Jesus said to them, If God were your father ye would have loved me, for I came forth from God and am come [from him]; for neither am I come of myself, but *he* has sent me.
His hearers have just claimed that they have one Father, God Himself. His reply does not argue with their theology. It hands them a test they cannot pass, and gives the reason a true child of God would respond differently.
He does not defend His own title. He measures their claim by how they respond to Him.
Jesus still rests His case not on His own title, but on God's: were they children of God? "If God were your Father" (He speaks from the consciousness of what He was, for He, as well as it, was the truth), "you would love Me." He tests the moral connection of their hearts with God by the truth, that is, by Himself.
Their claim was not empty. God had owned Israel as a nation. But that settled nothing about the individual.
The Jews declared that God was their Father (8:41). That was true of the nation. But it could not secure everlasting blessing for the individual. They had not understood this, because they had never been subjects of divine grace, and they showed it by their hostility towards the Lord... They needed more than agreeing to a creed, or resting in national privileges. If God was their Father, they would share a new nature, the divine nature. They would then become the special objects of His fatherly care.
The same words cut across a common modern idea: that God is everyone's Father.
Notice how the Lord's words completely destroy the false idea, held by so many, of the "universal Fatherhood of God." These Jewish religious leaders only went so far as to claim a universal fatherhood of Abraham, and so of God, for their nation. Jesus said, "If God were your Father …" It was a denial. The devil was their father. God's Fatherhood belongs only to those who believe, as Galatians 3:26 states.
If He had come from God, then hatred of Him exposed what no privilege could cover.
If there was a family on earth that might have seemed farthest removed from impurity, it was the Jews. If anyone could claim to have God as their Father, they most of all. But Jesus is the touchstone, and He proves them to be God's enemies, not His children. Otherwise they would have loved Him who came out from God and was then present among them. He had not come on His own impulse, but at God's sending. He came, and God sent Him, in love beyond man's thought or measure; and they rose against Him in hatred, seeking to kill Him.
The reason Jesus gives has two halves. Older translations render the first as "I proceeded forth and came from God."
But the Lord's answer is positive and solemn. If God were their Father, they would love the Lord Jesus. First, He proceeded forth and came from God; second, God sent Him (v. 42). The first points to His own divine and voluntary coming. The second points to His perfect interdependence with the Father, since the Father sent Him. Both are true: He came in voluntary, divine grace, yet not independently of the Father, but sent by Him. He is therefore the perfect representation of the Father, and He attracts the love of every person who loves the Father.
Each half also says something different about the Son Himself.
It is very important to see that one statement adds to the other. It is not a mere repetition in different words. In His coming forth, the Son acted in His own Personal rights and of His own will; in His being sent, the Son came into the world as the accredited Delegate of God.
He claimed no mission of His own. The great of this world speak very differently.
Jesus never claimed to be the originator of His mission, but delighted to own that He came as sent from the Father. How unlike men this is! The great men of this world boast that they are self-made, and that they started the systems that bear their names, whether in religion, philosophy or politics. But the Son of God was different from every other man. It was His pleasure to name the Father as the source of His mission, and to own His dependence on Him for everything... What rest of heart for the Son, and what joy, to confess that He was not come of Himself! And what rest and joy for those who received the words of the Son, to know that it was from the Father that He had brought such grace and blessing.
- Claim. Saying God is your Father settles nothing by itself. Israel's standing as a nation could not secure blessing for one person.
- Test. Christ does not press His own title. He makes Himself the test: your link with God shows in how you respond to Him.
- Reason. Love for Him follows because He came from God. He came of His own will, and God sent Him — two truths, not one said twice.
- Contrast. He took no credit for His own mission. The great of this world boast of being self-made; His joy was to name the Father as His source.
- Result. Anyone who loves the Father is drawn to the One who perfectly represents Him. Hatred of the Son showed a different father.
Why do ye not know my speech? Because ye cannot hear my word.
Jesus has just told these listeners that if God were their Father, they would love Him. Now He asks why His plain words leave them baffled. His own answer moves the problem out of the ear and into the heart: they cannot hear, and so they cannot understand.
The verse names two things, and the second explains the first. One writer separates the outward wording from the message inside it. He traces the failure back to where these men came from.
He set forth the truth, and those who had God for their Father would both love the truth and love Him. His opponents had an evil origin, and could not hear His word — the revelation that He brought. So they were completely unable to understand His speech — the words in which He clothed the revelation. This is what verse 43 tells us.
In ordinary study you learn the words first, and the subject follows. Here the order runs the other way.
They did not understand what He said because they did not take in His thought. In human things you must understand the language, the technical terms, before you understand the thing. But in divine things you must understand the ideas before you understand the words. If I say, "You must be born again," the words do not give an understanding of what it is. Until I know the liberty of Christ, until I have the thing in freedom, no words make me understand what "free" really is.
This also answers a common complaint. When people call the Bible unclear, the problem may not be in its words.
You come to know a speaker's wording by first grasping his thought, his aim, his mind — never the other way round. If the inner purpose is not received, the outer form is unknown. So it was with Jesus speaking to the Jews; so it is above all with the testimony in John's writings now. People complain that the wording is mysterious, because they have no idea of the truth it means.
Nothing Jesus said here used hard words. One writer points to the real problem.
They could not understand His speech because they could not hear His word; it was not the mind but the heart that was all wrong.
That resistance is not confusion. It is a recoil from what the truth exposes.
Why is it that people, then as now, do not understand the Scriptures? Not really because of difficult expressions. It is the truth that grates on the reluctant will of man. This is the source of all unbelief. It is the will refusing to face the terrible fact of man's ruin. It is the pride that rejects God's grace and will not bow to its own need of it. So the guilt of unbelief is not that man's understanding is weak. It is that he does not fear God and does not believe His love.
One writer looks behind their refusal to the power that shaped it.
The hindrance is the blinding power of the devil. He is the source of their thoughts and feelings, just as surely as he is the enemy of Christ. Men's judgments flow from their will and affections, and these are under the sway of His enemy.
If the fault lies in the will, the way back opens through willingness, not cleverness. One writer points to what Jesus said about doing God's will.
The ability to receive and understand the Divine Word lies in being willing to understand it so as to obey it. Our Lord says: "If anyone's will is to do God's will, he will know whether the teaching is from God or whether I am speaking on my own authority," and "Whoever is of God hears the words of God. The reason why you do not hear them is that you are not of God."
And that inability is not a locked door.
So then, the Jews were spiritually unable to hear the voice of God… Still, being unable to hear was not beyond cure. There was a Great Physician for those who were not stubborn. He had come to make those who were not wilfully deaf "hear joy and gladness."
- Word before speech. Refuse the message He brings and His words stay a puzzle. Miss His inner purpose and the outer form means nothing.
- Reversed order. In human learning you grasp the words first, then the thing. In divine things you grasp the thing first, or words like "you must be born again" mean nothing.
- Heart, not head. The failure was not a weak mind but a wrong heart. Truth grates on a reluctant will, and that resistance is the source of all unbelief.
- A father behind it. The blinding power of the devil shaped their thoughts and feelings; men's judgments flow from a will under the enemy's sway.
- A remedy, not a verdict. Deafness that is not deliberate has a Physician. Willingness to do God's will opens the ear to know whether the teaching is from God.
Ye are of the devil, as [your] father, and ye desire to do the lusts of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and has not stood in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks falsehood, he speaks of what is his own; for he is a liar and its father
Jesus is speaking to men who have just claimed two fathers — Abraham and God Himself — and He answers by naming a third. It gives the Bible's sharpest description of Satan, and raises two questions: who counts as a child of the devil, and what does "from the beginning" mean?
The argument of the whole passage turns on family resemblance. Descent from Abraham was never in dispute; the likeness was.
To be Abraham's seed, as the Lord lets the Jews know, is poor protection. One might be of Abraham, and be the worst enemy of God... Everyone acts according to his source; character follows it. So our Lord says, "I speak of what I have seen with My Father, and you do what you have heard from your father." Being of Abraham does not save anyone from Satan... No one denied that they were descended from Abraham, the father of the faithful. But did they bear the family likeness?
Two traits gave them away, and Jesus names both in the verse.
On the one hand, they sought to kill the Lord; on the other they oppose the truth. These are the two great marks of Satan: murder, and no truth in him. They prove that these Jews were children of Abraham by birth, but children of the devil in character.
This is a specific charge, not a description of humanity at large. Writers are careful to mark the difference.
We cannot say that every unsaved person is a child of the devil. All are children of Adam and children of wrath (Eph. 2:3). A child of the devil is someone who hardens himself against what he knows to be true. He has given himself up to the service of Satan. Not that he would admit this, but his own pride and deceit are prominent.
The timing of the sentence matters as much as its content. Jesus said it only after they had made their own choice plain.
Remember this: God's Word never says it of anyone until their own ways have shown who and what they really are. Note also who gives this short account of the devil: the One who is the Word, who was with God, was God, and was in the beginning with God. So it must be true.
Some have taken the phrase to mean that Satan always existed as he now is. Commentators reject that reading.
But John 8:44 points neither to eternity past nor to the start of creation... "From the beginning" is quite different from "in the beginning." That second phrase is used of the Word Himself, and of the moment creation began. The devil has not always existed. He was an angel who grew proud and fell... The Greek phrase here cannot mean "from all eternity." That would deny that the devil is a creature. It would mean God made him a devil from the start, instead of his being an angel who, unlike others, did not keep his first state.
The two titles in the verse are not separate items on a list. One produced the other.
He brought this in at the start, and he brought it in by deceit; for "he was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth." ... He was and is a liar: that is his character, exactly opposed to Christ, who is the truth... Satan is the destroyer; Christ is the giver of life. Satan is the accuser of the brothers; Christ is the Mediator for them. Christ is the truth of God; Satan is the father of lies... By misrepresenting the truth and character of God, he became the murderer of the souls of men.
He does not usually tell a bare lie.
He puts it forward under the guise of truth, in the form of truth, and in some sense mixed up with the truth... He says, "You will not surely die." That was a plain lie. But he adds, "You will be like God, knowing good and evil" — and we know that was partly true... But he held back the one truth man most needed to know: what would follow if he took the advice.
When Christ spoke, He drew from the Father. The contrast is in the source each one speaks from.
When Christ spoke He spoke the truth, that which was indeed His own, but was also of the Father. But when he speaks a lie, he speaks out of what belongs to him, out of his own store. Our Lord had the right to speak of him this way: he is a liar, lies come from him, and he is the father of them.
The first lie attacked God's goodness. The cross answered it.
Satan is a liar from the beginning, and at the cross the Lord proved this. It cost the Lord His life to prove that God was good. Christ came to contradict the devil's lie, which man believed, and under which the whole world is lying... Christ takes my sin on His own sinless person. He bows His head in death on the cross. In this way He sets aside that lie of Satan, "You will not surely die."
- Lineage — descent from Abraham settled nothing. Character follows its source, so the family likeness shows who your father is.
- Lie — falsehood is Satan's own property, drawn from his own store. He serves it mixed with enough truth to be swallowed.
- Murder — the lie was the weapon. By misrepresenting God's character, Satan became the murderer of souls. Liar and murderer are one career, not two.
- Limit — Jesus uses the title "child of the devil" only after a person's own ways have shown it. It is not the same as being a child of Adam.
- Answer — the cross contradicted the first lie at the cost of Christ's life, proving God good where Satan said otherwise.
and because I speak the truth, ye do not believe me.
Jesus has just told these listeners who their father is. Now He names the reason they will not believe Him: people usually reject a message because it is false, but here the truth itself is what they cannot accept.
Everything hangs on that one connecting word. One writer points out what the verse does not say:
Notice the force of verse 45: it is not, "although I tell you the truth," but "because I tell the truth, you do not believe me." They had become so used to falsehood that, when truth is presented, it is the very thing they will not believe! A lie would be much easier for them to accept.
Why would truth itself drive people away? Because of what truth does to the world it shines on:
But truth can never be popular in this world. Even philosophers are puzzled that men love lies for the lie's own sake, when lies bring them neither pleasure, as they do the poet, nor profit, as they do the merchant. Truth shows men's follies and hidden motives too clearly, and sheds too broad a light on the play-acting of the world, for the world ever to welcome it… The truth exposes all human over-valuing, self-conceit and false fancies; and things that sparkle and look bright by the world's candlelight lose their shine in the light of day. Men cannot afford this, for it strips the world of its glory and shows it up as a cheap counterfeit.
The verse just before this one described a liar. Jesus is his complete opposite:
Jesus alone among men is the Truth; He is not only God, but the One who reveals God to man. In Him is no sin, nor did He sin, and no deceit was found in His mouth. He was in every respect the plain opposite of the devil, who, whenever he speaks falsehood, speaks out of his own store, because he is a liar and the father of it. Jesus is the truth, and makes it known to those who otherwise cannot know it. "But because I tell the truth, you do not believe me." How terrible, yet how just, is God's judgment of such people!
So unbelief is not a failure of understanding. The words are not hard. The will refuses them:
Why is it that people, then as now, do not understand the Scriptures? Not really because of difficult expressions. It is the truth that grates on the reluctant will of man. This is the source of all unbelief. The will resists, and refuses to face the terrible fact of man's ruin. It is the pride that rejects God's grace and will not bend to its own need of it. So the guilt of unbelief is not that man's understanding is weak. It is that he does not fear God and does not believe His love.
These men were not irreligious. They had a mark of privilege to boast in, and old false impressions die hard:
Experience of human nature tells us that false impressions of a superstitious kind are harder to get rid of than any others. They suit human nature and prop up human nature, whereas the truth is enjoyed spiritually and is foreign to human nature. "But because I tell the truth, you do not believe me." The Jews were circumcised, the Gentiles were not: that was something they could boast in and hold onto, when all its value was gone.
If the will is the barrier, evidence alone will not break through. The same writer holds two things together: man is responsible, and God gives life:
Man is responsible because God has given full and adequate evidence, suited to man (John 5:33-40). But man's will and desires are such that he loves darkness rather than light. And so God's power gives life sovereignly (John 5:21; see John 3:11; 3:32; 8:45). Conscience is the way in for light, and there is no other — except that love draws. God is love as well as light, and reveals Himself in Christ.
- Because, not although. Truth was not the obstacle Jesus overcame; truth was the reason they refused Him. A lie would have gone down more easily.
- Truth exposes. It shows up men's follies and hidden motives. It strips the shine off what the world calls bright, so it can never be popular.
- Truth has a Person. The liar speaks out of his own store. Jesus alone is the Truth, and He makes God known to those who could not otherwise know Him.
- Truth meets the will. Unbelief is not weak understanding. It is a will that grates against the truth, and pride that refuses its own need of grace.
- Truth needs love. Conscience is the only way in for light. But love draws, and God gives life sovereignly, because He is love as well as light.
Which of you convinces me of sin? If I speak truth, why do ye not believe me?
Jesus is speaking to openly hostile critics. He asks them to name one sin in Him, then asks why they refuse His word.
The question would be simple to answer about anyone else.
His challenge to them then is most appropriate. Could any of them convict Him of sin? This would be the easiest thing in regard to any other person. But they can point no finger at any occasion of sin in Him. Then it follows that everything He says is truth.
He could ask it because His life lay open to people who badly wanted to find a fault.
During His three and a half years of ministry the Saviour lived in the fierce glare of hostile criticism. He did not live a withdrawn, strict life as John the Baptist did; the desert was not His home; He moved freely in and out among the people. All the facts of His life were therefore fully known. If His foes could have discovered a single flaw in Him, how it would have delighted their evil hearts! But He was God's holy One. The Passover lamb had to be "without blemish." Only such a lamb could picture One who was holy in nature and stainless in all His ways. In the end His judge had to say he found no guilt in Him. His enemies could only produce the appearance of a charge by paying men to lie in court.
He asked others for what He never once asked for Himself.
Never once did He confess sin; never once asked for pardon, though He required both of all others. For everyone else, coming back humble and repentant, like the prodigal son, was the one road He marked out. It leads to the peace and rest of the Father's forgiveness. Yet He never gave a hint, He never breathed a prayer, that implied that He needed this. He declared plainly that He always did the things that pleased His Father. He had power on earth to forgive sin, but needed no forgiveness Himself.
The unanswered question points past good behaviour to who He is.
Again, His challenge, "Which one of you convicts Me of sin?" remains unanswered — we well know why. But a man without sin in a fallen world is a divine Person.
The second question appeals to what He said, not to who backed Him. In men's eyes He had no standing with any recognised authority.
Even the Lord's appeal in His own case was to the truth He spoke: "If I tell the truth, why do you not believe Me?" When He came forward in the Jewish synagogues, or elsewhere, He was, in men's eyes, only a poor carpenter's son. No school or group of men had approved Him. All the weight of authority was ever against Him. He disclaimed even "receiving testimony from men." God's word alone should speak for God. And how did His teaching prove itself? By the fact that it was truth. Truth was to make its way with those who are true. God will not leave people in ignorance and darkness if they are seeking to do His will.
Put the two questions together and only one explanation survives.
They refuse to believe the Lord who had told them the truth. Why then, if they could not convict Him of error, did they not believe on Him? There can only be one answer: the one who refuses to believe in Jesus is not of God, for he that is of God hears His words.
The questions were meant to expose them, and they did. Their charges against Him rebounded onto themselves.
Finally, the Lord goes on to challenge them, to lay bare their groundless malice... He was the Holy One, no less than the Truth, and surely both go together... Instead of convicting Christ of sin, they were themselves slaves of sin. Instead of speaking truth, they rejected Him who is the Truth. Instead of hearing the words of God, they hated Him who spoke them.
Earlier in the same chapter He had spoken to a woman caught in adultery.
Never was a person so accessible, such a Minister of good, and at the same time so holy, so absolutely apart from sin. Even to His enemies He could say, "Which one of you convicts Me of sin?" Almost in the same breath He said to the convicted sinner, "Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more."
- Challenge. He invited His enemies to name one sin, and no one answered — a question anyone else on earth would have lost.
- Evidence. He lived in full public view under hostile watch. His accusers had every motive to find a fault, and even His judge found none.
- Person. A man without sin in a fallen world is a divine Person; He asked others to confess sin, but never confessed any Himself.
- Consequence. If no one can convict Him of sin, His words must be true. Unbelief is left with no argument, only exposure.
- Grace. The same lips that could face down every accuser said to a guilty woman, "Neither do I condemn you."
He that is of God hears the words of God therefore ye hear [them] not, because ye are not of God.
Jesus is deep in a bitter argument with His opponents. He closes it by tracing their unbelief to its source: where a person comes from decides what he can hear. The verse raises a hard question — is hearing God's word the proof of belonging to God, or the cause of it?
The force of the verse rests on one claim inside it. The words Jesus speaks are God's own words, not a man's ideas about God.
The whole of the New Testament presents the testimony of Christ as a testimony that is directly divine. It is not the thoughts or longings of the human heart, but God's words. They are the words of One who could tell what was in heaven, while man was only dimly reaching after it. He could tell it because He came down from heaven, and spoke what He had seen, heard, and known there.
That claim is not a threat but a gift:
From verse 11 to the end, it is wonderful to see these evil men arguing with Jesus. They drive Him into a corner, as it were, and force Him to tell them what He is... He lets them know that "Whoever is of God hears the words of God." God's words! What infinite grace! A person speaking God's words among men.
The verb is not about sound reaching the ear. It means taking the words for what they are.
"Whoever is of God hears the words of God" — recognises and receives them, pays attention to them, as such. "The reason why you do not hear them is that you are not of God." Our Lord knew this. He knew His words were of God — otherwise He would not be true at all.
The Lord's statement is not an insult thrown in anger. It is a principle so obvious that His hearers had no reply, only resentment.
Nothing is harder for a man to admit than evil in himself. Nothing offends him more than another man saying evil of him and leaving him no way out. So it was now with the Jews whom the Lord denied to be of God, since they did not hear His words... For the ground taken was beyond dispute. Who could doubt that whoever is of God hears the words of God? How solemn, then! One who spoke as no one ever did declared with holy calmness that they did not hear because they were not of God. Conscience might wince, but refused to bow.
The same writer sets out what these men did instead, and where it left them:
Instead of proving Christ guilty of sin, they were themselves slaves of sin; instead of speaking truth, they rejected Him who is the Truth; instead of hearing the words of God, they hated Him who spoke them, because they were not of God but of the devil... To be not of God is to be wholly without good, and left in evil, exposed to its consequences. That is the judgment of Him who will not, cannot, change in His hatred of it.
Their problem was never a shortage of intelligence or education. One writer locates it in the will.
The ability to receive and understand the divine Word lies in the willingness to understand it in order to do it. Our Lord says: "If anyone's will is to do God's will, he will know whether the teaching is from God or whether I am speaking on my own authority." He also says: "Why do you not understand what I say? It is because you cannot bear to hear my word," and "Whoever is of God hears the words of God; the reason why you do not hear them is that you are not of God" (John 7:17; 8:43, 47).
This reverses the usual order of learning:
Notice here that understanding the meaning of the word is the way to grasp the force of the words. One does not learn the definitions of words and then the things; one learns the things, and then the meaning of the words is clear.
Jesus is no longer here in person. So how does the test work now? One writer traces it forward:
When the Lord was on earth, those who were of God showed it by hearing Him with the hearing of faith. When the Apostles were here, those who were of God showed it by hearing them with the hearing of faith. Now that they are gone, we have the Apostolic writings, the inspired Scriptures. Those who are of God show it by hearing them with the hearing of faith... An earthly king may speak in person. He may speak through the lips of his authorised ministers. Or they may put the message in writing. The manner differs, but the authority of the message does not.
- Source. Jesus does not offer opinions about God. He speaks God's own words, brought down from heaven by One who had seen and heard there.
- Grace. A Man stood among His enemies speaking God's words. That is infinite grace, not just a verdict.
- Hearing. To "hear" here is to recognise, receive and attend to the words as God's — not simply to catch the sound.
- Will. People fail to take in divine words not for lack of ability but for lack of willingness to do what they hear.
- Now. The same test runs on. First Christ's voice, then the apostles', and today the Scriptures. Those who are of God hear, and that hearing marks them out.
The Jews answered and said to him, Say we not well that thou art a Samaritan and hast a demon?
The argument in the temple turns ugly. His hearers cannot answer what Jesus has said about their true father, so they insult Him instead. One slur attacks His race, the other His sanity. How He takes it teaches as much as His words.
Both halves of the taunt answer something the Lord had just said. He had denied that they were Abraham's true children, and He had named their real father. They throw each charge back at Him.
In answer to the Lord's charge that they were not the true children of Abraham (verse 39), they retort that the Lord Himself is no true Jew but a Samaritan. In answer to the charge that they were the children of the devil (verse 44), they say that the Lord Himself has a devil.
Older translations read "devil" here where the ESV reads "demon".
To feel the sting, you have to hear the word as a Jew of that day heard it.
In Luke 9:52-53 a Samaritan village would not receive the Lord because His face was turned towards Jerusalem. A Jew regarded it as the extreme of insult to be called a Samaritan, and those of Judaea added this to the other insults they heaped on the blessed Lord.
The insult was also a verdict.
From then on the Jews, unable to refute the truth and unwilling to confess it, resort to insolent retort and railing. They justify and openly repeat their use of "Samaritan" for Him. In their eyes, what could prove enmity more than to refuse their claim to be God's people above all others? He was, they dared to imply, outside the Israel of God and the God of Israel. Yet He was the true Israel and the true God.
The second charge had nothing to do with any fault they could find in Him.
In bitter hatred the Jews denounce the Lord Jesus as a Samaritan, which of course was totally false: He was neither born in Samaria nor had He lived there. But because of their bigoted pride they despised Samaritans, and so wanted to class Him with them. But more wickedly still, they accuse Him of having a demon (v. 48). They did this not because of any sin they could find in Him. His divine discernment of them was so clearly supernatural that they used this lying accusation to defend themselves.
He does not hit back. He denies the charge, honours His Father, and leaves the verdict to God.
Every word of theirs showed their moral state, and justified the Lord's calm judgement of them. To think of Him, the Holy One of God, being assailed like this! Had He crushed them at once by His almighty power, who could have charged Him with injustice? But He showed He was the Son of God by His patience and His bearing with the Jews. Calm and unruffled, He answered them, "I have not a demon; but I honour My Father, and you dishonour Me. And I seek not My own glory: there is One that seeks and judges." Little had they thought how their accusation against Him was viewed on high. "He continued entrusting Himself to Him who judges justly," wrote Peter (1 Peter 2:23).
He denied the charge of a demon. The other name He let stand. Later He used it in a parable about grace.
It is in this way that the religious man judges other men, though he himself is under the same judgement — and so he judges God too! The rejected Jesus accepted this name so that He might show in a parable that He alone was the giver of grace, despite this dishonourable position given to Him. Religious men were the opposite: their self-righteousness kept them from being a neighbour to wretched Israel.
Slander is not a sign that something has gone wrong. It is the road He walked first.
No Christian has ever suffered worse dishonour than Christ. The disciple is not above his Lord, and can expect no exemption. And none are so ready to reproach others falsely as those who are themselves really slaves of the enemy. But let us learn from Him who was gentle and lowly in heart, and who calmly rejects their charge that He has a demon. Yet there was no personal resentment, such as belongs to the man who courts his own honour, or who tries to injure those who insult him whenever he can.
- Cornered — They could not answer Him, so they turned to abuse. The insult proved they had no argument left.
- Cast out — "Samaritan" was the worst label a Jew could throw. It put Him outside God's people, yet He was the true Israel and the true God.
- Cover-up — They found no sin in Him. The demon charge was a lie to explain away a discernment they could not face.
- Calm — He denied the charge and honoured His Father. He sought no glory of His own and left the judgement to the One who judges justly.
- Claimed — He never refused the name Samaritan. He turned it into a picture of grace, given where religious men would not be a neighbour.
Jesus answered, I have not a demon; but I honour my Father, and ye dishonour me.
His accusers had just called Jesus a Samaritan and said He had a demon. He denies one charge, ignores the other, and points to the aim that ruled His whole life — the honour of His Father.
The insult in verse 48 was not random. It threw back the two things Jesus had just said about them:
In answer to the Lord's charge that they were not the true children of Abraham (verse 39), they retort that the Lord Himself is no true Jew but a Samaritan. In answer to the charge that they were the children of the devil (verse 44), they say that the Lord Himself has a demon.
He denies the demon. He says nothing about the word "Samaritan." And He does not let the insult end the exchange:
With calm, firm insistence He speaks so that they will not have the last word. He who spoke only truth answers, "I do not have a demon, but I honor My Father, and you dishonor Me." No one else could speak like this.
The phrase was not made for the moment. It sums up a purpose that runs through John's Gospel:
With the Lord Jesus this was always the honour of His Father. This is seen in a very obvious way in John's gospel. "I always do the things that are pleasing to him" (John 8:29). "I seek not my own will but the will of him who sent me" (John 5:30). "…but the one who seeks the glory of him who sent him is true, and in him there is no falsehood" (John 7:18). "I do not have a demon, but I honor My Father, and you dishonor Me" (John 8:49). It was the Father's pleasure, will, glory, and honour that were always His object.
A son honours his father. One writer uses that to show what Christ's obedience was like, and what the believer's becomes:
Under grace the believer is free from the bondage of the law. His obedience is not forced. It is spontaneous and glad — the obedience not of a slave but of a son, crying Abba, Father from the heart. In its character it is the obedience of Christ. "A son honours his father, and a servant his master" (Mal. 1:6); and the subjection of the Son was perfect, as He said Himself, "I honour My Father," and "I have kept My Father's commandments" (John 8:49; John 15:10).
To say He had a demon was to trace His teaching back to Satan. They said the same about His miracles:
According to the prophet Isaiah, they had rejected both the "report" of the Lord and the "arm of the Lord". In the Lord's wonderful words they had heard the report; in His many signs they had seen the arm of the Lord. They had utterly rejected the report as coming from God by attributing the Lord's words to the devil (John 8:49, 52). They had rejected the arm of the Lord by attributing His works to the power of the devil (John 10:20-21).
He does not hit back, and He does not defend His own name. His followers should expect the same treatment:
No Christian has ever suffered worse dishonour than Christ. The disciple is not above his Lord and can expect no exemption. And none are so quick to accuse others falsely as those who are themselves really slaves of the enemy. But let us learn from Him who was meek and lowly in heart, and who now calmly refuses their charge of a demon. Not so — He was honouring His Father, they were dishonouring Him. Yet there was no personal resentment. You see that in a man who chases his own honour, or who hurts those who insult him when he gets the chance.
- Insult — They threw His own words back at Him. He had called them false sons of Abraham and children of the devil, so they called Him a Samaritan with a demon.
- Answer — He denies the demon with calm, firm insistence. No one else could speak like this.
- Aim — "I honor My Father" states the settled aim of His whole life. The Father's pleasure, will, glory and honour were always His object.
- Sonship — A son honours his father. The Son's subjection was perfect, and the believer's obedience takes the same character — a son's, not a slave's.
- Cost — Calling His words the devil's was an outright rejection of God's report. Yet He answered without resentment, and His followers can expect no exemption.
But I do not seek my own glory there is he that seeks and judges.
His enemies have just called Him a Samaritan and said He has a demon. He will not defend His own name; He leaves that to Someone else — but who is this One who seeks and judges?
The words come at the end of a bitter exchange in the temple. What stands out is not the attack but the composure of the answer.
The Lord's plain speaking aroused the anger of His opponents, and they showed it. "Are we not right in saying that you are a Samaritan and have a demon?" (48). Every word of theirs showed their moral state, and justified the Lord's calm judgment of them. To think of Him, the Holy One of God, being attacked like this! Had He crushed them at once by His almighty power, who could have charged Him with injustice? But He showed He was the Son of God by His patience. He bore with the Jews and answered them with a calm, unruffled spirit.
Refusing His own glory was not an isolated moment. It was the settled pattern of His whole life among men, and it set Him apart from everyone around Him.
"The one who speaks on his own authority seeks his own glory" — that is what we are. "But the one who seeks the glory of him who sent him is true, and in him there is no falsehood" — that was the blessed Lord. Again, "I honour my Father… and I do not seek my own glory." (John 8:49-50) He shines out in contrast with all He found in man here — in lowliness, purity, devotion, total absence of self-love, obedience, separation to God, grace and faithfulness to men, in every aspect of what He was. There was no one He could raise to His own level as Man, walking here before God. He was alone.
The unnamed "One" is the Father, and both verbs matter. To seek here is not to grope after something; it is to search out what is hidden.
He who spoke only truth answers, "I do not have a demon; but I honour My Father, and you dishonour Me." No one else could speak in such a way as this, nor say, "I do not seek My own glory." But the believer adores Him for the truth of such words. There is One (the Father) who seeks, that is, searches out in perfect discernment and judges every motive of the heart.
The sentence carries a warning to the men in front of Him. The honour Jesus will not seek for Himself, His Father will secure for Him.
The Lord denies the charge and warns them that they were dishonouring One who sought the honour of the Father and not His own glory. Moreover, let them beware, for there is One — the Father — who will vindicate the honour of the Son and judge all that dishonour Him.
He hands the case to His Father, so He has no need to strike back. He stays ready to save the very men insulting Him.
No Christian has ever suffered worse dishonour than Christ. The disciple is not above his Lord, and can expect no exemption. And none are so quick to reproach others falsely as those who are themselves really slaves of the enemy. But let us learn from Him who was gentle and lowly in heart, and who now calmly denies their charge of a demon. Not so; He was honouring His Father, and they were dishonouring Him. Yet there was no personal resentment. Such resentment belongs to the man who courts his own honour, or who tries to injure those who insult him when he can. He leaves everything with His Father, content Himself to serve, able and ready to save.
This is the pattern for anyone treated unfairly. Keeping quiet under insult is not the same as having no answer.
If we keep silent when insulted, it is not that there is no answer to evil and malice. It is that we leave the answer with God. We are never to try to take vengeance on the wrongdoer. God keeps all vengeance in His own hands. He has said, "Vengeance is mine; I will repay… The Lord will judge his people" (Hebrews 10:30). Our part, then, is to follow in the steps of the Lord Jesus. When insulted, we entrust ourselves to Him who judges justly.
- Attacked. They called Him a Samaritan and said He had a demon. He answered calmly, and that patience showed who He was.
- Refused. He would not seek His own glory. The man who speaks from himself does seek it, and in that contrast He stood alone.
- Searched. The One who seeks is the Father, who searches out and judges every motive of the heart.
- Vindicated. The glory He declines to claim, His Father will secure — and will judge all who dishonour the Son.
- Followed. He left the case with His Father, so no resentment stopped Him from saving. We entrust ourselves to God the same way.
Verily, verily, I say unto you, If any one shall keep my word, he shall never see death.
Jesus said this in the temple courts, to men who were saying He had a demon. His promise raises two questions at once — what does it mean to "keep" His word, and how can a man who dies still never see death?
These words come at the end of a hard exchange. Jesus spoke past His accusers to anyone else still listening.
To reach the consciences of the people seemed hopeless. He had already shown them who their father really was, and nothing He could say would convince them of their error. But this talk was taking place in the temple court. Others there were not yet committed to rejecting Christ, and they might still be won. So He added, "Truly, truly, I say to you, if anyone keeps My word, he will never see death."
So what does it mean to "keep" His word? The answer starts deeper than behaviour.
What then is keeping the word of Christ? It is more than obedience. It is the thing obedience flows from. It is prizing a word so much that you treasure it up in the heart. There, by the power of the Holy Spirit, it shapes you. It produces divine thoughts and affections. It sanctifies through the truth — separating from evil, and purifying even as Christ is pure. Kept within the heart in this way, it becomes the light of the daily path, governing the whole life of the believer.
Why should a word have such power? The answer lies in where life and death each come from.
So He says, "If anyone keeps My word, he will never see death," for He was leading them up to God. This word was the power of life to men. If kept, it was eternal life. The power of death was in the lie and in the power of Satan. But life was in Jesus. If we die, we simply lose death in dying.
The wording is emphatic, and one writer draws out how far it reaches.
John 8:51 has it, "If anyone keeps My word, he will never see death." The exact force of the words is, "he shall not, no, he shall not see death for ever." Such is the power of the word of Christ when it is received, retained, and observed. It conveys to the receiver, and produces in him, its own object, with a force that even eternity does not lessen. "The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life," says the Lord.
Believers still die. So what does this promise mean? It turns on the verb Jesus used.
The Lord can say, "If anyone keeps My word, he will never see death" (John 8:51). The Lord does not say that he will not pass through it, but that he will not see it. Those standing around the deathbed of a dying believer may see death. But the one stepping down into the dark valley sees JESUS.
So the promise covers two freedoms at once:
Not only would such a person be delivered from the bondage of sin, but also from death, the wages of sin.
This promise also forced a question about the Speaker.
This put Jesus above Abraham and all the prophets. Who, then, was Jesus? For all their claims, the Jews were in great difficulty. They felt the force of His words. That can happen even where the will is not changed at all. But they tried to justify themselves in their own eyes by reading His words through human reasoning.
Their objection was that Abraham died. Their problem was pride, not lack of information. One writer notes what an honest listener would have done instead.
Any honest, serious person would have realised that the Lord's words had a deeper meaning than appeared on the surface. Such a person would have wanted to ask about it. But the Jews, in stubborn pride, say even more firmly that He has a demon. As proof they point to the death of Abraham and the prophets. They did not consider what the Lord had told the Pharisees. God is the God of Abraham, and He is not the God of the dead, but of the living (Matthew 22:31-32).
One writer traces their confusion to which death was in view.
The Lord spoke, we believe, of the second death. The Jews only thought of the death of the body. That is why they did not understand Him.
- Word kept — treasure His word in the heart until it shapes thought and conduct. Obedience flows out of that; it does not replace it.
- Word as life — the word kept is itself the power of life; death draws its power from the lie and from Satan.
- Word forever — not, no, not see death, ever. Even eternity does not weaken what that word does.
- Word and dying — Jesus does not say the believer skips death, only that he never sees it. The onlookers see death; the believer sees Jesus.
- Word and the Speaker — this promise lifts Him above Abraham and the prophets. So their question turned from His word to His Person.
The Jews therefore said to him, Now we know that thou hast a demon. Abraham has died, and the prophets, and thou sayest, If any one keep my word, he shall never taste death.
The Jews answer with a verdict, not a question. They take the Lord's promise about keeping His word as proof that He is out of His mind, and they point to the graves of Abraham and the prophets as their evidence.
Their reasoning is simple and, on its own terms, airtight.
The unbelief of the Jews at once seizes on the Lord's words as conclusive evidence to them that He had a demon. They argue: if a man who keeps the words of Christ never sees death, how is it that Abraham and the prophets are dead? Does the Lord claim to be greater than Abraham? Whom does He make Himself to be?
Notice the words they open with — they now know.
Unbelief reasons from its own thoughts, and it is never so confident as when it is completely wrong. So the Jews misread the faithful sayings of the Lord Jesus. They seize on them in triumph as proof that Abraham and the prophets could not belong to His school, for those men, beyond dispute, were already dead. He must have a demon, then, to speak like this.
An honest hearer had another option:
Any honest, serious person would have realized that the Lord's words had a deeper meaning than appeared on the surface. Such a person would have wanted to ask about it. But the Jews, in stubborn pride, insist all the more strongly that He has a demon. As proof they bring forward the death of Abraham and the prophets. They did not consider what the Lord had told the Pharisees: God is the God of Abraham, and He is not the God of the dead, but of the living (Matt. 22:31-32).
They could count funerals; that was the whole of their knowledge of death.
They meet it only with a shout of scorn. They know of no removal of death except one. Their conscience is never stirred, so they do not even know its sting — what makes death death.
The Lord and the Jews were not speaking about the same death.
The Lord was speaking, we believe, of the second death. The Jews thought only of the death of the body. That is why they did not understand Him.
The Lord had not offered an escape from the grave. He had offered Himself, in His word, as life.
Here He says, "If anyone keeps my word," for He was leading them up to God, "he will never see death." This word was the power of life to men. If kept, it was eternal life. The power of death was in the lie and in the power of Satan. But life was in Jesus. If we die, we simply lose death in dying... They saw only the outside of the Word, and the Man, and so the word was madness to them.
The Jews' objection is one any reader can feel: God's people are buried like everyone else.
The wages of sin is not simply the separation of soul and body. Death carries a "sting" and a "terror" that know no rest or comfort. The believer is so completely delivered from these things that he can say, "O death, where is your sting?" The sting of death is "sin," and the precious blood of Christ, which cleanses from all sin, has removed it. The terror is gone too, because he knows that to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. So the New Testament does not call the believer's death "death" at all, but falling asleep in Jesus. This is why the blessed Lord said, "if anyone keeps my word, he will never see death" — "he will never taste death."
Why did He keep speaking to people who would not hear?
To think of Him, the Holy One of God, being assailed like this! Had He crushed them at once by His almighty power, who could have charged Him with injustice? But He showed He was the Son of God by His patience and long-suffering with the Jews... To reach the consciences of the people seemed hopeless. But this discussion was taking place in the Temple court. Others there had not yet firmly rejected Christ, and they might still be won.
- Charge. "Now we know" is unbelief at its most sure of itself — never more confident than when it is wrong.
- Blindness. They took His words from the outside only, so they sounded like madness. An honest hearer would have asked what He meant.
- Word. His promise was not escape from the grave. It was eternal life for anyone who keeps His word, because life was in Jesus.
- Death. They thought only of the death of the body, while He spoke of the second death. The blood of Christ removes death's sting, which is sin, so the New Testament calls the believer's dying falling asleep.
- Patience. "Whom does He make Himself to be?" they demanded. He answered not by crushing them but by patience, speaking on for anyone who might still be won.
Art thou greater than our father Abraham, who has died? and the prophets have died whom makest thou thyself?
Jesus had just promised that anyone who keeps His word will never see death. His hearers answer by pointing at the grave of Abraham. Their reply ends with the real question of the whole chapter: who is this man claiming to be?
The crowd treats the tombs of Abraham and the prophets as a knockdown argument. One writer traces where such confidence comes from, and what it misses about the Man in front of them.
Unbelief reasons from its own thoughts, and is never so confident as when completely wrong. So the Jews misread the faithful sayings of the Lord Jesus. They use them in triumph as proof that Abraham and the prophets could not belong to His school, since those men were already dead — nobody disputed that. He must have a demon, then, to speak like this. Did He set Himself up to be greater than they? Whom did He make Himself? Sadly, it is here that man, Jew or Gentile, is blind. Jesus made Himself nothing, emptied Himself, taking a servant's form, becoming a man though being God over all, blessed forever.
Their objection rests on the only death they had ever thought about — the body in the ground. Their consciences never went deeper.
They meet it only with a shout of mockery. They know of only one way for death to be removed. With no exercise of conscience, they do not even know its sting — what makes death death. Abraham is dead, and the prophets: is He greater, this man who will not allow even His disciples so much as a taste of death?
They demand to know who He claims to be. His reply refuses self-glory. One commentator says this fits both what He is as Man and what He is as God.
They thought they were now clearly justified in rejecting such a Man, however He might have troubled them. "Abraham died, and the prophets died: who do you make yourself out to be?" Jesus answered, "If I glorify myself, my glory is nothing." This was right for Him as Man. It was also true of Him as God, since glorifying Himself would have denied His Deity. The Father glorifies the Son; the Son glorifies the Father; the Spirit glorifies both.
They ask as if the idea were absurd. A woman at a well had raised the same challenge earlier. Both times the answer is the same.
The woman Jesus met at the well in Sychar asked Him, "Are you greater than our father Jacob?" The answer is "Yes, He is." Jacob provided natural water to quench the body's thirst. Jesus supplied living water to satisfy spiritual thirst. The Pharisees asked Jesus if He was greater than Abraham. Again the answer is "Yes, He is." He existed before Abraham was born. The day will dawn when Jesus will fulfil the promises made to Abraham.
The Man they are questioning had walked with Abraham through his whole life.
He was the God of glory who appeared to their father Abraham (Acts 7:2). He was the Jehovah to whom Abraham built his altar between Bethel and Ai (Gen. 12:8). He was the Most High God, possessor of heaven and earth, to whom Abraham lifted up his hand (Gen. 14:22)… He was the God who tested Abraham, requiring that he offer up his only son as a burnt offering (Gen. 22:1-2). He was the Angel of Jehovah who stopped Abraham's hand when he was about to do that very thing.
They call Abraham "our father," yet they refuse the day he rejoiced in. One writer weighs what that link was really worth.
They clung to the splendours handed down to them. They refused the true source of all splendour and blessing. They cried out, "Who do you make yourself out to be?" He could give the astounding reply, "Your father Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day. He saw it and was glad." The link between them and their father Abraham was only traditional. If it had been real, they would have been filled with joy in the presence of that day. Abraham saw that day by faith, and the sight made him glad.
- Boast — They call Abraham "our father," yet the tie is only tradition. The real Abraham was glad at the very day they are refusing.
- Blindness — They are surest where they are most wrong. The One they accuse of self-promotion had emptied Himself and taken a servant's form.
- Death — Their argument works only because they know one kind of death. They have never felt its sting.
- Question — "Who do you make yourself out to be?" A Man who refuses to glorify Himself and leaves that to His Father.
- Greater — Greater than Jacob at the well, greater than Abraham here. He is the God of glory who appeared to Abraham, and He existed before Abraham.
Jesus answered, If I glorify myself, my glory is nothing it is my Father who glorifies me, [of] whom ye say, He is our God.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
And ye know him not; but I know him; and if I said, I know him not, I should be like you, a liar. But I know him, and I keep his word.
These words fall in a bitter argument with men who claim God as their own God while fighting the Son whom the Father honours. Jesus divides that claim: they say they know God and do not, while He knows Him and will not deny it.
One writer treats their claim that God was their God as the key to the whole dispute — and as the lie at the root of everything they were.
"It is My Father that glorifies Me; of whom you say that He is your God: and you have not known Him." Here was the real truth of all, the solution of the great question. "But I have known Him; and if I said, I know Him not" — if I should not own these great truths, then "I should be like you, a liar." Everything they were was a lie, and it came from their father, the devil. They claimed what they were not. They implied a link with God — their false boast, and their lie. They said they knew Him. This was their lie.
Jesus is not volunteering claims here. He is answering hostile questions. The answer they demanded left Him one honest reply.
From verse 11 to the end, it is wonderful to see these evil men arguing with Jesus. They drive Him into a corner, as it were, and force Him to tell them what He is. Otherwise, as He says, He would be "a liar like them."
The verse does not stop at "I know Him." It adds keeping His word — and that is where their claim broke down.
The Lord refuses the suggestion that He is seeking to put honour on Himself; it is the Father who is honouring the Son. They claim the Father as their God, but they contradict their own profession by refusing to hear or keep "His saying."
The same words are true in His mouth and false in theirs. To hold them back would have made Him something other than what He is.
Our Lord had to own it, or He could not be what He was, and what He stated Himself to be: "But I know Him, and I keep His word" — true in Him, false in them. They contradicted the origin they claimed. He did keep His Father's word; He was true.
Why should knowing and keeping run together? Because of what Christ knew — God's own nature.
But I also get the knowledge of what God is in His nature. Christ as a man had perfect knowledge of God; and so perfect obedience and love to His Father flowed out in Him.
There is a warning here that cuts two ways: against pretending to know God, and against denying it when you do.
He never sought His own glory; He always kept His Father's word. He could say, from first to last, I know Him — in everything leaving us an example that we should follow His steps. We may learn from Him here. For men of the world to pretend they know God the Father is the grossest presumption. For a child of His to deny that he knows Him is the greatest wrong. "If I should say, I know Him not, I shall be like you a liar." But the one who claims to know Him keeps His word. In this he gives the evidence of reality alongside the claim.
- The boast — They said God was their God. That claim, held alongside their hatred of the Son, was itself the lie the Lord exposes.
- The exposure — Cornered by their own questions, He had to say who He was; to stay silent would have made Him what they were.
- The truth — What He knew was God's nature, and out of that knowledge perfect obedience and love flowed.
- The proof — Keeping His word proves the knowing. They refused His saying; He kept His Father's word, so the same words were true in Him and false in them.
- The call — It is presumption for the world to claim knowledge of the Father, and it is wrong for His child to deny it. Keeping His word makes the claim real.
Your father Abraham exulted in that he should see my day, and he saw and rejoiced.
The Jews had just asked whether this man could rank higher than the father of their nation. His reply pointed back to Abraham himself, who had looked ahead and seen Him. The verse raises two questions: what is "my day," and how could a man long dead have seen it?
This answers a direct challenge about His rank. It points back to a promise God made to Abraham about his offspring.
Was He greater than Abraham? It is tragic that they did not know He is infinitely greater than Abraham and all others... His answer is that Abraham rejoiced as he thought about His day. For Abraham was told, "in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed" (Gen. 22:18).
"My day" does not simply mean "my lifetime." It points to one particular day, and Abraham held the promises tied to it.
I understand that by "my day" He means the day of Christ's glory. It does not loosely mean the time of Christ, but the day when He will be displayed in glory. Abraham looked for that day of Christ's appearing in glory, and he saw it and was glad. It was the day when the promises would come true, and the man who held the promises naturally looked for the time when God would make them good in Christ.
Commentators differ over whether Abraham was looking at the cross or beyond it. One view is that the promise, not the sacrifice, filled his sight.
The first coming was not mainly in view, as some have thought — not in a technical sense and not in substance. What was in view was the day when God will prove His word and oath true before a wondering and rejoicing world... Abraham may have had some glimpse of the truth that the sacrifice on Moriah pointed to. Even so, he was looking to the promise in its full completion.
Others locate the seeing on the mountain where Isaac was bound. There Abraham spoke two prophetic sentences, and a ram died in his son's place.
In a figure, Abraham receives Isaac from the dead (Heb. 11:19). But if Isaac is to go free, death must come on the ram caught in the thicket — a further picture of the Lamb that God provides. During this wonderful scene Abraham makes two prophetic statements. The first is, "God will provide for Himself the lamb for a burnt offering." The second is, "On the mount of the LORD it shall be provided." So the Lord could say, "Your father Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day. He saw it and was glad" (John 8:56).
How could Abraham see a day so far ahead? By faith — the same faith that shaped everything else he hoped for.
The same faith that enabled Abraham to look for "the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God," and that gave him the desire for "a better country, that is, a heavenly one" (Heb. 11:10, 16), gave him the vision to see the day of Christ.
His hearers missed this, and their mistake drew out an even greater claim.
The Lord did not hesitate to meet their challenge about Abraham. He lets the Jews know that the father of the faithful was thrilled to see His day — His appearing in glory, I take it — and saw it and rejoiced. It was, of course, by faith... but the Jews took it all in a physical way. They argued from His young age to deny that Abraham had seen Him. Then the still deeper word comes out: "before Abraham was, I am," the ever-existing One.
Each stage in the verse grows out of the one before it.
His "rejoicing" was the earlier state of his soul. It tells us that he took an interest in the hints God had given him about Christ. They were few and faint, but they captured his heart. The glimpses were powerful. And the Lord honoured such affection, and gave His servant a fuller vision... Then we read, "he was glad." He used the knowledge he gained well, just as he had sought it well. His heart was in the search, and it was not cooled or deadened when he had found.
The name they were hiding behind turns and testifies against them.
It was "My day" that made the very Abraham you boast in glad. He had faith in what you are rejecting. He was the opposite of you. I was his glory. He delighted in it. His triumph was that he should see My day, and he saw it and rejoiced — the day of the Messiah, which all the earlier pictures pointed to.
- Promise — God told Abraham that all nations would be blessed in his offspring. So he looked ahead to the day when Christ would make that good.
- Sight — He saw that day by faith, not with his eyes. The faith that made him look for a city built by God also showed him the day of Christ.
- Gladness — Faint glimpses caught his heart. God answered with a fuller vision, and the joy never cooled.
- Dispute — Commentators differ on which day. Some point to Moriah, where a ram died in Isaac's place. Others point to the day when God proves His word and oath true before the world.
- Verdict — The father they boasted in loved the One they were rejecting. The argument then moves past Abraham to "before Abraham was, I am."
The Jews therefore said to him, Thou hast not yet fifty years, and hast thou seen Abraham?
Jesus had just said that Abraham rejoiced to see His day. The Jews answer with a tape measure: a man who looks His age could never have met Abraham, long dead. Was their arithmetic wrong, or was the whole question wrong?
Their objection was not stupid. On their own level it was sound — and that was the problem. One writer traces the failure to a habit of mind, not a slip in logic.
The Jews were absorbed, not in the truth of their system, but in the mere ignorance of acting on present appearances. This is a deep and essential principle of error, and one has to watch for it. It does not see God and things according to His mind — which was exactly what was in question. It brings the mind of man into the things of God. The Jews therefore said to Him, "You are not yet fifty years old, and have you seen Abraham?" They thought the meaning of this was the same, because they looked no further than the outside. On man's ground, the Jewish reasoning was generally correct. Morally it was utterly wrong. It had no conscience in it, and so it was without God and without what God alone could teach. They now brought it to the point of the mere manhood of Christ — the point of their darkness.
Commentators differ over the number. Why fifty? One writer weighs two answers: certain verses in Numbers, or the way His face already looked.
One could explain the "fifty" from Numbers 4:3, 39 and Numbers 8:24, but it probably means what most suppose — that the blessed Saviour had aged before His time.
If His face did look older than His years, what put the lines there? One writer traces them to what He carried for others, and refuses to read any decay into Him.
On one occasion people speak to the "Man of sorrows" as though He looked nearly fifty years old (John 8:57). But from that I am to learn only how He had borne sorrows and services for our blessing and the Father's glory. In such marks I am to read Him whose "face was marred more than any man's." They came from what He endured for us and from the opposition of sinners against Him. They did not come, in the smallest degree, from the decay of natural old age. Such decay could never belong to Him.
Their question changed what He said. He spoke of Abraham seeing His day, not of Himself seeing Abraham. And one writer places that day in the future, not the past. The objection only works against a mere man.
"You are not yet fifty years old, and have you seen Abraham?" They no doubt thought their objection could not be answered. And it could not have been, had the Jews been opposing a mere man. But the day the Lord was speaking of was future, and it still is. It is that millennial time when, like Melchizedek, He will come out and bless a victorious people, after all their conflict and warfare are over. They did not see who they were speaking to, so of course they could not understand the future tied to His day. He did not, however, say here that He had seen Abraham — true though that was — but that Abraham saw His day.
He did not correct their sum. He answered on ground where age means nothing. His next words are not a claim to be very old, but a claim to be.
"You are not yet fifty years old," they reply, "and have you seen Abraham?" His answer is the full unveiling of His glory. He claims for Himself the title of Deity that belongs to no one else: "Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham came into being, I AM."
The whole chapter runs on the same tragedy. Each new word about who He was drew a new objection. Their question about His age was one more proof for a verdict they had already reached.
Their minds were in conflict with everything He said. They were puzzled, and full of questions. Where was His Father? Where would He go that they would be unable to find Him? Who was He? In their view He was a Samaritan with a demon. They were shocked to hear Him say that whoever kept His word would never see death. And how could a man not yet fifty years old have seen Abraham? The light was too strong for them. Its fierce glare left them blind.
- Measure — They measured an eternal Person with a human yardstick. The sum was right on man's ground and wholly wrong before God.
- Marks — The "fifty years" may point to a face aged before its time. Those marks came from sorrows borne for others, not from any decay in Him.
- Misquote — He never said He had seen Abraham; He said Abraham saw His day, a day still future.
- Majesty — He did not argue about age. He answered with the name of God, claiming a title no creature can share.
- Missed — The light that should have shown them who He was only dazzled them. The strongest proof of His glory became their reason to reject Him.
Jesus said to them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am.
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