatred.
2. Look at his lying propensities.
(1) The devil is a liar. He is opposedto truth, to all truth, especiallyto the
greatsystem of truth brought to light by Christ. Thus his falsehoodserves
well his murderous opposition to the redeeming truth of the gospel. In this the
heads of the Jewishnation resembled him; they murderously opposedJesus,
and he came to help murder; they bore false witness againsthim.
(2) The devil became a liar by falling from the truth He was in the truth once
and the truth in him, but abode not in it long enough to be morally safe. He
fell wilfully, of his own accord. He is a backslider, and, having fallen from
truth, he had no place to fall but into the whirlpool of falsehood, with all its
concomitantvices. How like their spiritual father were the Jewishnation!
They were born into greatreligious privileges, they had eminent spiritual
fathers, brought up under the watchful care and in the tender lap of a kind
Providence, nursed on the breast of Divine and precious promises, and
familiarized with the idea of a coming Messiah, their Divine Deliverer;but
they abode not in the truth, but wilfully fell into falsehood. It seems as if only
the children of speciallight alone are capable of becoming the veritable
children of the prince of darkness.
(3) The devil as a liar is most complete. "There is no truth in him." He is
completely lostto true, and truth to him; there is not a vestige of it in his
nature. It is so completely gone, that eternal hatred of it now sits on its old
throne, and the very thought of it is repugnant and unbearable. In this how
like their father these children were! Jesus appealedto every sentiment of
virtue and affectionin their breast, but in vain. He exhibited in his life and
characterall that is attractive in human nature, and all that is mighty and

benevolent in the Divine; but all this not only did not excite their admiration
and gratitude, but excited their most deadly hatred, which proves the sad
hollowness and falsity of their character. There was no truth in them.
(4) The devil as a liar is terribly original. "When he speaketha lie, he
speakethofhis own," etc. It is net a passing impulse, the result of temptation,
but the natural outflow, and a part and parcelof his nature. Here the problem
of the existence ofevil is somewhatsolved;we have found its father, its
original propagator. His children partake of his spiritual nature, otherwise
they would not be his children. The days of repentance, struggle, resistance,
and prayer are past; these are days of spiritual generation, and in this case the
result is a progeny of the devil. These Jews were more than under his
influence; they were his progeny. Terribly original, self-responsible,
voluntary, independent and complacentin their sin, they spoke oftheir own;
their falsehoods were their own, and their murderous act was especiallytheir
own, the outflow of their evil nature. "Let his blood be upon us," etc. The
father of murder has not finished with any one till that one carries on business
on his own footing, manufactures his own goods and disposes of them at his
own risk, and does all this naturally. Then his paternity is complete, the
relationship real, and his possessionsafe. This is the lowestpoint of moral
deteriorationreachedin this world.
LESSONS.
1. Man in this world is capable of the highest and the lowestspiritual
affinities. He may partake of the Divine or a devilish nature, may become the
child of God or the child of the devil. Truly we are fearfully and wonderfully
made.
2. Man in this world is capable of the most serious self-deceptionwith regard
to his spiritual paternity. These Jews thoughtthat they were the children of
God, while they were really the children of the devil. Such a self-deceptionis
very characteristic ofhim, whose chief delight is to lie and deceive, and is
perhaps the climax of his evil genius with regard to men. He cares but little
about the name, only let him have the game. Of all self-deceptions this is the
most miserable and disappointing!

3. No one can claim God as his Father who despises and rejects his Son. Our
conduct towards him and his gospeldecides our spiritual fatherhood at once.
4. To Christ our spiritual paternity is quite evident, which he will reveal
sooneror later. And in the light of his revelation this is not difficult for eachto
know for himself.
5. Nothing canexplain the conduct of some men towards Christ and his gospel
but a true statementof their spiritual paternity. Let this be known, and the
sequelis plain.
6. Even the children of the devil condemn him, for they do not like to own him
as their father. State the fact, they are insulted. The alliance must be unholy
and unnatural. Many of them claim God as their Father - the compliment of
vice to virtue. A compulsory admission and a full realization of this
relationship will be painful in the extreme.
7. Let his children remember that they are such by their own choice. For
spiritual generation, for goodor evil, is by and through the will. It is not fate,
but deliberate and voluntary selection. "His lusts it is your will to do." All are
either the children of God or of the devil by their own choice. Hence the
importance of a wise choice. - B.T.

Biblical Illustrator
I speak that which I have seenwith My Father; and ye do that which ye have
seenwith your Father.
John 8:38-47
The marks of Divine and diabolic relationship
J. Fawcett, M. A.
Christ had admitted (ver. 37) that the Jews were the seedof Abraham: He
now proceeds to show that they had another Father. Those who degenerate
from a virtuous stock forfeit the honours of their race. "Theseare your
forefathers if you show yourselves worthy of them."
1. Hatred of the truth (vers. 40, 44-47). This was the realground of their
unbelief. They disliked Christ's doctrines. Had He spokenso as to gratify their
pride, they might have been disposedto acceptHim. The same principle
operates in all opponents of the gospel. The tendency of Christ's truth is still
to humble, and so it is still hated. The Jews said, "We are Abraham's seed;we
are no idolaters." And so many think it sufficient to belong to a pure Church,
to be outwardly moral; hence where the necessityof Christ and His salvation?

2. Doing the works ofAbraham. His distinguishing work was faith. He
practicalfaith it was!Obedient, he left his father's house and offeredhis only
God.
3. Loving Christ —(1) Becausethe Fatherloves Him. Can the children of God
do otherwise than love whom their Father loves.(2)Forwhat He is in Himself
— the altogetherlovely.
(J. Fawcett, M. A.)
Abraham is our father If ye were Abraham's children, ye would do the works
of Abraham.
Abraham believed God; they disbelievedGod's testimony on behalf of Christ.
men.

Bp. Lake.
not to the covenant, but to the Jew (Romans 2:25-29;Galatians 3:9, 29).
(Bp. Lake.)
D. Gregg.
standing. The Jews were notthe children of Abraham's goodqualities; they

acquainted with Paul's life through his words, we find it full to overflowing
carnalviews of the Christian's privileges and of the Christian's Christ. Now
Christian life? To the free Christian, every. thing is a privilege; church going,
they are privileges. Privileges are duties transfigured.
(D. Gregg.)
J. L. Hurlbut, D. D.
I. THE CHILDREN OF GOD (vers. 31-36). Whatdo these verses teachus

1. They believe in Christ (ver. 3). To believe in Christ is more than simply to
conclude in a generalway that He is worthy of credence. It means belief,
2. They abide in Christ's word (ver. 31). They manifest their faith by their
fidelity. There is no "six weeks'religion" during a warm revival, dropping
3. They know the truth (ver. 32). The word in the original for "know" is the
verb meaning "to have full knowledge." He who learns the truth by fellowship
4. They have freedom (vers. 32-36). Everysinner is a slave, for a power
outside of himself directs his action. The drunkard says, "I can't help myself;
an appetite drives me to drink." The passionate mansays, "I am not my own
master when I getangry." Are they not slaves to a powerabove their own
concerning the existence of God. The traits of Satan's children, as here set
forth, are —
1. They are slaves (vers. 33-36).
2. They are enemies of Christ (ver. 37). These slaves ofSatanwere ready to
kill Christ.
3. They show a likeness to their father (vers. 39-44). These Jews claimedto be
the children of Abraham. "Notso," saidJesus. "If you were the children of
father, the devil."
4. They have no affinity with God. (vers. 45-47). They do not like God's truth
(ver. 45); they will not hear God's words (ver. 47). Just as oil and water will

not mix, so the children of Satan have an aloofness ofnature with respectto
God.
(J. L. Hurlbut, D. D.)
J. Trapp.
It was poor comfort to Dives, in flames, that Abraham calledhim "son";to
Judas that Christ calledhim "friend"; or to the rebellious Jews that God
calledthem His people.
(J. Trapp.)
Now ye seek to kill Me
F. Godet, D. D.
Notice here the gradation.
1. To kill a man.
3. Of the truth which comes from God.
(F. Godet, D. D.)

in another direction, said, "Thatis the way to the water";but they answered
and mockedthem. One by one they died — far from the path on which their
S. Charnock.
heart of flesh, sucks in the dew of the Word, and grows thereby.
(S. Charnock.)
Men hate the truth
Senhouse., R. Smith.
reprove their own errors.
(Senhouse.)The thief hates the break of day; not but that he naturally loves
the light as well as other men, but his condition makes him dread and abhor
that which, of all things, he knows to be the likeliestmeans of his discovery.
(R. Smith.)

J. Fletcher.
that he cried out," I have found it, I have found it!" what pleasure must the
discoveryof a Divine truth give to a sanctified soul! "Thy words wore found
of me," says Jeremiah, "and I did eat them; and Thy word was to me the joy
and rejoicing of my heart." Truth lies deep, as the rich veins of gold do: if we
will getthe treasure, we must not only beg, but dig also.
(J. Fletcher.)
We be not born of fornication
F. Godet, D. D., T. Whitelaw, D. D.
The Jews, having nothing effectualto object, take advantage of the moral
sense in which Jesus had spokenof parentage, and try to cite it in their own
favour: If Thou wilt have it so, we will leave off speaking ofAbraham; for
after all in that spiritual sphere, of which it seems Thouart thinking, God is
our Father. To understand these words, which have been so variously
interpreted, it must be remembered that marriage with a heathen woman was,
after the return from Babylon (see Nahum and Malachi), regardedas impure,
and the children of such marriage as illegitimate, as belonging through one
parent to the family of Satan, the godof the heathen. The Jews, then, meant to
say: "We were born under perfectly legalconditions;we have no idolatrous
blood in our veins; we are Hebrews, born of Hebrews (Philippians 3:5), and
are hence by our very birth protectedfrom all paganand diabolic affiliation."
As truly as they are pure descendants of Abraham, so certainly do they
believe themselves to be descended, in a moral point of view, from God alone;
and even when rising with our Lord to the moral point of view, they are
incapable of freeing themselves from their own idea of natural parentage.

patriarch with Hagar — which, however, could scarcelybe called
"fornication" — or from Sarah through another man than her lawful
husband; but are probably to be understood as asserting that their pure
Abrahamic descenthad been corrupted by no admixture of heathen blood, or
better, that their relation of sonship to Jehovahhad not been rendered impure
by the worship of false gods, in which case they had been "children of
whoredom" (Hosea 2:4), but that, as they were physically Abraham's seed, so
were they spiritually God's children. This interpretation seems to be
demanded by the next words:"We have one Father evenGod." By this they
signified, not that "God alone" in opposition to heathen divinities was their
Father, but that spiritually as well as corporeally, they traced their descent
back to one parentage, as in the latter case to Abraham, so in the former case
to God (Malachi2:10).
(T. Whitelaw, D. D.)
C. H. Spurgeon.
God, and the proof of our sonship is loving what God loves — Christ.
—
perfume, nor the most dainty flavour delight the palate. But. it is infinitely

3. A clearproof that the whole manhood is out of order.(1) The
understanding, were it well balanced, would judge that Christ is before all,
and give Him the preeminence.(2)If the heart were what it should be it would
love the good, the true, the beautiful, and nothing is more so than Jesus.
4. A sure tokenthat we have no part in His salvation.(1)The very first effect
of salvationis love to Jesus.(2)This love is the mainspring of the Spiritual life.
It "constrainethus," and is the grand powerwhich keeps us back from evil
and impels us towards holiness.(3)Without this love we incur the heaviest
condemnation — "If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ," etc.
seedof Abraham, God's chosen, had observedGod's ceremonies, bore the
incurred the greatestobloquy in consequence — yet as they did not love
Christ they were no sons of God.
2. He sees Godin Jesus — the express image of His Person.
4. He is essentiallydivine. "I proceededand came forth," etc.
5. Of His mission —(1) We must love that which comes from God if we love
God. It matters not how small the trifle, you prize it if it comes from someone
you revere. How much more should we love Him who came from God; and
came not as a relic or memorial, but as His living, loving voice.(2)Remember

the messageChristbrought — a message ofpardon, restoration, acceptance,
eternal life and glory.
dries up. But Jesus'aims were entirely for the Father and for us — so our
heart must go out towards Him.
Him or no? If you do then, you will —
Christ-like?
5. Love His people — not because they are sweetin their tempers or belong to
8. Desire to be with Him.
(C. H. Spurgeon.)
C. H. Spurgeon.

say, "I come from your father," why, he would at once feelthe deepest
interest in him. Would you shut your door againstyour father's messenger?
No: but you would say, "Come in, though it be in the middle of the night, I
shall always have an ear for you." Shall we not thus welcome Jesus?
(C. H. Spurgeon.)
C. H. Spurgeon.
love Christ because He came from God!
(C. H. Spurgeon.)
I proceededforth and came from God.
J. Parker, D. D.
and date and occurrences. We wantan inner "life" of thoughts, purposes,
outward.

presently the dead man rises. But how? Is it trick or miracle — an illusion or
a fact? I cannot determine, because my eyes have been so often deceived. I saw
a man getup — but the conjuror comes along and says, "I will show you
something equally deceiving." I see his avowedtrick; it does baffle me; and if
then he says, "It was just the same with what you thought the raising of the
dead," he leaves me in a state of intellectual torment. Then what am I to do?
Leave the outward. Watchthe miracle Worker — listen to Him. If His mental
triumphs are equal to His physical miracles, then admire, trust, and love Him.
Take the conjuror: when on the stage he seems to be working miracles, but
when he comes offand talks on generalsubjects I feel my equality with him
rising and asserting itself. So when I go to Christ as a mere strangerand see
His miracles, I say, "This Man may be but the cleverestof the host." But
when He begins to speak His words are equal to His works. He is the same off
the platform as on. I am bound to accountfur this consistency. All other men
have been manifestations of self-inequality. We know clever men who are
fools, strong men who are weak, etc., andthis want of self-consistencyis a
proof of their being merely men. But if I find a Man in whom this inequality
does not exist, who says that if I could follow Him still higher I should find
Him greaterin thinking than is possible for any mere man to be in acting,
then I have to accountfor this consistency, whichI have found nowhere else,
and listen to His explanation of it. "I proceededforth and came from God."
That explanation alone will coverall the ground He permanently occupies.
host to see them? Never. He regardedthem as elementary and introductory —
of ours, and say, "How wonderful that sighing in the wind!" It is nothing

"Greaterworks than these shall ye do," but never "Greaterthoughts than
these shall ye think." Let us look at this inner life of Christ from two or three
points.
WHAT IS THE IMPELLING SENSE OF HIS DUTY? He answers, "Imust
be about My Father's business." Neverdid prophet give that explanation
before. In working from His Father's point of view, He gives us His key. Put it
that strain? Listen, "My Fatherworkethhitherto and I work." CanHe
sustain that high keywhen He is in trouble? "Father, into Thy hands I
commend my Spirit."
II. Arguing from that point, if this Man is about His Father's business, WHAT
IS HIS SUPREME FEELING? Concernfor the dignity of the law? Jealousy
for the righteousness ofGod! No; from beginning to end of His life He is
"moved with compassion,"and when people come to Him they seemedto
know this sympathetically, for they cried, "Have mercy on us." He speaks like
a Son and is thus faithful to His Father's message.Whatexplanation does He
give of His own miracles, "Virtue hath gone out of Me." He did not say "I
have performed this with My fingers" — no trickster, but a mighty
took "Virtue out of Him." What did the redemption of the world take out of
Him when He said, "My God, My God, why hast Thou forsakenMe?" The
last pulse is gone and He is self — consistentstill.
Not to intellectual ability, skill of finger or physical endurance, but to His soul
— "He shall see of the travail of His soul," etc. You know the meaning of the
word in some degree. One man paints with paint, another with His soul. One
man speaks with his tongue, another with his soul; they are the same words,
but not the same, as the bush was not the same before the fire came into it.
Thus Christ shall see the travail of His soul, etc. He was often weariedwith

journeying, when was He weariedwith miracles? His bones were tired, when
was His mind enfeebled— when did the word ever come with less than the old
emphasis — the fiat that made the sun?
(J. Parker, D. D.)
Christ's claim
J. Parker, D. D.
1. God announcedHimself to Mosesas "I AM" — a marvellous name, which
itself and finished with "THAT I AM," as if the sun were just about to come
before one denser still — God's "hour" was not yet. He had said "I am," but
strength, beauty, sympathy, tenderness, and redemption — "I am the vine."
"I am the Vine," "I am the Light." We know what that is: it is here, there,
everywhere — takes up no room, yet fills all space;warms the plants, yet does
not crush a twig. The "I am" fell upon us like a mighty thundering, "I am the
Light" came to us like a child's lessonin our mother's nursery. "I am the
Door." Thatis not a mean figure, if we interpret it aright, a door is more than
honour, sonship. "I am the Bread, the Water, the GoodShepherd, the Way,
the Truth, the Life." How any man could be a mere man, and yet take up
these figures, it is impossible to believe. It is easierto say"My Lord and My
God."

allowedyou to do it? Surely you would have said, "Partof it; I must not have
it all." And another woman — she might have touched His heart, for she wore
widows'weeds. I expectedHim to say, "Poorsoul, I can take nothing from
you." But He took her two mites — all that she had. He is doing the same to
day. How many things has that only boy been in his father's dreams! One day
the mother feels that something is going to happen, and what does happen is a
would have spared him — but Christ takes him.
REGARD HIM. Here is a typical man — a man of letters and of localrenown
— who says, "Rabbi, Thou art a teachercome from God." Evidence of that
kind must not go for nothing. Send men of another type — shrewd, keenmen
of the world: what say they? "Neverman spake like this Man." Here are
women coming back from having seenthe Lord: what will they say? Neveryet
did womenspeak one word againstthe Son of God! Mothers, womenof pure
souls!sensitive as keenestlife:what saw ye? "The holiness of God." Pass Him
on to a judge — cold, observant, not easilyhoodwinked. What sayestthou? "I
find no fault in Him." What is that coming? A messagefrom the judge's wife,
"Have thou nothing to do with this just person. Let Him go." Crucify Him;
will anybody speak about Him now? The centurion, accustomedto this sight
of blood, said, "Truly this was the Son of God." Put these testimonies of
observers, accumulate them into a complete appeal, and then say whether it
be not easierfor the imagination and judgment and heart to say, "My Lord
and my God," than to use meaner terms.

instantaneousnessaboutHim to which there is no parallel but in the "Let
there be light, and there was light." Give every man credit for ability, and give
this Man credit for having extorted from His enemies, "Neverman spake like
this Man."
3. What do I find in Christ's teaching? Incarnations of the Spiritual. He
hence He said, "It is like unto" — To embody the bodiless was the all-
4. Christ's is seminal teaching — that which survives all the changes of time.
stately past.
in actual behaviour. What said He? "Bless them that persecute you." Did He
do it? "When He was reviled He reviled not again." What said He? "Pray for
them that despitefully use you." Did He do it? "Fatherforgive them," etc.
(J. Parker, D. D.)
Ye are of your father the devil.
J. Brown, D. D.
elsewhere "Satan," "the tempter," "the old serpent," "the destroyer," our

irresistible, influence, and hence is termed "the prince," "the godof this
world," etc., who leads men captive at his will. He exerts himself, by his
universe of God.
II. WHAT IS MEANT BY HIS BEING THE JEWS'FATHER. The term is
under a diabolical influence; and instead of being formed in God's likeness, or
and man.
III. WHAT IS IT TO BE OF THE DEVIL? "Of" expresses a relationof
property. To be "ofthe world," is to be the world's own. "The world loves its
own " — those who are "ofit." To be "of God," or "God's," is to belong to
God, to be God's property and possession. To be "ofChrist," or "Christ's," is
to belong to Him. To be "of the devil," or "the devil's," is to belong to him, to
important sense, God's property. The devil himself is God's, subject to His
and all who possessthe same character, are the property of the wickedone,""

yielding themselves his slaves. It is as if our Lord had said, "Ye saythat ye are
God's peculiar people, but ye are really the devil's self-soldslaves."
IV. WHAT ARE THE LUSTS OF THE DEVIL? "Lust" signifies not merely
desire, properly so called, but the object of desire. "The lust of the eye" is a
generalname for those things which, contemplated by the eye, excite desire —
what is splendid or beautiful. "The lusts of the devil" are to be understood in
this way, not of his individual desires or longings — for how could the Jews do
these? — but of the things which are the object of his desires — such as the
establishment and permanence of error, vice, and misery among men —
which, as Milton powerfully expressesit, "evil is the good." To do the things
These things the Jews did — habitually did.
V. WHAT IS IT TO WILL THOSE LUSTS? The term "will" is not here the
mere sign of futurition — it denotes disposition, determination, choice. "Ye
will do the evil things which your infernal father wishes for." It is a phrase of
the same kind as:"If any man will be My disciple" (John 7:17). The Jews
were not merely occasionallyby strong temptation induced to do what is in
accordancewith the devil's desires, but their desires were so habitually
consentaneouswith his, that in seeking to gratify themselves they produced
the result which he desired. They were cheerful servants — voluntary slaves.
(J. Brown, D. D.)
W. Baxendale.
publication of his sermon on the text, "Ye shall not surely die," two reckless
young men having agreedtogetherto try his wit, one of them said, "Father
Haynes, have you heard the goodnews?" "No,"saidMr. Haynes, "whatis
it?" It is greatnews indeed, saidthe other; and, if true, your business is gone.
What is it? againinquired Mr. Haynes. Why, said the first, the devil is dead."

them on the heads of the young men, and in a tone of solemn concern, "Oh,
poor fatherless children! what will become of you?"
(W. Baxendale.)
, Thos. Fuller.
kill King Edmund, his rival; which, when he had performed, and expectedhis
hell. The lusts of your father ye will do. — It is a frightful "will," and as
frightful a "must," which governs the soulof an ungodly man. Such a soul
either is a slave of the "must," or a free agentof the "will"; and the most
fearful feature of all is that it is guilty as being a free agent, and the more
guilty it is so much the more enslaved, and therefore the more it is free to will
by so much the more enslaved.
( Augustine.)Satanhath no impulsive power; he may strike fire till he be
weary(if his malice canweary); except man's corruption brings the tinder,
the match cannot be lighted (Acts 5:4; James 1:13-16).
(Thos. Fuller.)
He was a murderer from the beginning
ArchdeaconWatkins.
He was a murderer from the beginning (comp. Wisd. 2:23, 24; Romans 5:12).
— The Fall was the murder of the human race;and it is in reference to this, of

which the fratricide in the first family was a signal result, that the tempter is
calleda murderer from the beginning (comp. 1 John 3:8-12, where the
thought is expanded). The reference to the murderer is suggestedhere by the
fact that the Jews had been seeking to kill our Lord (ver. 40). They are true to
the nature which their father had from the beginning.
(ArchdeaconWatkins.)
He abode
NewmanSmyth, D. D.
1. This chapter shows Jesus'powerof bringing men out of their fictions of life,
2. Thus more is meant than is suggestedto us by "stand fastin the truth."
Men may only mean by that — Be obstinate on our side, standing steadfastly
in some limited conceptionof truth; or merely to stand where we are without
3. Jesus shows the real thing to be desired in our anxiety to stand in the truth
— the truth must be in us. Having no truthfulness within the Evil One lost his
standing in the truth of God's universe without. This extremest case illustrates

at the foundation of our industries. Every rail. road is built upon it, and every
every immoral man. "Without is everyone that loveth and maketh a lie." And
we do not have to wait till the lastday.(1) A man cannotstand long in the
world's credit if the truth of personalintegrity is not in him.(2) A rich or
popular man cannot stand always in goodsociety if his heart is becoming
rotten — in the end it must casthim out.(3) Even in polities many a leaderhas
not stoodin the truth of the people's final judgment because the truth was not
in him.(4) The same condition pertains to the realm of science. Nature wants
characterin her pupil even when teaching her laws of numbers. Clerk
Maxwell's characterwas part of his fitness for high scientific work.(5)And
certainly this same law has been confirmed over and over againin the history

of literature. What a poetfor the coming years Byron might have been, had
there been in him higher and holier truth!
IN ITS TRUTH WHO WISHES TO SAY IN HIS HEART, "THERE IS NO
GOD." There is some Divine reality behind all these shifting appearances of
this truth, but John says, "If a man says, 'I love God,' and hateth his brother,
he is a liar." When a man is thinking a hateful thought, he does not then
"Lord, Lord!" And it is no avail for any of us to try and believe in God or the
a new heaven and a new earth.
(NewmanSmyth, D. D.)

He is a liar and the father thereof
S. S. Times.
Lying is well-nigh universal in the East. It is not only practised, but its wisdom
is defended by Orientals generally. "Lying is the saltof a man," saythe
Arabs. The Hindoos say that Brahma lied when there was no gain in lying;
and so far they are ready to follow Brahma's example. Yet Orientals recognize
the truth that lying is essentiallysinful, howevernecessaryit may seem. The
Arabs today will trust a Christian's word when they would not believe each
other. They also admit that a liar cannotlong prosper. And the Hindoos have
a saying that the telling of a lie is a greatersin than the killing of a Brahman.
It was an appeal to the innermost consciences ofHis Oriental hearers when
Jesus chargedthem with showing in their practice that they were children of
the father of lies.
BecauseI tell you the truth, ye believe Me not
F. Godet, D. D.
Generally, the reasonwhy a man is believed is that he speaks the truth. But
the experience ofJesus was, in the case ofthe Jews, the opposite. They were so
ruled by the lies with which their father had blinded their hearts, that it was
just because He spoke the truth that He obtained no credence from them.
D. Thomas, D. D.
I. REPUGNANCETO THE TRUTH (ver. 45). Had He given them popular
repugnance —

1. Reveals man's abnormal condition. His soul is as truly organized for truth
II. THE PURITY OF CHRIST (ver. 46). Christ is the Truth, and His
invincible intolerance of all sin repels the depraved heart. "Menlove
darkness," etc. The first beams of the morning are not half so repulsive to a
burglar as the rays of Christ's truth are to a depraved heart. Purity makes the
hell of depravity.
III. ESTRANGEMENT FROM GOD (ver. 47). Divine filial sympathies are
They do not like to retain God in their thoughts. "He that loveth not knoweth
not God."
IV. PRIDE OF INTELLECT (ver. 48). They had said this before, and here
they pride themselves on their sagacity. "Saywe not well?" Are we not
clever? What an insight we have into character!Infidels have ever been too
scientific to believe in miracles, too philosophic to require a revelation, too
independent to require Christ, too moral to need inward reformation. "Say
we not well?" is their spirit. It comes out in their books, lectures, converse,
daily life. "We are the wise men, and wisdom will die with us." This pride is
essentiallyinimical to true faith. "Whosoevershallnot receive the kingdom of
God as a little child," etc.
V. UNCHARITABLENESS OF DISPOSITION (ver. 48). Suppose He was a
Samaritan, are they all bad? Yes, said they, and because thou art a Samaritan
thou hast a devil. This uncharitable reasoning has ever characterized
infidelity. All Christians are hypocrites, all preachers crafty mercenaries, all
churches nurseries of superstition; hence we will have nothing to do with it.
(D. Thomas, D. D.)

ArchdeaconFarrar.
This sinlessnessofJesus stands alone in history in that —
proportion to a man's saintliness he realizes the exceeding sinfulness of sin. It
been at the very highestthat the mud is thrown? Even , , Whitefield, did not
escape the pestilent breath of slander. Yet, though Jesus lived in familiar
intercourse with publicans and sinners, not even His deadliestenemies
breathed the leastsuspicionof His spotless innocence.Theysaid, in their
coarse rage,"Thouart a Samaritan," etc., but none said, "Thou art a sinner."
"Have nothing to do with that just Man," exclaimedthe Roman lady. "I find
no fault in Him," declaredthe bloodstained Pilate. "There is no harm in
Him," was the practicalverdict of Herod. "This Man has done nothing
amiss," moanedthe dying malefactor. "I have shed innocent blood," shrieked
the miserable Judas. His most eageraccusersstammeredinto self-refuting

lies; and the crowds around the cross, smiting on their breasts, assentedto the
cry of the heathen centurion, "Truly this was the Son of God."
criticism and the spectrum analysis of psychologicalinquiry, without finding
Him "the highest objectwe can imagine with respectto religion; the Being
without whose presence in the mind religion is impossible." Comte tried to
find a new religion, yet made a daily study of the "Imitation of Christ." Renan
has undermined the faith of thousands, yet admits "His beauty is eternal, and
His reign will never end." How canall this admiration be justified if He, of all
God's children, claimed a sinlessnesswhich, if He were not Divine, was a sin to
claim?
III. MIGHT NOT HIS VOICE ASK US ACROSS THE CENTURIES, "TO
WHOM WILL YE LIKEN ME AND SHALL I BE EQUAL?" I do not ask
of the world's greatestthinkers, or the highest truths of the best religion, with

2. If you turn to sacred history, which will you choose to compare with Him
English poet "The first true gentlemanthat ever breathed." His life was the
large enough to comprehend its glorious contradictions — its clinging
IV. WE HAVE NOT FOUND HIS EQUAL — CAN WE IMAGINE OR
striven to picture characters faultlesslyideal. Have they — Homer, Sophocles,
Virgil, Dante, Shakespeare,Milton — done so? No. Why? Because the ideal of

at work — and with what result? The "Imitatio Christi" is a precious and
profound work, yet even that realizes but one phase of the Redeemer's
holiness.
(ArchdeaconFarrar.)
The perfectcharacterof Jesus Christ
D. Trinder, M. A.
the agedSimeon's words more true respecting our Lord than this: Christ's
moral and religious characteris "a light to lighten the Gentiles and the glory
of God's people Israel."
in His praise and favour? It was innocence — simple, guileless, childlike
innocence. He is everywhere, and at all times the same, "in malice a child,"
"the Lamb of God," gentle, pure, and innocent. But with this innocence, this

dwelt upon, do in effectstate claims of the widest extent (see John 6:51; John
8:12; John 12:32; John 14:6; John 16:28; John 17:3; Matthew 10:37;Matthew
11:28). Now these sayings, with many others of like nature, have a two-fold
bearing. In the first place, they assertclaims so exalted, so imperial, so

market and the Temple, are searchedin vain for a just recordagainstHim.
On the contrary, the better He is knownby His friends, the more highly is He
appreciated. That familiarity which scorchesand shrivels so many reputations
in the estimate of those who are admitted to close intimacy left His untouched
with damage. No little weaknessestook offthe edge of His grand public
discourses. No infirmities of temper loweredHis just claims to men's admiring
homage. He shared human pain but not human impatience. A calm evenness
of soul accompaniedHim everywhere, the offspring not so much of self-
restraint as of a perpetual sunshine beaming with love and devotion. Hardship
fails to ruffle Him. The most factious oppositionprovokes Him indeed to a
holy severity, but a severity entirely free from personalresentment or
bitterness. The terrible knowledge thatone of His own chosencompanions is
ready to betray Him haunts and oppresses His spirit, but He has no
threatenings. Even the tortures of the cross extractedno complaints from
those sacredlips, but only prayers for His murderers, and the cry of His
extreme desolationis blended with a holy confidence and subsides into hopeful
resignation. Looking back upon this poor outline of the characterof Jesus
Christ, we are entitled to ask of all who admit the facts, How do you account
for such a phenomena? under what classificationwillyou bring it? Is it of the
earth, earthy? or is it superhuman, supernatural, heavenly? The Catholic
Church, with her doctrine of incarnation, points to her Lord's character, as
delineated in the Gospels, with triumphant certainty. All who share that belief
experience no difficulty in discerning a Divine personality through the veil of
His human perfection. Jesus is Divine.
(D. Trinder, M. A.)

W. S. Wood, M. A.
The doctrine of Christ's sinlessnessrests onfoundations far too strong to be
Hebrews 4:15; Hebrews 7:26; 1 John 3:5), what need have we to demand
further documentary demonstration of a truth so explicitly stated, and so
implicitly believed by every genuine Christian? It has been held, however,
with considerable unanimity that in this passageChristHimself bears witness
to, and calls upon His adversaries, the Jews, to impugn, if they can, that
Lord's question. The whole argument is concerned, not with action, but with
speech. In ver. 43, Jesus says:"Why do ye not apprehend My language?
Becauseye cannot hear My word." Then, describing the devil, He declares:
"There is no truth in him; when he speaks falsehood, he draws out of his own
say the truth, ye do not believe Me." Then comes the question under
consideration, with the words immediately following (vers. 46, 47):"If I say
therefore ye hear not, because ye are not of God." And so the discourse for the
rack;that truth which, as God's Prophet, He declares to unwilling ears, and
do so was to condemn themselves.
(W. S. Wood, M. A.)
Christ's language about sin
W. S. Wood, M. A.
"Which of you proves Me mistakenin My language about sin?" What had He
said of sin? It is the prophet's place to rouse the conscienceofthe sinner, to

children of God, but in reality the devil's brood, and the natural heirs of his
false and murderous dispositionand designs. Forsin is of the devil; and "the
works of your father ye do" (ver. 41). Moreover, He had spokento them of
sin's necessaryissues. Like an echo of the old prophet's sentence (Ezekiel18:4,
20), had rung out His awful warning, "By (means of) your sin ye shall die";
and "Ye shall die by your sins; for if ye believe not that I am He, ye shall die
by your sins" (vers. 21, 24). But not only had He warned them. He had also
made known to them the one possible means of escape from the threatened
fate (vers. 34-36). Sin brings death in its train. Freedom from sin, and so from
death, is the gift of Jesus Christto all who put their trust in Him. It is with
such declarationas to sin, its nature and genesis, its consequences, its cure,
still sounding in their ears, and their own self-accusing conscienceready,
unless silenced, to bear Him witness, that Christ asks the Jews:Which of you
proves Me wrong in My accountand judgment of sin? If I saytruth, why do
ye not believe Me?" No answerto this appeal is possible. They know that He is
right, but decline to own that they are wrong.
(W. S. Wood, M. A.)
Christ's challenge to the world
Archbishop Trench.

same. He teaches His disciples to say, "Forgive us our trespasses";but no
He forgives sins, and that not in another's name, but in His own. He sets
own dust. And the nobler the moral elements working in any man's life, so
saints of the New Testament, of whom one of the saintliesthas declared, "If
we say we have no sin we deceive ourselves";below the saints of the Old

explanation.
those words of adorationand praise, "Thou only art holy, Thou only art the
God the Father."
the whole superstructure of Christian faith has no foundation whatever —
they leave no room for any such position as this, halfwaybetweenthe camps
of faith and unbelief, which now divide the world. When the question of
questions, "What think ye of Christ?" presents itself, and will not go without
an answer, you must leave this equivocal position and declare that He was
much more than this, or that He was much less.
could challenge all the world, "Which of you conceivethMe of sin?" the one

"The prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in Me."
(Archbishop Trench.)
Canon Liddon.
1. It has been inferred from the context that "sin" here means intellectual
generallyto the absence ofa specific form of that evil — viz., falsehood. As
they cannot detectthe one they must not credit Him with the other.
exceptionto the rule. And man's capacityfor moral improvement leads up to
some typical realization. Now —

strongly on those who were brought into closest contactwith Him.
1. After the miraculous draught of fishes St. Peterexclaims, "Departfrom me,
for I am" — not a weak and failing, but — "a sinful man." It is not Christ's
powerover nature but His sanctity that awes the apostle. Again, after the
denial, a look from Jesus sufficedto produce the keenestanguish. Had St.
Peterbeen able to trace one sinful trait, he might have felt in the tragedy the
presence ofsomething like retributive justice. It was his conviction of Christ's
absolute purity which filled him with remorse.
the remorse of Judas, who would gladly have found in his three years'
3. In the hatred of the Sanhedrists the purity of Christ's characteris not less
their message. St. Peter's earliestsermons are full of it. The climax of
Stephen's indictment was that they had murdered the Just One, the very title
to say that God sentHis Son in the "likeness" ofsinful flesh. St. Peter dwells
on our Lord's sinlessness as bearing on His example and atoning death. In St.
John Christ's sinlessnessis connectedwith His intercession(1 John 2:1); with

1. By the condition of the development of His life as man.(1) He learned
obedience by the things that He suffered, and consequentlyit has been argued
must have progressedfrom moral deficiency to moral sufficiency. But it does
not follow that such a growth involved sin as its starting point. A progress
from a less to a more expanded degree ofperfection is not to be confounded
with a progress from sin to holiness.(2)A more formidable difficulty, it is
urged, is presented by the temptation. A bona fide temptation, it is contended,
implies at leasta minimum of sympathy with evil which is incompatible with
perfect sinlessness.Either, therefore, Jesus was not really tempted, in which
case He fails as an example; or the reality of His temptation is fatal to His
literal sinfulness. But the apostles say, "He was tempted in all points without
sin." What is temptation? An influence by which a man may receive a
momentum in the direction of evil. This influence may be an evil inclination
within, or a motive presented from without. The former was impossible in the
case ofChrist; but the motive from without could only have become real
temptation by making a place for itself in the mind. How could that be while
leaving sinlessnessintact? The answeris that an impression on thought or
sense is possible short of the point at which it produces a distinct
determination of the will towards evil, and it is only when this point is reached
that sinlessnessis compromised. So long as the will is not an accomplice the
impressions of the tempter do not touch the moral being, and it is perfectly
clearin both temptations that our Lord's will throughout maintained a steady
attitude of resistance.
2. By particular acts, suchas —(1) His cursing the barren fig tree. But that
our Lord betrayed irritation is disposed of by prophetic characterofthe act
— the tree being a symbol of the fruitless Jewishpeople.(2)His expulsion of
the buyers and sellers from the temple was not the effectof sudden personal
passion, but strictly in the prophetical and theocratic spirit.(3) His driving the
devils into the swine was an interference with the rights of property only on
the denial that Jesus is God's plenipotentiary, and of His right to subordinate
material to moral interests.(4)His relation to Judas, it is said, shows a want of
moral penetration to saynothing of superhuman knowledge;or if not, why
was He chosen? The answeris that Christ was acting as God acts in
providence, not only permitting it but overruling it for final good.

3. By His denial, "Why callestthou Me good," etc. But this was merely a
been turned awayfrom beholding vanity. But Christ againand againplaces
Himself in the position of this "goodGod," and claims man's love and
SOUL.
is no truer testof a man's characterthan the ideals which excite his genuine
does not fail. They, standing beneath His throne, say, "Be ye followers of us as
we are of Christ"; He, above them all, asks eachgenerationofHis
worshippers and His critics, "Which of you convincethMe of sin?"
guilty world? He offeredHimself without spot to God — the crowning act of a
sin? But His absolute sinlessnessmakes it certain that He died as He lived, for
others.
(Canon Liddon.)

Nominal Christians -- real Infidels
C. H. Spurgeon.
We mourn over the professed unbelief of the age, but the practical unbelief of
number of theoreticalbelievers who are still an. converted, and in those
ProtestantChurches who say, "The Bible alone is our religion," and yet adopt
former class:
I. THE TEXT SETS FORTHYOUR INCONSISTENCY. Ifyou say,I am not
convertedbecause I do not believe in the mission of Christ and in the
inspiration of Scripture, your position is consistentthough terrible, but where
you believe in both and remain unconverted, your position is extraordinarily
inconsistent. Remember that —
1. Christ has revealedyour need —
(1)Of regeneration.
(2)Of conversion.
(3)Of returning to God. And you believe it all. Why, then, not actupon it?
(1)Repentance — change of mind with reference to sin, holiness, Himself.
(2)Faith which will acceptHim as the sole Saviour and possessorofthe soul.
Are these demands hard? If they be just, why not accede to them?

4. Christ reveals the freeness of His grace. You say Yes." Why then stand
enter?
hell.
enter into the straightgate. If Christ's word be no fiction, how can you remain
as you are?
1. "I do not feel myself entitled to come to Christ, because I do not feelmy
need as I should." This is no excuse. In matters relating to the body we feel
2. "I do not see how faith can save me." Here, again, is no excuse. Who says

be true tells you that "though your sins be as scarlet," etc.
"Whosoeverwill?"
cry out, "Lord, save, or I perish."
III. THE REAL REASON WHY SOME DO NOT BELIEVE (ver. 45). Some
of you do not believe the truth.
1. Simply because it is the truth. Some make it because it is too severe, e.g.,
"Whatsoevera man soweth, that shall he also reap."
2. The Pharisees hatedGod's truth deliberately. You say, "I do not do that."
But how long does it take to make an action deliberate. Some of you have
heard the gospelforty years, and prove that you hate the truth by living in sin.
You, young man, were impressedthe other Sunday that you must yield to
God. A companion meets you, and you did deliberately chooseyour own
damnation when you chose sin.
3. But the Pharisees scoffedatit. Yes; and is your silent contempt any better.
Conclusion:If these things be true, why not believe in them? What hinders?
(C. H. Spurgeon.)
The courage and triumph of truth
H. H. Dobney.
Truth has nothing to fear from the fullest investigation. Error may well
deprecate all searching and sifting processes;but truth, like gold, can not only
stand any fitting test, but welcome it. He who fears for Truth has scarcelyso
much as gazedon her majestic countenance, nor does he know the might of
that more than diamond mirror which she flashes on the mental eye that is

not willingly closedto her light. Give but a fair field, and then when Truth
and Error encounter, what loyal heart canfear for the result.
(H. H. Dobney.)
Conditions of belief of the truth
F. W. Robertson, M. A.
The condition of arriving at truth is not severe habits of investigation, but
innocence of life and humbleness of heart. Truth is felt, not reasonedout; and
if there be any truths which are only appreciable by the acute understanding,
we may be sore at once that these do not constitute the soul's life.
(F. W. Robertson, M. A.)Some men are physically incapacitatedfor perceiving
the truth. A man who is colourblind, e.g., is unable to distinguish the red rays
of the spectrum. A danger signalon the railway would convey no warning to a
man so constituted, and a rose for him would have little beauty. There is an
analogue to this in the moral world. While the converted man perceives the
warning of God's judgments and the beauty of the Rose ofSharon, the
carnally-minded perceives neither.
The need of spiritual insight to the discernment of the truth
J. Parker, D. D.
"Any tyro can see the facts for himself if he is provided with those not rare
articles — a nettle and a microscope."These words are Mr. Huxley's. But
why the microscope? Suppose the tyro should be provided with a nettle only?
These inquiries point in a direction which materialists are not willing to
pursue. The introduction of the microscope is an admissionthat even the
keenesteyes cannotsee certainsubstances,forms and movements, and great
store must be setby it. It requires in material investigationpreciselywhat is
demanded in spiritual inquiry. Suppose anyone should insist upon examining
the nettle without the aid of the microscope, andshould declare that he is

unable to verify Mr. Huxley's observations. Mr. Huxley would properly reply
that the inner structure and life of the nettle could not be seenby the naked
eye for they are microscopicallydiscerned. Nor canthe inquirer into spiritual
truth discern and understand without a spiritual organadapted to the
investigation.
(J. Parker, D. D.)
Love of the truth essentialto its reception
J. Parker, D. D.
To whom will nature reveal herself? To the clownor the poet? The poet gets
something out of "the meanestflower that blows." The wise man hears music
in the wind, the stream, the twitter of birds. What does the clown hear, or the
sordid man? Noises — tongues unknown and uninterpreted. Nature says
preciselywhat Christ says: "I will manifest myself to Him that loveth me."
(J. Parker, D. D.)
Unbelief, its cause
T. Carlyle.
Scepticismis not intellectual only, it is moral also — a chronic atrophy and
disease ofthe whole soul. A man lives by believing something, not by debating
and arguing about many things. A sadcase for him when all he can manage to
believe is something he canbutton in his pocket — something he caneat and
digest. Lower than that he will not get.
(T. Carlyle.)
The folly of unbelief
H. W. Beecher., C. C. Liddell.

What would you think if there were to be an insurrection in a hospital, and
sick men should conspire with sick men, and on a certain day they should rise
up and rejectthe doctors and nurses? There they would be — sicknessand
disease within, and all the help without! Yet what is a hospital comparedto
this fever-ridden world, which goes on swinging in pain through the centuries,
where men say "we have gotrid of the Atonement and the Bible?" Yes, and
you have rid yourselves of salvation.
(H. W. Beecher.)Canyou tell me anything about the revision of the Bible?
askedan intelligent working man the other day. "BecauseI've been told
they're taking out all the contradictions in it." The same man another day
expressedhis inaptitude for faith in these words:"Why, to look at them stars
and think they're all worlds, and to believe there's something beyond all that
again— it's more than I can believe." Could the attitude of unbelief have
expresseditself better? The very sight that to some minds forces home the
conviction that a God exists — the sight of the star-sownfields of heaven —
was to this man only a stumbling block and rock of offence.
(C. C. Liddell.)
He that is of God hearethGod's words
Family Churchman.
I. HEARING GOD'S WORDS. Whatis implied?
1. Attention of the body.
2. Intention of the mind.
3. Retentionof the memory.
II. NOT HEARING GOD'S WORDS.
1. Some defiantly refuse to come where they may hear.
2. Others intend to disregard, loving the present world (2 Timothy 4:10).
3. Others hear for a while, but continue not in well doing.

(1)Truth is rejected, but it does not keepsilence.
(2)Truth is reviled, but it wearies not.
(3)Truth is persecuted, but it does not yield.
III. THE TEST. "Notof God." "OfGod."
1. He loves God, and so loves His Word.
2. He is in sympathy with the Word, and so delights to hear it.
3. He wants to obey the Word, and so listens to it. But the carnal mind cannot
receive the things of God. The Word rebukes him, threatens him; he hates it.
(Family Churchman.)
The hearerof God's Word
J. Slade, M. A.
The word "hear" signifies serious attention and regard (Matthew 17:5;
Leviticus 16:29; John 10:3: Revelation2:3). It is clear that all other hearing
must be unprofitable, and in respectto the Word of God condemnatory.
When man speaks, to hear without attending is useless;when God speaks,
sinful.
I. WHO THEY ARE WHO HEAR THE WORD. "He that is of God."
1. All God's true children. Not all who are brought into covenantwith God,
for such were the Pharisees.Holy ordinances do not necessarilyconvey the
continuance of sonship.
2. All who are girded and governedby God's Spirit (Romans 8:14).
3. All who love God (Luke 10:27).
II. ALL SUCH OF NECESSITYHEAR GOD'S WORDS.

1. It is not merely because they know them to be words of wisdom and life,
bringing happiness here and hereafter: there is rooted in their hearts an
intense desire for all goodand holy things, a profound respectfor all that
belongs to God. It would be repugnant to their new nature to do otherwise.
2. Their own mind immediately draws a distinction betweenthe Word of God
and that of man. The latter has to be consideredbefore it is received;the
former permits no consideration.
3. Norcan there be the leastevasionor compromise, no distinguishing
betweengreatand small.
4. There is no consultationof flesh and blood. It is the Word, and that is
sufficient (1 Thessalonians 2:13).
III. THEY WHO ARE NOT OF GOD NECESSARILYNEGLECT GOD'S
WORD.
1. It condemns many worldly pursuits and pleasures, and insists upon self-
denial and the daily cross. Assuredlynone who are not of God will listen to
this, and follow the Lamb whithersoeverHe goeth.
2. They do not understand the nature of spiritual truth; its promises and
threatenings appeal to them in vain (1 Corinthians 2:14).
3. In proportion as men are governedby natural maxims and feelings and
principles, and by their own self-will, they deprive themselves of the capacity
of appreciating God's Word.
(J. Slade, M. A.)
PRECEPTAUSTIN RESOURCES
BIBLICAL ILLUSTRATOR

1. Hatred of the truth (John 8:40; Joh_8:44-47). This was the real ground of
their unbelief. They disliked Christ’s doctrines. Had He spokenso as to
gratify their pride, they might have been disposedto acceptHim. The same
principle operates in all opponents of the gospel. The tendency of Christ’s
truth is still to humble, and so it is still hated. The Jews said, “We are
Abraham’s seed;we are no idolaters.” And so many think it sufficient to
belong to a pure Church, to be outwardly moral; hence where the necessityof
Christ and His salvation?
2. Doing the works of Abraham. His distinguishing work was faith. He
practicalfaith it was!Obedient, he left his father’s house and offeredhis only
God.
3. Loving Christ

Abraham is our father If ye were Abraham’s children, ye would do the works
of Abraham
Abraham believed God; they disbelievedGod’s testimony on behalf of Christ.
men.
not to the covenant, but to the Jew (Romans 2:25-29;Galatians 3:9;
Gal_3:29). (Bp. Lake.)
standing. The Jews were notthe children of Abraham’s goodqualities; they

acquainted with Paul’s life through his words, we find it full to overflowing
carnalviews of the Christian’s privileges and of the Christian’s Christ. Now
Christian life? To the free Christian, everything is a privilege; church going,
they are privileges. Privileges are duties transfigured. (D. Gregg.)

I. THE CHILDREN OF GOD (John 8:31-36). What do these verses teachus
1. They believe in Christ (John 8:3). To believe in Christ is more than simply
to conclude in a generalwaythat He is worthy of credence. It means belief,
2. They abide in Christ’s word (John 8:31). They manifest their faith by their
fidelity. There is no “six weeks’religion” during a warm revival, dropping
3. They know the truth (John 8:32). The word in the original for “know” is the
verb meaning “to have full knowledge.”He who learns the truth by fellowship
4. They have freedom (John 8:32-36). Every sinner is a slave, for a power
outside of himself directs his action. The drunkard says, “I can’t help myself;
an appetite drives me to drink.” The passionate mansays, “I am not my own
master when I getangry.” Are they not slaves to a powerabove their own
concerning the existence of God. The traits of Satan’s children, as here set
forth, are
1. They are slaves (John 8:33-36).
2. They are enemies of Christ (John 8:37). These slaves ofSatanwere ready to
kill Christ.
3. They show a likeness to their father (John 8:39-44). These Jewsclaimedto
be the children of Abraham. “Notso,” said Jesus. “Ifyou were the children of

father, the devil.”
4. They have no affinity with God. (John 8:45-47). They do not like God’s
truth (John 8:45); they will not hear God’s words (John 8:47). Just as oil and
waterwill not mix, so the children of Satan have an aloofness ofnature with
respectto God. (J. L. Hurlbut, D. D.)
It was poor comfort to Dives, in flames, that Abraham calledhim “son”;to
Judas that Christ calledhim “friend”; or to the rebellious Jews that God
calledthem His people. (J. Trapp.)
Now ye seek to kill Me.--Notice here the gradation.
1. To kill a man.
3. Of the truth which comes from God. (F. Godet, D. D.)
in another direction, said, “Thatis the way to the water”;but they answered
and mockedthem. One by one they died--far from the path on which their

heart of flesh, sucks in the dew of the Word, and grows thereby. (S.
Charnock.)
Men hate the truth
reprove their own errors. (Senhouse.)
The thief hates the break of day; not but that he naturally loves the light as
well as other men, but his condition makes him dread and abhor that which,
of all things, he knows to be the likeliestmeans of his discovery. (R. Smith.)
that he cried out,” I have found it, I have found it!” what pleasure must the
discoveryof a Divine truth give to a sanctified soul! “Thy words wore found of
me,” says Jeremiah, “and I did eat them; and Thy word was to me the joy and
rejoicing of my heart.”
Truth lies deep, as the rich veins of gold do: if we will getthe treasure, we
must not only beg, but dig also. (J. Fletcher.)
We be not born of fornication.--The Jews, having nothing effectualto object,
take advantage of the moral sense in which Jesus had spokenofparentage,
and try to cite it in their ownfavour: If Thou wilt have it so, we will leave off
speaking ofAbraham; for after all in that spiritual sphere, of which it seems
Thou art thinking, Godis our Father. To understand these words, which have
been so variously interpreted, it must be remembered that marriage with a
heathen woman was, afterthe return from Babylon (see Nahum and Malachi),
regardedas impure, and the children of such marriage as illegitimate, as
belonging through one parent to the family of Satan, the god of the heathen.
The Jews, then, meant to say: “We were born under perfectly legal

conditions; we have no idolatrous blood in our veins; we are Hebrews, born of
Hebrews (Philippians 3:5), and are hence by our very birth protectedfrom all
paganand diabolic affiliation.” As truly as they are pure descendants of
Abraham, so certainly do they believe themselves to be descended, in a moral
point of view, from God alone;and even when rising with our Lord to the
moral point of view, they are incapable of freeing themselves from their own
idea of natural parentage. (F. Godet, D. D.)
patriarch with Hagar--which, however, could scarcelybe called“fornication”-
-or from Sarahthrough another man than her lawful husband; but are
probably to be understood as asserting that their pure Abrahamic descenthad
been corrupted by no admixture of heathen blood, or better, that their
relation of sonship to Jehovahhad not been rendered impure by the worship
of false gods, in which case theyhad been “children of whoredom” (Hosea
2:4), but that, as they were physically Abraham’s seed, so were they
spiritually God’s children. This interpretation seems to be demanded by the
next words: “We have one Father even God.” By this they signified, not that
“Godalone” in opposition to heathen divinities was their Father, but that
spiritually as well as corporeally, they tracedtheir descentback to one
parentage, as in the latter case to Abraham, so in the former case to God
(Malachi2:10). (T. Whitelaw, D. D.)
God, and the proof of our sonship is loving what God loves--Christ.
perfume, nor the most dainty flavour delight the palate. But it is infinitely

3. A clearproof that the whole manhood is out of order.
4. A sure tokenthat we have no part in His salvation.
seedof Abraham, God’s chosen, had observedGod’s ceremonies, bore the
incurred the greatestobloquy in consequence--yetas they did not love Christ
they were no sons of God.
2. He sees Godin Jesus--the express image of His Person.
4. He is essentiallydivine. “I proceededand came forth,” etc.
5. Of His mission
dries up. But Jesus’aims were entirely for the Father and for us--so our heart
must go out towards Him.

Him or no? If you do then, you will
Christ-like?
5. Love His people--not because they are sweetin their tempers or belong to
8. Desire to be with Him. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
say, “I come from your father,” why, he would at once feelthe deepestinterest
in him. Would you shut your door againstyour father’s messenger? No:but
you would say, “Come in, though it be in the middle of the night, I shall
always have an ear for you.” Shall we not thus welcome Jesus?(C. H.
Spurgeon.)

love Christ because He came from God! (C. H. Spurgeon.)
I proceededforth and came from God
and date and occurrences. We wantan inner “life” of thoughts, purposes,
outward.
presently the dead man rises. But how? Is it trick or miracle--an illusion or a
fact? I cannot determine, because my eyes have been so often deceived. I saw a
man getup--but the conjuror comes along and says, “Iwill show you
something equally deceiving.” I see his avowedtrick; it does baffle me; and if
then he says, “It was just the same with what you thought the raising of the
dead,” he leaves me in a state of intellectual torment.
Then what am I to do? Leave the outward. Watch the miracle Worker--listen
to Him. If His mental triumphs are equal to His physical miracles, then
admire, trust, and love Him. Take the conjuror: when on the stage he seems to
be working miracles, but when he comes off and talks on generalsubjects I
feel my equality with him rising and asserting itself. So when I go to Christ as
a mere strangerand see His miracles, I say, “This Man may be but the
cleverestofthe host.” But when He begins to speak His words are equal to His
works. He is the same off the platform as on. I am bound to accountfur this
consistency. All other men have been manifestations of self-inequality. We

know clever men who are fools, strong men who are weak, etc., andthis want
of self-consistencyis a proof of their being merely men. But if I find a Man in
whom this inequality does not exist, who says that if I could follow Him still
higher I should find Him greaterin thinking than is possible for any mere
man to be in acting, then I have to accountfor this consistency, whichI have
found nowhere else, and listen to His explanation of it. “I proceededforth and
came from God.” That explanation alone will coverall the ground He
permanently occupies.
host to see them? Never. He regardedthem as elementary and introductory--
of ours, and say, “How wonderful that sighing in the wind!” It is nothing
“Greaterworks than these shall ye do,” but never “Greaterthoughts than
these shall ye think.” Let us look at this inner life of Christ from two or three
points.
WHAT IS THE IMPELLING SENSE OF HIS DUTY? He answers, “Imust
be about My Father’s business.” Neverdid prophet give that explanation
before. In working from His Father’s point of view, He gives us His key. Put it
that strain? Listen, “My Fatherworkethhitherto and I work.” CanHe
sustain that high keywhen He is in trouble? “Father, into Thy hands I
commend my Spirit.”

II. Arguing from that point, if this Man is about His Father’s business,
WHAT IS HIS SUPREME FEELING?Concernfor the dignity of the law?
Jealousyfor the righteousness ofGod! No; from beginning to end of His life
He is “moved with compassion,” andwhen people come to Him they seemed
to know this sympathetically, for they cried, “Have mercy on us.” He speaks
like a Son and is thus faithful to His Father’s message. Whatexplanation does
He give of His own miracles, “Virtue hath gone out of Me.” He did not say“I
have performed this with My fingers”--no trickster, but a mighty
took “Virtue out of Him.” What did the redemption of the world take out of
Him when He said, “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsakenMe?” The
last pulse is gone and He is self--consistentstill.
Not to intellectual ability, skill of finger or physical endurance, but to His
soul--“He shall see of the travail of His soul,” etc. You know the meaning of
the word in some degree. One man paints with paint, another with His soul.
One man speaks withhis tongue, another with his soul; they are the same
words, but not the same, as the bush was not the same before the fire came
into it. Thus Christ shall see the travail of His soul, etc. He was often wearied
with journeying, when was He weariedwith miracles? His bones were tired,
when was His mind enfeebled--whendid the word evercome with less than
the old emphasis--the fiat that made the sun? (J. Parker, D. D.)
Christ’s claim
1. God announcedHimself to Mosesas “I AM”--a marvellous name, which
itself and finished with “THAT I AM,” as if the sun were just about to come

before one denser still--God’s “hour” was not yet. He had said “I am,” but
strength, beauty, sympathy, tenderness, and redemption--“I am the vine.”
“I am the Vine,” “I am the Light.” We know what that is: it is here, there,
everywhere--takesup no room, yet fills all space;warms the plants, yet does
not crush a twig. The “I am” fell upon us like a mighty thundering, “I am the
Light” came to us like a child’s lessonin our mother’s nursery. “I am the
Door.” Thatis not a mean figure, if we interpret it aright, a door is more than
honour, sonship. “I am the Bread, the Water, the GoodShepherd, the Way,
the Truth, the Life.” How any man could be a mere man, and yet take up
these figures, it is impossible to believe. It is easierto say“My Lord and My
God.”
allowedyou to do it? Surely you would have said, “Partof it; I must not have
it all.” And another woman--she might have touched His heart, for she wore
widows’weeds. I expectedHim to say, “Poorsoul, I can take nothing from
you.” But He took her two mites--all that she had. He is doing the same to day.
How many things has that only boy been in his father’s dreams! One day the
mother feels that something is going to happen, and what does happen is a
would have spared him--but Christ takes him.

REGARD HIM. Here is a typical man--a man of letters and of localrenown--
who says, “Rabbi, Thou art a teachercome from God.” Evidence of that kind
must not go for nothing. Send men of another type--shrewd, keenmen of the
world: what saythey? “Neverman spake like this Man.” Here are women
coming back from having seenthe Lord: what will they say? Neveryet did
women speak one word againstthe Son of God! Mothers, women of pure
souls!sensitive as keenestlife:what saw ye? “The holiness of God.” Pass Him
on to a judge--cold, observant, not easilyhoodwinked. What sayestthou? “I
find no fault in Him.” What is that coming? A messagefrom the judge’s wife,
“Have thou nothing to do with this just person. Let Him go.”
Crucify Him; will anybody speak about Him now? The centurion, accustomed
to this sight of blood, said, “Truly this was the Son of God.” Put these
testimonies of observers, accumulate them into a complete appeal, and then
say whether it be not easierfor the imagination and judgment and heart to
say, “My Lord and my God,” than to use meanerterms.
instantaneousnessaboutHim to which there is no parallel but in the “Let
there be light, and there was light.” Give every man credit for ability, and give
this Man credit for having extorted from His enemies, “Neverman spake like
this Man.”
3. What do I find in Christ’s teaching? Incarnations of the Spiritual. He

hence He said, “It is like unto”--To embody the bodiless was the all-
4. Christ’s is seminal teaching--thatwhich survives all the changes oftime.
stately past.
in actual behaviour. What said He? “Bless them that persecute you.” Did He
do it? “When He was reviled He reviled not again.” What said He? “Pray for
them that despitefully use you.” Did He do it? “Fatherforgive them,” etc. (J.
Parker, D. D.)
Ye are of your father the devil
elsewhere “Satan,”“the tempter,” “the old serpent,” “the destroyer,” our
irresistible, influence, and hence is termed “the prince,” “the godof this
world,” etc., who leads men captive at his will. He exerts himself, by his

universe of God.
II. WHAT IS MEANT BY HIS BEING THE JEWS’FATHER. The term is
under a diabolical influence; and instead of being formed in God’s likeness, or
and man.
III. WHAT IS IT TO BE OF THE DEVIL? “Of” expresses a relationof
property. To be “ofthe world,” is to be the world’s own. “The world loves its
own “--those who are “of it.” To be “ofGod,” or “God’s,” is to belong to
God,to be God’s property and possession. To be “of Christ,” or “Christ’s,” is
to belong to Him. To be “of the devil,” or “the devil’s,” is to belong to him, to
important sense, God’s property. The devil himself is God’s, subjectto His
and all who possessthe same character, are the property of the wickedone,|
yielding themselves his slaves. It is as if our Lord had said, “Ye saythat ye are
God’s peculiar people, but ye are really the devil’s self-soldslaves.”
IV. WHAT ARE THE LUSTS OF THE DEVIL? “Lust” signifies not merely
desire, properly so called, but the objectof desire. “The lust of the eye” is a
generalname for those things which, contemplated by the eye, excite desire--

what is splendid or beautiful. “The lusts of the devil” are to beunderstoodin
this way, not of his individual desires or longings--for how could the Jews do
these?--but of the things which are the objectof his desires--suchas the
establishment and permanence of error, vice, and misery among men--
which, as Milton powerfully expressesit, “evil is the good.” To do the things
These things the Jews did--habitually did.
V. WHAT IS IT TO WILL THOSE LUSTS? The term “will” is not here the
mere sign of futurition--it denotes disposition, determination, choice. “Ye will
do the evil things which your infernal father wishes for.” It is a phrase of the
same kind as: “If any man will be My disciple” (John 7:17). TheJewswere not
merely occasionallyby strong temptation induced to do what is in accordance
with the devil’s desires, but their desires were so habitually consentaneous
with his, that in seeking to gratify themselves they produced the result which
he desired. They were cheerful servants--voluntary slaves. (J. Brown, D. D.)
publication of his sermon on the text, “Ye shall not surely die,” two reckless
young men having agreedtogetherto try his wit, one of them said, “Father
Haynes, have you heard the goodnews?” “No,”saidMr. Haynes, “what is it?”
It is greatnews indeed, said the other; and, if true, your business is gone.
What is it? againinquired Mr. Haynes. Why, said the first, the devil is dead.”
them on the heads of the young men, and in a tone of solemn concern, “Oh,
poor fatherless children! what will become of you?” (W. Baxendale.)
kill King Edmund, his rival; which, when he had performed, and expected his

hell. The lusts of your father ye will do.
It is a frightful “will,” and as frightful a “must,” which governs the soul of an
ungodly man. Such a soul either is a slave of the “must,” or a free agent of the
“will”; and the most fearful feature of all is that it is guilty as being a free
agent, and the more guilty it is so much the more enslaved, and therefore the
more it is free to will by so much the more enslaved. (Augustine.)
Satanhath no impulsive power; he may strike fire till he be weary (if his
malice canweary); except man’s corruption brings the tinder, the match
cannot be lighted (Acts 5:4; James 1:13-16). (Thos. Fuller.)
He was a murderer from the beginning (comp. Wisdom of Solomon 2:23-24;
Romans 5:12).--The Fall was the murder of the human race;and it is in
reference to this, of which the fratricide in the first family was a signal result,
that the tempter is called a murderer from the beginning (comp. 1 John 3:8-
12, where the thought is expanded). The reference to the murderer is
suggestedhere by the fact that the Jews had been seeking to kill our Lord
(John 8:40). They are true to the nature which their father had from the
beginning. (Archdeacon Watkins.)
He abode (RevisedVersion, “stood”)notin the truth because there is no truth
in him
1. This chapter shows Jesus’powerof bringing men out of their fictions of life,

2. Thus more is meant than is suggestedto us by “stand fastin the truth.”
Men may only mean by that--Be obstinate on our side, standing steadfastlyin
some limited conceptionof truth; or merely to stand where we are without
3. Jesus shows the real thing to be desired in our anxiety to stand in the truth--
the truth must be in us. Having no truthfulness within the Evil One losthis
standing in the truth of God’s universe without. This extremest case illustrates
at the foundation of our industries. Every railroad is built upon it, and every

every immoral man. “Without is everyone that loveth and maketh a lie.” And
we do not have to wait till the lastday.
IN ITS TRUTH WHO WISHES TO SAY IN HIS HEART, “THERE IS NO
GOD.” There is some Divine reality behind all these shifting appearances of
this truth, but John says, “If a man says, ‘I love God,’ and hateth his brother,
he is a liar.” When a man is thinking a hateful thought, he does not then
“Lord, Lord!” And it is no avail for any of us to try and believe in God or the

a new heaven and a new earth. (NewmanSmyth, D. D.)
He is a liar and the father thereof.--Lying is well-nigh universal in the East. It
is not only practised, but its wisdom is defended by Orientals generally.
“Lying is the salt of a man,” say the Arabs. The Hindoos say that Brahma lied
when there was no gainin lying; and so far they are ready to follow Brahma’s
example. Yet Orientals recognize the truth that lying is essentiallysinful,
howevernecessaryit may seem. The Arabs today will trust a Christian’s word
when they would not believe eachother. They also admit that a liar cannot
long prosper. And the Hindoos have a saying that the telling of a lie is a
greatersin than the killing of a Brahman. It was an appeal to the innermost
consciencesofHis Oriental hearers when Jesus chargedthem with showing in
their practice that they were children of the father of lies. (S. S. Times.)
BecauseI tell you the truth, ye believe Me not.--Generally, the reasonwhy a
man is believed is that he speaks the truth. But the experience of Jesus was, in
the case ofthe Jews, the opposite. They were so ruled by the lies with which
their father had blinded their hearts, that it was just because He spoke the
truth that He obtained no credence from them. (F. Godet, D. D.)
I. REPUGNANCETO THE TRUTH (John 8:45). Had He given them popular
repugnance

1. Reveals man’s abnormal condition. His soul is as truly organizedfor truth
II. THE PURITY OF CHRIST (John 8:46). Christ is the Truth, and His
invincible intolerance of all sin repels the depraved heart. “Menlove
darkness,” etc. The first beams of the morning are not half so repulsive to a
burglar as the rays of Christ’s truth are to a depraved heart. Purity makes the
hell of depravity.
III. ESTRANGEMENT FROM GOD (John8:47). Divine filial sympathies are
They do not like to retain God in their thoughts. “He that loveth not knoweth
not God.”
IV. PRIDE OF INTELLECT (John 8:48). They had said this before, and here
they pride themselves on their sagacity. “Saywe not well?” Are we not clever?
What an insight we have into character!Infidels have ever been too scientific
to believe in miracles, too philosophic to require a revelation, too independent
to require Christ, too moral to need inward reformation. “Saywe not well?” is
their spirit. It comes out in their books, lectures, converse, daily life. “We are
the wise men, and wisdom will die with us.” This pride is essentiallyinimical
to true faith. “Whosoevershallnot receive the kingdom of God as a little
child,” etc.

V. UNCHARITABLENESS OF DISPOSITION (John8:48). Suppose He was
a Samaritan, are they all bad? Yes, said they, and because thou art a
Samaritan thou hast a devil. This uncharitable reasoning has ever
characterizedinfidelity. All Christians are hypocrites, all preachers crafty
mercenaries, allchurches nurseries of superstition; hence we will have
nothing to do with it. (D. Thomas, D. D.)
This sinlessnessofJesus stands alone in history in that
proportion to a man’s saintliness he realizes the exceeding sinfulness of sin. It
been at the very highestthat the mud is thrown? Even Francis of Assisi,
Vincent de Paul, Whitefield, did not escapethe pestilent breath of slander.
Yet, though Jesus lived in familiar intercourse with publicans and sinners, not

even His deadliestenemies breathed the leastsuspicionof His spotless
innocence. Theysaid, in their coarse rage, “Thouarta Samaritan,” etc., but
none said, “Thouart a sinner.” “Have nothing to do with that just Man,”
exclaimed the Roman lady. “I find no fault in Him,” declaredthe bloodstained
Pilate. “There is no harm in Him,” was the practicalverdict of Herod. “This
Man has done nothing amiss,” moanedthe dying malefactor. “Ihave shed
innocent blood,” shrieked the miserable Judas. His most eageraccusers
stammered into self-refuting lies; and the crowds around the cross, smiting on
their breasts, assentedto the cry of the heathen centurion, “Truly this was the
Son of God.”
criticism and the spectrum analysis of psychologicalinquiry, without finding
Him “the highest objectwe can imagine with respect to religion; the Being
without whose presence in the mind religion is impossible.” Comte tried to
find a new religion, yet made a daily study of the “Imitation of Christ.” Renan
has undermined the faith of thousands, yet admits “His beauty is eternal, and
His reign will never end.” How canall this admiration be justified if He, of all
God’s children, claimed a sinlessnesswhich, if He were not Divine, was a sin
to claim?
III. MIGHT NOT HIS VOICE ASK US ACROSS THE CENTURIES, “TO
WHOM WILL YE LIKEN ME AND SHALL I BE EQUAL?” I do not ask

of the world’s greatestthinkers, or the highest truths of the best religion, with
2. If you turn to sacredhistory, which will you choose to compare with Him
English poet “The first true gentlemanthat ever breathed.” His life was the

large enough to comprehend its glorious contradictions--its clinging
IV. WE HAVE NOT FOUND HIS EQUAL--CAN WE IMAGINE OR
striven to picture characters faultlesslyideal. Have they--Homer, Sophocles,
Virgil, Dante, Shakespeare,Milton--done so? No. Why? Becausethe ideal of
at work--and with what result? The “Imitatio Christi” is a precious and
profound work, yet even that realizes but one phase of the Redeemer’s
holiness. (ArchdeaconFarrar.)
The perfect characterof Jesus Christ
the agedSimeon’s words more true respecting our Lord than this: Christ’s
moral and religious characteris “a light to lighten the Gentiles and the glory
of God’s people Israel.”
in His praise and favour? It was innocence--simple, guileless, childlike

innocence. He is everywhere, and at all times the same, “in malice a child,”
“the Lamb of God,” gentle, pure, and innocent. But with this innocence, this
dwelt upon, do in effectstate claims of the widest extent (see John 6:51;
Joh_8:12;Joh_12:32;Joh_14:6;Joh_16:28;Joh_17:3;Matthew 10:37;
Mat_11:28). Now these sayings, withmany others of like nature, have a two-
fold bearing. In the first place, they assertclaims so exalted, so imperial, so

market and the
Temple, are searchedin vain for a just recordagainstHim. On the contrary,
the better He is knownby His friends, the more highly is He appreciated. That
familiarity which scorches andshrivels so many reputations in the estimate of
those who are admitted to close intimacy left His untouched with damage. No
little weaknessestook offthe edge of His grand public discourses.No
infirmities of temper loweredHis just claims to men’s admiring homage. He
shared human pain but not human impatience. A calm evenness ofsoul
accompaniedHim everywhere, the offspring not so much of self-restraint as of
a perpetual sunshine beaming with love and devotion. Hardship fails to ruffle
Him. The most factious opposition provokes Him indeed to a holy severity,
but a severity entirely free from personalresentment or bitterness. The
terrible knowledge thatone of His own chosencompanions is ready to betray
Him haunts and oppresses His spirit, but He has no threatenings. Even the
tortures of the cross extractedno complaints from those sacredlips, but only
prayers for His murderers, and the cry of His extreme desolationis blended
with a holy confidence and subsides into hopeful resignation. Looking back
upon this poor outline of the characterof Jesus Christ, we are entitled to ask
of all who admit the facts, How do you accountfor such a phenomena? under
what classificationwill you bring it? Is it of the earth, earthy? or is it
superhuman, supernatural, heavenly? The Catholic Church, with her doctrine
of incarnation, points to her Lord’s character, as delineatedin the Gospels,
with triumphant certainty. All who share that belief experience no difficulty

in discerning a Divine personality through the veil of His human perfection.
Jesus is Divine. (D. Trinder, M. A.)
The doctrine of Christ’s sinlessnessrests onfoundations far too strong to be
Hebrews 4:15; 1 John 3:5), what need have we to demand further
documentary demonstration of a truth so explicitly stated, and so implicitly
believed by every genuine Christian? It has been held, however, with
considerable unanimity that in this passageChristHimself bears witness to,
and calls upon His adversaries,the Jews, to impugn, if they can, that
Lord’s question. The whole argument is concerned, not with action, but with
speech. In John 8:43, Jesus says:“Why do ye not apprehend My language?
Becauseye cannot hear My word.” Then, describing the devil, He declares:
“There is no truth in him; when he speaks falsehood, he draws out of his own
say the truth, ye do not believe Me.” Then comes the question under
consideration, with the words immediately following (John 8:46-47):“If I say
therefore ye hear not, because ye are not of God.” And so the discourse for the
rack;that truth which, as God’s Prophet, He declares to unwilling ears, and
do so was to condemn themselves. (W. S. Wood, M. A.)
Christ’s language about sin
“Which of you proves Me mistakenin My language about sin?” What had He
said of sin? It is the prophet’s place to rouse the conscienceofthe sinner, to

children of God, but in reality the devil’s brood, and the natural heirs of his
false and murderous dispositionand designs. Forsin is of the devil; and “the
works of your father ye do” (John 8:41). Moreover, He had spokento them of
sin’s necessaryissues. Like an echo of the old prophet’s sentence (Ezekiel
18:4; Eze_18:20), hadrung out His awful warning, “By (means of) your sin ye
shall die”; and “Ye shall die by your sins; for if ye believe not that I am He, ye
shall die by your sins” (John 8:21; Joh_8:24). Butnot only had He warned
them. He had also made known to them the one possible means of escape from
the threatenedfate (John 8:34-36). Sin brings death in its train. Freedomfrom
sin, and so from death, is the gift of Jesus Christ to all who put their trust in
Him. It is with such declarationas to sin, its nature and genesis, its
consequences, its cure, still sounding in their ears, and their own self-accusing
conscienceready, unless silenced, to bear Him witness, that Christ asks the
Jews:Which of you proves Me wrong in My accountand judgment of sin? If I
say truth, why do ye not believe Me?” No answerto this appealis possible.
They know that He is right, but decline to own that they are wrong. (W. S.
Wood, M. A.)
Christ’s challenge to the world

same. He teaches His disciples to say, “Forgive us our trespasses”;but no
He forgives sins, and that not in another’s name, but in His own. He sets
own dust. And the nobler the moral elements working in any man’s life, so
saints of the New Testament, of whom one of the saintliesthas declared, “If we
say we have no sin we deceive ourselves”;below the saints of the Old

explanation.
those words of adorationand praise, “Thou only art holy, Thou only art the
God the Father.”
the whole superstructure of Christian faith has no foundation whatever--they
leave no room for any such position as this, halfway betweenthecamps of faith
and unbelief, which now divide the world. When the question of questions,
“What think ye of Christ?” presents itself, and will not go without an answer,
you must leave this equivocalposition and declare that He was much more
than this, or that He was much less.
could challenge all the world, “Which of you conceivethMe of sin?” the one

“The prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in Me.” (Archbishop
Trench.)
1. It has been inferred from the context that “sin” here means intellectual
generallyto the absence ofa specific form of that evil--viz., falsehood. As they
cannot detectthe one they must not credit Him with the other.
exceptionto the rule. And man’s capacityfor moral improvement leads up to
some typical realization. Now
strongly on those who were brought into closestcontactwith Him.
1. After the miraculous draught of fishes St. Peterexclaims, “Departfrom me,
for I am”--not a weak and failing, but--“a sinful man.” It is not Christ’s power
over nature but His sanctity that awes the apostle. Again, after the denial, a
look from Jesus sufficedto produce the keenestanguish. Had St. Peterbeen
able to trace one sinful trait, he might have felt in the tragedy the presence of

something like retributive justice. It was his convictionof Christ’s absolute
purity which filled him with remorse.
the remorse of Judas, who would gladly have found in his three years’
3. In the hatred of the Sanhedrists the purity of Christ’s characteris not less
their message. St. Peter’s earliestsermons are full of it. The climax of
Stephen’s indictment was that they had murdered the Just One, the very title
to say that God sentHis Son in the “likeness” ofsinful flesh. St. Peter dwells
on our Lord’s sinlessnessas bearing on His example and atoning death. In St.
John Christ’s sinlessnessis connectedwith His intercession(1 John 2:1); with
1. By the condition of the development of His life as man.
2. By particular acts, suchas
3. By His denial, “Why callestthou Me good,” etc. But this was merely a

been turned awayfrom beholding vanity. But Christ againand againplaces
Himself in the position of this “goodGod,” and claims man’s love and
SOUL.
is no truer testof a man’s characterthan the ideals which excite his genuine
does not fail. They, standing beneath His throne, say, “Be ye followers of us as
we are of Christ”; He, above them all, asks eachgenerationofHis
worshippers and His critics, “Which of you convincethMe of sin?”
guilty world? He offeredHimself without spot to God--the crowning actof a
sin? But His absolute sinlessnessmakes it certainthat He died as He lived, for
others.
(Canon Liddon.)

Nominal Christians--realInfidels
We mourn over the professedunbelief of the age, but the practical unbelief of
number of theoretical believers who are still not converted, and in those
ProtestantChurches who say, “The Bible alone is our religion,” and yet adopt
former class:
I. THE TEXT SETS FORTHYOUR INCONSISTENCY. Ifyou say,
“I am not converted because I do not believe in the mission of Christ and in
the inspiration of Scripture, your position is consistentthough terrible, but
where you believe in both and remain unconverted, your position is
extraordinarily inconsistent. Remember that
1. Christ has revealedyour need
4. Christ reveals the freeness of His grace. You say “Yes.” Why then stand
enter?
hell.

enter into the straightgate. If Christ’s word be no fiction, how can you remain
as you are?
1. “I do not feel myself entitled to come to Christ, because I do not feelmy
need as I should.” This is no excuse. In matters relating to the body we feel
2. “I do not see how faith can save me.” Here, again, is no excuse. Who says
be true tells you that “though your sins be as scarlet,” etc.
“Whosoeverwill?”
cry out, “Lord, save, or I perish.”

STEVEN COLE
True and False Children of God(John 8:37-47)
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March 23, 2014
Some of the scariestverses in the Bible are Jesus’words in Matthew 7:21-23:
“Noteveryone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of
heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter.
Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your
name, and in Your name castout demons, and in Your name perform many
miracles?’And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from
Me, you who practice lawlessness.’”
Here are people who call Jesus “Lord.” They have servedHim in some
impressive ways by prophesying, casting out demons, and performing
miracles in His name. And yet they will be turned awayfrom heaven at the
judgment because they were false children of God, as revealed by their lawless
lifestyles. Since you and I will dwell forever in either heavenor hell, you want
to make absolutely sure that you are a true child of God, headed for heaven,
and not a false child of God, who will spend eternity in hell.
The dialogue in our text follows John8:30-31, where we saw that although
many professedfaith in Christ, it was not genuine, saving faith. This is first
seenin 8:33, where it becomes clearthat these “believers” were trusting their
Jewishlineage for right standing with God. They mistakenly thought that

being Jewishby birth automatically made them spiritually free. But Jesus said
that actually they were slaves ofsin. Only those who abided (“continued”) in
His Word were truly His disciples. In 8:34-36, Jesus dealtwith their claim to
be spiritually free by showing them that they were only free if He set them
free. Now He deals with their claim to be children of Abraham by showing
that their claim was false as seenin their deeds. Their murderous intentions
toward Jesus revealedthat they were not children of God, as they thought, but
of the devil.
Jesus is teaching here what He taught elsewhere, thatconduct stems from
one’s nature. Good trees produce goodfruit; bad trees produce bad fruit.
Children of God produce good deeds;children of the devil produce bad deeds.
But it’s not quite so easyto tell which are which, because oftenbad trees seem
to us to produce goodfruit. Forexample, we see many people who are not
believers in Jesus Christ, but they’re “good” people. They’re caring and kind.
They give generouslyto charitable foundations that help the needy. They’re
the type of people that you want to have as neighbors. And, on the other hand,
there are some who sure seemto be children of God, and yet they do some
horrible things that sometimes even land them in prison.
Only God knows what is in human hearts, so we always have to be a bit
tentative when determining whether someone else is a true or false child of
God. And sometimes we don’t even know our own hearts!We fluctuate in our
desires from loving God to loving this world (which are mutually exclusive, 1
John 2:15). So to the best of our ability, we need to apply the tests that we see
in our text, first to ourselves;and then, with a bit more hesitation, to others
whom we are trying to help spiritually. The principle is:
False children of God follow Satanand his evil deeds because they have not
been born of God;
true children of God love Jesus and obey His Word because they have been
born of God.
The text reveals a number of characteristics ofboth false and true children of
God:

1. False children of God think that they’re following God, but they’re actually
following Satan and his evil deeds because they have not been born of God.
What makes this dialogue scaryis that these Jews who were actually children
of the devil were very religious people who professed to believe in Jesus. In
other words, they weren’t raw pagans, avowedatheists, Muslimterrorists, or
Hindu idolaters. These people professedto believe in the God of Abraham and
outwardly they were zealous for their religion. But Jesus plainly tells them
that they were deceived. They actually were in Satan’s camp. And so we who
profess to be Christians and perhaps even are zealous about our faith need to
think carefully through these five characteristicsto make sure that we’re not
deceiving ourselves!
A. False children of God count on their religion to put them in goodstanding
with God.
This theme is repeatedhere so that we don’t miss it. In 8:33, they tell Jesus,
“We are Abraham’s descendants and have never yet been enslavedto
anyone.” In 8:37, Jesus acknowledgesthatthey were Abraham’s descendants
physically, but He contends that they were not Abraham’s descendants
spiritually. But they still repeat(8:39), “Abraham is our father.” When Jesus
points out (8:39b-41a)that their deeds were not in line with Abraham’s, but
indicated a different father, they retort (8:41b), “We were not born of
fornication; we have one Father: God.”
There could be a couple of things behind that comment. It could be a subtle
slur againstJesus’birth, alluding to the factthat His mother conceivedHim
out of wedlock. Rumors about Mary’s pregnancywith Jesus had circulated
for decades.So the Jews may be putting Jesus down by saying, “You’re
illegitimate because Your mother was immoral, but we’re not!” Or, it could
be an assertionthat they were not like Gentile idolaters. Often idolatry in the
Old Testamentis describedas spiritual adultery. So the Jews’retort here
could mean, “We were not born like idolatrous Gentiles;rather, as Jews, God
is our Father.”
But howeveryou take it, it’s clearthat these Jews were counting on their
Jewishheritage and religion to put them in right standing with God. The

apostle Paul did the same thing when he was a Pharisee. He boastedin his
Jewishcredentials (Phil. 3:4-6). But after God saved him, he counted all of
that as loss. He wrote (Rom. 2:28-29), “Forhe is not a Jew who is one
outwardly, nor is circumcisionthat which is outward in the flesh. But he is a
Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcisionis that which is of the heart, by the
Spirit, not by the letter; and his praise is not from men, but from God.” And
(Gal. 3:7), “Therefore, be sure that it is those who are of faith who are sons of
Abraham.”
It’s a greatblessing to be born to Christian parents and rearedin the church,
as I was. But that blessing increases youraccountability to respond to the light
that you’ve been given. Your religious upbringing will do you no goodand
will only increase your culpability on judgment day if you do not respond to
the gospelwith repentance for your sins and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
B. False children of God are deceivedinto thinking that they are children of
God, while their actions actuallyshow them to be children of the devil.
These Jews claimedthat Abraham and God were their spiritual fathers (8:39,
41), but they were blind as to who their real spiritual father was, namely, the
devil! In reply to their contention that Abraham was their father, Jesus said
(8:39, 40), “If you are Abraham’s children, do the deeds of Abraham. But as it
is, you are seeking to kill Me, a man who has told you the truth, which I heard
from God; this Abraham did not do.” Then, in response to their claim that
God was their Father, Jesus replies (8:42), “If God were your Father, you
would love Me, for I proceededforth and have come from God, for I have not
even come on My own initiative, but He sent Me.”
So they were claiming to be devoted followers oftheir religion, but at the same
time they were trying to kill God’s unique Son, whom He sentto earth for
their salvation. Their actions revealedtheir true nature, that they were
children of the devil.
Jesus goeson (8:44) to explain that Satanis both a murderer from the
beginning and the father of lies. He murdered the entire human race by lying
to Eve about what God had said. As such, he is the author of all the murders
and lies ever since that tragic incident in the Garden. Since these Jews were

seeking to murder Jesus (8:37, 40)and since they were liars (8:55), they were
reflecting their true nature as children of the devil. As they say, “He’s a chip
off the old block.” Or, “Like father, like son.” But tragically, these Jews didn’t
see how deceived they were. They thought that they were the righteous ones
and that Jesus was the liar and deceiver.
Here’s the hard question that eachof us needs to ask ourselves, so that we
don’t end up being deceived:“Whose child do my actions revealme to be?”
There are far more tests than the two in verse 44, but take them: Do you have
murderous intents for others? You say, “Whew, I’m off the hook on that one!
I don’t want to kill anyone!” But not so fast! Jesus said(Matt. 5:21-22):
“You have heard that the ancients were told, ‘You shall not commit murder’
and ‘Whoevercommits murder shall be liable to the court.’ But I say to you
that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be guilty before the court;
and whoeversays to his brother, ‘You good-for-nothing,’ shall be guilty
before the supreme court; and whoeversays, ‘You fool,’ shall be guilty
enough to go into the fiery hell.”
Whoa! If you’re an angry person, you need to get radical in eliminating that
sin from your life or at the very least, it indicates that the devil has gotten a
foothold in your life (Eph. 4:26-27). At worst, it indicates that you may not be
a true child of God. But in either case, angeris not a “minor fault.” It’s a
major sin!
Or, take the other testin verse 44:Lying. Jesus says of Satan, “[He] does not
stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Wheneverhe speaks a lie,
he speaks from his ownnature, for he is a liar and the father of lies.” Are you
committed to being a truthful person, or do you bend the truth when it’s to
your advantage? Do you put on a “Christian” front so that you look goodat
church, but you actually live in violation of God’s Word at home or when
you’re in private? Hypocrisy is lying. Being truthful is a mark of God’s true
children, but lying is a mark of the devil’s children.
C. False children of God seek to eliminate Christ and His Word from their
lives because they don’t want to hear the truth about their sin.

These Jews were seeking to kill Jesus because His Word had no place in them
(8:37). Jesus tells them further (8:40), “But as it is, you are seeking to kill Me,
a man who has told you the truth, which I heard from God; this Abraham did
not do.” In 8:45, Jesus adds, “But because I speak the truth, you do not
believe Me.” The truth threatened them because it exposedtheir sinful hearts.
Rather than believing the truth and repenting of their sin, they were trying to
eliminate the messenger.
Again, keepin mind that we’re not talking here about atheists or agnostics.
We’re talking about outwardly religious people. In modern terms, they were
active church members, some of whom servedon the governing board. Some
were even ministers. So you have to ask, “How do professing Christians today
try to eliminate Christ and His Word from their lives?”
Some liberal “Christians” do it by undermining the authority and inerrancy
of Scripture. It often starts by rejecting the early chapters of Genesis as
history so that they canaccommodate evolution. It moves on to eliminating
the miracles in the Bible as mythical stories. Thenthey distance themselves
from the parts of the Bible that don’t align with our modern “enlightened”
understanding of things. For example, they argue that the biblical roles for
men and womenare culturally antiquated and not binding on us today. They
argue that the Bible’s view of homosexualityis “homophobic.” The
overarching virtue in the Bible is love and tolerance for everyone, so we can’t
condemn as wrong any behavior or belief, no matter how unbiblical it may be.
But, it’s easyto throw stones at the liberals and ignore how we as evangelicals
may be eliminating Christ and His Word from our lives because we don’t
want to hear the truth about our sin. One way we do it is simply by neglecting
the Word. We don’t read it and seek to obey it. We’re ignorant of what it says
because we haven’t takenthe time to read and meditate on it.
Another way that we eliminate or at leastdilute Christ and His Word from
our lives is by mixing it with worldly ideas, such as modern psychotherapy.
The widespreadself-esteemteaching floodedinto the church, not because it
was discoveredin the Bible, but because it came in through worldly

psychologists,suchas Carl Rogers. It flies in the face of biblical teaching on
humility and it serves to build our pride, which is the root of all sins.
Another way that we eliminate or dilute Christ’s Word so that we can do what
we want, rather than what God commands, is by putting other “revelations”
alongside the Word, which in effectsupersede the Word. I’ve heard
Christians saythat God told them that it was okayfor them to marry an
unbeliever. A Christian man once told me that God had told him that he could
divorce his wife. A charismatic pastor was separatedfrom his wife, but the
elders of his church had not askedhim to stepdown. When I askedwhy they
had not done this, one of the elders replied, “The Lord hasn’t told us to do
that.” I persisted, “But the Lord has told you to do it. He told you in 1
Timothy 3.” But he kept saying, “No, the Lord hasn’t told us to do that.” So
unbiblical “revelations”take precedenceoverGod’s Word, allowing us to do
what we want when it isn’t convenient or easyto do what God commands.
D. False children of God attack or look down on those who convictthem of
sin.
This is behind the Jews’comment (8:41), “We were not born of fornication;
we have one Father: God.” As I said, that either was a slur againstJesus so
that they didn’t have to listen to Him, or it was a derogatoryremark about
Gentile idolatry. But either way, it diverted the issue from their need to
confront their own sin by pointing at others and their supposedfaults.
Invariably, false believers do not let God’s Word confront their sins (John
3:19-21). True believers allow the light of God’s Word to expose their sins so
that they canturn from them and grow in holiness.
E. False children of God are not able to understand or obey Jesus’Word
because they are not born of God.
This gets to the rootof their problem. It comes up twice here. In 8:43, Jesus
asks, “Whydo you not understand what I am saying?” He answers His own
question, “It is because you cannot hear My word.” He does not say, “You do
not hear My word,” but rather, “You cannot hear My word.” The Greek
word refers to inability. They lackedthe spiritual ability to hear Jesus’word,
which primarily means, to obey it. Then, in 8:46 He asks, “Whichof you

convicts Me of sin? If I speak truth, why do you not believe Me?” Then He
againanswers His own question (8:47), “He who is of God hears the words of
God; for this reasonyou do not hear them, because you are not of God.” In
other words, they were not born of God.
The Bible is clearthat because ofsin, unbelievers cannot do anything pleasing
toward God (Rom. 8:8). They are unable to understand the gospelor other
spiritual truth (2 Cor. 4:4; 1 Cor. 2:14). And yet, God holds them responsible
for their unbelief (Acts 2:23). If you say, “That’s not fair,” then you’re
contending againstthe Sovereignof the universe! Be careful! Rather than rail
againstHim, cry out to Him for mercy! “Whoeverwill call on the name of the
Lord will be saved” (Rom. 10:13). But when you getsaved, remember (1 Cor.
1:30), “But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus ….” The reasonthat false
children of God follow Satanand his evil deeds is because they have not been
born of God.
2. True children of God love Jesus and obey His Word because they have been
born of God.
Briefly, here are four marks of true children of God:
A. True children of God give God’s Word the primary place in their lives.
This is the converse ofwhat Jesus saidabout these false believers (8:37), “My
word has no place in you.” The word translated “no place” canmean, “My
word makes no progress in you.” Or, as we saw in 8:31, they did not continue
in Jesus’word, which is the mark of His true disciples. As I said lastweek,
continuing or abiding in Jesus’Word is the keyto experiencing consistent
victory over sin. True children of God can saywith the psalmist (Ps. 119:11),
“Your word I have treasuredin my heart, that I may not sin againstYou.”
B. True children of God obey God’s Word.
Jesus says (8:47), “He who is of God hears the words of God; …” “Hears”
does not mean just hearing the words audibly; the Pharisees did that. Rather,
it means to hear so as to obey. In 8:39, Jesus says that if they were Abraham’s
true children, they would do the deeds of Abraham. Abraham was noted both
for believing God so that he was justified by faith (Gen. 15:6; Rom. 4:3); and

obeying God, which demonstrated that his faith was genuine (Gen. 26:5;
James 2:21-23). As John says (1 John 2:3), “By this we know that we have
come to know Him, if we keepHis commandments.” Is your life marked by
obedience to God’s Word?
C. True children of God love Jesus.
Jesus says (8:42), “If God were your Father, you would love Me ….” Jesus
repeatedly askedPeterwhenHe restoredhim after his denials (21:16),
“Simon, sonof John, do you love Me?” Paulshows the importance of this (1
Cor. 16:22), “If anyone does not love the Lord, he is to be accursed.”Love is a
commitment to seek the highest goodof the one loved. Love for Christ is a
commitment to seek His glory through all that I do. It certainly involves my
feelings, in that I am most happy when I see my Lord most glorified. But the
basis of biblical love isn’t feelings, but the commitment to seek His highest
good. Have you made that commitment? Do you love Jesus enoughto forsake
your sin?
D. True children of God love Jesus and obey His Word because they have
been born of God.
As we saw, at the heart of why false children of God are not able to
understand or obey Jesus’Word is that they are not of God. The flip side of
this is (8:47), “He who is of God hears the words of God; …” Being “of God”
means being “born of God” through the new birth. The reasonthat we now
love Jesus and obey His Word is that we have a new nature. The Spirit of God
dwells in us and opens up to us the treasures ofGod’s Word (1 Cor. 2:9-10).
So it’s the reality of the new birth that distinguishes the true children of God
from the false.
Conclusion
In 2 Corinthians 13:5, Paul writes, “Testyourselves to see if you are in the
faith; examine yourselves!Or do you not recognize this about yourselves, that
Jesus Christ is in you—unless indeed you fail the test?” It’s possible to go too
far and become overly introspective, so I don’t want anyone to do that. But
it’s also possible to go glibly through life, assuming that you’re a true child of

God because you go through the outward motions of Christianity, while your
heart is far from God (Mark 7:6). It would be utterly tragic to hear the Lord
say (Matt. 7:23), “I never knew you, depart from Me, you who practice
lawlessness.”Make sure that you’re a true child of God!
Application Questions
Some evangelismapproaches encourageyouto give assurance ofsalvationto a
person who just prayed to receive Christ. In light of these tests, is this wise?
Why/why not?
Are there any marks of false converts that you need to deal with personally?
What is your plan for doing this?
What are some other marks of the new birth than those mentioned here? Cite
Scriptures.
How can you sensitively use these tests to help others without becoming
judgmental?
Copyright, Steven J. Cole, 2014,All Rights Reserved.
Dr. S. Lewis Johnsongives exposition on Jesus'exchange with the Jewish
leaders over the covenantbetweenYahweh and Abraham.
SLJ Institute > Gospelof John > The Fatherhoodof Satanand the
Brotherhoodof Man
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[Message]Johnchapter 8, verse 37 through verse 47 is the Scripture reading
this morning. So if you have your Bibles turn with me there. And listen as we
read over these verses that are the subject of the messagethis morning. For
those of you who have been attending right along regularly, of course, you
know that this sectionof the Gospelof John contains ministry that the Lord
delivered on his visit to Jerusalemat the time of the Feastof Tabernacles. And
in this particular sectionofit he evidently is in the temple carrying on
conversationwith the Jews and perhaps some others that were gatheredthere
as well. There seemedto be severalgroups present. In the midst of his
ministry with them he had said in verse 33 of the 8th chapter, “Theyanswered
him, We be Abraham’s seed, and were never in bondage to any man: how
sayestthou, Ye shall be made free?” And the Lord Jesus had concluded in
response in verse 36 by saying, “If the Sontherefore shall make you free, ye
shall be free indeed.” And he continues at verse 37.
“I know that ye are Abraham’s seed;but ye seek to kill me, because my word
hath no place in you. (Or as one of the versions renders it, “You have no room
for my word. Another version renders it, “My word makes no headway

among you.) I speak that which I have seenwith my Father: and ye do that
which ye have seenwith your father.
They answeredand said unto him, Abraham is our father. Jesus saithunto
them, If ye were Abraham’s children, ye would do the works ofAbraham. 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. (That’s a figure of speechcalledlitotes, and it
means to affirm something by denying the opposite. Of course, not only did
Abraham not do this, but he did the precise opposite of that.) Ye do the deeds
of your father. Then saidthey to him, We be not born of fornication; we have
one Father, even God. Jesus saidunto them, If Godwere your Father, ye
would love me: for I proceededforth and came from God (Or I came from
God and am now here, as the New International Version renders it.); neither
came I of myself, but he sentme. Why do ye not understand my speech? Even
because ye cannot hear my word. (That’s an interesting statement, and of
course the sense ofit depends on the distinction betweenspeechand word, one
having to do with his discourse, somewhatlike the form of his speaking, and
the other something like the contentof it. Why do you not understand my
speech? Evenbecause you cannothear my word.) 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. (Now
probably we are to render that “abode not in the truth” as “does not stand in
the truth,” because ofthe present tenses that follow. “Becausethere is no
truth in him.”) When he speaketha lie, he speakethofhis own: for he is a liar,
and the father of it. And because I tell you the truth, ye believe me not. Which
of you convinceth me of sin? And if I say the truth, why do ye not believe me?
He that is of God hearethGod’s words: ye therefore hear them not, because
ye are not of God.”
May the Lord bless this reading of his word. Let’s bow togetherin a moment
of prayer.
[Message]This morning in the exposition of the Gospelof John is “The
Fatherhoodof Satan and the Brotherhoodof Man.” When I first became a
Christian one of the characteristic phrases ortwo of religious people was the
phrase, “The universal Fatherhoodof God, and the brotherhood of man.” I

occasionallystill see that expression, ‘The Fatherhoodof God, and the
Brotherhoodof Man.” That probably is still the prevailing view of people who
think about spiritual things. That there is a universal Fatherhoodof God, and
there is a universal brotherhood of man. There is a sense, probably, in which
that is a just expression. Becausewe do read in, for example, the Book ofActs,
chapter 17 and verse 26 in one of the statements that Paul made in his sermon
on Mars Hill, “And hath made of one all nations of men, for to dwell on the
face of the earth.” That would seemto suggestthatthere is a universal
Fatherhoodof God, since we are all made of one.
And then there are other expressions that might indicate that there is some
truth to that. But the Fatherhoodof God by creationis a greatdeal different
than the Fatherhoodof God by redemption. The apostle also makes a
statementin Galatians chapterand verse 26 which bears on this subject.
There you’ll remember he said, “Forye are all the sons of God.” We might
stop there and not finish the verse, and then we would affirm the universal
Fatherhoodof God. But the apostle says, “Ye are all the sons of God by faith
in Jesus Christ.” So we need to distinguish the Fatherhoodof God by creation
and the Fatherhoodof God by redemption. And when we speak of the
Fatherhoodof God and the brotherhood of man, those who make that
statement, as a rule, do not make that important, decisive distinction. Men
may have a Fatherhoodof God by creation, but the apostle very, very
carefully and definitely limits the Fatherhoodof God in redemption to those
who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. And unless we make that distinction, it
is wrong for us to saythat the Bible teaches the Fatherhoodof God and the
brotherhood of man. It teaches the Fatherhoodof God and the brotherhood of
those who have in the Lord Jesus Christ, and it is that group of people who
may truly call God their Father.
One thing that we notice about the Lord Jesus Christ’s ministry is this. He not
only denies these false views, but also delivers some startling conceptions in
opposition to common views. For example, here he speaks ofthe Fatherhood
of Satan, not the Fatherhoodof God. He says in verse 44 of John 8, “Ye are of
your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do.” So the Lord
Jesus, in his ministry not only denies the Fatherhoodof God, of all men in the
sense that we are all saved and all related to the one God in heaven. But in

fact, he makes a distinction among men. He affirms that there are some who
are the sons of God, and there are others who are of their father the devil. So
he not only denies the common view but delivers this startling new conception
that those who not believe in the Lord Jesus Christ are not only the sons of
God, but rather belong to a different Fatherentirely. “Ye are of your father
the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do.”
We learn from this, of course, that the Lord Jesus is not a nimbi pamby kind
of individual who only says what other people would like to hear. One thing
that you cansay about Jesus Christ is that he was not only a man, but he was
a manly man. He was the crownand glory of humanity. And scantjustice has
been done to this fact. Many artists have attempted to paint the portrait of the
Lord Jesus Christ and he has more often been representedas womanly and
weak than as manly and masculine. Now, it’s certainly true that the Lord
Jesus Christ was a gentleman, but he was also a gentle man, and we should
never forget that. He was a person who was truly man and truly manly man.
And this factof the gentleness ofthe Lord Jesus has been given an undo
emphasis in many cases. And we’ve lost, unfortunately, the fact that the Lord
Jesus Christ was a man’s man in the true sense. I’m not trying to suggestthat
he would have been the middle line backerof one of our NationalFootball
League teams. I would, of course, if that were true, it would be nice to be on
that team. But nevertheless we are not to think of our Lord Jesus as a
muscular athlete, but at the time we are certainly not to think of him as weak
an unmasculine.
After the First World War, there was a sentence in the report of the chaplains
of the service that confirmed the impression. Among the British it was said
that, “Average Tommy believed that Jesus was justand good, but a trifle
soft.” That is surely not true. I read a story m any years ago about a young
man who being presented by acclaims ofChrist by a Christian worker. And
when the conversationturned to the Lord Jesus Christspecifically, he was
heard to saysomething like, “But I do not admire your Christ. He was weak
and effeminate. I like a man with red blood in his veins.” The other person
was wise and said, “I suppose you were told the Bible studies when you were
younger.” Oh yes, I used to love the stories about the Old Testamentmen.”
“Well, I suppose then that you liked the stories about rugged Elijah who

appeareddramatically before the king of Israeland challengedthe whole
nation.
And I would imagine that Elijah would be one of your favorite characters.
And you certainly have heard of John the Baptist. John the Baptist who wore
that strange garb and went about fearlesslypreaching in his day. He went
about in a very unorthodox manner, but he preached orthodox theologywith
fearlessness. And surely I would imagine you responded well to him.” The
other man, “Strangelyenoughyou’ve lighted on my two favorite Bible
characters, Elijahand John the Baptist.” Then the Christian said, “Then
would it surprise you to know that when Jesus askedhis disciples who men
said that that he was, whatthey said. They said, ‘Some say that thou art
Elijah, and some say that Thou art John the Baptist.’ So how canit be that he
was an effeminate, weak, womanly kind of personif they got the impression
that the characters ofthe Old Testamentthat best representedhim were
rugged Elijah and fearless Johnthe Baptist?”
The Lord Jesus Christ containedwithin him not only the manliness of man
but the gentleness ofwomen. And he containedthose two aspects in perfect
harmony. You can certainly see that here in this passage, because he is
fearless in the proclamationof the truth of God. But he is also gentle in its
application. Now, he is in the contextpressing home the claims that he has just
made. And he’s talking now specificallywith deficient believers. As we noted
last time in our studies in verse 31, he’s speaking specificallyto the Jews who
believed on him. Or, as we said lastSunday, who believed him. That is, who
had credence with reference to him, who believed that he was speaking things
that might be truth, but who nevertheless so far as we cantell from the
context doubtfully have placed saving faith in him.
Now, they saidin verse 33, “We be Abraham’s seed, and were never in
bondage to any man: how sayestthou, Ye shall be made free?” So he discusses
in the following verses from verse 34 through verse 36 the subject of freedom
and bondage. Now he will come to discuss the point that they made in verse
33, “We be Abraham’s seed.” So he’s discussedbondage, and now he will
discuss Abraham’s seed. And in verse 37 and verse 38 we have the revelation
regarding the satanic relationship. Verse 37 of John 8 says, “Iknow 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 seenwith my Father, and you do that which ye
have seenwith your father.” So he concedes the physical relationship. He says,
“I know that ye are Abraham’s seed.” But he proceeds to the contradictory
actions and their cause.
Now he said in verse 37, “You seek to kill me.” Is that the actof Abraham’s
seed? Would Abraham have sought to kill the representative of Jehovah, the
triune God? Would he have soughtto slayone of the members of the trinity?
Would he have sought to slay one who came on a mission from the Father in
heaven? How different from the actions of Abraham. In fact the Lord Jesus
will saylater on in this very chapter, Abraham rejoicedto see my day. So a
person who claims to be Abraham’s seedsurely will not be seeking to kill the
representative of the Fatherin heaven. “I know that you are Abraham’s
seed.” It is clearthat this is a reference to the physical relationship. “I know
you are Abraham’s seed, but you seek to kill me because my word has no
place in you.” He would have rejoicedto see me. You are anxious to slayme.
Of course the reasonis, “My word has no place in you.” You have no room for
my word. The Greek word suggeststhat, “You have no room for my word.”
Or as it has been rendered, “My word makes no headwayamong you.”
The word is an interesting word, because it is used in severalfigures of speech
that help to explain exactlywhat he was talking about. It was usedof the
growing of a plant. “So my word does not make any headwayin you.” It is
also used of the flowing of water. And it was usedof a man’ investment
growing. So my word makes no headwayin you. My word has no place in you.
The investment is not growing. The plant is not growing. The water is not
flowing. It is clearfrom this that our Lord regards them as unreceptive to the
things of the word of God. That is a very solemn thing, of course, and to have
the Lord Jesus saythat “My word makes no headway in you” to my mind is a
very, very terrible thing.
The Lord Jesus gave a parable of some soils. It’s describedin passageslike
Mark chapter 4. He describes the sowing of the seed, and he says in the 5th
verse of Mark chapter 4, “And some fell on stony ground where some had not
much earth. And immediately it sprang up because it had no depth of earth.”

And then later on in the exposition of the meaning of this, in verse 16 and
verse 17 Jesus Christ says to explain, “And these are they likewise whichare
sownon stony ground, who when they have heard the word immediately
receive it with gladness and have no root in themselves. And so endure but for
a time, afterwardwhen afflict or persecutionariseth for the world’s sake,
immediately they are offended.” One thinks that the Lord Jesus had many
responses like that, and as you look down the history of the Christian church
you will find much of that too. It’s sadto see some immediate surface response
to the word of God and then find that the individuals have no root in
themselves at all and do not belong among those who bring forth fruit, some
thirty fold, some sixty fold, some one hundred fold. So “My work makes no
headwayamong you.”
I wonder if I may ask you a question. Is the word of God really making any
headwayamong you? Can it be said of you, as it is said of these Jews by the
Lord Jesus Christ, “My word has no place in you.” Is it fair to say that you
have no room for my word? Is it possible that there is no real place in your life
for the sustenance that comes from the word of God? The Lord Jesus said,
“Manshall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceedethout of
the mouth of God.” What is the extent of your appropriation of the word of
God? Is the word of God your spiritual food? Is this something you find that
you must have in order to make it through the day and through the week and
through the month? Is the word of God your true food? “Manshall not live by
bread alone but by every word that proceedethout of the mouth of God.” It
seems to me from observation, I speak ofmyself as well as of you because I
don’t want to take the position of being someone who stands up here and
lectures you on your faults, but as we look around among Christians one
would think that there is very little growing, vital study of the word of God in
the body of Christ. The word of God is not making much headwayamong
evangelicals. It’s not making much headwayamong many of whom we are
acquainted. And is it making headwayamong me? Is it that I have no room
for his word?
One would think that if we were really an individual in which the word was
making headway, there would be signs of vital interest in the things of the
Lord. There is no man who is interestedin football who can go through a day

without saying something about it. If he’s really vitally interestedin a subject
it will come out, whether it be interestin a personor interestin a thing,
interest in his business. It will come out. But there are some believers who give
no spontaneous response whatsoeverto the things of the Lord as found in the
word of God. It is a very sad thing.
Then the Lord says in verse 38, “I speak that which I have seenwith my
Father, and you do that which you have seenof your father.” Now, our Lord’s
sight of the Father, to which he refers here, is of course the supernatural sight
that he had from the sight of his heavenly Father. Theirs is a human
knowledge. In the Lord Jesus Christ ultimately, he was the one who could say,
“With Thee is the fountain of life,” speaking of his Father. “With Thee,
Father, is the fountain of life, in Thy light we shall see light.” And the Lord
Jesus as the perfect Sonof man was one who was taught by the Father. As the
days awakened, as the days began, the Lord Jesus awakenedto interest in the
things of the word of God. He spoke ofhow the Fathertaught him morning by
morning. I would think that’s the pattern of believers. Wouldn’t it be nice if
every morning you wakenedupon your bed and thought of the things of the
word of God and askedGodto teachyou and instruct you and make this day
a day in which you have the word of God making headwayin you?
Now the response to the Jews ofthis is characteristic,forthese Jews here with
whom he is dealing do not understand the things of the Spirit of God. They
simply sayto him, “Abraham is our father.” And the Lord Jesus replies, “If
Abraham is your father, then those words should produce corresponding
works.” If you were Abraham’s children, you would do the words of
Abraham. That, it seems to me, is very strong evidence for contending that if a
person has relationship to the Lord Jesus Christ he should be expected to do
certain works characteristic ofthis. And they, he said, “If you really were
Abraham’s children, then we would see the things that Abraham did, in your
life.”
What did Abraham do? Well, when we think of Abraham the characteristic
thing about him is that he believed God and it is reckonedto him for
righteousness. Ifyou go back in the Old Testamentand read through the Old
Testamentand notice the references to Abraham, he was a friend of God. He

believed in the Lord. He was the one to whom the Lord appeared, and to
whom Abraham responded by going out and not even knowing where he was
going. He was a man who believed God. That is the thing that characterizes
him. And that is why we are told in the New Testamentwhen we believe in
Jesus Christ that we are sons of Abraham. We are the sons of Abraham in
faith. And when we believe the things of the word of God, we belong to the
company of whom Abraham is the leading representative among men. He was
believing Abraham, Paul calls him in Galatians chapter 3. So if you really sons
of Abraham, you will do the works ofyour father. MayI ask you again, Paul
says that believers are the children of Abraham. He does not saythey are the
children of Israel. He says they are the children of Abraham. And if we are
the children of Abraham we should expect to see in our lives faith, belief,
walking by faith. That characterizedAbraham.
Furthermore, another thing characterizedAbraham. When one of God’s
representatives came to him as he returned from the victory described in
Genesis chapter14, when this representative of the MostHigh God by the
name of Melchisadek came to Abraham and blessedAbraham, how did
Abraham respond to the representative of God? Well he gave him tithes. In
fact, it is singledout in the word of God for specialemphasis in the 7th
chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrew. So Abraham was an individual who
believed God and who also respondedto the representatives ofGod. That has
specialpoint for the people with whom our Lord is dealing, because they not
only have not believed him, but they have not responded to him as the
representative of God. Insteadof receiving him and welcoming him and
offering to him the praise and thanksgiving that might be comparedto the
tithes that Abraham rendered, acknowledging his authority over them, they
seek to kill him.
What else characterizedAbraham? Well, he acceptedthose things that looked
forward to the atonementof the Lord Jesus Christ. When he was told to offer
up Isaac his son, he obeyed. He went to Mount Moriah. He offeredup ideally
Isaac, and receivedhim back by resurrection. And in the activities of
Abraham we see the climax of faith in the gift of Isaac as a beautiful picture
aheadof time of the offering of the Lord Jesus Christ. If you were Abraham’s
children you would do the works of Abraham. And may I sayto you, if we are

the children of God there will be evidence in our lives that we do do the works
of God. So the Lord must say, “But now you seek to kill me,” a man that had
told you the truth, which I had heard of God. This did not Abraham.” That’s
the affirmation of the truth that their actions are not like Abraham. And he
does it by the negative in order to emphasize the affirmative. Yes, not only did
Abraham not seek to kill him, Abram rejoicedto see his day.
Well, the Jews reply again. “Then said they to him, We be not born of
fornication; we have one Father, even God.” They’re greatbelievers in ball
control. They want to keepour Lord on the defensive if they possibly can. So
they say, “We be not born of fornication; we have one Father, even God.”
Now possibly they are referring to the factthat after the return from the
Babylonian captivity in which so many Jewishpeople intermarried, it was
reckonedamong them that if a person had married a heathen, then on one
side those who were descendedfrom them were of Satan. And they thought of
them like that, and perhaps they are referring to that. They may be thinking
that he’s accusing them of having some other Gentile heathen blood in their
veins.” And so they say, “We be not born of fornication; we have one Father,
even God.” That is, we are truly Jewishon both sides.
On the other hand, it may be a sinisteraccusation. “We are not born of
fornication as you were born of fornication.” We don’t have any actual
knowledge that they spoke of our Lord Jesus Christ as a bastard in the time
that he was here. But the later rabbinic literature is filled with referencesto
the factthat the Lord Jesus was the bastard son of Mary. And there may be
some indication of that in this statement. “We be not born of fornication,”
meaning simply, “We were not born like you were born.” In other words, a
questionable birth. He was born of a virgin, of course, but that being
supernatural and miraculous, they accusedhim of being born in an elicit
relationship betweenJosephand Mary.
Our Lord replies, “If God were your Father,” verse 42, “ye would love me: for
I proceededforth and came from God; neither came I of myself, but he sent
me.” Now this is a fuller discussionto show that their actions reveal their
antipathy to God and their sympathy to Satan. And there are three evidences
for the condemnation our Lord pronounces upon them. First of all, their lack

of love for him, in rejecting the sent one, that indicates that they rejectthe
sender. “If God were your Father, you would love me for I proceededforth
and came from God.” To refuse to receive an ambassadorfrom a land is to
rejectthe country.
Many years ago whenmy son was rather young, we sent him off to Canada
for camp about five summers in a row. The first time I took him myself. And
then I think maybe another time I went with him, because I was speaking in
the north quite frequently then. But on other occasionswe entrusted him to
some of our friends. And I occasionallywould call some friends of mine in
Toronto with whom I may have gone to schoolorwhom I knew and just ask
simply that they would meet him at the train and be sure that he was located
in a place in which he would be able to catchthe train the next day for the
north country in Canada. I don’t remember ever receiving any rejectionof
that, and when my son arrived they didn’t know him, but they receivedhim
because oftheir relationship to me.
The Lord Jesus is speaking something like that when he says, “If God were
your father, ye would love me: for I proceededforth and came from God.”
You might now know me, but you might at leastideally have known the
Father. And if you knew the Father, you would receive me. The modernist’s
watchwordhas always been, “Let us go back to Jesus. Letus avoid the
theologizing of the Apostle Paul and back to the simple things of the Lord
Jesus Christ. As if to suggestthat all that Jesus taught was the Fatherhoodof
God and the brotherhood of man. And that the way to heaven is by just doing
good. Listen to what he says about himself. H e says, “ForI proceededforth
and came from God.” That is a reference to his divine incarnation. And also a
reference to his mission. They say, back to Jesus, but when one goes back to
Jesus and reads his words, then we come again to the conviction that he was
an unusual supernatural person. Have you ever noticed this about the Lord
Jesus Christ? Only once in his entire ministry did he ever mention that he had
been born. Has that ever surprised you? Only once did he ever mention that
he had been born. I dare sayif you’ve been here in Believers Chapelvery
long, most of you knew that I was born in Alabama. I would mention that I
was born or I would refer to my birth. And you would, in your conversation
sooneror later make reference to that. The Lord Jesus one time said he was

born, and then he quickly modified that expression. He was speaking to Pilot.
Pilot said, “Are you a king then?” The Lord Jesus answered, “Thousayest
that I am a king, to this end was I born.” And then he says, “Forthis purpose
came I into the world,” almostas if to say in your language Pilot, you are a
pagan, you are a heathen, and of course I was speaking your language. “To
this end was I born, but for this reasoncame I into the world.” The
characteristic wayin which the Lord Jesus speaksofhis entrance among us is
“I came, and I was sent.” In other words, even in the way that he speaks of
himself, he affirms the fact that his sonship is different from our sonship. “If
God were your Father you would love me, for I proceededforth, and I am
now here. I have come from God; neither came I from myself but sent me.
There’s a line, a little stanza, that’s found in an old Latin inscription. Listen to
what it says. “I am what I was, God. I was not what I am, man. I am now
calledboth, God and man.” In that simple Latin inscription is expressedthe
idea that when he became a man he still was what he was, the eternal second
person of the trinity. There is also expressedthe fact that he is now something
that he was not in the ages past. He can be called a man. He says in verse 40,
“A man that hath told you the truth.” And he said, “Now, I am calledboth
God and man.” Or as we would like to say, “The God-man.” “There is one
mediator betweenGod and men, the man Christ Jesus.”God-man.
Well, they don’t understand. We read in verse 43 through verse 45, Jesus says,
“Why do ye not understand my speech? Evenbecause ye cannothear my
word.” I wish we had time to go back over this chapterand notice the
obtuseness ofthese who are listening to him. Over and over againthe Lord
Jesus speaksofthe factthat they do not understand. And they manifest that in
the things that they say. He talks about greatspiritual truths, and they
translate them into ordinary mundane things. They do not understand. And
their physical desires againsthim prove that their spiritual descentis a
spiritual descentthat issues in homicidal tendencies. Listen, “Why do ye not
understand my speech? Evenbecause ye cannothear my word.” You cannot
understand the language that I am using because you are not in touch with the
content of the things that I am saying with the reality of the message. “You
are of your father the devil, and the lust of your father you will do.”

Those homicidal tendencies that you have prove your connectionwith the
original man slayerin the Garden of Eden, who by the tempting of Adam and
Eve brought about the fall of man. And in your destruction of life you deny
the truth. He was murderous. He was mendacious. He was a liar and also he
was the instrumentality of the fall of man. You manifest that in the fact that
you are seeking to slay me. And anyone who seeksto controvert the message
of the Lord Jesus Christ belongs to the fatherhood, not of God, but the
fatherhood of Satan. “You are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your
father you will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and he has not or
does not abide in the truth because there is not truth in him” When he speaks
a lie he speaks ofhis own things, for he is a liar and the father of it. There is
no text in the Bible that more clearly points out that our Lord believed in the
existence and personality of the devil. The devil was fairly voted out. And of
course, the devil’s gone, but simple people would like to know who carries his
business on.
Some years ago at chapel at Dallas TheologicalSeminaryI heard a man come
of whom I had heard for many years, TomOlson. He was in chapel speaking
that morning. He had magnificent knowledge ofthe word of God. He had
memorized vast sections ofthe New Testamentand was famous for that. In
the midst of his messagehe made reference to this particular text and he said,
“The modernists preach that we are all the sons of God and brothers one with
another.” And then he pointed out, “While it is true we are the creatures of
God by creation. But it’s definitely true we are not all the sons of God by
redemption. The fail to read the rest of Galatians 3:26,” he says. “Through
faith in Jesus Christ, they forgetthat there are two fatherhoods. One is the
Fatherhoodof God and the other is the fatherhood of the devil.” And then he
just said as an aside, “On Sunday morning as they stand behind their pulpit,
these individual who deny the word of God but who profess to be Christian,
when they close their eyes and say, ‘Oh God our Father,’to whom are they
addressing their prayer? Their father is the devil.” “You are of your father
the devil.”
The Lord Jesus, whenit came to truthfulness and faithfulness to the word of
God did not hesitate to express frankly the word of God. I heard about a man
who went to a town out westin the state of Nevada. I always thought it was, I

heard someone the other day keepsaying overthe radio Nevada, or maybe
those Nevadans pronounce Timothy that way, but it’s really Nevada. We back
here in the eastknow better, I think. Anyway, he went to this town in Nevada
and he was greetedby the minister. He was going to hold some evangelistic
meetings. And the minister said to him, “Now I want you to be carefulabout
the things you say. Don’t say anything about divorce, because out here in
Nevada we have many divorced people. And as you know, it’s a divorced
sinner.” Everybody used to go to Reno many years ago in order to get their
divorce. “And you don’t dare mention the liquor question, for some of our
best paying members are in the liquor business. And a greatmany of our
people earn their living by furnishing worldly amusements to the world that
travels out to be in our particular land. So be carefulabout that.” And the
poor evangelist, a simple kind of fellow, said, “Well, of whose sins may I speak
then?” And the minister was supposedto have said, “Wellgo for the Piute
Indians and their sins. They never go to church anyway.”
Well the Lord Jesus was notlike that. He didn’t mind stepping on the feelings
on the most significant of us. And finally, I know our time is up. He traces it
all to the fact that they are not of God. And the fact that they are not of God
indicates that they do not have faith. That statementin verse 46 is one that he
must have uttered with silence aftereachpart of it. “Which of you convinceth
me of sin? And if I saythe truth, why do ye not believe me?” And there was
silence. And our Lord lookedfor some statement with regardto his own sin.
By the way, this is probably one of the most magnificent statements that Jesus
ever made. I cannotimagine anyone making a statementlike this but the Lord
Jesus Christ. He evidently waited, “Which of you convinceth me of sin?”
Becausehe’s able to say, “And if I say the truth, why do ye not believe me?”
So can you not see the dramatic nature of it? “Which of you convinceth me of
sin?” Silence. “Now if I tell you the truth, why do ye not believe me?” Silence.
And then comes the answer. “He that is of God heareth God’s words: ye
therefore hear them not, because ye are not of God.” Have you heard this
messagetoday? Can it be said that you really are of God? “He that is of God
hears God’s words. If you hear them not, it’s likely that you are not of God.”
What a solemn thing. How important it is to be of God. May God speak to
your heart to that end. I apologize forkeeping you a few minutes over this

morning. But this is a very important section. “Are you of God?” Let’s stand
for the benediction.
[Prayer] Our Father, we are so gratefulto Thee for these magnificent words
spokenby the Lord Jesus Christ. They are very solemn words Lord, and we
pray that if there should be someone in this audience who does not know him,
by the Holy Spirit work that miraculous work of regeneration…
JOHN MACARTHUR
I want you to open your Bible to John chapter8, John chapter 8. I know they
didn’t know what I was going to preach on because I was so busy, I barely
calledanybody. So they just put kind of a blank in there. But, I do want to
continue in John, and tonight continue in the Book ofActs.
People askedme whenever I getaround military locations if I’m related to
GeneralDouglas MacArthur, and I am. It’s a distant relationship, but yes,
the answeris yes. One very kind young man there thought that I would be
interestedto know that there was a midshipman back in the ‘20s who was a
nephew or something of the general, and there was some information about
him, so he gave me a little envelope with some information about a Malcolm
MacArthur, thought I might be interested, and had a little picture of his grave
site with a little cross where he was buried, as he died while he was a
midshipman at the academy.
You know, when you think about that, that matters a lot to people. Family,
backgroundmatters. There’s a whole website calledAncestry.com. I don’t
know if they bug you, but they pop up a lot in my little world saying, “Do you
want to know about your ancestors?” Well, some people are fascinatedby
that. I guess people like to know that somebody, somewhere in the past was
significant. They want to go back and see if they can find some earth-
changing, culture-shifting, transformative life, or some novel person
somewhere in the background. It kind of adds to our history a little bit, and

makes us feela little bit more significant if there was somebodyback there
somewhere. Thatjust kind of appeals to the human need for significance.
Everybody has a family, and some of you aren’t look at all past the generation
past because it’s not important to you, or you’re afraid of what you might
find. But we all have a family. Everybody’s gota family. Everybody has
family. That’s how the world is divided up. We all also like a little bit of
history about our people. You gave me a kind gift of Patricia and I taking a
trip to Scotlandbecause, youknow, my people come from Scotland, and that’s
significant to me. That has bearing on my life, and that feeds into the history
of who I am, and so knowing a little about my family and a little about sort of
my national family, where I came from, people are proud to be Italian, and
African American, and all of that. And there’s wonderful history there, and it
matters to them, and it’s significant and important.
But you know, you can reduce the whole thing, the whole discussiondown to
really two families. Two families. Everybody’s in one of two families. To just
be simple and blunt, you’re either in God’s family or in the devil’s family.
That’s as simple as it canbe, and that’s exactlywhat Jesus says in this text.
So let me read it to you. John 8:37 and following. “I know that you are
Abraham’s descendants. Yetyou seek to kill Me because My word has no
place in you. I speak the things which I have seenwith My Father, therefore
you also do the things which you have heard from your father. They
answeredand said to Him, ‘Abraham is our father.’ Jesus saidto them, ‘If
you are Abraham’s children, do the deeds of Abraham. But as it is, you’re
seeking to kill Me, a man who has told you the truth which I heard from God.
This Abraham did not do. You are doing the deeds of your father.’ They said
to Him, ‘We were not born of fornication. We have one Father: God.’ Jesus
said to them, ‘If God were your Father, you would love me, for I proceeded
forth and have come from God, for I have not even come on My own
initiative, but He sent Me. Why do you not understand what I’m saying? It is
because you cannothear My word. You are your father the devil, and you
want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning,
and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Wheneverhe
speaks, he speaks a lie; he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the
father of lies. But because I speak the truth, you do not believe Me. Which

one of you convicts Me of sin? If I speak truth, why do you not believe Me?
He who is of God hears the words of God; for this reasonyou do not hear
them, because youare not of God.’”
Unmistakable. Two families, two fathers, two lines of descent. You’re either
from God, or from the devil. You know, I would assume that almost
everybody in the world, if they believe in God, would see themselves as
children of God. You could just about ask anyone if they’ve believed they’re a
child of God, and most would be likely to say yes. Becausepeople wantto
think the best about themselves, and I think particularly religious people want
to think the best about themselves, and these would be the ultra-extreme
religionists who lived for the Old Testament, lived for the law of God, lived for
the Godof Abraham, Isaac, andJacob. Who saw themselves as the paragons
of religious virtue, and the gatekeepersforGod’s kingdom. To be told starkly
that they are children of the devil would be something they had never, ever
heard. And I would surmise, too, that it’s likely something most people in our
world have never heard. In fact, were I to say all of this that I’m going to say
to you this morning, somewhere in some public venue where it could be
broadcast, we couldn’t calculate the uproar and the fury and the horror that
would develop as a result of saying people are children of the devil. But that’s
exactly what Jesus says.
And you might ask the question: wellwhy is He so blunt? Why is He so
severe? Why doesn’tHe do what He did, for example, in Matthew 11 and say,
“Come unto Me all the labored and the heavy laden. I’ll give you rest.” Why
doesn’t He say that? Why doesn’t He talk about the promises, and hope, and
why this? Well, the answeris, of course, that Jesus in Jerusalemnow, six
months from the end of his life, He’s been preaching for two and a half years.
He has been in direct confrontationwith the Jewishleaders for the whole time
of His ministry, starting when He attackedthe temple to launch His ministry
at the beginning. He has seenthe attitude of the Jewishleaders harden into
firm rejection. They resentHim. They hate Him. They want Him dead.
Chapter 7 verse 1, they wanted to kill Him. Chapter 8 verse 59, by the time
this discussionis over, they pick up stones to stone Him.

So, the stakesare very high. This is not a time to invite them to some, in some
gentile way, to embrace the blessings ofsalvation. This is a time to warn
them, because they are in severe danger, having made the conclusions they
have made. And, by the way, one of their conclusions was thatJesus Himself
was from the devil. And He tells them: the truth is, you are the devil’s
children. In direct confrontation with these Jewishleaders since the
beginning of chapter 7 when He showedup in Jerusalem, and you remember
that. He came for the feast. He came late. To sort of mitigate their fury a
little bit, He settledin, found his way to the temple, He engages in
conversations whichhave gone on through 7 and 8 with the leaders of the
Jews, the Pharisees, andthe people who are also gathered. Theyhave
completely rejectedHim. They have definitively rejectedHim. They have
resolutelyrejectedHim.
And as the antagonismof these leaders has been elevated, so the directness
and severity of Jesus’statements have increased. Becausethe stakes are
getting higher all the time. The more they show Him hatred, the more He
strikes piercing blows at their hypocrisy. This is mercy. Back in chapter 8
verse 20 to 24, He said, “You will die in your sins, and where I go, you can
never come.” Which is to say: I’m going to heaven; you’re not. By the way,
He said that. He came from heaven, and He would return to heaven. He had
been telling them that. I’m going there; you’re not. You’re going to die in
your sins. He never backs off as they harden againstHim. He never slows up.
He never tries to patronize them. He came to condemn sin; and the more
open and blatant sin becomes, the more direct and devastating His
condemnation becomes, because theireternal souls are at stake. This is a
merciful warning. Merciful.
He has never said anything more devastating than what I just read to you.
Neversaid anything more shocking, neversaid anything more offensive.
Jewishleaders are so infuriated that, as I said, by the time you come to the
end of the chapter, they start picking up rocks to crush out His life.
Now, it’s critical that sin be confronted. And depending on the resistance of
the sinner, to that confrontation, the confrontationhas to be escalated. As you
would do with anybody on the brink of severe danger, if they don’t listen to

the first call and the secondcall, you start elevating the extremity of the call,
and the severity of the call, because of the imminent reality of the danger.
And that’s exactly what our Lord does, and it’s a goodmodel for us. I know
it’s hard to do that, but this is what the Bible does as well. When you go to the
Book ofRomans, for example, the apostle Paul, in Romans 1, 2, and 3, all the
way to chapter 3 verse 22 is talking about how sinful man is. And chapter 1,
it’s the Gentiles, though they knew God, glorify Him not as God, but make
idols, and follow a path that leads to fornication, homosexuality, a reprobate
mind, and all kind of wretchedness. Whenthey knew God, they glorify Him
not as God, createdtheir own gods. Even though he says in chapter 2 of
Romans, the law of God is written in their hearts; they don’t follow that law.
Then in chapter 2, he also talks about the Jews in Romans, and he says, “He is
not a Jew who is one outwardly. So you have the law,” he says, “You saywe
have the law. We are the keepers ofthe law. We are the guardians of the
law.” He says, “Becauseofyou, the name of God is blasphemed among the
nations.”
Little goodit does for you to have the law. It doesn’tmean anything. You’re
not true Jews. A true Jew is one who’s one inwardly. And in chapter 3, He
just gathers up everybody. There’s none righteous. No, not one. And He
renders, chapter3 verse 19, “the whole world guilty.” The whole world guilty
before God.
It was a passionfor David Martyn Lloyd-Jones when he preached
evangelistically, whichhe did a lot. He said, “Notonly to tell the sinner he was
guilty, but to prove that he was guilty.” And to prove it with such powerand
conviction that the sinner couldn’t avoid it. And as a result of that, he was
criticized for being harsh, and sometimes they said he was divisive and it was
said of him that as his life progressed, he was gaining and losing influence at
the same time. Well, of course. He was gaining influence with the people who
loved the Word of God, and he was losing influence with the people who hated
it. That’s part of the responsibility. Even though he was a humble and meek
man, and a quiet and humble man in private, he used to like to say, “logic on
fire” when he openedup the Bible. And always a reasonedargument. Always
a reasonedargument, and not some devotional thoughts, but a reasoned
argument which, first of all, in an evangelistic context, was to demonstrate to

the sinner the dire circumstances ofhis condition. Well, that he learned from
our Lord because that’s what our Lord did. And the apostles learnedit, and
Paul learned it, and Paul pulled no punches in Romans 1, 2, and 3. He sets up
the whole book on the gospelby three chapters of indicting revelationabout
the sinfulness of sin.
Then, he says, by the deeds of the law, no one will be justified. So, this is your
predicament, and you can’t fix it on your own. A sinner needs to know that.
There’s no security in religion. There’s no security in goodworks. There’s no
security in your heritage, whether it’s a religious heritage like the Jews that
comes down through some actualnationality, or whether it’s a religious
heritage that’s passeddown because your parents were Lutheran, or
Presbyterian, or Baptist, or whatever. Only in Christ cansin be forgiven, and
hell escaped. Onlyby believing in Christ. And that’s what Jesus had been
saying all along:believe, believe. John’s called the Gospelof Belief, isn’t it?
So, Jesus has been calling for them to believe, and they should believe because
of His works, these incredible miracles going on every day. But it was His
words that offended them, remember that? They wanted His works.
Remember when He fed them in chapter 6. They said, “What do we do to
work the works ofGod?” Can we get that power so we cancreate food,
please? Imean, that would be phenomenal. So give us the power. He said,
“You’re not going to get that power. The only poweryou’ll ever participate in
is the powerof salvation when you put your trust in Me.” Theysaid, okay
then, keepmaking foodevery day, every day, every day. So, it wasn’t His
works that offended them; it was His words. We talkedabout that.
And what were the words that offended them? He said He came from heaven.
They didn’t like that; they didn’t acceptthat. He said He was the only source
of spiritual life. They didn’t like that. He said it was necessaryto believe in
Him. They didn’t want to hear that. He told them they neededto be forgiven.
They denied that. He told them they need to repent. They refused that. He
told them they didn’t know God. They didn’t buy that. He told them they
would die in their sins, and they mockedHim, and they laughed at that.
Religious people in false religions never see themselves the way they really are.
They’re never really aware of their need. They think they’re righteous.

So finally, it’s reacheda point where they’re so hard that our Lord equals
their hardness with the piercing statements of the reality of their condition.
They were holding on to the fact they were the Jewishpeople, who came out of
the loins of Abraham. They were sons of Abraham by physical descent. They
were sons of Abraham by religious descent. Theywere children of God. And
our Lord is going to just completely shatter those false securities.
You know, they banked on their physical descentas their protection. One
rabbi put this way. You canread this in Jewishliterature. “Abraham himself
sits beside the gates ofhell and does not permit any wickedIsraelite to enter.”
Really? Being Jewish, then, keeps you out of hell, and that’s kind of
Abraham’s job. Among the early church fathers, there was a Christian
theologiannamed Justin Martyr, and he was arguing with a Jewishman in
what is called the Dialogue of Trypho. Very interesting to read. And the
Jewishman says this: “They who are the seedof Abraham, according to the
flesh, shall in any case, evenif they be sinners and unbelieving and disobedient
toward God, share in the eternal kingdom.” So, being Jewishwas a free pass.
Free pass to do anything. You wouldn’t end up in hell. When Jesus said
you’ll die, and your sins, and where I go, you can’t come, He was saying in
spite of what you believe and have been taught, you aren’t going to heaven
where I’m going; you’re going to hell.
Jesus has to deal a deathblow to these false securities. Listen. Partof doing
evangelism, part of being honestwith the gospelis shattering false securities.
You don’t have to be brutal about it, but eventually, when there’s enough
resistance thatkeeps being put up, you’ve got to get serious about what you’re
talking on. And that’s what our Lord does.
So, here we come to these verses, and I just want to kind of walk you through
them a little into the narrative, and you’ll begin to catchthe flow. They have
three claims they want to make, and they’re progressive. First, they claim to
be the physical seedof Abraham, which is true. Secondly, they claim to be the
spiritual seedof Abraham, which is not true. And thirdly, they claim to be the
children of God, which is not true. Jesus agreeswith the first, and then just
devastates the secondtwo, stripping them of all their security. This is a very

important issue when you’re dealing with a sinner. Very important issue
when you’re dealing with a sinner.
I was talking to a man, just riding in the car with him. I was asking him some
questions about his religious interests, and he told me that he went to a certain
kind of religious environment. Some kind of Christian kind of traditional
thing. He said, “I would never go anywhere else. I’d never go anywhere else.
Never. BecauseI promised my mom, and she’s dead, and I promised her I’d
never, ever, ever go anywhere but this place.” So I said, “What about your
sins? What about forgiveness? This isn’t about a place;this is about you and
your sins, and your forgiveness. This is about heaven. This is not about going
to a place here. This is about going to heavenwhen you’re not here.” A stone
wall went up. Totally, a stone wall went up. So, what do you do when the
stone wall goes up? You press the urgency of the reality. I said, “I’m talking
about what happens when you’re not here. I’m talking about your sins. I’m
talking about forgiveness. I’m talking about eternal life.”
So, that’s exactly what our Lord does, and it’s important to press this, and
that’s exactly what we see here. Number one, they claim to be Abraham’s
physical children. Go back to verse 33. In the prior conversationwith the
same people, our Lord was talking to them about truth and freedom,
remember? “The truth shall make you free. If you continue My word, you’re
My true disciples.” So, they say in verse 33, “We are Abraham’s
descendants.” Thatends the discussion.
Okay. “Whatare You talking about? We don’t need You. We don’t need
Your message. We don’t need information from You. We’re Abraham’s
descendants. Don’tyou getit? Abraham’s sitting at the edge of hell,
preventing any of us from entering, no matter what we do. We’re Abraham’s
children.” So, He picks up on that claim that they made in verse 33 over in
verse 37. “I know that you are Abraham’s descendants.” Iknow that. That’s
true. So there’s an affirmation that the Jewishpeople have descendedfrom
the loins of Abraham. Abraham, you remember through Isaac, Jacob,
Joseph, and down through the Abrahamic line that way as indicated all the
way through history. And amazingly, even today. Their raciallines are
wonderfully, historically, pure.

So, He acknowledges thatyou came from Abraham physically. I grant you
that in a physical sense. You are actually the seedof Abraham. A couple
times in Luke, I think it’s Luke 13 and Luke 19, people are referred to as
children of Abraham. So, that’s absolutely true. The Jewishpeople came out
of the loins of Abraham. As the Abrahamic covenantin Genesis 12 promised,
He would have a greatnation, numbers of the sand of the sea, and the stars of
the heaven. And that has progressedthrough history.
But, Jesus says, something’s wrong here. “You seek to kill Me, because My
word has no place in you. I speak the things which I’ve seenwith My father;
therefore you also do the things which you heard from your father.” They
answeredand said to Him, “Abraham is our father.” So, this is a big issue to
them. Jesus is going to shift them away from thinking Abraham is their
father, to thinking somebody else is their father. He doesn’t say it yet. Okay,
you’re Abraham’s children. That is spiritually useless. Useless. It’s true, yes,
and Paul says in Romans 9, you have the law, the prophets, the covenants, the
adoption as sons. You have all the privileges of being Jewishpeople
descendantfrom Abraham. Romans 2, you have the law, you’re stewards of
the law, caretakers ofthe law. But it doesn’t do anything because no man can
be justified by the deeds of the law. Your descentfrom Abraham, spiritually
speaking, means nothing, absolutely nothing.
Now, you have to understand that while that’s just something we sayand say,
“Well, that’s right.” For them, this is shocking and beyond offensive. Beyond
offensive. You can’t claim Abrahamic descentspiritually, though you can
claim it physically. You’re not true sons of Abraham, therefore heirs of
salvation, therefore possessorsofthe kingdom. Why? Back to verse 37:“You
seek to kill Me, and My word has no place in you.” Why is that important?
Those two things are really important. “The things I speak are the things
which I’ve seenwith My Father. But you have no interest in what comes from
My Father, who is God. You have an interest in the things that come from
your father.” Verse 39, they answeredand said to Him, “Abraham is our
father.” Jesus saidto them, “If you are Abraham’s children, do the deeds of
Abraham.” Do the deeds of Abraham.

Well, what are the deeds of Abraham? Well, go down to verse 56. “Your
father Abraham rejoicedto see My day.” Your father Abraham rejoicedto
see My day. Bound up in the very Abrahamic covenantitself was the promise
of a seed, right? Of a seed. Galatians says that. Abraham was looking
forward to the one true sacrifice that was symbolized in the ram that was
caught in the thicket that replacedIsaac’s substitutionary sacrificial
atonement. Abraham was looking ahead. Abraham was looking aheadto the
day when final, full, and acceptable sacrifice wouldcome. Abraham is a hero
of faith. According to Hebrews chapter 11, “He died in faith, without having
receivedthe promise, but having seenthem, and welcomedthem from a
distance.”
“Abraham receivedMe. You rejectMe. You’re not a spiritual son of
Abraham. That’s the secondpoint, now. We transitioned: yes, physical son of
Abraham. That’s true. Spiritual son? No. First, because Abraham saw My
day and rejoiced. Abraham lookedaheadto My day. You rejectMe. You
rejectMe.” There’s evenmore there. There’s even more than that. Do you
remember in Genesis chapter18 when Abraham and Sarah were at home one
evening, and some angels showedup? Remember that? Genesis 18? And one
of those angels turned out to be God. It’s a theophany. This is God in
physical presence. This is a Christophany. This is a pre-incarnate
appearance ofChrist. And what did Abraham do when the pre-incarnate
Christ appeared? He receivedHim, embraced Him. They made a dinner.
They had fellowship together. ReadGenesis18. Abraham actually received
God into his house when God came down to earth. You have rejectedMe,
God who came down to earth. You’re not Abraham’s spiritual children.
You’ve seenthe fullness of it.
Abraham only saw a very limited shadow of it. He lookedat a promise that
wasn’t fulfilled, and he got a glimpse, a preview. You’ve had the full story for
three years, by the time they crucify Him. Furthermore, Abraham believed
what God said. Whatdid God say? You’re going to have a baby. You’re
going to have a child. “Abraham believed God and was counted unto him for
righteousness.” WhenGod spoke, Abraham believed. Jesus is saying, “I
speak, and I speak the words of God. You don’t believe. You’re not like
Abraham. You don’t welcome the messengerthat comes from heaven, and

you don’t believe when God speaks. You are not Abraham’s spiritual
children.” It comes down to that.
So, He says, if you’re Abraham’s children, then do what Abraham did.
“But,” verse 40, “you’re seeking to kill me, a man who told you the truth,
which I heard from God; this is not what Abraham did.” When a messenger
from heaven came and spoke the word of God, Abraham listened, believed.
You’re not children of Abraham, spiritually.
What does it mean to be a spiritual child of Abraham? Well, Galatians 3
gives us insight. “Even so Abraham believed God, it was reckonedto him as
righteousness.” That’s quotedfrom Genesis 15:6. “Therefore be sure that is
those who are of faith who are the sons of Abraham.” Who are the spiritual
sons of Abraham? People who believed God, who believed God’s Word. You
don’t believe My word. You don’t treat Me the way Abraham treated Me
when I appeared at his house.
So, verse 39, they answeredand said, “Abraham is our father.” They’re very
insistent about this. How canit be? How canit be when you’re trying to kill
Me, and I’m the one who told you the truth from God? Abraham would
never do that. Verse 41, He turns the corner and He says, “You’re doing the
deeds of your father, and your father is not Abraham, and your father is not
God.” Their response is very interesting. Theysaid to Him, “We were not
born of fornication.” And here’s where they make the final claim: “We have
one Father: God.” Notonly are we the physical children of Abraham, the
spiritual children of Abraham, but we are the spiritual children of God.
Why? Becausewe’re not born of fornication.
There’s a lot of possibilities for that. Let me give you just the simple
straightforwardthing that they’re saying: we’re not pagans. We’re not
pagan. We’re not idolaters. Connectedwith every form of idolatry in the
ancient world was fornication. Sexual perversion, sexual sin, prostitution.
You just read it; it’s everywhere in paganism. Everywhere. Remember,
there’s only one true religion in the world, and the Old Testament, that’s true,
Judaism, only one true religion in the world. In the New Testament, that’s
Christianity. Everything else is paganism, everything. And connectedwith

paganismwas immorality. That was part of how you worshipped the deities,
by engaging with temple prostitutes, et cetera, etcetera. So whenthey’re
saying, “Look, we aren’t idol worshippers. We’re not involved in the
immorality of paganism. We’re monotheists. We worship God. God is our
Father.”
And you know what? They had a point. Because to this day, in Israel, there
are no idols. There were no idols then. They gotcleanedout of their idols by
the judgment of God that came on the northern kingdom. Obliterated it. On
the southern kingdom, in the Babylonian captivity, when they came back from
the Babylonia captivity, 586 BC, they never introduced idols again. Well, that
doesn’t mean they worshipped the true God in the true way. They
worshipped the name of the true Godin an utterly unacceptable way. But,
they’re right. We’re not engagedin fornication. We don’t have temple
prostitutes. We’re not into paganism. How canYou say Abraham is not our
father when we acknowledgethatGod is our Father, and He was Abraham’s
Father?
So, first, we’re physical children of Abraham, and that’ll keepus out of hell
forever. Then, we’re spiritual children of Abraham because we believe what
Abraham believed. And Jesus says, “No youdon’t. You don’t believe when
God speaks because I’ve been speaking the Word of God to you, and you
haven’t done what Abraham did, and that is embrace the messengerwho
comes from heaven into your midst.” And He sums it up in verse 42 by
saying, “If God were your Father, you would,” what? You’d love Me. You’d
welcome Me. You’d embrace Me.
How do you know when God is somebody’s Father? How do you know that?
They have an eagernessto hear His Word and embrace His Son. Okay?
That’s how you know. The problem with them, go back to verse 37 for a
moment. He says, first of all, “Myword has no place in you.” I just want to
look at that: has no place. That’s chre in Greek. Notthat the pronunciation
is important, but just a very interesting word that means “to move.” It could
be “to leave.” It could be “to depart.” It could mean “to advance, to make
progress.” I would put it this way in the vernacular: My word goes no place
with you. Makes no progress. Myword does not advance with you. That’s

what He is saying. My word stops. It goes nowhere with you. You can’t
possibly have the same father as Abraham, who believed God’s word to such a
complete degree that it was countedto him as righteousness,imputed
righteousness to Abraham because he believed the word of God.
Furthermore, God is not your Father, because unlike Abraham, you want to
kill the messengerfrom heaven. You don’t love Me. “If God were your
Father,” verse 42, “you would love Me, for I proceededforth and have come
from God. And I haven’t come on My own initiative; He sent Me.”
This is a complete shattering of all their confidence in their religion, and it’s a
necessaryone, to be sure. Becauseas long as they trust in their false hopes,
they’re doomed and damned. You have two problems going here: you don’t
receive the word of God, and you hate the Son of God. You do not belong to
God. Theyare very insistent, however, that Abraham is their father, and God
is their Father, and it comes down to loving the truth, and loving Jesus.
Can I just lay that in your mind somewhere so that you can make evaluations
of people? How do you know when someone’s a child of God? How do you
know when you’ve met someone forwhom God is Father? They love the
truth; they love the Savior. Why are you here today? Why are you here to
listen to me stand here and talk for an hour? You probably would not walk
across a streetto have somebody talk about any other subjectfor an hour to
you unless it was required listening, unless there was some personal
fascination. But in a diversity like this, why are all of you, with all of your
different interests, all your different hobbies and jobs; why are you all
listening? Why are you here? Why do you do this? Becauseyouwant to hear
from God, and you believe what He says, and because youlove His Son, right?
And that’s why you’re here. The reasonthe people all going up and down
RoscoeBoulevardaren’t here is because that’s not true of them. But if you go
out and ask them, “By the way, do you think you’re a child of God?” “Of
course I’m a child of God.” But you’re not a child of God.
You can always tell the children of God. They hear the truth, they believe the
truth, and they love the Son. They embrace the Son. The other side of that is
1 Corinthians 16:22 where Paul said, “If any man love not the Lord Jesus
Christ, let him be damned.” It’s pretty serious. Abraham receivedthe word

of God and believed it. Abraham receivedthe incarnation of God in an
earthly form, visible, and receivedHim.
Insisting that you’re a child of God doesn’t work because the truth is: you’re
not. You have another father. Verse 43, Jesus poses a question: “Why do you
not understand what I’m saying?” This is so important. “Becauseyou can’t
hear My word.” What has prevented you from hearing? The natural man
understandeth not the things of God because to him they are what? Theyare
foolishness. So, unbeliefleads to ignorance. Unbelief leads to ignorance. You
don’t understand because you won’t believe. Once you believe, then
everything gets clear, right? So, you don’t understand what I’m saying
because you can’t hear My words. You don’t have a capacity. This is the
sinner’s problem. He is unable, unwilling, incapacitatedby his unbelief. They
thing they have one father. They’re not idolaters. They have one God.
They’re monotheists. But it’s not true. Verse 44, He drops the bomb. “You
are of your father the devil.” I wish there had been a little more revelationat
that point about their reaction. I can’t comprehend what it would’ve been.
You’re of your father the devil. Dynamite. Unbelievable.
Religious people, in Matthew 13:38, are describedas tares. And you
remember what it says in 13:38? The wheatand the tare grow togetherin the
church age, and even in the Christianity in the broad sense. It says there that
the tares are sons of the evil one. That would be religious people inside the
church, sons of the evil one. First John 3, 1 to 10, contrasts the children of
God, the children of the devil, by the things they do. Only two fathers.
You’re of your father the devil, so you want to do the desires of your father.
Again, we’re back to this very, very common metaphor in the Hebrew
language and culture that when you saidsomething was the son of something,
it meant they had shared attitudes, shareddispositions, shared desires, shared
characteristics. So, yourfather is the devil, so you want to do the desires of
your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, he doesn’tstand in the
truth because there’s no truth in him, wheneverhe speaks a lie, he speaks
from his ownnature. He’s a liar and the father of lies. Satanis a murderer
and a liar. You’re not very far into the Bible before you find that out, right?
He shows up in the garden, and what’s the first thing he does? Lie. He lies.
And the secondthing he does is kill, and I’m not talking about Cain. I’m

talking about the whole human race. How extensive is the murderous power
of Satan? Hebrews says he has the power of death, and he exercisedit in one
act that literally killed the human race in the garden. We’re all born corrupt.
Interesting book I’m reading called“The Emperor of All Maladies.” It’s an
incredible book on the history of cancer, and it reads like a biography. What
this scientist, medicaldoctor, brilliant and very well-written, what he
concludes in the end after hundreds and hundreds of pages, the bottom line is:
you can’t cure cancerbecause canceris just being human. There’s something
in us, he says, that’s corrupting us. It’s not a virus. It’s not some germ. It’s
not a bacteria. It doesn’t happen accidentally. It’s not some kind of a
congenitaldefect. It’s just there in us. This is a secularbook, but there’s
something in us that’s just corrupting us, and we can’t sustain the perfection
of that original body. It goes bad. Well, it goes bad because there was a
murderer in the garden, and he killed us all. And he’s a liar, and his lies still
go on today. And one of his big lies is that everybody’s a child of God.
So, “You’re of your father the devil,” verse 45, Jesus said. “So whenI speak
the truth, you don’t believe Me.” There it comes. Youdon’t believe the truth.
You could simplify it and say, here’s the way to diagnose a child of the devil:
doesn’t believe the truth, doesn’t love Christ. Here’s a way to diagnose a child
of God: loves the truth, loves Christ. Right? And this is really inexcusable.
Verse 46, “Which of you convicts Me of sin?” He’s saying, is there something
I’ve done that makes you not believe Me? Do you know something about Me?
Is there some corruption in Me? Do you know? Are there any who would
stand up and give testimony that I’m anything other than holy? Do you know
something about Me that calls my credibility into question? That mitigates
againstMy integrity? Well, nobody did, or they would’ve thrown them at
Him. And when it came down to trying to geta reasonto execute Him in the
end, they had all those mock trials and nobody could come up with anything.
Finally, they had to bribe some false witnessesto make up things. Why don’t
you believe Me? Have I ever spokenan untruth? Has there ever been a word
uttered by My mouth or an act done by Me that’s anything less than righteous
and holy? Which of you convicts Me of sin? There was no record of any
misdoing on the part of Jesus, ever. And believe me, they lookedfor it.

So, if I just speak the truth from the vantage point of personalintegrity, why
don’t you believe it? The answeris: you don’t believe it because you are of
your father the devil. That is the dire reality of human condition. We read it
in Titus, didn’t we? You want to be kind and patient with unbelieving people
because you used to be one until the kindness of God appearedto you, and
mercy was shown, and you were regenerated. Youlie, and you kill, and you
hate, and you deceive because that’s your family. That’s who you are. Verse
47, He says, “He who is of God hears the words of God; for this reasonyou
don’t hear them, ‘cause you’re not of God.” Everybody you meet is either of
God or of the devil. Everybody in your world, my world, everybody in the
world. And there’s no sense in letting people think it’s anything different,
right? That’s not helpful. That’s not helpful at all. And the world of Satan,
the kingdom of darkness, as Paulcalls it, is caught up in hatred, which is
simply a manifestationof selfishness;and deception, lies, untruth.
This is universal. This isn’t just Jewishpeople. It’s everybody. First John 3,
verse 8, “The one who practices sinis of the devil, for the devil sinned from
the beginning.” No one who is born of God goes oncontinually practicing sin
because His seedabides in him. He can’t sin. He’s born of God. The children
of the devil have an unbroken pattern of sin, shows itselfin pride, which
manifests itself in hatred and murder. Children of God practiced
righteousness. Itshows itself in the love of the truth, in the love of the Savior,
in the love of one another. So, when you think about checking into your
ancestry, this is where you want to look. I’m glad, if you had somebody in the
back who made an impact on society, that’s fun to know, and exciting to talk
about. But that’s not what matters. What matters is not the family in the
past, but the family in the present. What family are you in? That’s the
ultimate spiritual question. Let’s bow in prayer.
The Word is so powerful again, Lord. We feel it. Its energy, its truthfulness,
its impact. We know we’re holding in our hands something that is alive,
powerful, sharper than any two-edgedsword. Piercing the heart, dividing
asunder soul and spirit, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the
heart. We thank You that every part of it informs us of truth. The true
human condition has been the theme of this text, but it’s equally important to
know that we have in the Scriptures the answerto the true human condition,

“for God so loved the world that He gave His only begottenSon that whoever
believes in Him might not perish but have everlasting life.” As many as have
receivedHim, to them He gave the right to be calledthe sons of God, even to
those who believe on His name. We know that we go from being sons of the
devil to sons of God by believing in the Lord Jesus Christ, but that can’t
happen unless You do a work in the heart, unless there is the washing of
regenerationand the renewing of the Holy Spirit. So we ask, O God, that You
would be merciful and gracious, andthat You would call sinners even now to
repent and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. And if they’re struggling with
faith, may they like the men in the Bible say, “Lord, I believe help my
unbelief. Fill up the weakness ofmy faith. Help me to put trust in the Son of
God, that I might not perish as a child of the devil, and everlastingly bound in
the sorrows ofthe kingdom darkness;but that I might leave this world as a
child of God, not Satan, to enter the eternal bliss of heaven.” That’s our
prayer.
Father, do that work, we pray in hearts. And we ask, Lord, that You would
use us, give us maybe just a different look at the world as we carry these
thoughts out, and help us to understand the urgency of life, and death, and the
reality of it. May we be faithful to proclaim Your truth, we pray. Amen.
BRUCE GOETTSCHE
Union Church of LaHarpe, Illinois, USA
9/29/96
John 8:30-47
"A ReflectionofOut Parents"

Whether we like it or not, we are all a product of our parents influence. We
may claim it isn't so . . . but it is. It's much easierto see in our children than it
is to see in ourselves. Fromthe very earliestmoments of our lives people were
looking for our resemblance to our parents. "Who do you think he looks
like?" They would say.
Some of us have spent our lives trying not to be like our parents but inevitably
there are things we do or say that we know we are doing or saying because
our parents did it or saidit to us. Mostof us have vowed that we would never
answerour child's question: "Why?" with "BecauseI said so." But we've all
done it.
Our parents influence us genetically, so that we have a certain hair color(to
start with), certain coloreyes, build, height and appearance. But they also
affectus by their example. Many children root for certainsports team for no
other reasonthan that's the team they grew up with. Children will vote for a
certain political party often because that is the way their parents voted. We
will go to certain churches, or choose certainchurches basedon the lessons
our parents taught us. It is a frightening thing to see your negative traits
practicedby your children. We learn more from our parents than we are
inclined to admit.
In our text this morning Jesus has an extended conversationwith the Jewish
leaders about heredity. However, his discussionis not about genetics . . . it's
about the spirit. He says we belong to one of two parents: God or the Devil.
The Children of the Devil
These were all people who didn't recognize their enslavement. This is the most
startling fact: these people believed they were right with God. They were
offended when Jesus implied they needed freedom, they were slaves, and
needed to serve the true Father. This reminds us that many (you?) are
confusedabout their relationship with God.
They were really slaves of sin. Jesus pictures for us the devastating nature of
sin. It is a slavery and a bondage.

The cycle of sin is rather predictable . . . Satanentices us to an enjoyable (but
sinful) experience. . . .we come back for more . . . we recognize the wrongness
of our behavior and try to coverit up . . . but we are addicted and keep
coming back. . . cover-up gives way to rationalizationand then we try to
redefine evil so that we are consideredgood.
Does this sound like drug addiction to you? Of course it does. Someone gets
suckedin through some enticement and then they are bound. They lose sight
of everything but the experience. The only thing that matters is "maintaining
the high".
They are imitators of their Father the Devil
He is a Murderer. He destroyed Adam and Eve through His devices. He will
destroy anyone else who gets in his way. Though his followers may not engage
in the actof homicide they do become self-centered. Theironly concernis
themselves. They have no value for the lives of others and will "destroy them"
if need be through characterassassination, innuendo, gossip, unfair practices.
He is a liar. The followers ofthe Devil have been takenin by his lies and seek
to pass them on to others. He lies about sin ("it doesn'tmatter"); He lies about
eternity ("everyone will live forever"); He lies about us ("you're o.k.").
He disregards Christ. The Devil seeks to draw attention awayfrom Jesus. He
may replace Him on the throne with someone else orwith our own needs. He
will diminish Christ by seeking to make Him an "ordinary" man. He will stop
at no end in order to make Christ less than the glorious Savior that He is.
The Sons of God
the Sons of God practice the truth. Jesus says:"If you hold to my teaching,
you are really my disciples." But notice who He is saying it to. Jesus is not
talking to the heathen. . . He is talking to those who have just indicated that
they believed in Him. Why?
I think it is because the Saviorknows that one of Satan's favorite weapons is
to innoculate people againstfaith. He gives them a little taste . . . just enough
to help them build a greaterresistance to the real thing.

Jesus is aware that people come to Him initially for a number of different
reasons. This is where we make a serious mistake in our evangelism. We seem
to feel that the goalis to help people make a decisionfor Christ . . . and by this
we mean: say a prayer, sign a card, walk an aisle. This is the conversion
experience in the mind of many evangelicals.But not to Jesus.
The Lord recognizes thatconversioncomes about when a change takes place.
People cancome to Jesus becausethey admire Him. They might think He's
cool. They may thing He will meet their needs. It doesn't matter. . . the point is
that they are not coming for the right reasons. We must seek Christ as Savior
AND Lord. He is one and the same. You cannot separate the two. It is a
packagedeal.
Jesus points out that the true disciple is the one who moves from professionof
faith to possessionoffaith. They have really changedand they show it by the
way they are living.
They are moving from head knowledge to heart knowledge. Jesus points out
that as we begin to practice what He tells us to do we will come to know Him
in a deeper way. You see, I can believe that Godprovides for all my needs . . .
but when I have a need and actually trust Him for it and then find He is
faithful, then I really BELIEVE. I can saythat I believe God will give me
words for difficult situations but when I go into a difficult situation without a
planned speechand find he DOES give those words, I no longerjust believe in
my head but in my head.
They are living in greaterfreedom. The kind of freedom that Jesus talks
about is not political. When we come to obey Christ, we come to know Him in
our Heart, that knowledge leads to freedom. We experience:
-freedom from guilt
-freedom from fear of death
-freedom from aimless living
-freedom from condemnation
-freedom from the addiction to sin

The true Child of God manifests all these characteristics. Theyare the ones
who truly love the Lord. They adore the Father. They hunger for His Word.
They are the ones pursuing truth with a vengeance.
Concluding Questions
1. When you look at yourself who's imprint do you see most prominent? God
or Satan? I am convinced that there are those listening to and reading this
text who are deluded about who they belong to. They are like the people in
this passage. Friend, it's not too late to change. There is a Savior who invites
you to follow Him. If you will trust Him He will help you follow. It's time to
stop playing at faith and start following the Savior.
2. If The Children of God are free and the Children of Satan are slaves to sin .
. . WHY DO WE ENVY THE SLAVES? Why is it that we see the "stuff" they
have and yearn for it? Why do we crave their power? Why do we setthem up
as models of successfulpeople? They are slaves!!!
3. If the Children of God live in the truth and the Children of Satan live in a
lie. . . WHY DO WE ALLOW THE SLAVE TO DICTATE OUR VALUES?
Why do we allow the televisionto tell us what is right and wrong? Why do we
allow the news media to tell us how to think? They are slaves . . . . WE ARE
THE FREE.
4. Is there some area where you need to become more obedient? Is there
something you are resisting before the Lord?
-a need to forgive
-a need to give sacrificially
-a need to reach out to someone else
-a need to stop some wrong behavior
WhateverGod wants you to do . . . do it. Not because you have to, but because
it is the next glorious step to becoming more captivated by His grace.
The next time you look in a mirror I hope you see a resemblance to Jesus
looking back at you.

Question:"What does it mean that Satan is the father of lies (John 8:44)?"
Answer: Speaking to a group of Jews, Jesus says, “Youbelong to your father,
the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desires. He was a murderer
from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him.
When he lies, he speaks his native language, forhe is a liar and the father of
lies” (John 8:44).
Satanis the “father of lies” in that he is the original liar. He is the “father” of
lies in the same waythat Martin Luther is the “father” of the Reformation
and RobertGoddard is the “father” of modern rocketry. Satantold the first
lie in recordedhistory to Eve, in the Garden of Eden. After planting seeds of
doubt in Eve’s mind with a question (Genesis 3:1), he directly contradicts
God’s Word by telling her, “You will not certainly die” (Genesis 3:4). With
that lie, Satanled Eve to her death; Adam followed, and so have we all.
Lying is Satan’s primary weaponagainstGod’s children. He uses the tactic of
deceitto separate people from their heavenly Father. Some of his more
common lies are “there is no God,” “God doesn’tcare about you,” “the Bible
cannot be trusted,” and “your goodworks will get you into heaven.” The
apostle Paul tells us that Satan“masquerades as anangel of light” (2
Corinthians 11:14), so that what he says and does sounds goodand seems
reasonable. Butit is nothing more than a false appearance.
Many of Satan’s lies tend to perpetuate themselves. This is what happened
when Eve convinced Adam to also believe the devil’s lie. Today, Satanstill

uses people to spreadhis lies for him. Often, he uses charismatic but foolish
people to further his falsehoods, as in the case of false religions and cults.
The Bible has many names for Satanto describe his true nature, including
“ruler of this world” (John 12:31), “godof this age” (2 Corinthians 4:4),
“tempter” (1 Thessalonians 3:5), “deceiver” (Revelation12:9), “Beelzebub”
(literally, “lord of the flies,” the ruler of demons, in Matthew 10:25), and
“Belial,” meaning “wicked” (2 Corinthians 6:15).
Satanhas told more lies to more people (and even angels)than any other
being ever created. His successdepends on people believing his lies. He has
used everything from “little white lies” to huge, pants-on-fire whoppers to
deceive folks. Adolph Hitler, a man who learned how to lie effectively, once
said, “If you tell a big enough lie and tell it frequently enough, it will be
believed.”
Whether a lie is small or large is not really the issue. Lies are of the devil. If
you’ve lied even once, then, unless you repent, you will not enter heaven. The
Bible teaches that all liars “will be consigned to the fiery lake of burning
sulfur. This is the seconddeath” (Revelation21:8). Proverbs 19:9 also teaches
that anyone who lies will be punished.
Avoid this fate by obeying Mark 1:15: “Repentand believe in the gospel.”
Jesus is the truth (John 14:6), and He will never deceive you. Those who come
to Jesus in faith will find that “you will know the truth, and the truth will set
you free” (John 8:32).
https://www.gotquestions.org/father-of-lies.html

SCOTT HARRIS
Children Of God & Children Of The Devil
May 21, 2000
(If you would like to receive PastorHarris’weeklysermons via e-mail, Click
here)
PastorScottL. Harris
Grace Bible Church, NY
May 21, 2000
Children Of God & Children Of The Devil
John 8:31-47
Heritage
Parenting issues are of a keeninterest to Diane and me. Not only because we
are in the middle of raising our three children, but because we see the
centrality of the family to a healthy church and society. In a discussionI had a
short time ago a man who had raised an adopted child as wellas his own told
me that he had become convinced that the characterof a person was largely
due to genetics. This man’s reasonfor saying this is that his children became
quite decent adults, but this adopted child got into trouble. In one sense I
agree with him whole heartedly that there is a genetic problem determining
character. Everyone of us here is a descendantof Adam and has inherited his
sin nature!
I also agree in another sense. The Lord God states in Exodus 20:5 concerning
idols, "You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the Lord your God,
am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the
third and the fourth generations ofthose who hate Me. . .". Whether adopted
or direct offspring, a child that grow up in an evil home is going to be affected
by that as will the grandchildren and great-grandchildren. However, this is

not an absolute and genetic heritage or parentage is not determinate in a
person’s ultimate character. Why? Simply because Godis merciful and
intervenes. The Lord goes on to sayin verse 6, but showing lovingkindness to
thousands, to those who love Me and keepMy commandments.
There is a flip side to this idea of genetic determinism. If evil parents produce
evil offspring, then goodparents produce goodoffspring. Therefore, if you
can separate the evil people from the good, then societyitself will become
good. In the 18th century, England actedupon this idea and banished those
convictedof crimes to the penal colony of Geogia andthen after the American
Revolution to Australia. It should not surprise us that England continued to
produce both civil people and criminals and Georgia and Australia did the
same.
The idea that a genetic ora parental heritage is deterministic was also present
at the time of Christ. In our study of John 8 this morning we are going to see
Jesus confrontsome of Jews who placedtheir pride and hope in their heritage
as descendants of Abraham. They were convinced that their destiny was
determined by this. They were goodpeople and would go to heaven because
Abraham was their ancestor. But before we go any father, be warned that a
similar idea is prevalent among Christians. They believe that they are good
people and are okaywith God simply because the were raisedin a
"Christian" home.
This is something I have commonly noticed, especiallyin the "Bible belt"
where the Christian subculture is still dominant. People cango to church and
do goodthings and think themselves to be fine upstanding Christians, yet, too
often as you talk with them in depth you find they are void of any personal
relationship with the living God. They are living on secondand third hand
faith and that is tragic. Can there be anything worse than to think you have
served Christ throughout your life and then hear Jesus say, as He does in
Matthew 7:23 – "I never knew you. Depart from Me, you who practice
lawlessness."
What Jesus says to these Jews in this morning’s text had direct application in
our own time. Perhaps it may even be addressing you directly.

Context
Turn to John 8. It is just after the FeastofBooths or Tabernacles.Jesus has
made severalproclamations during this feastconcerning His deity and
fulfilment of Old Testamentprophecies. Manyof the religious leaders have
rejectedJesus as the Christ and had become very antagonistic towardHim
and even soughtto arrestHim for the purpose of putting Him to death (7:25,
44,45). Others have also rejectedJesus as the Christ, but are not so
antagonistic (7:41,42), andothers are wondering if Jesus is the promised
prophet of Deut. 18 (7:40) and there were also some that were wondering if
Jesus couldbe the promised Messiah(7:40). It is to a group of these people
that Jesus is specificallyspeaking to starting in verse 31.
Jesus addressesthem strongly in calling them to a true belief in who He is and
what He is offering. He is not going to allow them to entertain the idea of His
being a political messiahwhich is what they were thinking. Jesus came to free
them from sin, not Roman oppression. He calls them to discipleship.
John 8:31 (NASB) Jesus therefore was saying to those Jews who had believed
Him, "If you abide in My word, [then] you are truly disciples of Mine; 32 and
you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. " 33 They
answeredHim, "We are Abraham’s offspring, and have never yet been
enslavedto anyone; how is it that You say, ‘You shall become free’?"
Jesus had already statedthat unless they believed that He was the Messiah,
they would die in their sins (vs. 24), so they understoodto some degree what
He was talking about, but not fully. They were well aware of their current
political oppressionunder Rome and the many other nations that had
enslavedthe nation during its history going back to their bondage in Egypt.
The feastthey had just completed was in celebrationof being freed from
Egypt. They understood Jesus was not talking about some sort of political
freedom, but rather some type of spiritual freedom.
Their contention with Jesus statementthat they would have to abide in His
word in order to know the truth and then be free is that they did not recognize
themselves to be in any sort of bondage from which to be freed. As
descendants ofAbraham, they were heirs to his spiritual freedom and

relationship with God and not in spiritual bondage as were the paganideas of
the nations that surrounded them. They consideredthemselves to be
spiritually free. They failed to recognize their own sinfulness, which Jesus
points out to them in verse 34.
John 8:34 (NASB) Jesus answeredthem, "Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone
who commits sin is the slave of sin. If you sin, you are its slave. Paul states this
directly in Romans 6:16 Do you not know that when you present yourselves to
someone [as]slaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you obey,
either of sin resulting in death, or of obedience resulting in righteousness?
If you have broken any of God’s commands – lie about anything, steal
anything, have any wrong view of God, value anything more than God, etc. –
then you a committing sin and you are its slave. These people should have
been well aware oftheir sinfulness because oftheir knowledge ofGod law, but
they were not. The same is often true today evenwith those that grow up in a
church. They should recognize their ownsinfulness through their constant
exposure to God’s word, but often they either ignore their personalsin, or
they compare themselves with others and think themselves to be okay, or they
rely on their Christian heritage to the extent that they don’t think their
personalsin is really any big deal. In their minds they do more goodstuff than
bad stuff so they should be okaywith God.
Jesus wenton to point out to these Jews that they could not rely on their
heritage. John 8:35 (NASB) "And the slave does not remain in the house
forever; the sondoes remain forever. 36 "If therefore the Son shall make you
free, you shall be free indeed.
If they are slaves to sin, then they should not expect to enjoy the benefits of
being in God’s house forever. It is the son that inherits, not the slave. The
slave has no such right. But if the Son sets you free from sin, then there is true
freedom. As already statedin John 1:12 – But as many as receivedHim, to
them He gave the right to become children of God, [even] to those who believe
in His name. If the sonsets you free, you become an adopted child of God.
You do remain in the house as an heir.

In verse 37, 38 Jesus contrasts theirheritage as physical descendants of
Abraham with their actions. The insinuation is that they are not following the
heritage they received.
Brief Belief
John 8:37 (NASB) "I know that you are Abraham’s offspring; yet you seek to
kill Me, because Myword has no place in you. 38 "I speak the things which I
have seenwith [My] Father; therefore you also do the things which you heard
from [your] father."
The emphasis in verse 38 is the contrastbetweenwhat Jesus was speaking and
what they were doing. Jesus was revealing whatHe had seenwith the Father.
They were not receiving His word and therefore would continue in their effort
to find a way to kill Jesus. Theywere doing what they were hearing from their
father. The direct point, which they understood, is that there was a great
contrastbetweenJesus’Fatherand their father. They were listening to and
doing what their father told them and not what Jesus was revealing to them
that the Father was saying. Jesus does not directly state who their father is at
this point, but it would soonbecome apparent.
Some have said that these people could not be "those Jews who had believed
in Him" that Jesus was speaking to mentioned in verse 31. Yet, there is no
place in the text in which any other group is introduced or addressed. This is
the only group in the contextto which the "they" of verse 33 can refer to.
There is not a problem in the Greek text or the English translation. The
difficulty is that this text shows that a belief in Jesus that only lasts a short
time is not saving faith. As Jesus has been speaking, some came to a belief in
Jesus that was nothing more than a mental assentforthe moment. They
continued to believe in Jesus until Jesus addressedwhatit really meant to
believe in Him – discipleship. The transition that occurs in this text is not from
one group to another, but the attitude of one group from accepting Jesus as
the Messiahoftheir dreams at one moment to an utter rejectionof Him only a
few minutes later. Brief belief is a fickle faith that sinks salvationand heads to
hell.

In verse 39 they respond defensively, They answeredand saidto Him,
"Abraham is our father." By this they not only mean in the physical sense,
but also in the spiritual sense. Rememberthat they already statedback in
verse 33 that they were not enslavedbecause they were Abraham’s children
offspring. They resent Jesus’insinuation.
Note that they make no denial of Jesus’accusationthat they were seeking to
kill Him. The quickestway for them to have counteredJesus’statements
againstthem was to assertthat it was not true. But Jesus does know the hearts
of men and it was true.
How fickle people are. The same ones that applaud you one moment can turn
againstyou the next. Some of you may not have experiencedthis, but many of
us have. Those involved in politics or any position of leadershipprobably
have. You cansee it in the crowds at sporting events. I saw it happen at a
concertat the HollywoodBowlonce. The people applauded and cheeredthe
conductor resulting in two encores, but when the conductorfinally walkedoff
the stage without performing a third encore, the people booedhim.
It really should not be surprising to us that people who might at one moment
be attracted to Jesus and start to believe in Him can very quickly change and
become so antagonistic towardHim that they would seek to kill him. The
crowdthat welcomedJesus into Jerusalemwith shouts of "Hosanna" were
shouting "Crucify Him" only five days later.
Abraham’s Children
In verse 39, Jesus responds even more directly, yet still without telling them
who their father is. Jesus saidto them, "If you are Abraham’s children, do the
deeds of Abraham. 40 "But as it is, you are seeking to kill Me, a man who has
told you the truth, which I heard from God; this Abraham did not do. 41
"You are doing the deeds of your father."
This is the same argument that Jesus made in verse 37, 38, but now more
direct. They were indeed physical descendants ofAbraham, but they were not
spiritual descendants. Theywere not doing the deeds Abraham did, but they

are doing the deeds of a different father. Jesus had told them the truth from
God the Father, yet they were still seeking to kill Him.
They are extremely offended at this and respond with accusationand an even
greaterclaim.
(Vs. 41b) They said to Him, "We were not born of fornication; we have one
Father, [even] God." The sense could be here a denial of Jesus’insinuation
that there was a question as to their father is. Their statementstresses that
there is no question as to who their father is since they are not illegitimate,
and they claim to be the children of God. However, I find that the common
response ofpeople when caught by truth is to attack their opponent. I believe
the insinuation here is plain and that they are seeking to compare who they
think their father is with Jesus’father. They accuse Jesusofbeing illegitimate.
Later Jewishwritings would commonly slander Jesus as the bastard sonof
Mary. I think Jesus’response in its stress on His origin in God the Father
demonstrates that He took their statementas an accusation.
Their True Father
In verse 42 Jesus directly challenges their assertionto have God as their
father.
42 Jesus saidto them, "If God were your Father, you would love Me; for I
proceededforth and have come from God, for I have not even come on My
own initiative, but He sent Me.
This statementis both a positive assertionby Jesus of His own origin and a
direct challenge to their claim to be children of God. First, Jesus proceeded
forth from God. This speaks ofHis divine nature in the incarnation. Mary was
His mother, but He had no human father. He did not proceedfrom a man, but
from God the FatherHimself. Second, Jesus came from Godthe Father. This
speaks to His mission as the Messiah. As Jesus Himself said, "I have not even
come on My own initiative, but He sent Me." Jesus had alreadymade this
point that He was sentby God the Father many times in the previous few
days. 7:16 – "My teaching is not Mine, but His who sent Me." 7:28 – "I have
not come of Myself, but He who sent Me . . .". 7:33 – Fora little while longerI

am with you, then I go to Him who sent Me." 8:16 – "I am He who bears
witness of Myself, and the Fatherwho sent Me bears witness of Me.". 8:26 –
"He who sent Me is true." 8:29 – "He who sent Me is with Me."
Jesus point then is a clear contrastbetweentheir claim and the reality. They
claimed God as their Father, but if that claim were true they would love the
One whom the Fatherhad sent. But they did not. Jesus goes onin verse 43 to
tell them why they did not do so.
43 "Why do you not understand what I am saying? [It is] because youcannot
hear My word.
Jesus was not talking about physical hearing, but the spiritual understanding
and accepting ofwhat He was saying. But as the prophets had predicted, these
people would not heed what the Messiahwould tell them. This was why Jesus
spoke in parables to them. Jesus explainedthis in Matthew 13:13-15:13
"Therefore I speak to them in parables;because while seeing they do not see,
and while hearing they do not hear , nor do they understand. 14 "And in their
case the prophecy of Isaiahis being fulfilled, which says, ‘You will keepon
hearing, but will not understand; And you will keepon seeing, but will not
perceive;15 Forthe heart of this people has become dull, And with their ears
they scarcelyhear, And they have closedtheir eyes Lest they should see with
their eyes, And hear with their ears, And understand with their heart and
return, And I should heal them.’
In verse 44 Jesus confronts them very directly with who their father really
was. 44 "You are of [your] father the devil, and you want to do the desires of
your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the
truth, because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks
from his own[nature;] for he is a liar, and the father of lies.
They were physically the descendants of Abraham, but the were spiritually
the children of the devil. Their desires were not those of Abraham. Their
deeds were no those of God. They were of Satanand demonstrated his
qualities two of which Jesus specificallypointed out here – murder and lying.
Murder, because theywere seeking to kill Jesus. Lying, because that was

characteristic oftheir own lives. They rejectedthe truth and believed their
own lies. Jesus points this out further in verse 45.
45 "But because I speak the truth, you do not believe Me. 46 "Which one of
you convicts Me of sin? If I speak truth, why do you not believe Me? 47 "He
who is of God hears the words of God; for this reasonyou do not hear [them,]
because you are not of God."
Jesus openedthe door for them to counter His argument very easily, but since
what Jesus was saying was true they could not take advantage of it. All they
had to do was prove that Jesus was a sinner which would make all that He
said suspect. Yet, follow the restof the dialogue through to end of the chapter,
and bring no charge of sin againstJesus. Thatshould have been simple to do
if their claim for themselves was true. Jesus had accusedthem of seeking to
kill him, something a godly person would not do. All they had to do was refute
the charge and Jesus would be a liar. But the charge was true.
This only added to Jesus’assertionthat they were of the devil. They were
seeking to murder Him in accordancewith the devil’s desire and they were
liars just like the devil. They had no interest in the truth. If they were of God
they would hear Jesus’words for what they were – the truth. They did not
acceptHis words because theywere not from God.
The antagonismbetweenJesus and these Jews continues to increase
throughout the restof the chapter. We will look at that next week including
Jesus’greatclaim to deity that occurs in verse 58. But before we go on we
need to make sure we understand and apply what Jesus has said here to our
own lives.
True Belief
The sadtruth is that there are many people that things themselves to be
believers in Jesus Christ, but the reality is that they are no different from
these Jews. Forsome, their rejection of Christ will become apparent even to
themselves even during their life. Forothers, they may never realize their
false belief until they enter eternity and are turned awayby Jesus becauseHe
never knew them. The reasonfor this is because ofa false idea that exists

about what it means to "believe" in Jesus. As I mentioned earlier, there are
those that insist that these Jews who rejectChrist in verses 33 and following
cannot be those Jesus is speaking to in verse 31 who "had believed" in Him.
For them, belief equals salvation without qualification. What they fail to
understand is the nature of saving faith.
Jesus is clearthat salvation is basedin God’s grace givento those who have
faith, i.e. "believe," in Him. Jesus saidin John 5:24 (NASB) "Truly, truly, I
say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal
life, and does not come into judgment, but has passedout of death into life."
Similar statements are made throughout the Scriptures. Paul’s statementin
Ephesians 2:8,9 being one of the more defining passages."Forby grace you
have been savedthrough faith; and that not of yourselves, [it is] the gift of
God; 9 not as a result of works, that no one should boast."
What needs to be made clearis that this saving faith not only must be in the
true Christ (and not a false idea of Him as exists in the cults), and in His work
of atonement as sufficient for salvation(in contrastto Roman Catholicismand
other religions that add works of some sort to gain salvation), but the faith
must also be an abiding faith causesthe individual to obey Jesus. The Jews in
this passagehada brief faith that did not change their disobedience to Christ.
Those who believe in Jesus for a short time and later turn againstHim are
properly called apostatesand the scriptures warn about apostasyin many
places (Mt. 24:24;2 Peter2:20; Jude, etc.). John warned us about them in 1
John 2:19 saying, "Children, it is the last hour; and just as you heard that
antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have arisen; from this we
know that it is the last hour. 19 They went out from us, but they were not
[really] of us; for if they had been of us, they would have remained with us;
but [they went out,] in order that it might be shown that they all are not of
us." A personwith true faith in Jesus abides in Him, that is, their belief in
Jesus will remain even when shakenby testing (James 1:2-4). The antagonism
betweenJesus and these Jews beganwhen He called them to have that kind of
faith in verses 31,32 – "If you abide in My word, then you are truly disciples
of Mine; and you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free."

Truth faith in Jesus Christalso results in the individual seeking a new way of
life in which they obey Jesus. Thatwas Jesus’message to Nicodemus in John
3. Those who believe are savedby God and that salvation becomes evident in
their seeking afterthe light as contrastedwith those who continue in disbelief
evidence by their evil deeds and avoidance of the light. That is John the
Baptist’s summary statementabout salvation from sin in Jesus in John 3:36 –
"He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son
shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him."
An individual with true faith in Jesus Christ will be adopted and God’s child
(Rom. 8:15; Gal. 3:26, etc.). An individual without such true faith remains a
child of the devil. There are children of God and children of the devil. Jesus
contrasts the two here in John 8 by comparing these actions of these Jews to
the deeds of Abraham (vs. 39,40). Whatthen is the difference betweenthe
two?
Children of God & Children of the Devil
The children of God follow the example of Abraham, the father of the faithful.
Abraham was far from perfect, but his life was marked by a continuing faith
in God and His promises to him.
Abraham was given a promise by God in Gen. 12:1-3 to inherit a different
land. Abraham immediately believed and actedupon that promise (vs. 4) and
left for that land. In Gen. 17 God establisheda covenantwith Abraham with
circumcisionas its sign. Abraham immediately obeyed. In first part of Gen.
18, when the Lord and two angels appearedto Abraham, he immediately
receivedthem. In the secondpart of Gen. 18, Abraham seeks to preserve life
and intercedes with the Lord on behalf of Sodom. In faith, Abraham believed
God’s promise of a sonand then in Gen. 22 when the Lord calls on Abraham
to sacrifice Isaac,the sonof promise, Abraham immediately seeksto obey
believing, as Heb. 11:19 states, that God is able to raise even from the dead.
The children of the devil follow the example of the devil. They do not believe
the truth and so they do not actupon. They hear the promises of God and
rejectthem relying upon their own schemes instead. They believe their own

lies insteadof the truth. They do not seek to preserve life, but are willing to
murder those who getin the way of their plans.
The apostle John took this lessonJesus gave here to heart and expanded on in
his first Epistle. In 1 John 3 the apostle marvels at God’s love which brought
about our adoption as His children through Jesus Christ. See how greata love
the Fatherhas bestowedupon us, that we should be calledchildren of God;
and [such] we are. For this reasonthe world does not know us, because it did
not know Him. 2 Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not
appearedas yet what we shall be. We know that, when He appears, we shall
be like Him, because we shallsee Him just as He is. 3 And everyone who has
this hope [fixed] on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.
Stop there for a secondfor this is keyto understanding what John will say in
verses 4-10. The true believer in Jesus Christ is a child of God and by that has
a changednature. He also has a new hope in Christ’s return and because of
that belief he strives to be pure. That is the process ofsanctification. The
Christian will sin, but will no longer be characterizedby sin. What John says
in the rest of this passage is the contrast betweenbeing characterizedby sin or
purifying oneselfin a righteous walk with Christ.
4 Everyone who practices sin also practices lawlessness;and sin is lawlessness.
5 And you know that He appeared in order to take awaysins; and in Him
there is no sin. 6 No one who abides in Him sins; no one who sins has seenHim
or knows Him. 7 Little children, let no one deceive you; the one who practices
righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous; 8 the one who practices sin
is of the devil; for the devil has sinned from the beginning. The Son of God
appearedfor this purpose, that He might destroy the works of the devil. 9 No
one who is born of God practices sin, because His seedabides in him; and he
cannot sin, because he is born of God. 10 By this the children of God and the
children of the devil are obvious: anyone who does not practice righteousness
is not of God, nor the one who does not love his brother.
The importance of love is so central to John that he goes on in verse 15 to
explain that those who are the opposite and hate their brothers are murderers
– which is in keeping with Jesus statements in Matthew 5:21,22.

The conclusionis this. There are children of God and children of the devil.
The children of God have an abiding faith in Jesus Christand have lives that
are marked by obedience to Christ. They are striving to purify themselves
even and Jesus Himself is pure.
There are children of the devil. Some have deceivedthemselves in thinking
that they actually belong to God. But their hope is not in Christ Himself. It is
something else, oftentheir heritage or their ownwork to be self-righteous.
Their faith in Christ does not hold up when tested and they are not
characterizedby obedience to Christ. They may appear to be goodpeople, for
the devil himself is a deceiverand appears as an angelof light (2 Cor. 11:4).
But when push comes to shove, they chose their own way insteadof God’s.
Whose child are you? If you belong to God the Father, praise Him for His
mercy and grace to you. If you do not, then seek Him out for Jesus saidin
John 6:37, "All that the Father gives Me shall come to Me, and the one who
comes to Me I will certainly not castout." Talk with my selfor one of the
other church leaders and we would be happy to help you place your faith in
Jesus Christ. I pray that no one here will be deceiving themselves in to
thinking the are something they are not. These Jewsdid that and it became an
eternal tragedy.
Sermon Study Sheets
KIDS CORNER
Parents, you are responsible to apply God’s Word to your children’s lives.
Here is some help. Young Children – draw a picture about something you
hear during the sermon. Explain your picture(s) to your parents at lunch.
Older Children – Do one or more of the following: 1) Count how many times
the word "belief" or "faith" is said. 2) Discuss withyour parents the nature of
true belief in Jesus. What demonstrates your belief?
THINK ABOUT IT!
Questions to considerin discussing the sermon with others.

Does genetic heritage determine character? Whatare the fallacies of genetic
determinism? What events preceded the dialogue of today’s passage?What
does the truth free you from? How does the Son seta person free? Who,
specifically, is Jesus talking to throughout this passage?Why does their
attitude change so drastically? What is the significance that they do not deny
Jesus’accusationofseeking to kill Him? How have you seenpeople be fickle?
Have you ever been fickle? Why did they make it a point to saythey "were
not born of fornication"? What does Jesus claimabout His own origin? About
His purpose on earth? Why couldn’t they understand Jesus’claims? What
two characteristicsofthe devil were they displaying? Why where they so self-
deceived? Does thatstill happen today? What is the basis for salvation? What
are the characteristicsoftruth faith in Jesus? Whatcharacterizesan
apostate? Whatwere some of the deeds of Abraham that demonstrated his
faith? What characterizesa child of the devil? What characterizesa child of
God? Whose child are you? What characteristicsin your life demonstrate who
your father is? Do you hear the words of God?
Straight Talk from Jesus
Author: Ray C. Stedman
Readthe Scripture: John 8:31-47
I grew up on the great words of American freedom. As a boy in schoolI was
required to learn Patrick Henry's wonderful address, delivered at the House
of Burgessesin Williamsburg before the Revolution. I still getchills up and
down my spine when I remember his words,
Is life so dear and peace so sweetas to be purchased at the price of chains and
slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I care not what course others may take, but
as for me, give me liberty or give me death!

But I find that many people today do not really understand freedom. Most
people define it as being able to do whateveryou feel like doing. Yet you
cannot read the parable of the prodigal son without realizing that that is
exactly the way he defined freedom. He thought that getting an early
inheritance, leaving home and going off and indulging in instant gratification
was freedom. But he soonfound that it was but another form of slavery.
The true definition of freedom is, "being able to be all that you were meant to
be." Don't you long for that? To feel fulfilled, to be able to do all that is
possible for you to do and be -- that is freedom. That is what we will explore in
this part of the Gospelof John. It is one of the best knownwords of Jesus,
uttered in the temple courts in Jerusalemat the close of the Feastof
Tabernacles:
Jesus then said to the Jews who had believed in him[that is a striking phrase:
"Jews who had believed in him"-- Jews for Jesus, ifyou like], "If you continue
in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the
truth will make you free. (John 8:31-32 RSV)
What a wonderful word! It constitutes a short course in discipleship. But it is
more than that. It is a declarationthat discipleship is the only true path to
freedom, to being all that you were meant to be. If you want that -- and I'm
sure everybody listening to me wants it -- then Jesus says the wayis to become
his disciple. This is the path to freedom. It is the only way to be all that you
want to be.
Here Jesus tells us in precise detail -- in four steps -- how to be free. It begins
with belief: "Jesus saidto the Jews who had believed in him." There is a slight
difference betweenthe words in Verse 31 and those of Verse 30. Verse 30 says,
"As he was speaking, many believed in him," or, "on him." Literally in the
Greek it is "into him." They stoodon Jesus, they clambered onto him and
stoodon him. They trusted him. That phrase indicates a deep commitment of
heart to Jesus.
But Verse 31 is a different phrase: "Jesusthen said to the Jews who had
believed him." They had not yet trusted him, but they had believed him. They
had been intellectually graspedby his arguments and his words, but they had

not yet committed themselves to him. It is to these people that Jesus says, "If
you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the
truth, and the truth will make you free." Discipleshipbegins with belief; even
intellectual belief; they were there at the door, at the first step.
It is important to understand that belief can only come from evidence. You
will never find freedom until you examine the evidence that Jesus is who he
claims to be. You must believe him first, and that means examining the
evidence. Hundreds of thousands of people reject Jesus without ever really
examining the evidence for who he is. That is why this book was written. At
the end of his gospelJohn writes, "Manyother things Jesus did that are not
written in this book," (John20:30). (John did not write an exhaustive but
rather a very selective accountof the life of Jesus.)"But," he continues, "these
things are written [these signs are recorded]in order that you might believe
that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God, and believing, you might
have life in his name," (John 20:31). Obviously, then. if you want to be free, to
be all you want to be, you must begin by examining the evidence about Jesus.
Readthe gospels.Readhis words. Searchthem out. Do not rejectthem
because some atheistic professorsneers atJesus in a classroom. Do not reject
them because some cult distorts him and presents a supposedly historic figure
that has no basis in fact. Examine the evidence. Make up your own mind.
Look for yourself. That is the place to begin.
Then, second, "continue in his word." Readthese words and think about
them. Ponder them. Listen to Jesus. Compare whathe says with your own
experience. Does whathe says agree with what you have found to be true in
living life? That is the test. The test of any religion is not whether it is
pleasing, or whether you enjoy it. The testis: "Is it true? Does it accordwith
life? Does it fit what is happening? Does it explain what is going on?" That is
the test, and that you can only establishas you continue in his word, as you
think long and deeply, read fully and frequently. This is a process.
Jesus suggests here that when you do that something will happen to you: "If
you continue in my word, you will truly be my disciple." That immediately
indicates there are two kinds of disciples. There are those who are not yet real
disciples. Outwardly they are -- they follow for awhile, they are interested,

they outwardly conform, they may join the organization -- but they have not
yet inwardly committed themselves. But if you read his word and you
continue in it, if you think about it and you see how true it really is, how
practicaland pragmatic and relevant it is to life, something will happen to
you. Somewhere along the line a crisis will occur. You will find that his words
have grabbed you, and you will commit yourself to him (like the people
mentioned in Verse 30), and then you are really a disciple.
That is what Jesus saidto Nicodemus, the teacherof Israel, who came to him
by night (John 3:1-15). To that man, who knew all the Old Testamentand was
an expert in the Torah, Jesus said, "Unless you are born againyou cannot
enter the kingdom of God." When Nicodemus inquired how that would
happen, Jesus saidit would be "by the Spirit and the word," using the two
symbols, waterand wind. The Spirit and the word would accomplishit. Then,
as the word takes rootin the heart, a transformation occurs, a life is imparted
by the Spirit, and one becomes a realdisciple.
Step three is, "You will know the truth." "If you continue in my word, you
will know the truth." What an objective! Everybody wants to know the truth.
Nobody likes to be flim-flammed and cheated. Nobodylikes to be takenin by
a con artist. What, then, is the truth? Again I come back to what underlies all
of life: Truth is the nature of things as they really are. Truth is seeing through
all the illusions, the dreams, the phantasmata and the wishful thinking, all the
facades and the unreal images, and getting down to the heart, the core, the
reality -- that which really is. That is the truth.
There is no more attractive promise in the Scripture than this: To be rendered
able to recognize the lies that you hear spread on all sides by the media today.
When you flip on the televisionand listen, even to the commercials letalone
the programs (sometimes the commercials are far more interesting and
revealing) you will recognize the lies that are being spread. The implications
of the media are that you deserve much more than you are getting, that you
have it coming to you, that you can do anything you want, that your hands are
on the control stick of life -- those are all lies. Life will teachyou that. You are
given certain choices, but you are not given every choice. You can control a

limited area, but certainly not all areas of life. To think you can is part of the
lie that is being spreadabroad today.
But when you cansee things as they really are you can affirm what is good
and true and permanent. When you come to see the truth -- and it is a process,
it does not happen all at once in one magic moment -- as you obey the word of
Jesus, as you continue seeing life through his eyes, you will begin to look at
yourself differently; you will not see yourselfany longer the way you once did.
You will see otherpeople differently. You will read your newspapers
differently. You will change your whole value system. You will begin to
understand what is happening.
The first letter of John declares that: "Jesus Christhas come and given us an
understanding," (1 John 5:20 RSV). That is a most valuable thing. Have you
ever read the wonderful words of the secondchapter of Proverbs? They
declare the same truth:
...if you receive my words
and treasure up my commandments with you,
making your ear attentive to wisdom
and inclining your heart to understanding;
yes, if you cry out for insight
and raise your voice for understanding,
if you seek it like silver
and searchfor it as for hidden treasures;
then you will understand the fear of the Lord
and find the knowledge ofGod! (Proverbs 2:1-5 RSV)
What a promise! It ought to set us all searching, listening, thinking and
reading, that we might find and understand the knowledge ofGod.

Now the fourth thing: Jesus promises that when you launch into this program,
when you follow him, hear his word, and continue in it, a wonderful thing will
happen -- "the truth will setyou free." That is a marvelous claim. The truth
will deliver you, permit you to be all that you were meant to be. That says a lot
about your present condition. doesn't it?
What does it free us from? When we put it into practicalterms, it frees us
from all our hang-ups! Hang-ups are what keepus from being all that we
were meant to be. Hang-ups. What a marvelous modern expression!To be
hung up means you cannotmove, you are bound and limited by something,
unable to free yourself.
Hang-ups are the same for everybody, everywhere. We all suffer from them.
Fearis probably the biggestone. Being afraid, worried, anxious, insecure,
timid, constantly threatenedby anxiety. I know people who are so gripped
and bound by fear they cannot even go outside their homes. They do not dare
go to the store; they cannot walk on a public streetbecause they are afraid.
That is an extreme example, I agree. Mostofus, though, have fears that limit
us and keepus from doing what we long to do.
Then there is anger. Have you ever felt angry and mad at life in general?
Have you ever gotup in the morning feeling surly? You didn't feel like saying
anything. You felt a quiet rage in your heart and you didn't know why. That is
the hang-up of anger, of hostility, hatred, aggressivenessand rage that keeps
you striking out at everybody -- prickly, like a porcupine on a cold winter's
night.
Then there is guilt. Millions of people -- perhaps many of you right here --
suffer inwardly from a terrible sense of failure, of shame about things in your
past. Betweenthe services this morning a man said to me, "I would like to talk
to you sometime about some of the things that have happened to me." I could
read a sense ofguilt in his eyes as he saidthat, a hurt, a look of despair, even
depression, overthe past or present.
Pride is another hang-up; a proud, aggressive,arrogantspirit that indulges in
rank prejudice and bigotry; an aloofnessand withdrawing from others, with

its accompanying loneliness. Do you see how practicalall these things are?
This is what Jesus is talking about.
His wonderful promise is that there is a wayout. "Bring them to me," he tells
us. "Bring them to me. Listen to my words. Look at life as I see it and a
wonderful thing will happen: there will be a change in you. You will be given
a life that you never had before, and you will begin to be freed from your
hang-ups." It will happen! In fact, it is happening to hundreds of people right
here this morning. I know some of your lives. I know there are probably five
hundred people here who could stand up and say, "Thatis what is happening
to me. I find myself able to live at last. I find myself freed from my hang-ups,
and it is getting better all the time. It is a glorious, wonderful thing." That is
the promise of Jesus.
The accountgoes onimmediately to introduce us to the major hindrance to
finding this freedom. We often find there is a block, an obstacle in the way.
These people to whom Jesus is speaking verbalize that hindrance in the words
of Verse 33:
They answeredhim, "We are descendants ofAbraham, and have never been
in bondage to any one. How is it that you say, 'You will be made free'?" (John
8:33 RSV)
That is their problem: self-sufficiency, "We are Jews. We belong to the chosen
race. We are descendants ofAbraham and we have never been in bondage to
any one." That is their reply to the words of Jesus. Many commentators are
appalled by that claim. They ask, "How could these Jews saythat when they
were already under the heel of Rome? Their history is rife with captivities, in
Egypt, Babylon, Assyria, Rome, almost any nation around for awhile. How
can they claim they never were in bondage to anyone?"
But if we read that verse that way we are missing the whole thrust of it.
Obviously these men are not stupid. They know their nation is in bondage.
But they are not talking about that kind of bondage. They are talking about
freedom before God. They know that this is what Jesus means, and that is
what they claim. What they are saying is, "Nobodytells us how to worship.
Even though we have been in bondage to other nations we have never allowed

anyone to tell us how to worship God. We have always been free to worship as
we like. We will fight to the death for that. We have never let anyone take that
awayfrom us." That is true of this remarkable nation to this day. They will
allow no one to change their way of worship. But they extended that to mean
that they, as individuals, were acceptable to God because they were descended
from Abraham. They had not forgottentheir bondage to the Romans, rather,
they were boasting in the fact that they were part of a chosenrace, thus they
were confident of God's approval.
I was in Dallas, Texas,lastweek, anddriving in from DFW airport we went
right past Texas Stadium, where the Dallas Cowboys play. That is a unique
stadium. It is not like the Kingdome, the Superdome and other greatstadia
where football is played, because it is not completely roofed over. It has a big
hole in the roof right over the football field. Spectators are protectedbut the
players are exposedto the elements. When I askedwhy I was told, "So God
can watchhis favorite team!" That is the way the Cowboys feelabout
themselves:"God's Favorite Team!" That is what these Jews felt, too: "We
are God's favorite people; God's chosenrace."
There is the real problem. This is what most often keeps people from
becoming disciples of Jesus and thus finding the path to freedom: They think
they are OK the way they are. They may need a few minor adjustments here
and there but no big changes are required; they feel they are alreadyfree.
They look at themselves the same way travel folders describe SanFrancisco.
Have you ever read through a travel folder of SanFrancisco? Iwill tell you
what you will not find in it. You will never find in it a paragraph that says,
"Although it is one of the most beautiful cities in the country, San Francisco
has huge ghetto areas where you candrive for blocks and see people living in
squalor, misery, hunger and heartache. This city is noted as one of the most
immoral cities in the nation. You can stroll down Castro Streeton a beautiful
summer's evening and find yourself surrounded by lesbians, faggots and
transvestites. You will never forgetthat experience." No, you will never find a
travel folder that says that. They talk instead about the GoldenGate Bridge,
the beauty of the Bay, the wonder of the redwoodtrees, and the glories of the
history of San Francisco, while they ignore the hurt and the heartache. That is

what these people who were listening to Jesus were doing, and that is what we
do, too.
But Jesus cuts right through all of that. Listen how he handles this. He takes
these men at their word and begins to examine what they say.
Jesus answeredthem, "Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is
a slave to sin." (John 8:34 RSV)
That is one of the most profound statements ever uttered by Jesus. Whenyou
let yourself follow wrong and do wrong, whether in attitude or in action, you
become a slave of that wrong. Gradually you slip under its control. Later,
when you want to break it, you will find you cannot. You are a "slave to sin."
Continuing, Jesus declares,
"The slave does not continue in the house forever; the soncontinues forever.
So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed." (John 8:35-36 RSV)
In these marvelous words Jesus points out that slaveryis the opposite of
freedom: "You men say you are free, but you do not know how greata slave
you are." If freedom is being able to be all that you are meant to be, then
slavery is to lose all possibility of that. When you give in to little ways of what
Jesus calls "sin" -- wrong deeds and wrong thinking -- gradually an invisible
net is being woventhat you finally cannotbreak.
Such things never seemdangerous at first. They look very innocent because
everybody does them, and we justify them in many ways. They are popular,
and furthermore, they are a lot of fun. I do not have to argue that with you.
We know from our own experience the pleasure that wrongdoing brings. Not
only the obvious things such as drink and sex, but the pleasure of inward sins.
Did you ever feel the exquisite pleasure of telling somebodyoff when he was
wrong? Did you ever feel the delight of showing yourself to be better than
someone else, orof indulging in a juicy bit of gossipthat wreckedsomebody's
reputation? Those too are "the pleasures ofsin" (Hebrews 11:25). They form
habits within us that finally become unbreakable, no matter how hard we try.
The chief mark that this is happening is that, when you finally decide to quit,
you cannot. You have heard that well-knownsaying about smoking, "It's easy

to quit smoking. I've done it hundreds of times!" That is true also of a hot
temper, an inward lust, an indulgence in pornography, whatever it may be. It
seems easyto do until you try, and then you find it is impossible. So pride and
hate and loveless indifference and prejudice and jealousyand anger and
malice and revenge, all gradually take deep rootin us and bind us, and we
become slaves. Thatis what had happened to these men. How quickly Jesus
strips awayall their facades andexposes them for what they really are.
He also declares that kind of slavery has a very serious problem connected
with it: "The slave does not continue in the house forever, the son continues
forever." These men had said, "We are descendants ofAbraham." They
meant, "We are sons of the house of Abraham." To that Jesus says, "No.It is
true you are in Abraham's house, but you are not there as sons, you are there
as slaves, slaves willeventually be castout. They do not live in a house forever.
Only the sonhas permanent residence in a house."
A "house," as Jesus uses the word here, is a symbol: it is a place of pleasure
and privilege; to live in a house is to have certain enjoyments of pleasure and
privileges. Sin has its pleasures and it offers its privileges to us. The problem,
however, is, as you see manifeston all sides, it cannotlast. I do not have to
illustrate this. You cansee it everywhere. You all know people who are trying
desperatelyto hang on to the pleasures of sin, to get the same kick out of
drugs or gambling or lust or adultery or fornication that they did at first, but
it is slipping away; it cannotlast. Eventually they are turned out into the
streets, pathetic wanderers trying to find their way home. You know that is
true, don't you? But listen to Jesus, "The Soncanmake you free." The
Scriptures declare that when you believe in Jesus, and when you follow him,
he makes you into what he is. You become a son, and a son remains in the
house forever. Nothing cantake awaythe pleasures and privileges that
sonship brings. Jesus now takes this a little deeper,
"I know that you are descendants ofAbraham; yet you seek to kill me,
because my word finds no place in you. I speak ofwhat I have seenwith my
Father, and you do what you have heard from your father." (John 8:37-38
RSV)

This is a step further into reality, to the explanation of the cause of evil. It is a
question of fatherhood. Who is your father? It is all a matter of relationship.
Yesterday my wife and I joined with my brother-in-law and his wife in
looking at some old family portraits of our ancestors, menand women we
have never met, but we are descendedfrom them, and our children are
descendedfrom them. We had a greattime noticing where certain features in
our children come from. Looking at a picture of a great-grandmotherwe said,
"Oh, that is where our daughter gets her broad face and her blue eyes."
Another picture brought the comment, "That is where one of my daughters
gets her high cheekbones." It is clearthat our ancestrygreatly affects us.
That is true spiritually, too. That is what Jesus declareshere:"I have a
Father. I talk with him all the time and he with me, therefore, I talk like him;
what I say is what he says. But you want to kill me," he declares. "That
reveals what kind of a father you have: You have a murderer for a father."
These men, understandably, did not like that very much. Being Jews, they
were a bit hard to change, so we read,
They answeredhim, "Abraham is our father." Jesus saidto them, "If you
were Abraham's children, you would do what Abraham did, but now you seek
to kill me, a man who has told you the truth which I heard from God; this is
not what Abraham did. You do what your father did." (John 8:39-41a RSV)
In the book of Genesis we are told that when God sent a heavenly visitor to
Abraham, the patriarch welcomedhim. He killed the fatted calf, made a
splendid feast, listened to the visitor's words and obeyedthe truth. Thus Jesus
is saying here, "You cannot be Abraham's children, really. Outwardly you
are, but inwardly you are not because you do not do what Abraham did.
Rather you are doing what your father does." The Jews objectto his words
and move the argument to a different ground.
They said to him, "We were not born of fornication; we have one Father, even
God." (John 8:41b RSV)
Some of the commentators think this is a sly dig at Jesus'ownbirth. Rumors
of the virgin birth of Jesus were circulating, and they are taking a cut at that.
"You want us to believe that you were born of a woman without a man?" they

imply. You want us to believe that your mother, Mary, had a baby without the
involvement of a father? We find that hard to believe. We certainly were not
born that way. We were born legitimately. Furthermore, if you are going to
put things on a spiritual basis, what do you make of what Isaiah and Moses
said, that 'the father of Israelis God'? God is our father." To this Jesus
continues the same line of argument,
Jesus saidto them, "If God were your Fatheryou would love me, for I
proceededand came forth from God; I came not of my own accord, but he
sent me." (John 8:42 RSV)
What he is saying is. "What you do reveals to whom you belong. All your
proud claims are worthless if your hearts are filled with murder and lust and
envy and jealousyand hate. You are not God's children. You come from
another source."
Jesus brings the discussionto a dramatic climax in the three remarkable
questions that follow. Let us remember the setting. Jesus is dialoguing with
these Jewishleaders in the courts of the temple. The people of Israel, many of
them supporters of, and believers in, Jesus are hanging on every word. The
leaders particularly are very upset; they feelthreatened. Now Jesus asksthree
questions of them, and pauses for an answeraftereachquestion. Here is the
first question:
"Why do you not understand what I say?" (John 8:43a RSV)
He awaits their response. There is none, so he answers his own question:
"It is because youcannot bear to hear my word." (John 8:43b RSV)
He could read the anger, the resistance ontheir faces. Theywere threatened,
they did not want to hear this, and he tells them why:
"You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father's desires.
He was a murderer from the beginning, and has nothing to do with the truth,
because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks according to his own
nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies. But, because Itell the truth, you
do not believe me." (John 8:44-45 RSV)

Now he strips awayall the veils. He opens the door to the invisible kingdom
under which all of us live. You will never understand life until you acceptthe
fact that there are invisible realities, both goodand bad, governing and
controlling human life. Jesus lived continually in the realizationthat the
invisible control centerof earth was where the great issues oflife were settled.
He points out that there is a malevolentbeing, a hater of men, working behind
the scenes;a murderer who wants to destroy human beings, and his process is
to deceive them, to lie to them, to make them think and believe a lie. That is
what had happened to these men. They had been tricked; they had so long
believed all the little lies that appealed to their pride and their ego that they
were no longer capable of understanding and recognizing truth when Jesus
spoke it.
Then Jesus asks the secondquestion,
"Which of you convicts me of sin?" (John 8:46a RSV)
That is surely one of the most remarkable challenges in all of human history.
Here is a Man who could stand up in public before his enemies and openly ask
them, "Which one of you convicts me of sin? Speak up!" He pauses for an
answer, but no one says anything. This is the unshakable rock upon which our
Lord's testimony stands. What he means is, "If you can find anything that I
have done wrong, anything in all my thirty-three years on earth; if there is
one of you who canstand up and say, 'You cheatedme, you stole from me, you
lied to me, you deceivedme, you lived for your ownself, you took away what
belongedto another,' that would utterly demolish my claim to have come from
God." This is why Christians have always saidthat you must either think
Jesus Christ is a madman, is absolutelyout of his head to make such claims,
or you have to believe what he says -- one or the other. He leaves us no other
choice.
Then he asks the third question:
"If I tell the truth, why do you not believe me?" (John 8:46b RSV)
No one had answeredwhen he asked, "Whichof you convicts me of sin?"
Their silence implied that no one could do so. So he asks, "IfI tell you the

truth, why do you not believe me?" There is a remorselesslogic in his words.
He has stripped awaythe veil that has hidden their hearts from themselves.
He has revealedthem, not as goodand decentmen who were free before God,
but as slaves, bound with habits they could not break, slaves to sin,
desperatelyneeding the work of a Redeemer. So he states the case plainly.
"He who is of God hears the words of God; the reasonwhy you do not hear
them is that you are not of God." (John 8:47 RSV)
This brings us back to Verses 31-32, "Ifyou continue in my word, you are
truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you
free." That is the only way out. To all victims of Satan's lies he offers the
priceless gift of freedom.
He breaks the powerof cancelledsin
He sets the prisoner free;
His blood can make the foulest clean;
His blood availed for me.
Is that what you are saying? May God grant it to be so. Let us think about
these words of Jesus. Think about yourself, living on God's earth, living in his
universe, under the controlof this magnificent Lord who understands life so
intimately. Who are you in relationship to him? That is the question.
END PRECEPTAUSTIN RESOURCES
What does John 8:44 mean? [⇑ See verse text ⇑]
Jesus'critics have adamantly resistedHis teachings. In part, this has hinged
on their claims to be the children of Abraham (John 8:33). Jesus respondedby
pointing out that "true sons" behave as their father did. Since Abraham
believed God, and these men do not, they are not part of Abraham's spiritual
family. Instead, they are the children of some other father. So far, their

conduct has been marked by violence (John 5:18), deception (John 7:21–24),
and hypocrisy (John 8:1–11). Theyrejectthe messageof Christ because they
do not want to hear it (John 8:43). They've even insulted Jesus'family by
insinuating that He is an illegitimate child—a "sonof fornication" (John
8:41). Here, Jesus completes His statementabout the true spiritual father of
these critics, in spectacularfashion.
In no uncertain terms, Jesus states thatthese hateful enemies are, in fact, the
spiritual children of the devil. He refers to murder, resistance to the truth,
and lies—allof which were part of His earlier criticism of these men. This is
not a soft, timid response on the part of Jesus. This is an open, overt rebuke
delivered againstreligious leaders who are leading others to hell (Matthew
23:15). Contrary to the caricature of Jesus as a fragile mystic, passagessuch
as these prove His ability to present righteous strength.
https://www.bibleref.com/John/8/John-8-44.html
How is Satanthe fatherof lies (John8:44)?
The descriptionof Satanas the "fatherof lies" comes froma passageinthe
gospel ofJohn. Jesuswasaddressing a groupofreligious leaders inIsrael, who
were accusing himof being from Satan. He respondedby telling them that they
were liars, andthat proved that they, not He, were ofthe Devil. Jesus said:
"Whenhe (Satan) lies, he speaksoutofhis owncharacter, forhe is a liar and
the father oflies" (John8:44c). He also toldthe group of accusersthatthey
were the children ofthe Devil because theywere spreading lies aboutHim and
refusing to see the truth. So, Satanis notonly the father oflies, but of those who
suppress the truth.
From the beginning, Satanhas beena liar. He told his first lies to Eve, to
deceive herand draw her awayfrom God(Genesis 3:1, 4). He was the firstliar,

which makes him "the father of lies" inthe same waythat Hippocrates is the
father ofmodern medicine. He was the first to think "I'm going to saythe
opposite ofwhat is true" and to carry out that action. Godspeaksthe truth and
Satansays the opposite, andman is confused. Eversince the gardenofEden,
this has been happening. Satanuses the worldsystemto disseminate his lies (1
John5:19), andthe lies are always growing innumber and complexity.
We know that Godspeaks the truth—theapostleJohn said, "WearefromGod.
WhoeverknowsGodlistensto us; whoever isnotfromGod doesnot listento
us. Bythisweknow theSpiritof truthandthespiritof error"(1 John4:6). John
wasdrawinga distinctionbetweentheteachingsof Jesus'apostlesandthe
contradictoryteachingswhichwereleadingpeopleastray. John andtheother
apostlessuffered greatly, dedicatingtheirlivesto thetruth. Themajority of
them diedhorribledeathsrather thandenythetruthaboutJesus—Hislife, His
death, Hisreturnto life, andthewayof salvationforallmenthroughHis
resurrection(John3:16). John wassaying"Wearespeakingthetruth. Anybody
who saystheoppositeisa liar."
ThisishowSatanoperates: hetakesGod'struthandtwistsor contradictsitso
thatpeopleareledawayfrom Him.Godislove(1 John4:7–8). ButSatansays
"how can a lovingGodallowso muchsuffering?"GodsaysJesusistheonlyway
to heaven(John 14:6).Satansays"agoodpersonof anybelief systemcanget
there."Jesusspokeof everlastingtormentforthosewho rejectHim (Matthew
25:46). ButSatansays"there'sno hell."Godclaimsto exist, and to bea personal
Being thatinteractswithus(Hebrews11:6).ButSatansays"Godisdead."
Unfortunately, sincewearefiniteandfallen,wearesusceptibleto theselies.So,
Satancontinuesto usethem, and rehasheven theoriginalliehetold("DidGod
really say…?") in orderto get usoff track. TheBibleisattackedoftenand
viciouslyby falsereligionsandworldlymenwho wantusto thinkthattheBible
is notliteral, isnotauthoritative, isnotreliable. Whydo so manypeopleputso

much thoughtand effortinto contradictingtheBible?BecauseSatanisworking
to convinceusthatGodis theliar—andthatistheultimatelie.
https://www.compellingtruth.org/father-of-lies.html
Barnes'Notes on the Bible
Ye are of your father the devil - That is, you have the temper, disposition, or
spirit of the devil. You are influenced by him, you imitate him, and ought
therefore to be calledhis children. See also 1 John 3:8-10; Acts 13:10;“Thou
child of the devil.”
The devil - See the notes at Matthew 4:1.
The lusts - The desires or the wishes. You do what pleases him.
Ye will do - The word “will,” here, is not an auxiliary verb. It does not simply
express futurity, or that such a thing will take place, but it implies an act of
volitions. This you will or chooseto do. The same mode of speechoccurs in
John 5:40. In what respects they showedthat they were the children of the
devil he proceeds to state:
1.in their murderous disposition;
2.in rejecting the truth;
3.in being favorable to falsehoodand error.
He was a murderer from the beginning - That is, from the beginning of the
world, or in the first records of him he is thus represented. This refers to the
seductionof Adam and Eve. Death was denouncedagainstsin, Genesis 2:17.
The devil deceivedour first parents, and they became subjectto death,
Romans 5:12, and Revelation12:9; “And the greatdragon was castout, that
old serpentcalled the devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world.”
Besides, Satanhas in all ages deceivedmen, and been the cause of their
spiritual and eternal death. His work has been to destroy, and in the worst
sense ofthe word he may be said to have been a murderer. It was by his

instigation, also, that Cain killed his brother, 1 John 3:12; “Notas Cain, who
was of that wickedone, and slew his brother.” As the Jews endeavoredto kill
the Saviour, so they showedthat they had the spirit of the devil.
Abode not in the truth - He departed from the truth, or was false and a liar.
No truth in him - That is, he is a liar. It is his nature and his work to deceive.
He speakethof his own - The word “own” is in the plural number, and means
of the things that are appropriate to him, or that belong to his nature. His
speaking falsehoodis originatedby his own propensities or disposition; he
utters the expressions ofhis genuine character.
He is a liar - As when he deceivedAdam, and in his deceiving, as far as
possible, the world, and dragging man down to perdition.
The father of it - The father or originatorof falsehood. The word “it” refers to
lie or falsehoodunderstood. From him falsehoodfirst proceeded, and all liars
possesshis spirit and are under his influence. As the Jews refusedto hear the
truth which Jesus spoke, so they showedthat they were the children of the
father of lies.
return to 'Jump List'
Clarke's Notes onthe Bible
Ye are of your father the devil - Ye are the seedof the old serpent. See on
John 8:37; (note).
The lusts of your father - Like father like son. What Satandesires, ye desire;
because ye are filled with his nature. Awful state of unregenerate men! They
have the nearestalliance to Satan; they partake of his nature and have in
them the same principles and propensities which characterize the very nature

and essenceofthe devil! Reader, canstthou rest in this state? Apply to God,
through Christ, that thou mayest be born again.
He was a murderer from the beginning - It was through him that Adam
transgressed;in consequenceofwhich death entered into the world, and slew
him and all his posterity. This was the sentiment of the Jews themselves. In
SoharKadash, the wickedare called, "The children of the old serpent, who
slew Adam and all his descendants." SeeSchoettgen.
Abode not in the truth - He stoodnot in the truth - was once in a state of
glorious felicity, but fell from it; and, being deprived of all goodhimself, he
could not endure that others should enjoy any; therefore by his lies he
deceivedEve, and brought her, her husband, and, through them, their
posterity, into his own condemnation.
He speakethof his own - Εκ των ιδιων λαλει, He speakethof his own
offspring, or, from his owndisposition, for he is the father and fountain of all
error and falsity; and all who are deceivedby him, and partake of his
disposition, falsity and cruelty, are his offspring, for he is a liar, and the father
of it - και ὁ πατηρ αυτου - literally, his father also. There is considerable
difficulty in this verse. The Cainites, and the Archontites, mentioned by
Epiphanius, read it thus: "Ye are the children of your father the devil,
because he is a liar, and his father was a liar. He was a man-slayer, and he did
not remain in the truth. When he speaketh, he speaketha lie of his own,
(progenitors understood), because his father also was a liar." The
consequenceswhichthe above heretics drew from this verse were the
following. They said that the father of the Jews was a demon; that he also had
a demon for his father; and that he had a demon for his father, etc. The
Archontites maintained that Cain had a demon for his father, the spirit which
our Lord speaks ofhere; and that the Jews proceededfrom the race of Cain.
Grotius, supposing that the devil who tempted Eve was not the prince of
devils, but rather a subordinate one, seems to think he may be understood
here, he is a liar, and his father also, which is the literal translation of the
latter clause of the text, ὡς και ὁ πατηρ αυτου, as it has been read by many of
the primitive fathers.

Mr. Wakefield, by changing το, before ψευδος, into τις, gives the text the
following translation: - "The devil is your father, and ye willingly perform the
lusts of your father. He was a man-slayerfrom the first, and continued not in
the truth, because there is no truth in him. When Any One speaketha lie, he
speakethaccording to his own kindred: for his father also is a liar." Our own
translation, that refers πατηραυτου to ψευδος, a lie, and not to ψευϚης, a
liar, is probably the most correct. https://www.studylight.org/bible/erv/john/8-
44.html
John 8:44
by Grant | Jun 2, 2017 | John | 1 comment
ReadIntroduction to John
44 You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to
do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth,
because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own
resources,for he is a liar and the father of it.
Verses 44 and 45 make explicit the fatal flaw in the Jews. Jesus now gave the
essentialreasontheir volition was shut down towardHim.
44 You are of your father the devil,
Now Jesus introduced a startling statement about the true nature of His
opponents. His antagonists resembledthe devil more than Abraham or the
Father. Their father was the devil himself.
and the desires of your father you want to do.

The Jews had a sonship problem. As sons of the devil, the opponents of Jesus
wanted to do their father’s will. The Jews’deliberate desire was to do the will
of the devil. Desire shows identity.
He was a murderer from the beginning,
“From the beginning” refers to the garden of Eden. The devil from the
beginning of his relationship to mankind plotted their destruction. It was his
pattern of operation. The devil was a murderer and the Jews ofJesus’day
were murderers. They were one of a kind.
and does not stand in the truth,
There is no relation betweenthe devil and the truth. His purpose is to put out
the light of the truth. His main method for extinguishing what God said is lies,
especiallythrough false systems of salvation.
because there is no truth in him.
The devil is blind to truth. Those who rejectChrist are also blind to truth (2
Co 4:4; Eph 2:2). Since there is no truth in the devil, his mode of operation is
by lies, by apostasy.
When he speaks a lie,
The devil contrives religious fraud.
he speaks from his ownresources,
The devil is the well-spring of lies. He creates falsity.
for he is a liar and the father of it.
The devil is the father of lies. Lies find their origin in him.
PRINCIPLE:
Conduct is predicated on sonship.
APPLICATION:

Children manifest characteristics oftheir father. Since the Jews manifested
characteristicsofthe devil, it is clearwhere their allegiance andcommitment
lay. It is obvious where many people in our day stand when it comes to their
attitude about Christ. Their beliefs belong to Satan’s philosophy of life.
Spiritual sonship is all that matters. We see this both in likeness and conduct.
Our characteris formed from our core influence. Kinship to the father of lies
will manifest itself in what people believe and do. There are two households:
the devil’s and God’s.
It is important to recognize that the ultimate reasonpeople rejectChrist is the
influence of the devil. The devil has no truth in him, so to be influenced by
him leads people astray.
https://versebyversecommentary.com/john/john-844/
Devil Talk:Is the Gospelof John Anti-Semitic?
by Mark P. Shea
Description
In this article Mark P. Shea examines a controversialbiblical passagein the
Gospelof John — one which has raised questions antisemitism. He says it is
necessaryto read the Gospelin the proper context considering the audience
St. John was speaking to. He concludes that the "devil talk" of the New
Testamentwas not directed at the Jews but to point out that mere ethnicity
cannot save only baptism.
Larger Work
Crisis Magazine
Pages

10 – 16
Publisher & Date
Morley Publishing Group, Inc., Washington, DC, November 2006
One of the most volatile passagesin the New Testamentis the moment at
which Jesus turns to some of His Jewishaudience and declares point-blank,
"You are of your father, the devil" (Jn 8:44). This sounds pretty ugly to
modern ears and, particularly in the shadow of the Shoah, strikes many
moderns as prima facie evidence for the alleged"intrinsic anti-Semitism" of
Christianity, stretching all the way back to the New Testamentand even to the
very words of Jesus Himself. So, for instance, Rabbi Bentzion Kravitz writes,
"Hatred and violence are consequencesofChristian Anti-Semitism, not the
source. The source is the demonizing of the Jewishpeople. This comes as no
surprise since New Testamentpassages, suchas John 8:44, refer to Jews as
'children of the Devil'"
(www.jewishpassion.com/documents/n_distortion.htm).
Many Christians, rightly sensitive to the dangers of anti-Semitism, have
tended to respond to this and similar texts by trying to create some distance
betweenJesus and these words. This is usually accomplishedby turning Jesus
into the "Johannine Jesus" and attributing this and other sayings, not to Jesus
Himself, but to the evangelist. On this showing, the claim is that John or the
Johannine community is responding to the situation of the Church some 60
years after Christ, when the synagogue and Church had definitively and
bitterly split, and the Christian community, full of recriminations againsta
hostile Jewishleadership, was then inclined to place its own curses in the
mouth of Christ.
This is, however, to badly misread the text at a number of levels and to miss
the realand incomparably rich meaning of John's thought. But in order to see
this — and getat the real meaning of this text — it is necessaryfor us to know
a bit about the Church's teaching on Scripture, the relationship between
Jesus'words and the evangelist's accounts of them, and about the relationship
betweenJohn and his audience.

How to Readthe Gospels
The basic problem with the "Johnput words in the mouth of Jesus" attempt
to explain awayJohn 8:44 (and other troubling passages)is simply this: The
Church does not teach that the Gospelpassagesthat bother us cansimply be
explained away as the interpolations of disciples who put things into the
mouth of Jesus that Christ never said:
Since everything assertedby the inspired authors or sacredwriters must be
held to be assertedby the Holy Spirit, it follows that the books ofScripture
must be acknowledgedas teaching solidly, faithfully and without error that
truth which Godwanted put into sacredwritings for the sake of salvation(Dei
Verbum, 13).
In other words, the Gospels are not infinitely malleable texts. When the
Gospelwriters assertthat Jesus saidX, it is the Holy Spirit (who cannotlie)
asserting it as well. When the Gospelwriters tell us Jesus died on the cross
and rose again, these are not fictional deeds attributed to a first-century rabbi
by excited disciples who coveredtheir grief with a resurrectionfable in order
to deny to themselves and the world that He had been eatenby wild dogs.
When they relate a story, saying, or parable Jesus told, it's because it's a
story, saying, or parable Jesus told, not because John or the Johannine
community had a problem and had to cook up some cock-and-bull quote from
Jesus in order to score a polemical point againstcontemporaryfoes.
That said, the Church is also cautious to remind us that we are Catholics, not
fundamentalists. And so the Church teaches thatthe Gospels are the products
of the Church and that the Gospelwriters are, in fact, recording the words
and sayings of Jesus for realtheologicalpurposes and with real editorial
control:
The sacredauthors wrote the four Gospels, selecting some things from the
many which had been handed on by word of mouth or in writing, reducing
some of them to a synthesis, explaining some things in view of the situation of

their churches and preserving the form of proclamationbut always in such
fashion that they told us the honest truth about Jesus (DeiVerbum, 19).
Thus, the material in the Gospels, while not infinitely malleable, is typically
flexible. Sayings get arrangedby different evangelists in order to make
different points to different audiences. Similarly, though the Gospels are
trustworthy accounts of the real words and deeds of Christ, we needn't
trouble ourselves with the minutiae that often vex fundamentalist attempts to
pin down "inerrancy" with obsessive mathematicalprecision. So we are not,
for instance, obligedto believe that every saying recorded of Jesus in every
Gospelpassageis the ipsissima verbi — the "exactwords" — of Jesus orsome
other biblical character. After all, Jesus primarily spoke Aramaic and many
of His sayings were uttered in that tongue, not in the Greek of the New
Testamentwriters. So the New Testamenthits the ground running as a
translation. Thus, Catholics are not plunged into a crisis of faith when
Matthew tells us the sign on the cross read"This is Jesus, the King of the
Jews,"while John tells us it read "Jesus ofNazareth, the King of the Jews."
We know what they are getting at and don't sweatthe minor variations in the
account.
In addition, many of the variations in the Gospeltexts are probably due to the
fact that even Jesus did not repeatHimself in exactlythe same way every time
He told the same parable in every little watering hole in Judea. NeitherHe nor
His disciples were tape recorders;they were human. And like human beings,
they varied their vocabulary, particularly when they preached the same things
over and over and over again. So when one Gospelrecords Jesus saying
"Blessedare the poor," and another records Him saying "Blessedare the
poor in spirit," the "contradiction" is most likely resolvedby considering the
possibility that He said both, or that the writers are paraphrasing the essence
of what He said. Such paraphrasing is obviously going on when one Gospel
records the words of consecrationat the Eucharist (which only occurredonce)
as "Take;this is my body" (Mk 14:22), while another records "Take,eat;this
is my body" (Mt 26:26). Such variations are a challenge to the doctrine of
biblical inerrancy only to the most flatfootedliteralist.

The point of all this is to saythat when we read the Gospels, we are never
reading a simple, tape-recordedconversationbetweenJesus andHis apostles,
or betweenthe Pharisees andthe Sadducees,orbetweenPilate and Christ. We
are also always reading a conversationbetweenthe author of the Gospeland
the community for whom he wrote — mediated through the historical
materials the evangelistis working with. So, for instance, when Jesus declares
in John's Gospelthat "unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot
enter the kingdom of God" (Jn 3:5), we have to remember that this statement
by Christ is not read in a vacuum, but in the context of a community that has
already been baptizing new members for around 50 years. Thus, attempts by
some Protestantexegetesto claim that "the waterin this verse refers to the
amniotic fluid that surrounds the baby in its mother's womb" are simply
preposterous. If John meant to inform his readers that Jesus actuallymeant
"First, you are born naturally via amniotic fluid, then you are born
supernaturally by asking Jesus into your heart as your personal Lord and
savior, and baptism has nothing to do with that," he could not have chosena
more misleading way of getting his message across, giventhe universal
experience of his audience. Every ancientreader of this text would — and did
— read John 3:5 in light of the establishedpractice of the apostolic churches
as a reference to the waters of baptism. In short, John is not just teaching his
community about the sacramentof baptism via the words of Jesus. He is also
teaching what the words of Jesus mean by relating them to the practice of the
community in baptism.
This process ofrelating Jesus to the community goes backwardin time as well
as forward. Just as Jesus'words about water and the Holy Spirit are
inevitably linked with what John's audience had lived in the sacramentof
baptism, so they are inevitably linked with what John and his heavily Jewish
readership know of the Old Testament. So when the evangelistrelates John
the Baptist's acclamation, "Beholdthe Lamb of God, who takes awaythe sin
of the world!" (Jn 1:29), he does so with the assumption that his readers are
completely aware ofthe sacrificialPassoverLamb and the whole story of the
Exodus. Indeed, John, like all the New Testamentwriters, is presuming a full
awarenessofthe entire Old Testament.
The Full Context

All this is important to remember as we approachJohn 8:44, because that
verse lives in the middle of a very long and very subtle catechetical
meditation, not on the peculiar wickednessofJews, but on the meaning and
effects of baptism. This means that the passageis not directed at singling out
Jews as particularly evil, but is insteadaimed at declaring the universality of
original sin.
John, you see, has a pastoralproblem. His audience consists, in part, of people
who are influenced by a sectthat elevates Johnthe Baptistover Jesus. We can
see abundant evidence for this in the fact that his Gospeladdresses a
considerable portion of material to disciples of John the Baptistwho had
heard only of his "baptism of repentance," but not of his full testimony to
Jesus. This is one of the reasons scholars think he is writing to the Church at
Ephesus. Forwe know from Acts 18:24 and 19:1-7 that there was some sortof
sectcenteredin Ephesus that fit this description, to whom the apostles
repeatedly addressedpleas to follow the Christ whom John the Baptist serves.
And so John has to emphasize againand againthat the Baptistwas not the
Messiah(Jn 1:20), that he came only as a witness to the Light (Jn 1:6-8), that
he was just the friend of the bridegroom, and that he must decrease evenas
Christ increases(Jn3:28-30).
Not surprisingly, then, the Evangelistis taskedwith showing the difference
betweenJohn's baptism of repentance and the sacramentalbaptism given by
Christ. But being a first-century Jew and not a 21st-centuryabstractthinker,
he does so via the medium of stories — true stories — and not theological
jargon.
John's instruction on the meaning and effects of sacramentalbaptism begins
in John 7 and continues all the wayto the end of John 9. As is his custom
throughout the Gospel, he relates the teaching and work of Christ to a Jewish
feast— in this case, the Feast of Tabernacles. This feastcelebratedIsrael's
living in tents in the wilderness (Lv 23:43)and the permanent abode given
them in the PromisedLand, particularly symbolized by the temple. Its two
dominant motifs were waterand light, recalling the water from the rock
Moses gave Israeland the light of the Pillar of Fire that led Israelthrough the
wilderness. In addition, the feastreferred to the mysterious vision of Ezekiel

40-48 in which the prophet sees the restoredtemple after the destruction of
the Temple of Solomonand the Babylonian captivity. Accordingly, the
Women's Court of the temple was illuminated to recallthe Pillar of Fire, and
a curious rite was enacted:Every morning of the celebrationa priest went
down to the Poolof Siloam (a pool we shall hearmore about in John 9) and
brought back a golden pitcher of waterto the temple (the successorof the
tabernacle). This waterwas poured on the altar of holocausts amidthe singing
of the Hallel (Ps 112-117)and the joyful sound of musical instruments.
It is in the middle of all this that Jesus stands up "on the last and greatestday
of the feast" and says:"If anyone thirst, let him come to me and drink. He
who believes in me, as the scripture has said, 'Out of his heart shall flow rivers
of living water.'Now this he said about the Spirit, which those who believed in
him were to receive;for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus
was not yet glorified" (Jn 7:37-39).
The odd thing is, the Old Testamentnowhere says, "Outof his heart shall
flow rivers of living water." Johnknows that. His readers know that. So why
record Jesus saying that? Because Johnknows Jesus is alluding to — not
directly quoting — Ezekiel47's vision of the restoredtemple that is
commemoratedin the Feastof Tabernacles:
Then he brought me back to the door of the temple; and behold, waterwas
issuing from below the threshold of the temple toward the east(for the temple
facedeast);and the waterwas flowing down from below the south end of the
threshold of the temple, south of the altar. Then he brought me out by way of
the north gate, and led me round on the outside to the outer gate, that faces
toward the east;and the waterwas coming out on the south side.
Going on eastwardwith a line in his hand, the man measureda thousand
cubits, and then led me through the water; and it was ankle-deep. Againhe
measureda thousand, and led me through the water;and it was knee-deep.
Again he measureda thousand, and led me through the water;and it was up
to the loins. Again he measured a thousand, and it was a river that I could not
pass through, for the waterhad risen; it was deep enough to swim in, a river

that could not be passedthrough. And he saidto me, "Sonof man, have you
seenthis?"
Then he led me back along the bank of the river. As I went back, I saw upon
the bank of the river very many trees on the one side and on the other. And he
said to me, "This waterflows toward the easternregion and goes down into
the Arabah; and when it enters the stagnantwaters of the sea, the waterwill
become fresh. And whereverthe river goes every living creature which
swarms will live, and there will be very many fish; for this water goes there,
that the waters of the sea may become fresh; so everything will live where the
river goes. Fishermenwill stand beside the sea;from En-gedi to En-eglaim it
will be a place for the spreading of nets; its fish will be of very many kinds,
like the fish of the GreatSea. But its swamps and marshes will not become
fresh; they are to be left for salt. And on the banks, on both sides of the river,
there will grow all kinds of trees for food. Their leaves will not wither nor
their fruit fail, but they will bear fresh fruit every month, because the water
for them flows from the sanctuary. Their fruit will be for food, and their
leaves for healing" (Ez 47:1-12).
Of course, the rebuilt temple never had any such river flowing out of it, so
what was Ezekielgetting at? Jesus tells us: The water flowing out of the
temple in Ezekiel's vision, the waterpoured on the altar of holocausts in the
FeastofTabernacles is a foreshadowing ofthe sacramentof baptism. This
should not surprise us. After all, Jesus has already made clear that His body,
not a mere stone building, is the True Temple ("Destroythis temple and in
three days I will raise it up" [Jn 2:19]). Moreover, as John is careful to note,
waterdid in fact flow from that temple when the heart of Jesus was pierced
(Jn 19:34-35). And the evangelist's emphasis on this leaves no doubt that John
himself saw this as the sign that the sacramentof baptism had been instituted
by the Holy Spirit. That's why he writes:
This is he who came by waterand blood, Jesus Christ, not with the water only
but with the waterand the blood. And the Spirit is the witness, because the

Spirit is the truth. There are three witnesses,the Spirit, the water, and the
blood; and these three agree (1 Jn 5:6-8).
So in John 7, the evangelistis using the imagery of the Feastof Tabernacles
and the words of Jesus to liken His body and ours to a temple and linking the
Spirit to baptismal imagery — baptismal imagery that is likewise allabout
waterand light. In so doing, he sets the stage for all that is to follow in his
instruction on baptism, whereby we drink the Living Waterand have our eyes
opened to the Light of the world (Jn 8:12).
Getting the Audience Wrong
As the narrative of John proceeds, the crowd debates whetherJesus is a
prophet. Some (particularly among the authorities) reject Him. (By the way,
skip the whole sectionabout the woman caught in adultery in John 8:3-11. It's
basicallya chunk of apostolic tradition that John probably did not write, but
that the Church could never bear to part with. It's been attachedto different
Gospels in different manuscripts of the New Testamentand eventually was
inserted here for want of a better place to put it, but it's not really part of the
original narrative of John.)
As the conversationcontinues, we discoverthat not all rejectHim. Some
"believe in him." And this is where the plot thickens. Fornotably, it is not to
the Jews who rejectHim, but to "the Jews who had believed in him" (Jn
8:31), that Jesus addresses His next remarks, including the shocking
statement, "You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your
father's desires" (Jn8:44). In short, it's "interestedinquirers" — people like
the unbaptized catechumens and "inquirers" in the evangelist's own
community — not hostile Pharisees and "outsiders," who are told they are
children of the devil.
Why does Jesus address ostensiblyfriendly people in this way? Because there
is belief, and then there is belief — as every catechistwho has had to teach
cafeteria Catholics knows. Some people come to believe in Christ in humility.
Some come to "believe" in Him in profound pride. Such people need a wake-
up call. They need to know exactly what Paul had told the same Ephesian
community decades earlier:that apart from Christ we are

dead through the trespasses andsins in which you once walked, following the
course of this world, following the prince of the powerof the air, the spirit
that is now at work in the sons of disobedience. Among these we all once lived
in the passions ofour flesh, following the desires of body and mind, and so we
were by nature children of wrath, like the restof mankind (Eph 2:1-3).
Note once againthat this is "devil talk," arraigning the readeras a slave of
Satan(the "prince of the powerof the air"). Yet it is not directed at Jews, but
at Paul's own Christian readership, reminding them of what they were before
"having the eyes of [their] hearts enlightened" (Eph 1:18).
Note how both Paul and John use "enlightenment" and "baptism"
interchangeably(as do the Fathers after them). John gets the habit from Jesus
who, speaking to "the Jews who had believed in him," warns starkly that they
are slaves to sin and children of the devil. The "believing" Jews take offense
and appealto their heritage as children of Abraham. What is John's point in
recording this? Notthat Jews are peculiarly demonic, but rather that we are
all in bondage to sin, of course, and that this bondage infects the whole human
race without regardto ethnicity.
And that's the point. Jesus'strong language is the same language that could
be (and is) applied to any catechumen from any ethnic backgroundwho tries
to insist that he doesn'tneed freeing from any sin: He is speaking a lie from
his father, the devil. In short, John 8:44 presupposes a doctrine of original sin
that afflicts the whole human race — a belief that all, not just Jews, are under
the dominion of the "prince of the power of the air" and require
enlightenment from darkness and washing from sin. Jesus does not teachthat
there is something peculiarly satanic about Jews. He simply points to the fact
that humans are, apart from Him, in bondage to sin, and that the purpose of
baptism is to free them from that. Mere physical descentfrom Abraham
cannot save any more than being a true-blue American can.
Those "who believed in him" are scandalizedat this, and the conversation
quickly disintegrates whenJesus choosesto testthis "belief" by challenging it
with the full import of His claims. He will not let "those who believed in him"

settle for believing in Him as a mere prophet, nor as a prop for feeling good
about themselves (people become Catholic for such reasons to this day). He
insists that they are slaves to sin, not because they are Jews, but because they
are human. They retaliate by calling Him demon-possessed. He ratchets up
the ante even higher, with an explicit claim to be God("Before Abraham was,
I am" [Jn 8:58]). In short, John points out the full meaning of what the
catechumenis signing on for when that catechumenlightly decides to indulge
his pride with a little, religious enthusiasm. Result: "Those who believedin
him" (shallow catechumens, not His Jewishenemies in the Sanhedrin) try to
stone Him. In short, it is the catechumens who are most offended by the
promise that they will be freed from sin.
The WaterThat Saves
John then continues his meditation on baptism and dilates on the themes of
waterand light with the story of the man born blind. In that story, the man's
eyes are opened and the "eyes ofhis heart" are enlightened to see Jesus by —
you guessedit — baptism. He is told to go to the Poolof Siloam(the same pool
used for the rite at the FeastofTabernacles)and wash. For the first time, he
sees notonly physical light, but Jesus. In the course of the entire controversy
beginning in John 7, he is the first person to acknowledgethat he cannot see,
and the first to be enlightened. That enlightenment takes place by degrees.
First, Jesus is calleda man (Jn 9:11), then a prophet (Jn 9:17), then Lord (Jn
9:38).
Unlike the prideful catechumens, this man recognizes thathe is blind. But
note this: All are Jews. Whatdistinguishes the man born blind from "the Jews
who had believed in him" is not his ethnicity, but his humility and their pride.
What keeps "the Jews who had believed in him" slaves to "the prince of the
powerof the air" is not some peculiarly demonic ethnic trait, but the simple
refusal to acknowledge theirneed of cleansing from sin through the sacrament
of baptism.
That is preciselythe point of the coda at the end of the story:

For judgment I came into this world, that those who do not see may see, and
that those who see may become blind . . . If you were blind, you would have no
guilt; but now that you say "We see," your guilt remains (Jn 9:39-41).
The "devil talk" of the New Testamentis not meant to say that there is
something uniquely wickedabout Jews but to pound home the doctrine that
all humans are bound by original sin, that mere ethnicity cannot save, and
that baptism is the sacramentthat frees us from sin.
Mark P. Shea is the seniorcontent editor for www.catholicexchange.com.
Honesty
John 8:44
The Bible has a lot of significant instruction on honesty, examples of men and
women that were honest, examples of men and weren't honestand things that
happened to those that were and those that weren't. Remember the story of
Ananias and Sapphira? They were dishonestwith God and He killed them!
Aren't we glad that He doesn't use that same technique today?
A recent survey noted that 91% of those surveyed lie on a regularbasis.
Here's a thought to ponder, "How do we trust a survey like that if 91% of
them are liars?"
Every conversation, every phone call, and every interaction -- we have dozens
and dozens of opportunities to be dishonest. Here are a few greatAmerican
lies:
The check is in the mail.
The doctorwill call you right back.

It was goodto see you.
One size fits all.
This hurts me more than it hurts you.
Your table will be ready in just a minute.
Pastor, that was a greatmessage!
We are going to take a look at the problem of dishonestyand then focus on
some practicalsteps that we can take to be men and womenthat move toward
an honest life.
Dishonestyis promoted in our culture. Our culture endorses untruth,
embraces untruth and practices untruth consistently. The residue of
dishonesty is flying around everywhere. We have come to expectpeople to be
dishonest. Isn't that sad? We expecta degree of untruthfulness in our political
system. We expectthat. We expecta degree of untruthfulness in advertising.
We know over years and years of watching different advertisements that they
lie to us. They are dishonest.
The one commercialthat was actually honest about their dishonesty was Isuzu
a couple of years ago. Joe Isuzu would stand in front and say, "This cargets
900 miles to the gallonand if you actnow you canbuy it for 9 dollars." All the
time there's flashing on the TV screen, "He's lying!" Being honestabout their
dishonesty made their sales go up 20% with that campaign.
Dishonestyis present in our nature. Dr. Leonard Keeler, who invented the lie
detectortest, interviewed 25,000 people and he came to the conclusionthat
people are basicallydishonest. At the core of humanity there is dishonesty.
Those of us who have read the Bible, this is no surprise. We know that in the
book of Genesis. We're told that dishonesty has plunged this world into the
mess that it's in. The Bible tells us that the heart is deceitful and desperately
wicked. Because we're alla part of a fallen race and we have wickedness that
lives within us because ofthe fall, we have a resistance to truth. [3] It's not
only in our culture and in our nature; dishonesty is part of our spiritual
structure. You and I are the objectof a cosmic spiritual battle. Basicallyit

comes down to this. It's truth versus falsehood. The Bible tells us that God is
the father of truth. The Bible also tells us that Satanis the father of lies.
(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 speaketha lie, he speakethofhis
own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.
The Bible doesn't candy coatit, God is on one side and Satan is on the other.
You and I have a choice, do we follow the culture or do we follow the creator?
When it comes to God, He hates dishonesty. Dishonestyis repulsive to God.
Why does He hate it? BecauseHe's the truth and dishonesty is a perversion of
His character. Godplaces a high priority and premium on truthfulness and
He wants us to love honesty. Let's considersome practicalsteps toward
honesty.
(Proverbs 23:23) Buy the truth, and sell it not; also wisdom, and instruction,
and understanding.
I. Take Inventory of Our Truthfulness.
We need to ask ourselves three questions:
Where am I being dishonest?
How am I being dishonest?
Why am I being dishonest?
A. Let's look at "Where?"
1. We might be honest at home but we're dishonestat work.
2. Or vice versa.
3. Give some examples…
4. Two worlds collide
B. Let's consider"How?"

1. How am I being dishonest?
2. Little white lies? or fibs?
3. Stretching the truth…
4. Half-truths?
5. Being evasive?
6. Being silent?
7. Cheating?
8. Flattery?
9. Give some examples.
C. Let's talk about "Why?"
1. To protect ourselves.
2. To protect others.
3. To project an image.
4. To continue a charade or lie.
5. Give some examples.
II. Realize the benefits of honesty.
(Proverbs 13:21) Evil pursueth sinners: but to the righteous goodshall be
repayed.
A. Honesty develops character.
1. There's a difference betweencharacterand reputation.
2. Reputation is what you think about me or what I think about you.
3. Characteris what we are when no one's looking.

4. Honesty and integrity is when reputation and charactercome togetherand
they're consistent.
5. Characteris one thing we cantake with us to eternity, while leaving it
behind on earth.
(Proverbs 20:7) The just man walkethin his integrity: his children are blessed
after him.
B. Honesty develops spiritual maturity.
(Ephesians 4:15) But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all
things, which is the head, even Christ:
1. Dishonestykeeps me from growing.
2. BecauseI do not face up to my sin, and dealwith it biblically.
3. When I'm honestand I deal with my sin the wayGod says in His Word, I
am propelled toward spiritual maturity.
C. Honesty develops security.
1. If we practice honesty, it will be easyto keepthings straight; but a liar has a
hard time remembering all their lies.
(Proverbs 11:6) The righteousness ofthe upright shall deliver them: but
transgressors shallbe takenin their own naughtiness.
2. Honesty provides security in my relationships, because people cantrust me.
3. It provides security for my family and everyone around.
4. We lose that when we're dishonest.
III. Love God and pursue Him.
A. What does this have to do with honesty?
1. The more intimate I am with God, the more compelled I am to be honest.
2. If God is invading my life, it's very difficult to be dishonest.

3. If the Holy Spirit is residing in my life the Holy Spirit will send an internal
signalto me when I'm being dishonest.
4. When I don't have an intimate relationship with God, I don't hear those
signals.
5. It leads toward being a chronic deceiver.
(Psalms 51:6) Behold, thou desiresttruth in the inward parts: and in the
hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom.
6. When I live in the presence ofGod, I'm compelled to be honest.
7. When I desire truth in the inward parts that is pursuing Him.
B. Pursue God in our lives.
1. When we are not satisfiedwith a casualChristianity…
2. But we want an honest relationship with Him.
3. Pursuing God will keepus honest, because He is Truth!
IV. Practice honesty.
A. This seems simplistic.
1. But on step towardan honestlife is just to be honest.
2. Practice it.
3. Choose honestyin every area of our lives.
B. We can't practice it until we do the work of evaluation.
(James 1:22-23)But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving
your own selves. Forif any be a hearerof the word, and not a doer, he is like
unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass:
1. James warns us againstfooling ourselves.
2. Building our lives on these important values will require us to be
determined.

3. We know we are supposedto be honest, but we have to look at our lives,
and evaluate those areas…
4. James talks about looking in the mirror, but don't forget what we see!
5. Be doers of the word!
(Proverbs 2:7) He layeth up sound wisdom for the righteous: he is a buckler to
them that walk uprightly.
(Proverbs 11:5) The righteousness ofthe perfectshall direct his way: but the
wickedshall fall by his own wickedness.
(Proverbs 12:19) The lip of truth shall be establishedfor ever: but a lying
tongue is but for a moment.
http://www.brandonweb.com/sermons/sermonpages/john105.htm
"Anti-Judaism" in the Gospelof John
1. Evidence that the author stands removed from Judaism
2:13; 11:55
"the Passoverofthe Jews"
5:1; 6:4; 7:2
"feastof the Jews"
2. Negative Portrayalof"the Jews"
"The Jews" used71 times in John (and only 16 in the Synoptics), usually by
the narrator
typically the Jews are on the side of the "world"--those who do not believe
3:1-4; 6:52; 7:35; 8:57

the Jews failto understand Jesus
5:16-18;7:1; 10:31, 39;11:8, 53
the Jews persecute Jesus andseek to kill him
5:39-40;7:19; 8:39-44;10:31-39
the Jews are untrue to their tradition/Torah
possible referents:
all Jews (but the disciples and other followers were Jews;cf.9:22)
the religious leaders at the time John wrote
the majority of Jews atthe time John wrote
the leaders and/or the masses atthe time of Jesus'ministry
3. Negative Portrayals ofthe Leaders
19:15
the leaders seemmore faithful to Caesarthan to God
9:40-41;11:46-53
the Phariseesare blind, false teachers
4:1; 7:32; 8:13; 12:42
the Phariseesoppose Jesus
12:10;19:6, 15, 21
the chief priests oppose Jesus
4. JewishResponsibilityfor Jesus'death
18:3, 12, 19-24;19:15-16
Jewishresponsibility declared
18:31, 38-40;19:4-8, 12-16

Pilate succumbs to the desires ofthe Jewishleaders
18:38;19:4, 6, 12
Pilate declares Jesus innocent
5. JewishLinks with the Devil
John 8:44: "You are of the [= your?] father, the devil, and you want to do the
desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning and did not
stand in the truth, because truth is not in him. Whenever he speaks the lie, he
speaks ofhis own [voice, nature, native language], becausehe is a liar and the
father of it."
6. OccasionalPositive Portrayals
7:15; 10:24; 11:26-27
neutral or positive stance towardJesus
3:1-15; 7:50-52;19:39
Nicodemus seeksJesus,defends Jesus, helps bury him
7. Possible HistoricalSetting for the Compositionof John's Gospel
It is commonly suggestedthat John's Gospelwas composedduring a period of
intense Jewish/JewishChristian conflict, perhaps shortly after the Jewish-
Christian community was expelled from the synagogue,ata time when the
synagogue community itself was struggling for its identity in the aftermath of
the temple's destruction in 70 CE. If so, John's Gospelmay afford glimpses
not only into the Jewishcultural milieu in which Jesus ministered, but also
into the Jewish-Christianconflicts of a later period.
How much does John's accounttell us about the historicalJesus, his teachings
and conflicts? Is Hays justified in claiming that "Jesus''revelationdiscourses'
should be read less as reports of what Jesus saidonce upon a time than as
prophetic-theologicalcommentarydirected to readers of the evangelist's own
time" (MVNT 425)?

Has the author's historical context shapedthe language ofsynagogue
expulsion in John 9:22; 12:42;16:2?
Do Jesus'teachings in John reflectthe language and dynamics of a
synagogue/churchdispute and its aftermath? Does Johnreveala church
seeking to establishits identity now that it is cut off from its Jewishroots?
Hays: "we see the struggle for ownershipof the tradition" (MVNT 425)
Does a dual setting help to explain aspects ofJohn's Gospel?
the book's polemicaltone (written in midst of heated debate, when the church
felt its existence threatened)
the Christologicalfocus (Jesus'identity would be at the heart of the debate)
the dualistic framework (battle lines are rarely blurry)
the alleged"anti-Judaism" of John's Gospel
Does John's polemicalrhetoric read like an in-house prophetic critique (cf.
Israel's OT prophets) or an extramural (outsider's) denunciation?
Further reflections on "the Jews" in John's Gospel
the author of John knows very well that Jesus and the earliestfollowers were
Jewish, and that salvationis essentiallyJewish:1:41, 45, 49; 4:9, 22; 3:1
sometimes the Jews did respond positively to Jesus (11:36, 45;12:9?), though
more often the believing masses are calledthe multitudes (6:2, 5, 24; 7:31, 32,
40, 49; 11:42;12:9, 12-13, 17-18)
sometimes the Jews and the Phariseesseemto function synonymously;
elsewhere the Jews may stand for the priestly classes. All this suggeststhe
Jews refers principally (though not exclusively) to members of the
establishment / leadership/ heirarchy / power-wielding classes. It is well
establishedfrom the Synoptic tradition that the Pharisees were Jesus'

principal sparring partners during his ministry, and that the priests were
instrumental in his death.
the Pharisees
the Jews
the chief priests
7:32
7:35
8:13 (& 19)
8:22
9:13-16, 40
9:18, 22
18:3

18:12
19:7
19:6
19:14
19:15
but Jews are not always equated with Pharisees:contrastJohn 11:45 and
11:46, and note how Nicodemus is described ("a man of the Pharisees, a ruler
of the Jews")
John links the death of Jesus most directly to Pilate and the Roman guard:
19:14-24
the rare use of Sadducees, priests, scribes, Zealotsand Herodians in John may
suggestthat by the time he wrote (late first c.) these designations had largely
ceasedto be meaningful, and that those formerly calledPharisees were
becoming the principle shapers of what would become the dominant form of
Judaism

Matthew
Mark
Luke
John
the Jews (plural)
5
6
5
67
Pharisees
30
12

27
19/20
Sadducees
7
1
1
---
priests
3
2
5

1
high priest
25
22
15
21 (14 in Jn 18-19)
scribes
23
21
14
(1) (Jn 8:3)
Zealots

---
---
1
---
Herodians
1
2
---
---
it is highly unlikely that John meant the Jews as anethnic slur, and unlikely
that his first readers took it as a sweeping denunciation of all descendants of
Jacob. More likelythe term was loose designationforJesus'opponents--those
who rejectedhim and his message, part of the world--especiallybut not
exclusively the nation's (priestly and lay) leaders

it is very difficult to read John today without importing later developments,
enmity, and Christian oppressionof Jews back into the narrative, but it must
be attempted.
JewishChristians saw themselves as insiders who were being forced out; now
the church (and Jews as well) sees Christianity as thoroughly distinct--a
separate religion
JewishChristians saw themselves as a persecutedminority; in subsequent
years, the church was often the persecuting majority
John could used Jew and Judaism without implying anti-Semitism, and
without commending hostility; today any theologicalcritique of the Jewish
religion is likely to be heard as an ethnic critique of the Jewishrace
https://www.westmont.edu/~fisk/Lecture%20Outlines/Anti-
JudaismInJohnAndJohn8.htm
Can you help me understand aspects ofJohn 8?
July 22, 2019 3:58 AM Subscribe
In a short story, I want some weird people to have John 8:44 on a placard on
their door. But reading up on it, I fear there's no wayto use it that won't have
an (unintended) antisemitic castto it. But then again, I'm not religious. Can
you help me understand John 8 and formulate 8:44 so it's not icky? More
below the fold.
John 8:44 reads:"When he lies, he speaks outof his own character, for he is a
liar and the father of liars."

Idiotically, I sort of wrote a story around this verse without looking up the
context carefully. In the story, it highlights the theme of the difficulties of a
honest life in times that require it. If that makes sense.
Before today, what I knew of the verse is that it's Christ speaking to a bunch
of people who don't believe his teachings, and he's telling them that they can't
be receptive to his teachings because they live in a societythat is
fundamentally dishonest, they are enslaved but don't know they are because
of the lies they believe in.
Today I started reading more and see that in John 8 Christ is talking to a
bunch of Jews who are sort of messing with him? Okay, whoops.
What I want to know, what is Christ talking about in terms of the lies that the
Jewishpeople believe in that preclude their belief in his teachings? To put it in
an ignorant way, is he referring to an aspectof the Jewishfaith that would
therefore render John 8:44 insulting to anybody of the Jewishfaith?
THANK YOU and sorry for being such a heathen
posted by angrycatto Religion& Philosophy (10 answers total)2 users
marked this as a favorite
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 speaketha lie, he speakethofhis own: for he is a
liar, and the father of it.

Christ is speaking symbolicallyand the Jews he is addressing are interpreting
things literally. They were proud of their heritage descendedfrom Abraham.
Christ is saying if they were truly Abraham's children, from a symbolic or
spiritual perspective, they would believe what he was teaching. Since they are
not believing, their father spiritually is the devil.
Depending on the specifics ofyour story, I rather doubt you would be able to
avoid a tinge of antisemitism at best.
posted by ericales at4:22 AM on July 22
The shooterat the Pittsburgh synagogue had the first part of John 8:44 in his
socialmedia profile, and Jesus talking to the Pharisees in JKohn 8 has been
the subjectof a lot of heated researchaboutantisemitism by Biblical scholars
(source:I gotmost of the way through an MA in early Judeo-Christian
relations).
I really don't think you're going to getawayfrom an anti-Semitic
connotations, here, for anyone who knows John.
posted by flibbertigibbet at 4:27 AM on July 22 [6 favorites]
My interpretation is that Jesus is trying to reach the Jews he is preaching to;
to (re-) awakentheir spirituality. They are resistantto his message,claiming

that it contradicts goodJewishteaching. He scoffs atthe notion that they are
goodJews as he is trying to show them that they mostly ignore the Law.
Insulting? Possibly; at the very leastit’s a hard teaching.
posted by coldhotelat 4:28 AM on July 22 [1 favorite]
OH SHIT the Pittsburgh shooterhad it in his profile?
OK, I really do hate myself right now.
It's out of the story and I'll turn to a non-Biblical source to make my point
posted by angrycatat 4:54 AM on July 22 [2 favorites]
So to give more context, Jesus spends much of the Gospels debating with the
Jewishestablishmentin this manner. If we posit a historicalJesus, he seems to
be the leaderof some kind of charismatic Jewishreform movement (which
were a dime a dozen in this tumultuous era).
Later, of course, earlyChristianity failed to gain traction in the Jewish
community and became a religiondominated by non-Jews. The gospelofJohn
was written at a time when Christianity was trying to figure out if it was part
of Judaism or not, and this debate is highly visible in the text.

As Christianity becomes anestablished, non-Jewishreligion, the latent proto-
anti-Semitism in the New Testamentis weaponized, and it's never shakenthat
history.
posted by toastedcheeseat5:11 AM on July 22 [10 favorites]
Thanks so much for the context, guys. Reallyappreciate it.
posted by angrycatat 5:24 AM on July 22
If you are interested in some deep exegeticalnerding, here's a bit from a
commentary I have:
44. you are from the devil as father: the only "father" that those who seek to
kill Jesus canclaim is the one who is Cain's father, the devil. Targumic
tradition understood Cain to have been facedwith the choice of mastering the
"evil inclination" within and thereby being righteous or committing sin. 1
John 3:8-12 shows us how this tradition was applied within the Johannine
community. The dualism of being "from God" or "from the devil" is made
evident in a person's deeds. In 1 John the "deed" in question refer to
loving/not loving fellow Christians. Here, the decisive factoris loving/not
loving Jesus (v 42). The [Dead Sea Scrolls]contrastthe "sons of light" who
"walk in God's truth" with the sons of Belial...Itis important for Christians to
recognize that this dualism can be used within Judaism itself to separate those
who walk according to God's law from those who are sinners. 1 John adapts it
from generalethicalexhortation among Christians to meet the situation in

which Christians were divided among themselves. The farewelldiscourse in
John 14 returns to this theme from the point of view of the disciples who "love
Jesus" andthrough him are brought into a new relationship with the Father.
These statements do not imply divine condemnation of the Jews as a people.
(New Jerome Biblical Commentary, Raymond Brown ed.; internal citations
removed for brevity)
There's plenty here to unpack, but I don't think it lends itself well to a
bumper sticker.
posted by jquinby at 5:59 AM on July 22
I read a book not long ago - I think it was Christ Actually: Reimagining Faith
in the Modern Age - that pointed out that when the gospels were written,
there was horrific persecutionof Jews by the Romans. It was therefore
politically expedient to portray the Jews as againstJesusand responsible for
his death so that the authors would not be perceivedas anti-Roman.
Someone cantell me if I am completelymisremembering this or that there’s
some historic reasonI must have it wrong.
posted by FencingGalat6:23 AM on July 22
It was therefore politically expedient to portray the Jews as againstJesusand
responsible for his death so that the authors would not be perceived as anti-
Roman.

It's a very complicatedsituation (so complicated that I'm sure what I'm about
to say is itself open to considerable dispute/correction). As toastedcheese
points out above, at the time the gospels were being reduced to writing there
was still considerable debate over whether Christianity was a splinter sectof
Judaism (which is how it started) or its own religion. So, to the extent you're
thinking of Jews generallyas a sort of "evil other" onto which events could be
conveniently projected by the authors, it's not quite right. On the other hand,
while the events in the Gospels (supposedly)took place prior to it, they were
being written down after the first Roman-JewishWar, a rebellion in the
Roman province of Judea in 66 AD that led to the famous seconddestruction
of the Temple and the burning of most of Jerusalem. Note that this was not
quite religious persecutionin the sense that we understand it today; the
Romans ruled over groups of many different religions and were (initially)
largely indifferent to the nature of those beliefs to the extent that they didn't
interfere with imperium. However, with religion so closelylinked to ethnic
identity for some groups, if they did rebel, symbols of their religionwould be
attackedas well(and it's not any nicer to have your temple burned or your
high priests executedas a political than as a theologicalmatter). Followers of
Christ, howeverthey regardedthemselves, would presumably have been eager
to avoid implications that he was a criminal in the eyes of the Roman
authorities; easierto castit as a matter of Jewishinfighting (the Pharisees and
Saducees come offbadly throughout).
Anyway, I'd be very careful with texts like these, as uses by later Christian
authorities have inevitably added anti-Semitic connotations evenif initially
they were more about infighting.
posted by praemunire at 8:39 AM on July 22 [1 favorite]

OK, I really do hate myself right now.
Nah, think of it this way. You didn't know anything but had an inkling
something was off, so you askedinsteadof powering through. This is a good
thing; it's why people have sensitivity readers.
I will say, as a generalguideline, if you think "huh, does this old thing seem
vaguely anti-Semitic?" the answeris generally"yes, and when you add in
centuries of interpretation or layers of meaning, there's more anti-Semitic
context than you could possibly imagine". Goes doubly for anything in the
Bible.
(Also he had the "the children of Satan" bit in his profile, not "liars" bit, but
yeah.)
posted by flibbertigibbet at 2:14 PM on July 22 [5 favorites]
https://ask.metafilter.com/335995/Can-you-help-me-understand-aspects-of-
John-8
A Murderer from the Start
“You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires.
He was a murderer from the beginning, and has nothing to do with the truth,
because there is no truth in him” (Jn. 8:44).
- John 8:44
One commentatorhas wiselynoted that we need the TenCommandments as a
guide because ofthe inherent bent of the fallen human heart awayfrom the
kind of life that God expects from all people, not leastthe covenant

community. When it comes to the sixth commandment, the proclivity to sin is
made manifest in many different ways. Suicide, which is self-murder, is
forbidden in the sixth commandment (Ex. 20:13). Unjust wars violate the
commandment againstmurdering innocent life. Criminal negligence that
leads to injury and death also falls within the scope ofthe law againstmurder
(21:28–32). Eventhose attitudes that canlead to murder are prohibited by the
sixth commandment, for the law of God is concernednot only with our
outward actions but with inward purity as well (Matt. 5:21–26). The
commandments are to penetrate deep into the hidden recesses ofour hearts,
so that the Spirit might use these principles to sanctify us.
We must all deal with the reality of inner corruption because our first parents
chose the way of the one who is darkness itself. In today’s passage, we readof
a statementJesus made to some of Israel’s religious leaders in one of the most
theologicallyrich interchanges in the New Testament. Facing those who
sought to kill Him (John 7:25), Jesus tells them that their murderous hatred of
Him is rooted in their family lineage. They are children of the Devil, who has
been “a murderer from the beginning” (8:44). Jesus refers to Satan’s
temptation of Adam and Eve in the garden, which introduced death into the
experience of those who bear God’s image (Gen. 3). Since that day, all people
(except Christ) have entered this world in Adam, who gave up his loving
relationship with the Creatorto partake of the corruption of the Devil.
Abandoning God as our Father, we took Satanas our father in the garden,
and we have been reaping what we sowedeversince.
Like those who opposedJesus, we are born murderers, liars, and thieves,
unable to please Godeven if we never take these evil desires to their most
harmful end. Consequently, we must “become partakers ofthe divine nature”
through faith alone in Christ (2 Peter1:4). Transformedfrom the inside out,
we are enabled by the Holy Spirit to follow His law as we submit to Him.
Coram Deo
Scripture’s emphasis on both the inward attitudes of evil and the outward
deeds of wickedness results in a doctrine of sin that is both robust and
realistic. The problem of sin is rooted within, and it takes an inward cleansing

by the Holy Spirit to release us from the predicament of being in Adam. Let
us rejoice that we have “become partakers ofthe divine nature” by faith and
are therefore able to please Godin what we do and think.
Passages forFurther Study
Psalm37:27–28
Hebrews 2:14–18
https://www.ligonier.org/learn/devotionals/murderer-start/
John 8:44 Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts [desires]of your father
ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth,
Satanis a liar. He speaks through his children.
Acts 5:3 Satan Fills The Hearts Of The DisobedientTo Lie. Keep In Mind
That This Was A Christian
1 Timothy 4:1 Some People Listen To Lying Demons Rather Than Listening
To God.
Revelations 12:9 Satan, That Liar, Deceivesthe Whole World.
Mark 8:33 Satan Spoke ThroughPeterAnd Jesus Said: "GetBehind Me,
Satan"
You belong to your father, the devil ..." (John 8:44-47)

"You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father's
desire. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for
there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is
a liar and the father of lies. Yet because Itell the truth, you do not believe me!
Can any of you prove me guilty of sin? If I am telling the truth, why don't you
believe me? He who belongs to God hears what God says. The reasonyou do
not hear is that you do not belong to God." (John 8:44-47)
Jesus is continuing to severelycriticize the institutional temple Phariseesand
temple officials. He is making a distinction betweenhis teachings and theirs.
What does he mean by their "father, the devil"?
When Jesus says that they belong to their "father, the devil" is he referring to
the devil as a person who is their physical father? Certainly, the Pharisees and
institutional temple priests were not all brothers, so Jesus cannotbe referring
to their physical father. He is using the word "father" - translated* from the
Greek word πατήρ(patēr) - metaphorically to indicate their allegiance.
In the same way, Jesus is not referring to "the devil" as a physical person. He
is using "the devil" metaphorically. So what does Jesus meanby "the devil"
then?
Sectarianteachers have portrayed the devil as being some horned character
who lives underground in caves filled with fire, wearing a red suit and
carrying a pitchfork. They have characterizedthis personas someone who
creeps around, sometimes sitting on our shoulder, trying to convince us to do
bad things and sign his contracts. And we are innocent until the devil coerces
us to do evil: "The devil made me do it."

This is a hypocritical and fanaticalposition. Characterizing this allegorical
charactercalledthe 'devil' in such a way simply allows us to not feel
responsible for our own decisions and actions.
Jesus discusses'the devil's' attributes further. He stated the devil:
"was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no
truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, forhe is a liar and
the father of lies."
So is Jesus saying that a single person is literally the father of lying? That all
lies have been given birth by a single person, the devil? Certainly, again,
Jesus'characterizationis metaphorical. It is not as if there is some personwho
procreatedand produced lying. Are we saying that all the lying we see around
us does not come from liars - that they are innocently being forced to lie by
someone else?
This also goes formurder. Is Jesus saying that every murder is committed by
this single person, the devil, and not by the criminals who are spending time in
jail for their crime?
Avoiding responsibility
To take Jesus'metaphoricaldiscussionto this unreasonable degree literally
not only avoids our responsibility: it also avoids reality. The reality is, those
who commit murder and lie are murderers and liars. These acts are born
from the people who commit those acts. We cannot blame someone else. Cana
murderer go into court and say"the devil made me do it" and be declared
innocent by the court? Certainly not. The court knows the person committed
the crime and the crime came from the person.

What, then, is Jesus referring to as "the devil"? The Greek word being
translated to " the devil" in this verse is διάβολος (diabolos). Diabolos is the
root of our English word diabolical.
Thayer's Greek lexicontranslates διάβολος (diabolos)to mean "prone to
slander, slanderous, accusing falsely." And what makes a person become
prone to slanderand accusing others falsely? It is quite simply, self-
centeredness.
In other words, Jesus is referring to sin as self-centeredness - being diabolical.
Thus sin - being diabolical- self-centeredness - is metaphorically relatedto
"the devil" because self-centerednessis the root of desire, the root of greed,
the rootof envy, the root of murder and the root of lying.
But Jesus'use of a metaphoricaldevil also relates to the consequenceofself-
centeredness -becoming bound within the illusory nature of the physical
world that hides our true nature as a result of our self-centeredness.This
illusory nature of the physical world gives us the facility to express our self-
centeredness.
Jesus is telling them about another consciousness:The consciousnessofloving
and serving the Supreme Being. That is why he is trying to teachthem "the
truth."
Self-centerednessversus love
Self-centerednessmeans to covetone's own selfabove anything else. By being
self-centered, we put ourselves first. While some might think selfishness is

quite innocent, and many self-help gurus like to teach us to "love ourselves,"
loving ourselves is our disease.Loving ourselves above all else results in us
rejecting our relationship with the Supreme Being.
The Supreme Being accommodates ourrejectionof Him by creating the
physical world and these temporary physical bodies to allow us to escapeour
relationship with Him. Our identification with these temporary physical
bodies allows us to forgetthe Supreme Being completely. This also allows us
to deny His very existence. Why?
Becauselove requires the freedom to choose to love or not to love. God
createdus to love and serve Him, but this must be voluntary. And to
accommodate thatfreedom of loving Him or not, there must be a facility to
accommodate the choice not to love Him. That is the physical world and the
illusory nature of the physical world - which deludes us into believing we are
these temporary physical bodies.
To enter God's and Jesus'world requires us to choose to renew our loving
relationship with the Supreme Being. It requires coming to a point where we
realize we are not the centerof the universe. It means we recognize that the
Supreme Being is the center of the universe - and we are not. It means taking
refuge in Him because He is our BestFriend and Soul Mate.
"He who belongs to God"
This is what Jesus is referring to when he says "He who belongs to God." To
belong to God means to take shelter of the Supreme Being. It means to
dedicate ourselves to the Supreme Being. It means to put the Supreme Being
first in our lives. This is the polar opposite of self-centeredness.

As for the mythical 'devil,' we should also clarify that the Supreme Being has
no challenger. Though a personmay be envious of the Supreme Being and
self-centered, God's controlof the physical universe is never threatened by
anyone.
Maintaining a literal definition of the metaphorical'devil' allows us to avoid
our self-centeredness.It allows us to not see any need to change. Mostof us
simply don't want to face that we are the problem. We want to blame someone
else for our self-centeredactivities. Doing this, however, also prevents us from
growing. To grow spiritually requires that we first face the fact that I am my
problem. It is my selfishness thatis causing my emptiness. It is my selfishness
that is causing me to hurt others, lie to others. It is my self-centerednessthat is
keeping me from belonging to God.
Jesus also states that"He who belongs to God hears what God says." He also
says that "The reasonyou do not hear is that you do not belong to God." The
"belonging" referredto here is not a physical relationship of ownership, such
as a dog belonging to a human. It also does not mean to join a particular team
or sect.
To "belong" means to have a certainconsciousness. And what is that
consciousness?It is love for God. It is wanting to please God. A personin a
consciousnessofwanting to please Godwill be listening for God with their
lives. And they will hear God from within.
We might compare this idea of belonging to a basketballplayer who is
standing on the sidelines during a game. If he is dreaming about his girlfriend
in the stands and thinking about their date tonight, he will likely not hear the
coachsay"go in and replace the forward!" His mind is roaming elsewhere.

His head isn't "in the game." Thus he really doesn't belong on the court with
his team at that point. He really belongs in the stands with his girlfriend.
In the same way, if we belong to the Supreme Being, God will be the center of
our lives. We will be wanting to do what pleases the Supreme Being. This is
what Jesus was doing. He wantedto please the Supreme Being:
"By myself I can do nothing; I judge only as I hear, and my judgment is just,
for I seek not to please myself but Him who sentme." (John 5:30)
Jesus pleasedthe Supreme Being with his teachings - which came from the
Supreme Being. This is why he also stated:
“My teaching is not my own. It comes from the One who sent me." (John
7:16)
And what was Jesus'mostimportant teaching?
“ ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your souland with
all your mind.' This is the first and greatestcommandment.” (Matt. 22:37-38)
*Here is the translation of Jesus'statementaccording to the Lost Gospels of
Jesus:
"You follow your lord, the opposerof God, and you want to do what pleases
your lord. He was a slayerfrom the beginning, and does not stand in the truth
because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks falsely, he speaksfrom
his ownnature, for he is a liar and the masterof lies. Yet because I speak the
truth, you do not believe me. Which of you can convictme of sin? If I speak
Truth, why do you not believe me? One who is dedicated to God hears the
words of God. For this reasonyou do not hear them, because youare not
dedicatedto God.” (John 8:44-47)
http://www.whatjesusreallysaid.com/2011/06/you-belong-to-your-father-devil-
and-you.html

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How can Jesus saythat Jews are the children of the devil (John 8:44) and
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In the Gospelof John there are conflicting descriptions of the Jews. For
example: How can Jews be both the children of the devil (John 8:44) and
provide salvation(John 4:22)?:
[Jhn 8:44 ASV] (44) Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your
father it is your will to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and

standeth not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh
a lie, he speakethof his own: for he is a liar, and the father thereof.
[Jhn 4:22 ASV] (22) Ye worship that which ye know not: we worship that
which we know;for salvationis from the Jews.
john jesus contradiction
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Ruminator
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I don’t know if this is significant but the only ones he said were children of the
devil were the Pharisees. – Nihil Sine Deo Jul 10 at 13:54
The scope ofthe sayings are relevant. – Decrypted Jul 11 at 2:02
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"Salvationis from the Jews"doesn'tmean that Jews give salvationto
everyone. The word "from" (εκ) here is used in the sense that salvationarises
from among Jews, andnot the Samaritans, of which this woman He was
speaking with was.
And it's obvious in contextthat the unbelieving from among Christ's fellow
Jews being called sons of the devil refers to their enmity with God and amity
with the devil by said unbelief, not to what it is to be a Jew so that it precludes
salvationarising from one (Christ).
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answeredMay12 at 13:15
Sola Gratia
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Well done - and succinct. +1. – user25930 May12 at 22:10
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What advantage then hath the Jew? or what profit is there of circumcision?
Much in every way! Much every way: chiefly, because thatunto them were
committed the oracles ofGod. Romans 3:1 and 2 KJV.
God had chosena people, in Abraham. He gave them a law. He demonstrated,
in artefactand ritual, the testament yet to come (the New Testamentin the
blood of Christ) in a covenantmade with the children of Isra-el.
Of the Jews, came Christ, himself.
Salvation, indeed, is of the Jews. And to a Samaritan, which people departed
from the accuracyofthat divinely given covenant(and therefore erred in
understanding the New Testament)Jesus says :

Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship: for salvationis of
the Jews. John4:22 KJV.
But of those Jews who did not receive the first covenant in a way of faith
(seeing through it to the New Testament)Paulsays :
For what if some did not believe? shall their unbelief make the faith of God
without effect? Romans 3:3 KJV
For not all of Israelare the true Israel of God.
Not as though the word of God hath takennone effect. For they are not all
Israel, which are of Israel: Romans 9:6 KJV.
And to those who, though rulers among the people, withstood John the
Baptist's ministry of repentance and then further withstoodJesus'ministry,
even to the point of (at the time of the quotation) plotting to murder him, he
says :
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 speaketha lie, he speakethofhis own: for he is a
liar, and the father of it. John 8:44 KJV.
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NigelJ

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In John 8:44, Jesus is not speaking to or of all Jews in general, but specifically
to the Jews that had believed in Him (8:31; RSV, ESV). The Greek word used
here is πεπιστευκότας (pipisteukotas), the perfect participle of the verb
πιστεύω (pisteuō) - believe (or, equivalently, have faith in; there is no
distinction in Greek).
Verse 31 is in contrastto verse 30:
So Jesus said, “When you have lifted up the Son of man, then you will know
that I am he, and that I do nothing on my own authority but speak thus as the
Father taught me. And he who sent me is with me; he has not left me alone,
for I always do what is pleasing to him.” As he spoke thus, many believed in
him (John 8:28-30).
One modern commentary explains here:
In the two verses 30 and 31, in which forms of pistevō, "believe," are found
(the first, epistevsan, aorist, and the second, pepistevkotas, perfectparticiple),

"believed" is the translation of both in the KJV.1 . There seems to be,
however, a subtle difference betweenthem. The first, being an aorist or past,
has to do with the Jews initial reactionto the Lord's words. The second, being
a perfect participle, might better be rendered as "had believed," hinting at a
waverin their belief. This conclusionis supported by the dialogue in the
verses that follow, 33-392
They answeredhim, “We are descendants ofAbraham, and have never been
in bondage to any one. How is it that you say, ‘You will be made free’?” Jesus
answeredthem, “Truly, truly, I say to you, every one who commits sin is a
slave to sin. The slave does not continue in the house for ever; the son
continues for ever. So if the Sonmakes you free, you will be free indeed. I
know that you are descendants of Abraham; yet you seek to kill me, because
my word finds no place in you. I speak of what I have seenwith my Father,
and you do what you have heard from your father.” They answeredhim,
“Abraham is our father.” Jesus saidto them, “If you were Abraham’s
children, you would do what Abraham did
This chastisementcontinues through verse 44.
So here the sequence was that there were some Jews that believed in him
(v.30); Jesus, howeverknew that their hearts had turned to doubting and
sought to bring them back (v. 31); those particular Jews took offense atJesus'
claim that He could make them free (v.32), not understanding that he was
speaking spiritually and not carnally (v.33-36);and so forth. As the
aforementionedcommentary explains:
Those Jews who had some inclination to believe on the Lord because ofHis
words, have now been offended at the intimation that they have need of being
setfree. In their mind, fleshly descentfrom Abraham guaranteedtheir
freedom, at leastof spirit, in spite of their physical enslavements ofthe past.
What they have not understood is that their slaverywas spiritual, because
they had become servants of sin.3
Augustine comments here:

And now what answerdid they give Him? For they begansomewhatto realize
that the Lord was not speaking ofcarnal generation, but of their manner of
life. And because it is the custom of the Scriptures, which they read, to call it,
in a spiritual sense, fornication, when the soulis, as it were, prostituted by
subjection to many false gods, they made this reply: Then said they to Him,
We be not born of fornication; we have one Father, even God. Abraham has
now lost his importance. Forthey were repulsed as they ought to have been by
the truth-speaking mouth; because suchwas Abraham, whose deeds they
failed to imitate, and yet gloried in his lineage. And they alteredtheir reply,
saying, I believe, with themselves, As often as we name Abraham, he goes on
to say to us, Why do ye not imitate him in whose lineage ye glory? Such a
man, so holy, just, and guileless, we cannotimitate. Let us callGod our
Father, and see what he will sayto us.4
1. As he spake these words, many believed on him. Then said Jesus to those
Jews whichbelieved on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my
disciples indeed.
2. Dmitry Royster, The Holy GospelAccording to Saint John: A Pastoral
Commentary (St. Vladimir's Seminary Press, 2015), p.233-34.
3. Ibid., p.235
4. Tractate XLII, Homilies on the Gospelof John
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user33515
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Jesus cannotbe meaning "all Jews" whenhe speaks of"Jews"in these
quotes, because Jesus washimself both Jewishand not a "child of the devil",
neither was he claiming that eachone of his Jewishbelievers were diabolically
born in nature.
So he is speaking non-literally and/or non-specificallyin your first quote -
either that some specific Jews (but not all) are literally "children of the devil",
or that some (but not all) Jews are poor or bad in their behaviour/faith/belief
and the phrase is used for emphasis/effectratherthan literality.
This doesn't conflict with your secondquote, which asserts that salvation
arises from within the Jewishpeople (which has at leasttwo plain readings) -
because that is the People to whom God revealedthe divine presence and
some of his nature, or because that is the People from whom and within whom
Jesus was born on earth.
It is a truism that in principle, Judaism - even in Roman times - demands
higher standards and sets more demands on its own people (many laws)than
on others (just 7 Noachic laws). We see that Jesus was consistentlyfar more

critical and much harsher towards those given laws who breachedthem (e.g.
money changers and hypocrites)than those not directly shown such laws (non
Jewishpeoples). In that context, a harsh condemnation of the lack of required
conduct/belief and hypocrisy by some in the Jewishcommunity, especially
those in authority who should lead by example, is indeed expected, and should
not surprise us. They are led astray, which is one way that the expression
"child of <whatever>" is used in those times. (Interestingly we still use the
expressions suchas "Sisterof Mercy" or "sonof a bitch" even in modern
times in a similar way, to emphatically describe others' conduct as a
relationship to some principle - mercy, godliness, orsubhumanity). But being
led astrayand acting poorly without faith and belief, does not mean that
salvationcannot arise there, and take root, as shown by Jesus himself and
many of those who followedHim.
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It is necessaryto remember that the English “Jew” is of late innovation, from
French, and subject to imprecision. The Greek Ioudaios means “Judean”, and
historically, the descendants of those who returned from Babylonian exile: of
Judah, Benjamin,and Levites. The idea of “10 losttribes” militates againstthe
idea that Ioudaios refers to all Jacob’s descendants. (I will here detain my
fingers from creeping the OP’s query.)
Wiki Jew describes fairly well the issue I raise. This article from a modern
Jewishperspective also gives us reasonto ponder "Jew". DidJesus say,
rather, that "Salvationis of the Judeans"? Here in the past few days, we have
politician saying that Jesus was nota Jew but a "Palestinian",introducing
two anachronistic terms at once!I've noticed anti-Jewish"christian" websites
will sometimes offerarticles along the same lines, that "Jesuswas not a Jew",
basedvery looselyon the problem of the inventive, and late, English word
"Jew". The topic should be treated more seriouslythan many commenters
have done. It is akin, though maybe less serious, than the error of translating
YHWH as "the Lord/LORD" in English translations, in deference to the
MasoretesandPharisees who REJECTEDthe Lord Jesus to begin with!
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Richard7
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I think you are on the right track with the referent of Judean but you seemto
be more exploring the issue than coming to a conclusion. Am I correctabout
that? – Ruminator Jul 10 at 13:11
Yes. My original post lackedsupporting info and I wanted to provide that. It
is a big topic. – Richard7 Jul 12 at 15:59
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In John 4 Jesus is speaking with a Samaritan womanso it appears that he's
distinguishing her ethnic, northern tribe, northern kingdom, northern temple,
northern capital from the Judeans, ethnically Jewish, southerntribes,
southern kingdom, southern capital, southern temple, etc.. Jesus
unapologeticallysides with the Judeans because the northern kingdoms were
not in covenantand their temple was not authorized by God.
[Jhn 4:22 ASV] Ye worship that which ye know not: we worship that which
we know; for salvation is from the Jews.
In John 8 Jesus is speaking with the Judeanleaders. Jesus compares them to
Cain who in tradition is the spawn of Satan:

Rabbinical Literature: ...Cainwas also viewedas a type of utter perverseness,
an offspring of Satan(Pirḳe R. El. xxi.), "a son of wrath" (Apoc. Mosis, 3), a
lawless rebelwho said, "There is neither a divine judgment nor a judge"
(Midr. Leḳaḥ Ṭoband Targ. Yer. to Gen. iv. 8), whose words of repentance
were insincere (Sanh. 101b; Tan.), whose fleeing from God was a denial of His
omnipresence (Gen. R. xxii.), and whose punishment was of an extraordinary
character:for every hundred years of the sevenhundred years he was to live
was to inflict another punishment upon him; and all his generations must be
exterminated (Test. Patr., Benjamin, 7, according to Gen. iv. 24; Enoch, xxii,
7). For him and his race shall everbe "the desire of the spirit of sin" (Gen. R.
xx., after Gen. iv. 7). He is the first of those who have no share in the world to
come (Ab. R. N. xli., ed. Schechter, p. 133).
[Jhn 8:44 ASV] Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father it
is your will to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and standeth not in
the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketha lie, he
speakethofhis own: for he is a liar, and the father thereof.
Cain was a murderer and lied by denying that he knew his brother's
whereabouts. I don't know that he was suggesting physicallineage but rather
who they served.
https://hermeneutics.stackexchange.com/questions/40641/how-can-jesus-say-
that-jews-are-the-children-of-the-devil-john-844-and-provid
The ReverendGaribaldi McFlurry
Sermons, book reviewsandrandomness fromthe ReverendGaribaldi
McFlurry.
Monday, November01, 2010
Sermon: John 8:31-47 The Truth About the Father of Lies

Freedom!It’s the cry that stirs millions of hearts, has inspired stories, movies,
revolutions and resistance the world over. Whether it’s William Wallace,
stirring the Scottishtroops before attacking the evil English in Braveheart;or
the delight of the USA - the land of the free and the home of the brave.
Everyone wants to be free; free to do what they want when they want -
perhaps especiallyit’s what the teenagersare seeking as they push boundaries
at home (ironically, in seeking to be free and different, they all end up looking
exactly the same!).
For a people who have been enslavedfor centuries, freedom is a big deal. Just
think of the joy of the people of Israelas they left Egypt at Passover;or more
recently, those newly independent states in EasternEurope after the fall of
communism. Freedomis something to celebrate. How sad, then, if some
people don’t even realise that they are in slavery.
To groan under the oppressionof slavery is one thing, but to not even know
that you’re a slave is quite astonishing. Yet that’s exactly the state of the
people speaking with Jesus in our reading from John 8 tonight. Jesus is
speaking with Jews in Jerusalem, during one of the feasts ofthe Jews, the
feastof Booths (when everyone made themselves booths/shelters to remember
the time of wandering in the wilderness).
Jesus says to these Jews, who have believed in him (to some extent): ‘If you
abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth,
and the truth will set you free.’ Jesus’word is truth, and the truth sets people
free. Yet on hearing of this release, they immediately protestthat they have
never been enslavedto anyone! To their mind, they are free as a bird!

But look at what Jesus says to them in reply: ‘everyone who commits sin is a
slave to sin.’ Completely unbeknown to us, as we sin, we become enslavedto
sin itself. Sin continues and multiplies, and comes to rule over us, leading us to
more sin, further sin, deeper sin. So even though these Jews never realised
they were in slavery, Jesus is saying that they are definitely slaves, needing to
be freed.
It’s not just the Jews who didn’t realise they were in slavery. Perhaps you
yourself are also in unseenchains, presenting your body as slaves to impurity
and to lawlessness(Rom6:16,19). You don’t realise your position. Yet Jesus
offers freedom, even tonight.
As Jesus goes onto debate with these Jews (who are getting more irate by the
minute), he links this slaveryto sin with the idea of sonship. Do you see the
contrastin verse 38 (which is the first hint of it): ‘I speak ofwhat I have seen
with my Father, and you do what you have heard from your father.’ Jesus’
Father is not their father - and eachact according to who their father is.
This is shocking stuff! These were religious Jews, people who attended
synagogue, who had travelled to Jerusalemfor this specialoccasion, this feast,
yet Jesus is exploding the idea that his Father is their father. Just stop for a
moment and think about it. If you were to ask people on the street if God was
their father, most people are likely to think that he is, no matter what their
connectionto God is. Even more so in a church connection. But Jesus is
asking them (and us) to be sure of who our father really is.
These Jews are convincedthat they are Abraham’s children. We see this in
verse 33 - ‘We are offspring of Abraham’, and again in verse 39 ‘Abraham is
our father.’ They’re identifying themselves with Abraham, the father of the

people of promise. While this is true in a biologicalsense (they could trace
their family tree back to Abraham) yet Jesus insists that they’re not really
true children of Abraham, because they aren’t doing what Abraham did.
Abraham heard God’s word and obeyed it. You remember in Genesis 12
where God tells Abraham to leave his father’s house and homeland, and go to
a land God will give him. What happens? Abraham goes. Abraham receives
the promise of offspring, numerous descendants like the stars or the sand, and
(despite a wee wobble when Ishmael is produced through Sarah’s
intervention...) Abraham believes God and obeys.
Yet here, Jesus is revealing God to them, speaking the very words of God, and
they want to kill him! They’re not doing what Abraham did.
Similarly, in verse 41, they claim to have one Father - even God. They claim
that God is their Father, but again, Jesus says that simply isn’t true, because
Jesus has come from the Father, so if they were of God, they would love Jesus,
they would welcome him and his words. But again, they’re rejecting Jesus.
We sometimes see this today, don’t we? People who think that God is their
Father, and yet they reject Jesus. Theythink they don’t need him, don’t need
to hear his teaching. But if they are truly of God, then they will receive Jesus
and his words.
So Jesus has exposedthe false beliefs of these Jews, thatAbraham is their
father, and behind that, that God is their Father. Yet Jesus is still pushing the
idea that someone is their father. Look at the start of verse 41. ‘You are doing
the works your father did.’ Your father. And who is their father? Who is the
one who has enslavedthem, ruling over them, leading and guiding them?

‘You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires.’
(44) Do you get what Jesus is saying to these religious Jews? And not only to
them, but to everyone who isn’t a Christian, no matter how decentor nice or
goodthey may appear. Your father is the devil.
Jesus goeson to sketchout just who their father is in a bit more detail. It’s for
this reasonthat we’re thinking about it tonight, on this night in the year when
people willingly are open to the influence of evil, when kids are encouragedto
dress up and think about evil spirits.
Just who is the devil, our enemy? What are his desires that Jesus speaks of?
‘He was a murderer from the beginning’. Satan, the devil, appears to have
been one of the angels of God. But he sethimself up in oppositionto God,
wanting the praise of heaven for himself. And so the warhas ragedfrom that
day to this, the devil opposing God, seeking to destroy and defile God’s good
creation.
If God is the giver of life and all goodthings, then the devil seeksto do the
opposite - to kill and murder and destroy. He led Adam and Eve astray, in
effectmurdering them, killing them through their slavery to sin. He continues
to destroy lives, families, nations.
Similarly, just as God is just and true and right and good, the devil ‘has
nothing to do with the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he
speaks outof his own character, forhe is a liar and the father of lies.’Just
think of some of the lies the devil tells people - there’s no such thing as God;
there’s no such thing as the devil; hell is just a thing to joke about; there’s no
judgement and no consequences;sin is a goodthing; just seek yourown
pleasure;you’ll never be found out.

The light of Christ shines in the darkness and points out exactly what the devil
is like. His lies lead people astray, they enslave people to serve sin and himself.
In contrast, Jesus, the Son of God, is the one who came from Godand was
sent by the Father(v42), who tells the truth (v46), who reveals what God is
like (v40), and who sets people free (v36). He did this ultimately in his cross
and resurrection, when the powers of evil did their worst, killing the Son, but
God the Father raised him from death, setting him high over all as King.
It’s one of the greatcontrasts running through John’s Gospel - betweenlight
and darkness, betweenthose who believe and those who don’t; betweenthose
who receive Jesus and those who rejectJesus;betweenfreedom and slavery;
betweenlife and death; betweenthose who serve God, and those who serve the
devil.
The question is - which are we? Which are you? Or as the passage tonight
asks - who is your father? Are you linked up to the devil, serving him,
following his example of murder and lying? Or are you a child of God
through adoption?
The goodnews is that Jesus, the Son of God, through his death and
resurrection, offers us adoption into the family of God - being removed (as it
were)from the abusive parent, our father the devil; being adopted by God the
heavenly Father, so that we can callhim our Father. We receive eternallife as
we believe in Jesus.
We canbe confident of our future in the family of God. Yet we’re aware that
Satanstill prowls around (as Peterputs it) like a roaring lion seeking someone

to devour. Peterurges us to resisthim - Jesus has defeatedSatan through the
cross, and will finally defeathim when he returns on the last day. We know
how it ends already - it’s as if we have seenthe score before watching the
highlights on TV.
In Jesus, we have the victory. We are truly free - now from the penalty of sin
and the power of sin, and when Jesus returns, from the presence ofsin. Free
indeed!
This sermon was preachedin St Elizabeth's Church, Dundonald on Sunday
evening 31stOctober2010.
Is Jesus'statementthat Satanis the father of the Jews anti-Jewish?
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“Abraham is our father,” they answered.

“If you were Abraham’s children,” said Jesus, “thenyou would do what
Abraham did. As it is, you are looking for a way to kill me, a man who has
told you the truth that I heard from God. Abraham did not do such things.
You are doing the works of your own father.”
“We are not illegitimate children,” they protested. “The only Father we have
is God himself.”
Jesus saidto them, “If Godwere your Father, you would love me, for I have
come here from God. I have not come on my own; God sent me. Why is my
language not clearto you? Because youare unable to hear what I say. You
belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s
desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for
there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is
a liar and the father of lies. Yet because Itell the truth, you do not believe me!
Can any of you prove me guilty of sin? If I am telling the truth, why don’t you
believe me? Whoever belongs to God hears what God says. The reasonyou do
not hear is that you do not belong to God.” (John 8:39-47, NIV)
In this passageJesusseems to be saying pretty clearly that Satan is the father
of the Jews. Iknow a lot of Christians that love Jews, but this verse seems
pretty anti-Jewish. Is there some wayof understanding this verse to be not
anti-Jewish, or are there Christians that do not acceptthis verse as
authoritative?
exegesissatangospel-of-johnjews
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curiousdannii
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It's simply a matter of recognizing the audience of his speech. In other words,
Jesus wasn'ttalking to all Jews, but specific individuals. Obviously, the
apostles were allJews, and even his mother. He wasn't calling them children
of Satan. I mean, seriously. :) – user900 Dec 5 '14 at 8:19
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'In this passageJesus seems to be saying pretty clearly that Satanis the father
of the Jews.' - Incorrectconclusion. – user13992Dec 5 '14 at 10:26

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question asking reference please seethe Types of questions that are within
community guidelines I hope to see you post againsoon. – fredsbend Dec 5 '14
at 19:07
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"Jesus was Jewish."As were His disciples. Clearly, He is only speaking to a
group of people, all of whom happen to be Jewishat this point. Mostof them
were probably also men. Manhooddoes not make one a sonof the devil either.
– user16825Dec 5 '14 at 21:43
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I am giving you +1 because it is a passage thatneeds explaining and you
spotted it. But, Muslims also calls Abraham their father (and they try to kill
Jews). Claiming Abraham has never been enoughto make one Jewish. In this
Jesus is in keeping with the Old Testamentespeciallythe Prophets.
Remember Jesus preached'conversion'to Judaism for Jews who had been
rejectedor were experiencing difficulties. Nothing else. – gideon marx Dec 6
'14 at 6:40
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That is exactly not the point he is trying to make. He is trying to saythat it's
our actions that show whether God or Satanis "our father" in a very
figurative sense. He is saying "You are not the righteous just because you
descendof Abraham, if you not also behave like that". Reversing that to say
Jews are "children of Satan" in generalis basicallythe thing he tries to refute
here, in reverse.
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answeredDec 5 '14 at 9:05
kutschkem
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Is there some way of understanding this verse to be not anti-Jewish, orare
there Christians that do not acceptthis verse as authoritative?
The particular Jews that Jesus was speaking to were plotting to kill him. Jesus
was pointing out that their claim to Abraham may have had a biologicalbasis,
but that their actions were contraryto what Abraham would have done. Jesus
was in essencetelling them that they have no legitimate claim to Abraham
since their actions denied him.
John 8:37-39 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 seenwith my
Father: and ye do that which ye have seenwith your father. 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.
This particular group of Jews then raised the stakes. Jesus implies that their
"father" is not Abraham but someone else. Theythen turn this insult back on
Jesus (maybe implying illegitimacy regarding his birth). They then declare
God as their father.
John 8:40-41 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. Then said they to him, We be not born of fornication; we have one
Father, even God.
Jesus completes his explanation of why this group of Jews is unable to accept
him. It is because they are in alignment with one who is hostile to God. They
have come to a point where their connectionto Abraham and God is of none
effect.
John 8:42-44 Jesus saidunto them, If God were your Father, ye would love
me: for I proceededforth and came from God; neither came I of myself, but
he sent me. Why do ye not understand my speech? evenbecause ye cannot
hear my word. 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,

What a powerful warning this is for us. This particular group of Jews had
come to a point where everything they did was contrary to what a Jew was
supposedto do. They had in effectmade themselves non-Jews by accepting a
different "father".
Jesus is not calling all Jews "ofthe devil". He is telling those Jews who are
trying to figure out a wayto kill him that their opposition to him is because
they have adopted a different "father".
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timf
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Jesus was talking to a subsetof people who were Jewish. Abraham was, in
fact, their father/ancestor. However, being Jewishwas not merely physical.

They were God's covenantpeople. In this covenant, God obligatedHimself to
various things, but they were also obligatedto various things as well. Also, a
Jew who did not worship God and God alone was to be cut off from his
people.
The Jews Jesuswas speakingto in this particular passagewere not
worshiping God and God alone. In fact, Jesus, the EternalSon, was standing
before them, and they rejectedHim. There is not much more they could do to
completely rejectGod.
However, there were other Jews to whom He gave incredible praise. John the
Baptist was one of them. In fact, when Jesus taught His disciples to pray, He
instructed them to address God as "Father".
So, the Jews who rejectedJesus hadrejectedGod's covenantwith Abraham
and, though, they were physically of Abraham, God was no longertheir God
or Father. Yet, to the Jews who believed in Him, He affirmed that God was
their father.
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Narnian
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@Narnian. How were the Jews to know Jesus was the 'Eternal Son'? You
cannot let this answerstand as it is without an explanation. One can see how
John struggles to give a logicalexplanation. He has Jesus revertto the non
argument methods of the Greeks like Plato with his cave - 'I know - you do
not, therefore I win' - instead of following the Jewishmethod of arguing we
see in Matthew. You do the same. No good. Prove Jesus was the Eternal Son
through logic to justify your 'in fact'. Or state in your that you as a person or
your denomination or group hold this as a belief. – gideon marx Dec 6 '14 at
6:58
@gideonmarxHow were the Jews supposedto know Jesus was God, the
eternal Son? Well, perhaps their theologywas incomplete, was to know Jesus
was the Messiahand God in the flesh was wellprophesied. Jesus also affirmed
that if they loved God, they would love Him as well. So, evidence was not the
issue. They rejectedMoses andthe prophets as well, so rejecting Jesus was
par for the course, despite the evidence. – Narnian Dec 8 '14 at 13:12
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No, God is no respecterofpersons (Acts 10:34)
"But, in every nation whoeverfears Him and works righteousnessis accepted
by Him." (Acts 10:35)

Jesus was not speaking aboutJews as a nation, but specificallyto the audience
in-front of Him. They have hardened their hearts againstthe Holy Spirit and
were working againstGod.
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Beestocks
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Jesus was himself a Jew therefore I am perplexed by your question. Jesus was
not a racist, what that passage is intended to convey is that:
Genesis 15:4through6 NKJV And behold, the word of the LORD came to
him, saying, "This one shall not be your heir, but one who will come from
your own body shall be your heir." 5 Then He brought him outside and said,
"Look now toward heaven, and count the stars if you are able to number

them." And He saidto him, "So shall your descendants be." 6 And he believed
in the LORD, and He accountedit to him for righteousness.
and even though they were speaking with one who spoke with the authority of
God they still did not believe, and were therefore unrighteous.
The keyto understanding this passage lies in:
John 8:37 through 40 NKJV "I know that you are Abraham's descendants,
but you seek to kill Me, because My word has no place in you. 38 I speak what
I have seenwith My Father, and you do what you have seenwith your
father." 39 They answeredand said to Him, "Abraham is our father." Jesus
said to them, "If you were Abraham's children, you would do the works of
Abraham. 40 But now you seek to kill Me, a Man who has told you the truth
which I heard from God. Abraham did not do this.
The 'Old Timers' of my youth used to quote these Scriptures when they used
the term "Like father like son".
https://christianity.stackexchange.com/questions/35154/is-jesus-statement-
that-satan-is-the-father-of-the-jews-anti-jewish

Jesus was a devil defamer

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