John 8

John 8:1

The Father Teaches About the Son

This is the time when the Jews are making themselves heard again. They have listened and heard that He says of Himself that He is the bread that has come down out of heaven. That is why they grumble about Him. Now that they notice that the Lord means Himself with the bread of life, the longing for bread has disappeared and they stumble over Him (cf. Romans 9:32).

They only know the earthly circumstances, but misjudge them. He is not the Son of Joseph, but of Mary. Therefore they are on a totally wrong basis to be able to judge Him. Unbelief always leads to wrong conclusions and remains blind to the truth. Because they blindly stare at His natural origins, they cannot understand His words about having come down out of heaven. To them He is Someone from below and therefore He cannot possibly have come from above. They do not understand that He is the Man from heaven (1 Corinthians 15:47).

As so often, the grumbling of the Jews is again reason for the Lord to tell more important things. He reproaches them for grumbling among themselves. Grumbling about the truth makes no sense at all. It keeps the grumbler out of the truth and is also to the ruin of those who hear this grumbling.

The Lord clearly declares that only those who are drawn by the Father come to Him. He mentions the Name of the Father and He calls Him the One Who sent Him. This indicates both the special relationship between the Son and the Father as well as the special commission of the Father to the Son. Only those who believe in Him see this. Unbelief leads away from Him, whereas the Father brings to Him. The latter is a work of grace which rules out everything that belongs to man, his value, his work, his will.

It takes a merciful activity of the Father to go to the Son. That is not what the Gospel preaches to people who yearn for salvation. To them the Lord Jesus says: “Come to me” (Matthew 11:28). He does not say that to those who grumble about Him. To them He says that they cannot come. They have an attitude that makes it impossible to invite them. The final blessing in the resurrection on the last day is not for them.

As additional proof that it is impossible to believe if one is not taught by the Father, the Lord cites something the prophets have written (Isaiah 54:13). It has already been made clear by the prophets that a new situation can only be understood by those who have been taught by God as disciples. Equally, a person can only come to the Son if he is taught by the Father. All true teaching concerning the Son comes from God the Father. A religion that does not lead to the Son is not from God. A person only gains insight into what the Lord says if God gives him insight. Anyone who has received instruction from the Father about the Person of the Son comes to the Son. Whoever is in distress about his sins and goes to God is directed by Him to the Son.

We see a picture of this in the history of the famine in Egypt in the days when Joseph was viceroy of Egypt (Genesis 41:55). People come to Pharaoh in their need (there a picture of God), but Pharaoh sends them to Joseph (a picture of the Lord Jesus). The Father gives teachings concerning the Son, while it is also true that the Father is known only by the Son (John 14:9), for only the Son has seen the Father (Exodus 33:20; 1 Timothy 6:16).

So there is a clear interaction between the Father and the Son. No one comes to the Son except he who has heard and accepted the teaching of the Father. And no one knows the Father except the Son, for the Son has seen the Father and has come to earth to make Him known. The Jews have therefore never seen the Father because they have never seen the Son with and in faith. They see in Him no more than a Man of Whom they know the parents and relatives.

John 8:2

The Father Teaches About the Son

This is the time when the Jews are making themselves heard again. They have listened and heard that He says of Himself that He is the bread that has come down out of heaven. That is why they grumble about Him. Now that they notice that the Lord means Himself with the bread of life, the longing for bread has disappeared and they stumble over Him (cf. Romans 9:32).

They only know the earthly circumstances, but misjudge them. He is not the Son of Joseph, but of Mary. Therefore they are on a totally wrong basis to be able to judge Him. Unbelief always leads to wrong conclusions and remains blind to the truth. Because they blindly stare at His natural origins, they cannot understand His words about having come down out of heaven. To them He is Someone from below and therefore He cannot possibly have come from above. They do not understand that He is the Man from heaven (1 Corinthians 15:47).

As so often, the grumbling of the Jews is again reason for the Lord to tell more important things. He reproaches them for grumbling among themselves. Grumbling about the truth makes no sense at all. It keeps the grumbler out of the truth and is also to the ruin of those who hear this grumbling.

The Lord clearly declares that only those who are drawn by the Father come to Him. He mentions the Name of the Father and He calls Him the One Who sent Him. This indicates both the special relationship between the Son and the Father as well as the special commission of the Father to the Son. Only those who believe in Him see this. Unbelief leads away from Him, whereas the Father brings to Him. The latter is a work of grace which rules out everything that belongs to man, his value, his work, his will.

It takes a merciful activity of the Father to go to the Son. That is not what the Gospel preaches to people who yearn for salvation. To them the Lord Jesus says: “Come to me” (Matthew 11:28). He does not say that to those who grumble about Him. To them He says that they cannot come. They have an attitude that makes it impossible to invite them. The final blessing in the resurrection on the last day is not for them.

As additional proof that it is impossible to believe if one is not taught by the Father, the Lord cites something the prophets have written (Isaiah 54:13). It has already been made clear by the prophets that a new situation can only be understood by those who have been taught by God as disciples. Equally, a person can only come to the Son if he is taught by the Father. All true teaching concerning the Son comes from God the Father. A religion that does not lead to the Son is not from God. A person only gains insight into what the Lord says if God gives him insight. Anyone who has received instruction from the Father about the Person of the Son comes to the Son. Whoever is in distress about his sins and goes to God is directed by Him to the Son.

We see a picture of this in the history of the famine in Egypt in the days when Joseph was viceroy of Egypt (Genesis 41:55). People come to Pharaoh in their need (there a picture of God), but Pharaoh sends them to Joseph (a picture of the Lord Jesus). The Father gives teachings concerning the Son, while it is also true that the Father is known only by the Son (John 14:9), for only the Son has seen the Father (Exodus 33:20; 1 Timothy 6:16).

So there is a clear interaction between the Father and the Son. No one comes to the Son except he who has heard and accepted the teaching of the Father. And no one knows the Father except the Son, for the Son has seen the Father and has come to earth to make Him known. The Jews have therefore never seen the Father because they have never seen the Son with and in faith. They see in Him no more than a Man of Whom they know the parents and relatives.

John 8:3

The Living Bread

After the Lord Jesus has presented His perfect unity with the Father and the complete harmony between Him and the Father in Their actions, He again speaks about the core of eternal life which is: faith in Him. Again He emphasizes with a double “truly” followed by an authoritative “I say to you” the truth of faith in Him as the only possibility to receive eternal life. He is the Giver of eternal life. It is inextricably linked to faith in Him.

By speaking of Himself as the bread of life He points to Himself as the Source of life and as the Giver of life. Bread is there to be eaten. By eating, a person identifies himself with what he eats. Whoever nourishes himself with the Lord Jesus, that is who accepts Him in faith, receives life, eternal life.

His Person as the bread of life is different from the manna their fathers ate in the wilderness. The contrast between the true bread, Himself, and the manna, is that eating the manna did not save from death. They ate of it every day, but in the end they all died. The only thing that keeps a man from death is eating Him as the bread that has come down out of heaven.

In John 6:50-58 the Lord Jesus speaks seven times about eating Him or His flesh as the living bread and three times about drinking His blood. This is clear and simple imagery. What we eat and drink is fully absorbed by our body and forms us. It becomes a part of us and can no longer be taken away from us. In contrast to the manna, eating from Him means that one will not die, for then one is “born again not of seed which is perishable but imperishable” (1 Peter 1:23). Eating Him means receiving eternal life. It is by becoming Man that the Lord Jesus has become the bread that has come down out of heaven. This enables everyone who wants to, to eat Him. Whoever does so, will live eternally.

To illustrate this further, the Lord then speaks about His flesh as the bread. His coming as the bread to give life is not enough. Before anyone will really be able to feed on Him, He will have to render His flesh, that is His body, in death. Only as the dead Christ He can give life. Here He already indicates that He will give His flesh, which will happen on the cross. With this He points to His atoning death. This does not only mean life for Israel, but for the entire world.

So it is about faith in His coming in the flesh on earth to be able to die (Hebrews 2:14; 1 John 4:2-3). The denial that He came in the flesh is an antichristian heresy (2 John 1:7). The origin of this heresy proves the importance of the Son’s coming in the flesh. Otherwise the devil would not do his utmost to attack that truth.

John 8:4

The Living Bread

After the Lord Jesus has presented His perfect unity with the Father and the complete harmony between Him and the Father in Their actions, He again speaks about the core of eternal life which is: faith in Him. Again He emphasizes with a double “truly” followed by an authoritative “I say to you” the truth of faith in Him as the only possibility to receive eternal life. He is the Giver of eternal life. It is inextricably linked to faith in Him.

By speaking of Himself as the bread of life He points to Himself as the Source of life and as the Giver of life. Bread is there to be eaten. By eating, a person identifies himself with what he eats. Whoever nourishes himself with the Lord Jesus, that is who accepts Him in faith, receives life, eternal life.

His Person as the bread of life is different from the manna their fathers ate in the wilderness. The contrast between the true bread, Himself, and the manna, is that eating the manna did not save from death. They ate of it every day, but in the end they all died. The only thing that keeps a man from death is eating Him as the bread that has come down out of heaven.

In John 6:50-58 the Lord Jesus speaks seven times about eating Him or His flesh as the living bread and three times about drinking His blood. This is clear and simple imagery. What we eat and drink is fully absorbed by our body and forms us. It becomes a part of us and can no longer be taken away from us. In contrast to the manna, eating from Him means that one will not die, for then one is “born again not of seed which is perishable but imperishable” (1 Peter 1:23). Eating Him means receiving eternal life. It is by becoming Man that the Lord Jesus has become the bread that has come down out of heaven. This enables everyone who wants to, to eat Him. Whoever does so, will live eternally.

To illustrate this further, the Lord then speaks about His flesh as the bread. His coming as the bread to give life is not enough. Before anyone will really be able to feed on Him, He will have to render His flesh, that is His body, in death. Only as the dead Christ He can give life. Here He already indicates that He will give His flesh, which will happen on the cross. With this He points to His atoning death. This does not only mean life for Israel, but for the entire world.

So it is about faith in His coming in the flesh on earth to be able to die (Hebrews 2:14; 1 John 4:2-3). The denial that He came in the flesh is an antichristian heresy (2 John 1:7). The origin of this heresy proves the importance of the Son’s coming in the flesh. Otherwise the devil would not do his utmost to attack that truth.

John 8:5

The Living Bread

After the Lord Jesus has presented His perfect unity with the Father and the complete harmony between Him and the Father in Their actions, He again speaks about the core of eternal life which is: faith in Him. Again He emphasizes with a double “truly” followed by an authoritative “I say to you” the truth of faith in Him as the only possibility to receive eternal life. He is the Giver of eternal life. It is inextricably linked to faith in Him.

By speaking of Himself as the bread of life He points to Himself as the Source of life and as the Giver of life. Bread is there to be eaten. By eating, a person identifies himself with what he eats. Whoever nourishes himself with the Lord Jesus, that is who accepts Him in faith, receives life, eternal life.

His Person as the bread of life is different from the manna their fathers ate in the wilderness. The contrast between the true bread, Himself, and the manna, is that eating the manna did not save from death. They ate of it every day, but in the end they all died. The only thing that keeps a man from death is eating Him as the bread that has come down out of heaven.

In John 6:50-58 the Lord Jesus speaks seven times about eating Him or His flesh as the living bread and three times about drinking His blood. This is clear and simple imagery. What we eat and drink is fully absorbed by our body and forms us. It becomes a part of us and can no longer be taken away from us. In contrast to the manna, eating from Him means that one will not die, for then one is “born again not of seed which is perishable but imperishable” (1 Peter 1:23). Eating Him means receiving eternal life. It is by becoming Man that the Lord Jesus has become the bread that has come down out of heaven. This enables everyone who wants to, to eat Him. Whoever does so, will live eternally.

To illustrate this further, the Lord then speaks about His flesh as the bread. His coming as the bread to give life is not enough. Before anyone will really be able to feed on Him, He will have to render His flesh, that is His body, in death. Only as the dead Christ He can give life. Here He already indicates that He will give His flesh, which will happen on the cross. With this He points to His atoning death. This does not only mean life for Israel, but for the entire world.

So it is about faith in His coming in the flesh on earth to be able to die (Hebrews 2:14; 1 John 4:2-3). The denial that He came in the flesh is an antichristian heresy (2 John 1:7). The origin of this heresy proves the importance of the Son’s coming in the flesh. Otherwise the devil would not do his utmost to attack that truth.

John 8:6

The Living Bread

After the Lord Jesus has presented His perfect unity with the Father and the complete harmony between Him and the Father in Their actions, He again speaks about the core of eternal life which is: faith in Him. Again He emphasizes with a double “truly” followed by an authoritative “I say to you” the truth of faith in Him as the only possibility to receive eternal life. He is the Giver of eternal life. It is inextricably linked to faith in Him.

By speaking of Himself as the bread of life He points to Himself as the Source of life and as the Giver of life. Bread is there to be eaten. By eating, a person identifies himself with what he eats. Whoever nourishes himself with the Lord Jesus, that is who accepts Him in faith, receives life, eternal life.

His Person as the bread of life is different from the manna their fathers ate in the wilderness. The contrast between the true bread, Himself, and the manna, is that eating the manna did not save from death. They ate of it every day, but in the end they all died. The only thing that keeps a man from death is eating Him as the bread that has come down out of heaven.

In John 6:50-58 the Lord Jesus speaks seven times about eating Him or His flesh as the living bread and three times about drinking His blood. This is clear and simple imagery. What we eat and drink is fully absorbed by our body and forms us. It becomes a part of us and can no longer be taken away from us. In contrast to the manna, eating from Him means that one will not die, for then one is “born again not of seed which is perishable but imperishable” (1 Peter 1:23). Eating Him means receiving eternal life. It is by becoming Man that the Lord Jesus has become the bread that has come down out of heaven. This enables everyone who wants to, to eat Him. Whoever does so, will live eternally.

To illustrate this further, the Lord then speaks about His flesh as the bread. His coming as the bread to give life is not enough. Before anyone will really be able to feed on Him, He will have to render His flesh, that is His body, in death. Only as the dead Christ He can give life. Here He already indicates that He will give His flesh, which will happen on the cross. With this He points to His atoning death. This does not only mean life for Israel, but for the entire world.

So it is about faith in His coming in the flesh on earth to be able to die (Hebrews 2:14; 1 John 4:2-3). The denial that He came in the flesh is an antichristian heresy (2 John 1:7). The origin of this heresy proves the importance of the Son’s coming in the flesh. Otherwise the devil would not do his utmost to attack that truth.

John 8:7

The Living Bread

After the Lord Jesus has presented His perfect unity with the Father and the complete harmony between Him and the Father in Their actions, He again speaks about the core of eternal life which is: faith in Him. Again He emphasizes with a double “truly” followed by an authoritative “I say to you” the truth of faith in Him as the only possibility to receive eternal life. He is the Giver of eternal life. It is inextricably linked to faith in Him.

By speaking of Himself as the bread of life He points to Himself as the Source of life and as the Giver of life. Bread is there to be eaten. By eating, a person identifies himself with what he eats. Whoever nourishes himself with the Lord Jesus, that is who accepts Him in faith, receives life, eternal life.

His Person as the bread of life is different from the manna their fathers ate in the wilderness. The contrast between the true bread, Himself, and the manna, is that eating the manna did not save from death. They ate of it every day, but in the end they all died. The only thing that keeps a man from death is eating Him as the bread that has come down out of heaven.

In John 6:50-58 the Lord Jesus speaks seven times about eating Him or His flesh as the living bread and three times about drinking His blood. This is clear and simple imagery. What we eat and drink is fully absorbed by our body and forms us. It becomes a part of us and can no longer be taken away from us. In contrast to the manna, eating from Him means that one will not die, for then one is “born again not of seed which is perishable but imperishable” (1 Peter 1:23). Eating Him means receiving eternal life. It is by becoming Man that the Lord Jesus has become the bread that has come down out of heaven. This enables everyone who wants to, to eat Him. Whoever does so, will live eternally.

To illustrate this further, the Lord then speaks about His flesh as the bread. His coming as the bread to give life is not enough. Before anyone will really be able to feed on Him, He will have to render His flesh, that is His body, in death. Only as the dead Christ He can give life. Here He already indicates that He will give His flesh, which will happen on the cross. With this He points to His atoning death. This does not only mean life for Israel, but for the entire world.

So it is about faith in His coming in the flesh on earth to be able to die (Hebrews 2:14; 1 John 4:2-3). The denial that He came in the flesh is an antichristian heresy (2 John 1:7). The origin of this heresy proves the importance of the Son’s coming in the flesh. Otherwise the devil would not do his utmost to attack that truth.

John 8:8

Eating His Flesh and Drinking His blood

The Jews grumbled among themselves about earlier words. About the words concerning the eating of His flesh they argue with one another. Every truth about Him gives the enemy more reason to reveal opposition, while it strengthens the chosen ones more in their faith in Him. The dispute in question is how He gives them His flesh to eat. They don’t understand any of this. They look for an explanation and engage in a vigorous debate about it with each other.

With yet another double and therefore emphatically “truly” and an authoritative “I say to you” the Lord speaks about eating the flesh of the Son of Man and drinking His blood as the only and exclusive condition to get life. The Father gives the Son as the true bread and the Son gives Himself to die. As a result, His flesh can be eaten, and His blood can be drunk. The Lord does not say ‘he who eats Me’, but He speaks about eating His flesh and drinking His blood. With this He presents His death.

Faith finds atonement with respect to sins and fellowship with God as a result of that atonement. It is about fully empathizing with the thought of the reality of His death. Before God, we must identify ourselves with His death and share in His death through faith, otherwise we have no life in us.

It means that I must be aware that the death of the Lord Jesus was a condition for me to be reconciled with God and thereby receive eternal life. The only way I can do that is when I see that I am a sinner who cannot exist before God and to whom God can only give righteous judgment. Then I also see that Christ has undergone that judgment for me on the cross. When I realize that, in a spiritual sense I eat His flesh and drink His blood.

This is a one-time eating and drinking in order to receive life, i.e. eating and drinking as a convinced sinner. This is not about the Lord’s Supper at all and certainly not about the falsification of it which is called ‘eucharist’. The Supper is about eating in remembrance of the Lord (1 Corinthians 11:24-25), but here it is about eating Himself in order to receive eternal life. It is utmost folly to link the obtaining of eternal life to taking part in the Supper. The Lord uses the eating and drinking as a picture for believing in Him as the dead Lord in order to receive eternal life. Eating and drinking means spiritually nourishing oneself with a dead Christ, that is believing in His substitutionary death and His resurrection.

Whoever once received life through faith in Him – that is what the Lord says in John 6:53 – needs to constantly eat His flesh and drink His blood. That is what the Lord says in John 6:54. The footnote in the Dutch TELOS-translation at John 6:53 says the following about these two aspects of eating and drinking:

In John 6:53 ‘eat’ and ‘drink’ are in Greek in the aorist so that they refer to an event that takes place once; in John 6:54 and John 6:56-58 they are in the praesens, so that they refer to events that are still going on. [End of footnote] [Explanation of the terms ‘aorist’ and ‘praesens’: ‘aorist’ and ‘praesens’ are Greek forms of tense which also indicate how the act is presented, namely as a once-only and thus closed (aorist) or as a repeated fact (praesens)].

Continuous or repeated eating and drinking is necessary because life is in Him. This eating and drinking will continue until the resurrection, to which the Lord points by speaking of raising up on the last day. Always, for all eternity, we will be aware that we owe everything to Him Who died for us and rose from death. For the believer, His flesh is the true food and His blood is the true drink. Every believer will experience and enjoy the truth of this inwardly. This applies both to the one-time (spiritual) eating when someone comes to faith and to the daily (spiritual) eating and drinking of the believer.

The result of this eating and drinking is the closest fellowship. It is not only assurance, but Christ is the home for the believer and Christ lives in him. The believer has a continuous fellowship with Christ, which he maintains by feeding with Him every day.

The Lord Jesus compares the intimacy of the fellowship the believer has with Him through eating His flesh and drinking His blood with His own fellowship with the Father. His fellowship with the Father is the perfect example of fellowship. Just as He depends on the Father in everything, so does the believer depend on Him.

The Lord calls His Father “the living Father” to indicate that He shares life with the Father and that everything to live on is received from the Father. It was the living Father Who sent Him. Thus the life of the Father that is in Him has become visible on earth. The believer who eats the Son also lives according to that glorious model. By eating the Son, the life of the Son becomes visible in the believer. Outside of the Son there is no life possible. A believer also has no life to live than only in fellowship with the Son.

In John 6:58 the Lord summarizes His teaching. When He says “this is the bread which came down out of heaven”, He points with the word “this” not only to Himself but to the whole teaching that is connected with the bread. He is the bread that has come down out of heaven. He spoke about this in John 6:32-33; 38; 50-51. This is different from the manna the fathers ate, for they died in spite of eating the manna (John 6:32; 49). From Him and everything He has said about Himself, such as His death, everyone must eat in order to live eternally (John 6:35; 40; 50-51; 53-57).

The Lord said these things in the synagogue in Capernaum. The synagogue is the learning house for the Jew. Capernaum is the town where He lived (Matthew 4:13; Matthew 9:1).

John 8:9

Eating His Flesh and Drinking His blood

The Jews grumbled among themselves about earlier words. About the words concerning the eating of His flesh they argue with one another. Every truth about Him gives the enemy more reason to reveal opposition, while it strengthens the chosen ones more in their faith in Him. The dispute in question is how He gives them His flesh to eat. They don’t understand any of this. They look for an explanation and engage in a vigorous debate about it with each other.

With yet another double and therefore emphatically “truly” and an authoritative “I say to you” the Lord speaks about eating the flesh of the Son of Man and drinking His blood as the only and exclusive condition to get life. The Father gives the Son as the true bread and the Son gives Himself to die. As a result, His flesh can be eaten, and His blood can be drunk. The Lord does not say ‘he who eats Me’, but He speaks about eating His flesh and drinking His blood. With this He presents His death.

Faith finds atonement with respect to sins and fellowship with God as a result of that atonement. It is about fully empathizing with the thought of the reality of His death. Before God, we must identify ourselves with His death and share in His death through faith, otherwise we have no life in us.

It means that I must be aware that the death of the Lord Jesus was a condition for me to be reconciled with God and thereby receive eternal life. The only way I can do that is when I see that I am a sinner who cannot exist before God and to whom God can only give righteous judgment. Then I also see that Christ has undergone that judgment for me on the cross. When I realize that, in a spiritual sense I eat His flesh and drink His blood.

This is a one-time eating and drinking in order to receive life, i.e. eating and drinking as a convinced sinner. This is not about the Lord’s Supper at all and certainly not about the falsification of it which is called ‘eucharist’. The Supper is about eating in remembrance of the Lord (1 Corinthians 11:24-25), but here it is about eating Himself in order to receive eternal life. It is utmost folly to link the obtaining of eternal life to taking part in the Supper. The Lord uses the eating and drinking as a picture for believing in Him as the dead Lord in order to receive eternal life. Eating and drinking means spiritually nourishing oneself with a dead Christ, that is believing in His substitutionary death and His resurrection.

Whoever once received life through faith in Him – that is what the Lord says in John 6:53 – needs to constantly eat His flesh and drink His blood. That is what the Lord says in John 6:54. The footnote in the Dutch TELOS-translation at John 6:53 says the following about these two aspects of eating and drinking:

In John 6:53 ‘eat’ and ‘drink’ are in Greek in the aorist so that they refer to an event that takes place once; in John 6:54 and John 6:56-58 they are in the praesens, so that they refer to events that are still going on. [End of footnote] [Explanation of the terms ‘aorist’ and ‘praesens’: ‘aorist’ and ‘praesens’ are Greek forms of tense which also indicate how the act is presented, namely as a once-only and thus closed (aorist) or as a repeated fact (praesens)].

Continuous or repeated eating and drinking is necessary because life is in Him. This eating and drinking will continue until the resurrection, to which the Lord points by speaking of raising up on the last day. Always, for all eternity, we will be aware that we owe everything to Him Who died for us and rose from death. For the believer, His flesh is the true food and His blood is the true drink. Every believer will experience and enjoy the truth of this inwardly. This applies both to the one-time (spiritual) eating when someone comes to faith and to the daily (spiritual) eating and drinking of the believer.

The result of this eating and drinking is the closest fellowship. It is not only assurance, but Christ is the home for the believer and Christ lives in him. The believer has a continuous fellowship with Christ, which he maintains by feeding with Him every day.

The Lord Jesus compares the intimacy of the fellowship the believer has with Him through eating His flesh and drinking His blood with His own fellowship with the Father. His fellowship with the Father is the perfect example of fellowship. Just as He depends on the Father in everything, so does the believer depend on Him.

The Lord calls His Father “the living Father” to indicate that He shares life with the Father and that everything to live on is received from the Father. It was the living Father Who sent Him. Thus the life of the Father that is in Him has become visible on earth. The believer who eats the Son also lives according to that glorious model. By eating the Son, the life of the Son becomes visible in the believer. Outside of the Son there is no life possible. A believer also has no life to live than only in fellowship with the Son.

In John 6:58 the Lord summarizes His teaching. When He says “this is the bread which came down out of heaven”, He points with the word “this” not only to Himself but to the whole teaching that is connected with the bread. He is the bread that has come down out of heaven. He spoke about this in John 6:32-33; 38; 50-51. This is different from the manna the fathers ate, for they died in spite of eating the manna (John 6:32; 49). From Him and everything He has said about Himself, such as His death, everyone must eat in order to live eternally (John 6:35; 40; 50-51; 53-57).

The Lord said these things in the synagogue in Capernaum. The synagogue is the learning house for the Jew. Capernaum is the town where He lived (Matthew 4:13; Matthew 9:1).

John 8:10

Eating His Flesh and Drinking His blood

The Jews grumbled among themselves about earlier words. About the words concerning the eating of His flesh they argue with one another. Every truth about Him gives the enemy more reason to reveal opposition, while it strengthens the chosen ones more in their faith in Him. The dispute in question is how He gives them His flesh to eat. They don’t understand any of this. They look for an explanation and engage in a vigorous debate about it with each other.

With yet another double and therefore emphatically “truly” and an authoritative “I say to you” the Lord speaks about eating the flesh of the Son of Man and drinking His blood as the only and exclusive condition to get life. The Father gives the Son as the true bread and the Son gives Himself to die. As a result, His flesh can be eaten, and His blood can be drunk. The Lord does not say ‘he who eats Me’, but He speaks about eating His flesh and drinking His blood. With this He presents His death.

Faith finds atonement with respect to sins and fellowship with God as a result of that atonement. It is about fully empathizing with the thought of the reality of His death. Before God, we must identify ourselves with His death and share in His death through faith, otherwise we have no life in us.

It means that I must be aware that the death of the Lord Jesus was a condition for me to be reconciled with God and thereby receive eternal life. The only way I can do that is when I see that I am a sinner who cannot exist before God and to whom God can only give righteous judgment. Then I also see that Christ has undergone that judgment for me on the cross. When I realize that, in a spiritual sense I eat His flesh and drink His blood.

This is a one-time eating and drinking in order to receive life, i.e. eating and drinking as a convinced sinner. This is not about the Lord’s Supper at all and certainly not about the falsification of it which is called ‘eucharist’. The Supper is about eating in remembrance of the Lord (1 Corinthians 11:24-25), but here it is about eating Himself in order to receive eternal life. It is utmost folly to link the obtaining of eternal life to taking part in the Supper. The Lord uses the eating and drinking as a picture for believing in Him as the dead Lord in order to receive eternal life. Eating and drinking means spiritually nourishing oneself with a dead Christ, that is believing in His substitutionary death and His resurrection.

Whoever once received life through faith in Him – that is what the Lord says in John 6:53 – needs to constantly eat His flesh and drink His blood. That is what the Lord says in John 6:54. The footnote in the Dutch TELOS-translation at John 6:53 says the following about these two aspects of eating and drinking:

In John 6:53 ‘eat’ and ‘drink’ are in Greek in the aorist so that they refer to an event that takes place once; in John 6:54 and John 6:56-58 they are in the praesens, so that they refer to events that are still going on. [End of footnote] [Explanation of the terms ‘aorist’ and ‘praesens’: ‘aorist’ and ‘praesens’ are Greek forms of tense which also indicate how the act is presented, namely as a once-only and thus closed (aorist) or as a repeated fact (praesens)].

Continuous or repeated eating and drinking is necessary because life is in Him. This eating and drinking will continue until the resurrection, to which the Lord points by speaking of raising up on the last day. Always, for all eternity, we will be aware that we owe everything to Him Who died for us and rose from death. For the believer, His flesh is the true food and His blood is the true drink. Every believer will experience and enjoy the truth of this inwardly. This applies both to the one-time (spiritual) eating when someone comes to faith and to the daily (spiritual) eating and drinking of the believer.

The result of this eating and drinking is the closest fellowship. It is not only assurance, but Christ is the home for the believer and Christ lives in him. The believer has a continuous fellowship with Christ, which he maintains by feeding with Him every day.

The Lord Jesus compares the intimacy of the fellowship the believer has with Him through eating His flesh and drinking His blood with His own fellowship with the Father. His fellowship with the Father is the perfect example of fellowship. Just as He depends on the Father in everything, so does the believer depend on Him.

The Lord calls His Father “the living Father” to indicate that He shares life with the Father and that everything to live on is received from the Father. It was the living Father Who sent Him. Thus the life of the Father that is in Him has become visible on earth. The believer who eats the Son also lives according to that glorious model. By eating the Son, the life of the Son becomes visible in the believer. Outside of the Son there is no life possible. A believer also has no life to live than only in fellowship with the Son.

In John 6:58 the Lord summarizes His teaching. When He says “this is the bread which came down out of heaven”, He points with the word “this” not only to Himself but to the whole teaching that is connected with the bread. He is the bread that has come down out of heaven. He spoke about this in John 6:32-33; 38; 50-51. This is different from the manna the fathers ate, for they died in spite of eating the manna (John 6:32; 49). From Him and everything He has said about Himself, such as His death, everyone must eat in order to live eternally (John 6:35; 40; 50-51; 53-57).

The Lord said these things in the synagogue in Capernaum. The synagogue is the learning house for the Jew. Capernaum is the town where He lived (Matthew 4:13; Matthew 9:1).

John 8:11

Eating His Flesh and Drinking His blood

The Jews grumbled among themselves about earlier words. About the words concerning the eating of His flesh they argue with one another. Every truth about Him gives the enemy more reason to reveal opposition, while it strengthens the chosen ones more in their faith in Him. The dispute in question is how He gives them His flesh to eat. They don’t understand any of this. They look for an explanation and engage in a vigorous debate about it with each other.

With yet another double and therefore emphatically “truly” and an authoritative “I say to you” the Lord speaks about eating the flesh of the Son of Man and drinking His blood as the only and exclusive condition to get life. The Father gives the Son as the true bread and the Son gives Himself to die. As a result, His flesh can be eaten, and His blood can be drunk. The Lord does not say ‘he who eats Me’, but He speaks about eating His flesh and drinking His blood. With this He presents His death.

Faith finds atonement with respect to sins and fellowship with God as a result of that atonement. It is about fully empathizing with the thought of the reality of His death. Before God, we must identify ourselves with His death and share in His death through faith, otherwise we have no life in us.

It means that I must be aware that the death of the Lord Jesus was a condition for me to be reconciled with God and thereby receive eternal life. The only way I can do that is when I see that I am a sinner who cannot exist before God and to whom God can only give righteous judgment. Then I also see that Christ has undergone that judgment for me on the cross. When I realize that, in a spiritual sense I eat His flesh and drink His blood.

This is a one-time eating and drinking in order to receive life, i.e. eating and drinking as a convinced sinner. This is not about the Lord’s Supper at all and certainly not about the falsification of it which is called ‘eucharist’. The Supper is about eating in remembrance of the Lord (1 Corinthians 11:24-25), but here it is about eating Himself in order to receive eternal life. It is utmost folly to link the obtaining of eternal life to taking part in the Supper. The Lord uses the eating and drinking as a picture for believing in Him as the dead Lord in order to receive eternal life. Eating and drinking means spiritually nourishing oneself with a dead Christ, that is believing in His substitutionary death and His resurrection.

Whoever once received life through faith in Him – that is what the Lord says in John 6:53 – needs to constantly eat His flesh and drink His blood. That is what the Lord says in John 6:54. The footnote in the Dutch TELOS-translation at John 6:53 says the following about these two aspects of eating and drinking:

In John 6:53 ‘eat’ and ‘drink’ are in Greek in the aorist so that they refer to an event that takes place once; in John 6:54 and John 6:56-58 they are in the praesens, so that they refer to events that are still going on. [End of footnote] [Explanation of the terms ‘aorist’ and ‘praesens’: ‘aorist’ and ‘praesens’ are Greek forms of tense which also indicate how the act is presented, namely as a once-only and thus closed (aorist) or as a repeated fact (praesens)].

Continuous or repeated eating and drinking is necessary because life is in Him. This eating and drinking will continue until the resurrection, to which the Lord points by speaking of raising up on the last day. Always, for all eternity, we will be aware that we owe everything to Him Who died for us and rose from death. For the believer, His flesh is the true food and His blood is the true drink. Every believer will experience and enjoy the truth of this inwardly. This applies both to the one-time (spiritual) eating when someone comes to faith and to the daily (spiritual) eating and drinking of the believer.

The result of this eating and drinking is the closest fellowship. It is not only assurance, but Christ is the home for the believer and Christ lives in him. The believer has a continuous fellowship with Christ, which he maintains by feeding with Him every day.

The Lord Jesus compares the intimacy of the fellowship the believer has with Him through eating His flesh and drinking His blood with His own fellowship with the Father. His fellowship with the Father is the perfect example of fellowship. Just as He depends on the Father in everything, so does the believer depend on Him.

The Lord calls His Father “the living Father” to indicate that He shares life with the Father and that everything to live on is received from the Father. It was the living Father Who sent Him. Thus the life of the Father that is in Him has become visible on earth. The believer who eats the Son also lives according to that glorious model. By eating the Son, the life of the Son becomes visible in the believer. Outside of the Son there is no life possible. A believer also has no life to live than only in fellowship with the Son.

In John 6:58 the Lord summarizes His teaching. When He says “this is the bread which came down out of heaven”, He points with the word “this” not only to Himself but to the whole teaching that is connected with the bread. He is the bread that has come down out of heaven. He spoke about this in John 6:32-33; 38; 50-51. This is different from the manna the fathers ate, for they died in spite of eating the manna (John 6:32; 49). From Him and everything He has said about Himself, such as His death, everyone must eat in order to live eternally (John 6:35; 40; 50-51; 53-57).

The Lord said these things in the synagogue in Capernaum. The synagogue is the learning house for the Jew. Capernaum is the town where He lived (Matthew 4:13; Matthew 9:1).

John 8:12

Eating His Flesh and Drinking His blood

The Jews grumbled among themselves about earlier words. About the words concerning the eating of His flesh they argue with one another. Every truth about Him gives the enemy more reason to reveal opposition, while it strengthens the chosen ones more in their faith in Him. The dispute in question is how He gives them His flesh to eat. They don’t understand any of this. They look for an explanation and engage in a vigorous debate about it with each other.

With yet another double and therefore emphatically “truly” and an authoritative “I say to you” the Lord speaks about eating the flesh of the Son of Man and drinking His blood as the only and exclusive condition to get life. The Father gives the Son as the true bread and the Son gives Himself to die. As a result, His flesh can be eaten, and His blood can be drunk. The Lord does not say ‘he who eats Me’, but He speaks about eating His flesh and drinking His blood. With this He presents His death.

Faith finds atonement with respect to sins and fellowship with God as a result of that atonement. It is about fully empathizing with the thought of the reality of His death. Before God, we must identify ourselves with His death and share in His death through faith, otherwise we have no life in us.

It means that I must be aware that the death of the Lord Jesus was a condition for me to be reconciled with God and thereby receive eternal life. The only way I can do that is when I see that I am a sinner who cannot exist before God and to whom God can only give righteous judgment. Then I also see that Christ has undergone that judgment for me on the cross. When I realize that, in a spiritual sense I eat His flesh and drink His blood.

This is a one-time eating and drinking in order to receive life, i.e. eating and drinking as a convinced sinner. This is not about the Lord’s Supper at all and certainly not about the falsification of it which is called ‘eucharist’. The Supper is about eating in remembrance of the Lord (1 Corinthians 11:24-25), but here it is about eating Himself in order to receive eternal life. It is utmost folly to link the obtaining of eternal life to taking part in the Supper. The Lord uses the eating and drinking as a picture for believing in Him as the dead Lord in order to receive eternal life. Eating and drinking means spiritually nourishing oneself with a dead Christ, that is believing in His substitutionary death and His resurrection.

Whoever once received life through faith in Him – that is what the Lord says in John 6:53 – needs to constantly eat His flesh and drink His blood. That is what the Lord says in John 6:54. The footnote in the Dutch TELOS-translation at John 6:53 says the following about these two aspects of eating and drinking:

In John 6:53 ‘eat’ and ‘drink’ are in Greek in the aorist so that they refer to an event that takes place once; in John 6:54 and John 6:56-58 they are in the praesens, so that they refer to events that are still going on. [End of footnote] [Explanation of the terms ‘aorist’ and ‘praesens’: ‘aorist’ and ‘praesens’ are Greek forms of tense which also indicate how the act is presented, namely as a once-only and thus closed (aorist) or as a repeated fact (praesens)].

Continuous or repeated eating and drinking is necessary because life is in Him. This eating and drinking will continue until the resurrection, to which the Lord points by speaking of raising up on the last day. Always, for all eternity, we will be aware that we owe everything to Him Who died for us and rose from death. For the believer, His flesh is the true food and His blood is the true drink. Every believer will experience and enjoy the truth of this inwardly. This applies both to the one-time (spiritual) eating when someone comes to faith and to the daily (spiritual) eating and drinking of the believer.

The result of this eating and drinking is the closest fellowship. It is not only assurance, but Christ is the home for the believer and Christ lives in him. The believer has a continuous fellowship with Christ, which he maintains by feeding with Him every day.

The Lord Jesus compares the intimacy of the fellowship the believer has with Him through eating His flesh and drinking His blood with His own fellowship with the Father. His fellowship with the Father is the perfect example of fellowship. Just as He depends on the Father in everything, so does the believer depend on Him.

The Lord calls His Father “the living Father” to indicate that He shares life with the Father and that everything to live on is received from the Father. It was the living Father Who sent Him. Thus the life of the Father that is in Him has become visible on earth. The believer who eats the Son also lives according to that glorious model. By eating the Son, the life of the Son becomes visible in the believer. Outside of the Son there is no life possible. A believer also has no life to live than only in fellowship with the Son.

In John 6:58 the Lord summarizes His teaching. When He says “this is the bread which came down out of heaven”, He points with the word “this” not only to Himself but to the whole teaching that is connected with the bread. He is the bread that has come down out of heaven. He spoke about this in John 6:32-33; 38; 50-51. This is different from the manna the fathers ate, for they died in spite of eating the manna (John 6:32; 49). From Him and everything He has said about Himself, such as His death, everyone must eat in order to live eternally (John 6:35; 40; 50-51; 53-57).

The Lord said these things in the synagogue in Capernaum. The synagogue is the learning house for the Jew. Capernaum is the town where He lived (Matthew 4:13; Matthew 9:1).

John 8:13

Eating His Flesh and Drinking His blood

The Jews grumbled among themselves about earlier words. About the words concerning the eating of His flesh they argue with one another. Every truth about Him gives the enemy more reason to reveal opposition, while it strengthens the chosen ones more in their faith in Him. The dispute in question is how He gives them His flesh to eat. They don’t understand any of this. They look for an explanation and engage in a vigorous debate about it with each other.

With yet another double and therefore emphatically “truly” and an authoritative “I say to you” the Lord speaks about eating the flesh of the Son of Man and drinking His blood as the only and exclusive condition to get life. The Father gives the Son as the true bread and the Son gives Himself to die. As a result, His flesh can be eaten, and His blood can be drunk. The Lord does not say ‘he who eats Me’, but He speaks about eating His flesh and drinking His blood. With this He presents His death.

Faith finds atonement with respect to sins and fellowship with God as a result of that atonement. It is about fully empathizing with the thought of the reality of His death. Before God, we must identify ourselves with His death and share in His death through faith, otherwise we have no life in us.

It means that I must be aware that the death of the Lord Jesus was a condition for me to be reconciled with God and thereby receive eternal life. The only way I can do that is when I see that I am a sinner who cannot exist before God and to whom God can only give righteous judgment. Then I also see that Christ has undergone that judgment for me on the cross. When I realize that, in a spiritual sense I eat His flesh and drink His blood.

This is a one-time eating and drinking in order to receive life, i.e. eating and drinking as a convinced sinner. This is not about the Lord’s Supper at all and certainly not about the falsification of it which is called ‘eucharist’. The Supper is about eating in remembrance of the Lord (1 Corinthians 11:24-25), but here it is about eating Himself in order to receive eternal life. It is utmost folly to link the obtaining of eternal life to taking part in the Supper. The Lord uses the eating and drinking as a picture for believing in Him as the dead Lord in order to receive eternal life. Eating and drinking means spiritually nourishing oneself with a dead Christ, that is believing in His substitutionary death and His resurrection.

Whoever once received life through faith in Him – that is what the Lord says in John 6:53 – needs to constantly eat His flesh and drink His blood. That is what the Lord says in John 6:54. The footnote in the Dutch TELOS-translation at John 6:53 says the following about these two aspects of eating and drinking:

In John 6:53 ‘eat’ and ‘drink’ are in Greek in the aorist so that they refer to an event that takes place once; in John 6:54 and John 6:56-58 they are in the praesens, so that they refer to events that are still going on. [End of footnote] [Explanation of the terms ‘aorist’ and ‘praesens’: ‘aorist’ and ‘praesens’ are Greek forms of tense which also indicate how the act is presented, namely as a once-only and thus closed (aorist) or as a repeated fact (praesens)].

Continuous or repeated eating and drinking is necessary because life is in Him. This eating and drinking will continue until the resurrection, to which the Lord points by speaking of raising up on the last day. Always, for all eternity, we will be aware that we owe everything to Him Who died for us and rose from death. For the believer, His flesh is the true food and His blood is the true drink. Every believer will experience and enjoy the truth of this inwardly. This applies both to the one-time (spiritual) eating when someone comes to faith and to the daily (spiritual) eating and drinking of the believer.

The result of this eating and drinking is the closest fellowship. It is not only assurance, but Christ is the home for the believer and Christ lives in him. The believer has a continuous fellowship with Christ, which he maintains by feeding with Him every day.

The Lord Jesus compares the intimacy of the fellowship the believer has with Him through eating His flesh and drinking His blood with His own fellowship with the Father. His fellowship with the Father is the perfect example of fellowship. Just as He depends on the Father in everything, so does the believer depend on Him.

The Lord calls His Father “the living Father” to indicate that He shares life with the Father and that everything to live on is received from the Father. It was the living Father Who sent Him. Thus the life of the Father that is in Him has become visible on earth. The believer who eats the Son also lives according to that glorious model. By eating the Son, the life of the Son becomes visible in the believer. Outside of the Son there is no life possible. A believer also has no life to live than only in fellowship with the Son.

In John 6:58 the Lord summarizes His teaching. When He says “this is the bread which came down out of heaven”, He points with the word “this” not only to Himself but to the whole teaching that is connected with the bread. He is the bread that has come down out of heaven. He spoke about this in John 6:32-33; 38; 50-51. This is different from the manna the fathers ate, for they died in spite of eating the manna (John 6:32; 49). From Him and everything He has said about Himself, such as His death, everyone must eat in order to live eternally (John 6:35; 40; 50-51; 53-57).

The Lord said these things in the synagogue in Capernaum. The synagogue is the learning house for the Jew. Capernaum is the town where He lived (Matthew 4:13; Matthew 9:1).

John 8:14

Eating His Flesh and Drinking His blood

The Jews grumbled among themselves about earlier words. About the words concerning the eating of His flesh they argue with one another. Every truth about Him gives the enemy more reason to reveal opposition, while it strengthens the chosen ones more in their faith in Him. The dispute in question is how He gives them His flesh to eat. They don’t understand any of this. They look for an explanation and engage in a vigorous debate about it with each other.

With yet another double and therefore emphatically “truly” and an authoritative “I say to you” the Lord speaks about eating the flesh of the Son of Man and drinking His blood as the only and exclusive condition to get life. The Father gives the Son as the true bread and the Son gives Himself to die. As a result, His flesh can be eaten, and His blood can be drunk. The Lord does not say ‘he who eats Me’, but He speaks about eating His flesh and drinking His blood. With this He presents His death.

Faith finds atonement with respect to sins and fellowship with God as a result of that atonement. It is about fully empathizing with the thought of the reality of His death. Before God, we must identify ourselves with His death and share in His death through faith, otherwise we have no life in us.

It means that I must be aware that the death of the Lord Jesus was a condition for me to be reconciled with God and thereby receive eternal life. The only way I can do that is when I see that I am a sinner who cannot exist before God and to whom God can only give righteous judgment. Then I also see that Christ has undergone that judgment for me on the cross. When I realize that, in a spiritual sense I eat His flesh and drink His blood.

This is a one-time eating and drinking in order to receive life, i.e. eating and drinking as a convinced sinner. This is not about the Lord’s Supper at all and certainly not about the falsification of it which is called ‘eucharist’. The Supper is about eating in remembrance of the Lord (1 Corinthians 11:24-25), but here it is about eating Himself in order to receive eternal life. It is utmost folly to link the obtaining of eternal life to taking part in the Supper. The Lord uses the eating and drinking as a picture for believing in Him as the dead Lord in order to receive eternal life. Eating and drinking means spiritually nourishing oneself with a dead Christ, that is believing in His substitutionary death and His resurrection.

Whoever once received life through faith in Him – that is what the Lord says in John 6:53 – needs to constantly eat His flesh and drink His blood. That is what the Lord says in John 6:54. The footnote in the Dutch TELOS-translation at John 6:53 says the following about these two aspects of eating and drinking:

In John 6:53 ‘eat’ and ‘drink’ are in Greek in the aorist so that they refer to an event that takes place once; in John 6:54 and John 6:56-58 they are in the praesens, so that they refer to events that are still going on. [End of footnote] [Explanation of the terms ‘aorist’ and ‘praesens’: ‘aorist’ and ‘praesens’ are Greek forms of tense which also indicate how the act is presented, namely as a once-only and thus closed (aorist) or as a repeated fact (praesens)].

Continuous or repeated eating and drinking is necessary because life is in Him. This eating and drinking will continue until the resurrection, to which the Lord points by speaking of raising up on the last day. Always, for all eternity, we will be aware that we owe everything to Him Who died for us and rose from death. For the believer, His flesh is the true food and His blood is the true drink. Every believer will experience and enjoy the truth of this inwardly. This applies both to the one-time (spiritual) eating when someone comes to faith and to the daily (spiritual) eating and drinking of the believer.

The result of this eating and drinking is the closest fellowship. It is not only assurance, but Christ is the home for the believer and Christ lives in him. The believer has a continuous fellowship with Christ, which he maintains by feeding with Him every day.

The Lord Jesus compares the intimacy of the fellowship the believer has with Him through eating His flesh and drinking His blood with His own fellowship with the Father. His fellowship with the Father is the perfect example of fellowship. Just as He depends on the Father in everything, so does the believer depend on Him.

The Lord calls His Father “the living Father” to indicate that He shares life with the Father and that everything to live on is received from the Father. It was the living Father Who sent Him. Thus the life of the Father that is in Him has become visible on earth. The believer who eats the Son also lives according to that glorious model. By eating the Son, the life of the Son becomes visible in the believer. Outside of the Son there is no life possible. A believer also has no life to live than only in fellowship with the Son.

In John 6:58 the Lord summarizes His teaching. When He says “this is the bread which came down out of heaven”, He points with the word “this” not only to Himself but to the whole teaching that is connected with the bread. He is the bread that has come down out of heaven. He spoke about this in John 6:32-33; 38; 50-51. This is different from the manna the fathers ate, for they died in spite of eating the manna (John 6:32; 49). From Him and everything He has said about Himself, such as His death, everyone must eat in order to live eternally (John 6:35; 40; 50-51; 53-57).

The Lord said these things in the synagogue in Capernaum. The synagogue is the learning house for the Jew. Capernaum is the town where He lived (Matthew 4:13; Matthew 9:1).

John 8:15

Eating His Flesh and Drinking His blood

The Jews grumbled among themselves about earlier words. About the words concerning the eating of His flesh they argue with one another. Every truth about Him gives the enemy more reason to reveal opposition, while it strengthens the chosen ones more in their faith in Him. The dispute in question is how He gives them His flesh to eat. They don’t understand any of this. They look for an explanation and engage in a vigorous debate about it with each other.

With yet another double and therefore emphatically “truly” and an authoritative “I say to you” the Lord speaks about eating the flesh of the Son of Man and drinking His blood as the only and exclusive condition to get life. The Father gives the Son as the true bread and the Son gives Himself to die. As a result, His flesh can be eaten, and His blood can be drunk. The Lord does not say ‘he who eats Me’, but He speaks about eating His flesh and drinking His blood. With this He presents His death.

Faith finds atonement with respect to sins and fellowship with God as a result of that atonement. It is about fully empathizing with the thought of the reality of His death. Before God, we must identify ourselves with His death and share in His death through faith, otherwise we have no life in us.

It means that I must be aware that the death of the Lord Jesus was a condition for me to be reconciled with God and thereby receive eternal life. The only way I can do that is when I see that I am a sinner who cannot exist before God and to whom God can only give righteous judgment. Then I also see that Christ has undergone that judgment for me on the cross. When I realize that, in a spiritual sense I eat His flesh and drink His blood.

This is a one-time eating and drinking in order to receive life, i.e. eating and drinking as a convinced sinner. This is not about the Lord’s Supper at all and certainly not about the falsification of it which is called ‘eucharist’. The Supper is about eating in remembrance of the Lord (1 Corinthians 11:24-25), but here it is about eating Himself in order to receive eternal life. It is utmost folly to link the obtaining of eternal life to taking part in the Supper. The Lord uses the eating and drinking as a picture for believing in Him as the dead Lord in order to receive eternal life. Eating and drinking means spiritually nourishing oneself with a dead Christ, that is believing in His substitutionary death and His resurrection.

Whoever once received life through faith in Him – that is what the Lord says in John 6:53 – needs to constantly eat His flesh and drink His blood. That is what the Lord says in John 6:54. The footnote in the Dutch TELOS-translation at John 6:53 says the following about these two aspects of eating and drinking:

In John 6:53 ‘eat’ and ‘drink’ are in Greek in the aorist so that they refer to an event that takes place once; in John 6:54 and John 6:56-58 they are in the praesens, so that they refer to events that are still going on. [End of footnote] [Explanation of the terms ‘aorist’ and ‘praesens’: ‘aorist’ and ‘praesens’ are Greek forms of tense which also indicate how the act is presented, namely as a once-only and thus closed (aorist) or as a repeated fact (praesens)].

Continuous or repeated eating and drinking is necessary because life is in Him. This eating and drinking will continue until the resurrection, to which the Lord points by speaking of raising up on the last day. Always, for all eternity, we will be aware that we owe everything to Him Who died for us and rose from death. For the believer, His flesh is the true food and His blood is the true drink. Every believer will experience and enjoy the truth of this inwardly. This applies both to the one-time (spiritual) eating when someone comes to faith and to the daily (spiritual) eating and drinking of the believer.

The result of this eating and drinking is the closest fellowship. It is not only assurance, but Christ is the home for the believer and Christ lives in him. The believer has a continuous fellowship with Christ, which he maintains by feeding with Him every day.

The Lord Jesus compares the intimacy of the fellowship the believer has with Him through eating His flesh and drinking His blood with His own fellowship with the Father. His fellowship with the Father is the perfect example of fellowship. Just as He depends on the Father in everything, so does the believer depend on Him.

The Lord calls His Father “the living Father” to indicate that He shares life with the Father and that everything to live on is received from the Father. It was the living Father Who sent Him. Thus the life of the Father that is in Him has become visible on earth. The believer who eats the Son also lives according to that glorious model. By eating the Son, the life of the Son becomes visible in the believer. Outside of the Son there is no life possible. A believer also has no life to live than only in fellowship with the Son.

In John 6:58 the Lord summarizes His teaching. When He says “this is the bread which came down out of heaven”, He points with the word “this” not only to Himself but to the whole teaching that is connected with the bread. He is the bread that has come down out of heaven. He spoke about this in John 6:32-33; 38; 50-51. This is different from the manna the fathers ate, for they died in spite of eating the manna (John 6:32; 49). From Him and everything He has said about Himself, such as His death, everyone must eat in order to live eternally (John 6:35; 40; 50-51; 53-57).

The Lord said these things in the synagogue in Capernaum. The synagogue is the learning house for the Jew. Capernaum is the town where He lived (Matthew 4:13; Matthew 9:1).

John 8:16

A Hard Word for Unbelief

The Lord’s teaching reveals what lives in the hearts of His disciples. Many of them oppose His radical words. There is a serious form of unbelief here, this time not among the Jews but among many of His disciples. What is the “difficult statement” to them? That He has said to them that they have no life in themselves unless they eat in the manner He has indicated (John 6:53).

They are not free from their national religious feelings which, because of what He has said, are condemned to their roots. This is unbearable for them. In the same way, there are people today who want to accept a kind of ‘Jesus’ that is to their taste, but do not need to know anything about a Jesus Who had to suffer and die for them in order to give them life. It is obvious to them that they have life because they are the people chosen by God, aren’t they?

The Lord knows what resistance His words have aroused among the mass of His disciples. In a questioning form, He tells them that they are stumbling over His words, that His words are a stumbling block to follow Him. They cannot bear His teaching about His coming down and dying. In Him God has come to earth, God revealed in the flesh to be able to die. They already reject that simple truth and do not want to believe it. How, then, will they react when they see the Son of Man, a Man, going to heaven, to the place where He was before? He testifies here of Himself that He was with God even before He became Man. He is God and Man in one Person.

In fact, they will see as much of it as of the reality of His death. Both His cross and His ascension are beyond their field of vision, limited as that remains to a reigning Messiah. They cannot understand it either because the Spirit did not give them life. And the Spirit cannot give them life because they resist the teaching of the Lord Jesus.

With the introduction of the Holy Spirit the Lord concludes His teaching of this chapter. Nothing of the flesh is of any use to understand the things He has spoken. The flesh is utterly incapable to make any contribution to the knowledge of the truth He presents.

The Spirit alone can give life, for man is dead by nature. The Spirit is the active power of the triune God. The Father gives the bread, the Son is the bread and the Spirit works the life in those who eat this bread. Everything comes from God and nothing comes from man. The words spoken by the Lord can only be understood in a spiritual way. These words contain the life that becomes part of everyone who believes His words.

The Lord knows that there are some among His hearers who do not believe. This is yet another striking testimony that He has complete knowledge of all things. Not only does He know what people think and say, but He also knows “from the beginning” who will not believe and also who will betray Him (John 6:71). Those who do believe do not need to boast about it, for it was the Father who gave it to them. It is the sovereign grace of God. If it depended on the flesh, no man would ever come to Christ.

Now the separation becomes visible between those who reject His words and those who accept His words. The separation arises when it comes to His death as a necessity to get life. People don’t want to walk further with Him because He teaches them things they don’t like, they don’t like to hear, they ask too much of them, and cost them too much. It is the people who ‘apologize’ that they cannot accept the invitation to come to the meal because they feel they have more important things to do (Luke 14:16-24).

John 8:17

A Hard Word for Unbelief

The Lord’s teaching reveals what lives in the hearts of His disciples. Many of them oppose His radical words. There is a serious form of unbelief here, this time not among the Jews but among many of His disciples. What is the “difficult statement” to them? That He has said to them that they have no life in themselves unless they eat in the manner He has indicated (John 6:53).

They are not free from their national religious feelings which, because of what He has said, are condemned to their roots. This is unbearable for them. In the same way, there are people today who want to accept a kind of ‘Jesus’ that is to their taste, but do not need to know anything about a Jesus Who had to suffer and die for them in order to give them life. It is obvious to them that they have life because they are the people chosen by God, aren’t they?

The Lord knows what resistance His words have aroused among the mass of His disciples. In a questioning form, He tells them that they are stumbling over His words, that His words are a stumbling block to follow Him. They cannot bear His teaching about His coming down and dying. In Him God has come to earth, God revealed in the flesh to be able to die. They already reject that simple truth and do not want to believe it. How, then, will they react when they see the Son of Man, a Man, going to heaven, to the place where He was before? He testifies here of Himself that He was with God even before He became Man. He is God and Man in one Person.

In fact, they will see as much of it as of the reality of His death. Both His cross and His ascension are beyond their field of vision, limited as that remains to a reigning Messiah. They cannot understand it either because the Spirit did not give them life. And the Spirit cannot give them life because they resist the teaching of the Lord Jesus.

With the introduction of the Holy Spirit the Lord concludes His teaching of this chapter. Nothing of the flesh is of any use to understand the things He has spoken. The flesh is utterly incapable to make any contribution to the knowledge of the truth He presents.

The Spirit alone can give life, for man is dead by nature. The Spirit is the active power of the triune God. The Father gives the bread, the Son is the bread and the Spirit works the life in those who eat this bread. Everything comes from God and nothing comes from man. The words spoken by the Lord can only be understood in a spiritual way. These words contain the life that becomes part of everyone who believes His words.

The Lord knows that there are some among His hearers who do not believe. This is yet another striking testimony that He has complete knowledge of all things. Not only does He know what people think and say, but He also knows “from the beginning” who will not believe and also who will betray Him (John 6:71). Those who do believe do not need to boast about it, for it was the Father who gave it to them. It is the sovereign grace of God. If it depended on the flesh, no man would ever come to Christ.

Now the separation becomes visible between those who reject His words and those who accept His words. The separation arises when it comes to His death as a necessity to get life. People don’t want to walk further with Him because He teaches them things they don’t like, they don’t like to hear, they ask too much of them, and cost them too much. It is the people who ‘apologize’ that they cannot accept the invitation to come to the meal because they feel they have more important things to do (Luke 14:16-24).

John 8:18

A Hard Word for Unbelief

The Lord’s teaching reveals what lives in the hearts of His disciples. Many of them oppose His radical words. There is a serious form of unbelief here, this time not among the Jews but among many of His disciples. What is the “difficult statement” to them? That He has said to them that they have no life in themselves unless they eat in the manner He has indicated (John 6:53).

They are not free from their national religious feelings which, because of what He has said, are condemned to their roots. This is unbearable for them. In the same way, there are people today who want to accept a kind of ‘Jesus’ that is to their taste, but do not need to know anything about a Jesus Who had to suffer and die for them in order to give them life. It is obvious to them that they have life because they are the people chosen by God, aren’t they?

The Lord knows what resistance His words have aroused among the mass of His disciples. In a questioning form, He tells them that they are stumbling over His words, that His words are a stumbling block to follow Him. They cannot bear His teaching about His coming down and dying. In Him God has come to earth, God revealed in the flesh to be able to die. They already reject that simple truth and do not want to believe it. How, then, will they react when they see the Son of Man, a Man, going to heaven, to the place where He was before? He testifies here of Himself that He was with God even before He became Man. He is God and Man in one Person.

In fact, they will see as much of it as of the reality of His death. Both His cross and His ascension are beyond their field of vision, limited as that remains to a reigning Messiah. They cannot understand it either because the Spirit did not give them life. And the Spirit cannot give them life because they resist the teaching of the Lord Jesus.

With the introduction of the Holy Spirit the Lord concludes His teaching of this chapter. Nothing of the flesh is of any use to understand the things He has spoken. The flesh is utterly incapable to make any contribution to the knowledge of the truth He presents.

The Spirit alone can give life, for man is dead by nature. The Spirit is the active power of the triune God. The Father gives the bread, the Son is the bread and the Spirit works the life in those who eat this bread. Everything comes from God and nothing comes from man. The words spoken by the Lord can only be understood in a spiritual way. These words contain the life that becomes part of everyone who believes His words.

The Lord knows that there are some among His hearers who do not believe. This is yet another striking testimony that He has complete knowledge of all things. Not only does He know what people think and say, but He also knows “from the beginning” who will not believe and also who will betray Him (John 6:71). Those who do believe do not need to boast about it, for it was the Father who gave it to them. It is the sovereign grace of God. If it depended on the flesh, no man would ever come to Christ.

Now the separation becomes visible between those who reject His words and those who accept His words. The separation arises when it comes to His death as a necessity to get life. People don’t want to walk further with Him because He teaches them things they don’t like, they don’t like to hear, they ask too much of them, and cost them too much. It is the people who ‘apologize’ that they cannot accept the invitation to come to the meal because they feel they have more important things to do (Luke 14:16-24).

John 8:19

A Hard Word for Unbelief

The Lord’s teaching reveals what lives in the hearts of His disciples. Many of them oppose His radical words. There is a serious form of unbelief here, this time not among the Jews but among many of His disciples. What is the “difficult statement” to them? That He has said to them that they have no life in themselves unless they eat in the manner He has indicated (John 6:53).

They are not free from their national religious feelings which, because of what He has said, are condemned to their roots. This is unbearable for them. In the same way, there are people today who want to accept a kind of ‘Jesus’ that is to their taste, but do not need to know anything about a Jesus Who had to suffer and die for them in order to give them life. It is obvious to them that they have life because they are the people chosen by God, aren’t they?

The Lord knows what resistance His words have aroused among the mass of His disciples. In a questioning form, He tells them that they are stumbling over His words, that His words are a stumbling block to follow Him. They cannot bear His teaching about His coming down and dying. In Him God has come to earth, God revealed in the flesh to be able to die. They already reject that simple truth and do not want to believe it. How, then, will they react when they see the Son of Man, a Man, going to heaven, to the place where He was before? He testifies here of Himself that He was with God even before He became Man. He is God and Man in one Person.

In fact, they will see as much of it as of the reality of His death. Both His cross and His ascension are beyond their field of vision, limited as that remains to a reigning Messiah. They cannot understand it either because the Spirit did not give them life. And the Spirit cannot give them life because they resist the teaching of the Lord Jesus.

With the introduction of the Holy Spirit the Lord concludes His teaching of this chapter. Nothing of the flesh is of any use to understand the things He has spoken. The flesh is utterly incapable to make any contribution to the knowledge of the truth He presents.

The Spirit alone can give life, for man is dead by nature. The Spirit is the active power of the triune God. The Father gives the bread, the Son is the bread and the Spirit works the life in those who eat this bread. Everything comes from God and nothing comes from man. The words spoken by the Lord can only be understood in a spiritual way. These words contain the life that becomes part of everyone who believes His words.

The Lord knows that there are some among His hearers who do not believe. This is yet another striking testimony that He has complete knowledge of all things. Not only does He know what people think and say, but He also knows “from the beginning” who will not believe and also who will betray Him (John 6:71). Those who do believe do not need to boast about it, for it was the Father who gave it to them. It is the sovereign grace of God. If it depended on the flesh, no man would ever come to Christ.

Now the separation becomes visible between those who reject His words and those who accept His words. The separation arises when it comes to His death as a necessity to get life. People don’t want to walk further with Him because He teaches them things they don’t like, they don’t like to hear, they ask too much of them, and cost them too much. It is the people who ‘apologize’ that they cannot accept the invitation to come to the meal because they feel they have more important things to do (Luke 14:16-24).

John 8:20

A Hard Word for Unbelief

The Lord’s teaching reveals what lives in the hearts of His disciples. Many of them oppose His radical words. There is a serious form of unbelief here, this time not among the Jews but among many of His disciples. What is the “difficult statement” to them? That He has said to them that they have no life in themselves unless they eat in the manner He has indicated (John 6:53).

They are not free from their national religious feelings which, because of what He has said, are condemned to their roots. This is unbearable for them. In the same way, there are people today who want to accept a kind of ‘Jesus’ that is to their taste, but do not need to know anything about a Jesus Who had to suffer and die for them in order to give them life. It is obvious to them that they have life because they are the people chosen by God, aren’t they?

The Lord knows what resistance His words have aroused among the mass of His disciples. In a questioning form, He tells them that they are stumbling over His words, that His words are a stumbling block to follow Him. They cannot bear His teaching about His coming down and dying. In Him God has come to earth, God revealed in the flesh to be able to die. They already reject that simple truth and do not want to believe it. How, then, will they react when they see the Son of Man, a Man, going to heaven, to the place where He was before? He testifies here of Himself that He was with God even before He became Man. He is God and Man in one Person.

In fact, they will see as much of it as of the reality of His death. Both His cross and His ascension are beyond their field of vision, limited as that remains to a reigning Messiah. They cannot understand it either because the Spirit did not give them life. And the Spirit cannot give them life because they resist the teaching of the Lord Jesus.

With the introduction of the Holy Spirit the Lord concludes His teaching of this chapter. Nothing of the flesh is of any use to understand the things He has spoken. The flesh is utterly incapable to make any contribution to the knowledge of the truth He presents.

The Spirit alone can give life, for man is dead by nature. The Spirit is the active power of the triune God. The Father gives the bread, the Son is the bread and the Spirit works the life in those who eat this bread. Everything comes from God and nothing comes from man. The words spoken by the Lord can only be understood in a spiritual way. These words contain the life that becomes part of everyone who believes His words.

The Lord knows that there are some among His hearers who do not believe. This is yet another striking testimony that He has complete knowledge of all things. Not only does He know what people think and say, but He also knows “from the beginning” who will not believe and also who will betray Him (John 6:71). Those who do believe do not need to boast about it, for it was the Father who gave it to them. It is the sovereign grace of God. If it depended on the flesh, no man would ever come to Christ.

Now the separation becomes visible between those who reject His words and those who accept His words. The separation arises when it comes to His death as a necessity to get life. People don’t want to walk further with Him because He teaches them things they don’t like, they don’t like to hear, they ask too much of them, and cost them too much. It is the people who ‘apologize’ that they cannot accept the invitation to come to the meal because they feel they have more important things to do (Luke 14:16-24).

John 8:21

A Hard Word for Unbelief

The Lord’s teaching reveals what lives in the hearts of His disciples. Many of them oppose His radical words. There is a serious form of unbelief here, this time not among the Jews but among many of His disciples. What is the “difficult statement” to them? That He has said to them that they have no life in themselves unless they eat in the manner He has indicated (John 6:53).

They are not free from their national religious feelings which, because of what He has said, are condemned to their roots. This is unbearable for them. In the same way, there are people today who want to accept a kind of ‘Jesus’ that is to their taste, but do not need to know anything about a Jesus Who had to suffer and die for them in order to give them life. It is obvious to them that they have life because they are the people chosen by God, aren’t they?

The Lord knows what resistance His words have aroused among the mass of His disciples. In a questioning form, He tells them that they are stumbling over His words, that His words are a stumbling block to follow Him. They cannot bear His teaching about His coming down and dying. In Him God has come to earth, God revealed in the flesh to be able to die. They already reject that simple truth and do not want to believe it. How, then, will they react when they see the Son of Man, a Man, going to heaven, to the place where He was before? He testifies here of Himself that He was with God even before He became Man. He is God and Man in one Person.

In fact, they will see as much of it as of the reality of His death. Both His cross and His ascension are beyond their field of vision, limited as that remains to a reigning Messiah. They cannot understand it either because the Spirit did not give them life. And the Spirit cannot give them life because they resist the teaching of the Lord Jesus.

With the introduction of the Holy Spirit the Lord concludes His teaching of this chapter. Nothing of the flesh is of any use to understand the things He has spoken. The flesh is utterly incapable to make any contribution to the knowledge of the truth He presents.

The Spirit alone can give life, for man is dead by nature. The Spirit is the active power of the triune God. The Father gives the bread, the Son is the bread and the Spirit works the life in those who eat this bread. Everything comes from God and nothing comes from man. The words spoken by the Lord can only be understood in a spiritual way. These words contain the life that becomes part of everyone who believes His words.

The Lord knows that there are some among His hearers who do not believe. This is yet another striking testimony that He has complete knowledge of all things. Not only does He know what people think and say, but He also knows “from the beginning” who will not believe and also who will betray Him (John 6:71). Those who do believe do not need to boast about it, for it was the Father who gave it to them. It is the sovereign grace of God. If it depended on the flesh, no man would ever come to Christ.

Now the separation becomes visible between those who reject His words and those who accept His words. The separation arises when it comes to His death as a necessity to get life. People don’t want to walk further with Him because He teaches them things they don’t like, they don’t like to hear, they ask too much of them, and cost them too much. It is the people who ‘apologize’ that they cannot accept the invitation to come to the meal because they feel they have more important things to do (Luke 14:16-24).

John 8:22

A Hard Word for Unbelief

The Lord’s teaching reveals what lives in the hearts of His disciples. Many of them oppose His radical words. There is a serious form of unbelief here, this time not among the Jews but among many of His disciples. What is the “difficult statement” to them? That He has said to them that they have no life in themselves unless they eat in the manner He has indicated (John 6:53).

They are not free from their national religious feelings which, because of what He has said, are condemned to their roots. This is unbearable for them. In the same way, there are people today who want to accept a kind of ‘Jesus’ that is to their taste, but do not need to know anything about a Jesus Who had to suffer and die for them in order to give them life. It is obvious to them that they have life because they are the people chosen by God, aren’t they?

The Lord knows what resistance His words have aroused among the mass of His disciples. In a questioning form, He tells them that they are stumbling over His words, that His words are a stumbling block to follow Him. They cannot bear His teaching about His coming down and dying. In Him God has come to earth, God revealed in the flesh to be able to die. They already reject that simple truth and do not want to believe it. How, then, will they react when they see the Son of Man, a Man, going to heaven, to the place where He was before? He testifies here of Himself that He was with God even before He became Man. He is God and Man in one Person.

In fact, they will see as much of it as of the reality of His death. Both His cross and His ascension are beyond their field of vision, limited as that remains to a reigning Messiah. They cannot understand it either because the Spirit did not give them life. And the Spirit cannot give them life because they resist the teaching of the Lord Jesus.

With the introduction of the Holy Spirit the Lord concludes His teaching of this chapter. Nothing of the flesh is of any use to understand the things He has spoken. The flesh is utterly incapable to make any contribution to the knowledge of the truth He presents.

The Spirit alone can give life, for man is dead by nature. The Spirit is the active power of the triune God. The Father gives the bread, the Son is the bread and the Spirit works the life in those who eat this bread. Everything comes from God and nothing comes from man. The words spoken by the Lord can only be understood in a spiritual way. These words contain the life that becomes part of everyone who believes His words.

The Lord knows that there are some among His hearers who do not believe. This is yet another striking testimony that He has complete knowledge of all things. Not only does He know what people think and say, but He also knows “from the beginning” who will not believe and also who will betray Him (John 6:71). Those who do believe do not need to boast about it, for it was the Father who gave it to them. It is the sovereign grace of God. If it depended on the flesh, no man would ever come to Christ.

Now the separation becomes visible between those who reject His words and those who accept His words. The separation arises when it comes to His death as a necessity to get life. People don’t want to walk further with Him because He teaches them things they don’t like, they don’t like to hear, they ask too much of them, and cost them too much. It is the people who ‘apologize’ that they cannot accept the invitation to come to the meal because they feel they have more important things to do (Luke 14:16-24).

John 8:23

The Confession of Peter

The twelve disciples stay with Him. The Lord puts their faith in Him to the test by asking them the challenging question of whether they maybe also want to go away. They see the many disciples leave. Are they not going to live a more pleasant life than they could expect? Shouldn’t they join them? Surely there are only a few of them left, isn’t it? Doesn’t the majority see it right? Belonging to a minority always entails rejection and contempt.

The Lord knows the answer, but He wants to hear it from their own mouth. Then comes the wonderful answer of Peter. He wouldn’t know any other person to whom to turn. Who else has words of eternal life? Only the Lord Jesus does. Peter is not interested in taking advantage of the signs the Lord does, but in the spiritual meaning of what He speaks. He is not concerned with literal bread, but with spiritual food.

Not only the words of eternal life are important, but also Who speaks them. He Who speaks them is that which He has been saying to them from the beginning (John 8:25). They have believed in Him as the Holy One of God, as the One Whom God has sanctified for Himself. If He is everything to God, with whom would a man rather be than with Him?

The Lord answers not only Peter, but all twelve disciples, for Peter has spoken on their behalf. What Peter said does not apply to all twelve. Certainly, He has chosen all twelve of them to be with Him on earth and to follow Him on His walk through the land, to serve Him and to learn from Him (Luke 6:13). The election the Lord is talking about here is not the eternal election for heaven, but the election to be with Him on earth. Unfortunately, not all twelve have faith in Him being the Holy One of God. The Lord calls one of them “a devil” because that one has entered into the service of the devil.

He knows who that devil is. He did not accidentally choose Judas as one of the twelve. Nor did he choose him to make him a traitor, as if Judas had no other choice. Judas has had enough chances to repent, but he didn’t want to.

After many disciples have left and a small company remains that remains faithful to Him, we would humanly speaking have rather postponed the veiled ‘unmasking’ of Judas for a moment. It may give the impression that the Lord is spoiling the good atmosphere that has been created by speaking of one of his disciples as ‘a devil’. Once again it proves that He is the Holy One of God. He is focused only on His God and not on man.

John 8:24

The Confession of Peter

The twelve disciples stay with Him. The Lord puts their faith in Him to the test by asking them the challenging question of whether they maybe also want to go away. They see the many disciples leave. Are they not going to live a more pleasant life than they could expect? Shouldn’t they join them? Surely there are only a few of them left, isn’t it? Doesn’t the majority see it right? Belonging to a minority always entails rejection and contempt.

The Lord knows the answer, but He wants to hear it from their own mouth. Then comes the wonderful answer of Peter. He wouldn’t know any other person to whom to turn. Who else has words of eternal life? Only the Lord Jesus does. Peter is not interested in taking advantage of the signs the Lord does, but in the spiritual meaning of what He speaks. He is not concerned with literal bread, but with spiritual food.

Not only the words of eternal life are important, but also Who speaks them. He Who speaks them is that which He has been saying to them from the beginning (John 8:25). They have believed in Him as the Holy One of God, as the One Whom God has sanctified for Himself. If He is everything to God, with whom would a man rather be than with Him?

The Lord answers not only Peter, but all twelve disciples, for Peter has spoken on their behalf. What Peter said does not apply to all twelve. Certainly, He has chosen all twelve of them to be with Him on earth and to follow Him on His walk through the land, to serve Him and to learn from Him (Luke 6:13). The election the Lord is talking about here is not the eternal election for heaven, but the election to be with Him on earth. Unfortunately, not all twelve have faith in Him being the Holy One of God. The Lord calls one of them “a devil” because that one has entered into the service of the devil.

He knows who that devil is. He did not accidentally choose Judas as one of the twelve. Nor did he choose him to make him a traitor, as if Judas had no other choice. Judas has had enough chances to repent, but he didn’t want to.

After many disciples have left and a small company remains that remains faithful to Him, we would humanly speaking have rather postponed the veiled ‘unmasking’ of Judas for a moment. It may give the impression that the Lord is spoiling the good atmosphere that has been created by speaking of one of his disciples as ‘a devil’. Once again it proves that He is the Holy One of God. He is focused only on His God and not on man.

John 8:25

The Confession of Peter

The twelve disciples stay with Him. The Lord puts their faith in Him to the test by asking them the challenging question of whether they maybe also want to go away. They see the many disciples leave. Are they not going to live a more pleasant life than they could expect? Shouldn’t they join them? Surely there are only a few of them left, isn’t it? Doesn’t the majority see it right? Belonging to a minority always entails rejection and contempt.

The Lord knows the answer, but He wants to hear it from their own mouth. Then comes the wonderful answer of Peter. He wouldn’t know any other person to whom to turn. Who else has words of eternal life? Only the Lord Jesus does. Peter is not interested in taking advantage of the signs the Lord does, but in the spiritual meaning of what He speaks. He is not concerned with literal bread, but with spiritual food.

Not only the words of eternal life are important, but also Who speaks them. He Who speaks them is that which He has been saying to them from the beginning (John 8:25). They have believed in Him as the Holy One of God, as the One Whom God has sanctified for Himself. If He is everything to God, with whom would a man rather be than with Him?

The Lord answers not only Peter, but all twelve disciples, for Peter has spoken on their behalf. What Peter said does not apply to all twelve. Certainly, He has chosen all twelve of them to be with Him on earth and to follow Him on His walk through the land, to serve Him and to learn from Him (Luke 6:13). The election the Lord is talking about here is not the eternal election for heaven, but the election to be with Him on earth. Unfortunately, not all twelve have faith in Him being the Holy One of God. The Lord calls one of them “a devil” because that one has entered into the service of the devil.

He knows who that devil is. He did not accidentally choose Judas as one of the twelve. Nor did he choose him to make him a traitor, as if Judas had no other choice. Judas has had enough chances to repent, but he didn’t want to.

After many disciples have left and a small company remains that remains faithful to Him, we would humanly speaking have rather postponed the veiled ‘unmasking’ of Judas for a moment. It may give the impression that the Lord is spoiling the good atmosphere that has been created by speaking of one of his disciples as ‘a devil’. Once again it proves that He is the Holy One of God. He is focused only on His God and not on man.

John 8:26

The Confession of Peter

The twelve disciples stay with Him. The Lord puts their faith in Him to the test by asking them the challenging question of whether they maybe also want to go away. They see the many disciples leave. Are they not going to live a more pleasant life than they could expect? Shouldn’t they join them? Surely there are only a few of them left, isn’t it? Doesn’t the majority see it right? Belonging to a minority always entails rejection and contempt.

The Lord knows the answer, but He wants to hear it from their own mouth. Then comes the wonderful answer of Peter. He wouldn’t know any other person to whom to turn. Who else has words of eternal life? Only the Lord Jesus does. Peter is not interested in taking advantage of the signs the Lord does, but in the spiritual meaning of what He speaks. He is not concerned with literal bread, but with spiritual food.

Not only the words of eternal life are important, but also Who speaks them. He Who speaks them is that which He has been saying to them from the beginning (John 8:25). They have believed in Him as the Holy One of God, as the One Whom God has sanctified for Himself. If He is everything to God, with whom would a man rather be than with Him?

The Lord answers not only Peter, but all twelve disciples, for Peter has spoken on their behalf. What Peter said does not apply to all twelve. Certainly, He has chosen all twelve of them to be with Him on earth and to follow Him on His walk through the land, to serve Him and to learn from Him (Luke 6:13). The election the Lord is talking about here is not the eternal election for heaven, but the election to be with Him on earth. Unfortunately, not all twelve have faith in Him being the Holy One of God. The Lord calls one of them “a devil” because that one has entered into the service of the devil.

He knows who that devil is. He did not accidentally choose Judas as one of the twelve. Nor did he choose him to make him a traitor, as if Judas had no other choice. Judas has had enough chances to repent, but he didn’t want to.

After many disciples have left and a small company remains that remains faithful to Him, we would humanly speaking have rather postponed the veiled ‘unmasking’ of Judas for a moment. It may give the impression that the Lord is spoiling the good atmosphere that has been created by speaking of one of his disciples as ‘a devil’. Once again it proves that He is the Holy One of God. He is focused only on His God and not on man.

John 8:27

The Confession of Peter

The twelve disciples stay with Him. The Lord puts their faith in Him to the test by asking them the challenging question of whether they maybe also want to go away. They see the many disciples leave. Are they not going to live a more pleasant life than they could expect? Shouldn’t they join them? Surely there are only a few of them left, isn’t it? Doesn’t the majority see it right? Belonging to a minority always entails rejection and contempt.

The Lord knows the answer, but He wants to hear it from their own mouth. Then comes the wonderful answer of Peter. He wouldn’t know any other person to whom to turn. Who else has words of eternal life? Only the Lord Jesus does. Peter is not interested in taking advantage of the signs the Lord does, but in the spiritual meaning of what He speaks. He is not concerned with literal bread, but with spiritual food.

Not only the words of eternal life are important, but also Who speaks them. He Who speaks them is that which He has been saying to them from the beginning (John 8:25). They have believed in Him as the Holy One of God, as the One Whom God has sanctified for Himself. If He is everything to God, with whom would a man rather be than with Him?

The Lord answers not only Peter, but all twelve disciples, for Peter has spoken on their behalf. What Peter said does not apply to all twelve. Certainly, He has chosen all twelve of them to be with Him on earth and to follow Him on His walk through the land, to serve Him and to learn from Him (Luke 6:13). The election the Lord is talking about here is not the eternal election for heaven, but the election to be with Him on earth. Unfortunately, not all twelve have faith in Him being the Holy One of God. The Lord calls one of them “a devil” because that one has entered into the service of the devil.

He knows who that devil is. He did not accidentally choose Judas as one of the twelve. Nor did he choose him to make him a traitor, as if Judas had no other choice. Judas has had enough chances to repent, but he didn’t want to.

After many disciples have left and a small company remains that remains faithful to Him, we would humanly speaking have rather postponed the veiled ‘unmasking’ of Judas for a moment. It may give the impression that the Lord is spoiling the good atmosphere that has been created by speaking of one of his disciples as ‘a devil’. Once again it proves that He is the Holy One of God. He is focused only on His God and not on man.

John 8:29

The Upcoming Feast of Booths

In John 5 we see the Lord Jesus as the Son of God Who gives life with unlimited authority to whom He wants. Because He is the Son of Man, He judges all. The emphasis is on what He is, not on the position He holds. In John 6 we talk about the same Son, but there He is presented as the One Who came down out of heaven. In His humiliation He is the object of faith and then the Son of Man Who dies and then ascends to where He was before. In John 7, Christ is presented as not yet revealed to the world. Once He takes His glorious position in heaven, the Holy Spirit will come down to earth in His place to dwell in the believer.

After the healing of the lame in Judea in John 5, the Lord went to Galilee and there performed the wonder of the feeding (John 6). He walks there in love seeking people to prove that love to them. He doesn’t want to walk around in Judea because that is not the will of His Father. He never let Himself be led by how people treated Him. His will and that of the Father are equal. Therefore, we read that He did not want to walk in Judea. Yet the reason given is not the will of the Father, but that the Jews wanted to kill Him.

We see here that the evil attitude of the Jews is incorporated in the will of the Father. The will of the Father does not undo man’s wickedness, but the will of the Father is above it and He uses that wickedness to carry out His plans. Jews are the Judeans and especially the spiritual leaders. Wherever man’s wickedness prevents the Son from proving His mercy, grace finds new areas for it. He will be in that area for a certain time, because He will only go to Judea again when the time determined by the Father has come.

The time of the events of John 7 is the time of the Feast of Booths. John 6 has the Passover as its starting point (John 6:4) and His death as subject. Here the Feast of Booths is central, a picture of the feast of joy in response to all God’s blessings in the fruits of the land in the realm of peace. This is connected to the coming of the Holy Spirit (John 7:37-39).

Because of the sins of the people, the time of the fulfillment of this feast for the people has not yet come. Therefore, just like the Passover, the feast is called a “feast of the Jews”.

John 8:30

The Upcoming Feast of Booths

In John 5 we see the Lord Jesus as the Son of God Who gives life with unlimited authority to whom He wants. Because He is the Son of Man, He judges all. The emphasis is on what He is, not on the position He holds. In John 6 we talk about the same Son, but there He is presented as the One Who came down out of heaven. In His humiliation He is the object of faith and then the Son of Man Who dies and then ascends to where He was before. In John 7, Christ is presented as not yet revealed to the world. Once He takes His glorious position in heaven, the Holy Spirit will come down to earth in His place to dwell in the believer.

After the healing of the lame in Judea in John 5, the Lord went to Galilee and there performed the wonder of the feeding (John 6). He walks there in love seeking people to prove that love to them. He doesn’t want to walk around in Judea because that is not the will of His Father. He never let Himself be led by how people treated Him. His will and that of the Father are equal. Therefore, we read that He did not want to walk in Judea. Yet the reason given is not the will of the Father, but that the Jews wanted to kill Him.

We see here that the evil attitude of the Jews is incorporated in the will of the Father. The will of the Father does not undo man’s wickedness, but the will of the Father is above it and He uses that wickedness to carry out His plans. Jews are the Judeans and especially the spiritual leaders. Wherever man’s wickedness prevents the Son from proving His mercy, grace finds new areas for it. He will be in that area for a certain time, because He will only go to Judea again when the time determined by the Father has come.

The time of the events of John 7 is the time of the Feast of Booths. John 6 has the Passover as its starting point (John 6:4) and His death as subject. Here the Feast of Booths is central, a picture of the feast of joy in response to all God’s blessings in the fruits of the land in the realm of peace. This is connected to the coming of the Holy Spirit (John 7:37-39).

Because of the sins of the people, the time of the fulfillment of this feast for the people has not yet come. Therefore, just like the Passover, the feast is called a “feast of the Jews”.

John 8:31

The Unbelief of the Brothers of the Lord

The brothers of the Lord want Him to return to Judea. They know that He has disciples there who can then see His works. That will increase His popularity which will reflect on them. They reason only from their own perspective, without any understanding of Who He really is, Who has deigned to be born into their family. They seek honor from the world, because they want to make a name for themselves by what He does.

What they propose shows what they themselves would have done if they were in His place. Their proposal comes from seeking their own honor, as is common in the world. They have no idea of what really drives the Lord. They find it strange that He remains hidden, while He, so they believe, wants to be known publicly.

The reason for their attitude and proposal is that they do not believe in Him. To them He is no more than a Brother with special gifts. They do want piggybacking on the prestige He receives through His signs, but keep far away from Him as soon as His rejection comes in sight.

Later His brothers will believe in Him. After all, they will be there when the disciples are together in the upper room after His ascension devoting themselves to prayer and to choose an apostle in the place of Judas (Acts 1:14).

The Lord does not let Himself be led by the vision of His brothers. As always, He remains in perfect dependence on His Father. He lets Himself be led by Him and not by people, not by His enemies and not by His family. It is not yet the time to make Himself known publicly to the world. He must first suffer. He does have a message for His brothers. He holds out to them that they live in and for the world and therefore their time to show themselves to it is now.

Perhaps the Lord also alludes to the momentary nature of their life and that they should prepare to meet God (Amos 4:12). People of the world do not bother about God’s time, but rather take time into their own hands. Because they live in and for the world, the world regards them as part of itself and therefore cannot hate them. They love the world and the world loves them because they contribute to preserving and cultivating the world.

This is different with the Lord Jesus. The world does hate Him because He reveals the world in its true character. He comes from another world, that of the Father and life. He came into this world to give it the life that belongs to the world from which He came and to which He still belongs. Because this life is the light of men (John 1:4), He exposes the evil of the world in the light. The Lord and His brothers belong to different worlds.

He tells them to go to the feast because for that is where they belong. It is a feast of the Jews, the most deadly opponents of the Lord. It is a feast of the world in which the greatness of man is celebrated. That is what the brothers are looking for and that is why they belong at the feast.

Once again the Lord says that His time is not yet fulfilled, because His path is determined by the Father. He cannot go with them to a feast that has no place for Him unless it is the place that man thinks He should take. So He stays in Galilee.

John 8:32

The Unbelief of the Brothers of the Lord

The brothers of the Lord want Him to return to Judea. They know that He has disciples there who can then see His works. That will increase His popularity which will reflect on them. They reason only from their own perspective, without any understanding of Who He really is, Who has deigned to be born into their family. They seek honor from the world, because they want to make a name for themselves by what He does.

What they propose shows what they themselves would have done if they were in His place. Their proposal comes from seeking their own honor, as is common in the world. They have no idea of what really drives the Lord. They find it strange that He remains hidden, while He, so they believe, wants to be known publicly.

The reason for their attitude and proposal is that they do not believe in Him. To them He is no more than a Brother with special gifts. They do want piggybacking on the prestige He receives through His signs, but keep far away from Him as soon as His rejection comes in sight.

Later His brothers will believe in Him. After all, they will be there when the disciples are together in the upper room after His ascension devoting themselves to prayer and to choose an apostle in the place of Judas (Acts 1:14).

The Lord does not let Himself be led by the vision of His brothers. As always, He remains in perfect dependence on His Father. He lets Himself be led by Him and not by people, not by His enemies and not by His family. It is not yet the time to make Himself known publicly to the world. He must first suffer. He does have a message for His brothers. He holds out to them that they live in and for the world and therefore their time to show themselves to it is now.

Perhaps the Lord also alludes to the momentary nature of their life and that they should prepare to meet God (Amos 4:12). People of the world do not bother about God’s time, but rather take time into their own hands. Because they live in and for the world, the world regards them as part of itself and therefore cannot hate them. They love the world and the world loves them because they contribute to preserving and cultivating the world.

This is different with the Lord Jesus. The world does hate Him because He reveals the world in its true character. He comes from another world, that of the Father and life. He came into this world to give it the life that belongs to the world from which He came and to which He still belongs. Because this life is the light of men (John 1:4), He exposes the evil of the world in the light. The Lord and His brothers belong to different worlds.

He tells them to go to the feast because for that is where they belong. It is a feast of the Jews, the most deadly opponents of the Lord. It is a feast of the world in which the greatness of man is celebrated. That is what the brothers are looking for and that is why they belong at the feast.

Once again the Lord says that His time is not yet fulfilled, because His path is determined by the Father. He cannot go with them to a feast that has no place for Him unless it is the place that man thinks He should take. So He stays in Galilee.

John 8:33

The Unbelief of the Brothers of the Lord

The brothers of the Lord want Him to return to Judea. They know that He has disciples there who can then see His works. That will increase His popularity which will reflect on them. They reason only from their own perspective, without any understanding of Who He really is, Who has deigned to be born into their family. They seek honor from the world, because they want to make a name for themselves by what He does.

What they propose shows what they themselves would have done if they were in His place. Their proposal comes from seeking their own honor, as is common in the world. They have no idea of what really drives the Lord. They find it strange that He remains hidden, while He, so they believe, wants to be known publicly.

The reason for their attitude and proposal is that they do not believe in Him. To them He is no more than a Brother with special gifts. They do want piggybacking on the prestige He receives through His signs, but keep far away from Him as soon as His rejection comes in sight.

Later His brothers will believe in Him. After all, they will be there when the disciples are together in the upper room after His ascension devoting themselves to prayer and to choose an apostle in the place of Judas (Acts 1:14).

The Lord does not let Himself be led by the vision of His brothers. As always, He remains in perfect dependence on His Father. He lets Himself be led by Him and not by people, not by His enemies and not by His family. It is not yet the time to make Himself known publicly to the world. He must first suffer. He does have a message for His brothers. He holds out to them that they live in and for the world and therefore their time to show themselves to it is now.

Perhaps the Lord also alludes to the momentary nature of their life and that they should prepare to meet God (Amos 4:12). People of the world do not bother about God’s time, but rather take time into their own hands. Because they live in and for the world, the world regards them as part of itself and therefore cannot hate them. They love the world and the world loves them because they contribute to preserving and cultivating the world.

This is different with the Lord Jesus. The world does hate Him because He reveals the world in its true character. He comes from another world, that of the Father and life. He came into this world to give it the life that belongs to the world from which He came and to which He still belongs. Because this life is the light of men (John 1:4), He exposes the evil of the world in the light. The Lord and His brothers belong to different worlds.

He tells them to go to the feast because for that is where they belong. It is a feast of the Jews, the most deadly opponents of the Lord. It is a feast of the world in which the greatness of man is celebrated. That is what the brothers are looking for and that is why they belong at the feast.

Once again the Lord says that His time is not yet fulfilled, because His path is determined by the Father. He cannot go with them to a feast that has no place for Him unless it is the place that man thinks He should take. So He stays in Galilee.

John 8:34

The Unbelief of the Brothers of the Lord

The brothers of the Lord want Him to return to Judea. They know that He has disciples there who can then see His works. That will increase His popularity which will reflect on them. They reason only from their own perspective, without any understanding of Who He really is, Who has deigned to be born into their family. They seek honor from the world, because they want to make a name for themselves by what He does.

What they propose shows what they themselves would have done if they were in His place. Their proposal comes from seeking their own honor, as is common in the world. They have no idea of what really drives the Lord. They find it strange that He remains hidden, while He, so they believe, wants to be known publicly.

The reason for their attitude and proposal is that they do not believe in Him. To them He is no more than a Brother with special gifts. They do want piggybacking on the prestige He receives through His signs, but keep far away from Him as soon as His rejection comes in sight.

Later His brothers will believe in Him. After all, they will be there when the disciples are together in the upper room after His ascension devoting themselves to prayer and to choose an apostle in the place of Judas (Acts 1:14).

The Lord does not let Himself be led by the vision of His brothers. As always, He remains in perfect dependence on His Father. He lets Himself be led by Him and not by people, not by His enemies and not by His family. It is not yet the time to make Himself known publicly to the world. He must first suffer. He does have a message for His brothers. He holds out to them that they live in and for the world and therefore their time to show themselves to it is now.

Perhaps the Lord also alludes to the momentary nature of their life and that they should prepare to meet God (Amos 4:12). People of the world do not bother about God’s time, but rather take time into their own hands. Because they live in and for the world, the world regards them as part of itself and therefore cannot hate them. They love the world and the world loves them because they contribute to preserving and cultivating the world.

This is different with the Lord Jesus. The world does hate Him because He reveals the world in its true character. He comes from another world, that of the Father and life. He came into this world to give it the life that belongs to the world from which He came and to which He still belongs. Because this life is the light of men (John 1:4), He exposes the evil of the world in the light. The Lord and His brothers belong to different worlds.

He tells them to go to the feast because for that is where they belong. It is a feast of the Jews, the most deadly opponents of the Lord. It is a feast of the world in which the greatness of man is celebrated. That is what the brothers are looking for and that is why they belong at the feast.

Once again the Lord says that His time is not yet fulfilled, because His path is determined by the Father. He cannot go with them to a feast that has no place for Him unless it is the place that man thinks He should take. So He stays in Galilee.

John 8:35

The Unbelief of the Brothers of the Lord

The brothers of the Lord want Him to return to Judea. They know that He has disciples there who can then see His works. That will increase His popularity which will reflect on them. They reason only from their own perspective, without any understanding of Who He really is, Who has deigned to be born into their family. They seek honor from the world, because they want to make a name for themselves by what He does.

What they propose shows what they themselves would have done if they were in His place. Their proposal comes from seeking their own honor, as is common in the world. They have no idea of what really drives the Lord. They find it strange that He remains hidden, while He, so they believe, wants to be known publicly.

The reason for their attitude and proposal is that they do not believe in Him. To them He is no more than a Brother with special gifts. They do want piggybacking on the prestige He receives through His signs, but keep far away from Him as soon as His rejection comes in sight.

Later His brothers will believe in Him. After all, they will be there when the disciples are together in the upper room after His ascension devoting themselves to prayer and to choose an apostle in the place of Judas (Acts 1:14).

The Lord does not let Himself be led by the vision of His brothers. As always, He remains in perfect dependence on His Father. He lets Himself be led by Him and not by people, not by His enemies and not by His family. It is not yet the time to make Himself known publicly to the world. He must first suffer. He does have a message for His brothers. He holds out to them that they live in and for the world and therefore their time to show themselves to it is now.

Perhaps the Lord also alludes to the momentary nature of their life and that they should prepare to meet God (Amos 4:12). People of the world do not bother about God’s time, but rather take time into their own hands. Because they live in and for the world, the world regards them as part of itself and therefore cannot hate them. They love the world and the world loves them because they contribute to preserving and cultivating the world.

This is different with the Lord Jesus. The world does hate Him because He reveals the world in its true character. He comes from another world, that of the Father and life. He came into this world to give it the life that belongs to the world from which He came and to which He still belongs. Because this life is the light of men (John 1:4), He exposes the evil of the world in the light. The Lord and His brothers belong to different worlds.

He tells them to go to the feast because for that is where they belong. It is a feast of the Jews, the most deadly opponents of the Lord. It is a feast of the world in which the greatness of man is celebrated. That is what the brothers are looking for and that is why they belong at the feast.

Once again the Lord says that His time is not yet fulfilled, because His path is determined by the Father. He cannot go with them to a feast that has no place for Him unless it is the place that man thinks He should take. So He stays in Galilee.

John 8:36

The Unbelief of the Brothers of the Lord

The brothers of the Lord want Him to return to Judea. They know that He has disciples there who can then see His works. That will increase His popularity which will reflect on them. They reason only from their own perspective, without any understanding of Who He really is, Who has deigned to be born into their family. They seek honor from the world, because they want to make a name for themselves by what He does.

What they propose shows what they themselves would have done if they were in His place. Their proposal comes from seeking their own honor, as is common in the world. They have no idea of what really drives the Lord. They find it strange that He remains hidden, while He, so they believe, wants to be known publicly.

The reason for their attitude and proposal is that they do not believe in Him. To them He is no more than a Brother with special gifts. They do want piggybacking on the prestige He receives through His signs, but keep far away from Him as soon as His rejection comes in sight.

Later His brothers will believe in Him. After all, they will be there when the disciples are together in the upper room after His ascension devoting themselves to prayer and to choose an apostle in the place of Judas (Acts 1:14).

The Lord does not let Himself be led by the vision of His brothers. As always, He remains in perfect dependence on His Father. He lets Himself be led by Him and not by people, not by His enemies and not by His family. It is not yet the time to make Himself known publicly to the world. He must first suffer. He does have a message for His brothers. He holds out to them that they live in and for the world and therefore their time to show themselves to it is now.

Perhaps the Lord also alludes to the momentary nature of their life and that they should prepare to meet God (Amos 4:12). People of the world do not bother about God’s time, but rather take time into their own hands. Because they live in and for the world, the world regards them as part of itself and therefore cannot hate them. They love the world and the world loves them because they contribute to preserving and cultivating the world.

This is different with the Lord Jesus. The world does hate Him because He reveals the world in its true character. He comes from another world, that of the Father and life. He came into this world to give it the life that belongs to the world from which He came and to which He still belongs. Because this life is the light of men (John 1:4), He exposes the evil of the world in the light. The Lord and His brothers belong to different worlds.

He tells them to go to the feast because for that is where they belong. It is a feast of the Jews, the most deadly opponents of the Lord. It is a feast of the world in which the greatness of man is celebrated. That is what the brothers are looking for and that is why they belong at the feast.

Once again the Lord says that His time is not yet fulfilled, because His path is determined by the Father. He cannot go with them to a feast that has no place for Him unless it is the place that man thinks He should take. So He stays in Galilee.

John 8:37

The Unbelief of the Brothers of the Lord

The brothers of the Lord want Him to return to Judea. They know that He has disciples there who can then see His works. That will increase His popularity which will reflect on them. They reason only from their own perspective, without any understanding of Who He really is, Who has deigned to be born into their family. They seek honor from the world, because they want to make a name for themselves by what He does.

What they propose shows what they themselves would have done if they were in His place. Their proposal comes from seeking their own honor, as is common in the world. They have no idea of what really drives the Lord. They find it strange that He remains hidden, while He, so they believe, wants to be known publicly.

The reason for their attitude and proposal is that they do not believe in Him. To them He is no more than a Brother with special gifts. They do want piggybacking on the prestige He receives through His signs, but keep far away from Him as soon as His rejection comes in sight.

Later His brothers will believe in Him. After all, they will be there when the disciples are together in the upper room after His ascension devoting themselves to prayer and to choose an apostle in the place of Judas (Acts 1:14).

The Lord does not let Himself be led by the vision of His brothers. As always, He remains in perfect dependence on His Father. He lets Himself be led by Him and not by people, not by His enemies and not by His family. It is not yet the time to make Himself known publicly to the world. He must first suffer. He does have a message for His brothers. He holds out to them that they live in and for the world and therefore their time to show themselves to it is now.

Perhaps the Lord also alludes to the momentary nature of their life and that they should prepare to meet God (Amos 4:12). People of the world do not bother about God’s time, but rather take time into their own hands. Because they live in and for the world, the world regards them as part of itself and therefore cannot hate them. They love the world and the world loves them because they contribute to preserving and cultivating the world.

This is different with the Lord Jesus. The world does hate Him because He reveals the world in its true character. He comes from another world, that of the Father and life. He came into this world to give it the life that belongs to the world from which He came and to which He still belongs. Because this life is the light of men (John 1:4), He exposes the evil of the world in the light. The Lord and His brothers belong to different worlds.

He tells them to go to the feast because for that is where they belong. It is a feast of the Jews, the most deadly opponents of the Lord. It is a feast of the world in which the greatness of man is celebrated. That is what the brothers are looking for and that is why they belong at the feast.

Once again the Lord says that His time is not yet fulfilled, because His path is determined by the Father. He cannot go with them to a feast that has no place for Him unless it is the place that man thinks He should take. So He stays in Galilee.

John 8:38

The Lord Goes up to the Feast

When the time of the Father, or ‘My time’ (John 7:8), has come, the Lord goes up to the feast, clearly separated from His brothers and with entirely different motives. He goes in accordance with what He has said to His brothers that the time of making Himself known publicly has not yet come (John 7:6). That is why He goes, but as if, in secret. He does not go to satisfy human curiosity or desires. The way He goes to the feast is a type of the place He occupies now and also of the place we occupy. He is now hidden in God and our lives are with Him hidden in God (Colossians 3:3).

The Jews assume that He must also be somewhere at the feast. These declared opponents of the Lord, who are always out to get rid of Him, do not seek Him to honor Him, but to see if there is an opportunity to seize Him. Their question “where is He?” shows how occupied their minds are with Him. He is the great danger of undermining their position.

Not only the Jews are busy with Him in their deliberations. The crowds also talk about Him. It does happen in the form of grumbling and not out loud. Nor does it happen out of a deep inner need for a personal encounter with Him. They talk about Him as a phenomenon you can discuss, but that does not affect their conscience. While the leaders want to kill Him, the crowds are indifferent.

The grumbling about the Lord and not speaking openly about Him is because the crowds are afraid of the Jews, the spiritual leaders. If you said anything about Christ that the Jews did not like, you fell into disgrace with them. Their spies were everywhere. You could easily be betrayed. Here we see how great an influence the Jews have among the people.

John 8:39

The Lord Goes up to the Feast

When the time of the Father, or ‘My time’ (John 7:8), has come, the Lord goes up to the feast, clearly separated from His brothers and with entirely different motives. He goes in accordance with what He has said to His brothers that the time of making Himself known publicly has not yet come (John 7:6). That is why He goes, but as if, in secret. He does not go to satisfy human curiosity or desires. The way He goes to the feast is a type of the place He occupies now and also of the place we occupy. He is now hidden in God and our lives are with Him hidden in God (Colossians 3:3).

The Jews assume that He must also be somewhere at the feast. These declared opponents of the Lord, who are always out to get rid of Him, do not seek Him to honor Him, but to see if there is an opportunity to seize Him. Their question “where is He?” shows how occupied their minds are with Him. He is the great danger of undermining their position.

Not only the Jews are busy with Him in their deliberations. The crowds also talk about Him. It does happen in the form of grumbling and not out loud. Nor does it happen out of a deep inner need for a personal encounter with Him. They talk about Him as a phenomenon you can discuss, but that does not affect their conscience. While the leaders want to kill Him, the crowds are indifferent.

The grumbling about the Lord and not speaking openly about Him is because the crowds are afraid of the Jews, the spiritual leaders. If you said anything about Christ that the Jews did not like, you fell into disgrace with them. Their spies were everywhere. You could easily be betrayed. Here we see how great an influence the Jews have among the people.

John 8:40

The Lord Goes up to the Feast

When the time of the Father, or ‘My time’ (John 7:8), has come, the Lord goes up to the feast, clearly separated from His brothers and with entirely different motives. He goes in accordance with what He has said to His brothers that the time of making Himself known publicly has not yet come (John 7:6). That is why He goes, but as if, in secret. He does not go to satisfy human curiosity or desires. The way He goes to the feast is a type of the place He occupies now and also of the place we occupy. He is now hidden in God and our lives are with Him hidden in God (Colossians 3:3).

The Jews assume that He must also be somewhere at the feast. These declared opponents of the Lord, who are always out to get rid of Him, do not seek Him to honor Him, but to see if there is an opportunity to seize Him. Their question “where is He?” shows how occupied their minds are with Him. He is the great danger of undermining their position.

Not only the Jews are busy with Him in their deliberations. The crowds also talk about Him. It does happen in the form of grumbling and not out loud. Nor does it happen out of a deep inner need for a personal encounter with Him. They talk about Him as a phenomenon you can discuss, but that does not affect their conscience. While the leaders want to kill Him, the crowds are indifferent.

The grumbling about the Lord and not speaking openly about Him is because the crowds are afraid of the Jews, the spiritual leaders. If you said anything about Christ that the Jews did not like, you fell into disgrace with them. Their spies were everywhere. You could easily be betrayed. Here we see how great an influence the Jews have among the people.

John 8:41

The Lord Goes up to the Feast

When the time of the Father, or ‘My time’ (John 7:8), has come, the Lord goes up to the feast, clearly separated from His brothers and with entirely different motives. He goes in accordance with what He has said to His brothers that the time of making Himself known publicly has not yet come (John 7:6). That is why He goes, but as if, in secret. He does not go to satisfy human curiosity or desires. The way He goes to the feast is a type of the place He occupies now and also of the place we occupy. He is now hidden in God and our lives are with Him hidden in God (Colossians 3:3).

The Jews assume that He must also be somewhere at the feast. These declared opponents of the Lord, who are always out to get rid of Him, do not seek Him to honor Him, but to see if there is an opportunity to seize Him. Their question “where is He?” shows how occupied their minds are with Him. He is the great danger of undermining their position.

Not only the Jews are busy with Him in their deliberations. The crowds also talk about Him. It does happen in the form of grumbling and not out loud. Nor does it happen out of a deep inner need for a personal encounter with Him. They talk about Him as a phenomenon you can discuss, but that does not affect their conscience. While the leaders want to kill Him, the crowds are indifferent.

The grumbling about the Lord and not speaking openly about Him is because the crowds are afraid of the Jews, the spiritual leaders. If you said anything about Christ that the Jews did not like, you fell into disgrace with them. Their spies were everywhere. You could easily be betrayed. Here we see how great an influence the Jews have among the people.

John 8:42

Teaching in the Temple

Then comes the time for the Lord Jesus to go up into the temple, not to make Himself known publicly, but to teach. The feast is half over by now. What an empty feast it has been so far if He Who ought to be the center of it, is not present in the temple. He now comes to the temple, even though the people do not realize that He is Yahweh Himself, to Whom they owe all blessings. However, their gratitude does not go out to Him. That is why it is rightly said that it is a feast of the Jews (John 7:2). Yahweh and the gratitude toward Him are not central because it is their feast. What is central is what they have performed.

As soon as the Lord begins to speak, the power of His words is felt immediately. For them it is incomprehensible that someone can be so learned without Him having received any recognized training with the religious leaders or with a special rabbi. Likewise, for many Christians today it is only possible to say something about God and the Bible if one is a recognized theologian who has studied theology at a recognized and respected university or college.

In response to the astonishment of the Jews, the Lord answers that He does not preach His own teaching, but that what He teaches comes from His Sender. He emphasizes that His teaching is inseparable from His Father, making it perfectly clear at the same time that His teaching is completely separate from any human teaching. Only if someone is willing to do the will of God he will have the appropriate mind to recognize the correctness of His teaching.

The inability of the Jews and of every human being to understand what the Lord says is rooted in the heart of the questioner. One can only recognize that His teaching is from God if he is willing to obey the content of it.

This applies to the entire Word of God. This is a principle of extreme importance. The spiritual growth of the believer depends on this principle. Spiritual growth is not an intellectual matter, but a matter of heart and conscience. If the words spoken originate from man himself, if man is their source, the purpose of the words can only be one’s own glory. Man is only focused on himself. Where the glory of God is not sought and maintained, there can be no solid guarantee of truth.

Only when a person is focused on God and seeks His glory he is true and speaks truth. In such a person there is no unrighteousness, there is nothing that does injustice to God or any person, but he gives the true place to all and everything. This is true in perfection for the Lord Jesus. It also applies to us to the extent that we truly seek the glory of Him Who sent us into the world, just as He was sent into the world by the Father (John 20:21).

John 8:43

Teaching in the Temple

Then comes the time for the Lord Jesus to go up into the temple, not to make Himself known publicly, but to teach. The feast is half over by now. What an empty feast it has been so far if He Who ought to be the center of it, is not present in the temple. He now comes to the temple, even though the people do not realize that He is Yahweh Himself, to Whom they owe all blessings. However, their gratitude does not go out to Him. That is why it is rightly said that it is a feast of the Jews (John 7:2). Yahweh and the gratitude toward Him are not central because it is their feast. What is central is what they have performed.

As soon as the Lord begins to speak, the power of His words is felt immediately. For them it is incomprehensible that someone can be so learned without Him having received any recognized training with the religious leaders or with a special rabbi. Likewise, for many Christians today it is only possible to say something about God and the Bible if one is a recognized theologian who has studied theology at a recognized and respected university or college.

In response to the astonishment of the Jews, the Lord answers that He does not preach His own teaching, but that what He teaches comes from His Sender. He emphasizes that His teaching is inseparable from His Father, making it perfectly clear at the same time that His teaching is completely separate from any human teaching. Only if someone is willing to do the will of God he will have the appropriate mind to recognize the correctness of His teaching.

The inability of the Jews and of every human being to understand what the Lord says is rooted in the heart of the questioner. One can only recognize that His teaching is from God if he is willing to obey the content of it.

This applies to the entire Word of God. This is a principle of extreme importance. The spiritual growth of the believer depends on this principle. Spiritual growth is not an intellectual matter, but a matter of heart and conscience. If the words spoken originate from man himself, if man is their source, the purpose of the words can only be one’s own glory. Man is only focused on himself. Where the glory of God is not sought and maintained, there can be no solid guarantee of truth.

Only when a person is focused on God and seeks His glory he is true and speaks truth. In such a person there is no unrighteousness, there is nothing that does injustice to God or any person, but he gives the true place to all and everything. This is true in perfection for the Lord Jesus. It also applies to us to the extent that we truly seek the glory of Him Who sent us into the world, just as He was sent into the world by the Father (John 20:21).

John 8:44

Teaching in the Temple

Then comes the time for the Lord Jesus to go up into the temple, not to make Himself known publicly, but to teach. The feast is half over by now. What an empty feast it has been so far if He Who ought to be the center of it, is not present in the temple. He now comes to the temple, even though the people do not realize that He is Yahweh Himself, to Whom they owe all blessings. However, their gratitude does not go out to Him. That is why it is rightly said that it is a feast of the Jews (John 7:2). Yahweh and the gratitude toward Him are not central because it is their feast. What is central is what they have performed.

As soon as the Lord begins to speak, the power of His words is felt immediately. For them it is incomprehensible that someone can be so learned without Him having received any recognized training with the religious leaders or with a special rabbi. Likewise, for many Christians today it is only possible to say something about God and the Bible if one is a recognized theologian who has studied theology at a recognized and respected university or college.

In response to the astonishment of the Jews, the Lord answers that He does not preach His own teaching, but that what He teaches comes from His Sender. He emphasizes that His teaching is inseparable from His Father, making it perfectly clear at the same time that His teaching is completely separate from any human teaching. Only if someone is willing to do the will of God he will have the appropriate mind to recognize the correctness of His teaching.

The inability of the Jews and of every human being to understand what the Lord says is rooted in the heart of the questioner. One can only recognize that His teaching is from God if he is willing to obey the content of it.

This applies to the entire Word of God. This is a principle of extreme importance. The spiritual growth of the believer depends on this principle. Spiritual growth is not an intellectual matter, but a matter of heart and conscience. If the words spoken originate from man himself, if man is their source, the purpose of the words can only be one’s own glory. Man is only focused on himself. Where the glory of God is not sought and maintained, there can be no solid guarantee of truth.

Only when a person is focused on God and seeks His glory he is true and speaks truth. In such a person there is no unrighteousness, there is nothing that does injustice to God or any person, but he gives the true place to all and everything. This is true in perfection for the Lord Jesus. It also applies to us to the extent that we truly seek the glory of Him Who sent us into the world, just as He was sent into the world by the Father (John 20:21).

John 8:45

Teaching in the Temple

Then comes the time for the Lord Jesus to go up into the temple, not to make Himself known publicly, but to teach. The feast is half over by now. What an empty feast it has been so far if He Who ought to be the center of it, is not present in the temple. He now comes to the temple, even though the people do not realize that He is Yahweh Himself, to Whom they owe all blessings. However, their gratitude does not go out to Him. That is why it is rightly said that it is a feast of the Jews (John 7:2). Yahweh and the gratitude toward Him are not central because it is their feast. What is central is what they have performed.

As soon as the Lord begins to speak, the power of His words is felt immediately. For them it is incomprehensible that someone can be so learned without Him having received any recognized training with the religious leaders or with a special rabbi. Likewise, for many Christians today it is only possible to say something about God and the Bible if one is a recognized theologian who has studied theology at a recognized and respected university or college.

In response to the astonishment of the Jews, the Lord answers that He does not preach His own teaching, but that what He teaches comes from His Sender. He emphasizes that His teaching is inseparable from His Father, making it perfectly clear at the same time that His teaching is completely separate from any human teaching. Only if someone is willing to do the will of God he will have the appropriate mind to recognize the correctness of His teaching.

The inability of the Jews and of every human being to understand what the Lord says is rooted in the heart of the questioner. One can only recognize that His teaching is from God if he is willing to obey the content of it.

This applies to the entire Word of God. This is a principle of extreme importance. The spiritual growth of the believer depends on this principle. Spiritual growth is not an intellectual matter, but a matter of heart and conscience. If the words spoken originate from man himself, if man is their source, the purpose of the words can only be one’s own glory. Man is only focused on himself. Where the glory of God is not sought and maintained, there can be no solid guarantee of truth.

Only when a person is focused on God and seeks His glory he is true and speaks truth. In such a person there is no unrighteousness, there is nothing that does injustice to God or any person, but he gives the true place to all and everything. This is true in perfection for the Lord Jesus. It also applies to us to the extent that we truly seek the glory of Him Who sent us into the world, just as He was sent into the world by the Father (John 20:21).

John 8:46

Teaching in the Temple

Then comes the time for the Lord Jesus to go up into the temple, not to make Himself known publicly, but to teach. The feast is half over by now. What an empty feast it has been so far if He Who ought to be the center of it, is not present in the temple. He now comes to the temple, even though the people do not realize that He is Yahweh Himself, to Whom they owe all blessings. However, their gratitude does not go out to Him. That is why it is rightly said that it is a feast of the Jews (John 7:2). Yahweh and the gratitude toward Him are not central because it is their feast. What is central is what they have performed.

As soon as the Lord begins to speak, the power of His words is felt immediately. For them it is incomprehensible that someone can be so learned without Him having received any recognized training with the religious leaders or with a special rabbi. Likewise, for many Christians today it is only possible to say something about God and the Bible if one is a recognized theologian who has studied theology at a recognized and respected university or college.

In response to the astonishment of the Jews, the Lord answers that He does not preach His own teaching, but that what He teaches comes from His Sender. He emphasizes that His teaching is inseparable from His Father, making it perfectly clear at the same time that His teaching is completely separate from any human teaching. Only if someone is willing to do the will of God he will have the appropriate mind to recognize the correctness of His teaching.

The inability of the Jews and of every human being to understand what the Lord says is rooted in the heart of the questioner. One can only recognize that His teaching is from God if he is willing to obey the content of it.

This applies to the entire Word of God. This is a principle of extreme importance. The spiritual growth of the believer depends on this principle. Spiritual growth is not an intellectual matter, but a matter of heart and conscience. If the words spoken originate from man himself, if man is their source, the purpose of the words can only be one’s own glory. Man is only focused on himself. Where the glory of God is not sought and maintained, there can be no solid guarantee of truth.

Only when a person is focused on God and seeks His glory he is true and speaks truth. In such a person there is no unrighteousness, there is nothing that does injustice to God or any person, but he gives the true place to all and everything. This is true in perfection for the Lord Jesus. It also applies to us to the extent that we truly seek the glory of Him Who sent us into the world, just as He was sent into the world by the Father (John 20:21).

John 8:47

The Lord Applies His Teaching

To demonstrate that teaching is only understood when it is put into practice, the Lord points to the law. Moses gave them the law containing the commandments of God. But none of them carries out the law. This makes it clear that they do not understand the law. Instead, they abuse the law for their own glory. Thus, the Jews boast that they have received the law and therefore feel superior to other people. The Pharisees among them even curse the crowd which does not know the Law (John 7:49).

That man seeks his own glory is most evident from the abuse of the law for that purpose. The Lord exposes this abuse. They boast of the law, but no one obeys it. They have their mouth full of the law, but how is their walk? The result of their boasting is that they seek to kill the Son of God! He knows their murderousness. They cannot bear that God comes so close to them and exposes their sinful state.

The crowd that hears the Lord accusing the Jews of wanting to kill Him is not aware of what He sees in the hearts of the leaders. The crowd is not walking around with plans to kill Him. That is why they react highly surprised to the Lord’s statements. That they, too, have no notion at all of Who He is, is evident from the fact that they attribute the origin of His statements to a demon. That is why they will later be receptive to the whisperings of the leaders and call for His death.

The Lord knows that they have marveled at the work He has done in healing the lame (John 5:15-16). That has been an impressive work of which the impression still lingers. It is still in their minds, although it has been more than a year. The healing then caused fuss because He performed that wonder on the Sabbath. He is again referring to it to further make clear how they deal with the law and how that is diametrically opposed to His actions in grace.

Again he refers to Moses in whom they boast so much. Moses gave them circumcision (Leviticus 12:3). The Lord adds that Moses included circumcision in the law, but that the circumcision already existed as an institution before the law even existed. God had already given Abraham the commandment of circumcision (Genesis 17:10-13). In any case, the Jews to whom the Lord addresses Himself, adhere so strictly to what Moses said, that they carry out the commandment of circumcision, even if it must be done on the Sabbath.

He reproaches them for being angry with Him because He made an entire man well on the Sabbath, while they carry out circumcision in order not to break the law of Moses. For them, the commandment of circumcision outweighs the Sabbath commandment. So they themselves make an exception. He wants them to realize how great the difference is between keeping a commandment of the law concerning a small part of a person and showing grace to a whole person.

They judge according to the perceptible, to the controllable, and thus come to an unrighteous judgment. This judging by appearance is also a great danger for the believer. Even a man of God like Samuel was guilty of this and God had to reproach him (1 Samuel 16:7).

The Lord urges them to make a righteous judgment. In order to make a righteous judgment, His teaching is necessary, which however, they do not want. With His references to the law, He breaks through their foolish legislative reasoning.

John 8:48

The Lord Applies His Teaching

To demonstrate that teaching is only understood when it is put into practice, the Lord points to the law. Moses gave them the law containing the commandments of God. But none of them carries out the law. This makes it clear that they do not understand the law. Instead, they abuse the law for their own glory. Thus, the Jews boast that they have received the law and therefore feel superior to other people. The Pharisees among them even curse the crowd which does not know the Law (John 7:49).

That man seeks his own glory is most evident from the abuse of the law for that purpose. The Lord exposes this abuse. They boast of the law, but no one obeys it. They have their mouth full of the law, but how is their walk? The result of their boasting is that they seek to kill the Son of God! He knows their murderousness. They cannot bear that God comes so close to them and exposes their sinful state.

The crowd that hears the Lord accusing the Jews of wanting to kill Him is not aware of what He sees in the hearts of the leaders. The crowd is not walking around with plans to kill Him. That is why they react highly surprised to the Lord’s statements. That they, too, have no notion at all of Who He is, is evident from the fact that they attribute the origin of His statements to a demon. That is why they will later be receptive to the whisperings of the leaders and call for His death.

The Lord knows that they have marveled at the work He has done in healing the lame (John 5:15-16). That has been an impressive work of which the impression still lingers. It is still in their minds, although it has been more than a year. The healing then caused fuss because He performed that wonder on the Sabbath. He is again referring to it to further make clear how they deal with the law and how that is diametrically opposed to His actions in grace.

Again he refers to Moses in whom they boast so much. Moses gave them circumcision (Leviticus 12:3). The Lord adds that Moses included circumcision in the law, but that the circumcision already existed as an institution before the law even existed. God had already given Abraham the commandment of circumcision (Genesis 17:10-13). In any case, the Jews to whom the Lord addresses Himself, adhere so strictly to what Moses said, that they carry out the commandment of circumcision, even if it must be done on the Sabbath.

He reproaches them for being angry with Him because He made an entire man well on the Sabbath, while they carry out circumcision in order not to break the law of Moses. For them, the commandment of circumcision outweighs the Sabbath commandment. So they themselves make an exception. He wants them to realize how great the difference is between keeping a commandment of the law concerning a small part of a person and showing grace to a whole person.

They judge according to the perceptible, to the controllable, and thus come to an unrighteous judgment. This judging by appearance is also a great danger for the believer. Even a man of God like Samuel was guilty of this and God had to reproach him (1 Samuel 16:7).

The Lord urges them to make a righteous judgment. In order to make a righteous judgment, His teaching is necessary, which however, they do not want. With His references to the law, He breaks through their foolish legislative reasoning.

John 8:49

The Lord Applies His Teaching

To demonstrate that teaching is only understood when it is put into practice, the Lord points to the law. Moses gave them the law containing the commandments of God. But none of them carries out the law. This makes it clear that they do not understand the law. Instead, they abuse the law for their own glory. Thus, the Jews boast that they have received the law and therefore feel superior to other people. The Pharisees among them even curse the crowd which does not know the Law (John 7:49).

That man seeks his own glory is most evident from the abuse of the law for that purpose. The Lord exposes this abuse. They boast of the law, but no one obeys it. They have their mouth full of the law, but how is their walk? The result of their boasting is that they seek to kill the Son of God! He knows their murderousness. They cannot bear that God comes so close to them and exposes their sinful state.

The crowd that hears the Lord accusing the Jews of wanting to kill Him is not aware of what He sees in the hearts of the leaders. The crowd is not walking around with plans to kill Him. That is why they react highly surprised to the Lord’s statements. That they, too, have no notion at all of Who He is, is evident from the fact that they attribute the origin of His statements to a demon. That is why they will later be receptive to the whisperings of the leaders and call for His death.

The Lord knows that they have marveled at the work He has done in healing the lame (John 5:15-16). That has been an impressive work of which the impression still lingers. It is still in their minds, although it has been more than a year. The healing then caused fuss because He performed that wonder on the Sabbath. He is again referring to it to further make clear how they deal with the law and how that is diametrically opposed to His actions in grace.

Again he refers to Moses in whom they boast so much. Moses gave them circumcision (Leviticus 12:3). The Lord adds that Moses included circumcision in the law, but that the circumcision already existed as an institution before the law even existed. God had already given Abraham the commandment of circumcision (Genesis 17:10-13). In any case, the Jews to whom the Lord addresses Himself, adhere so strictly to what Moses said, that they carry out the commandment of circumcision, even if it must be done on the Sabbath.

He reproaches them for being angry with Him because He made an entire man well on the Sabbath, while they carry out circumcision in order not to break the law of Moses. For them, the commandment of circumcision outweighs the Sabbath commandment. So they themselves make an exception. He wants them to realize how great the difference is between keeping a commandment of the law concerning a small part of a person and showing grace to a whole person.

They judge according to the perceptible, to the controllable, and thus come to an unrighteous judgment. This judging by appearance is also a great danger for the believer. Even a man of God like Samuel was guilty of this and God had to reproach him (1 Samuel 16:7).

The Lord urges them to make a righteous judgment. In order to make a righteous judgment, His teaching is necessary, which however, they do not want. With His references to the law, He breaks through their foolish legislative reasoning.

John 8:50

The Lord Applies His Teaching

To demonstrate that teaching is only understood when it is put into practice, the Lord points to the law. Moses gave them the law containing the commandments of God. But none of them carries out the law. This makes it clear that they do not understand the law. Instead, they abuse the law for their own glory. Thus, the Jews boast that they have received the law and therefore feel superior to other people. The Pharisees among them even curse the crowd which does not know the Law (John 7:49).

That man seeks his own glory is most evident from the abuse of the law for that purpose. The Lord exposes this abuse. They boast of the law, but no one obeys it. They have their mouth full of the law, but how is their walk? The result of their boasting is that they seek to kill the Son of God! He knows their murderousness. They cannot bear that God comes so close to them and exposes their sinful state.

The crowd that hears the Lord accusing the Jews of wanting to kill Him is not aware of what He sees in the hearts of the leaders. The crowd is not walking around with plans to kill Him. That is why they react highly surprised to the Lord’s statements. That they, too, have no notion at all of Who He is, is evident from the fact that they attribute the origin of His statements to a demon. That is why they will later be receptive to the whisperings of the leaders and call for His death.

The Lord knows that they have marveled at the work He has done in healing the lame (John 5:15-16). That has been an impressive work of which the impression still lingers. It is still in their minds, although it has been more than a year. The healing then caused fuss because He performed that wonder on the Sabbath. He is again referring to it to further make clear how they deal with the law and how that is diametrically opposed to His actions in grace.

Again he refers to Moses in whom they boast so much. Moses gave them circumcision (Leviticus 12:3). The Lord adds that Moses included circumcision in the law, but that the circumcision already existed as an institution before the law even existed. God had already given Abraham the commandment of circumcision (Genesis 17:10-13). In any case, the Jews to whom the Lord addresses Himself, adhere so strictly to what Moses said, that they carry out the commandment of circumcision, even if it must be done on the Sabbath.

He reproaches them for being angry with Him because He made an entire man well on the Sabbath, while they carry out circumcision in order not to break the law of Moses. For them, the commandment of circumcision outweighs the Sabbath commandment. So they themselves make an exception. He wants them to realize how great the difference is between keeping a commandment of the law concerning a small part of a person and showing grace to a whole person.

They judge according to the perceptible, to the controllable, and thus come to an unrighteous judgment. This judging by appearance is also a great danger for the believer. Even a man of God like Samuel was guilty of this and God had to reproach him (1 Samuel 16:7).

The Lord urges them to make a righteous judgment. In order to make a righteous judgment, His teaching is necessary, which however, they do not want. With His references to the law, He breaks through their foolish legislative reasoning.

John 8:51

The Lord Applies His Teaching

To demonstrate that teaching is only understood when it is put into practice, the Lord points to the law. Moses gave them the law containing the commandments of God. But none of them carries out the law. This makes it clear that they do not understand the law. Instead, they abuse the law for their own glory. Thus, the Jews boast that they have received the law and therefore feel superior to other people. The Pharisees among them even curse the crowd which does not know the Law (John 7:49).

That man seeks his own glory is most evident from the abuse of the law for that purpose. The Lord exposes this abuse. They boast of the law, but no one obeys it. They have their mouth full of the law, but how is their walk? The result of their boasting is that they seek to kill the Son of God! He knows their murderousness. They cannot bear that God comes so close to them and exposes their sinful state.

The crowd that hears the Lord accusing the Jews of wanting to kill Him is not aware of what He sees in the hearts of the leaders. The crowd is not walking around with plans to kill Him. That is why they react highly surprised to the Lord’s statements. That they, too, have no notion at all of Who He is, is evident from the fact that they attribute the origin of His statements to a demon. That is why they will later be receptive to the whisperings of the leaders and call for His death.

The Lord knows that they have marveled at the work He has done in healing the lame (John 5:15-16). That has been an impressive work of which the impression still lingers. It is still in their minds, although it has been more than a year. The healing then caused fuss because He performed that wonder on the Sabbath. He is again referring to it to further make clear how they deal with the law and how that is diametrically opposed to His actions in grace.

Again he refers to Moses in whom they boast so much. Moses gave them circumcision (Leviticus 12:3). The Lord adds that Moses included circumcision in the law, but that the circumcision already existed as an institution before the law even existed. God had already given Abraham the commandment of circumcision (Genesis 17:10-13). In any case, the Jews to whom the Lord addresses Himself, adhere so strictly to what Moses said, that they carry out the commandment of circumcision, even if it must be done on the Sabbath.

He reproaches them for being angry with Him because He made an entire man well on the Sabbath, while they carry out circumcision in order not to break the law of Moses. For them, the commandment of circumcision outweighs the Sabbath commandment. So they themselves make an exception. He wants them to realize how great the difference is between keeping a commandment of the law concerning a small part of a person and showing grace to a whole person.

They judge according to the perceptible, to the controllable, and thus come to an unrighteous judgment. This judging by appearance is also a great danger for the believer. Even a man of God like Samuel was guilty of this and God had to reproach him (1 Samuel 16:7).

The Lord urges them to make a righteous judgment. In order to make a righteous judgment, His teaching is necessary, which however, they do not want. With His references to the law, He breaks through their foolish legislative reasoning.

John 8:52

The Lord Applies His Teaching

To demonstrate that teaching is only understood when it is put into practice, the Lord points to the law. Moses gave them the law containing the commandments of God. But none of them carries out the law. This makes it clear that they do not understand the law. Instead, they abuse the law for their own glory. Thus, the Jews boast that they have received the law and therefore feel superior to other people. The Pharisees among them even curse the crowd which does not know the Law (John 7:49).

That man seeks his own glory is most evident from the abuse of the law for that purpose. The Lord exposes this abuse. They boast of the law, but no one obeys it. They have their mouth full of the law, but how is their walk? The result of their boasting is that they seek to kill the Son of God! He knows their murderousness. They cannot bear that God comes so close to them and exposes their sinful state.

The crowd that hears the Lord accusing the Jews of wanting to kill Him is not aware of what He sees in the hearts of the leaders. The crowd is not walking around with plans to kill Him. That is why they react highly surprised to the Lord’s statements. That they, too, have no notion at all of Who He is, is evident from the fact that they attribute the origin of His statements to a demon. That is why they will later be receptive to the whisperings of the leaders and call for His death.

The Lord knows that they have marveled at the work He has done in healing the lame (John 5:15-16). That has been an impressive work of which the impression still lingers. It is still in their minds, although it has been more than a year. The healing then caused fuss because He performed that wonder on the Sabbath. He is again referring to it to further make clear how they deal with the law and how that is diametrically opposed to His actions in grace.

Again he refers to Moses in whom they boast so much. Moses gave them circumcision (Leviticus 12:3). The Lord adds that Moses included circumcision in the law, but that the circumcision already existed as an institution before the law even existed. God had already given Abraham the commandment of circumcision (Genesis 17:10-13). In any case, the Jews to whom the Lord addresses Himself, adhere so strictly to what Moses said, that they carry out the commandment of circumcision, even if it must be done on the Sabbath.

He reproaches them for being angry with Him because He made an entire man well on the Sabbath, while they carry out circumcision in order not to break the law of Moses. For them, the commandment of circumcision outweighs the Sabbath commandment. So they themselves make an exception. He wants them to realize how great the difference is between keeping a commandment of the law concerning a small part of a person and showing grace to a whole person.

They judge according to the perceptible, to the controllable, and thus come to an unrighteous judgment. This judging by appearance is also a great danger for the believer. Even a man of God like Samuel was guilty of this and God had to reproach him (1 Samuel 16:7).

The Lord urges them to make a righteous judgment. In order to make a righteous judgment, His teaching is necessary, which however, they do not want. With His references to the law, He breaks through their foolish legislative reasoning.

John 8:53

Opinions of Men

After the Jews and the crowd, some people of Jerusalem are a third group that speaks out about the Lord Jesus. They are the inhabitants of Jerusalem, while the Jews come from the immediate vicinity of Jerusalem and the crowd has come from all over Israel on the occasion of the Passover. The Jerusalem people are more familiar with Christ. They also know the murder plans of the Jewish leaders. Astonished, they wonder if it is not He Whom the rulers are trying to kill. But He speaks publicly, without anything done to Him. According to them, this could indicate that the leaders have recognized Him as the Christ after all. Could their superiors have changed their minds? That consideration brings them into doubt.

Their rulers are important to them, but they also have their own thoughts about the Lord Jesus. They know that He comes from Nazareth. They will also know from the Scriptures that the Christ would be born in Bethlehem according to the prophecy in Micah 5 (Micah 5:2). But it is unknown to them, when He would come and they believe that no one knows where He would come from once He came. It’s just reflections, without a real desire to know the truth about Christ.

The human side of Christ is obvious to them. They know that He comes from Nazareth. The Lord connects to that when He says that they know Him. But with respect to His Godhead they are completely blind. That is because they do not know Him Who sent Him. He did not come of His own initiative, but was sent by Him Who is true. That is why everything the Lord Jesus does and speaks is in truth and exposes all enmity and ignorance of all who hear and see Him.

The Lord says that He knows the Father as He knew Him from eternity. He went out from Him, which means that He was always with Him. Also the Father is active in the coming of the Son, for He has sent Him. The Son knows the Father because He is always with Him and He knows His will in His mission.

His words about His Father make them furious. They want to seize Him. Yet they do not. Only when His hour is come, will they be able to seize Him. Only then will the Father allow it, in view of the fulfillment of His plans. Nor can it be done other than only at His hour.

John 8:54

Opinions of Men

After the Jews and the crowd, some people of Jerusalem are a third group that speaks out about the Lord Jesus. They are the inhabitants of Jerusalem, while the Jews come from the immediate vicinity of Jerusalem and the crowd has come from all over Israel on the occasion of the Passover. The Jerusalem people are more familiar with Christ. They also know the murder plans of the Jewish leaders. Astonished, they wonder if it is not He Whom the rulers are trying to kill. But He speaks publicly, without anything done to Him. According to them, this could indicate that the leaders have recognized Him as the Christ after all. Could their superiors have changed their minds? That consideration brings them into doubt.

Their rulers are important to them, but they also have their own thoughts about the Lord Jesus. They know that He comes from Nazareth. They will also know from the Scriptures that the Christ would be born in Bethlehem according to the prophecy in Micah 5 (Micah 5:2). But it is unknown to them, when He would come and they believe that no one knows where He would come from once He came. It’s just reflections, without a real desire to know the truth about Christ.

The human side of Christ is obvious to them. They know that He comes from Nazareth. The Lord connects to that when He says that they know Him. But with respect to His Godhead they are completely blind. That is because they do not know Him Who sent Him. He did not come of His own initiative, but was sent by Him Who is true. That is why everything the Lord Jesus does and speaks is in truth and exposes all enmity and ignorance of all who hear and see Him.

The Lord says that He knows the Father as He knew Him from eternity. He went out from Him, which means that He was always with Him. Also the Father is active in the coming of the Son, for He has sent Him. The Son knows the Father because He is always with Him and He knows His will in His mission.

His words about His Father make them furious. They want to seize Him. Yet they do not. Only when His hour is come, will they be able to seize Him. Only then will the Father allow it, in view of the fulfillment of His plans. Nor can it be done other than only at His hour.

John 8:55

Opinions of Men

After the Jews and the crowd, some people of Jerusalem are a third group that speaks out about the Lord Jesus. They are the inhabitants of Jerusalem, while the Jews come from the immediate vicinity of Jerusalem and the crowd has come from all over Israel on the occasion of the Passover. The Jerusalem people are more familiar with Christ. They also know the murder plans of the Jewish leaders. Astonished, they wonder if it is not He Whom the rulers are trying to kill. But He speaks publicly, without anything done to Him. According to them, this could indicate that the leaders have recognized Him as the Christ after all. Could their superiors have changed their minds? That consideration brings them into doubt.

Their rulers are important to them, but they also have their own thoughts about the Lord Jesus. They know that He comes from Nazareth. They will also know from the Scriptures that the Christ would be born in Bethlehem according to the prophecy in Micah 5 (Micah 5:2). But it is unknown to them, when He would come and they believe that no one knows where He would come from once He came. It’s just reflections, without a real desire to know the truth about Christ.

The human side of Christ is obvious to them. They know that He comes from Nazareth. The Lord connects to that when He says that they know Him. But with respect to His Godhead they are completely blind. That is because they do not know Him Who sent Him. He did not come of His own initiative, but was sent by Him Who is true. That is why everything the Lord Jesus does and speaks is in truth and exposes all enmity and ignorance of all who hear and see Him.

The Lord says that He knows the Father as He knew Him from eternity. He went out from Him, which means that He was always with Him. Also the Father is active in the coming of the Son, for He has sent Him. The Son knows the Father because He is always with Him and He knows His will in His mission.

His words about His Father make them furious. They want to seize Him. Yet they do not. Only when His hour is come, will they be able to seize Him. Only then will the Father allow it, in view of the fulfillment of His plans. Nor can it be done other than only at His hour.

John 8:56

Opinions of Men

After the Jews and the crowd, some people of Jerusalem are a third group that speaks out about the Lord Jesus. They are the inhabitants of Jerusalem, while the Jews come from the immediate vicinity of Jerusalem and the crowd has come from all over Israel on the occasion of the Passover. The Jerusalem people are more familiar with Christ. They also know the murder plans of the Jewish leaders. Astonished, they wonder if it is not He Whom the rulers are trying to kill. But He speaks publicly, without anything done to Him. According to them, this could indicate that the leaders have recognized Him as the Christ after all. Could their superiors have changed their minds? That consideration brings them into doubt.

Their rulers are important to them, but they also have their own thoughts about the Lord Jesus. They know that He comes from Nazareth. They will also know from the Scriptures that the Christ would be born in Bethlehem according to the prophecy in Micah 5 (Micah 5:2). But it is unknown to them, when He would come and they believe that no one knows where He would come from once He came. It’s just reflections, without a real desire to know the truth about Christ.

The human side of Christ is obvious to them. They know that He comes from Nazareth. The Lord connects to that when He says that they know Him. But with respect to His Godhead they are completely blind. That is because they do not know Him Who sent Him. He did not come of His own initiative, but was sent by Him Who is true. That is why everything the Lord Jesus does and speaks is in truth and exposes all enmity and ignorance of all who hear and see Him.

The Lord says that He knows the Father as He knew Him from eternity. He went out from Him, which means that He was always with Him. Also the Father is active in the coming of the Son, for He has sent Him. The Son knows the Father because He is always with Him and He knows His will in His mission.

His words about His Father make them furious. They want to seize Him. Yet they do not. Only when His hour is come, will they be able to seize Him. Only then will the Father allow it, in view of the fulfillment of His plans. Nor can it be done other than only at His hour.

John 8:57

Opinions of Men

After the Jews and the crowd, some people of Jerusalem are a third group that speaks out about the Lord Jesus. They are the inhabitants of Jerusalem, while the Jews come from the immediate vicinity of Jerusalem and the crowd has come from all over Israel on the occasion of the Passover. The Jerusalem people are more familiar with Christ. They also know the murder plans of the Jewish leaders. Astonished, they wonder if it is not He Whom the rulers are trying to kill. But He speaks publicly, without anything done to Him. According to them, this could indicate that the leaders have recognized Him as the Christ after all. Could their superiors have changed their minds? That consideration brings them into doubt.

Their rulers are important to them, but they also have their own thoughts about the Lord Jesus. They know that He comes from Nazareth. They will also know from the Scriptures that the Christ would be born in Bethlehem according to the prophecy in Micah 5 (Micah 5:2). But it is unknown to them, when He would come and they believe that no one knows where He would come from once He came. It’s just reflections, without a real desire to know the truth about Christ.

The human side of Christ is obvious to them. They know that He comes from Nazareth. The Lord connects to that when He says that they know Him. But with respect to His Godhead they are completely blind. That is because they do not know Him Who sent Him. He did not come of His own initiative, but was sent by Him Who is true. That is why everything the Lord Jesus does and speaks is in truth and exposes all enmity and ignorance of all who hear and see Him.

The Lord says that He knows the Father as He knew Him from eternity. He went out from Him, which means that He was always with Him. Also the Father is active in the coming of the Son, for He has sent Him. The Son knows the Father because He is always with Him and He knows His will in His mission.

His words about His Father make them furious. They want to seize Him. Yet they do not. Only when His hour is come, will they be able to seize Him. Only then will the Father allow it, in view of the fulfillment of His plans. Nor can it be done other than only at His hour.

John 8:58

Opinions of Men

After the Jews and the crowd, some people of Jerusalem are a third group that speaks out about the Lord Jesus. They are the inhabitants of Jerusalem, while the Jews come from the immediate vicinity of Jerusalem and the crowd has come from all over Israel on the occasion of the Passover. The Jerusalem people are more familiar with Christ. They also know the murder plans of the Jewish leaders. Astonished, they wonder if it is not He Whom the rulers are trying to kill. But He speaks publicly, without anything done to Him. According to them, this could indicate that the leaders have recognized Him as the Christ after all. Could their superiors have changed their minds? That consideration brings them into doubt.

Their rulers are important to them, but they also have their own thoughts about the Lord Jesus. They know that He comes from Nazareth. They will also know from the Scriptures that the Christ would be born in Bethlehem according to the prophecy in Micah 5 (Micah 5:2). But it is unknown to them, when He would come and they believe that no one knows where He would come from once He came. It’s just reflections, without a real desire to know the truth about Christ.

The human side of Christ is obvious to them. They know that He comes from Nazareth. The Lord connects to that when He says that they know Him. But with respect to His Godhead they are completely blind. That is because they do not know Him Who sent Him. He did not come of His own initiative, but was sent by Him Who is true. That is why everything the Lord Jesus does and speaks is in truth and exposes all enmity and ignorance of all who hear and see Him.

The Lord says that He knows the Father as He knew Him from eternity. He went out from Him, which means that He was always with Him. Also the Father is active in the coming of the Son, for He has sent Him. The Son knows the Father because He is always with Him and He knows His will in His mission.

His words about His Father make them furious. They want to seize Him. Yet they do not. Only when His hour is come, will they be able to seize Him. Only then will the Father allow it, in view of the fulfillment of His plans. Nor can it be done other than only at His hour.

John 8:59

Where I Am, You Cannot Come

The words of the Lord impress many in the crowd. The things they have seen of Him and what they hear from Him now lead them to believe in Him. It is not a belief in Who He really is, but a belief based on reason. It does not come from a convinced conscience. The many in the crowd who believe only believe because of the signs He has done. They believe because of what they have seen. One can see this from their statements about Him, which show that they are weighing things up. They would not know what more signs the Christ, when He came, would do than this Jesus did. In their opinion, He is the best choice for the moment.

Although the crowd does not speak openly, the muttering of the crowd in favor of the Lord reaches the ears of the chief priests and Pharisees. They think it is time to intervene and seize Him. They send their servants to seize Him. The Lord Who knows this perfectly does not let Himself be influenced by their hostile action, but continues His teaching. As everywhere and ever in this Gospel, it is not His enemies who determine the course of events, it is He Himself Who does so.

He speaks calmly about the little time He will still be with them and that He will then go to the Father. He does not say a word about His rejection by them, although that too is true. He knows what people will do with Him, but He looks to His Father. All is in His hand. He will still be with them for a little time, for He will not yet establish the kingdom, but will be rejected.

When He has gone to the Father, unbelief will seek Him, but never find Him. What does the world know about heaven and the Father? He explicitly mentions that they cannot go there. He knows that they don’t even want that. There is nothing so terrible for a rebellious, hardened sinner than to come into the light, in the presence of God.

When the Lord says here, “where I am, you cannot come”, it is yet another powerful proof against the erroneous teaching of universal reconciliation. There is no way that unbelief can come where the Lord Jesus is. Nor does the Lord speak of ‘not coming where He is for a while’, as if that might happen later on. An unbeliever will never at any time in eternity come to where the Son is. In order to come to Him a new birth is necessary and that new birth can only be obtained by conversion during life on earth. Only on earth is it possible to receive forgiveness of sins and not later at any time in the realm of death (Matthew 9:6).

The Jews do not know how to deal with this word. He has spoken about the fact that He has come from God and that He is returning there. As always, unbelief does not look any further than the horizon. They can only deduce from His words that He will leave the land and go outside of Israel to the Jews in the dispersion. They cannot find the dispersed ones and so they believe He will become untraceable too. Their own suggestion does not satisfy them. They are left with the question what the meaning of His words is. The Lord does not elaborate further because they are not open to His teaching about the Father.