Are you 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 Abraham’s children?

John 8.39-42.

You recall Jesus teaching the Judeans who believed in him how, if they’re truly his students and abide in his teachings, Jn 8.30 they’ll know the truth, and it’ll free them. Jn 8.31 Their response was, “Free?—from what? We’re no slaves,” Jn 8.33 and Jesus replied, “You are when you’re slaves to sin,” Jn 8.34 and “You should do as you hear from the Father.” Jn 8.38 (Jesus clearly meant our heavenly Father, although the Textus Receptus made it sound like he meant Satan, which is what’ll happen when you insert words willy-nilly into the bible.)

Y’know how certain Christians will give knee-jerk responses when you ask ’em questions? I once taught a seventh-grade bible class in which I was trying to teach the kids about atonement, and at one point I asked the kids, “So what saves us?” and their automatic, brain-bypassed response was, “Jesus saves us.” Yes yes Jesus saves us, but I wanted ’em to be more specific. And we kinda see this when Jesus refers to the Father… and the Judeans immediately respond with, “Oh, Abraham’s our father.” Yes, God’s their Father too; they acknowledge that in a few verses, Jn 8.41 but y’know, knee-jerk responses.

John 8.39-42 KWL

39In reply the Judeans tell him, “Our father is Abraham.”

Jesus tells them, “If you’re² Abraham’s children,

you² should be doing Abraham’s works.

40Now you² seek to kill me,

a man who tells you² the truth I hear from God.

Abraham didn’t do this.

41You² do the work of your² real father.”

{So} the Judeans tell him,

“We weren’t fathered by unchastity.

We have one Father, God.”

42Jesus tells them, “If God is your² Father,

you² would show me love,

for I come from God

and I’m right here.

For I never came here by myself;

but by that person who sends me.”

Now, don’t get confused. None of these people are actually talking about genealogy. They’re talking about spiritual parents. Abraham is the biological ancestor of the Ishmaelites (Arabia), the Isaacites (Israel; and Edom, which Israel had absorbed in the first century BC), and the Midianites (Yemen). But more importantly Abraham is the ancestor of justification by faith—of trusting the LORD, which the LORD counts as righteousness. Ge 15.6, Ro 4.3, Ga 3.6 And God is their Father; not just because he rescued the Hebrews from Egypt and made them his people, but because they were meant to abide in him and follow his Law. Much like Jesus said we’re to abide in him, Jn 15.4 and his word. Jn 8.31

Now if Abraham were their spiritual father—if God were recognized as their heavenly Father—they’d act like these spiritual fathers. Right? You’d see faith in ’em. You’d see love. You’d see an entirely different attitude towards Jesus than we see in the scriptures. Heck, you’d see an entirely different attitude towards Jesus than we see among Evangelicals. But we don’t see any of these proper attitudes and responses and lifestyles. We see hypocrisy and sin. So Jesus calls ’em on it.

If you ever wondered why the Judeans wanted Jesus dead, this is one of many reasons.

Their real father.

There’s this one Jesus movie where Jesus mutters, “Why can’t you understand what I say?” Jn 8.43 almost as if he hasn’t entirely figured this out yet. But then he suddenly bursts out, “You’re the children of your father the devil!” Jn 8.44 —seemingly he just realized this. Bad interpretation.

’Cause we see it in verse 40, with Jesus’s reference to their real father. “Real” isn’t in the text, but Jesus states in verse 39 if Abraham were truly their (spiritual) father, they’d do as he does; in verse 40 he points out they don’t. They seek to kill him; Abraham would never. They’re not doing as Abraham would, but they are doing as their (spiritual) father would, and this father ain’t Abraham.

This point didn’t go over the Judeans’ heads. They were fully aware Jesus was telling them, “Abraham’s not your father.” They came back with he is so their father: “We weren’t fathered by unchastity.” Jn 8.41 They’re not spiritual bastards, so to speak.

Many commentators rightly recognize this is also a not-so-subtle jab at Jesus—because his parents weren’t wed when he was born.

What, the Judeans knew this story? Of course they did. Once Jesus showed up in Jerusalem, teaching and performing miracles and whipping the merchants out of the temple and claiming the temple was coming down, Jn 2 you know the Judeans checked out his background, same as they had with John the baptist. He had family in Bethlehem, which was only 2km away. No doubt they also sent people to Nazareth and Capharnaum. The whole point of Nicodemus’s visit to Jesus was to suss out who Jesus is: Nicodemus knew he was a prophet and wise teacher, but wanted to know whether he was more. And he is.

But in investigating Jesus’s family, they of course found out he’d been born before his parents properly moved in together. (No wedding ceremonies back then; the man simply went to the woman’s house, and took her and her stuff to his house. Then they partied for about a week.) Thanks to in-vitro fertilization, virgins can now conceive and bear children, but back then this wasn’t a thing… so Israelis presumed Joseph and Mary simply couldn’t wait till she was out of her father’s house. But we know from Matthew and Luke neither of them were unchaste, and Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit. Mt 1.20 So yeah, “fathered by unchastity” is basically gossip and false witness.

John doesn’t tell us whether Jesus paused to object to the slander, and knowing Jesus he probably let it slide so he could focus on his more important point.

Again: If Abraham were truly their spiritual father, if the LORD God were truly their spiritual Father, they wouldn’t behave the way they did. They’d follow the Law, instead of their loopholes which got ’em to only appear to follow the Law. They’d know God’s character because they actually sought to duplicate it in their own lives. In this way they’d recognize Jesus obviously has God’s character. They’d know he’s from God. They wouldn’t ask themselves these silly questions about whether he was legitimately from God or not. They absolutely wouldn’t want him dead.

When things in one’s religion get flipped a full 180 degrees away from the direction God wants ’em to go, you gotta ask yourself: How did they manage to get it 100 percent wrong? What being is notorious for trying to steer people in the exact opposite direction through lies and trickery? Which being is really their spiritual father? You don’t need supernatural discernment to figure this out; basic commonsense will do.

Whenever you see present-day Christians loudly object when fellow Christians actually put the Sermon on the Mount into practice; whenever you see them try to justify an utter lack of charity and compassion to single moms and fatherless children, and to strangers and aliens; whenever you see them being deliberately cruel in order to antagonize anyone they consider an enemy: Again, which being is really their spiritual father? Doesn’t matter how much they call themselves Christian. Doesn’t matter if they have perfect church attendance and have tons of scriptures memorized. You will know them by their fruits. Again, doesn’t take supernatural discernment!

If God is our Father, we should see his character in our lives. We should produce the Spirit’s fruit. When we don’t, it’s self-evident he’s not here. It’s just that simple. It’s gonna be vigorously denied by those who claim otherwise. Hypocrites are gonna fight this characterization tooth and nail, and wanna pick up stones to throw at us. Still true though.

Abraham never acted this way, Jn 8.40 because for all his faults, Abraham knew the LORD and displayed his fruit. As should we.