32  Jesus Confronts His Enemies  (John 8:48–59)

The Jews answered and said to Him, “Do we not say rightly that You are a Samaritan and have a demon?” Jesus answered, “I do not have a demon; but I honor My Father, and you dishonor Me. But I do not seek My glory; there is One who seeks and judges. Truly, truly, I say to you, if anyone keeps My word he will never see death.” The Jews said to Him, “Now we know that You have a demon. Abraham died, and the prophets also; and You say, ‘If anyone keeps My word, he will never taste of death.’ Surely You are not greater than our father Abraham, who died? The prophets died too; whom do You make Yourself out to be?” Jesus answered, “If I glorify Myself, My glory is nothing; it is My Father who glorifies Me, of whom you say, ‘He is our God’; and you have not come to know Him, but I know Him; and if I say that I do not know Him, I will be a liar like you, but I do know Him and keep His word. Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it and was glad.” So the Jews said to Him, “You are not yet fifty years old, and have You seen Abraham?” Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was born, I am.” Therefore they picked up stones to throw at Him, but Jesus hid Himself and went out of the temple. (8:48–59)

Ever since his initial rebellion (cf. Isa. 14:12–14; Ezek. 28:12–16; Luke 10:18), Satan has tirelessly waged war against God and His servants. The conflict, which began in the angelic realm (Dan. 10:13, 20; Eph. 6:12; Rev. 12:4, 7–9), was brought to earth when Satan tempted Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden (Gen. 3:1–19). Since then, the Devil has done everything within his extensive, though limited, power to hinder God’s purposes and obscure God’s message. Though God’s complete and total victory is absolutely certain (1 Cor. 15:24–25; Rev. 20:10), in the present the spiritual battle continues to rage (2 Cor. 4:3–4; Eph. 6:12–18).

As the cosmic war of the ages has played out on the stage of human history, men of God have consistently confronted the satanic enemies of divine truth—men like Moses, who demanded that Pharaoh let God’s people go (Ex. 5:1; 6:27); Micaiah, who boldly rebuked the evil king Ahab (1 Kings 22:6–28); Elijah, who challenged prophets of Baal (1 Kings 18:19–40); John the Baptist, who reproved the corrupt Pharisees and Sadducees (Matt. 3:7–10); Stephen, who confronted the Sanhedrin and paid for it with his life (Acts 7:51–53); Peter and John, who denounced the sorcerer Simon (Acts 8:9–24); and Paul and Barnabas, who condemned the false prophet Bar-Jesus (Acts 13:9–11).

But above all the human heroes of the faith, the Lord Jesus Christ confronted the armies of hell. John wrote in 1 John 3:8 that “the Son of God appeared for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil” (cf. Gen. 3:15; Mark 1:24; Col. 2:15; Heb. 2:14). Jesus Himself warned that His mission would bring conflict.”Do not think that I came to bring peace on the earth,” He warned; “I did not come to bring peace, but a sword” (Matt. 10:34).

The Synoptic Gospels are replete with confrontations between Christ and Satan’s forces, both demonic (e.g., Matt. 8:31; 17:14–18; Mark 7:25–30; Luke 4:33–35, 41; 9:42; 11:14; 13:32) and human. On the human level, the Jewish religious establishment (which primarily consisted of self-righteous false teachers) received His harshest attacks. As apostate hypocrites, the Jewish leaders were actually the enemies of the God they claimed to serve—and Jesus was quick to expose their true spiritual condition.

When the scribes and Pharisees insisted that He perform a sign for them (Matt. 12:38; cf. 16:1–4), Jesus “answered and said to them, An evil and adulterous generation craves for a sign; and yet no sign will be given to it but the sign of Jonah the prophet’” (Matt. 12:39). When they demanded to know why His disciples did not keep the tradition of the elders (Matt. 15:1–2), Jesus denounced them as hypocrites (v. 7), whose hearts were far from God (v. 8), whose worship was vain (v. 9), and whose teaching was false (v. 9). When they challenged His teaching on divorce (Matt. 19:3), Jesus rebuked them for being hard-hearted adulterers (vv. 8–9). When the Sadducees allowed greedy merchants to corrupt God’s holy temple, Jesus physically removed them (Matt. 21:12–13). When the religious leaders grumbled at His eating with tax collectors and sinners (Luke 5:30), Jesus sarcastically condemned their arrogant self-righteousness (vv. 31–32). When they expressed surprise that the Lord did not ceremonially wash before eating (Luke 11:37–38), He accused them of being outwardly righteous but inwardly wicked (vv. 39–40). When a synagogue official became indignant because Jesus healed on the Sabbath (Luke 13:14), the Lord exposed him as a hypocrite, more concerned about the well-being of animals than people (vv. 15–16; cf. 14:1–6). And to “some people who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and viewed others with contempt” (Luke 18:9), Jesus told a parable contrasting the arrogant self-righteousness of a Pharisee with the humble penitence of a tax collector (vv. 10–14). The Lord’s point was that “everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted” (v. 14), and it was the tax collector—not the Pharisee—who was justified by God (v. 14).

The Lord’s judgment and condemnation of the false religious leaders reached its peak during Passion Week. In Matthew 23, Jesus pronounced sevenfold retribution on them as sons of hell (v. 15), whose false teaching excluded others from God’s kingdom (v. 13), who swore oaths that they did not keep (v. 16), who were diligent in tithing, but ignored the more important aspects of the Law (vv. 23–24), who outwardly observed the Law, but inwardly were filled with wickedness (v. 25), who appeared to be righteous, but in reality were defiled (vv. 27–28), and who piously distanced themselves from their ancestors’ murder of the prophets (vv. 29–30), while at the same time plotting to murder the Messiah.

This gospel also portrays Jesus as actively confronting the servants of the enemy; in particular, as in the Synoptics, Israel’s apostate leadership. His cleansing of the temple (the incident John records in 2:13–17 took place at the outset of Jesus’ public ministry, in contrast to the one in the Synoptics, which took place near its end) outraged the Jewish authorities, who demanded a sign to prove His authority (v. 18). When the religious leaders persecuted Him for healing a man on the Sabbath (5:16), Jesus boldly asserted His deity and equality with the Father (5:17–23). After He healed a man born blind, Jesus declared, “For judgment I came into this world, so that those who do not see may see, and that those who see may become blind” (9:39). Offended, some of the Pharisees protested, “We are not blind too, are we?” (v. 40), to which the Lord replied, “If you were blind, you would have no sin; but since you say, ‘We see,’ your sin remains” (v. 41). Cornering Jesus in the temple, the exasperated “Jews … were saying to Him, ‘How long will You keep us in suspense? If You are the Christ, tell us plainly’” (10:24). In response He rebuked them for their stubborn unbelief in the face of overwhelming evidence (v. 25) and declared that they did not believe because they were not of His sheep (v. 26).

Verses 48–59 of chapter 8 record another skirmish in the ongoing battle between the Lord and the hostile Jewish religious leaders. The passage marks the culmination of a dialogue between Jesus and those leaders that began back in verse 12. As the discussion went on, the leaders became increasingly agitated and abusive. To Jesus’ declaration in verses 31 and 32 that spiritual freedom comes only from being His disciples, they indignantly “answered Him, ‘We are Abraham’s descendants and have never yet been enslaved to anyone; how is it that You say, “You will become free”?’” (v. 33). When He hinted that God was not their father (vv. 38, 41) they scornfully “said to Him, ‘We were not born of fornication; we have one Father: God’” (v. 41). Jesus’ indictment of them reached its height in verse 44, where He openly declared them to be children of Satan. Like their father, they were liars, murderers, and enemies of God.

This concluding portion of the dialogue may be discussed under four headings: the dishonor, the doubting, the defiance, and the disappearance.

THE DISHONOR

The Jews answered and said to Him, “Do we not say rightly that You are a Samaritan and have a demon?” Jesus answered, “I do not have a demon; but I honor My Father, and you dishonor Me. But I do not seek My glory; there is One who seeks and judges. Truly, truly, I say to you, if anyone keeps My word he will never see death.” (8:48–51)

Outraged by Jesus’ pronouncement that they were children of Satan (v. 44), the Jews lashed out and said to Him, “Do we not say rightly that You are a Samaritan and have a demon?” They probably called Jesus a Samaritan in part because He, like the Samaritans, questioned their claim to be the true children of Abraham. They may have also been repeating their insult from verse 41, where they questioned the legitimacy of Jesus’ birth as a full-blooded Jew. (For more on both of those points, see the exposition of 8:37–47 in the previous chapter of this volume.)

In either case, the Jews were obviously unable to counter the content of Jesus’ keen wisdom. Therefore they resorted to an ad hominem attack, calling Jesus names rather than refuting His arguments. In this case, they mockingly denounced Him as a Samaritan, which was the most cutting insult one Jew could hurl at another. Jesus’ words (in vv. 37–47) had clearly hit a nerve. But instead of responding with repentance, these Jews ridiculed Him.

The Jews despised the Samaritans as physical and spiritual half-breeds. To review, the Samaritans were the descendants of Jews who had remained in the northern kingdom after its fall and intermarried with pagans transplanted there by the Assyrians (2 Kings 17:23–24). When the Samaritans offered to help rebuild the temple after the exile, the Jews refused and the Samaritans were insulted (Ezra 4:1–3). The bitter rivalry between the two groups only intensified throughout the intertestamental period. By Jesus’ day the mutual animosity was so great that the Jews avoided dealing with the Samaritans altogether (John 4:9), and some refused even to travel through Samaria. Some of the Samaritans reciprocated by denying any hospitality to the Jews who did travel through their region (Luke 9:51–53). Jesus, however, was no respecter of racial barriers. He first revealed Himself as Messiah to a Samaritan woman (John 4:25–26), and also used a Samaritan to illustrate a good neighbor (Luke 10:33–35). (For a further discussion of the Samaritans, see the exposition of 4:9 in chapter 11 of this volume.)

By calling Jesus a Samaritan, the Jewish leaders were in effect labeling Him a false teacher (because He obviously did not agree with their interpretation of the Law), and a traitor to Israel (since He allegedly sided with Israel’s bitter enemies the Samaritans). In their blindness, they were confident that He must be an enemy of God.

In their anger, the Jews took their blasphemous accusations one step further by claiming that Jesus was also possessed by a demon—the same slanderous charge they had earlier hurled at John the Baptist (Matt. 11:18). This was not the first time they had made that outrageous allegation about Him. In Mark 3:22, “The scribes who came down from Jerusalem were saying, ‘He is possessed by Beelzebul’ (Satan), and ‘He casts out the demons by the ruler of the demons’” (cf. 3:30; Matt. 10:25). John 7:20 records that “the crowd answered [Jesus], ‘You have a demon! Who seeks to kill You?’” Later in John’s gospel, the charge would be made again: “Many of [the Jews] were saying, ‘He has a demon and is insane. Why do you listen to Him?’” (10:20). To say someone was demon-possessed was tantamount to saying that he was insane, since demon-possessed people often acted irrationally (e.g., Luke 8:27, 29, 35; 9:38–39). In a clear demonstration of their spiritual blindness, they processed all Jesus said and did into the conclusion that a demon had driven Him mad. It is this kind of decision, in the face of full revelation, that is described in Hebrews 6:4–8:

But Jesus did not reply in kind to their malicious charges; “while being reviled, He did not revile in return” (1 Peter 2:23; cf. Prov. 15:1). Instead, He calmly answered, “I do not have a demon.” In fact, the opposite was true. “I honor My Father” (cf. v. 29; 4:34; 5:19, 30; 6:38; 14:31; 15:10; 17:4; Matt. 3:17; 17:5), He told them. Obviously, then, He could not have been demon-possessed, since no demon-possessed person could possibly honor God.

Ironically, by their dishonor of Jesus, the Jews were dishonoring the very God whom they claimed as their Father. Earlier Jesus had told 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” (v. 42). “He who does not honor the Son,” Jesus warned, “does not honor the Father who sent Him” (5:23; cf. 15:23; 1 John 2:23). Thus, it is only those who honor the Son whom the Father honors in return (12:26; cf. 1 Cor. 12:3).

Unlike His opponents, who exalted themselves (5:44; cf. 7:18; 12:43; Matt. 23:5; Luke 16:15), Jesus did not seek His own glory. Had that been His desire, He could have remained in heaven and continued in the divine glory that had been His from all eternity (John 17:5, 24). Christ, however, did not come to earth seeking His own accolades, but “to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10); to “bear the sins of many” (Heb. 9:28; cf. Isa. 53:11–12); and to “save His people from their sins” (Matt. 1:21). The omnipotent Creator (John 1:3; Col. 1:16; Heb. 1:2) and sustainer (Col. 1:17; Heb. 1:3) of the universe

Though Jesus did not seek His own glory, there is One who seeks honor for the Son—the Father. Unlike sinful men, He judges rightly, and has determined that His Son is worthy of glory. Both at Christ’s baptism (Matt. 3:17) and at His transfiguration (Matt. 17:5) the Father said of the Son, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased.” Because the Son obediently humbled Himself even to the point of death on the cross,

In an Old Testament counterpart to that passage, the psalmist described the Father’s glorifying of the Son:

Along those same lines, Psalm 110:1 says, “The Lord says to my Lord:’Sit at My right hand until I make Your enemies a footstool for Your feet.’” And in Isaiah 52:13 the Father declared of the Son, “Behold, My servant will prosper, He will be high and lifted up and greatly exalted.” After His death and resurrection, Christ ascended to the place of supreme honor at the Father’s right hand (Matt. 26:64; Acts 2:33–35; 5:31; 7:55–56; Rom. 8:34; Eph. 1:20; Col. 3:1; Heb. 1:3; 8:1; 10:12; 12:2; 1 Peter 3:21–22).

To those who honor and glorify Him by obedience to His call to salvation, Jesus promised, “Truly, truly, I say to you, if anyone keeps My word he will never see death.” Amen, amen (truly, truly), as it always does in John’s gospel (cf. vv. 34, 58; 1:51; 3:3, 5, 11; 5:19, 24–25; 6:26, 32, 47, 53; 10:1, 7; 12:24; 13:16, 20–21, 38; 14:12; 16:20, 23; 21:18), introduces a statement of major significance. The one who keeps His word (i.e., obeys it; cf. v. 55; 14:15, 21, 23–24; 15:10, 20; Matt. 5:19) is a true child of God (John 1:12), in His kingdom (3:3–5), and is His true disciple (8:31), who will never experience eternal separation from God (Rev. 2:11; 20:6; cf. 20:14; 21:8). To Nicodemus Jesus declared, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life” (John 3:16). In 5:24 He reiterated that truth: “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life.” Jesus is “the bread which comes down out of heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die” (6:50). Comforting Martha after the death of her brother Lazarus, the Lord declared, “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies, and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die” (11:25–26).

Jesus’ statement here is merely another way of expressing the truth that eternal life results from humbly and obediently believing in His Word and following Him (Matt. 19:29; 25:46; John 3:15–16, 36; 4:14; 5:24; 6:27, 40, 47, 54, 63, 68; 10:10, 28; 17:2–3; Rom. 5:21; 6:23; 1 Tim. 1:16; 1 John 5:11–12). Even to these who scornfully rejected His gospel and dishonored Him, Jesus still graciously offered eternal life—another offer that intensified the severity of their eternal judgment if they rejected it (Luke 12:47–48).

THE DOUBTING

The Jews said to Him, “Now we know that You have a demon. Abraham died, and the prophets also; and You say, ‘If anyone keeps My word, he will never taste of death.’ Surely You are not greater than our father Abraham, who died? The prophets died too; whom do You make Yourself out to be?” Jesus answered, “If I glorify Myself, My glory is nothing; it is My Father who glorifies Me, of whom you say, ‘He is our God’; and you have not come to know Him, but I know Him; and if I say that I do not know Him, I will be a liar like you, but I do know Him and keep His word. Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it and was glad.” So the Jews said to Him, “You are not yet fifty years old, and have You seen Abraham?” Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was born, I am.” (8:52–58)

Hearing Jesus’ words in a strictly literal and earthly sense, the incredulous Jews retorted, “Now we know that You have a demon. Abraham died, and the prophets also; and You say, ‘If anyone keeps My word, he will never taste of death.’ Surely You are not greater than our father Abraham, who died? The prophets died too; whom do You make Yourself out to be?” Neither the revered patriarch Abraham nor any of the prophets had the power to defeat death, since they had all died. Flinging Jesus’ own words back at Him, If anyone keeps My word, he will never taste of death, the Jewish leaders indignantly demanded, “Surely You are not greater than our father Abraham or the prophets who died; whom do You make Yourself out to be?” Or, “Just who do You think You are?” The tone of their questioning is obviously abusive; they were sure that only a demon-possessed person could make such an outlandish claim.

Calmly and patiently, Jesus repeated the truth He had stated in verses 49 and 50: “If I glorify Myself, My glory is nothing; it is My Father who glorifies Me.” He was not seeking His own glory, but was secure in the knowledge that the Father … glorifies Him. Jesus’ claims were not those of a demoniac or a maniac, because the glory He possesses was not evil or satanic, but divine. It was His by His eternal relation to His Father (17:24)—the very One of whom the Jewish leaders said, “He is our God.” For them to piously claim to know God while blaspheming and rejecting His Son was ludicrous. Therefore Jesus, pointing out the obvious again, plainly told them, You have not come to know Him. Despite their outward pretense, they did not know God; they were children of Satan (v. 44). Their delusion was that they were God’s children and that Jesus was in league with the Devil (cf. Matt. 12:24).

Despite the fierce opposition of His opponents and the impending outcome, Jesus steadfastly refused to back down or deny that He knew the Father. “I know Him,” He affirmed, “and if I say that I do not know Him, I will be a liar like you, but I do know Him and keep His word.” They were liars because they claimed to know God when they actually did not; Jesus would have been a liar if He had denied knowing God, whom He did know in a profound and eternal oneness (cf. 1:18; 7:29; 10:15; Matt. 11:27). The Lord maintained the truth of His divine knowledge of His Father as one in nature with Him, though it became the issue for which they sought to murder Him (cf. John 19:6–7).

In contrast to their rejection of Him, the Lord told them, “Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it and was glad.” Hebrews 11:13 records that Abraham saw and welcomed Christ’s day. He saw in his son Isaac the beginning of God’s fulfillment of His covenant with him (Gen. 12:1–3; 15:1–21; 17:1–8), which would culminate in the coming of the Messiah. Once again (cf. vv. 39–40), Jesus contrasted His opponents’ behavior with that of their patriarch, proving that they were not Abraham’s spiritual children. They wanted to murder the very One in whose coming Abraham rejoiced (cf. v. 37).

Stubbornly persisting in their misunderstanding of Jesus’ words, the Jews said to Him, “You are not yet fifty years old, and have You seen Abraham?” Abraham had lived more than two millennia earlier; Jesus could not possibly have seen him. They also twisted His words; the Lord had not said that He had seen Abraham, but that Abraham had (prophetically) seen Him. It should be noted that the Jews’ statement that Jesus was not yet fifty years old does not specify Jesus’ exact age, but rather places an upper limit on it. The Lord would have been only in His early thirties, since He was about thirty when He began His ministry (Luke 3:23).

Jesus’ climactic reply, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was born, I am,” was nothing less than a claim to full deity. The Lord once again took for Himself the sacred name of God (see the discussion of 8:24 in chapter 29 of this volume). Obviously, as the eternal God (John 1:1–2), He existed before Abraham’s time. Homer Kent explains, “By using the timeless ‘I am’ rather than ‘I was,’ Jesus conveyed not only the idea of existence prior to Abraham, but timelessness—the very nature of God himself (Exod. 3:14)” (Light in the Darkness [Grand Rapids: Baker, 1974], 128–29).

THE DEFIANCE

Therefore they picked up stones to throw at Him, (8:59a)

The Jewish leaders understood Jesus’ claim perfectly. In response, their hatred flamed into violence. Infuriated by what they perceived as blasphemy (cf. 10:33), they took the law into their own hands and picked up stones to throw at Him (cf. Lev. 24:16).

Here is the grip of unbelief so powerful that in the face of irrefutable evidence they were unwilling to accept that as God in human flesh, Jesus was incapable of committing blasphemy; rather all of His claims, no matter how astonishing, were absolutely true. How ironic that the Jewish religious leaders, seemingly so passionate for God’s honor that they were ready to cast stones at a blasphemer, were, in fact, accusing God Himself of blaspheming God.

THE DISAPPEARANCE

but Jesus hid Himself and went out of the temple. (8:59b)

Significantly, the Lord did not protest that He had been misunderstood. Clearly, He was claiming to be God. Since His hour to die had not yet come (John 7:30; 8:20; 13:1), Jesus would not allow Himself to be killed, but supernaturally hid Himself and went out of the temple (cf. Luke 4:30). (John’s brief and straightforward description of this miraculous escape is reminiscent of how he records other supernatural events in his gospel—cf. John 6:11, 19.) Thus ends this tragic dialogue between Jesus and the doomed Jewish religious leaders.

As on this occasion, so it always is that there are only two possible responses to Jesus’ claims. One is to accept them as true, and bow before Him in humble, repentant faith, confessing Him as Savior and Lord. The other response, illustrated by Jesus’ opponents in this passage, is that of hardened, bitter rejection. The tragic, fearful result of that response will be eternal damnation in hell. As Jesus soberly warned, “Therefore I said to you that you will die in your sins; for unless you believe that I am He, you will die in your sins” (8:24).