John 8:38,39 - Abraham is our father

8:38

Soon Jesus will tell them that their father is the devil, here He is preparing the ground for that accusation. Jesus spoke what He had learnt from His Father (God), He tells the religious leaders they were doing what they had heard from their father (the devil). A key question for all of us is “who are we listening to”. We need to ensure that it is Jesus we are listening to. Now the religious leaders were reading the Scriptures, they were not overtly worshipping the devil! But they were listening to their flesh, they were listening to the selfish ambition and to the fear.  If we do that then we are actually listening to the devil.

8:39

They didn’t take too kindly to being called children of the devil! So they insisted again that Abraham was their father. Jesus responds by saying that if they actually were Abraham’s children then they would do what Abraham did. I.e. they would listen to the word of God and obey His word. Abraham did this first of all in leaving Ur of the Chaldeans. Then when God told him that his descendants would be as numerous as the stars in the sky he believed God. Most of all, when God told him to sacrifice his son Isaac Abraham set off to do so. It is worth noting that faith and works go together.