Daily Thought

It cannot be denied that the Lord Jesus made the most astounding claims. In this section of John’s Gospel it all comes to a grand climax when the incensed Jewish crowd pick up stones to stone Him, v. 59. What caused their anger? Just consider some of the clear self-disclosures Christ made in the face of this hostile gathering. He was eternal in His being, v. 35, He was the Giver of true freedom, v. 36, He was able to read his enemies’ murderous thoughts, v. 37, He was indisputably sinless, v. 46, and those who kept His words would be placed beyond the domain of death, v. 51. This last brought things to a head: ‘Now we know that thou hast a devil. Abraham is dead, and the prophets; and thou sayest, If a man keep my saying, he shall never taste of death. Art thou greater than our father Abraham, which is dead? and the prophets are dead: whom makest thou thyself?’ vv. 52, 53.

And that’s the key question, ‘Whom makest thou thyself?’ The charge would shortly be levelled against Him that ‘Thou, being a man, makest thyself God’, 10. 33. But of course this was the exact reverse of the truth. Rather, He, being the eternal God, graciously condescended to take upon Himself sinless manhood without in any sense compromising His deity, for ‘the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us,(and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father)’, 1. 14.

While false cults desperately try to minimize His claims to absolute deity the Lord Jesus made every effort to maximize them, identifying Himself as Israel’s great I AM, 8. 58. The crowd had no doubt about His meaning, nor did He correct them. Nevertheless they missed the point about His relationship to Abraham. When the Lord said, ‘Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day’, they responded, ‘Thou art not yet fifty years old, and hast thou seen Abraham?’, 8. 56, 57. But it was not that He had seen Abraham; rather, Abraham had seen Him. As J. G. BELLETT beautifully puts it, ‘He was making Himself the great Object from the beginning, the One who had been filling the thoughts, engaging the hopes, and answering the needs of all the elect of God in all ages’. How good to know Him!