089. Chapter 30 - The Sermon on the Light of the World
Chapter 30 - The Sermon on the Light of the World
John 8:12-59 Light and Darkness With the exciting interruption of Jesus’ teaching now ending, He preached a sermon which crowns the incident. “I am the light of the world.” The universality of Jesus’ preaching is continually impressed upon the reader. He did not say, “I am the Light of Israel.” He holds the whole world in His hands and offers redemption to all mankind. God has created both the day and the night. Lest man destroy himself by unceasing work, God provided the night for rest, and added the holiness of the seventh day for the same purpose. Light reveals the beauties and glories and the ugliness and perils which the darkness conceals. Light brightens and purifies. Light makes possible life on earth in the physical sense. Jesus as the Light of the world enables us to walk in the path that leads to eternal life, instead of our stumbling in darkness and perishing. In the darkness those who travel cannot see the way and cannot tell what threatens their lives. The responsibility for man’s fate rests upon himself. Jesus as the Bread of life must be eaten and the Water of life must be taken, just as the Light of life must be followed. If a man shuts his eyes and refuses to see the light, it is his own fault. When we read the grand passages in the Old Testament where God is declared to be the Light (Psalms 27:1; Isaiah 10:17; Isaiah 60:19), it becomes clearer that Jesus is here making a tremendous affirmation of His deity.
Attack of Pharisees
“Thou bearest witness of thyself; thy witness is not true” (John 8:13). These Pharisees who take up the battle evidently had not been among the group of leaders who had brought the adulteress before Christ. It is not necessarily true that a person who bears witness of himself is speaking falsely. But these scholars were citing the assertion of Jesus on a former occasion that He did not bear witness of Himself alone (John 5:30-47). They sought now to turn this argument against Him. But Jesus pointed out again that He did not bear witness of Himself alone; the Father had testified to the truth of His testimony by the miracle which Jesus had performed.
“Ye judge after the flesh; I judge no man. Yea and if I judge, my judgment is true” (John 8:15, John 8:16). They were judging after the flesh in that: (1) They judged by the fact that they saw Jesus in the flesh before them; they did not perceive that He was the Son of God; or it may mean (2) they judged after the flesh in the sense of their own evil ambitions and desires, which beclouded their understanding and prevented their accepting Him as the Christ, the Son of God. The word hrino can mean either condemn or judge. Jesus seems to use it in the sense of condemn when He says, “I judge no man.” His first coming into the world was as Savior; His second coming will be as Judge. Even though they were seeking to kill Him, He was leaving the door of mercy open to them. When He does come as judge, His judgment will be true, for He is truth itself. The Divine Witness
“The witness of two men is true.” This was the demand of the law that a plurality of witnesses be secured before conviction. This does not affirm that two or more witnesses could not frustrate justice by agreeing together to offer false testimony. Jesus was merely citing the requirement of the law and then stating that He was able to present the confirmation of God: “I am not alone; but I and the Father that sent me.” Jesus declared that He bore witness of Himself, but the Father also testified. If the testimony of two men was accepted under the Old Testament law, how much more His unity with God and His individual personality; neither Unitarianism nor Sabellianism is in harmony with the teaching of Jesus.
“Where is thy Father?” They demanded the actual appearance of the witness to testify. Jesus responded that it was not surprising they, in spite of all His miracles and His teaching, still professed ignorance of the identity of His Father, for they had not even perceived the identity of Jesus. This discussion took place in the section of the temple where the offerings were presented. Even though Jesus was condemning the Pharisees and the Sadducees in the very citadel of their power, they did not dare arrest Him. God’s providence was operating through fear of the multitude which held back the hierarchy from making an open arrest at this time. The very manner and Person of Jesus must also have been so majestic that it filled them with fear.
Doom of the Wicked
“I go away, and ye shall seek me; and shall die in your sin: Whither I go, ye cannot come.” They did not understand that Jesus was predicting His ascension and return to heaven. But the declaration that they would be unable to come where He was because they were to die in their sins must have been clear enough for them to understand that He was talking of heaven and hell. Because they were rejecting God’s mercy, they would go into eternal punishment. They would not be able to enter into heaven and disturb its peace and blessedness because they were opposing God’s Son now. This is not an announcement that there was no longer any offer of pardon to them, for in John 8:24 He explained this statement: “Except ye believe that I am he, ye shall die in your sins.” Jesus had made a similar statement in a previous sermon at the feast (John 7:33, John 7:34). This had brought forth the rejoinder that He must be planning to go among the Dispersion and teach the Greeks. Now they make a more vicious reply.
Whither?
“Will he kill himself, that he saith, whither I go, ye cannot come?” Certainly they understood He was talking of heaven and hell. To Jesus’ prediction of an eternal separation from them because they would die in their sins, they responded with bitter malice that Jesus would be the one to go to eternal perdition. The Jews held that those who committed self-murder went into the depths of Hades lower than any ordinary Jew could go. Thus they sought to reverse the meaning of Jesus; if they were to go to different places in eternity, then Jesus must be about to send Himself by suicide into the deepest place of eternal punishment. This vicious and hypocritical answer was also an attempt to answer Jesus’ revelation that they were plotting His death. They suggested that if there was any question about Jesus’ death at this time, He must have been planning to kill Himself.
Jesus’ Answer
Jesus answers calmly that they were from beneath (doing the will of the devil), while He was from above (from heaven where they could not come unless they believed on Him). They then asked, “Who art thou?” evidently not for information, but in order to lead Him to state His deity in such clear fashion as to give them grounds for stoning Him to death for blasphemy. He responded that He had already told them many times; since they did not desire to believe, they did not deserve to hear a restatement.
It was not God’s will that Jesus should die yet so He continued to make veiled statements. He had many things to speak to the world, and He must fulfill His ministry. His words were true, even as the One who had sent Him was true. This reply was so veiled that John adds, “They perceived not that he spake to them of the Father.” Jesus was so fearless and invincible, so calm and self-possessed, so majestic and mysteriously powerful in word and deed they were unable to explain away His claims to deity. But since they had thrown away the key of knowledge in their deliberate rejection of Him, they found it extremely difficult to comprehend His profound teaching.
Final Evidence to Be Given
“When ye have lifted up the Son of man, then shall ye know that I am he” (John 8:28). The crucifixion itself would bring forth the final proof of His claims in the sublime miracle of the resurrection. If they had already gone so far in their plots as to include Pilate’s condemnation to death by crucifixion, then they probably caught a glimpse of His meaning. His promise was not that they would understand this prediction as He uttered it, but that after the event they would recall the prediction and understand. I am he means the Messiah, the Son of God, just as He had repeatedly claimed. His divine personality and God’s spiritual program for the Messiah would become plain to them in His death. This was fulfilled in the understanding of the closest disciples and in all others who were willing to believe. Even now there were those among “the Jews” who believed, as John records at this point (John 8:30).
Those who were malicious in their determination to destroy Jesus rather than believe were still given this kind and sympathetic response. Jesus understood how hard it was for them to comprehend a Messianic kingdom which was spiritual rather than the earthly type they had desired, and especially a Messianic kingdom which was to be brought into existence by the death of the Messiah. Jesus patiently explained that they would be able to understand after they looked back on the event; the things beyond their comprehension now would become clear then.
Sinlessness
Jesus closed what seems to have been a period in His sermon by affirming, “He that sent me is with me; he hath not left me alone.” Jesus seemed to be helpless and alone, ringed about with fiendish enemies seeking at every instant to kill Him, but He calmly assured them that He was not alone, for God was with Him. In the portion of the sermon that follows we have one of the grand assertions of Jesus’ sinlessness in a negative form of a challenge to them to state and prove any sin He had ever committed. It is often overlooked that He made this claim at this point in His sermon in the positive form: “I do always the things that are pleasing to him.” No mere human being can affirm such a thing. Criticisms of His life by those who knew Him intimately would immediately overwhelm any mere man. Only the God-man could achieve perfection. This positive affirmation needs to be taken with the negative form that follows in order to make the claim of Jesus complete.
Disciples Confirmed
“Many believed on him” because of the majesty of His Person and the profound nature of His teaching, as well as His miracles. The following claims are made in this sermon: (1) His declaration of His Messiahship with absolute assurance: “I am he”; (2) His deity (John 8:23, John 8:29); (3) His sinlessness (John 8:29); (4) His foreknowledge of His death (John 8:28); (5) His assurance of the power of the gospel to bring faith after He had been crucified (John 8:28).
Jesus now addressed exhortation to the ones who had believed on Him: “If ye abide in my word, then are ye my disciples; and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (John 8:31). Perhaps these disciples were standing apart from the unbelieving Jews, who were attacking Christ. To abide in the words of Jesus means not to make a visit to them or a temporary residence in them, but to live permanently in the sacred precincts of His teaching and life — to have the words of Christ so enshrined in the memory that they are the constant compass and unfailing guide that enables a person to walk in the company of Christ. There are disciples true and false. The ones who abide in Christ’s words, so that Christ abides in their hearts and lives, prove the reality of their discipleship.
Retort of Jewish Leaders
It is plain that those who now believed in Christ were not the ones who were insulted by His offer to teach them the truth that they might be free from sin and from the penalty of sin, which is death. They who were of the malicious leadership of the Sanhedrin said: “We are Abraham’s seed, and have never yet been in bondage to any man: how sayest thou, Ye shall be made free” (John 8:33). The fact that many in the crowd made plain that they believed in Jesus caused these Jewish leaders to take up the battle again and try to turn the tide against Him.
These leaders took Jesus’ words as insinuating that their teaching was not true and that they had left the nation in bondage; they themselves were also slaves. This is the very force of what Jesus said. It is not clear whether they had political slavery in mind and defiantly denied their bondage under Roman occupation, whose right to rule Israel they did not recognize; or whether they comprehended the deeper spiritual meaning of what Jesus was saying but denied their bondage to sin. They naturally referred to Abraham since he was father of the race on whose ancestry they relied as God’s chosen people. In His discussion with them at the second Passover of His ministry, their relationship to Moses and dependence upon Moses had been discussed (John 5:45-47). This was also true of the debate with the Zealots at Capernaum (John 6:30-40). Descent from Abraham as the chosen people of God was now the basis for their claim to freedom.
Actual Slavery
“Every one that committeth sin is the bondservant of sin” (John 8:34). Jesus made perfectly clear that He had used the word bondage in the sense of the slavery which sin brings. Again there is the implicit claim to sinlessness by Jesus. He is the Savior of sinners. He alone can set them free. “And the bondservant abideth not in the house for ever: the son abideth for ever” (John 8:35) They claimed they were not slaves, but Jesus responded that all men are shaves to sin until they have accepted the redemption from sin which the Son of God came from heaven to offer. The “house” represents the presence of God. Christ’s words have just been represented as a building in which a disciple may live. The Son is sinless, hence He is free and abides in the house forever, even as He is the Son of God. They were sinful and, being in bondage, could not abide in the presence of God unless they allowed Jesus to set them free from sin. “If therefore the Son shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed” (John 8:36). Just as the world could not give or receive or even comprehend the real peace of God, so they could not understand or receive the heavenly freedom without Christ.
“I know that ye are Abraham’s seed; yet ye seek to kill me, because my word hath not free course in you” (John 8:37). Jesus readily admitted their claim to be of blood relationship with Abraham, but the higher spiritual relationship they did not possess. They repudiated any relationship with Abraham by their murderous plots against Jesus. It was most important for the preaching of the gospel that all the world should recognize that Jesus knew the plots against His life. He was not overpowered by evil men, but gave Himself voluntarily for the sins of the world. For this reason and for the purpose of solemnly warning these wicked men against the murderous intents in their hearts, Jesus kept calmly revealing to the multitude the plots these leaders were seeking to carry Out. Jesus now laid down the charge that their real father was the devil since they were doing his bidding: “I speak the things which I have seen with my Father: and ye also do the things which ye heard from your father” (John 8:38). Jesus affirmed His former presence in heaven with God His Father — “I have seen”; He revealed their efforts to do what the devil had suggested to them.
Actual Descent The Jewish leaders comprehended, but did not like to admit the content of His last words. They repeated their claim that Abraham was their father, thus denying any imputation that they had a father who was suggesting evil conduct to them. Jesus responded that actions speak louder than words. “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 heard from God: this did not Abraham. Ye do the works of your father” (John 8:39-41). They were Abraham’s children, but their evil deeds did not harmonize with their ancestor. Their actions pointed rather to another father of malignant character. The Jews caught up Jesus’ admission that they were physically descended from Abraham and tried to answer this charge that they were descended from another (spiritual) father. They declared they were truly Abraham’s children in the spiritual sense as well as the physical: “Abraham’s blood in our veins and Abraham’s faith in our hearts.” No idolatrous desertion of God had blotted their spiritual descent. They claimed to be “the offspring of the man of God with his chosen people.” They wrestled with the charge of Jesus that they had another father who was evil. They turned now to the spiritual idea of fatherhood and affirmed that God was their father: “We were not born of fornication; we have one Father, even God” (John 8:41).
Declarations of Deity
Jesus responded to this by showing that their evil deeds proved that their spiritual relationship was to the devil. The ready proof was also seen in their refusal to understand and believe Jesus. His assertion of His deity is made very clear: “If God were your Father, ye would love me.” The Jews are receiving a plain, clear answer to their question as to where His Father is (John 8:19) and, “Who art thou?” (John 8:25). Come forth answers Where?” — heaven; from God answers “Who?” He sent me answers concerning His divine authority. He will furnish further decisive answers as to His deity before the discussion is over. The Father of Lies
“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 your father it is your will to do” (John 8:43, John 8:44). The Jews did not understand what Jesus was saying because they refused to hear His words. They had so filled their minds and hearts with the determination to seek the worldly things, which the devil offers, that there was no room left for the truth of God to find lodgment in their hearts. Jesus now spoke plainly of the identity of their father. They could not misunderstand this. They could only reject it if they were determined to do the will of their father the devil.
“He was a murderer from the beginning” (John 8:44). The devil had murdered Adam and Eve in the sense of utterly destroying their blessed estate in the Garden of Eden and bringing death upon them. He was the father of lies in the sense of telling the first lie to Eve and causing her to doubt and disobey God. His leading Cain to murder Abel followed. This reference is one of the clearest statements of Jesus which affirms the reality of the devil’s existence and the historic verity of the early chapters of Genesis. A denial of the reality of Satan’s existence and the truth of the Genesis accounts instantly implies a denial of the deity of Christ. This passage in John’s Gospel seals the testimony of Christ on this issue. “But because I say the truth, ye believe me not” (John 8:45). The truth which Jesus revealed to them was so unwelcome to them that they closed their minds against it. He had condemned their sins, uncovered their hypocrisy, and proved the falsity of their whole system. His revelation of His deity in this sermon, as in preceding declarations, confirmed the absolute truth of His indictment of their whole system. Therefore the more clearly He revealed the truth to them the more they determined in their wicked hearts not to believe on Him.
Sinlessness of Jesus
“Which of you convicteth me of sin?” He had affirmed in this sermon His absolute perfection: “I do always the things that are pleasing to him” (John 8:29). He now demanded that they specify against Him since they refused to believe His declarations. His challenge for anyone to point out any sin He had ever committed means He flatly affirmed His sinlessness. This must include His childhood and youth as well as His manhood. The Jews were not able to take up this challenge. They had been seeking evidence all along in their eagle watch on His ministry and His teaching. They had pointed out that He had broken their traditions, but the truth and authority of their traditions had to be proved. Jesus had shown that they were false where they contradicted the Word of God. They had charged Jesus with doing and teaching contrary to the Old Testament law. They had not been able to specify on this exactly, but they sensed this and at the last charged that He had “perverted the nation” (Luke 23:2). But if Jesus’ claim to be the Son of God was true, and all that He taught as directly revealed from God was the divine program of setting aside the Old that the New Will might be revealed, this charge fell to the ground. They had accused Jesus of blasphemy in one of the earliest exchanges between Him and the scholars, but Jesus had immediately proved that He did have authority on earth to forgive sins by working a miracle of healing upon the paralytic (Matthew 9:3-8). They had spread abroad whisperings that Jesus was a gluttonous man and a winebibber, but this was so obviously malicious slander that it did not deserve refutation by Jesus. He merely stated publicly their charge and left all to judge for themselves (Matthew 11:19).
Through the ages no one has been able to point out any flaw in His character. This is not only true on the negative side of disobedience to God, but His positive devotion in ceaseless service to the Father towers so far above anything any mere man has been able to achieve, it invites us constantly to attempt to reach up and touch the sky. The fact that Jesus had no consciousness of sin is clearly set forth in this challenge. Godet says: Had he been merely a super-eminently holy man with a conscience as tender as such a degree of sanctity implies, He would not have suffered the smallest sin, whether in His life or heart, to pass unperceived; and what hypocrisy, it would, in this case, have been to put to others a question whose favorable solution would have rested only on their ignorance of facts which He himself knew to be real! A succinct summation of the entire sinless life of Jesus was made by the hardened Roman governor at the final trial when He was condemned to death: “I find no fault in this man” (Luke 23:4); “Why, what evil hath this man done? I have found no cause of death in him” (Luke 23:22). The charge on which Pilate had condemned Him to death was stated over the cross: “This is the King of the Jews.” The final charge the Jews had urged against Him was that He was guilty of blasphemy in that He had claimed to be the Son of God. But if Jesus’ claim was true, and the evidence was overwhelming in sustaining it, then the charge fell of its own weight. A closing question deserves to be asked: “Who else has ever made such a claim to sinlessness and caused the world to listen to his words?” How else can His sinlessness be explained except by His being the Son of God? The absolute uniqueness of Jesus is established by this claim. A Samaritan and Demon-possessed
Jesus closed His assertion of sinlessness with the demand that they believe upon him since they could not contradict His claim. In John 8:47 He explains why they did not believe on Him. It was because they were doing the devil’s bidding and were bent on wickedness. They resorted to violent abuse to save face in the midst of their inability to prove any wrongdoing: “Say we not well that thou art a Samaritan, and hast a demon?” (John 8:48). They indicated that they had been making this charge and were just then bringing it out into the open. Investigating how it had been possible for Him to wait in Galilee until all the pilgrims had gone and then arrive in the midst of the feast, they undoubtedly had been able to discover that He had come by the short route down the backbone of the mountain range through Samaria. Whether they also knew of His earlier brief ministry at Sychar we do not know. They merely made this charge in process of flinging all the noisome epithets they could summon against Him. To call a Jew a Samaritan was close to the bottom of the heap of all the personal abuse which could be imagined. This was a fling at His obscure origin and His lack of standing with the scholars and wealthy leaders of the nation. Sadler interprets, “Thou art born of spiritual fornication, Thou art of an outcast race, Thou art an alien from the Church and the worship of God.” These were the “bitterest and most malicious words they could apply to him” (Commentary on John, p. 232).
Jesus’ Reply
One of the indications that Jesus did not allow Himself to be moved by this slander is seen in the Parable of the Good Samaritan, where He makes the religious outcast the hero of the account. The additional charge now made that He had a demon was a repetition of a similar charge made shortly after His arrival at this feast (John 7:20). The devastating arguments Jesus had advanced against their earlier charge that He was in league with the devil appears to have driven them from this line of attack to the insinuation that at least He was in the control of one of the devil’s angels. Jesus’ answer to this charge is calm and measured. He ignores the charge that He is a Samaritan and denied in the briefest manner that He had a demon. He affirmed again His divine authority: “I honor my Father, and ye dishonor me. But I seek not mine own glory; there is one that seeketh and judgeth” (John 8:49, John 8:50). There is to be a day of judgment when they must answer for their malicious slander and their bitter rejection and opposition. God would one day judge all the world. He would do this through His Son. Jesus already had set forth at the second Passover that He would be the Judge of the world (John 5:27). The Judgment Day The ultimate consideration for man in a state of defiance against God is death and the judgment. Jesus continually turned to this final phase of man’s existence on earth and his supreme hour of need. Jesus denied the truth of their charges and then delivered a gentle answer and promise: “If a man keep my word, he shall never see death” (John 8:51). He had just told them that they would die in their sins if they rejected Him; they would never enjoy the blessings of heaven. He now affirms the opposite. He takes up the discourse they had interrupted at John 8:32. To keep His word means to hear it, study it, comprehend it, accept it, cherish it, live by it. It is not merely in the Gospel of John that we find such exclusive emphasis upon the word of Christ as the basis of the final judgment. This is the climactic close of the Sermon on the Mount with the parable of the house built on the rock and the one built on the sand.
Greater Than Abraham? The Jews took Jesus’ enigmatical statement concerning death as referring to physical death, where as Jesus had referred to the second death in hell. They charged that this statement was further proof that He was deranged, since even the father of the Jewish race and all the prophets had died. They now made this promise of Jesus the basis for their demand that He give a further and clearer affirmation of His deity. Does He claim to be greater than Abraham and the prophets? “Whom makest thou thyself?” (John 8:53). Jesus now gave a second clear declaration of His deity: “It is my Father that glorifieth me; of whom ye say that he is your God” (John 8:54). They had insisted that He tell of whom He was speaking when He talked of His Father. Jesus answered with a brief, plain affirmation. He then reiterated the reason they did not understand His claims nor believe on Him; it was because they did not know God. His reference to Abraham met their demand that He state whether He claimed to be greater than Abraham. His final assertion of deity dwarfed any weak affirmation of superiority to Abraham. He represented Abraham as looking forward in faith and hope to the coming of Christ as the time of fulfillment of God’s day of glory for man’s redemption. ““Abraham rejoiced to see my day; and he saw it, and was glad” (John 8:56). The a.s.v. offers as an alternate translation in the footnote “that he should see.” God had promised Abraham that all the nations of the earth would be blessed through Him, and in the light of this revelation which had been granted to him, Abraham had seen the day of the fulfillment in one of his descendants. As he looked forward to the fulfillment of this glorious promise, he saw, as far as possible the time of Christ’s coming into the world. Then from Paradise Abraham doubtless saw Jesus’ earthly ministry. At the transfiguration Moses and Elijah had conversed with Christ concerning His approaching death. This was the answer to their question; His superiority to Abraham followed immediately upon Abraham’s attitude: “Jesus was the object of Abraham’s faith, hope, and religious joy.”
Eternality of Christ
“Thou art not yet fifty years old, and hast thou seen Abraham?” (John 8:57). Jesus had spoken of Abraham’s looking forward in intense expectation to the day when Christ would come. They turned this around to His seeing Abraham. Their high estimate of fifty, which He certainly could not exceed, leads one to wonder whether the ceaseless toil and suffering had made Jesus look older than one would expect. With characteristic perversity B. W. Bacon of Yale held that this scripture proves Jesus was fifty years and Luke’s declaration that Jesus was about thirty years old when He came to be baptized is false. But the Jews were merely making a guess which was admittedly high in order to clear the ground for their argument. Even if He was fifty, and He evidently was not, yet He could not have seen Abraham. If He had not seen Abraham, then presumably Abraham could not have seen Him. They were attempting to dodge the grand fact of the Messianic promises in the Old Testament. They were perverse in insisting on a literal meaning of His words.
“Before Abraham was born, I am” (John 8:58). This is the third clear assertion of deity in this sermon, and it is one of the most unassailable. Modernists have attempted to set aside His claims, such as, “My Father worketh until now, and I work” (John 5:17), which caused the Jews to charge, “also called God his own Father, making himself equal with God”; “1 and the Father are one” (John 10:30); “He that hath seen me hath seen the Father” (John 14:9). They attempt to apply these tremendous assertions to themselves, since man was made in the image of God. But no amount of such violent handling of the text can enable them to evade the force of this statement, “Before Abraham was, I am.” Jesus gave the most profound emphasis by His solemn introduction, “Verily, verily, I say unto you.” The fact that Jesus used the sacred name of God, I am, is most impressive (Exodus 3:14). Twice before in this discourse He had said, “I am he,” but here He applies to Himself the sacred name of God. If Jesus had said, “Before Abraham was born, I was,” it would have been understood that He meant He had been in existence before Abraham, but the words I am make clear that Jesus affirmed eternality. The unbelieving Jews could no longer doubt this and took up stones to kill Him. This was the opportunity they had sought through this entire discourse. In the very midst of a great throng in such a public place and in a location where He could be easily seen and heard, escape from death seems to have been exactly as it was at Nazareth when the mob attempted to throw Him from the rim of the precipice. He revealed His divine Person to them in such heavenly majesty that they shrank back from Him in terror, and He walked through their midst without a single person daring to lay hands upon Him or to cast a stone at Him (Luke 4:29, Luke 4:30).