John 8: 21-3- Believing By Faith

Read John 8: 21-30- 

Jesus was obviously very different from anyone the people had heard teach and His message was slow to penetrate their world of understanding.  One could imagine the people were actually in a 2000-year-old mindset going back to the time of Moses.  They were still living directly from those scriptures and had established an entire nation of people on Moses’ writings.  Now they are slapped in the face by someone who says they are God’s Son.  How would we respond today? 

I would guess most would dismiss His claims and others would think Jesus to be totally crazy, worth of institutionalization.  The people could not understand how one person could claim to be the light of life.  Jesus did give them a rather large hint of how they would know exactly who He was in verse 28, “So Jesus said, ‘When you have lifted up the Son of Man on the cross, then you will understand that I Am He.’”  

I think it interesting that in verse 30 it is recorded, “Then many who heard Him say these things believed in Him.”  One of the things I wish we could see in the scriptures is how Jesus delivered His message.  The tone of His voice, the emphasis He placed on certain words or sentences.  I would have to assume the authority He spoke with was undeniable since it said in verse 30 that many believed in Him.  This required a lot of faith on the part of those listening.  It requires faith on our part to believe also. We need to work at listening to God no different from the people who were listening to Jesus so many years ago

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