John 8:12-20 Truth Justice and Legalities
The overarching theme of the Gospel of John is John 20:31, “but these have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name.”
In chapter 8 the theme is; How can we know the truth of these matters?
-Knowledge
In response to Jesus’ startling claims about himself the Pharisees respond that a man who claims to be a duck needs corroborating evidence. Jesus provides the best evidence for his claims. First, Jesus claims self-knowledge to a degree not possible for mortals. Jesus says that he knows where he came from and where he is going. The inference is clearly more than that he knew where he was born and had plans for the future. Anyone can say as much, but only Jesus knows his existence from eternity past and his endless kingdom now and forever. Where were you a hundred years ago? Where will you be a hundred years from now? These questions are utterly beyond us but Jesus asserts that he can fathom the unfathomable.
In contrast, the Pharisees don’t know anything about where Jesus came from or where he was going. They thought they knew all about Jesus but they knew nothing. As Mark Twain put it, “What gets us into trouble is not what we don’t know. It’s what we know for sure that just ain’t so.”
The Pharisees, then and now, judged by standards that they set up to be reachable for them but allowed them to sneer at anyone who wasn’t in their group. Jesus’ term ‘the flesh’ is an accurate summation of their ideas about ancestry and genealogy, circumcision, ritual washing and so on. Their conception of ‘good’ excluded most of humanity. Jesus’ way of transformation is for everyone (whosoever will) but requires the most difficult act of will, self-denial, that even the Pharisees did not aspire to.
Job 42:5-6 My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you.Therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes.’
-Impartiality
Jesus’ judgment is sound because he is not about his own business but about the business of the Father who sent him. “I stand with the Father who sent me.” Those are glorious words that every believer should be able to use with certainty. The Pharisees didn’t know Jesus or the Father but they could hear Jesus’ witness concerning himself and they could see the business of the Father being conducted in Jesus’ works, thus verifying that Jesus had the witness of the Father on his side. There are the two witnesses required for verification.
Colossians 3:2-4 Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.
-Integrity
The Pharisees don’t want to hear the truth. Now they lose face with a cheap dig about Jesus’ parents. They knew about his birth and were happy to believe the worst rather than acknowledge the miraculous. Their shtick was knowing about God through Moses and the writings but they had no soundness in themselves. When Jesus pointed out that they didn’t know God it put a big hole in their mask. Without their mask their pride is revealed to be as foolish as God always knows it is. Proverbs 16:18 Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.
brotherpayne 