Let’s listen in to this argument. It began earlier. We join it just after Jesus has addressed some of his hearers who, we have been told, have believed in Jesus as the son of the father above. He has asked them to abide, to stay, in that reality as his disciples, as sons of God. That true-reality will free them.
As you can see – above – these folk are angry. They are already totally free, being God’s chosen people by physical descent from Abraham through Isaac.
Jesus answered them, “Amen, amen I state to you, that everyone doing sin is a slave of sin. In fact the slave does not stay in the household into eternity; the son stays into eternity. So if the son may free you, you will actually be free.”
Not so, Jesus says. Everyone “doing” sin, in any way, shape or form, is a slave to sin. And slaves to sin, even if they live temporarily in God the father’s “household”, can never ever stay there permanently. Only “sons” can stay in that household “into eternity”. Anyone made free by the son of the father above, will actually, really, be free.
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“I have discerned that you are seed of Abraham, but you are seeking to annihilate me, in that my own word has no space in you. I speak the things I myself have discerned with the father; so also, you do the things you heard with the father.”
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Jesus also needs to answer the “descendant of Abraham” claim. So he points out one highly relevant – and determining – factor for them to consider.
Their ancestor, Abraham, believed into and followed the Lord God above. If Jesus’ hearers are intent on annihilating him (Jesus) then they are not, in real reality and truth, “seed of Abraham.” Ouch!
They answered and said to him, “Abraham is our father!”
The argument gets even hotter.
Jesus states to them, “If you are children of Abraham, you would be doing the works of Abraham. Right now in fact you are seeking to annihilate me, a man who has spoken to you the real thing which I heard from God; this Abraham did not do. You do the works of your father.”
The point is well made – with renewed emphasis on their participation in his annihilation. That’s quite a test. How can they hope ever to be in God’s heaven if they want Jesus totally killed and eliminated?
But Jesus added a further observation. These folk also have a father, just as Jesus has a father above who sent him into the world. Their father is the one whose works they are doing. What works of their father are they doing? Is it the annihilation of Jesus? |
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They said to him, “We ourselves were not born out of sexual immorality. We have one father – God!”
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The argument has become personal. The circumstances surrounding Jesus’ birth lead them to hint at his bastardy. And to state their legitimacy - from God.
Jesus said to them, “If God was your father, then you were loving me, because I came out from God and am arriving, because I have not come away of myself, but that one sent me out. Through what do you not know my own speech, so that you are not able to hear my own word? You are from the father, the diabolical one, and you desire to do the desires of your father. That one was a man-killer from the beginning, and was not standing in the true-reality, in that no true-reality is in him. When he may speak the false thing, he speaks from his own, in that he is a deceiver and the father of it. In fact in that I state the true-reality, you do not believe me. Who among you reproves me concerning sin? If I state true-reality, through what do you not believe me? The one being from God hears the messages of God. Through this you yourselves do not hear—in that you are not from God.”
Further clarification was necessary for them. Jesus provided it to them. Their family likeness – their intended annihilation of the son of the father above who had sent Jesus out as well as their deceit about that and much else besides – identified them as sons of their father. Did they listen?
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