Jesus Affirms His Oneness with God

John 8:12, 25-36, 56-59

GOLDEN TEXT: “He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father.”—John 14:9

OUR lesson is a portion of a brief report of one of our Lord’s discourses while at the Feast of Tabernacles, probably delivered on the last, the great day of the feast. Although they are not mentioned, probably only a few heard in comparison to the multitude, and probably these made no demonstration at the time. We doubt not that there were some in the audience in whose hearts our Master’s words found lodgment, bringing forth fruitage subsequently. These were Israelites indeed in whom there was no guile, no dishonesty, no disposition to deceive others, nor to deceive their own hearts.

These knew themselves to be sinners, unable to come up to the standards of the Law. They realized that they were indeed as the Lord had said, slaves of sin and imperfection. They desired to follow the perfect law of God as they discerned it with the eye of their understanding. They wondered in hope if it were possible that this Great Teacher had some word of truth, some message from the Lord which would relieve them of their great burden. These were in the attitude so graphically described and pictured by the Apostle Paul later, in the words, O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from this dead body? My mind desires to serve the law of God, but I have in my flesh all the imperfections and weaknesses of heredity and I am unable to do as I would.—Rom. 7:21-25

Our Lord not only told His hearers that He was the Light of the world, but also that if they would continue in His Word, they might be His disciples indeed and would thus know the truth, and the truth would make them free. Jesus did not go into details to show how the truth would make them free; He merely stated the proposition, realizing that it would attract those of a right condition of heart as the magnet attracts steel.

Under the enlightening and guiding influences of that Holy Spirit, we now see that which our Lord’s hearers before Pentecost could not distinctly discern. We see that Israel was a house of servants and could not abide in the house of the Lord, in the place of His favor for ever. Only temporarily would they occupy the place to prepare the way for and enact types for the Gospel house of sons—“for Moses verily was faithful as a servant over all his house [of servants], but Christ as a Son over His house [of sons].” (Heb. 3:5,6) How blessed is our realization that the Son makes free—free indeed, those who come to the Father through Him.

The apostle points out to us in Romans, the 8th chapter, that the whole creation is groaning and travailing, waiting for the Millennial day and for the sons of God, under Jesus, the great chief captain and high priest, to be their deliverer. The Apostle Peter points out that whosoever at that time will not avail himself of the great privileges of liberty and return to the Father’s family will be destroyed in the second death.—Acts 3:23

Another lesson which the Holy Spirit teaches us through the apostles and prophets respecting the liberty wherewith Christ makes free, is that those who can now exercise faith in Him and who earnestly crave this liberty, may in a certain sense be made free from sin and death now—in this present life—while outwardly to all appearances subject to similar conditions with the world. This faith-salvation is the one which is in operation through this Gospel age. Blessed are those who have the eyes of faith, for they may receive this liberty in advance of the world, in advance of the Millennial age, and receiving it into good and honest hearts, they receive still further blessings.

Through this faith-justification the Christian is free, but still in danger of being overtaken by the snares of sin and the wiles of the adversary. To be free indeed, positively free, securely free, he needs to make an alliance with the Lord Jesus, to give his heart fully and completely to Him, to accept His Will, His Word, His guidance, in every matter. True, the giving up of the will is the strongest kind of bondage, but this is exactly what the Scriptures represent as being the only proper course of those who would be free from the dominion of sin and death. The apostle declares that being made free from sin we became the servants (Greek, bondslaves) of righteousness and of Christ.—Rom. 6:18

Any who seek to use liberty for themselves, those who boast that they have a mind of their own, and a will of their own, know not how dangerous is this position, and they surely will succumb eventually to the wiles of the adversary and to the ensnarements of sin. Only those who follow the course of full consecration to the Lord are wise. There is not only rest and peace and joy and liberty for the sons of God now, but additionally, O glorious thought, to these the Master has proposed that they shall be His bride, His associates in the Kingdom, His joint-heirs for all eternity.—Rom. 5:1,2

In His teachings, Jesus made perfectly clear His relationship to the Father, saying, “I know whence I came, and whither I go; … I am from above. … I am not of this world; I proceeded forth, and came from God; neither came I of Myself, but He sent Me. … It is My Father that heareth Me, and if I should say that I know Him not, I shall be a liar.” Then said the Jews unto Him, Art thou greater than our Father Abraham? Jesus answered, “Your Father Abraham rejoiced to see My day: and he saw it, and was glad.”

Abraham did see Jesus’ day with the eye of faith; believing the divine promise respecting Messiah. He may have seen His day of sacrifice typified in the offering of Isaac, his only son, but at all events he saw Messiah’s coming glory day, the Millennial day, and no wonder the prospect made him glad. With the eye of faith he beheld the heavenly city, the New Jerusalem, the glorified Christ, the Kingdom class, and he beheld similarly the heavenly country—the world blessed by that Kingdom.—Heb. 11:10,16; 12:22; 13:14

QUESTIONS:

Explain the meaning of the Golden Text in which Jesus says that those who had seen Him had seen the Father.

Does the world of mankind in general now enjoy the freedom of the sons of God?

Explain how true freedom can be obtained only by full surrender of the will to God.

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