By Mary Fairchild
The following is a phonetic reading of an expository teaching tapes of Pastor Jim Mooberry; “The Faithful Word.” Village Church of Bartlett, 1986.
John 8:37-47 “The Families of God and Satan”
Jesus has been having a conversation with certain Jews who have professed to believe in Him yet it has become evident by their conversation with them that they have stopped short of fully putting their trust in Him. This passage verses 37-47 He begins to speak to them concerning their spiritual famlihood.
“I know that ye are Abraham’s seed; but ye seek to kill me, because my word hath no place in you. I speak that which I have seen with my Father: and ye do that which ye have seen with your father. They answered and said unto him, Abraham is our father. Jesus saith unto them, If ye were Abraham’s children, ye would do the works of Abraham. But now ye seek to kill me, a man that hath told you the truth, which I have heard of God: this did not Abraham. Ye do the deeds of your father. Then said they to him, We be not born of fornication; we have one Father, even God. Jesus said unto them, If God were your Father, ye would love me: for I proceeded forth and came from God; neither came I of myself, but he sent me. Why do ye not understand my speech? Even because ye cannot hear my word. Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of our father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it. And because I tell you the truth, ye believe me not. Which of you convinceth me of sin? And if I say the truth, why do ye not believe me? He that is of God heareth God’s words: ye therefore hear them not, because ye are not of God.”
May God add insight and blessing to the reading of His word. The passage today in the gospel of John is a deathblow to two erroneous doctrines of salvation. The first is the modern concept of the universal fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man. That is the idea that God universally accepts all mankind as his children and so therefore we are all brothers and sisters in God’s family his universal family. Jesus rejected that idea when he says in verse 42 in the passage before us where he says, “If God where your father you would love me,” stating that there is another fatherhood besides God’s and that some people are not of the fatherhood of God. Then, in verse 44 he says, “You are of your father the devil.” So, you see, membership in the family of God is not automatic because you are a human being. In fact it is very clearly delineated in the Scriptures for in Galatians 3:26 Paul says, “You are all the children of God by faith in Jesus Christ.” All men and women are not accepted universally by God. The acceptance of God is found in faith in the person of Jesus Christ and his work on the cross. That’s one concept that is dealt a death blow by this passage and the other is more Germane to the passage is in the Jewish claim that salvation came through being a physical descendant of Abraham.
To the Jew, Abraham was the greatest figure in history and the Jew considered himself safe and secure in the favor of God simply because he was a descendant physically of Abraham. To be a Jew was to be in the favor of God. Had not the Psalmist said, “Oh, offspring of Abraham his servant, sons of Jacob his chosen ones—Psalm 105:6. Isaiah himself had said, “But you Israel are my servant the offspring of Abraham my friend.” Isaiah 41:8. They believed that Abraham had gained such merit for his goodness that this merit was sufficient not only for himself but for all of his descendants. In fact, Justin Martyr, an early Christian apologist, in his dialogue with Trifol (?) the Jew records that records the belief of the Rabbis at that time that quote, “The eternal kingdom will be given to those who are of the seed of Abraham according to the flesh even though they be sinner and unbelievers and disobedient to God.” Simply because they are of the physical lineage of Abraham they will have the eternal kingdom. They believed that they were saved because they were simply descendants of Abraham.
Now, God’s point of view, as Jesus elicited it in John 3:3 is this, “Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
- Mooberry, Pastor James, “The Faithful Word” two decades of expository teaching tapes.
- The Church Age
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