May 21, 2023
Deceiving Appearances
“They answered and said to Him, ‘Abraham is our father.’ Jesus said to them, ‘If you are Abraham’s children, do the deeds of Abraham. But as it is, you are seeking to kill Me, a man who has told you the truth, which I heard from God; this Abraham did not do. You are doing the deeds of your father.’ They said to Him, ‘We were not born of fornication; we have one Father: God.’” John 8:39-41 (NASB)
Years back in student ministry, my wife and I invested in twin boys while working in student ministry. They came from a bad childhood and needed the love of Christ. We spent years with these boys. One boy we thought would end up in prison due to his anger problem. The other we thought might end up in ministry. Two boys, two possible destinations. Over time both boys disappeared. One day while in the jail as a chaplain, I was called by a prisoner from a cell. It was one of the twins; the good one. He was arrested for armed robbery. To my knowledge, he is still in prison. The other with the anger issue saw us in Walmart one night and ran and hugged my wife. He said, “Hey momma and dad!” He has six children and supervising landscaping work. I guess you never know what happens in a person’s life. One life in rebellion led to freedom. The other life of freedom led him into prison. What appears, is not always correct…
“Abraham is our father.” Hughes says it so well: “‘Abraham is our father,’ they answered (v. 39). Four words. That was enough of an answer for them: ‘Abraham is our father.’ The common belief at that time was that Abraham was so godly and had stored up such a vast treasury of merit that if his descendants would draw upon it, they would attain righteousness. In fact, sometime after this account the Christian Justin Martyr was in dialogue with Trypho the Jew, and Trypho ended that conversation by saying that the eternal kingdom will be given to those who are the seed of Abraham according to the flesh, even if they are sinners and unbelievers and disobedient to God. No wonder the Jews responded confidently with the words, ‘Abraham is our father.’ Abraham was their security.”[1] Abraham’s life was during Israel’s pagan, and idolatrous state. The nation got a leader who would carry them out of their rebellious state, by his obedience to God. “And therefore it was also credited to him as righteousness.” (Romans 4:22). Jesus was now a leader to a rebellious people as well, as He said, “you are seeking to kill Me, a man who has told you the truth, which I heard from God…” Luke 13:34a even records this same behavior by Jews: “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who have been sent to her!” They were not the children of God, when they said, “We were not born of fornication; we have one Father: God,” because they opposed God Himself. Jesus will make this very clear in verse 44 in tomorrow’s time.
While we worked with these two young men, I always saw one as someone who was passionate about God. He always wanted to know more about God. The other wasn’t. I couldn’t get him to concentrate on the simple things. One seemed to have promise; the other…? I made wrong assumptions. The same was true for the Jews. They appeared holy, but the staggering truth was that a great deception was in action. The facts were proving they were about to fulfill another chapter in Israel’s reputation of killing its own prophets. And now they were plotting to kill God Himself! But Jesus is God, and you can’t kill God…
[1] R. Kent Hughes, John: That You May Believe, Preaching the Word (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 1999), 251.