John 8:44-47 - You are of your father the devil

8:44

Jesus then makes His “child of the devil” claims even more explicit, and explains why it is the case. They demonstrated that they were children of the devil by their actions. Their characteristics reflected those of Satan, not those of God. The consistent teaching of the Bible is that we should reflect the character of God. There were two very specific ways in which they reflected the characteristics of Satan, murder and lying. Satan deceived Adam and Eve so that they would die, and Cain reflected this aspect of Satan when he murdered his brother Abel. Now the religious leaders were plotting to kill Jesus. They were doing the devil’s work. Satan lied to Eve, and has continued to do so ever since. He is the father of lies. At the trial of Jesus we see that the religious leaders put up stooges to bear false witness.

8:45

The rational thing to do is to believe someone who speaks the truth, but Jesus telling the truth was the very reason that the religious leaders did not believe Him. They did not like what they heard, so they rejected what they heard. 

8:46,47

Jesus then challenges them to convict Him of sin. They could not do this, so the implication was that He spoke the truth. Therefore they should have believed Him. So Jesus is getting them to focus on the key issue. They were reacting out of pride and self-preservation (as they saw it, in fact their stubbornness would bring about their destruction). Jesus is trying to get them to look at things in a rational manner. Has Jesus sinned? As the answer is no, they should listen to Him. If someone is of God, then they will listen to Jesus. The fact that they would not listen to Jesus demonstrated that they were not of God. This was a damning indictment of the religious leaders. And we see yet again that Jesus is the capstone, the one on whom everything else stands or falls.