8:38
Jesus spoke with authority because He told them what He heard in the Father’s presence, His words are the Father’s words. Conversely, the Jews were also doing what their father was telling them. Their father was the devil and they were acting out of his promptings. Now they did not think they were doing this, but it was what they were doing. There are two things to learn from this. The first is that people can be genuinely deluded, they think they are acting or teaching in accordance with God’s ways when in fact they are acting as instruments of the devil. The second is that Jesus is quite direct about their position, He does not pussyfoot around the issue.
8:39-41
The Jews were adamant that Abraham was their father. Yet Abraham is the man of faith, if they truly were his children then they would believe in Jesus. Notice that Jesus says they would do what Abraham did. Abraham trusted God and it was credited to him as righteousness (Gen 15:6), he relied upon the Lord. Instead the Jews were relying upon themselves and their adherence to the Law. Now the Law had not even been given at the time on Abraham. Instead the Jews were plotting to kill Jesus. Their actions clearly demonstrated that they were not really Abraham’s children. All this demonstrates that actions and lifestyle are more important than human ancestry. We should also take note that if someone has made a “profession of faith” but their lifestyle shows no signs whatsoever of being consistent with it then they have not really demonstrated faith.
The words “we are not illegitimate children” may have been a snide remark hinting at Jesus’ parentage, and shows that the conditions of Jesus’ birth were indeed mysterious.
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