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About Jesus - Steve Sweetman Previous Section - Chapter 8:31 - 41 Next Section - Chapter 8:48 - 58 The
Children Of The Devil (ch.8:42-47) In
verse 42 Jesus makes it clear once again, as He has been doing
throughout John's account. If
their father was really God, they would love Him instead of trying to
kill Him because He has been sent from God.
Again, Jesus is speaking about His divinity.
By His use of the word "Father" He is saying that He is
God's Son. I've said it
before, but, the reason why John keeps reminding us that Jesus is God's
son is because in the late first century when I believe John wrote his
account, the divinity of Jesus was being challenged by false teachers.
In
verse 43 Jesus asks why the Jews can't understand what He is saying.
He answers His own question by saying that they are simply unable
to understand Him. The
prophets of the Old Testament predicted the day when Israelis would be
blinded. It would be a
blindness imposed to them by God Himself as an act of judgment.
In
verse 44 Jesus gets to the point and He does so in no uncertain terms.
He says that their father is the devil.
Their father is not Abraham as they say.
Of course, in a true biological and lineage sense they were from
the line of Abraham. In that
sense Abraham was their father but in a spiritual sense that works its
way out into the material world, their father was the devil.
I
believe when Jesus says that the devil was a murderer from the
beginning, I don’t believe He means that God created a murderer in the
devil. I think Jesus is
referring to the beginning of creation here on earth. The
devil’s successful temptation of Adam and Eve brought social,
spiritual and eventual physical death to mankind.
This is what I think Jesus is getting at when He says the words
"from the beginning", the very words we see in Genesis 1:1.
I believe that satan had already fallen from God's grace prior to
creation, and, the phrase "in the beginning" speaks about the
creation of earth, not any prior creation, which would include angels. Jesus
then points out another sin of the devil and that is that he is a liar,
and that he has been one since the beginning as well.
The devil has no part of the truth and therefore it is very
natural for him to not tell the truth, as he did with Adam and Eve.
Satan is a deceiver. Deception
is built on a lie. The
Jews are doing the same thing as their father the devil.
They are caught up in lies and murderous threats.
They don’t get this from their father Abraham or their Father
God. It comes directly from
the devil. In
verse 45 Jesus says that because He tells the truth the Jews won’t
believe Him. They can’t
believe the truth because at the same time they have given themselves to
the lie of the devil. You
cannot serve God and the devil at the same time.
You cannot stand for truth when you have given yourself to a lie.
For this reason Jesus asks the Jews, "Can any of you prove
me guilty of sin"? Of
course, the Jewish leadership was certainly trying.
Jesus might have been guilty of breaking rabbinical traditions,
but not the laws of God.
In
verse 47 it appears that Jesus does not give the Jews time to answer His
question. He calls them the
children of the devil once again. This
made the Jewish leadership extremely angry.
Concerning
the Jews today, there is a revival taking place among some Jews, even as
there was in Jesus' days when He was on earth and in the first
generation church, but, these Jews are in the minority.
When a Jew today becomes a Christian, He joins God's New
Testament people, the church. Jews
today are still blinded as they were in Jesus' day.
They will not receive their sight until the Great Tribulation
comes to an end, which by the way, is to bring the Jews to Jesus.
At that point in human history the Old Testament prophecies
concerning Next Section - Chapter 8:48 - 58 Previous Section - Chapter 8:31 - 41
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