Daily Devotions
John
A heated debate
Text: John 8 : 12-59
A HEATED DEBATE
The Jews (and they were supposed to have “believed”) got even angrier when Jesus hinted once again that they had “another father”. Vehemently, they cried out,
“We were not born of fornication;
We have one Father – God.”
John 8:41
Did Jesus go spiritual? Well, they could too! Did Jesus speak of God as Father? So could they! They knew their theology! They knew their history well enough. They could speak of not being illegitimate children. They had one Father – God Himself, just as Jesus had claimed.
CLAIMING IS ONE THING, DOING IS ANOTHER
The Jews figured that they had put Jesus in His place when they came up with a spiritual and theological answer for Jesus. They were wrong. They could claim God as their Father, but that did not make it necessarily true. Claiming was one thing, proving that claim was quite another.
“Jesus said to them, ‘If God were your Father,
you would love Me, for I proceeded forth
and came from God; nor have I
come of Myself, but He sent Me.
Why do you not understand My speech?
Because you are not able to listen to My word.'”
John 8:42-43
Jesus refuted their claim that they were of the Father. They may be able to speak of Him, and they may even claim that they knew Him, but their claims must be proven. A number of things made their claim doubtful.
1. Why had they not recognized Jesus as One sent from the Father’s bosom?
2. Why had they not loved Him whom God had sent?
3. Why had they not understood what He, the One sent from God, had been saying to them all this while?
4. Why hadn’t the Word He had taught been understood and appreciated at all?
“LIKE FATHER, LIKE SON”
The Jews had failed to understand what Jesus had said. This time round, there was no holding back with reference to directness of statement. Jesus said,
“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.
But because I tell the truth you do not believe me.”
John 8:44
The Jews must have been totally surprised by this charge that Jesus laid against them. There was such a strong parallel, as far as Jesus was concerned, that He said what he did. Let us consider two important things Jesus said.
1. The Devil was a murderer from the beginning
Cain committed the first murder mentioned in the Scriptures. He slew his own brother. In John’s general epistle, he elaborated on this subject.
“For this is the message that you heard from
the beginning, that we should love one another,
not as Cain who was of the wicked one
and murdered his brother.
And why did he murder him? Because his
works were evil and his brother’s righteous.”
1 John 3:11-12
What had the Jews been seeking to do all this while? Had they not been plotting to kill Jesus (John 5:16, 18; 7:1)? Were they not just like their father, the Devil?
2. The Devil does not stand in the truth
Jesus exposed an important piece of knowledge about the Devil. He hated truth. He traffics in lies instead. He was an inveterate liar. He may even be said to be “the father of lies”.
The point of Jesus’ argument must not be lost. He was saying that the Jews were like the Devil in a very uncanny way. On one occasion Jesus charged the Jews for wanting to kill Him. He said,
“Why did you seek to kill Me?”
John 7:19
The reply of the Jews was swift and spontaneous. They replied, lying through their teeth with these words,
“You have a demon. Who is seeking to kill You?”
John 7:20
How alike their father were the Jews! Jesus was right in charging them with having lying hearts!
They had heard Jesus preaching on many occasions. They had seen Him perform many miracles. How had they responded all this while? They could not accept that Jesus was speaking the truth. They could not bring themselves to believe in Him at all! What was the reason for this? They were just like their father, the Devil! Any attempt on their part to express faith in Jesus had to be examined thoroughly.