Commentary on the Gospel of John

                                 Chapter Eight

                                                                                                                                              Verses 52-56

These unbelievers then revealed to Jesus that they did not believe in life after death at all. They became certain that Jesus must have a devil because He claimed that those who believe in Him would never die. They claimed that Abraham and all the prophets were dead, and therefore, they and all their powers were gone. They believed that Jesus must have a devil for Him to claim to be able to provide life after death or a means to keep a person from dying at all. Then, in effect, they demanded that Jesus tell them plainly whether He was God or a devil. They would have their charge against Jesus no matter which choice He made. As evil people so often do, they set a trap for good people in some controversy that they have with them, but they have already prepared a condemnation of them no matter what the good people choose to answer.

Jesus answered that if He honored Himself by bragging on Himself as any ordinary sinful person might do, then His words would mean nothing. Jesus plainly told them that they could see for themselves that His Father honored Him by the miracles and compassion that He demonstrated. They claimed to believe in God, but they could not see God in Him. As Jesus so often did, He deftly avoided the trap by putting the judgment of the controversy back onto His accusers.

Jesus preached to them that they really did not know God and that they were liars to say they did, Jesus proclaimed that He could not be a liar because, as they already knew, He kept God's Word perfectly, and He demonstrated the love and compassion of His Father in whom they actually did not believe. The conviction power of the Holy Spirit protected Jesus until the time came for Him to be arrested.

Jesus then proclaimed that Abraham was not dead but was still alive. Jesus told them that Abraham "rejoiced to see my day," by which He could only have meant that Abraham could see Him in that very moment. When Abraham was alive in the flesh, he could only see the day of Christ as being far away, and therefore, he could only have had a vague understanding of what it meant. Hebrews 11:13. Abraham could not have fully rejoiced about the day of Christ until he actually saw it. Jesus meant that Abraham was still alive, and he was watching Him from Paradise.