DEVOTION
THE GOSPEL
OF JOHN
THIS IS THE
TRUTH
John 8:48-59
48 The Jews
answered him, "Aren't we right in saying that you are a Samaritan and
demon-possessed?" 49 "I am not possessed by a
demon," said Jesus, "but I honor my
Father and you dishonor me. 50 I am not seeking glory for myself; but there is
one who seeks it, and he is the judge. 51 I tell you the truth, if anyone keeps
my word, he will never see death."
52 At this the Jews exclaimed, "Now we know that you are
demon-possessed! Abraham died and so did the prophets, yet you say that if
anyone keeps your word, he will never taste death. 53 Are you greater than our
father Abraham? He died, and so did the prophets. Who do you think you
are?" 54 Jesus replied, "If I glorify myself,
my glory means nothing. My Father, whom you claim as your God, is the one who
glorifies me. 55 Though you do not know him, I know him. If I said I did not, I
would be a liar like you, but I do know him and keep his word. 56 Your father
Abraham rejoiced at the thought of seeing my day; he saw it and was glad." 57 "You are not yet fifty years
old," the Jews said to him, "and you have seen Abraham!" 58 "I tell you the truth," Jesus answered, "before Abraham was born, I am!" 59 At this, they picked up stones to
stone him, but Jesus hid himself, slipping away from the temple grounds.
NIV
This is the
end of the conversation with these Pharisees who wanted to kill Jesus and
within this back and forth dialog several truths ring out. Maybe we should
divide this up, but it screams to be all together. First we have to note that God
the Father will judge each person’s life, not on the good and bad deeds each of
us do, but on the fact of whether or not we accepted the one he sent, Jesus.
The second truth is that if we honor Jesus by accepting him as the one and only
Son of God sent by the Father to redeem us, we will never see death. Of course
these Jews were outraged at that thought because they knew that Abraham had
died many years before them, and so Jesus simply had to be demon possessed because
he was talking nonsense as far as they were concerned. Again they could only
see and reason with their human minds, because their spirits were dead in need
of being born again. Another great truth here is that Abraham saw the day of
Jesus. First, Abraham believed God and it was counted onto him as
righteousness. Second, God told Abraham what he was going to and that the
redeemer would come from his seed. Third Abraham did not actually see death, as
he saw the day of Jesus. Abraham is in the presence of God, and was in God’s presence
with Jesus when he was sent from the Father. Abraham witnessed the sending.
Those of us who honor Jesus by accepting him as the one and only Son of God,
sent by the Father to redeem us, to set us free from our sin will also be in
the presence of God the Father when we are finished with being in these perishable
bodies. We will not see death. Yes we will leave this shell, this form of flesh
we now occupy, and it will be put in the grave, but we will not be dead, we
will be alive and well in the presence of God, in an unperishable form. Jesus
has told us that flesh and blood cannot enter the kingdom of God; He rose from
the grave in a glorified form, able to walk through a locked door to appear to
Thomas. Someday our bodies will also rise from the grave in a gloried form,
unperishable, incorruptible, changed in a twinkling of an eye. In some sense it
may be a bit of a mystery. We could be as if we are asleep when we die, and
wake up glorified on that day, just as we do each morning, or it could be the
moment we are finished with this body, and we die in the flesh we are
transported in the spirit into his presence, and someday in the future we are
reunited with our transformed glorified bodies, so we can live in the new city
of Jerusalem on the new earth. Either way death has no power over us. The last
truth is that Jesus was making sure we all knew that he was before Abraham.
Jesus is an eternal being, that was there in the beginning, before all else. This
is the truth.
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