John 8:38

John 8:38. I speak the things which I have seen with the Father: do ye also therefore the things which ye heard from the Father. One last exhortation Jesus will offer before entirely giving up these ‘Jews who had believed Him.' His word had entered their heart but had made no way: let them give it free course now. He, the Son, who alone can give them freedom and sonship by the truth revealed in His word (John 8:32; John 8:36), has in that word spoken to them the things which He saw with the Father (another mode of expressing the same truth as is declared in chap. John 3:13). With design He says ‘ the Father,' not ‘ my Father;' for the word has been spoken to them in order that God who is His Father may become their Father, in other words, that the Son may give them sonship. For this very purpose the Father sent Him to declare the word: this He has done, so that what they had heard from Jesus they had heard from the Father. Let them do that which they have heard and the blessing of sonship shall be theirs. (It is interesting to compare the ‘knowing' which gives freedom (John 8:32) with this command to ‘do' what they had heard. In effect the same result is promised, so that the knowledge spoken of must be such as involves doing, no barren knowledge, but one that grasps and moulds the life.) But we must not overlook the ‘therefore which binds together the two parts of the verse. In the execution of the design of God, to make men His sons and thus become sons of ‘the Father,' two things are necessary: the Son (the ‘Word') declares the truth of God; men receive the word of the Son, know it with that knowledge which implies both faith and action and become the sons of God. The Son has been faithful to His mission, this the first clause declares: let them therefore be faithful to their part, and the blessing will be theirs. The more common view of this verse assumes that in the second clause Jesus speaks of another father. This is very unlikely, as the pronoun your is not inserted until a later verse (John 8:41). There are also two other reasons for preferring the interpretation given above: (1) It is hard to believe that Jesus, so tender in His dealing with even the germs of true faith, has already passed into His severest condemnation of ‘the Jews who had believed Him.' No word has been spoken by them since that recorded in John 8:33, and it had shown blindness and self-deception, but not hopeless antagonism. True, He sees that in their hearts they are relapsing into their former state; but may we not well believe that He will make one other effort to instruct and save? (2) As we have already seen (John 8:27), in our Lord's words ‘ the Father' is a Name used with great significance and fulness of meaning, especially in this chapter. This is duly recognised in the explanation we are now seeking to defend, and in that alone. It is remarkable that in this verse Jesus describes Himself as speaking what He has seen with the Father, while He exhorts them to do what they have heard from the Father. But the words are deliberately chosen, and they confirm the interpretation now given. As the Eternal Son, Jesus alone could have the first words spoken of Him. The second appropriately describe the state of those who had not ‘seen,' who had only ‘heard.' The difference, in short, flows from that difference between the Son and all other sons which abides even in the midst of similarity of position: the One has an eternal, the others have only a derived, Sonship.