John 8:37-47 Have I been saved?
John chapter 8 is a painful chapter as it demands that we ask ourselves some hard questions. We can easily be offended, just as the Jews were that Jesus was talking with. In the west there are still many who think that because of their background and church upbringing they imagine that all will be well between them and God. Jesus is determined to keep warning people to test themselves to ensure they really are believers as our background gives us no security.
Jonathan Edwards (1703 – 1758)
Jonathan Edwards was one of America’s great preachers and theologians, being descended from Puritan immigrants. His descendants include 13 college Presidents, 65 Professors, 100 lawyers including a Dean of a prominent law school, 65 Physicians including a Dean of a Medical School, 30 judges, 80 holders of political office, 3 US Senators, 3 Mayors of large cities, one Vice President of the United States and one controller of the US Treasury. It is a remarkable family and illustrates that if you have an industrious godly ancestry, it is definitely advantageous.
However it is seldom acknowledged that the grandson of Jonathan Edwards, Aaron Burr, became one of the most infamous men of his time. He had first studied theology but then turned to law. He then became a politician rising to become Vice President of the United States under Thomas Jefferson. However he was widely held to be arrogant and self seeking and began to lose support. He then killed another prominent politician, Alexander Hamilton, in a duel, which gave rise to the charge of murder but he managed to get himself acquitted. Later he was manipulating himself into becoming President of Mexico when he was charged with treason, which he also overcame. The poet, Constance Carrier summarised what had happened,
“Eight lines of clergymen converged to meet in Aaron Burr,
Each a blood-and-thunderer.
Eight lines of clergymen conveyed, as I have said, in Burr,
And Aaron was Beelzebub in mocking miniature.”
Aaron Burr had such a godly heritage, but somehow it all went wrong. Although a strong Christian background is something to be valued it does not guarantee subsequent spiritual life. Many people in our churches today had godly parents and relatives but this is no guarantee that they are true Christians or that they will stay the course.
Religious but not God’s children
In John chapter 8 Jesus confronts Jewish people who had an outstanding religious heritage but, though they had kept the externals, knew nothing about being ‘born again’ or knowing ‘the power of God’s Spirit’ in their lives. There was obviously an increasingly antagonistic relationship between Jesus and the Jewish leaders. At the Feast of Tabernacles, Jesus had publicly declared,
“I am the light of the world.” John 8:12
This implied that his listeners needed him and were in the dark without him.
“You are from below, I am from above.” John 8:23
Jesus is saying that his listeners know nothing about God’s kingdom, the kingdom that he heads.
“You are slaves of sin.” “If the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” John 8:34,36
This is a remarkable statement. Their slavery to Satan is proved by the fact that they want to kill the Son of God, yet still Jesus offers them hope. He alone is able and is willing to rescue them! Yet the Jews cannot see their need, replying,
“Abraham is our father.” John 8:39
Jesus is highly critical of their assumptions, they were relying on their being the physical descendants of Abraham and were in the right group, holding to orthodox doctrines, as they thought. This false belief is mentioned again and again in John’s gospel.
When in Indonesia I was chatting to an eighteen year old Muslim lad who was escorting his two sisters. We started to chat and I mentioned the problem of radical Muslims. He then said,
“There are seventy two groups in Islam and only one of those groups is going to heaven.”
I asked him which group he was in.
“The one which is going to heaven,” he confidently replied.
It is so easy for us to think that because we belong to the right church or to a group that teaches orthodox Biblical sermons, that we are safe.
Justin Martyr, born around 100AD, became an early Christian apologist wrote a book ‘Dialogue with Trypho’. In this he describes a discussion he had with Trypho, an orthodox Jew. Trypho says,
“Regardless of whether we look to God or are godless or however our lives are, the fact that we are Jews means we will share in his eternal estate.”
It was such arrogant false confidence that upset Jesus so much. Today there are many denominations and sects that teach similarly.
Evidence that they were not God’s children
They were deceived. It is the same today. There are many who think that because they have a church background, have been baptised or confirmed and believe orthodox doctrines that they consider all is well and they will join God in heaven. Jesus’ reply is,
“If you were Abraham’s children, then you would do the things Abraham did.” John 8:39
Jesus is surely referring back to the occasion, told in Genesis 18, when three visitors came to Abraham’s tent as he was resting from the heat of the day. He receives them willingly and asks his wife, Sarah, to prepare some food for their guests. It subsequently becomes clear that this was a divine visitation. As they leave Abraham is told by the Lord,
“Abraham will surely become a great and powerful nation, and all nations on earth will be blessed by him. Genesis 18:18
He is then shown the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah that the Lord says he is about to destroy because of their godlessness. Abraham, knowing that his nephew, Lot, lived in Sodom, then pleaded that God would be merciful and that if there were just ten righteous people in the city, would he spare the city.
The important thing about this story is that Abraham received the Lord with enthusiasm. Only then does he receive the promise to be the Father of many nations. Abraham received the messenger and message of God willingly – but the Jews in Jesus’ day did not.
Jesus spells out his credentials again:
“I am telling you what I have seen in the Father’s presence.” John 8:38
Jesus alone has seen God so they should listen to him.
“ . . . who has told you the truth that I heard from God.” John 8:40
Jesus’ words are the words of God that he has passed on.
“I came from God and now am here.” John 8:42
Jesus repeatedly underlines his credentials and gives them the evidence that they must believe him. If they were the true children of Abraham, they would believe this divine visitation just as Abraham had done. Abraham recognised the voice of God, but these Jews did not.
A person’s attitude to God is often shown by his attitude to God’s ministers. In the Old Testament true prophets were often rejected whereas false prophets that said what their listeners wanted to hear were welcomed. In the New Testament God’s ministers were again frequently rejected. But to reject the man of God who brings God’s word is serious, as it is a rejection of God himself.
Our relationship with God depends completely on our relationship with his Son.
In John 8 there are two beautiful sentences that describe people who truly belong to God’s kingdom.
“If God were your Father, you would love me.” John 8:42
This relationship is much more than respect or even honour. Love is personal.
“If I am telling you the truth, why don’t you believe me? He who belongs to God hears what God says.” John 8:47
These two tests are fundamental:
1. Do I love Jesus?
2. Do I listen to his word?
These are tests we can apply to ourselves. We know if our love for Jesus is genuine as it will affect all that I and my family do. Unfortunately many think that because they are pleasant, reasonable people who have had some link with church in the past they will be alright when they meet God. But this passage warns that they, like the religious Jews, are deceived if they do not love Jesus and his word.
Paul, in his letters, repeatedly addresses people who think their religion and its rituals such as circumcision, will save them. Yet he says,
“For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.” Galatians 5:6
Today we could say,
“For in Christ Jesus neither confirmation nor lack of confirmation has any value . . . or in Christ Jesus neither baptism with the right amount of water, or the lack of it, is of any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.”
Faith in Jesus will always result in a love for Jesus. Of course baptism and confirmation have a place, just as circumcision in the Old Testament did, but these must just be outward signs of a changed heart, otherwise they are meaningless.
Religious but the devil’s offspring
Jesus talks about the devil in a way that makes some modern churchmen embarrassed. Yet he has no hesitation in speaking in such a clear way. Jesus believed in the devil.
“You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desire.” John 8:44
Jesus is saying that these religious Jews were not under the influence of God but of Satan and were therefore enemies of the truth.
“Yet because I tell the truth, you do not believe me!” John 8:45
This is ironic. Today people tend to say, ‘Convince me with evidence that the Christian story is true and I will then believe’. But here Jesus says that his listeners won’t believe, even when told the truth, because they are under the influence of Satan. These people are so opposed to Jesus and what he was teaching that they even wanted him dead.
“As it is, you are determined to kill me, a man who told you the truth that I heard from God.” John 8:40
The cross of Christ indicates both the love of God for humanity and also the murderous intent of man to destroy God and remove his influence. There are many today who are determined to do away with God so they can live as they want, without bothering with his values.
This is very stark teaching, Jesus is saying that there are only two groups, saved or unsaved, black or white, truth or lies. Elsewhere he says that people are either in the light or in the dark, they are either wheat or tares, sheep or goats. There are no l-arks, wh-ares or sh-oats in Jesus’ thinking. Here there are only two families, Abraham’s family, that lives by faith in the living God, or the devil’s family, that lives on lies and deceit. If people decide to reject Jesus, they are rejecting truth, love and life.
When Alexander Solzhenitsyn gave his Templeton Prize address he said that the tragedy of the modern world was, ‘You have forgotten God’. In a subsequent interview with Bernard Levin, published in the Times, he explained that he now considered that the goal of man is ‘not happiness but spiritual growth’. He had learned this from Jesus.
But do people believe in the devil any more? When I was a student I was involved in a mission to a borstal from our church, St Helen’s, Bishopsgate. At lunch time, I was sitting with a group of inmates and we discussed whether there was a god. They weren’t sure. I then asked whether they believed in the devil. I was staggered at their response. Every one of them was utterly convinced that the devil was real. They had been involved in seances and used ouija boards and these experiences had terrified them.
We have forgotten God. The history of rock music is riddled with satanic influence. The group ‘Black Sabbath’ sang about an occult ritual and they performed a black mass on stage. ‘The Eagles’ had songs with satanic and cultic influences. A group called ‘KISS’ was an acronym for ‘Knights in Satan’s Service’. ‘Led Zeppelin’ had a guitarist who ran Britain’s largest occult bookshop. One ‘Rolling Stones’ album was recorded at a voodoo ritual. These groups do influence people in our society to turn away from God. When society moves away from God, from protecting truth and from those who are determined to live by truth, it doesn’t believe in nothing, it believes anything. Truth is no longer central to what people will believe, now it tends to be what makes us happy and satisfies our senses.
Jesus certainly makes it clear that people either belong to God or to the devil.
“You belong to your father, the devil and you want to carry on your father’s desire.” John 8:44
“He who belongs to God hears what God says. The reason you do not hear is that you do not belong to God.” John 8:47
How can we be sure about where we belong. Jesus says that the answer can be found by looking at him and his godly character.
“Can any of you prove me guilty of sin? I am telling the truth.” John 8:46
People always run true to form. A thief keeps stealing. Someone hooked on pornography keeps looking. Liars keep lying. Yet no-one could even accuse Jesus of any sin. That itself should wake us all up to what Jesus is saying.
Our family, our religious affiliations and our social standing count for nothing when it comes to our acceptance by God. Only one thing counts, according to Jesus, that is our relationship with him. In the Sermon on the mount Jesus talks about religious people, who outwardly acknowledge him to be their Lord, who have spiritual gifts, yet who do not have a personal relationship with Jesus. He says their fate will be exclusion from God’s kingdom.
“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord,. Did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’ Matthew 7:21-23
Aaron Burr had every privilege but he was not personally committed to the Lord Jesus. The following account of his death was left by a clergyman, the Rev. Dr. P.J. Van Pelt, (1778–1861), a Reformed Dutch clergyman of the neighbourhood, who was often at his bedside.
Van Pelt recounts being received by Burr “with his accustomed politeness and urbanity of manner.”
He applied himself to getting Burr to renounce atheism. He reminded Burr of his “honoured and pious ancestry.” Burr’s father, a Presbyterian minister, had founded the College of New Jersey (later becoming Princeton University), and his maternal grandfather was Jonathan Edwards, the famous Bible teacher and evangelist. He wrote,
“It was then near one o’clock in the afternoon, and his mind and memory seemed perfect. I said to him,
‘In this solemn hour of your apparent dissolution, believing, as you do, in the sacred Scriptures, your accountability to God, let me ask you how you feel in view of approaching eternity; whether you have good hope, through grace, that all your sins will be pardoned, and God will, in mercy, pardon you, for the sake of the merits and righteousness of his beloved Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, who in love suffered and died for us the agonizing, bitter death of the cross, by whom alone we can have the only sure hope of salvation?’
To which he said, with deep and evident emotion,
‘On that subject I am coy.’
By I this understood him to mean that, on a subject of such magnitude and momentous interest, touching the assurance of his salvation, he felt coy, cautious (as the word denotes) to express himself in full confidence.”i
Philip Vail (a pseudonym for Noel Bertram Gerson) had a much better sense of Burr’s views on religion, writing,
“They discussed theology by the hour, and Burr was always lucid, his mind quite keen as he defended his own free thinking position. He quietly resisted Dr. Van Pelt’s attempts to convert him, saying that if God knew of his existence and cared what became of him, a change of heart at the eleventh hour would not convince the Almighty that he was sincere in his abandonment of his lifelong beliefs. But he was deeply touched by the minister’s prayers for him and always thanked him for them.”ii
What will Aaron Burr say to Jesus when he meets him?
“If God were your Father, you would love me, for I have come here from God. I have not come on my own; God sent me. Why is my language not clear to you?” John 8:42-43
“If I am telling the truth, why don’t you believe me? Whoever belongs to God hears what God says. The reason you do not hear is that you do not belong to God.” John 8:47
Jesus says that our eternal destiny depends upon our relationship with him. The questions everyone must answer are ‘Who is this person who speaks in such a way?’; ‘Do I have a personal relationship with him?’and ‘Am I committed to living as Jesus wants?’
Today it is possible to be a very intelligent theologian who knows much about Jesus and the Bible yet remain outside God’s kingdom. John Stott was a great Bible teacher who helped many come to faith in Jesus. He attended a conference at which there was radical theologian who disagreed with what the Bible teaches. As they were walking to breakfast together John wanted to get to the root issue so he asked the theologian a simple but far reaching question,
“May I ask you, do you worship Jesus.”
BVP
i James Parton, ‘The Life and Times of Aaron Burr, Lieutenant-Colonel in the Army of the Revolution, United States Senator, Vice-President of the United States, Etc.’ New York: Mason Brothers, 1858, pp. 679-681.
ii Philip Vail, ‘The Great American Rascal: The Turbulent Life of Aaron Burr’ New York: Hawthorn Books, 1973, p. 226
