“A JOURNEY THROUGH THE GOSPEL OF JOHN” St. John 8: 33 – 59

Christ, The Great Illuminator of the World

As we come to the concluding verses (v. 33-59) of this grand 8^th chapter of St. John, Jesus is still debating among the Jewish authorities and defending His claim that He is Deity and that His origin is from heaven.  Christ had just uttered emphatically in verse 32, that: “And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”  Having enunciated these words, the Jewish authorities replied by saying: “We be Abraham’s seed, and were never in bondage to any man: how sayest thou, ye shall be made free?”  Yet, the arrogant reply of these Jews was simply not accurate.  In fact, scripture records that for 430 years that they were under the vile and cruel bondage of Egypt (Exodus Chapter 2).  Also, they were in servitude seven times during the period of the Judges; and also, they were in captivity to Babylon for seventy years.  At the present, they were under the dominant heel of Rome.  So to say that they had not experienced bondage was completely inaccurate.  Yet our Lord was speaking of them being in spiritual bondage, for any man outside of Christ is in spiritual bondage, indeed!

Christ went on to utter in verse 34, that: “Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin.”  Christ is declaring that the life of an unregenerate man is a life of unbroken practice of sin; and the fact that these Jews were the physical seed of Abraham served as no exception.  The fact that in verse 35 that these Jews were physical descendants of Abraham gave them no special position to receive the blessings of being spiritual children of Abraham.  As verse 36 says – The Son is the only One to free one who is a bond slave of sin.  He is completely competent to emancipate those who are under the dominance of sin and Satan.

During His early ministry among men, Christ stated that it was central that He came to set men free, for St. Luke 4:18, says: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because He hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; He hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised.”  These Jews were indeed the seed of Abraham as verse 37 states, but they manifested no evidence of being children of Abraham through faith in Jesus Christ because of their hatred of Christ.  Christ utters in verse 38 that the doctrine that He taught was what He received from the Father and that their actions revealed who their father was – the devil.

In verse 39, the self-righteousness of these Jews was evident, and mainly proved that the natural man (unsaved man) will persist that morally is he righteous.  Abraham is the Father to those who believe (Romans 4:11).  They were indeed the seed of Abraham but not the children of Abraham.  Being a natural descendant of Abraham does not advance one into being a child of Abraham.  It is fairly evident that these Jews were not children of Abraham because of their murderous plot and scheme to kill Jesus (v. 40).  In verse 41, the Jews’ claimed that they were legitimate descendants of Abraham and that God was their Father.  Although these Jews boasted that God was their Father, yet they manifested no evidence of it because they rejected the Son (v. 42).  The Jews did not respond to Christ, not because of their intellectual ability, but because they didn’t receive the word (v. 43).  Christ had uttered the fact that these Jewish authorities were not children of Abraham and that their Father was the devil; now, He declares really who their Father was – the devil (v. 44).

Because the Jews continued to reject Christ, the Truth (v. 45), Jesus said in verse 46: “Which of you convinceth me of sin?  And if I say the truth, why do ye not believe me?”  Christ went on to say that these Jews were not God’s own because they had not received the word (v. 47).  Having stated that they were not children of Abraham (v. 39), and that the devil was their Father (v. 44), the Jews resorted to defaming Christ’s person through name-calling (v. 48).  Christ uttered the truth about the Jewish leaders, and thus by telling the truth, He was honoring His Father because He did not come to exalt Himself (v. 49, 50).  Having stated that those who reject His word will be judged (v. 50), Christ utters a wonderful promise when He said – “Verily, verily, I say unto you, If a man keep my saying, he shall never see death” (v. 51).

Those who receive Christ will never spend eternity apart from Him!   Having no capacity for spiritual things, these Jews could not discern the profound import of Christ’s words (v. 52, 53).  Christ went on to say that He received the esteem of the Father, yet they claimed that they knew Him, but didn’t (v, 54, 55).  Abraham, the great progenitor of the Jews, rejoiced in the day of Christ’s incarnation, which culminated in His death on the cross to address the sin issue, and His resultant resurrection when He was vindicated as the Son of God (v. 56).  The Jews in verse 57 evidenced their thorough blindness because they could not grasp Christ’s words.  In verse 58, Christ affirmed His absolute Deity by uttering this great “I Am” statement, when He said: “Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am.”  Of course, His mighty claim resulted in the Jews being offended, for they understood that His claim meant that He was referring to Himself as Yahweh of the O.T.  Certainly, His claim led to a crisis, and when one rejects Christ – “he will die in his sins (v. 21, 24).  May God bless!