What is the purpose of John 8:44 in the Bible?

BibleAsk Team

Automatic Transcript Generated:

Wendy:

Okay. So Paul is asking another question. What’s the purpose of John 8:44 in the Holy Bible? Does it have a double meaning?

Tina:

Alright, Paul, thank you for that question.

Let’s start off with looking at John 844 again. Great question. I love this stuff. So it reads, you are of your father, the devil and the desires of your father. You want to do?

He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources. He is a liar and the father of it. So is this figurative or is this Jesus being literal? Great question.

So let’s back up and look at this in its context. Let’s go back to John eight, starting at verse 31. And Jesus is having a dialogue with the Jews. And Jesus tells the Jews who believed in him. First, he says, if you abide in my word, you are my disciples indeed.

And you shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free. We all love that verse. Right? Well, that hurt some Jews standing there who then responded to Jesus verse 33. They said, we are Abraham’s descendants and we have never been in bondage to anyone.

How can you say you will be made free? And then Jesus answers back. He says, Well, most assuredly, I say to you, Whoever commits sin is a slave to sin. So right here Jesus, he was being figurative the way he sets people free. But he’s saying, you free from the bondage of sin.

Whereas the Jews were taking him literally there that Jesus literally would set them free from some sort of bondage. And they’re like, We’re not a bondage, right? We were liberated out of Egypt. But if you go even further back, you go to Abraham. Abraham was a free man.

Ishmael was the son of the slave woman. And you can read in Romans where Paul talks about how that is figurative. Figurative. Actually. Ironically, that Ishmael, was sort of this.

And his mother were the sign of being under the Jewish law, whereas being born of the promise that of Isaac was God’s symbol for the new Covenant. Irony there. But if we look back to now, Jesus saying, he sets us free. But if you’re insane, you’re a slave. And then he says, and a slave does not abide in the house forever.

But a son abides forever. Therefore, if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed. So we’re back to this. He’s the son. He will set you free.

Jesus is able to do that. We go back to again the traditions back there. The Son ran the household or might be more renting the household alongside their father. We talked about like ESOP, maybe helping running along the business of his dad. And so Jesus, like, I’m kind of that son who’s having my dad with the business I’m a big shot.

And I’m not like a slave. The slaves are going to come and go. But the son will draw in the house and run it. And he has the authority to set you free. And how did the Jews take this?

Not too well. And Jesus actually goes on. He says, I know that you are Abraham’s descendants. So Jesus says, I know literally you’re of the line of Abraham. But you seek to kill me because my world has no place in you.

I speak what I’ve seen from my father. And you do what you’ve seen from your father. So who’s this? Your father. The Internet said to him, Abraham is our Father.

And Jesus said to them, if you were Abraham’s children, you would do the works of Abraham. But now you seek to kill me. A man who has told you the truth, which I heard from God.

But you seek to kill me. A man who has told you the truth, which I heard from God. Jesus saying that of himself. He says, Abraham did not do this. Abraham did not seek to kill Jesus.

Abraham did not seek to persecute Jesus people. Abraham did not rebel against God. So Jesus Christan says, you do the deeds of your father. So again, he’s suggesting there’s some other father than Abraham. And then they said to him, we are not born of fornication.

So yeah, Jesus. They take it with Jesus saying, and maybe that was a bit implied that they’re almost like kids from Promiscuity, these kids that were born of an affair. Right? And so they’re second class citizens. We’re not like this.

They say we have one Father. And they say that’s God. So now they’re not even say Abraham is our Father. They’re saying, no, God is our Father. And Jesus said to them, If God were your father, you would love me, for I proceeded forth and came from God.

Nor have I come of myself. But he sent me. So again, if you really were of God, if you’re a descendant of God, you would accept me. You embrace me as your Masters, your brother, your sister. However you want to see, you would love me.

Jesus is the Son of God. Sorry. Abraham was the Son of God. And he raised me like loving and like a family member. Why don’t you guys do that?

And this is the lead up to that verse where Jesus says, no, your father is the devil, because really, you’re acting like him doing everything like him. We have that saying that the Apple doesn’t fall too far from the tree. It’s kind of Jesus is applying that principle. Really? You’re acting like you’ve been raised by Satan.

So this is from the gospel of John. Remember in the letter by John to the Church, his first one first John, chapter three, starting at verse eight, he repeats this principle and clarifies it. He says, he who sins is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning. So all lies. All sin originated from Satan.

And John continues for this purpose, the son of man was manifested that he might destroy the works of the devil. Whoever has been born of God does not sin for his seed remains in him. And he cannot sin because he has been born of God. In this, the children of God and the children of the devil are manifest or the revealed. Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is he who does not love his brother.

So same principle. Jesus saying, you reveal who is your real father. You have one of two fathers. You have either God the Father in heaven as your father, or you’re going to have Satan as your father. And it’s going to be revealed by how you are acting.

We are going to sin. We’re all going to make mistakes. But is your life in sin? Do you live to sin? Are you happy you sin?

Do you want to continue to sin? Do you not care that you sin? You’re all those things like you’re totally in that camp of being in being with the devil. And he’s your father. Not literally right, but in the way you’re raised the way you’re acting.

He’s your father. But if you’re loving people, if you’re trying to overcome sin, you want to obey God and you want to be in his presence and be like him. You are God’s child. You will be a son of God. We talk about who are the sons of God.

This is the way you are the son of God.

To me, that’s what that verse is telling us. It’s.


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