John 8:37–39

To be Abraham's seed, as the Lord lets the Jews know, is a poor safeguard. One might be of Abraham, and be the worst enemy of God. Such were the Jews then, who were seeking to kill Christ because His word had no hold in them. Every one acts according to his source; character follows it. To be of Abraham does not save from Satan. To hear the Son, to believe on Him, is to receive one's nature from God and have eternal life.

The real point here was not their descent from Abraham, important as that was for Jewish privilege. The point was this: the word of Christ had no place in them. They had heard it outwardly, and could even reason about it. But it had no place in them. A solemn word for conscience always.

Outwardly the Jews were indeed the children of Abraham; but the word of Christ had no place nor entry into their hearts, and they sought to kill Him. Here the contrast becomes formal. Jesus spoke what He had seen with His Father — for it is always His word. He was Himself the Son who revealed Him, and He announced what was heavenly and divine. But this brought out of their hearts the Satanic hatred against God which fills the heart of man.

There is nothing in the natural heart of man to afford root for divine truth. No, everything within us is completely unlike God, and so unlike everything that is like Him. That is why we naturally hate and reject the testimony about Himself which He has given in His word. Man must and will reject it, until God Himself gives the life-giving power through which alone Christ is seen and valued. So we cannot let Christ into our hearts any more than the Jews could bear Him in the world.

These same Jews were Abraham's descendants by birth, and they had been seeking to kill the Lord. He knew this attitude had not changed, despite their outward professed belief. Many today are the same. They claim to believe in Christ, yet they are His enemies: His word has no place in them.

It is an encouraging fact that God may use a time of unbelieving slander to work widely in souls. "As He was saying these things, many believed in Him" (verse 30). But faith that God gives cannot be separated from life. It acts in liberty, and it is subject to the Son of God. Where faith is only human, it soon tires of His presence and abandons Him whom it never truly valued, going after freedom of mind or of ways in rebellion against Him.

A martyr is someone put to death because of the witness he bears. Christ Himself was the faithful and true witness, and He said to His persecutors, "You seek to kill me because my word finds no place in you... you seek to kill me, a man who has told you the truth." John 8:37, 40. So the Lord Jesus was the true Martyr. But His death included much more than dying as a martyr: it made atonement.

The Son's words were, "I speak what I have seen with My Father" (John 8:38). The character of what He revealed rested on this fact: He was with the Father before He came into the world. The Son was fully aware of that eternal presence with the Father, and of the glory He had with Him before the world was. He has testified to it (John 17:5), so that we may believe that the Father sent the Son — and, believing, adore the Father and the Son.

Verse 38 sums up the contrast. His words were the moral revelation of what He had seen with His Father, just as their deeds were the moral expression of what they had seen with their father. But what were the things Jesus had seen with His Father? In verse 25 they asked, "Who are You?" Jesus replied (in a more exact translation), "Altogether that which I also say to you." That is, His word, His speech, presented Himself, for He was Himself the truth. And He was the One who revealed the Father. So He could say, "The words that I say to you I do not speak on My own authority, but the Father who dwells in Me does His works."

"I know that you are Abraham's offspring." The Lord acknowledges the order God had set up with Israel, as He always does. But that did not change the truth about moral character, on which everything depended. It is set out clearly here in its cause, its principle, and the way it shows itself. "But you seek to kill Me," Me the Light, the Truth, because "My word" does not dwell in you. That was the great thing. The contrast was complete. He was there in testimony, in His service; they were there in action, working out their will in murder. "I speak the things which I have seen with My Father, and you do the things which you have seen with your father." An intimacy of association — sad on their side, as it is glorious on His.

To be Abraham's seed, as the Lord lets the Jews know, is a poor safeguard. A man might come from Abraham and still be the worst enemy of God. Everyone acts according to his source; character follows it. So our Lord graciously says, "I speak what I have seen with My Father; and you therefore do what you have seen with your father." Being of Abraham does not save anyone from Satan. To hear the Son, to believe on Him, is to get one's nature from God and have life eternal.

The Bible uses the word 'father' as a picture when there is a moral likeness between a leader and his followers. John 8:38-44.

The words of Jesus to the leaders of the people brought everything to light. A man's origin came to light by the way he lived in this world. Righteousness, truth, and love point out the children of God; sin, falsehood, and hatred proclaim the children of the devil.

They claimed they had no father but Abraham. Yet they proved their true origin by their works, as all men do. On one side, they were seeking to kill the Lord; on the other, they opposed the truth. Murder and the absence of truth are the two great marks of Satan. They prove that these Jews, though children of Abraham by natural descent, were in moral character children of the devil.

The Jews were bitterly opposed to the Son of God, yet they called Abraham their father. The Lord pointed out that if they had been Abraham's children, they would have done the works of Abraham. They were Abraham's seed by natural birth. But they were not the children of Abraham, the father of the faithful. Their attitude to God and to His Son showed that they belonged to a different family.

To be Abraham's seed, as the Lord lets the Jews know, is a poor safeguard. One might be of Abraham, and be the worst enemy of God. Such were the Jews then, who were seeking to kill Christ because His word had no hold in them. Everyone acts according to his source, and character follows it… The Lord had already allowed that they were descended from the father of the faithful. But did they bear the family likeness? Did it not make their evil worse that they stood in contrast with the man they boasted of coming from?

"Know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham." As believers they already had the very honour they were trying in vain to earn by works. They were "of faith," as Abraham was, and so were his children spiritually… Abraham's sons are those who do the works of Abraham. They work, as he did, the work of God by believing. He believed the One who first gave the promise; they believe the same Promise, now fulfilled by God in Christ.

Our Lord still holds to the moral, the divine character of the relationship. He knew they were Abraham's seed; indeed, He had spent His life towards them because they were. But if they had been Abraham's children they would have acted in Abraham's character, done Abraham's works. Instead, "you seek to kill me." That is, there was a spirit of hostility in their very nature, a spirit of murder, against the truth from God. And it was aimed at "a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God": "this is not what Abraham did." The complete opposition of their two characters comes out with the plain power of truth.

The evidence of the Son is in the Father's works: "If you were Abraham's children, you would be doing the works Abraham did." Our Lord submits Himself to the same test. "If I am not doing the works of my Father," whether in power or in love, "good works," "then do not believe me. But if I do" — how could I be anything other than what I claim? If I do them, the evidence is complete: "even though you do not believe me, believe the works, that you may know."

A profession that no visible grace backs up deserves no credit from others… The Jews falsely claimed to be Abraham's children. His unanswerable reply was: "If you were Abraham's children, you would be doing the works Abraham did." The same law still rules, and nothing can revoke it. Those who truly believe in the Lord Jesus Christ are known not because they say so, but because they do, in some measure, work the works of Christ. A loveless "saint" is no true child of God… Men are what they habitually do.

He insists that likeness is essential, and He goes further: "You are of your father the devil" — because that terrible likeness was stamped on them. Is it not a solemn thing that day by day and hour by hour we are showing our parentage?… There is no other way to freedom but sonship, and we cannot be sons of God except by being born of God, receiving the divine nature, which results in likeness.