Commentary on the Gospel of John

                                  Chapter Eight

                                                                                                                                              Verses 30-33

By the way these Jews subsequently mocked Jesus and made false accusations against Him, they demonstrated that their faith was shallow and short-lived. In order to become saved by grace, one must commit one's entire life to the service of Christ. Jesus told them that they must commit their lives to faith in His Word in order to become His disciples. Jesus had preached about shallow faith before. Matthew 13:5-6; Matthew 13:20-21. False faith always proves to be ephemeral. It withers and dies.

When Jesus told these Jews that He always did His Father's Will, they evidently misunderstood what Jesus meant. They thought that God would send their Messiah to liberate them from the Romans. They had no concept that the Messiah could liberate them from sin and evil.

But the fact that a shallow faith can wither and die raises the question: Can a person who sincerely repents and commits their life to Christ ever lose their salvation by grace if they fall back into a life of sin? According to the Word of God, they cannot. God knows who sincerely repents and believes and who does not. God will forever save by His grace anyone who sincerely repents and believes even though He knows that in their future that person will fall back into sin. Jesus knew that Peter would deny Him. John 13:36-38. God saved Lot by His grace even though He knew that he would go to live in Sodom. II Peter 2:6-9. God never fails to keep His part of any covenant; that is, an agreement with any human, and He never reneges on any promise that He ever makes. Psalm 89:34; Romans 11:29. God knows exactly how to call every backslider saved by His grace to a renewed repentance and faith in Him. II Peter 2:9; I Thessalonians 3:13; Ephesians 5:25-27. Every living human that God saves by His grace, He saves for His own purposes which no one has a right to question. I Timothy 1:9. Jesus preached that the backslider will become choked and unfruitful by the sins of himself and the world, but he will not wither and die. Matthew 13:7; Matthew 13:22.

Jesus preached to these false believers that if they would ever commit their lives to faith in His Word, which is the Truth, then He would liberate them from slavery to sin and the Devil. But by their response to Jesus' gospel message, they demonstrated that they missed His spiritual message, and they still clung to the idea that Abraham had made them physically free even though at that time they were under bondage to the Romans.