It is an encouraging fact that a time of unbelieving detraction may be used of God to work extensively in souls. “While he was speaking these things, many believed on him.” (Ver. 30.) But faith, where divinely given, is inseparable from life, exercises itself in liberty, and is subject to the Son of God; where it is human, it soon wearies of His presence, and abandons Him, whom it never truly appreciated, for license either of mind or of ways in rebellion against Him. Hence the urgency of the Lord's solemn appeal. Continuance in and with Him is of God.
“Jesus therefore said to the Jews that had believed him, If ye abide in my word, ye are truly my disciples; and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. They answered him, We are Abraham's seed, and have never been in bondage to any one: how sayest thou, Ye shall become free? Jesus answered them, Verily, verily, I say to you, every one that practiseth sin is a bondman of sin. Now the bondman abideth not in the house forever; the Son abideth forever. If therefore the Son shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed. I know that ye are Abraham's seed, but ye seek to kill me because my word maketh no way in you. I speak what I have seen with my Father, and ye therefore practice what ye have seen with your father, They answered and said to him, Our father is Abraham. Jesus saith to them, If ye are Abraham's children, ye would practice the works of Abraham; but now ye seek to kill me, a man who hath spoken to you the truth which I heard from God: this Abraham did not practice. Ye practice the works of your father. They said [therefore] to him, We were not born of fornication; we have one father, God. Jesus said to them, If God were your father ye would have loved me, for I came forth from God and am come; for neither have I come of myself, but he sent me. Why do ye not know my speech? Because ye cannot hear my word. Ye are of your father, the devil, and ye desire to practice the lusts of your father. He was a murderer from [the] beginning, and standeth not in the truth, because there is no truth in him: whenever he speaketh, he speaketh the lie of his own things, because he is a liar, and the father of it; but because I speak the truth, ye believe me not. Which of you convinceth me of sin? If I speak truth, why do ye not believe me? He that is of God heareth the words of God; for this cause ye hear them not, because ye are not of God.” (Vers. 31-47.)
To abide in His word then is the condition of being in truth Christ's disciple. Others may be interested greatly, but they soon grow weary, or turn ere long to other objects. Christ's disciple cleaves to His word, and finds fresh springs in what first attracted. His word proves itself thus divine, as it is faith which abides in it, and the truth is thus not only learned, but known. Vagueness and uncertainty disappear, while the truth, instead of gendering bondage, like the law, makes the soul free, whatever its previous slavery. “There is growth in the truth and liberty by it. Law deals with the corrupt and proud will of man to condemn it on God's part as is right; the truth communicates the knowledge of Himself as revealed in His word, and thus gives life and liberty, privileges unintelligible to the natural man, who hates the sovereign grace of God as much as he exalts and loves himself, while he despises and distrusts others. Man's only thought therefore of obtaining righteousness is through the law; he knows not the virtue of the truth, and dreads liberty as though it must end in license, while at the same time they are proud of their own position, as if it were inalienable, and God were their servant, not they bound to be His. Hence the Jews answered Jesus, “We are Abraham's seed, and have never been in bondage to any one: how sayest thou, Ye shall become free?"
Far from this was the truth. Even outwardly, not to speak of the soul, the Jews were, and had long been, in servitude to the Gentiles. So Ezra (chap, 9) confessed at the evening sacrifice: “Since the days of our fathers have we been in great trespass unto this day; and for our iniquities have we, our kings, and our priests, been delivered into the hands of the kings of the lands, to the sword, to captivity, and to spoil, and to confusion of face, as it is thin day. And now for a little space grace hath been showed from Jehovah our God, to leave us a remnant to escape, and to give us a nail in his holy place, that our God may lighten our eyes, and give us a little reviving in our bondage. For we were bondmen; yet our God hath not forsaken us in our bondage, but hath extended mercy unto us in the sight of the kings of Persia,” &c. So, again, Nehemiah (chap, 9): “Yet many years didst thou forbear them, and testifiedst against them by thy Spirit in thy prophets; yet would they not give ear: therefore gavest thou them into the hands of the people of the lands..... Behold, we are servants this day, and for the land that thou gavest unto our fathers, to eat the fruit thereof, and the good thereof; behold, we are servants in it, and it yieldeth much increase unto the kings whom thou hast set over us because of our sins; and they have dominion over our bodies, and over our cattle, at their pleasure, and we are in great distress.” Thus had men of conscience felt when they lay under conquerors milder far than the Romans who now ruled. It was not that the Jews today were lightened, but that they had grown so used to the yoke as to forget and deny it altogether. And if it were in face of God's righteous government externally, much less did they estimate aright their true state before God, as the Lord Jesus was bringing it out now. Their haughty spirit was nettled at His word, which laid bare their thralldom to the enemy. “We are Abraham's seed, and have never been in bondage to any one: how sayest thou, Ye shall become free?” Jesus in His answer brought in the light of God, for eternity indeed, but also for the present. “Verily, verily, I say to you, every one that practiseth sin is a bondman of sin.” How true, solemn, and humiliating! No bondage so real, none so degrading, as that of sin: could they seriously deny it to be theirs?
But the Lord intimates more. None under sin is entitled to speak of permanence. Such an one exists only on sufferance till judgment. Bondage there was none when God created and made according to His mind; nor will there be when He shall make all things new. The bondman, in every sense, belongs only to the transitory reign of sin and sorrow. So says the Lord: “Now the bondman abideth not in the house forever.” Another and contrasted relationship suits God's will; “the son abideth forever.” But there is infinitely more in Christ. He is not merely son, but “the Son.” He is the Son in His own right and title, as God and as man, in time and in eternity. He is therefore not “free” only, as all sons are, but such in His glory that He can and does make free in virtue of the grace which pertains to Him alone. Thus it is not only the truth which sets free, where law could only condemn, but the Son also gives and confirms the same character of liberty according to His own fullness. It is a question of what suits, not them merely, but Him. He could make free those who hear Him, and abide in His word, and nothing else but free. It is worthy of Him to deliver from sin and Satan; and “if the Son make you free, ye shall be free indeed.” He frees after a divine sort. He brings into His own character of relationship out of the bondage to sin, which the first man made our sad inheritance. The last Adam is a quickening Spirit and a Deliverer. Let us stand fast in His liberty, and be not entangled again with any yoke of bondage, as the apostle exhorts the Galatians against that misuse of the law, whatever its shape.
To be Abraham's seed, as the Lord lets the Jews know, is a sorry safeguard. One might be of Abraham, and be the worst enemies of God. Such were the Jews then, who were seeking to kill Christ because His word had no hold in them. Every one acts according to his source; character follows it. So our Lord deigns to say, “I speak what I have seen with my Father; and ye therefore practice what ye have seen with your father.” To be of Abraham does not save from Satan. To hear the Son, to believe in Him, is to have eternal life and derive one's nature from God. They boasted most of Abraham who were still in the darkness of unbelief and the enemy's power. Hence “they answered and said to him, Our father is Abraham. Jesus saith to them, If ye are Abraham's children, ye would practice the works of Abraham; but now ye seek to kill me, a man who hath spoken to you the truth which I heard from God: this Abraham did not practice. Ye practice the works of your father.” (Vers. 39-41.) It was allowed already that they were descended from the father of the faithful; but did they bear the family likeness? Was it not an aggravation of their evil that they stood in contrast with him from whom they vaunted themselves sprung? Abraham believed, and it was counted to him for righteousness. They believed not, but sought to kill the man, albeit the Son of God, who spoke to them the truth which He heard from God. Whose works were these? Certainly not Abraham's, but a very different father's.
The Jews felt what was implied, and at once take the highest ground. “They said [therefore] to him, We were, not born of fornication; we have one father, God. Jesus said to them, If God were your father, ye would have loved me, for I came forth from God and am come; for neither have I come of myself, but he sent me. Why do ye not know my speech? Because ye cannot hear my word. Ye are of your father, the devil, and ye desire to practice the lusts of your father. He was a murderer from [the] beginning, and standeth not in the truth, because there is no truth in him: whenever he speaketh, he speaketh the lie out of his own things, because he is a liar, and the father of it; but because I speak the truth, ye believe me not. Which of you convinceth me of sin? If I speak truth, why do ye not believe me? He that is of God heareth the words of God; for this cause ye hear them not, because ye are not of God.” (Vers. 41-47.)
The case is thus closed as regards the Jews. They were of the devil beyond all doubt, as this solemn controversy proved. It is really the conviction of man as against Christ, in every land, tongue, age. He turns out no other when tested by the truth, by the Son; however circumstances differ, this is the issue, and it comes out worst where things look fairest. If there was a family on earth, which might have seemed removed the farthest from impurity, it was the Jews; if any could claim to have God as their father, they most of all. But Jesus is the touchstone; and they are thereby proved to be God's enemies, not His children; else they would have loved Him who came out from God, and was then present in their midst, who had not even come of His own motion but at God's sending. He came and was sent in love; they rose against Him in hatred, seeking to kill Him.
The Jews did not even know His speech, such utter strangers were they to Him, or the God who spoke by Him. The reason is most grave—they could not hear His word. It is through understanding the thought, the scope, the mind of the person speaking that one knows the phraseology, and not the inverse. If the inner purpose is not received, the outer form is unknown. So it was with Jesus speaking to the Jews—so it is preeminently with the testimony in John's writings now. Men complain of mysticism in the expression, because they have no notion of the truth intended. The hindrance is in the blinding power of the devil, who is the source of their thoughts and feelings, as surely as he is the adversary of Christ. Men's judgments flow from their will and affections, and these are under the sway of His enemy. And as he pushes on men, especially those who are specially responsible to bow to Christ, as the Jews then were, to practice the lusts of their father, so violence follows as naturally as falsehood. For Satan was a murderer from the beginning, and stands not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. Jesus alone of men is the truth; He is not only God, but the One who reveals God to man. In Him is no sin, nor did He sin, neither was guile found in His mouth. He was the manifest opposite, in all respects, of the devil, who, whenever he speaks, speaks falsehood out of his own store, because he is a liar and the father of it. Jesus is the truth, and makes it known to those who otherwise cannot know it. “But because I speak the truth, ye believe me not.” How awful, yet how just, God's judgment of such! For we are sure that the judgment of God is according to truth; and what can be the end of these things but death and judgment?
Finally, the Lord proceeds to challenge them, in order to lay bare their groundless malice: “Which of you convinceth me of sin? If I speak truth, why do ye not believe me? He that is of God heareth the words of God: for this cause ye hear them not, because ye are not of God.” He was the Holy One, no less than the Truth, and surely both go together. And thus were they convicted of being, in word and deed, in thought and feeling, wholly alienated from, and rebellions against, God. They were not of God, save in haughty pretension, which only made their distance from Him, and opposition to Him, more glaring. Instead of convincing Christ of sin, they were themselves slaves of sin; instead of speaking truth, they rejected Him who is the Truth; instead of hearing the words of God, they hated Him who spoke them, because they were not of God, but of the devil. Terrible picture, which the unerring light failed not to draw and leave, never to be effaced, of His adversaries! To be not of God is to be wholly without good, and left in evil, exposed to its consequences, according to the judgment of Him who cannot, will not, change in His abhorrence of it. Such were and are the rejecters of Jesus.