Hear What God Says

DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL OF JOHN

HEAR WHAT GOD SAYS

John 8:38-47

38 I am telling you what I have seen in the Father's presence, and you do what you have heard from your father."  39 "Abraham is our father," they answered. "If you were Abraham's children," said Jesus, "then you would do the things Abraham did. 40 As it is, you are determined to kill me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God. Abraham did not do such things. 41 You are doing the things your own father does." "We are not illegitimate children," they protested. "The only Father we have is God himself." 42 Jesus said to them, "If God were your Father, you would love me, for I came from God and now am here. I have not come on my own; but he sent me. 43 Why is my language not clear to you? Because you are unable to hear what I say. 44 You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father's desire. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies. 45 Yet because I tell the truth, you do not believe me! 46 Can any of you prove me guilty of sin? If I am telling the truth, why don't you believe me? 47 He who belongs to God hears what God says. The reason you do not hear is that you do not belong to God." 

NIV

Now we are right in the crescendo of this confrontation between Jesus and the Pharisees, although it has not come to a conclusion. Both Jesus and the Pharisees have more to say to each other, but here is where it crests. In essence, Jesus tells these religious men, their father is the devil and his Father is God. How can religious men not belong to God? They appear to be following the Law of Moses. They appear to be righteous and pious in their religious activities. But if they truly worshiped God, they would know Jesus is telling the truth. So it would have to mean they actually worship their own religious behavior, their own form of righteousness. Basically, they worship their act of worship, which in essence is self-worship which is the reason Lucifer was cast from Heaven. He thought he was as good as God, or better than God, thus lied to himself regarding his own worth. Jesus tells them their father, the devil, is the father of lies, in fact, he cannot ever tell the truth. Is that why there are people today who cannot understand the truth of God’s word? Are all people who do not believe, children of the devil? How can people who appear to be good people who do so many good deeds for their fellow man, some who are even religious people, be children of the devil? It would seem if we do not worship God and God alone, we may be in danger of living, in some sense, a lie. This requires that we admit we have no righteousness, not even a smidgen, within ourselves. We are nothing more than sinners that have been saved through faith in Jesus Christ. Anything else would be a lie, and if we believe our own lie or lies, then who is our father? The Pharisees were guilty of sin, but they believed in their form of righteousness, their appearance of obedience to the Law. However, they manipulated the Law to suit their own needs, as they did with the distance of a Sabbath day’s journey. When we change or manipulate the word of God to suit our own needs are we any different than those Jesus accused of being children of the devil? The truth is the truth and Jesus spoke pure truth and He is the Word who became flesh and dealt among us. We have to take the word for the word, and not try to make it into what we want it to say, but simply be who he wants us to be. If we are going to worship God then we must worship Him in spirit and in truth and the truth is our only righteousness is in Jesus, for he is our righteousness. It is because of Jesus that God sees us as holy and blameless. In and of ourselves we have neither, for left on our own we are not holy and we are full of blame. Knowing and admitting this is the only way we will ever fully belong to God. We cannot be fence-sitters with one foot in the world and one foot in the kingdom. Again, we cannot have two fathers. If we belong to God then we must live fully in the truth. We must hear what God says. Now that leaves us with somewhat of a conundrum. The people of those days only had Jesus and his words to believe in. True they saw miracles and signs, but they did not have volumes of commentaries to explain in detail every nuance of each word he spoke. They did not have hordes of scholars all with opinions as to how we should interpret each verse. They had Jesus and the early church after Jesus ascended, was given the Spirit to lead them into all truth. If we are going to be followers of Jesus, rather than of our modern scholars and commentaries, then we need to hear from the Spirit. Does that mean we should ignore those scholars? We might learn a great deal from them, but when it comes to the truth, only the Spirit can lead us there. Even scholars can be guilty of lies, as they are nothing more than mere mortals. Let us live as children of the Light and hear what God says.