It is one thing to establish that a person must be in the family of God in The Gospel of John order to be a Christian, to be fully at peace with God both now and forever. Faith, Family, and Forgiveness Properly understood, it John 8:30–47 should give a person pause and make him How can I ______the family of God? The Jews of Jesus’ day lived on hope. For five hundred years they had wonder . . . been exiled, not in the sense of living outside of their geographical homeland, but as slaves inside their own land. One by one the Babylonians, Persians, Greeks, and Syrians took their turns at burdening those living in Israel with 1. taxes and lifestyle changes which consistently conflicted with their desire to live under Torah. And when the latest ruler, Rome, had come to Judea in 63 B.C., any light at the end of this dark tunnel flickered out for good. There was no sign Jesus presented the bread and cup of his final Passover to men who understood the meaning of this yearly celebration: God had allowed his family to be protected from his that Rome—especially with its puppet kings like Herod Antipas who ruled in own wrath by means of blood on the doorpost which would act as a sign to the Jesus’ home area of Galilee—would give in to Jewish pleas for mercy. The sight destroying angel that inside this home lived a family of Abraham (Exodus 12). This of crosses lining village roads served as a warning to everyone that the Caesar family was to be saved, redeemed from slavery, and set free from the sin of pagan would not look away when even a hint of rebellion filled the air. idolatry. And now Jesus said he would do it again—no, would do it once and for all— But rebellion is exactly what a Messiah does, thought the average Jew. He for those who believed in him. instigates disorder against the current political power, just like in the days of As the disciples laid around the table this night, receiving from Jesus the bread and Gideon or Samson, and leads the nation into military victory. Resistance of this cup, the lone question to be asked was “Am I a follower of Jesus now, as my forefathers sort was what Jewish religion was all about, as Jews had never tried to slip a were expected to be followers of the God of Israel on the night of the first Passover?” razor blade in between thoughts of God and politics. When messiah came, Israel Blood would save God’s family, but not before (or in spite of) the faithfulness of God’s would have true freedom and be forgiven of its past offenses toward God. people to obey him. It was a picture to be appreciated forward into Israel’s history. This is behind Jesus’ statement in today’s text that Israel was not “free” (8:32). He knew he would be misunderstood when he said this. While Jesus was referring to the freedom he gave an adulteress (“go from now no 2. longer to sin,” 8:11), most would have thought he was talking of freedom from Roman rule. Some Jews knew their history well enough to argue a more The good news that Jesus brought to our world included the reminder that no one theological point, however: their current state of exile under Roman rule was needs to stay in the family of Satan. Many people in the Old Testament realized that trumped by God’s choice of their father Abraham (Genesis 12:1-3). They were God’s love included the Gentile, which is why the early messages of the prophets were promised blessing, in the ultimate sense, by God simply because of divine will. for the foreigner as much as for the Jew (“But I tell you truly, many widows were in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, Whatever current pains they felt were temporary until messiah came to rule. and there was a great famine throughout all the land; but to none of them was Elijah sent Didn’t Jesus understand this is what it meant to be a Jew? Who did he think he except to Zarephath, in the region of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow. And many was? lepers were in Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet, and none of them was cleansed except Naaman the Syrian” Luke 4:25–27). Receive Jesus, follow Jesus as Messiah, follow Jesus as Son of God, follow Jesus as King of Israel, believe in Jesus, do the 3. truth, drink the water Jesus offers, honor Jesus, hear Jesus’ words, believe in the one We need to simply let the story of John 8 find its conclusion: who sent Jesus, come to Jesus, seek honor from Jesus, believe what Moses wrote, see Jesus, hear and learn from the Father, eat Jesus’ flesh, drink Jesus’ blood, abide in Jesus, desire to do God’s will Jesus said, “I do not seek my own glory; there is one who seeks and judges. Most assuredly, I say to you, if anyone ______he shall never see death.” John 8:50-51

It is clear from John 8 that being in the family of God—having God as 3. one’s father, as opposed to Satan—is not only important, but vital. Without such a relationship, condemnation is certain. It is only through becoming Jesus has often been heard in John to speak of two and only two choices when it included as one of God’s true descendants that salvation is possible. Jesus comes to eternal life. “He who believes in [Jesus] is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only was being unique or begotten Son of God” (John 3:18). What is important to understand in the language of difficult in this claim, of Jesus is the audience he is addressing throughout his ministry. Most people believed course, but was simply Why is being “ ______” that, as Jews, they were safe in the family of God simply due to their genetic stating fact. Let’s ask so important to God? relationship (no matter how distant) to Abraham. They honestly felt like family, why this may be the largely due their observances of Jewish culture over the years and miles. But we are not talking how we feel when speaking of belonging to a family. case. Who belongs to the “other family” in the Bible? Jesus said it plainly enough in John 8:44: “You belong to your father, the Devil.” Satan’s family has a long heritage, beginning with Cain (Genesis 4) and extending through such people as Ishmael 1. (Romans 9:6-8; Galatians 4:24) and Esau (Malachi 1:2-3; Romans 9:10-13), in the end including even such wicked people as Balaam and Korah (Jude 11). Satan’s It is amazing, upon reflection, how much we think, behave, and react according to family, in its most basic definition, includes all those who do not follow Jesus Christ. our family origins. Blood is thicker than water in the sense that your first impulse is always to do what Mom or Dad did, and even interpret your world in light of how they thought. It is not accidental, in other words, that God would see to it that you are not a 4. completely independent thinker and doer. This is not how he made you, and you are to learn from this how important family is, and all that goes into it. This is why God can It is fitting that God would use the symbol of a family when trying to explain how use the picture of a family for the story of salvation. we relate to him and him to us. The parable of the prodigal son, for example, is meant Is this fair? you may ask. Consider the alternative: God sets you out into the world to draw on the heartstrings precisely because we know how a father and son can with no predispositions, no deeply ingrained habits, no controls on your inhibitions, relate to each other far beyond the issue of past offenses. God does not want us, the fears, or impulses. You are a completely free and independent soul. Is this a necessarily Christian, to think of our situation in terms of a judge and defendant or debtor and better way to run the world? Certainly not. It is in the wisdom of God that you function creditor (Hebrews 12:7-11: “Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, according to family, obeying voices you may never know you hear (cp. John 10:26-27). but painful; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness [dikaios, covenant faithfulness] to those who have been trained by it”). We are righteous-ed, or justified, through the workings of family-to-family relationship. God 2. has never intended for us to think of it in any other terms.

It is not difficult to read the Bible, but it is difficult to read the Bible while keeping the larger picture in mind. This is due to the length of the biblical story, the movement 5. of its characters over place and time, and even the changing of book titles and chapter divisions. Our English Old Testament, unlike the Jewish Bible, is arranged according to Job said it as well as anyone: “How can a man be righteous [tsedeq, proper] topic and literary genre, not chronology. So when we move from Job to the Psalms, for before God?” (Job 9:2). Paul pulled on the thread of family to come to a fitting and example, we are tempted to completely miss the point that we have moved from the exciting conclusion: “Abraham did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief, oldest and rawest book in the Bible to one of the latest and theologically finely-tuned but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God, and being fully convinced that portions of Scripture. But what happened in the meantime? The story of family will be what God had promised God was also able to perform. And therefore ‘it was your only hope of understanding why the Psalms sound the way they do, and why David accounted to him for righteousness’ [Genesis 15:6]. Now it was not written for his would connect such a scene as the Red Sea and Moses’ Law to the person of Abraham sake alone that it was imputed to him, but also for us. [Righteousness, covenant faith- (“For God remembered his holy promise, and Abraham his servant. He brought out his fulness] shall be imputed to us who believe in him who raised up Jesus our Lord from people [from Egypt] with joy, his chosen ones with gladness” Psalm 105:42–43). the dead, who was delivered up because of our offenses, and was raised for our covenant faithfulness. Therefore, having been righteous-ed by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 4:20–5:1). To join the family of God is to bring along with it, due to the faithfulness of the God who started his family, all the privileges that identify with that family. This includes forgiveness of all sin, redemption from bondage, payment of your sin debt, atonement from all impurity, protection from ultimate harm, and inheritance of the riches of Jesus himself. “Because you are sons . . . you cry out, ‘Abba, Father!’ You Exodus 5:1: “Let my people go” Zechariah 8:8: “They shall be my people” are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.”