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The Gospel of John, The Period of Conflict, Continuing discourse after the feast, Jesus as the Light of the World, Part XIII, John 8:21-27 - Lesson 60
Read Verses John 8:21-24, for review and then continue our study with John 8:25:
John 8:21-24, Then said Jesus again unto them, I go my way, and ye shall seek me, and shall die in your sins: whither I go, ye cannot come. Then said the Jews, Will he kill himself? because he saith, Whither I go, ye cannot come. And he said unto them, Ye are from beneath; I am from above: ye are of this world; I am not of this world. I said therefore unto you, that ye shall die in your sins: for if ye believe not that I am he, ye shall die in your sins.
John 8:25, Then said they unto him, Who art thou? And Jesus saith unto them, Even the same that I said unto you from the beginning.
This phrase, "Even the same that I said unto you from the beginning," indicates that Jesus Christ is saying to these unbelievers, "How can your question be answered?"
It indicates that Jesus Christ was saying, "Why should I speak to you at all?"
I don't need to answer that question.
Look at my life!
The fact that they asked such a question as "Who art thou?" indicated to him their unbelief.
Who art thou? could have been said, What are your credentials?
What group are you with? Who is backing you?
We need to know who endorses you before we can judge whether to accept you, to believe you.
Are you one of us?
Do you think like us?
Make it easy for us.
We don't want to think.
If we know someone that we like, likes you, then we will know what to think.
We will know if we should like you.
But Jesus does not oblige their unbelief.
They had seen his works, they had seen his countless miracles, they had seen his cleansing of the lepers, they had seen his feeding of the multitudes, and his raising of the dead.
They had heard him speak with authority as no man had ever spoken before.
By the words, "Even the same that I said unto you from the beginning," He means:
I am exactly what I say. My words match my actions.
My words and my life are the same.
You want to know who I am.
I am my testimony.
I am my actions.
You see what I do, you see me!
My theory is my practice!
There is no difference!
You are good at judging by appearance!
If you truly judge me by appearance you will come to the right conclusion because I am exactly what my actions show me to be.
They match perfectly.
There is no hypocrisy!
No division in what you see and what really is.
I am altogether that which I speak unto you.
There is no schism between what I am and what you see.
Jesus Christ truly lives out Heb 13:8, Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever.
Shouldn't this be a mark of a Christian?
Aren't you a new creation in Christ Jesus?
Are you not predestinated to be conformed to the image of his Son?
Shouldn't you and the outworking of you, that is what people see of you, be the same?
It was perfectly that way with Jesus.
John 8:26,27, I have many things to say and to judge of you: but he that sent me is true; and I speak to the world those things which I have heard of him. They understood not that he spake to them of the Father.
One writer has paraphrased this verse in this way:
Your incredulity is very reprehensible, and your insulting sneers deserve the severest censure, but I forbear.
Christ delays his judgment of these unbelieving critics.
He has many things to say to them and someday he will pass sentence upon them.
But instead of censuring them he again affirms that the one who sent him is true and that which he speaks is the exact message of the Father, the one who sent him.
But they understood not because they were in darkness and without the illumination of the Spirit of God they would forever stay in the darkness.
They did not want the light, otherwise Jesus Christ would have given them light.
They were natural men and they wanted to remain natural men.
But as we know from 1 Cor 2:14, ...the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. |