It is rather painful to see how Jesus judged those who were judging him but judgment must begin at the house of God.  Jesus' words were blunt, straight talk, as he presented both the religious leaders and those of the people that were hostile to him and his message with a clear choice. 

Jesus made precious promises to his true disciples and clearly identified the characteristics of those that were his true disciples. He said that “true disciples” ‘abided’ in him and his word and everything they did reflected his character.   

Clearly then, we must make sure that we understand the nature of “abiding” and that we are “abiding”. Jesus' teaching on this matter is something on which we should meditate and carefully observe. 

We will easily see the great offence and outrage of the enemies of Jesus to His teachings and the spurious arguments they advanced to defend themselves.  We see similar behaviour today from false brethren. 

It was clear that these people were locked in their sin and were in a terrible state of spiritual bondage.  They had no intention of listening to or heeding the words of Jesus.  They preferred darkness to light. 

Their practice and way of life was inconsistent with their profession of being the true children of Abraham.   

We will learn why belief in God does not and cannot really exist in some people despite them hearing the gospel of Christ and being exposed to the work of the Holy Spirit.   

We will see the madness, malice and the blasphemy of those that are destined to destruction.  These have no intention of following the truth and by their fruits their true character is seen.

Background and Context

It is to be noted that once Jesus healed the paralytic on the Sabbath as recorded in John 5 and told him to carry his bed with him, this so upset the religious leaders that they resolved more than ever to do away with Jesus. 

Jesus justified what he had done by saying he was simply acting like His Father, for his Father worked on the Sabbath and so he worked on the Sabbath.  This statement made matters worse in the eyes of the Pharisees. 

The Jewish religious leaders understood that Jesus was claiming to be equal with God and their hostility to Jesus increased.  Though Jesus pointed to the evidence that he was the Son of God, that the Scriptures clearly indicated that he was the long promised Messiah and that Moses had testified about him, the leaders flatly refused to accept anything he said. 

Shortly thereafter Jesus fed the multitude in the wilderness and the people were ready to even use force to make him king.  They wanted him to provide even more bread than Moses and do greater signs to prove his superiority.  They wanted Jesus to do more than that done by Moses with respect to providing manna. 

When Jesus began to teach that he was the true “bread of life, the  bread that really mattered, many murmured and deserted him. 

By the time we read chapter seven when Jesus went to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles in Jerusalem, we note that the official opposition to Jesus had multiplied and intensified and the people had become polarized as to the question of who Jesus really was.  Some people actively accused him of having a devil, while many believed on him and recognized that he had done the predicted miracles associated with the Christ.  Accordingly the division among the people grew.  The religious leaders would have loved to seize Jesus and dispose of him but they could not.   

Chapter 7:50. The leaders scorned and rejected the restraint recommended by one of their members named Nicodemus.  They even went so far as to point out that Jesus came from Galilee and that no prophet ever came from Galilee, a position that was far from the truth, for in fact several prophets had come from Galilee. 

The context of our lesson was that the chief priests and the Pharisees had wanted to arrest Jesus, but when the officers sent by them heard Jesus and witnessed the power of his message, they could not arrest him.  The religious leaders were clearly enraged, infuriated and frustrated by all this. 

So the Jews hatched a plot to pit Jesus against the Law of Moses, testing him, so that they would have an occasion to charge him.  They set up the scheme, so that they could get him in trouble no matter what position he took. 

If he did not uphold the Law and urge that the woman be punished by stoning, he would be seen as breaking the Law of Moses.  This would be a no win situation for Jesus. 

This was a set up, a wicked scheme put together by people who did not respect the Law, for the Law stated that both the man and the woman involved in the act of adultery should be put to death.

( Leviticus 20:10, Deuteronomy 22:22) In this case only the woman was brought.  Jesus’ accusers were clearly misrepresenting the law.

The situation suggests that one of their members had enticed and trapped the woman into an adulterous situation, so that they could conveniently seize her and use the situation to provoke a controversy with Jesus.  Of course they would have protected the man and not bring him forward for stoning.  One can only imagine the depths of iniquity in these people. 

The religious leaders certainly did not anticipate Jesus' response, for Jesus upheld the Law. Seeing their hearts filled with murder, hatred, and their exploiting this woman's unfortunate situation, Jesus ‘weighed them in the balance’, found them wanting and simply told them directly that those who were literally “sinless” should cast the first stone.  They were stunned and speechless at Jesus appointing them as executioners with the quantification that they had to be sinless.  Smitten by their conscience they could not act and sheepishly disappeared into the night, leaving the woman alone with Jesus. 

This then is the context of our lesson.  The religious leaders wanted to arrest Jesus and put him to death.  They were willing to commit any act of iniquity, set up any scheme no matter how vile, make any kind of attack that they could, or tell any kind of lie against Jesus to achieve their goal.  They would stop at nothing. 

The crowd that came to hear Jesus was a mixed crowd, with some believing in Jesus, while others thought he was a deceiver.  Some listened honestly, while some listened only because they wanted to hear something that they could use against him. 

Jesus did not keep silent despite the situation but addressed those around him saying that he was the “light of the world”, declaring the promise that there was no longer any need for people to walk in darkness.  They should simply follow him, for he could lead them in the way that God wanted them to go. 

Observe that Jesus was now challenging his listeners whether leaders or common people, to make the right decision before it was too late. They had little time and so there was urgency to his call.  They had been given the unique opportunity to see him come to earth and they were seeing ‘the light’, but if they wanted to remain in darkness, all they had to do was to turn away from him. 

Jesus was offering them the ‘light of life’, but the religious leaders and many of the people were committing the cardinal sin of refusing to believe in Jesus and were refusing the free gift of eternal life that the Father was offering. 

Jesus called to them to look at the evidence before them, search for more evidence, understand that his knowledge was greater than they thought and not simply reject him. He wanted them to believe the Old Testament. 

At every stage the leaders and some of the people rejected the testimony before them.  ‘Darkness’ was preventing them from coming to the ‘light’, because of their ignorance of the facts and their pride, both of which led them to refuse to bow to the facts and change their life accordingly.  This was wilful ignorance.  

Jesus was very straightforward with them pointing out that he was from above and not of this world, while they on the contrary were of this world, and so unable to see ‘the hand of God’.  They could only see the ‘hand of the devil’. 

Accordingly, if they did not believe that he was Messiah and that he came from the Father, they would die in their sins. Jesus declared that when they saw the Son of Man lifted up, that is, on a cross, they would really understand that he came to be the Redeemer of men, the one who brought freedom, the one who was willing to pay the supreme price to save men, thus showing the heart of the Father.   

At that we are told that many believed.  Many had decided to perish in their unbelief, but yet at the same time the ‘remnant of grace’ was displayed.

THE TEXT

Verse 31.  This verse records Jesus’ summary teaching on discipleship, which offered the path to freedom and fulfillment. 

Note that this teaching is totally against what some might call “mere Christianity”, or easy profession with the mouth.  Jesus declared that he wanted men to become his disciples.  That was the goal.  

Four steps were involved.  First, they had to believe, the word meant literally ‘belief into him’.  They had to trust him, be on him, deeply committed in heart to him.

They had to of course come to him, give themselves up to him, enter into his school.  They had to resolve to be different from what they were before and not just have an intellectual grasp of what he was saying.  That was only the start, the first step. 

The second step was to ‘continue in his word.’  They had to meditate on them, check to see whether their life was matching up to his word.  This was not simply outwardly conforming, but inwardly committing themselves, understanding and accepting that only his words had life, and that only his words were relevant to them.  Then and only then, as the word took root in them, would they be transformed and become true disciples. He is here saying that only if they ‘continue’ or ‘abide’, ‘make their home’ in his word, would they be true followers. 

Note the clear implication that there are really two kinds of disciples.  Some are not yet real disciples even though they outwardly seemed to be interested and to a certain extent conform to the rules.  They are not committed yet. The goal is that they will become committed and be disciples in deed like the others. 

So we understand why Jesus told Nicodemus, the teacher in Israel, that he had to be born again in order to enter the kingdom of God.  The Spirit had to give life and transform.  The disciple had to continue and ‘abide’.  Only the Spirit can enable that ‘abiding’.

Verse 32.  When the disciples continued in his word they would all know the truth, they could not be cheated, exploited or taken in by con artists. 

The truth that the disciples learned would actually make them free.  This of course means that those who are not disciples are not free and that would lead Jesus later to say that if persons were not free, then they were in fact slaves. 

We should at this stage define truth.  In this context it clearly refers to what is to be known about the person and work of Jesus, which is saving truth and which saves men from the darkness of sin and gross error. 

Truth means that a person has something which enables them to see through all the illusions, dreams, wishful thinking, facades, skilful lies and unreality that the world puts forward.  Life will teach us all kind of lies and give us all kind of choices, but a person will not be given the choice that will save. 

Jesus is teaching here that morality is involved between light and darkness.  It is a great privilege to know the truth, to receive the gracious promise from Jesus. 

This will make the disciple see life through the eyes of Jesus and will begin to see the world differently and see people differently.  The entire value system will begin to change and the disciple will more and more begin to and continue to understand what is really happening in the world.  The veil of darkness and error would be removed step-by-step as the Spirit sanctifies. 

The truth brings freedom.  It makes us free from the guilt of sin, free from the judgment of God and free from our fears.  It would free us from our spiritual enemies.  It will free us from prejudices, false ideas which enslave and corrupt us, free us from the control of passion and lust, hang-ups, insecurities, anxieties, anger, fear of failure, arrogance, pride, and withdrawal from others, for this kind of behaviour brings loneliness. 

So the truth brings great practical benefits to the disciples.  Positively, it frees them to enjoy the privileges of ‘sons’, to have access to the Father, enable a person to have obedience to the Creator, to be able to show light to a dark world, to display the power of God and to save souls.

Verse 33.  The religious leaders immediately protested that they were already free and because of their being dominated by ‘darkness’, they immediately objected.  They claimed that because they had descended from Abraham they had a privileged position and were free before God. 

They were really stating that they would never change their way of life or worship because of their confidence that they were descended from Abraham.  They were boasting that they were part of a chosen race. 

This biological argument that since they were descended from Abraham they could never be made slaves in the spiritual sense, even though they had often been slaves in the physical sense, ignored one interesting thing and showed that they were willing to avoid the teaching of Scripture. 

In referring to their descent from Abraham, they completely bypassed their often professed strict devotion to the Law of Moses and the Mosaic covenant.  They were really ignoring the teaching of Deuteronomy 28 which promised the blessing of God and prosperity if the people of God obeyed the law and kept their covenant with God. 

They were ignoring the balance of that chapter which stated clearly, that if Israel disobeyed they would in fact become “slaves” even though that word was not actually used.  The description of that chapter, which told the depths to which they would descend,  indicated a fate which was even worse than slavery.   

If the religious leaders were not blind, they would have seen that their nation’s present position matched the dreadful calamity predicted in Deuteronomy 28.  They should be aware that their argument was quite hollow whether they interpreted it in the philosophical, intellectual, political or spiritual sense. 

These people were missing the entire thrust of Jesus' argument because they did not want to admit to themselves that they were in an awful situation spiritually and that this man that had done so many miracles, which the Scriptures had predicted that the Messiah would do, was telling them the truth. 

Many are in spiritual bondage and destined for destruction and yet fool themselves that they are saved because of their heritage, their race, their family, their education, their wealth, or their works.  That is gross error. 

This kind of freedom which comes from the truth makes us develop in to everything that we are meant to be.  This was what Jesus was offering them.  They could not look honestly at themselves and the evil that they were committing, and see themselves for what they were.

Verse 34.  Jesus now gets right to the point to analyze their position, and in doing so teaches that if a person's attitude or action makes them keep doing wrong, that person in fact becomes a slave to that error.  Once that situation is reached, a person comes under its control and eventually will find himself unable to break away from it.  In other words that person has become a “slave to sin”. 

Note that the word for ‘sin’ used in this text is in a verb tense which indicates a habitual, continual action.  A lifestyle of repeated, continuous sin means that person with that lifestyle was not free but was enslaved by sin. Such persons could not free themselves from bondage.  They require divine intervention.     

Verse 35.   Jesus continues to address this question of whether or not being a physical descendent of Abraham inevitably meant salvation and a place in the kingdom of heaven. 

Because they were placed in the house of God, did not mean that they would have the same inheritance as a son would have.  Some in the household were really servants or slaves for they could be sold or killed.  They had no permanent place in the home.

In contrast, the son had permanent status, authority, and privileges.  He could live in the house forever.

Verse 36. The Son could free the slave and make the slave’s status permanent.  He had authority. 

Here Jesus was showing the religious leaders how they could come out of their state of sin and be free.  Jesus was offering them freedom, justification and sanctification.  The word he used for ‘free’ meant “really free”, not like any other kind of freedom, nor the kind that they were claiming they had. 

So freedom meant ‘abiding’ in Jesus’ word.

Verse 37.  Jesus declared that he knew they were physical descendents of Abraham.  But that did not mean that they were not in bondage to sin.  In fact it made their crime worst.   

As descendents of Abraham their attempts to kill Jesus contradicted their claim to be  spiritual children of Abraham. 

The fact that they were against his teachings showed that they had no spiritual relationship with Abraham.  If they had, his words would find a place in them.  Their despising his words showed their true nature.

Verse 38.  There was a reason for them not acting spiritually like Abraham, even though they were his physical descendents. 

Jesus descended from Abraham.  But he had a father with whom he spoke and who he watched intently.  He behaved like his Father.  Paternity showed in his conduct. 

They however behaved differently because they had a different father.  Their behaviour was consistent with that of their father.  Jesus would later explain who their father was.

Verses 39-47. The leaders insisted Abraham was their father, but Jesus made it clear that Abraham never contemplated or did murder.  Abraham never resisted truth but always embraced truth.

The leaders certainly realized that Jesus was saying that God was not their father and so they switched to directly attacking Jesus personally, implying Jesus was born from fornication.  They got ugly.  Then they again insisted that God was their father.   

Note that their crude accusation was based on a misunderstanding of Jesus’ virgin birth, which was in fact a fulfillment of Old Testament prophecies that they chose to ignore.  They knew that this doctrine was critical to establishing Jesus’ identity and ministry.  So in fact they were denying Scripture. 

Note that today many also deny these cardinal doctrines of Scripture.  In so doing they mark themselves out as really believing in a different Jesus, a Jesus created by demons. 

So Jesus directly faced them with a forceful series of words which emphasized that if God was really their father, they would see that he was the Son of the Father.  They would automatically recognize and love him, for they would see the family resemblance.  They would know that he came from the Father, sent to do the Father’s will.  

If they really were of God they would recognize his words and honesty and what he was saying.  If they were in God's family they would understand the language of the family.  But it was clear that they were not participating in the divine nature. 

The real reason was because their father was the devil and so they would not understand the message from God. 

The devil was a murderer.  He destroyed the life that God created.  He committed premeditated murder in Eden for his nature was to commit murder. 

He was also a liar, denying the truth of God and the truth about the one God had sent.  Whenever he spoke it was always a lie. 

Their behaviour showed the nature they inherited from their father the devil.  They had his image, followed his example and obeyed his commands.  It was no surprise that they did not understand Jesus’ message, did not recognize where he came from, did not like him, always opposed him, wanted to kill him and slandered his name. 

They had to examine why they did not understand him or believe him. 

Jesus’ next question challenged them to expose or convict him of any sin.  They should come forward with proof.  Now was their chance to declare that he had some sin.

With no such proof forthcoming Jesus declared again that their actions showed their spiritual parentage in the devil.  They were not ‘sons of God’.  If they were they would have heard and known the truth.

Verse 48-50.   In response the Jews accused Jesus of being like the Samaritans and of being demon- possessed.  This was name calling of the worst kind.  This was accusation that he was the son of a Gentile, a Samaritan and that he was a demon possessed Samaritan. 

Their response showed that they knew very well what Jesus was saying about them and so they responded bitterly, counter attacking that Jesus was not the son of the Father.  Jesus responded by simply saying his behaviour was honouring to the Father.  Their accusations would offend the Father and he would punish them and defend him. His behaviour brought glory to God the Father, for he spoke truth and did the works of mercy and goodness.  He did nothing but make the Father proud. 

The Father would judge, and His judgment would vindicate him. He was doing nothing of his own, for his own glory, but for the glory of the Father.

Verse 51.  So Jesus went on to state a fundamental fact that if anyone kept his word they would pass from life to eternal glory.  Jesus did not mean to say that physical death would not happen to believers.  Christians would pass from life on earth to full and free life that was extremely wonderful. 

Note the flip side however.  To die without Christ means passing from death, that describes the life on Earth, to the “second death”, an indescribably terrible kind of death.

Verse 51.  So Jesus went on to state a fundamental fact that if anyone kept his word they would pass from life to eternal glory.  Jesus did not mean to say that physical death would not happen to believers.  Christians would pass from life on earth to full and free life that was extremely wonderful.

Verse 52-53.   This kind of claim staggered the Jews and they really attacked Jesus calling him demon possessed, basically asking Jesus who he thought he was anyway.  If he was saying that a person who ‘heard’ his words would never see death, how could he explain that Abraham died and the great men of the past died.  Was he making himself greater than they? 

They thought that they had caught Jesus in a claim that he could not prove.  They were well aware that Jesus was saying that whoever obeyed his words would never taste death.  This meant that if Jesus could promise men that they would never die, then he was greater than all the great men of the Bible, all of whom of course had died.  If Jesus’ words were taken literally and at face value it would mean that he would not die either.

Verse 54. In response to the leaders’ question as to whom he was making himself out to be, Jesus answered that if he sought glory or honour for himself it would be worth nothing; But the Father was the one that was working to glorify the Son. The Father gave Son the right to receive honour. It was this very Father that they claimed to be their God.

Verse 55.  If they claimed that the Father was their God and if they did not recognize this honour that the Father had bestowed on him, it was because they did not know Father. 

In speaking of the Father honouring or glorifying him, it is apparent that Jesus was speaking of his coming resurrection.  John 12:23 spoke of this hour of glorification.  

But now Jesus insisted that if he were not to tell them the truth that they did not know the Father, (and they desperately wanted to believe that they knew the Father he would be a liar like they were. 

They simply did not belong to the Father.  But he belonged to the Father and unlike them, would always speak what the Father wanted.  He would always live in obedience to the Father.

Verse 56.  Jesus was taking them along a path which stated that he was really eternal.  He was not being simply arrogant. 

Jesus went even further by pressing the point that he was intimately associated with God and that the he had known him from the very beginning.  Abraham was proof of all this, for Abraham knew about him Jesus and his mission. 

Jesus used the past tense indicating that the patriarch Abraham ‘saw’ his day and rejoiced, indicating that something happened in the past during Abraham's lifetime, which led him to rejoice. 

Exactly what Abraham saw is not revealed, and there is speculation about this.  Some people believe that Abraham actually had the honour of conversing with Jesus, while some think that behind Jesus' words was the discovery of the lamb that would replace the son Isaac on the altar of sacrifice.  It was this that led to Abraham's rejoicing.  See Genesis 22:13-15.  The force however is that Abraham knew about him and rejoiced, something very different from their behaviour, even though they claimed to be of Abraham.

Verses 57-58.  Jesus reacted to the incredulous words of the Jewish leaders who were not prepared to understand the spiritual teaching involved.  If they had read Scripture properly they would have seen that everything in the Old Testament Scriptures spoke of Jesus.  He was in the sacrifices, the prophets prefigured him, the Kings prefigured him, the tabernacle and the Temple all pictured him and every ritual pointed to him. 

They simply interpreted Jesus’ statement in a literal sense, without showing any spiritual understanding.  In so doing they did not even consider that Jesus was eternal and was God.  They knew very little of the truth of the Messiah. 

So Jesus makes a remarkable statement to tell all of us positively and clearly that he was God. 

Jesus used two very different verb forms to say literally ‘Abraham became, but I was already there’.  He uses the very name that the Old Testament uses to sum up God.  He takes the covenant keeping name of God “I AM WHO I AM” for himself. 

This is certainly a claim to deity.

Verse 59.  The Jews certainly understood what Jesus was saying.  They knew he was claiming to be God.  They were so enraged they took up stones to kill him.  But Jesus simply avoided them and went his way for his time had not yet come.

CONCLUSION

Note that Jesus did not hesitate to put the truth to these religious leaders.  He did not compromise or calm things down, but he hit them harder and harder, making claim after claim to force them to act and make a decision.  

So it is with us.  God will do what is necessary to force us to make a decision one way or other. 

Jesus was certainly brave and he said what had to be said.  He did not shy away from the truth. 

He knew that he was in God's will, that God was protecting him and that nothing could get through to him before the appointed time. 

Just as Jesus faced the leaders and people with the truth, we too must face the truth and decide what we think of Him and how we are to treat him in our lives.  Are we going to consider him as our Lord in every aspect of our life, or are we going to think that we have the right to control our thoughts and our affairs! 

We must realize that we must either worship him properly, or in fact we will be stoning him, as these men did. It is most important that we truly understand who Jesus is and that we know that it is only through him that there is eternal life.  We must also know that abiding in him shows itself in the fruits that we produce.  So we must examine ourselves to make sure that we are abiding in him, staying in his word, obey his Commandments, which of course shows that we love him and remaining in the light with him in intimate contact. 

Remember that Jesus came from above.  Before his incarnation he was spirit and was known as the word.  He set aside his glory in order to share in our humanity; Now He is in heaven at the right hand of the Father interceding for us, with all glory and power in his hands. 

So be careful that you love him, respect him and remain in awe of him, for he himself is an awesome God.  

It is easy to be caught into sin and to become a slave of sin. So caution and care is required. 

Remember the truth. You can’t live without it. Without it there will be no eternal life.