week of 2-22-11 1st recorded HighQuest Bible study

The passage I read was John 8:21-33

You can find that passage here:

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John%208:21-32&version=NIV

My summary of the passage is this:

This is a seemingly straight forward passage where Jesus is speaking to some of His accusers (the Pharisees) about His identity. Though His identity was made plainly known for many, the Pharisees were continually blind to it, just as they were again in this passage. Jesus accused them of not knowing the Father and of not knowing Him and He told them that they could not come with Him where He was going. He wraps up this portion of scripture speaking to those Jews who had believed Him.

“If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

As I reflect:

So typical of those who pretend to follow God that they should display such obvious lack of sight when standing directly before Him. It was their hatred of the Son of God that would separate them from being able to follow where Jesus was going and yet even upon hearing that, they tried to twist Jesus’ words to make it seem as though He were speaking of committing suicide. There is little to no difference today in the many that are blinded by Satan as he spent a lifetime molding their beliefs that the Bible is a lie and that no man can be born twice, etc. People seem to rather accuse a follower and believer than to actually do the research themselves. There is an abundance of evidence proving truth in the Word of God, but for those who are hateful and prideful, it would require becoming humble to confess this truth and thus it’s far easier to simply think of oneself as more righteous than the next and comment hatefully upon their loving beliefs as ignorance. Faith is not ignorance. It is the belief that we (unlike the unbelievers in this passage) do not have to die in our sins because we have chosen to confess and accept the forgiveness of the One True God, who loved us so dearly that His Son poured out His blood in our place and took on the full weight of our punishment. The Pharisees didn’t believe this and thus they would end up dying in their sins. Jesus had told them time and again that He is the Son of God, but the Pharisees just couldn’t take that in, despite a lifetime of fulfilling prophecy about the Son of God coming and doing precisely what Jesus did.

Jesus then turns to the listening crowd, many of whom (having seen the truth in Jesus) now believed, and He told them “If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. Any you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” This is a founding truth of our discipleship after Jesus. For if we are to call ourselves Christians, or Jesus followers, or the like, then we must abide in the Word. We must daily read and apply the written word to our lives and be doers of the word as well as daily abide in Jesus (the Word made flesh) and live through Him as He lives through us. This is a very close relationship. It’s not fake holiness like the Pharisees. When we abide in Him and Him in us we are then able to live in truth and be truly free from the confines of a sinful life.

My response to the Lord:

Lord, I thank you for saving me. I am thankful that you chose not to harden my heart but to soften it to your Gospel truth that I might come to receive life abundant and eternal life with Christ Jesus. I have been made glad by You. You removed the veil from mine eyes and allowed me to see with faith in a way that the world is so blinded from. With You, my life has been made new. The old has gone and the new has come and I owe every breath to you Lord. I thank you Jesus.