May 22, 2023
A Fact Check for Salvation
“Jesus said to them, ‘If God were your Father, you would love Me, for I proceeded forth and have come from God, for I have not even come on My own initiative, but He sent Me. Why do you not understand what I am saying? It is because you cannot hear My word.’”
John 8:42-43 (NASB)
Since my conversion, I have witnessed God using the church as it shows His love. It is a beacon of hope for many. One night my wife and I were struggling to pay bills. We just started tithing. It was a tough transition to say the least, but we wanted to be faithful. So we said, “God, You know our needs, and we want to honor You first.” As we looked at the bank account, we got very concerned about feeding our children. We said, “O. K. God, it’s your issue now.” That same night, someone knocked on the door. It was two ladies from our church holding two large boxes. They were full of food. How could they have known? They told us God lead them to our home. I remember bursting into tears. Later I had to apologize to God for my lack of faith. He used part of my new family in-Christ to love us. He knew His children.
“If God were your Father, you would love Me.” Christ’s argument is this: “Whoever is a child of God will acknowledge his first-born Son; but you hate me, and therefore you have no reason to boast, that you are God’s children.”[1] The Jews had a huge problem. If they said they loved God, they had to love Jesus too. Uh Oh! This was the highest test. “If God really were your Father, you would love me,” “This must be expressed in some languages by negative supplementary statements, for example, ‘If God is your father, but he isn’t, you will love me, but you do not.’” [2] The second test: Jesus said, “Why do you not understand what I am saying? It is because you cannot hear My word.” The language Jesus used, “you not understand what I am saying,” was heard but not accepted. This proved they weren’t God’s. Their problem wasn’t they couldn’t hear Him. They could take the time to analyze His statements, but they couldn’t hear Him in their souls. The darkness of their souls prevented them from hearing. Lenski says, “The very language of the divine truth is foreign to these Jews. The evidence that the language is foreign to them is their inability to hear what is put into that language. Jesus may as well talk to deaf men… That fact has only one explanation: they do not even recognize the language, that it is that of God. That proves that God is not their father. Children know their father’s language; it is their mother tongue. These Jews belong to a foreign land, where a different mother tongue is used.”[3]
Many in today’s society claim to be Christians. They do Christian things and act righteous, but in their heart, they are counterfeit. If we say we love God but don’t hear His Words, we need to do some inspection. If God is living within, there should be a recognition of His voice. If there is no recognition, maybe there wasn’t a new birth. Be sure of this today, and stand by for what Jesus is getting ready to say in tomorrow’s time!
[1] John Calvin and William Pringle, Commentary on the Gospel according to John, vol. 1 (Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software, 2010), 349.
[2] Barclay Moon Newman and Eugene Albert Nida, A Handbook on the Gospel of John, UBS Handbook Series (New York: United Bible Societies, 1993), 285.
[3] R. C. H. Lenski, The Interpretation of St. John’s Gospel (Minneapolis, MN: Augsburg Publishing House, 1961), 647–648.