Reliable

DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL OF JOHN

RELIABLE

John 8:25-30

25 "Who are you?" they asked. "Just what I have been claiming all along," Jesus replied. 26 "I have much to say in judgment of you. But he who sent me is reliable, and what I have heard from him I tell the world."  27 They did not understand that he was telling them about his Father. 28 So Jesus said, "When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am [the one I claim to be] and that I do nothing on my own but speak just what the Father has taught me. 29 The one who sent me is with me; he has not left me alone, for I always do what pleases him."  30 Even as he spoke, many put their faith in him.

NIV

We have already considered their two questions, “Where is your father?” and “Who are you?” At least in the sense of being from above or below. Because we live above we know where His Father is and we know who He is. But we should look at the answer Jesus gave them in regards to their asking who he is. Has Jesus ever changed? No, nor has what he claimed as to who he was. He has always said that he was the one sent by the Father. If any Jew worth his own salt would know the one sent by the Father is the Messiah, the Christ. Jesus makes sure these Pharisees get the point that he has the authority to judge them and that is because the one who sent him, the Father, is reliable and that Jesus is only telling the world that which the Father has told him. It cannot be any plainer, God is truth, he only speaks the truth, he never lies, he is always right, never wrong, he is always reliable, and we can always count on his words and his reliability, unlike us. We cannot say that every word out of our mouth is always a truth, especially when we speak about other people, or for that matter, about ourselves. We all have some questionable attitude of behavior in our past or even the present that we do not reveal, thus hiding some truth. We also may or may not always speak the truth in our interpretation of the scripture. The proof of that is in the various denominational riffs over certain passages. Which one is speaking the truth, and which one is speaking non-truth? If there is a difference of opinion, then one could be true, the other could be false, or they both could be false because both of them cannot be true.  What we know is the Father is always true and thus Jesus is always true. Our salvation is true because of the reliability of Jesus. That cannot be denied. There is something else in these words of Jesus which may well cause a stir and go against traditional thinking. Jesus tells them that when they have lifted up the Son of Man, that has him crucified, they will then know who is really is. The statement Jesus makes about the Father who sent him has never left him alone gives us a clue as to the events on the cross. Tradition thinking is that God turned his back on Jesus when he became sin for the world because God cannot look on sin. We think that is not the case. Just because Jesus quoted one verse from Psalm 22 does not mean God forsook him. Jesus has always been about teaching the people, and even from the cross, he was teaching. We would have to read the complete Psalm to understand what he was saying. The people knew the Psalm, they sang them all the time, just as our modern songs by popular recording artists are sung throughout the day by many people. Jesus is reminding the people of exactly what is happening to him and that God is not far off. He reminds them the dogs surround him, that he is poured out like water, his tongue sticks to the roof of his mouth, that they divide his garments, casting lots for them. The Psalm goes on and on all about this moment in time, proving him to be the Christ. The other truth remains about God not looking upon sin. How can that be because we sin? Does that mean every time we fail God, he turns his back on us? He promised he would never leave us nor forsake us. We even have the Holy Spirit dwelling within us. Does that mean when we sin, the Spirit picks up and leaves? We cannot say that we are sinless, that would be a lie. So then how do we deal with the fact God will never leave us nor forsake us even when we have sin in us? Is that any different when Jesus has all our sins upon him? The other idea which causes us to think about is whether Jesus left his divinity behind when he was lifted up on the cross. Jesus has always been divine. He was there in the beginning and nothing was made that was not made by him. He was sent by the Father to do exactly was he was doing on the cross. His very words that he always does what pleases the Father is the reason the Father never has left him alone. Here he is doing precisely what pleased the Father and so the Father still has not left him alone. What we learn is that even when we fail Him, He never leaves us because he promised he would never leave us nor forsake us. We can have confidence in Jesus because he is reliable.