John 8:45

And because I tell you the truth, ye believe me not. AND (OR RATHER, 'BUT') BECAUSE I TELL YOU THE TRUTH, YE BELIEVE ME NOT - not although He told it them, but because He did so, and for the reason given in the former verse. Had. He been less true, they would have hailed Him the more readily....

45._But because I speak the truth. _He confirms the preceding statement; for, since they have no other reason for opposing, but because truth is hateful and intolerable to them, they show plainly that they are the children of Satan....

41-47 Satan prompts men to excesses by which they murder themselves and others, while what he puts into the mind tends to ruin men's souls. He is the great promoter of falsehood of every kind. He is a liar, all his temptations are carried on by his calling evil good, and good evil, and promising freedom in sin. He is the author of all lies; whom liars resemble and obey, with whom all liars shall have their portion for ever. The special lusts of the devil are spiritual wickedness, the lusts of the mind, and corrupt reasonings, pride and envy, wrath and malice, enmity to good, and enticing others to evil. By the truth, here understand the revealed will of God as to the salvation of men by Jesus Christ, the truth Christ was now preaching, and which the Jews opposed....

EXPOSITION Verses 7:53-8:11 (8) _The pericope adulterae. _(A)_ Excursus on the genuineness of _John 7:53-43__John 7:53-43. It is our duty to examine the various grounds on which this passage has been almost universally concluded to have formed no portion of the original Fourth Gospel; and then the internal grounds on which it has been rejected, and some of the speculations as to its origin and value. Doubts have beset the authenticity of the passage from the fourth and fifth centuries in the Eastern Church, both on external and internal grounds. The authority and practice of Augustine, Ambrose, and Jerome gave it a secure resting place till the criticism of Erasmus re-awakened doubt. Calvin expressed a more favourable opinion con

AND BECAUSE I TELL YOU THE TRUTH,.... And no lie, the whole truth of the Gospel, and particularly the truth of his divine sonship: YE BELIEVE ME NOT; to such an infatuation and judicial blindness were they give up, to disbelieve him, because he told the truth, and to believe a lie, that they might be damned; which showed them to be the children of the devil, and under his power and influence....

John 8:28. _Then said Jesus unto them;_ That is, to the Jews who were questioning and opposing him,- John 8:28. _When ye have lifted up the Son of man, then shall ye know that I am he, and that I do nothing of myself; but as my Father hath taught me, I speak these things._ Blessed be God, there were many, after the crucifixion of Christ, who did. believe in him! Yet, alas! in others, the blindness of heart continued, and they would not see the Messiah in him who was crucified. We, who believe in the uplifted Saviour, can see the Father in the Son; and to us, faith has become a most blessed thing; and we know that he does nothing of himself, and that, as the Father has taught him, so he speaks....

CHAPTER 8 _ 1. The Woman Taken in Adultery. (John 8:1 .)_ 2. The Light of the World. (John 8:12 .) 3. His Testimony Concerning Himself and the Father. (John 8:13 .) 4. His Solemn Declarations. (John 8:21 .) 5. Before Abraham Was, I Am. (John 8:48 .) The first verse belongs to the preceding chapter. The officers returned without Him, bearing their testimony that “never man spake like this man.” Nicodemus ventured his timid defense. Then every man went to his own house while the Lord went to the Mount of Olives. The story of the woman

CONTROVERSY WITH THE JEWS WHO BELIEVED. Many are convinced by this appeal. The following section summarises the teaching by which Jesus tried to bring the more favourably disposed of the Jewish party to a fuller faith. If they will make Christ's teaching a real part of their lives, they will gain the truth which sets men free. They take offence. If they have had to submit to foreign power, they have never been reduced to slavery. Sin is slavery, Jesus replies, and the slave has no secure place in the house as the son has. The author adds that true freedom is the gift of the Son. Jesus admits their physical descent from Abraham (John 8:37). But their conduct does not correspond to their parentage. They do not dissociate themselves from their party's policy of trying to get rid of one whose teaching is unacceptable. He follows His Father's example. Let them follow the example of theirs. Th...

BECAUSE. TELL YOU THE TRUTH, YE BELIEVE ME NOT. He has just declared that the devil is the father of liars and that they are his children; hence they would refuse to receive the truth. They had in them the spirit of their father which would lead them to reject the truth and to prefer falsehood. There are many such in the earth still, who fight against the truth and resort to every dishonest quibble in order to overthrow it. They do not love the truth and this has so warped their nature that they will believe. lie more readily than the truth....

WRETCHEDNESS AND PITY (John 7:53 ; John 8:1-11)...