John 8:31-42
One of Jesus' more memorable statements is John 8:32, and He elaborates on it.
Schools of philosophy and law schools sometimes put this statement in stone on
the outside of building or monuments. And there is to some extent applicability
to the natural life apart from God, because God created the universe and
mankind to run in this way. Falsehood and fantasy are two orthogonal departures
from the truth. Knowing the truth frees us from them to return to reality.
Whether one is balancing his or her household budget or building a bridge,
truth is understanding reality. In legal trials, the truth is supposed to be
paramount; the verdict (word of truth in Latin) should not be influenced by politics
or friendship or family relationship or bribery. The truth is arrived at by
presenting and examining evidence, and using logic to determine what the
evidence means. The Pharisees were well steeped in the Mosaic tradition.
But
Jesus has in mind here a different level of truth. We can dismiss as mere rhetoric
that Jews' claim that they had never been slaves of anyone. Besides the fact
that was not what Jesus meant, they knew full well that Israel had been slaves
of Egypt, and then later of the Babylonians and Assyrians, then the Greeks and
then the Romans. But Jesus was talking about slavery to sin. Jesus explained
the power of sin to enslave. Whether one is talking about murder, sexual
immorality, theft, or dissimulation, or more modern sins such as greed,
non-prescription pharmaceutical or alcohol abuse, the essence of sin is
self-centeredness. The deceit of sin is that we think it is a choice we make,
when in reality, once we have chosen it, it becomes the master and we are the
slave. Except ... that Jesus here pronounces that the slavery of sin is not eternal. There will come a day when
the chains of sin will be broken. Just as Jesus had freed the woman caught in
the act of adultery earlier that day from the condemnation and judgment of her
sin, He will do for anyone who comes to Him. That power comes only from God.
There is no human power or method or mechanism that can break the power of sin.
Reform, training, discipline, or willpower - individually or in combination -
are not able to deliver from the power and penalty of sin. It is a level of
spiritual truth that comes from direct relationship with God the Father that
frees from sin. We must respond to this relationship with obedience but the
relationship is the first step. The ultimate truth is God, and we partake of it
when we are connected to Him. It is not the truth of accurate propositional
statements or the truth of correctly interpreted evidence. It is the truth of
an eternal reality that we come to know in an experiential sense.
The
conversation then degenerates into an argument about parentage. Jesus observes
that they are not behaving much like Abraham's seed since they are seeking to
kill Him because He told them truth. By contrast, He is doing the will of God
His Father. Naturally their response is based on their completely worldly view
of life. Jesus was born less than nine months after Mary and Joseph were
married. They claim God as their Father. And so it boils down to this. Claiming
sonship is not just a biological or genetic heritage. Relationship is
demonstrated through behavior. We often say something about a person bringing
honor or shame on the family name. And so it is that Jesus is invoking behavior
as the ultimate proof of parentage.
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