7:17
How does one know if Jesus is indeed speaking God’s words? Jesus’ answer is that if someone really wants to know God’s will then they will recognise that Jesus is speaking from God. Now this might seem a bit circular, but the truth is that we have to start somewhere. We have to make some basic assumptions or we can get nowhere. My background is mathematics and that is how the whole of maths works. We start with some basic axioms and then everything else is built on top of that.
Jesus words here also get to the heart of the matter. The Jews were asking about the authority of Jesus, was He authentic? The really important question was the condition of their own hearts. The Jews claimed to be following God, but if this was really true then they would have known whether Jesus was genuine or not. The root of the problem was that they were not truly seeking to do God’s will. Atheists and sceptics often accuse God of various things, we need to be aware that the real issue is the condition of our own heart. Sin obscures our vision, and the way to get clearer vision is to repent and be committed to the Lord.
7:18
Jesus then gives another test. If someone speaks on his own authority then he seek his own glory, he is trying to show how clever he is. This was a criticism of the Jewish leaders. They were seeking their own glory, seeking to protect their own position. Jesus, on the other hand, sought the glory of the Father. There was no falsehood in Jesus, there is no other person in history of whom this can be said. Even think of great figures like Churchill, Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela, all of them were deeply flawed characters, as well as people who achieved great things.
We should also look at our own hearts. Whose glory are we seeking? We should constantly check ourselves to do our best to seek the glory of Christ, not ourselves.
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