John 8 - Fightin' Words

Think Jesus was just a really nice guy? Think again.

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John 8 Summary

Most English Bible translations format the 11 opening verses of this chapter in a way that indicates that most scholars recognized it as being added to what John originally wrote. We encountered this same phenomenon at the end of Mark's gospel as well. For more on why the fact that these passages are considered extra-biblical should increase your level of trust that the rest of the words presented to you in your English Bible are true and authentic, read our post on Mark 16.

Can you feel the tension in this conversation Jesus has with the Pharisees? It's tense because it centers around the most important question that all people must answer: what is it that you put your eternal hope in?

Jesus points out that these Pharisees ultimately had no hope because they didn't even realize they needed salvation. They had full confidence in themselves, because they were descendents of Abraham.

Certainly Jesus' life was a model of humility and self sacrifice. He did show love and mercy to people rejected by society. But also notice that Jesus did not cede one iota on declaring the truth, and He did so in a very aggressive way.

Dig Deeper

There are three primary questions that all people need to answer:

Who / what is God?
Who / what am I?
How am I reconciled to God?

Getting any one of these questions in particular wrong will lead to getting all three of them wrong. This is a big deal, because the answers to these questions not only guide the ordinary decisions you make each and every day, but they have eternal consequence.

The Pharisees demonstrate this nicely in today's chapter. They misunderstand who they are. They claimed they have never been enslaved to anyone (v33). Apparently they forgot about the slavery inflicted by the Egyptians, Babylonians and the occupation and massive taxation they currently faced from the Romans.

But more importantly, Jesus points out they didn't realize that everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin (v34).

So because they fundamentally misunderstood their own identity, they arrived at a very flawed understanding of who God is, and they felt no need to seek reconciliation with God because they didn't think they needed it.

Make sure you have solid answers to these three questions. Keep reading the Bible everyday and increasing your knowledge of the truth, because the truth will set you free (v32).

AAA Prayer :

ACKNOWLEDGE WHO GOD IS: Our Father God, the one who sent Jesus for our salvation.
ALIGN YOUR LIFE WITH GOD'S WILL: Pray that your understanding of who God is, who you are, and how you're reconciled with God will be built up as you read His Word every day.
ASK GOD FOR WHAT YOU NEED: