Knowing Jesus

DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL OF JOHN

KNOWING JESUS

John 8:19-20

19 Then they asked him, "Where is your father?" "You do not know me or my Father," Jesus replied. "If you knew me, you would know my Father also."  20 He spoke these words while teaching in the temple area near the place where the offerings were put. Yet no one seized him, because his time had not yet come.

NIV

How is it that Jesus is telling the Pharisees, the religious leaders of Israel, they do not know God the Father? It surely does seem they do not know who Jesus is, other than a trouble maker that is destroying their authority over the people. But Jesus is telling them if they think they know God then they would know who Jesus is, but because they do not know Jesus is God they simply do not know God at all. What they do know is their religion, their man imposed rules and regulations determined by their interpretation of the Law given to Moses, which was to show them they need for Jesus. The Law was not given to bring them salvation, but to bring them to repentance and see their need for a Savior, the Messiah. It seems they were blinded to the simple truth of salvation by faith in Jesus by they need for the Law, for rules to live by. Have we replaced the simple truth of faith in Jesus with all our rules and regulations in our various denominations? Do we argue among ourselves, perhaps not in a loud vocal manner, but in that quite unyielding, unbending, stubborn insistence on our rightness and their wrongness, about many points in the scripture? The gifts are for today, no they ended with the apostles, some ended, others are for today, healer stays but tongues ended, just as an example. The list of different opinions would take an entire book. Every single denomination has some difference in their understanding of scripture then all the others, and it is they understanding which they stand on, rather than on the simple truth of faith in Jesus. If we know who Jesus is then we surely should know who the Father is, and what more do we need to know. Just as we can see in the Old Testament the history of God the Father and his relationship to the people of Israel we can see in the New Testament the history of Jesus and his relationship to all mankind. We can see in retrospect the purpose of the Law, and the purpose of Jesus. We can also see the sending and the giving of the Holy Spirit to all who live after Jesus to lead us to the truth. This is the whole of the Bible; it is not about rules and regulations, but about God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit and their relationship with us. We just need to know Jesus.