The patriarch Abraham had an
outstanding journey with God. We know him as the Father of faith. God had
blessed him and promised to bless his descendants as well. When we look at his
descendants, we will discover that he had a mixture of good as well as not so
good offspring. This brings us to the conclusion that while having a godly ancestry
is advantageous, it does not guarantee that everyone from that lineage would be
spiritually healthy. For this reason, John 8:37-47 is a significant passage of
Scripture. These verses reveal to us concerning people, who despite their exceptional
inheritance, had come to wrong assumptions that ultimately damaged their spiritual
health. Here the Lord set to straighten them. As we reflect on them, God will
help us to check our own spiritual health.
In reading these verses, we can feel
the aggression of the Lord. He had implied that the Jewish people who
confronted Him were walking in darkness. He also said that they were from the realm
below and were in danger of the fires of hell. He even told them that they were
in bondage to sin. He then got more brutal in His assessment of them. So we read
in verses 37-38 where He said, “I
know that you are Abraham’s descendants; yet you seek to kill Me, because My word has no place in you. I speak the things which I have seen with My Father; therefore you also do the things
which you heard from your father.”
Basically the Lord showed them how
flawed they were in thinking that they were spiritually healthy based on two
presuppositions. Firstly that their physical ancestry made them spiritually
strong. Secondly, their spiritual heritage made them spiritually right. They
had a spirit of entitlement. They felt that their heritage entitled them to
spiritual health even though they did not do a thing to cultivate it. So as expected,
they answered Jesus, saying “Abraham is our father.” In saying that, they were
implying that because they came from the line of Abraham, they had the right to
feel righteous and the right to the eternal kingdom. They insisted that even though
they could be sinners, unbelievers and disobedient to God, their security was
sealed in the fact that they were Abraham’s off-springs.
In verses 39-40, Jesus showed them
how wrong they were. Unlike them, Abraham responded in obedience when He heard
the truth. That was his outstanding mark. Though the society he lived in was
idolatrous, when he heard the truth, he resolutely obeyed the truth. Jesus
insisted that the Jews listening to Him were unlike Abraham. How? They tried to
kill Him even though He came bearing the truth to them. One thought of our
consideration: our confession is nothing if we are not acting according to the
truth. We can claim to be from a godly parentage, but the important criterion is
whether our actions show it. Actions always speak louder than words. What we
are, speak more loudly and clearly than what we say. A picture always paints a better
and clearer portrait than a thousand words. So Jesus told them, “If you are Abraham’s children, do the
deeds of Abraham.” Then He proceeded to tell them that by their
deeds, they reveal their true ancestry, the devil.
The Jews insisted that they were not
illegitimate children. They insisted that ‘The only Father we have is God
himself’ ” They insinuated that they were unlike Jesus and not
illegitimate children. Their insistent that they were children of God were
misplaced and had no basis. Here Jesus provided two keys for us to distinguish
between children of God and those who are not. The first key is one’s love for
Christ. So He said, “If God
were your Father, you would love Me, for I proceeded forth and have come from God, for I have not even come on My own initiative, but He sent Me.” Jesus is the very
expression of God. One’s claim to love God is best seen in how one loves
Christ. The greatest test of genuine faith is our love for Christ. Have we
loved Him above all else?
The second key is found
in how one responds
to God’s Word. People who can’t respond rightly are those who have no
understanding of the Word because they are not hearing it rightly. They did not
hear it from the depth of their soul. They would analyze every word Jesus said,
but still can’t discern the truth. That’s because spiritual things are
spiritually discerned. Do we hear God’s Word with our spiritual ears? When we
come to the Word of God, we must hear what the spirit of God is truly saying. Jesus
told them where their problem was. He told them that in their steep
disobedience, they betrayed their real ancestry. They were reflecting the
traits of the devil, the deceiver. Hence they lived a life of deceit. They deceived
themselves about life, about Christ, about God, about the way of salvation. What’s
sad is that one can sadly mistaken that he or she is a child of God when in
reality is not. That’s the ultimate deception.
Our claim to be Christ’s is best
seen in our love for Him. It is best seen in how much His Word has occupied our
heart. It is best seen in how considerably we have changed in our conduct and
behavior. What’s our evaluation of ourselves? This will indicate whether we are genuine
children of God.
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