The Chapter 30 Diner (10)

 

 

“What is His name, or His son’s name? Surely you know!” Proverbs 30:4e.

 

As we saw in the last post in this series, Agur knows the answer to the first part of his question, but what about second? Just what is His son’s name? When Agur says, “Surely you know!” is that simply rhetorical or does Agur mean that Ithiel and Ucal really know both the name of Yahweh and the name of Yahweh’s son?

 

If Agur, Ithiel and Ucal know the name of Yahweh, does it follow that they also know the name of Yahweh’s son? How might they have been thinking about this? How might we think about this?

 

Consider Exodus 4:22, “Then you shall say to Pharoah, “Thus says Yahweh, Israel is My son, My firstborn.”

 

But then we also have:

 

“I will surely tell of the decree of Yahweh, He said to me, You are My Son, today I have begotten You. Ask of Me and I will surely give the nations as Your inheritance, and the ends of the earth as Your possession.” Psalm 2:7 – 8.

 

“For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us; and the government will rest on His shoulders, and His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.” Isaiah 9:6.

 

We also have Jesus (Matthew 22:41 – 46) asking, “Then how does David in the Spirit call Him Lord, saying, The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at My right hand, until I put Your enemies beneath your feet”? (A quotation from Psalm 110). This question was in response to the Pharisees saying that Messiah is King David’s son.

Then there is Proverbs 8:24ff, “When there were no depths I was born, when there were no springs abounding with water, before the mountains were settled, before the hills I was born; while He had not yet made the earth and the fields, nor the first dust of the world. When He established the heavens, I was there…”

 

Why did Agur ask this question about the name of the son? What was he thinking and seeing? What did he know? While in one sense we may not be able to answer these questions, we can be assured that the Holy Spirit inspired these words and we know the answer, His Name is Jesus.

 

“And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten fro the Father, full of grace and truth…No one has seen God at any time, the only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, He has made Him known.” (John 1:14, 18).

 

“And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name Him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David…the holy Child shall be called the Son of God.” (Luke 1:31, 32, 35c).

 

Let’s consider how the Gospel of John begins alongside of what follows Agur’s question, “What is…His son’s name?”

 

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God.” John 1:1 – 2.

 

“Every word of God is tested; He is a shield to those who take refuge in Him. Do not add to His words or He will reprove you, and you will be proved a liar.” Proverbs 30:5 – 6.

 

Since the Scriptures are inspired by God, it can be no accident that the Word and the Son are linked in both the beginning of John’s Gospel and in Proverbs 30:4 – 6. All “words of God” (Proverbs 30:5) find their source in the “Word of God,” (John 1:1). The “words” of God are an expression of God; the Word of God is the express expression of God, the fulness of God, the exact representation of God – God of very God.

 

In the words of the Nicene Creed, we believe:

 

“…in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all worlds; God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God; begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father, by whom all things were made.”

 

And to think, “God is faithful, through whom you were called into koinonia with His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ,” (1 Cor. 1:9). We have been called to share His life, His love, His joy, His glory, His inheritance. In the Son, we have been called to be the expression of our Father as we are conformed to the image of the glorious Firstborn Son (Romans 8:28 – 30).

 

“What is His name or His son’s name? Surely you know!”

 

 

If You Can't Kill The Interpretation - Then Kill The Text

If the fifth column within the professing church can’t kill the divinity of Jesus Christ by twisting the Biblical text to its advantage; then it can seek to undermine the authenticity of the text so that there is no text to interpret.

This reminds me of Chesterton’s observation on Darwinism, “It didn’t kill God, it killed man.” Those in the professing church who focus on the destruction of belief in the divinity of Jesus Christ do not put Him to death yet again (He is risen forevermore); they drive nails into their own souls. While it is a sad thing see a man drink himself to death on the hemlock of the rejection of the God and Savior who loves him and died for him; it is a sadder thing to see a person offer the hemlock to others. 

There really are seminaries that are cemeteries.

I Do Not Understand – Musings On A Friend

Shortly after moving to the Richmond, VA area in 1989 we met two couples who lived north of the city. Their friendship has been precious to us over the years. The two husbands have met much to me, men to whom I could reveal my soul.  

When I first met them, my two new friends (the husbands) had been friends, it seemed, before time began. They had a friendship that I, at times, envied; at all times I respected it – their friendship, and that of their families, was a wonderful model of love and friendship. Over the years these two couples have been a constant source of love and encouragement for Vickie and me. Whether in good times or bad, whether in celebration or in stress, our friends have always been there for me, for us…always, always, always.

The friend who I am thinking of this morning, and praying for, is one of those men who has a presence; when he walks into a room you know he is there, when he writes his thoughts they are powerfully communicated, when he speaks he draws your attention the way a magnet draws iron shavings. He is soft spoken, he is kind, he is generous. I envisioned us always being together, if not in physical presence, then in communion with our Lord Jesus.

But now I look and I don’t see him and I don’t understand why. He once shared his testimony about coming to know Jesus Christ, he once read the Scriptures to discover Christ…wherever he might be reading…whether the Law and Prophets or the Gospels and Epistles. But now I look and I don’t see him and I don’t understand why. I don’t understand why he now says the Gospels and Epistles are man’s fantasies; I don’t understand why Jesus is but another man to him…to him my friend. And I don’t understand why he, my friend, now strives to turn others from knowing Jesus, the Son of God.

I am convinced of two things which my friend disputes; that Jesus Christ is the risen Son of God and that the New Testament is a reliable document in terms of textual transmission. My bookshelves are lined with English translations of ancient Christian writing that span many authors and centuries; the writings contain quotation after quotation, and allusion after allusion, to the New Testament as well as the Law and the Prophets – it would be a grand conspiracy indeed if this mass of documents (along with other documents that are not on my bookshelves but are from the same period) were found to be the result of forgery, fabrication, and lies. Whether one believes the assertions and witness of these documents, the textual integrity of the Scriptures is open for all to see. It is arrogant for people who live two-thousand years after the fact to dismiss that for which countless men and women have given their lives for down through the centuries. Dispute the witness if you will, but to dispute the textual transmission is something that requires a suspension of historical tests that are otherwise applied to other ancient and historical documents and witnesses. Why would men and women disseminate this poison? My friend was poisoned by others, now he passes the poison on.

Then there is Jesus; Jesus is Biblical Christianity and Biblical Christianity is Jesus Christ, the risen Son of God. My friend would likely now say that since he does not view the New Testament as Scripture that my idea of Biblical Christianity is not important to him. My response is that I know Jesus Christ and I know others who know Jesus Christ. For the past 2,000 years there is a record of countless men and women and children who have known Jesus Christ. They have not just known about Him, they have known Him. These people have come from countless backgrounds – social, economic, educational, ethnic, political – and they have had personal and collective relationships with Jesus Christ. It is not likely that they have all had the same delusion or illusion; in fact, many people I have known have shared the same experience of Jesus without preconceived notions of what that experience should be.

The historical record indicates that countless people in history have not only believed the Biblical witness – but they have experienced the Biblical witness – they have known Jesus Christ in much the same way we know our spouses and family members – in personal relationships. Many of these people have been functionally illiterate or have otherwise had limited knowledge of the Bible – and yet there is a commonality of experience of Jesus Christ – a commonality we would expect when talking about actually knowing a person…rather than simply knowing about a person. The Biblical witness guides and authenticates our experience, and our experience authenticates the Biblical witness – in other words, the Biblical witness corresponds to the reality we see around us and the reality we experience within us and with others.

My friend would point to caricatures of Jesus as seen in Christians and in organized religion – I cannot argue that the professing church has often desecrated the image of Jesus and the Gospel, I cannot argue that the professing church can often be on artificial life support as it seeks to sustain itself rather than trust Jesus Christ to sustain it. I cannot argue that professing Christians often act as though they know nothing of Jesus Christ – the Biblical Jesus Christ. But my friend pays too much attention to the ugly and not the beautiful, he focuses on the counterfeit and not the real…and in so doing he employs one counterfeit to counter another counterfeit.

I love Jesus Christ. I have known Him for around 51 years now. He is my life. He is not an idea, He is not a belief, He is not an icon, He is not a painting, He is not a figment of my imagination. He is my Lord and my God and I owe Him my life. His love and presence surrounds Vickie and me as we walk though this life together. We do walk with Him, and we do talk with Him; as individuals and as a husband and wife. We experience Him with others, and we long to see Him face to face.

Our society may teach that we are the products of time plus matter plus chance, and we may be encouraged to live as if there is no eternity. Others may entice us with promises of a higher way of thinking or learning and promise us a hidden spiritual wisdom and experience not available to others. Toxic teachers and false prophets under the guise of scholarship may spin webs of deceit with systems of thinking that in any other discipline of study would likely be rejected due to lack of objectivity, and in doing so they may lure others into a spiritual opium den. All of these groups and individuals may do what they may to make us “men without chests” (from C.S. Lewis) and desecrate the one message of hope in the world, the Gospel of Jesus Christ – but we have the promise of Jesus Christ that He will never leave us or forsake us and that the gates of hell will not prevail against His Church, the true Church, that transcends time and space and natural origin.

Life is about Jesus Christ, and in Jesus Christ alone there is life. This is not an esoteric or academic or sociological game.

The Stupid Question

“And as He passed by He saw Levi, the son of Alphaeus, sitting at the place of custom, and he said to him, Follow Me. And he arose and followed him.” (Mark 2:14).

“The call goes forth, and is at once followed by the response of obedience. The response of the disciples is an act of obedience, not a confession of faith in Jesus. How could the call immediately evoke obedience? The story is a stumbling-block for the natural reason, and it is no wonder that frantic attempts have been made to separate the two events. By hook or by crook a bridge must be found between some psychological or historical event. Thus we get the stupid question: Surely the publican [Levi] must have known Jesus before, and that previous acquaintance explains his readiness to hear the Master’s call…

“It is Jesus who calls, and because it is Jesus, Levi follows at once. This encounter is a testimony to the absolute, direct, and unaccountable authority of Jesus…Because Jesus is the Christ, he has the authority to call and to demand obedience to his word…We are not expected to contemplate the disciple, but only him who calls, and his absolute authority. According to our text, there is no road to faith or discipleship, no other road – only obedience to the call of Jesus.” [Pages 61 – 62 – The Cost of Discipleship].

“It is nothing else than bondage to Jesus Christ alone, completely breaking through every program, every ideal, every set of laws…When we are called to follow Christ, we are summoned to an exclusive attachment to his person.” [Page 63, italics added].

I’m not sure that it is a stupid question, though I can see myself using the term in frustration and perhaps Bonhoeffer used it thusly. What is it we don’t get about Jesus Christ having the Presence and Power and Authority to command obedience? Perhaps it is because we do not view Him as such today? Perhaps it is because our vision is relegated to programs and ideals and laws and traditions and marketing ploys? Perhaps we have become too religiously Christian for Jesus?

Perhaps we have become too reasonable for Jesus? After all, we are prone to apologize for Him by assuring congregants and seekers that Jesus most assuredly won’t require the same measure of denial and obedience seen in the Bible and often in history. Jesus certainly won’t command us to do things that might be misunderstood by family, friends, and society.

Perhaps we’ve so convinced ourselves that building relationships is the only way to share the Gospel and commands of Jesus Christ that we’ve also convinced ourselves that that is exactly the way He lived on earth. (This is not a knock on building relationships; it is a challenge to using this thinking as a smoke screen and excuse for not sharing the Gospel).

But perhaps the most telling reason we find it difficult to conceive of Levi or Peter or John or Philip or any number of others down through the centuries leaving their way of life to follow Jesus is that they had an exclusive attachment to his person and we do not. To us Jesus is one option among many, to us in the church He is often more figurehead than Lord; He is a spiritual consultant; a therapist, He is many things…but He often is not Lord – He does not evoke an exclusive attachment to his person. We don’t act like He does, we don’t talk like He does, we don’t make decisions within the church like He does. He may sit unseen around a table in a church board meeting but He does not occupy a throne as Lord and King and we do not fall on our faces before Him in absolute worship and obeisance.

I don’t think it is a stupid question; we may have stupid responses to the question if those responses ignore the inherent tension of the great chasm between Levi’s immediate obedience to Jesus and our own. Our responses, if we are pastors, professors, leaders, parents, may go beyond stupid to irresponsible if we ignore the force of the Gospel, if we explain away the call of Jesus Christ, if we excuse disobedience, if we apologize for Jesus.

A measure of fruitful ministry is whether those whom we serve have an exclusive attachment to Jesus Christ (2 Corinthians 11:1ff); the benchmark of the Biblical Gospel is an insistence on this exclusive attachment – Jesus Christ is Biblical Christianity and Biblical Christianity is Jesus Christ.

Consider that “the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld His glory,” the glory of Jesus is the glory of God and the glory of God is Jesus Christ – in Him all the fullness of the Godhead dwells – mystery of mysteries – glory of glories. The same God who hid Moses in the cleft of a rock so as to protect him from the radiance of His glory is the God who called Levi – is it any wonder Levi immediately responded? Is this the Jesus we portray today in our preaching and teaching and witnessing? God came to earth – He continues to come to earth by His Spirit in His people and through His Word. Jesus calls us to Himself and in so doing calls us out of the world system, calls us out of the world’s way of doing and thinking, calls us out of the darkness that blinds the hearts and minds of men and women – we are not of the world anymore than Jesus is of the world (John 17), and yet we are to go into all the world (Matthew 28, John 20) in order to call others out of the world to Jesus…making disciples and teaching them to do all that Jesus has commanded us.

When Jesus comes to us today will we arise and follow Him?

I AM – in Gethsemane

They answered Him, “Jesus the Nazarene,” He said to them, “I AM.” And Judas also, who was betraying Him, was standing with them. So when He said to them, “I AM,” they drew back and fell to the ground. John 18:5 – 6.

Throughout the Gospel of John Jesus reveals Himself as the Self-Existent One, the One Who appeared in the Burning Bush, Eternal God; as John writes in 1:18: No one has seen God at any time; the only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him. And as Jesus says to Philip in John Chapter 14, He who has seen Me has seen the Father.

In Gethsemane, when Jesus says “I AM” the crowd sent to arrest Him draws back and falls to the ground. They are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, in their minds they are looking for a man, but they have encountered more than a man, they have also encountered God – the Word was made flesh… and we beheld His glory (John 1:14). In a few days Mary Magdalene will also seek Him, this time not in a garden but in a tomb, and when He is not in the tomb she will continue to look, her heart breaking; but even Mary will be looking for a man, for just a man, though not just any man…she will be looking for Jesus, unlike any other man, unlike all men; a man yet not just a man. She sees a man, he must be the gardener, he must be the gardener because Jesus is dead and Mary is looking for a man, for just a man – but she will find God, for God finds her with the word “Mary”.

But in the Garden of Gethsemane the crowd will not allow a brief encounter with Deity to deter it from its murderous intention; and Judas will deliver his part of the bargain. God was betrayed in the Garden of Eden and He is betrayed again in the Garden of Gethsemane; but there is yet a third garden and in that garden God will reverse the betrayal on Easter morning – God’s faithfulness is more sure than our betrayal.

Whatever it is that causes the crowd to draw back and fall to the ground can be shaken off and the deed accomplished. How many times has this scenario been played out in history? In our own lives? God reveals Himself and we shake it off and see our agendas through. We may think that if we had been in the arresting posse that we would have thought twice about being knocked backwards and falling to the ground; we may think that we would have pondered His words, “I AM”. We are deceiving ourselves if we think that we would not have gotten back to our feet and consummated the arrest – thank God for the Cross - thank God for Easter.

Meditations in John Chapter 8 – XI

“Truly, truly I say to you, if anyone keeps My word he will never see death…Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it and was glad.” So the Jews said to Him, “You are not yet fifty years old, and have You seen Abraham?” Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I Am.”

Three of the primary colors of the kaleidoscope which is the Gospel of John are the Divinity of Jesus, eternal life, and the resurrection. The latter two flow out of the first one; it is because Jesus is God that those who come into a relationship with Him have eternal life, a life that is fully expressed in the resurrection of the dead. This is a resurrection that begins today and ends, at God’s appointed time, tomorrow; the tomorrow in which the resurrection trumpet is blown is the last tomorrow, for beyond that tomorrow is a new day without end, without tomorrows. The new day is both the previous day’s tomorrow and a new eternal never-ending day.  

In Jesus Christ we experience eternal life today because we are in Him and He is in us. This life is Jesus, being joined to Jesus. The relationship of Eden is more than restored, its consummation is inaugurated, its fullness is initiated. Jesus’ point to Martha and Mary is, “I AM the Resurrection and the Life, he who believes in Me will live even if he dies.” Yes, Jesus is the Resurrection tomorrow, but He is first the Resurrection right now. Mary and Martha believe that if Jesus had been there that Lazarus would not have died; they also believe that Lazarus would be raised on the last day. What they have not yet seen is that Jesus is the Resurrection, that He is I AM; that “he who believes in Me will live even if he dies.”

Jesus comes to offer a dying people life and is rejected by most of them. He can offer them life because of who He is – God. Only God can give eternal life, and here is the God of Sinai, here is the God of Abraham, condescending to men and women, fulfilling the promises to the Fathers, and He is rejected. The fulfillment of the covenants and promises, the One who Moses and the prophets spoke of, is before their very eyes and He is rejected. The Burning Bush is before them, for if a bush on fire and not consumed is a miracle, how much greater the miracle of Jesus Christ; a man without sin; without sin of action or sin of motive or sin of thought; a man pure and holy; a man in whom His ever-watchful enemies can find no fault; a man with the compassion of God, the righteousness of God, the love of God, the truth of God, the light of God, the judgment of God – God Incarnate, oh what a Man! Surely this exceeds the Burning Bush in majesty and mystery.

Jesus begins in verse 12 with, “I Am the light of the world”, He ends in verse 58 with, “Before Abraham was, I Am.”

The Creator of the Universe, the Creator and Father of mankind, the Giver of the covenants, appears in Jerusalem and proclaims Himself just as He proclaimed Himself on Sinai, and we attempt to stone Him. He offers us life and we offer Him death.

Meditations in John Chapter 8 – X

“Truly, truly I say to you, if anyone keeps My word he will never see death.” The Jews said to Him, “Now we know that You have a demon. Abraham died, and the prophets also; and You say, ‘If anyone keeps My word, he will never taste of death.’…Jesus answered, “If I glorify Myself, My glory is nothing; it is My Father who glorifies Me, of whom you say, ‘He is our God’; and you have not come to know Him, but I know Him; and if I say that I do not know Him, I will be a liar like you, but I do know Him and keep His word.” [From John Chapter 8.]

The Jews reiterate the charge that Jesus has a demon (vv. 48 and 52). His claims are too much for them, and since they cannot convict Him of sin, they charge Him with having a demon. Does this make sense? They can find nothing actually wrong with Jesus; in verse 46 Jesus asks, “Which of you convicts Me of sin? If I speak the truth, why do you not believe me?” They’ve been watching Him for three years, scrutinizing Him, having Him under surveillance; yet they can find no fault in Him so they turn to groundless accusation, name-calling – when there is nothing substantive to accuse a person of name-calling is the fallback position. Surely if Jesus had a demon they would have a ground of accusation.

The first 11 verses of the chapter fit nicely into the trajectory of verses 12 – 59, “He who is without sin among you, let him be the first to throw a stone at her,” (verse 7). In the first 11 verses the woman’s accusers admit by their refusal to stone her that they have sin, and then we have the Sinless One setting her free to sin no more. In verses 12 – 59 those around Jesus, and specially those who had unconsummated belief in Him, when confronted with their own sin adamantly refused to admit they were in slavery to sin, and in rejecting their need for deliverance from sin attacked the One they were believing in; first attacked Him with accusation and then sought to attack Him with stones. The first 11 verses provide the first bracket of an inclusio in that the woman’s accusers sought to stone her (v. 5) just as the accusers of Jesus sought to stone Him (v. 59). The chapter begins with one in sin threatened with stoning by others in sin; the chapter ends with sinful accusers attempting to stone the One without sin. Fallen humanity stones one another and it stones God. God’s offense? He is holy. We accuse God of being a devil because He is holy and righteous and pure and we can’t stand Him; we treat the devil like God because the wicked one gives us what we want and feeds our self-righteousness. We would rather be in slavery and self-righteous than be free and live by the righteousness of Another.

Meditations in John Chapter 8 – VIII

I know that you are Abraham’s descendants….If you are Abraham’s children, do the deeds of Abraham. But as it is, you are seeking to kill Me, a man who has told you the truth, which I heard from God, this Abraham did not do…You are doing the deeds of your father…If God were your father you would love me…You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. [Excerpted from John 8.]

This is a dangerous passage because they contain words that only God can speak but which man too often presumptuously speaks. In only the rarest of rare occasions might we hear a man speak these words, and then in fear and trembling being moved by the Holy Spirit – so it is better to say that only God can speak these words and if a rarest of rare occasion should come upon us let us trust God to help us negotiate it in humility and sorrow knowing that presumption on own part is grounds for our own conviction. Only God knows the hearts of men and women.

It is dangerous enough to judge others, it is far more dangerous to attribute the parentage of others to the devil; these are words only God can speak.

Those whom Jesus is addressing are Abraham’s children one minute and the next minute they are not. Paul helps our understanding in Romans Chapter 9:

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 descendents, 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 descendents.

Paul also writes to the Galatians: For you are all sons of God through faith in Jesus Christ. For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all in Christ Jesus. And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s descendants, heirs according to the promise.

If Jesus’ audience had no warrant to trust in its genealogy, perhaps we should take care not to trust in our traditional or current affinities. Being members of a spiritual or religious culture, no matter how correct in doctrine and practice, is not the same as having a relationship with God through faith in Jesus Christ.

The evil in the world as expressed in John 8 is clothed in religious garb. This is not evil as we normally think of evil; and indeed evil has many forms – some hideous to the eye, all hideous to the heart. Some forms of evil would have us think that all religion is evil; some religion would have us think that all ways of living other than its particular way are evil. As in this chapter, so in all of life’s chapters, the Person of Jesus Christ is the line of demarcation.

Sometimes things are as they appear; sometimes they are not as they appear. There are those who profess Christ but who perpetrate evil; there are those who make no explicit profession of Christ but who are merciful and gracious. There are those who have heard the Gospel yet who live like devils; there are those who have never heard the Gospel and yet live like saints. There are tensions in life that only find their resolution before God’s judgment seat.

Betsey and Corrie ten Boom, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, and others witnessed concentration camp guards with hearts filled with sustained merciless evil turn to Christ in repentance. Despite appearances, those guards had appointments with redemption. And yet there are others, whether appearing in overt wickedness or in the garb of religious or social respectability, that have no such appointment with redemption; while on the one hand we acknowledge this reality on the other we admit it is beyond our understanding. We must never underestimate evil, but we must also never forget that evil is no match for God Almighty.

The context of John 8 is the Temple; it is not a heroin den, nor a sex-slave house, nor a field of genocide, nor an executive board room ruled by the dollar; the context is the Temple. One only has to read the Letters to the Seven Churches in Revelation if one wants to see what evil looks like in the church; some of the evil is apparent, some of the evil is not – some of the evil in the Seven Churches is only seen by the piercing eyes of Christ. Let us not forget that the Laodicean church was an affluent church – so much for the health and wealth Gospel, but also so much for any Gospel which is defined by economics – including an economic class’s status quo. When Christians speak more of the economy than they do of the Christ of the Cross and the Cross of Christ what do we tell the world about where our hearts are? About where our treasure is?

The words of Jesus Christ in John 8 do not lead me to wonder about others, they confront me with myself.

Meditations in John Chapter 8 – VII

Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is the slave of sin. The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son does remain forever. So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed, John 8:34 – 36.

Those who believed in Jesus (verse 30) refused to acknowledge their slavery to sin. As Jesus pressed the issue they became more and more obstinate until their belief turned to attempted murder (verse 59). As noted in previous posts, their belief was not the belief of John 1:12 or 3:16.

Jesus’ words in verse 32 are among the most misquoted words of the Bible, misquoted because they are not fully quoted; the “truth” is found in relationship with Jesus (it is Jesus) and the freedom that Jesus speaks of is, in this context, freedom from sin. The theme of freedom and liberty in Jesus Christ is prominent in the Gospel; Paul writes that we are to stand fast in the liberty that we have in Christ (in this context freedom from the Law), and that: where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. In Christ we have been set free from sin, from the Law, and even from death; in order that we might joined to another Master, our Lord Jesus Christ.

The hope of freedom that Jesus held out to these people who were manifesting unconsummated belief in Him was rejected by them because of their self-righteousness, because of their refusal to acknowledge the fact of their slavery to sin. They claimed to be the children of Abraham, yet Abraham was justified not by what he did but by his faith in God; nor was Abraham justified because he was a descendant of Enoch, Noah, and Shem. The slave who does not recognize his slavery but maintains a fiction that he is a freeman will ever be a slave and not a son. The slaves in John Chapter 8 were going through the motions of freemen – yet remained slaves.

Those who see are blind and those who are blind see; those who separated themselves from the unwashed multitudes within Judea and Galilee, and from the Gentiles – those who considered themselves the proper judges of their fellow man – these were the ones whose belief turned to murder. Do I see myself?

Meditations in John Chapter 8 – VI

We are Abraham’s descendants and have never been in bondage to anyone…(John 8:33).

It is obvious, and yet, is it really? It is obvious that the people who spoke these words had a false sense of…of what? Security? Righteousness? Spirituality? Approbation of God? They trusted in their religious upbringing; or perhaps some of them had been irreligious at one time but then they aligned themselves with a branch of Judaism. In either case, they had never been in bondage to anyone.

We wouldn’t do that. We wouldn’t trust in our religious upbringing, would we? We wouldn’t trust in one of the many expressions of Christendom in which we have found a home. Didn’t these folk have good reasons to think as they did? The pomp and ceremony and tradition of the Temple must have been impressive. The collective memory of hundreds of years, the Law, the Prophets, the Writings, along with rabbinical teaching must have given people good reason to root their identities in a branch of Judaism. Along comes Jesus who speaks of destroying the Temple, of worshipping God in Spirit and truth, claiming to be the Bread of Life, the Light of the World, the Resurrection and the Life, the Good Shepherd – that does seem a bit much.

I can see myself saying, “We’ve never been in bondage!” I can see myself saying this because there have been times, and perhaps still are, when my identity has been more rooted in a movement or doctrine or manner of life than it has been rooted in Jesus Christ. It happens. Maybe it hasn’t happened to you but it sure has happened to me more than once. And during those times the idea that perhaps there is something amiss, either in me or in the movement or doctrine du jour has been an idea that I quickly put out of my mind.

So I look at these people proclaiming that they’ve never been in bondage to anyone and I see this as a warning, a warning to me that Jesus Christ will confront anything in which I attempt to root my identity - He will have none of that – and He will see whether I will admit my need for Him, whether I will lose myself in Him that I might find myself in Him.

Paul writes in 1 Corinthians Chapter One: But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption, so that, just as it is written, Let him who boasts, boast in the Lord.

Meditations in John Chapter 8 – V

As He spoke these things, many came to believe in Him. So Jesus was saying to those Jews who had believed in Him, “If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.” They answered Him, “We are Abraham’s descendants and have never yet been enslaved to anyone; how is it that You say, You will become free?” John 8:30 – 32.

This doesn’t make sense. At least it doesn’t make sense to our current way of thinking. Why does Jesus say these things to those who have just expressed belief in Him? The conversation does “downhill” from here; those who believe in Him end up picking up stones to stone Jesus – couldn’t Jesus, couldn’t God incarnate, have done a bit better than alienating people who have expressed belief in Him? And how quickly He did it! In zero to sixty seconds Jesus seemingly transforms an expression of belief into hatred – I write “seemingly” because we should ask the question, “What was really there to begin with? What kind of belief were these people expressing?”

What is the problem that those who are seemingly believing in Jesus have with what Jesus is saying? The problem is that Jesus is pointing to their need of knowing the truth and of salvation from slavery to sin. The people deny their slavery to sin; they rest on their lineage, their connection to Abraham. They rest in their adherence to their form of Judaism. They make the outlandish statement that they have “never been in bondage to any man”, forgetting a little place named Egypt, forgetting the Philistines and Babylonians and Persians and Greeks, and somehow forgetting that Rome controlled Jerusalem even as they spoke the words “we’ve never been in slavery to anyone”.

As Jesus presses the issue those who have believed in Him go from being descendants of Abraham to being children of the devil – what a remarkable way of alienating people! And all because they wouldn’t confess their need of salvation, all because they pretended to be something they were not; all because they defended themselves, defended their self-righteousness, and in so doing convicted themselves of their sin and slavery to sin and need of a Savior – their denial was their confession of guilt but they couldn’t see it. And Jesus says, “Which of you convicts Me of sin? If I speak truth, why do you not believe Me?”

Jesus is saying, “Don’t you see the difference between us?” And they vehemently respond, “No! We don’t see a difference in the way You portray a difference – You are hardly holy and true in contrast to us! We do see a difference, but it is opposite of what You think – we are the ones who are free and righteous and You are the One who deserves death!” And they pick up stones to stone Jesus.

Mary Magdalene sees a difference, the Woman at the Well sees a difference, four fishermen in Galilee see a difference, the man born blind in Chapter 9 “sees” a difference; but those in the Temple, those who lives are enmeshed in religious practice, most of them do not see a difference, not the difference – which is that Jesus is God holy and righteous and that they are sinners in need of Him.

Why didn’t Jesus ease these people into this awareness? Why did He use a straightforward approach? This can seem strange to us in a society where people seldom say what they mean and in a church that is often so “seeker sensitive” that it is not sensitive to the truth of the Gospel. We fret about self-esteem when the problem, at least according to Jesus, is that we don’t have a realistic awareness of just how messed-up we are, of just how sinful we are, of how desperately we need the mercy of forgiveness of God. We have built a Tower of Babel in our collective minds, in the church and out of the church.

But lest we misunderstand, this is God speaking in John Chapter 8, and the Middle C of the Gospel is the love of God to humanity in general and to individuals in particular. This is not a preacher ranting hell fire and damnation devoid of mercy and grace; this is not one legalistic system in place of another; this is not about “I’m right and you’re wrong”; this is about the broken heart of God walking and talking on this planet, this is about the Cross and the Sin-Bearer, and this is about the Risen One speaking our name on Resurrection Morning – “Mary”.

There are some words can only God can utter – some of these words in John Chapter 8 are some of those words; and woe to the self-appointed prophet who assumes the position of God in the lives of others. God knows hearts; I don’t.

But yet, but yet…on the other hand we have no warrant to avoid the issue of sin and repentance in the Gospel, to do so is to give a sick man a sugar pill and consign him to sickness and death. Our problem, more often than not, is that we do not have the broken and bleeding heart of Jesus when we speak of such things, nor do we have His passion for self-sacrifice on behalf of others. Perhaps if I was more cognizant of my own sin that I would be better able to communicate an awareness of sin and death to others? Perhaps if I knew better the holiness of Jesus Christ I would speak to others not out of a subculture of Christianity, but out of the depths of eternity? Christianity, as most of us know it, is trendy, Christ is eternal; He is eternal because He is God.

Meditations in John Chapter 8 – IV

Then He said again to them, “I go away, and you will seek Me, and will die in your sin; where I am going, you cannot come.”…And He was saying to them “You are from below, I am from above; you are of this world, I am not of this world. Therefore I said to you that you will die in your sins; for unless you believe that I AM, you will die in your sins”…So they were saying to Him, “Who are you?” Jesus said to them, “What have I been saying to you from the beginning?”…They did not realize that He had been speaking to them of the Father…So Jesus said, “When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I AM, and I do nothing on My own initiative, but I speak these things as the Father taught me”…As He spoke these things, many came to believe in Him. Excerpted from John 8:21 – 30.

The balance of the chapter, which we will explore in future posts, deals with what Jesus says to the many that came to believe in Him. The themes in verses 12 – 30 intensify in verses 31 – 59, but again, we’ll touch on them in future posts; however, this reminds us that the Scriptures are not to be explored and understood by driving quickly through them, but that we need to get out of the car and walk, slowly walk, stop and look and ponder…and then retrace our steps to look and ponder again. We must not presume to master the Word; we must allow the Word to master us.

These are the words of God, these words that Jesus speaks; they are words of mercy for those who will receive them and words of judgment for those who will not; the same sun that hardens the clay melts the wax. Some hear the words of an upstart rabbi, some the words of a lunatic, others hear the words of God from God Himself.

Should a patient be offended to hear a doctor say, “You have a disease that will kill you, you will die of this disease, unless you allow me to treat you”? Should a person be offended to hear God say that he has sin that is killing him, eternally killing him, and that unless he comes to God that he will die in a state of sin – and enter eternity in that condition?

How often do we want to come to God on our own terms? How often do we insist that He come to us on our terms? If we seek Him on our terms we will not find Him, for where He is going we cannot come; not by seeking Him on our terms. If Jesus is from above and we are from below, from this world, should it surprise us that His words are alien, His ways strange? Our perspective is wrecked and warped by sin and self-centeredness, the blind man in Chapter Nine will see because all he knows is blindness, but we who see…well of course we see, we are not blind and we are not as bad as all that, we need not follow this Jesus of Nazareth.

But suppose we decide to follow this Jesus, what does He require? Give us a mission, allow us to achieve a meaningful task – give us a standard to measure up to, to rid ourselves of this disease of sin and to earn our right to enter the Throne Room of the Almighty. What is this He says? We are to believe that He is I AM? But what about the task, the mission? What about the great quest to earn and prove our righteousness?

Jesus says, “Unless you believe that I AM…” Now English Bibles typically translate these two statements of Jesus in the above passage thusly: “Unless you believe that I am He”. English Bibles such as the KJV, NKJV, NASB and some others italicize the word “He”, this means that the word is not in the Greek New Testament, other English Bible translations choose not to italicize words they use that are not the Greek New Testament – they don’t disclose this to the reader. Translators add the word “He” twice to the above “I AM” statements of Jesus; but is it necessary to add the word? And might we miss something by adding the word? Bear with me, ponder with me.

Consider the motif of I AM in the entire chapter, as pointed out in a previous post Jesus begins and ends the extended passage with I AM…I AM the Light of the World; before Abraham was, I AM. In the latter statement (verse 58) the word “He” is not added by English translations with which I’m familiar; so why add it in verses 24 and 28? If it is not added in verses 24 and 28 then we must confront the same statement that Moses confronted at the Burning Bush, “I AM”. Jesus is, once again, stating that He is God. Adding the word “He” detracts from the force of Jesus’ declaration, it allows us to avert our gaze from His straightforward statement of Divinity. This entire passage is first about the fact that Jesus Christ is God, then it is about God’s desire to save us from slavery to sin, then it is about whether we will respond in a belief that results in repentance, in acknowledgment of our sin, and whether we will throw ourselves on Him and His mercy and grace in acknowledgment that Jesus Christ is God. It also shows us what happens when we do not acknowledge our sin, when we choose to consider ourselves free and independent – but central to all is the Divinity of Jesus.

Meditations in John Chapter 8 – III

You judge according to the flesh…John 8:`5a

When Adam and Eve ate the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil their eyes were opened. Ever since then we have been cursed with natural sight and understanding, sin affecting the way we know and perceive ourselves, others, the world, and the universe. We live in the night but don’t know it, and without the equivalent of night-vision goggles we do not see things as they really are – and even when we do see beyond the flesh we see, as Paul says, darkly; as Lewis might say: we live in the Shadowlands.

In John Chapter 9 Jesus heals a blind man; it is a double healing for the man is not only given physical sight but also spiritual sight. As Jesus says in John 9:39 and 41: For judgment I came into this world, so that those who do not see may see, and that those who see may become blind…If you were blind, you would have no sin; but since you say, “We see,” your sin remains.

The NIV’s rendering of 8:15, “You judge by human standards”, fails the reader by substituting the Greek word for “flesh” with “human standards” – an interpretive leap not designed to force the reader to contemplate the mystery of the way the word “flesh” is used throughout the Bible. It is as if the NIV itself becomes an example of judging by the flesh by insisting on reducing the text to the readily understandable – apparently the less we wrestle with the Biblical text the better off we’ll be – but how will a baby’s muscles develop if it is never allowed to do for itself?

Notice throughout John 8 Jesus’ portrayal of His relationship with the Father. How many times does Jesus reference where He came from? How many times does He refer to the Father’s sending Him? What elements of the relationship of Father and Son do you see in this passage? This passage is not to be read as a newspaper column; read it and turn the page, read it and turn the page, turn the page, turn the page, turn the page. Consider that this passage portrays the relationship of the Father and Son, it provides us entrance into a deep mystery in God – would someone visiting the Louvre hastily pass by the Mona Lisa? Yet we speed through the words of God on earth – how can this be? Perhaps it is a good example of the burden of viewing things through the eyes of flesh?

And if Jesus speaks these things to those hostile to Him, how much more does He desire to open doors of beauty to those who name Him as Lord? The Upper Room of John chapters 13 – 17 draw us deeper into the Trinity.

To those who are content to call Jesus a good man: read this passage and tell us how He can be a good man. Delusional? A liar? If Jesus isn’t telling the truth in the passage then He is either delusional or a liar for only a mad man or a liar would make the outlandish statements that Jesus is making…unless He is telling the truth.

Meditations in John Chapter 8 – II

Then Jesus again spoke to them, saying, “I am the Light of the world; he who follows Me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” So the Pharisees said to Him, “You are testifying about yourself; your testimony is not true,” John 8:12 – 13.

The Pharisees and other elements of society understood what Jesus was saying, and they understood the crux of the matter; they didn’t “see” what Jesus was saying but they did understand what He was saying. In John 10:31-33 we read:

The Jews picked up stones again to stone Him. Jesus answered them, “I showed you many good works from the Father; for which of them are you stoning Me?” The Jews answered Him, “For a good work we do not stone You, but for blasphemy; and because You, being a man, make Yourself out to be God.”

The Pharisees and others understood that Jesus was claiming to be God and they understood that the crux of the matter was the validity of Jesus’ testimony. They did not “see” what Jesus was saying, for then they would have seen that He was telling the truth, that He was God.

While followers of Jesus are called to testify about Jesus, and while a significant and wonderful element of that testimony is their relationship with Jesus (their new life in Him), the centrality of the witness is to be the testimony that Jesus gave about Himself – that He is God. He is the Bread of Life; the Light of the World; the Resurrection and the Life; the Way, the Truth, and the Life. The conflict swirling around Jesus in the Gospels centers around His claim to be God – and of the four Gospels, John’s especially presents this front and center on page after page.

Many professing Christians do not “see” what Jesus was saying about Himself. Many do not understand what Jesus was saying, many do not understand the crux of the issue. In this sense the Pharisees and others knew more than many contemporary Christians; they may not have “seen” that Jesus was God but they certainly understood what Jesus was claiming and they understood that the veracity of Jesus’ testimony was the issue.

Now of course Jesus was man also and in this we have the mystery of the Incarnation – the Word was made flesh and lived among us and we beheld His glory. But as a practical matter there are Christians who view Jesus more as a man who became God than as God who became man. The Scriptures, however, teach us that the God of Sinai is the God in the Temple in Jerusalem in John Chapter 8, and that just as God proclaimed Himself on Sinai (Exodus 34:5-7) so in the Temple God proclaims Himself as the Light of the World. In fact, throughout the Gospel of John God incarnate is proclaiming Himself – and few accept His testimony.

When Dorothy L. Sayers began writing plays based on Biblical Christian doctrine she was taken aback at the criticism she received from professing Christians; she was criticized for introducing a new teaching into the church. What was this new teaching? That Jesus is God. People who had been reciting the historic Creeds all their lives didn’t understand the words they were speaking – and when Sayers made it clear in her writing that Jesus is God they took that for a new teaching and attacked her for it.

The Pharisees and their contemporaries understood the issue.

Meditations in John Chapter 8

I AM

In Genesis the True and Living God reveals Himself to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob; in Exodus He reveals Himself to Moses and the people of Israel. In those early passages of Scripture God reveals who He is; at the Burning Bush He is: I AM THAT I AM. The revelation of God in Christ is the focus on John Chapter 8; the Word that became flesh is proclaiming I AM. Jesus is proclaiming: I AM; and by proclaiming that He is I AM He proclaims that He is God.

Nothing less than recognition of His Divinity is acceptable to Him; God is to be acknowledged as God, not as anything or anyone less. In verse 30 many believe in Him (to be explored in a forthcoming post) but this is not the belief of John 3:16, this is rather the belief of John 2:23 and John 6:66. The belief of John 6:66 is unconsummated belief, those who turned away from Him did so because they could not accept Him as the Living Bread, the sole source of life; Jesus says, “I AM the Bread of Life” and it is too much for them. They can follow Him as a rabbi, as a teacher, they cannot follow Him as God.

John 8:12 – 59 is an inclusio, it begins and ends with the same words, the same thought. The first words of Jesus in this passage are I AM. The last words of Jesus in this passage are I AM. “I am the light of the world” begins His teaching, “I am” concludes His teaching.

This passage consists of two interchanges, the first 8:12 – 30, the second 8:31 – 59. Both are similar in focus for the focus is the proclamation of Jesus that He is God. Jesus interacts with a broad audience in the first section and a narrow audience in the second. Yet even the first audience is narrow in the sense that it represents those worshipping in the Tempe, those professing belief in God, those identifying with the Torah, with Moses, with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Those in the second section are those who profess belief in Jesus…but what is the nature of that belief?

To assemble in buildings, such as the Temple, and to profess belief in a Deity is well and good as far as it goes, but it does not go far enough. To assemble in buildings and acknowledge Jesus as a teacher, even as the preeminent teacher, is well and good, but it is not acknowledgment enough. Jesus presses home these points in John Chapter 8 – He insists that we acknowledge Him as God and He will accept nothing less. Will we confess anything less? Will we live in any other way? Will there be any other confession on our lips or any other testimony in our actions? As Jesus makes clear in this passage, He will not allow anything less in a disciple than a confession that the One at the Burning Bush is the One born at Bethlehem.