Joh 8:33-39 | KingComments | STEP | He holds it up to the Jews who believe in Him that true disciples show their faith by continuing in His word. True faith is manifested by continuing in the word of Christ. It is not something that can be done in one’s own power. Someone who believes continues in His word, feeds on it, listens to it, is obedient to it. Someone who simply says that he believes can perhaps keep the appearance of continuing in His word for a while, but there comes a moment when he will show himself in his true unconverted nature by clearly distancing himself from the word of the Lord. Continuing in the Lord’s word results in the truth being known and to be made free from any bondage to any sin. Truth does not lead to slavery, as the law does, but to freedom. The law makes it clear to man that he is a sinner, and does so by imposing on him a yoke that he cannot bear and, as a result, condemns him. Also the truth of the word of Christ makes it clear to man that he is a sinner, but that word also gives the solution in Christ. He has borne the curse and judgment associated with the law for everyone who believes in Him ( ). That truth makes free indeed. Once again the Jews show their utter blindness by interpreting the words of the Lord in a literal sense. They protest against the idea that they should be set free, because that would mean they are slaves. Such a thought they throw far from them. They think only of an outward freedom and claim that as Abraham’s descendants they have never served anyone. Have they forgotten that at the moment they say this they are subject to the Romans? Have they also forgotten how they were often subjected to heathen rulers in the past? Every submission to powers that God brought upon them was because of their sins. They became so accustomed to it that they forgot that they are in slavery. Even less are they aware of the yoke of sin under which they are. So blinded and hardened they have become. The same thinking can be found in Christians who believe that through baptism – which, in their (wrong) opinion, took the place of circumcision – they have been incorporated into the descendancy of Abraham and therefore automatically partake of Abraham’s blessing. The answer of the Lord leaves no room for misunderstanding. He again begins His answer with a double “truly” and an authoritative “I say to you”. Then He says that every person who has sin as the practice of his life is a slave of sin. They are people who are characterized by sin, not believers who fall into sin through inattention ( ). Every person who does not believe in Him is a slave of sin. The Jews are not only slaves of sin, but they are also in bondage under the law ( ). They are Jews under the law and as such they are now slaves in the house, that is the house of Israel. They will be sent away from there by the judgment that God will bring on them by the Romans. For slaves there is no permanent place in the house of Israel, being a house in which God dwells. The Son has inalienable rights. He belongs in the house and will remain there forever, as will all those who have been made free by Him. He is not just a ‘son’, He is the Son. Not only is He free as Son, but He makes free. He grants to everyone He frees the same characteristic of freedom as the freedom that is His own as the Son. He frees from sin, death and law. That is to be free indeed. This freedom is only given to a person when He believes in the Lord Jesus.

‏ John 8:33-39

To Be Free Indeed

He holds it up to the Jews who believe in Him that true disciples show their faith by continuing in His word. True faith is manifested by continuing in the word of Christ. It is not something that can be done in one’s own power. Someone who believes continues in His word, feeds on it, listens to it, is obedient to it. Someone who simply says that he believes can perhaps keep the appearance of continuing in His word for a while, but there comes a moment when he will show himself in his true unconverted nature by clearly distancing himself from the word of the Lord.

Continuing in the Lord’s word results in the truth being known and to be made free from any bondage to any sin. Truth does not lead to slavery, as the law does, but to freedom. The law makes it clear to man that he is a sinner, and does so by imposing on him a yoke that he cannot bear and, as a result, condemns him. Also the truth of the word of Christ makes it clear to man that he is a sinner, but that word also gives the solution in Christ. He has borne the curse and judgment associated with the law for everyone who believes in Him (Gal 3:13). That truth makes free indeed.

Once again the Jews show their utter blindness by interpreting the words of the Lord in a literal sense. They protest against the idea that they should be set free, because that would mean they are slaves. Such a thought they throw far from them. They think only of an outward freedom and claim that as Abraham’s descendants they have never served anyone. Have they forgotten that at the moment they say this they are subject to the Romans? Have they also forgotten how they were often subjected to heathen rulers in the past? Every submission to powers that God brought upon them was because of their sins.

They became so accustomed to it that they forgot that they are in slavery. Even less are they aware of the yoke of sin under which they are. So blinded and hardened they have become. The same thinking can be found in Christians who believe that through baptism – which, in their (wrong) opinion, took the place of circumcision – they have been incorporated into the descendancy of Abraham and therefore automatically partake of Abraham’s blessing.

The answer of the Lord leaves no room for misunderstanding. He again begins His answer with a double “truly” and an authoritative “I say to you”. Then He says that every person who has sin as the practice of his life is a slave of sin. They are people who are characterized by sin, not believers who fall into sin through inattention (Gal 6:1). Every person who does not believe in Him is a slave of sin.

The Jews are not only slaves of sin, but they are also in bondage under the law (Gal 4:3). They are Jews under the law and as such they are now slaves in the house, that is the house of Israel. They will be sent away from there by the judgment that God will bring on them by the Romans.

For slaves there is no permanent place in the house of Israel, being a house in which God dwells. The Son has inalienable rights. He belongs in the house and will remain there forever, as will all those who have been made free by Him. He is not just a ‘son’, He is the Son. Not only is He free as Son, but He makes free. He grants to everyone He frees the same characteristic of freedom as the freedom that is His own as the Son. He frees from sin, death and law. That is to be free indeed. This freedom is only given to a person when He believes in the Lord Jesus.

Abraham’s Descendants, but of the Devil

When they have said that they are Abraham’s descendants (Jn 8:33), the Lord knows and acknowledges that. He knows that, as far as their physical ancestry is concerned, they are descendants of Abraham. But that does not mean that they also possess the faith of Abraham. They demonstrate the opposite, for they are trying to kill Him. That is because His word is not accepted by them. Whoever closes himself off to the word of the Lord, becomes a murderer of the Lord. Therefore, they prove that they are not descendants of Abraham in a spiritual sense.

The Son speaks what He has seen with His Father, and His words are spirit and life (Jn 6:63). They also speak what they have heard from their father. Later the Lord will tell what He means by that. First He points out that everyone speaks according to the source with which he is connected and that the words that everyone speaks bear the hallmark of that. But they persistently maintain that they are descended from Abraham, he is their father.

The Lord holds out to them that they would do the works of Abraham if they were true children of Abraham, i.e. they would act according to the faith of Abraham. A child acts according to the nature of his father. Physically they are descendants, but they are not children, because they do not act according to the faith of Abraham, they do not have Abraham’s nature of faith. Their behavior demonstrates something completely different. Abraham believed in Him, but they are trying to kill Him. And why are they trying to kill Him? Because He spoke the truth to them and that even as Man.

The Lord Jesus presents Himself here in the most humble way imaginable. He does not even ask that they believe in Him as the Son of God, but says that He has spoken the truth to them as “a man”. But they completely shut themselves off from the truth, no matter how it comes to them. Abraham did not do that. Abraham never rebelled against God.

Then the Lord says that they do the works of their true, that is their spiritual father. They respond to this with a comment that may contain a blasphemy regarding His birth. When they say “we were not born of fornication” – with the emphasis on “we” – they may mean that the Lord was born of fornication. After all, Joseph and Mary were not married when He was born, were they? There are other slanderous things that have been said in the course of church history about His supernatural birth. In any case, they were not born that way. It may also be that they interpreted His words as an accusation of idolatry, that they had idols as a father and worshiped idols and thus committed spiritual fornication.

In any case, they totally reject the Lord’s accusation that they have another father than God. They have one Father and that is God. More and more the Lord makes it clear how completely alien they are to a true connection with God. The more they boast about it and claim that connection, the more His words reveal their true condition.

Their increasing resistance gives the Lord the opportunity to expose their enmity and hatred completely in the light. If God were truly their Father, they would love Him, the Son, for He has gone out and come from God, and yet they reject Him. This clearly proves that God is not their Father. They are also blind to the perfect connection between the Son and the Father which is evidenced by the unity of action of the Father and the Son. The Son did not come on His own initiative, without consultation with the Father, but the Father sent Him. It is impossible to know God as Father and at the same time reject the Son.

What the Lord says in Jn 8:42 is also a clear statement regarding the so-called fatherhood of God as Father of all people. God is not the Father of all people; He is only the Father of those who have the Son as their life. They know Him and love Him.

The opponents of the Lord do not understand what He is saying because they are spiritually deaf to His words. He speaks in their national language, but they do not understand the meaning of the words He uses to express His thoughts, which are the same as God’s thoughts. His word is the revelation of His Person. His word shows Who He is, but they are both blind and deaf. Everything He says reveals Who He is, but they shut themselves off from Him and therefore they do not understand what He is saying.

Then the Lord Jesus says in plain language that the devil is their father, that they originate from him and that as true children of that father they do his desires. As children of the devil they reveal the character traits of the devil. The desires of the devil match the nature of the devil. The devil has three characteristics: murder and corruption, with corruption having two aspects, namely covetousness and lie. His children standing here in front of the Lord Jesus reveal these characteristics. They want to kill Him because they are driven by their own covetousness and they use lies as a weapon to get rid of Him.

The devil is not only alien to life, in the sense that he has no life, but he is also out to take life away from every human being. That is his character right from the beginning of his existence as devil. He seeks to kill every human being. At the same time he is completely alien to the truth, he has no part in it. There is not a shred of truth in him. His nature is that of a liar. The only thing he can do is lie. When he claims something that resembles truth, it still comes from the lie, not from God and is meant to spread the lie. He is the source of the lie.

These people to whom the Lord speaks here have the devil for their father. The Jews would rather believe the lie than the truth. By the way, this applies to all people. The Lord does not speak so much of a choice for the lie because they do not want to believe the truth, although that also is the case. He says that they do not believe Him because He is telling the truth.

Everything He says is the truth and absolutely free from any lie. His speaking of the truth reveals them as children of the devil. His speaking of the truth is diametrically opposed to their speaking of the lie and doing the desires of their father, the devil.

He alone can say, without any boasting: “Which one of you convicts Me of sin?” Never has any man been able to say that, be it the greatest sinner or the greatest apostle. Here two worlds stand opposite each other. He is telling the truth, He cannot do otherwise, for there is no sin in Him (1Jn 3:5). So why don’t they believe? The Lord Himself gives the answer. Only he who is of God hears the words God speaks. They do not hear because they are not of God.