31 ¶ Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed
on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; 32 And ye shall know the truth, and the truth
shall make you free. 33 They answered
him, We be Abraham’s seed, and were never in bondage to any man: how sayest
thou, Ye shall be made free? 34 Jesus
answered them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whosoever committeth sin is the
servant of sin. 35 And the servant
abideth not in the house for ever: but the Son abideth ever. 36 If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye
shall be free indeed. 37 I know that ye
are Abraham’s seed; but ye seek to kill me, because my word hath no place in
you.
Jesus states that if
these new believers are truly His disciples they will be faithful to His
words. A disciple is someone who is
willing to give up everything to follow Jesus.
Luke 14:33 So likewise, whosoever he be of you that
forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple.
The disciples were first called Christians at Antioch (Acts
11:26). Many of those today who call themselves Christians are not His,
“disciples indeed.” They have elected to follow men, not God, and have
substituted political dogma, cultural beliefs, and personal bigotry for the
doctrine that came from Christ and His Apostles. They have replaced Christ’s
doctrine with their own convictions and a self-righteous elitism that places
themselves on the throne or an apathy that regards God as a mere idea in their
mind and not a person worthy of their worship.
Do we continue in His word? How many of you have even read
the Bible from cover to cover or listened to it read one time? How many of you
regard God’s words of grace as being important enough to occupy a considerable
part of your day? Jesus refers to the Scriptures, says, “it is written,”
referring to the written, word many times, and refers to His spoken words which
He will have disciples put to writing. If the written word is important to
Christ, why is it not important to you? Can you truly be His disciple if you
don’t regard as important what He regards as important? You say, “but, I am
doing things for God. I belong to the right political party. I believe the
right things about right and wrong. I do many acts of service for God. I
faithfully listen to people talk about His word.” These Jews would have made
the same profession, I assure you.
Christ is the truth as He will say Himself very soon, in
chapter 14. If you continue in His word you will know the truth and the truth
shall make you free according to that knowledge.
One likely explanation of these passages following is that
the ones who said they had never been anything other than free were Jews and
Pharisees of verses 13 and 22 but I am going to take a different tack than that
just by the literal structure of the sentences.
The Jews, and these are the new believers amazingly, respond
by making the absurd claim that, by virtue of their heritage in Abraham, they
have never been in bondage to any man. Of course, we know that they had been in
bondage to many nations from Egypt to Rome. But, Jesus isn’t talking about
politics. He is talking about their bondage to sin, sin against God. The only
freedom that they can possibly have from that is through Him, regardless of
their heritage.
People often, but not always, tend to wear their personal
sins on their bodies as they get older. The bowling ball beer paunch of the
late middle-aged man, the dried-out tanned-too-much lizard look of the late middle-aged
woman are examples of man and woman’s love of the flesh and pride of vanity.
But, there are many more sins that don’t show an outward appearance necessarily
on one’s face or belly such as bitterness, envy, hatred, sloth, apathy and
contempt for God.
The Jews had created their own religion which was far from
what God had originally intended for them. It was a system of rules and
regulations that not only did not bring them closer to God but created
themselves as a type of their own gods. Like many American Christians in
history and now they spent too much time patting themselves on the back to have
their hands together in prayer.
Jesus casts doubt on these new believers’ sincerity and
accuses them of trying to kill Him. This seems a strange way to talk to people
who appear to want to follow you now but as He talks to them it becomes more
clear that their faith is a shallow one and does not bear close examination
like many a modern Christian in America who, like Peter will do, proclaims
their belief in Christ but denies Him at a crucial moment. So, this passage
began with, “if ye continue in my word,
then are ye my disciples indeed,” and ends with, “my word hath no place in you.”
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