You are currently browsing the daily archive for October 8, 2011.
None of John 8 is in the three-year Lectionary used for public worship. This is lamentable: this chapter include two of Jesus’s most famous sayings, still used today in conversation — even by secularists.
More importantly, John 8 illustrates unbelief, the seeds of belief and the promises our Lord gives to those who are sanctified in the fullness of faith. These are lessons all of us need to be reminded of and pass on to our children as well as adults who wish to know more about the Christian faith.
John 8′s exclusion from the Lectionary qualifies it for my ongoing series, Forbidden Bible Verses, also essential for our understanding of Scripture.
Today’s reading is taken from the King James Version with commentary by Matthew Henry.
31Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed;
32And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.
33They answered him, We be Abraham’s seed, and were never in bondage to any man: how sayest thou, Ye shall be made free?
34Jesus answered them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin.
35And the servant abideth not in the house for ever: but the Son abideth ever.
36If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.
37I know that ye are Abraham’s seed; but ye seek to kill me, because my word hath no place in you.
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In last week’s post we read John 8:29-30:
29And he that sent me is with me: the Father hath not left me alone; for I do always those things that please him.
30As he spake these words, many believed on him.
If you haven’t yet read this post, it would be helpful to do so before proceeding with this one. Last week’s entry explains much about unbelief and what makes it the most serious sin of all.
Continuing with this week’s verses, we are still in the Court of the Women at the temple in Jerusalem. This is where the temple treasury is located. The Pharisees have already challenged Jesus about the adulteress and accused Him of lying about Himself. He then tells them they know neither Him nor God the Father, whom they claim to love and honour.
So, today we continue the narrative about those in the crowd overhearing this discourse. A number of them are beginning to realise just who Jesus is — their anticipated Lord and Saviour. However, because their faith is just coming to them, it is an underdeveloped, imperfect one. They have some way to go before they can fully absorb and appreciate what they are hearing.
In verse 31, Jesus says to these new believers that if they continue to believe in Him, then they are truly His followers, His students — His disciples. But, notice the word ‘continue’. This isn’t a matter of answering an altar call, making a brief profession through prayer, forgetting about it sometime later and still thinking that one is saved. No — Jesus calls these Jews and us to continue in the walk of faith, towards sanctification, towards bearing the fruits of faith which St James refers to in his Epistle as ‘works’ — spontaneous acts. Works without faith are nothing. Faith without works is dead faith. In either case, there can be no salvation. Hence, Jesus’s call to continue in His word.
The words of the Bible should fit a Christian as would a second skin. We should study and examine it so that we feel completely comfortable with it. The Bible has the answers we need to become adopted sons of God and share eternal life with Him.
Jesus expresses this natural outcome is verse 32 with those immortal words:
And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.
Christians, those sincere believers, will know the eternal truth. That truth will bring them to eternal life — a complete freedom from sin. This is what ‘free’ refers to in this sentence. It is unrelated to social justice or freedom from earthly oppresive situations. It is a liberation not only from the 613 Mosaic laws of the Jewish faith but also from the bondage of sin.
Matthew Henry explains (emphases mine):
Justification makes us free from the guilt of sin, by which we were bound over to the judgment of God, and bound under amazing fears; sanctification makes us free from the bondage of corruption, by which we were restrained from that service which is perfect freedom, and constrained to that which is perfect slavery. Gospel truth frees us from the yoke of the ceremonial law, and the more grievous burdens of the traditions of the elders. It makes us free from our spiritual enemies, free in the service of God, free to the privileges of sons, and free of the Jerusalem which is from above, which is free. Secondly, The knowing, entertaining, and believing, of this truth does actually make us free, free from prejudices, mistakes, and false notions, than which nothing more enslaves and entangles the soul, free from the dominion of lust and passion; and restores the soul to the government of itself, by reducing it into obedience to its Creator. The mind, by admitting the truth of Christ in the light and power, is vastly enlarged, and has scope and compass given it, is greatly elevated and raised above things of sense, and never acts with so true a liberty as when it acts under a divine command, 2 Co. 3:17. The enemies of Christianity pretend to free thinking, whereas really those are the freest reasonings that are guided by faith, and those are men of free thought whose thoughts are captivated and brought into obedience to Christ.
Jesus has been gracious in acknowledging His new disciples. One of us might well have passed them by, but He came to save and ignored no one who came to faith. However, as we have seen throughout our study of John’s Gospel, from Nicodemus to this group which gathered after the Feast of Tabernacles, someone always objects to His words.
And so it is in verse 33. Bible scholars differ in interpretation of ‘they’ at the beginning of the sentence. Some think this comes from the new converts. Others, like Matthew Henry, lean towards an interpretation that the objection comes from the Pharisees. In any event — and incredibly — they say that as Abraham’s sons they were never slaves. Yet, we all know what happened to God’s Chosen in the Old Testament, stories which surely everyone assembled with Jesus would have known. Yet, they denied their ancestors’ slavery in Egypt, the many subsequent conflicts with other tribes — and now their subjugation to the Romans.
Henry writes:
It is the common fault and folly of those that have pious parentage and education to trust to their privilege and boast of it, as if it would atone for the want of real holiness. They were Abraham’s seed, but what would this avail them, when we find one in hell that could call Abraham father? Saving benefits are not, like common privileges, conveyed by entail to us and our issue, nor can a title to heaven be made by descent, nor may we claim as heirs at law, by making out our pedigree; our title is purely by purchase, not our own but our Redeemer’s for us, under certain provisos and limitations, which if we do not observe it will not avail us to be Abraham’s seed.
Inside the Pharisees and whoever else might be objecting to Jesus’s words here must be a real fear that He has come with something new. They might not recognise a New Covenant but this is what He is saying. He has come to fulfil, therefore abolish, the ritual (Mosaic) law — and purchase our freedom through His once and complete sacrifice on the Cross. Their legalism has not been working; they have become spiritually lazy, observing the Law as if by rote, a tick-in-the-box exercise. They appear here as arrogant hypocrites. Not many of the people Jesus meets follow Him during His lifetime.
Yet, if the Pharisees and their ilk really had understood or reflected upon what it meant to be ‘Abraham’s seed’, they would have known God and, therefore, recognised Jesus as His Son.
Jesus continues his conversation with them (verse 34), using words which are meant to give them pause for thought: ‘Verily, verily’. This means ‘Truly, truly’ — effectively, ‘Listen carefully and believe what I tell you’. Whoever enjoys living in sin — pride, arrogance, greed, lust, pleasure — will live his life in thrall to spiritual darkness. He is saying that we can choose sin as a slavemaster or we can choose Him as a brother.
A slave has no claim to an inheritance. He can be sold on by the head of the household or a son who inherits the household. A slave is at the beck and call of his master and his household for as long as he lives. This is what living in sin is like: it’s precarious, it’s dreary, it’s hopeless. It’s full of fleeting pleasures, hollow victories, empty baubles and false friends.
Jesus makes this clear in verse 35. We may ask what He means by the servant not abiding in the house forever. It means being thrown out or sold on. The English Standard Version of the Bible has a concordance reference here. Jesus is actually recalling Sarah’s request to Abraham to expel Hagar and her son (by Abraham) Ishmael from their household in Genesis 21:10:
So she said to Abraham, “Cast out this slave woman with her son, for the son of this slave woman shall not be heir with my son Isaac.”
You can read more about Sarah and Hagar in item 4 of ‘Understanding biblical background — selected examples’.
Note in the second part of verse 35, Jesus states that the son stays in his household forever. A son stays in his household because it is is familial right to do so. Furthermore, as his father’s heir, he inherits the full rights and privileges his father had.
It is only logical to wonder why people objected so to Jesus’s promise of freedom from sin. But would it have been any different today? Matthew Henry writes of his own era, the 17th century:
Carnal hearts are sensible of no other grievances than those that molest the body and injure their secular affairs. Talk to them of encroachments upon their civil liberty and property,-tell them of waste committed upon their lands, or damage done to their houses,-and they understand you very well, and can give you a sensible answer; the thing touches them and affects them. But discourse to them of the bondage of sin, a captivity to Satan, and a liberty by Christ,-tell them of wrong done to their precious souls, and the hazard of their eternal welfare,-and you bring certain strange things to their ears; they say of it (as those did, Eze. 20:49), Doth he not speak parables? This was much like the blunder Nicodemus made about being born again.
A number of people will say the same today. ‘Well, Churchmouse, this Bible study is all well and good, but it won’t help me fight the council, become a freeman, regain my civil liberties, get a change of government.’ It is strange how temporal concerns assume primary importance over what happens to our souls when we die. As painful and irritating as many of our earthly frustrations are — and they are very real — why is it that so many place a secondary importance on the afterlife, where surely any God-given judgment there will make today’s concerns look like a walk in the park? Be warned!
In verse 36, Jesus again extends an invitation to freedom from sin and its travail. If He promises to make us free, we shall be free — it’s a guarantee. It’s better than being a freeman where property is concerned in England. It tops a referendum on whether to belong to the European Union! It beats a 2012 election with a change of government in the US and in France!
As to those who even today cling to Mosaic Law — Christian (yes!) and Jew — Henry cites St John Chrysostom:
Think not to be made free from sin by the rites and ceremonies of the law of Moses, for Moses was but a servant, and had not that perpetual authority in the church which the Son had; but, if the Son make you free, it is well.
Jesus concludes His discourse by saying that the Jews assembled with Him might well be sons of Abraham but, nonetheless, where they should be honouring Him as the Messiah, instead, they plot to kill Him (verse 37). As He has said many times before in this Gospel — see my post of September 24, 2010 for a précis of the themes therein — if they truly thought about what it meant to be a son of Abraham, they would worship and obey God with all their might. They would also understand that God would send His Son as Redeemer. But, Jesus tells them that all the Mosaic Law and all the legalism has not brought them to an understanding of God’s Word.
Henry unpacks this last verse for us:
Our Saviour here tells them, It is because my word hath no place in you, ou choµrei en hymin, Non capit in vobis, so the Vulgate. “My word does not take with you, you have no inclination to it, no relish of it, other things are more taking, more pleasing.” Or, “It does not take hold of you, it has no power over you, makes no impression upon you.” Some of the critics read it, My word does not penetrate into you; it descended as the rain, but it came upon them as the rain upon the rock, which it runs off, and did not soak into their hearts, as the rain upon the ploughed ground. The Syriac reads it, “Because you do not acquiesce in my word; you are not persuaded of the truth of it, nor pleased with the goodness of it.” Our translation is very significant: It has no place in you. They sought to kill him, and so effectually to silence him, not because he had done they any harm, but because they could not bear the convincing, commanding power of his word. Note, [1.] The words of Christ ought to have a place in us, the innermost and uppermost place,-a dwelling place, as a man at home, and not as a stranger or sojourner,-a working place; it must have room to operate, to work sin out of us, and to work grace in us; it must have a ruling place, its place must be upon the throne, it must dwell in us richly. [2.] There are many that make a profession of religion in whom the word of Christ has no place; they will not allow it a place, for they do not like it; Satan does all he can to displace it; and other things possess the place it should have in us. [3.] Where the word of God has no place no good is to be expected, for room is left there for all wickedness. If the unclean spirit find the heart empty of Christ’s word, he enters in, and dwells there.
Next week: John 8:38-47
