Notes on John 8:31-59
But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.
John 1:12-13
***
If anyone’s reasoning for being spiritually “okay” or being “a good person” has anything to do with something other that the grace of God through the work of Jesus Christ on the cross, they are absolutely not “okay.”
In John chapter 8, Jesus continued to go back and forth with the Jews about what it means to actually be a child of God. Some were impressed by His teaching, but then bristled when He extends the implications of His call to reliance upon God’s truth (32). Then, and then only, would they be free. At that point, they insisted that they were free because they were Abraham’s descendants.
Somewhere along the line their cultural identity overshadowed their spiritual identity. Their parentage and ethnicity became sufficient in their minds. Knowing that they were God’s chosen people, they became apathetic towards the essential marks of the covenant: faithful worship, adherence to revealed truth, and the receiving the promised messiah being three things they were woefully negligent with.
Jesus cut to the heart of the matter: although they were ethnically Israelites they were slaves to their father, the devil (44). Rejecting God’s anointed one pitted them as antagonistic enemies of God (49). No lineage or religious affiliation will ever save anyone.
Because He is the truth, He spelled it out as plainly for them as He could: “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was born, I am” (58). With these specific words, Jesus claimed equality with the Father. Essentially He said, in the most blatantly clear terms that His audience would understand, “I am Yahweh, God of Abraham and your God.”
The strength of Jesus’ truth wasn’t just profound for the callous religious institution of the first century. We should be reminded that “all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment” (Isaiah 64:6). Only through Jesus’ completed, perfect work on the cross can we know God, let alone please Him.
Relying on being good, or being “okay” because of our associations will never merit righteousness. The face of God will never be seen by those who try their hardest, give the most, or are the best. Only the substitutionary atonement of Jesus – He took our place and He paid our price – allows for this wonderful truth: “Truly, truly, I say to you, if anyone keeps My word he will never see death” (John 8:21).
***
But it is not as though the word of God has failed. For they are not all Israel who are descended from Israel; nor are they all children because they are Abraham’s descendants, but: “through Isaac your descendants will be named.” That is, it is not the children of the flesh who are children of God, but the children of the promise are regarded as descendants.
Romans 9:6-8
