God’s the Father

John 8:37-59

Abraham's Seed and Satan's

37 "I know that you are Abraham's descendants, but you seek to kill Me, because My word has no place in you. 38 I speak what I have seen with My Father, and you do what you have seen with your father."

39 They answered and said to Him, "Abraham is our father."

Jesus said to them, "If you were Abraham's children, you would do the works of Abraham. 40 But now you seek to kill Me, a Man who has told you the truth which I heard from God. Abraham did not do this. 41 You do the deeds of your father."

Then they said to Him, "We were not born of fornication; we have one Father—God."

42 Jesus said to them, "If God were your Father, you would love Me, for I proceeded forth and came from God; nor have I come of Myself, but He sent Me. 43 Why do you not understand My speech? Because you are not able to listen to My word. 44 You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it. 45 But because I tell the truth, you do not believe Me. 46 Which of you convicts Me of sin? And if I tell the truth, why do you not believe Me? 47 He who is of God hears God's words; therefore you do not hear, because you are not of God."

Before Abraham Was, I AM

48 Then the Jews answered and said to Him, "Do we not say rightly that You are a Samaritan and have a demon?"

49 Jesus answered, "I do not have a demon; but I honor My Father, and you dishonor Me. 50 And I do not seek My own glory; there is One who seeks and judges. 51 Most assuredly, I say to you, if anyone keeps My word he shall never see death."

52 Then the Jews said to Him, "Now we know that You have a demon! Abraham is dead, and the prophets; and You say, 'If anyone keeps My word he shall never taste death.' 53 Are You greater than our father Abraham, who is dead? And the prophets are dead. Who do You make Yourself out to be?"

54 Jesus answered, "If I honor Myself, My honor is nothing. It is My Father who honors Me, of whom you say that He is your God. 55 Yet you have not known Him, but I know Him. And if I say, 'I do not know Him,' I shall be a liar like you; but I do know Him and keep His word. 56 Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it and was glad."

57 Then the Jews said to Him, "You are not yet fifty years old, and have You seen Abraham?"

58 Jesus said to them, "Most assuredly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM."

59 Then they took up stones to throw at Him; but Jesus hid Himself and went out of the temple, going through the midst of them, and so passed by.

The religious leaders tried to kill Jesus because they thought that their inheritance was through Abraham as their father, but Jesus told them they should do the work of Abraham if they were to claim him as such.  Abraham we know now is the father of all those who have the same trust in God’s word and who act on that word by faith as is clarified in Galatians 3:6-7, 8-9 that it is children of faith who inherit the promises of God, not his blood relatives.  The Jews had proudly put their trust in the physical inheritance and missed the underlying basis of the faith which God as Father honors.  The Jewish people then were not all heirs of the spiritual promise as much as they were of the material promise of the land in which they lived (Genesis 28:4).  Only descendants of faith in God makes us His children and He our Father in heaven.  That faith has been designed and defined as being in Christ alone.  Therefore, when Jesus spoke of His Father not being theirs they proved they were not descendants of faith that was required to inherit the promises (Galatians 3:18) of the eternal kingdom by not doing the work of Abraham by exercising faith in the Son of God sent to them (John 6:29) to trust to be included in His eternal will (Galatians 3:14) by faith in Jesus Christ as His Son sacrificed for us and not Isaac as Abraham’s only son (Genesis 22:16-17) foreshadowed.  This is why Jesus spoke harshly to these who relied on a physical inheritance and denied the faith of Abraham as their only true eternal gift as they denied the Son of the true Father in heaven and not Abraham as their father.  These were unable to hear the words Jesus spoke to them because they did not have God as their Father.  Their father was the devil who also spoke lies and denied the Son of God in the spirit of an antichrist (1 John 2:22, 4:3) as they did according to the fallen one’s ways in trying to destroy the Son and His offspring (Revelation 12:17) who are the true descendants of the eternal inheritance of life forevermore (Psalm 133:3).  The father of lies is no father to boast in as they were doing; the Father of light and life is seen and appropriated only through faith in His Son whom they not only denied, but likewise tried to destroy.  Those who are God’s sheep and children are the ones who hear His word and believe it, taking Him at His word as true.  Because they hear it was evident that they were not His children and He was not their Father.  Jesus further proved He was the Son of God by equating Himself with the Father as God.  That is how he could promise eternal life and peace with God by faith in Him as we keep His word which is not the rules of the law but in the work of the Son who is divine and perfectly kept all the law for us to earn us salvation by the unblemished sacrifice of Himself for us according to that faith which takes Him at His word that this work delivers us from the consequences of sin.  If we keep that word of truth and trust in Him we have God as our Father also and will never see eternal death as our punishment earned by our sin, inherited in the flesh and spirit from Adam and committed daily in our imperfect hearts and actions.  When asked how he could consider Himself greater than Abraham whom the Jews saw as their father, Jesus told them He had both seen and known Him and Abraham personally.  Since Jesus was not fifty years old yet,he could not have “seen Abraham” as the tradition went (and still does as a saying in the Netherlands today).  Jesus then confessed, “before Abraham was, I AM” as a statement of His divine equality with God as a definition of what it meant to be God’s Son.  He had just said before this that His Father is the God whom they claim was theirs (John 8:54) and now used the ‘I AM’ name for Himself which is God’s alone as we read in Exodus 3:14 as God.  This caused the Jews to attempt stoning Jesus for what they considered to be blasphemy because He made Himself equal with God (John 5:18, 10:30, Philippians 2:6, 11, Isaiah 45:21-23), which He is as the Son of God divine as is His Father!  Nobody comes to the Father except through Him as John 14:6 makes it clear.  Is God your Father through His Son by trust in Him and His work?