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John 8: 20-59.
A | 20. No man laid hold on Him.
B | 21-24. | a | I AM from above.
b | Ye shall die in your sins.
C | 25, 26. CHRIST THE TRUTH.
c | I said (laleo).
d | From the beginning.
e | He that sent Me is true.
D | 26-28. | f | I speak (laleo).
g | Do nothing of Myself.
E | 28, 29. | h | I speak (laleo).
i | The Father with Me (meta).
F | 30-37. | j | He spake (laleo).
k | The truth shall make you free.
E | 38, 39. | h | I speak (laleo).
i | With my Father (para).
D | 40, 41. | f | I told (laleo).
g | Ye do the deeds of your Father.
C | 42-50. DEVIL THE LIAR.
c | He speaketh (laleo).
d | From the beginning.
e | He sent Me.
B | 51-58. |
b | Never see death.
a | Before Abraham was I AM.
A | 59. They took up stones to stone Him . . . . . He passed by.
It is impossible to survey the structure of this section without realizing that "truth" for
the believer can never be a philosophical abstraction. It is intensely real, and intimately
associated with the Person and work of the Son of God, even as the "lie" is closely linked
with the person and work of the Devil. Truth goes back to the "beginning" of things. It
involves the recognition of God as God, a truth which the lie, and all that pertains to it,
denies.
In the beginning Satan, at that time the Anointed Cherub, attempted to usurp the
throne of Deity. This constituted him a liar, and this character will again be manifested
when the son of perdition attempts the same blasphemous act. In II Thess. 2: "the love
of the truth" is placed in contrast with "the belief of the lie"; and in Rom. 1: the lie is
almost synonymous with idolatry:--
"They . . . . . changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into am image . . . . ."
(Rom. 1: 23).
"They changed the truth of God into a lie" (Rom. 1: 25).
Referring once more to the structure of John 8: 20-59, we observe that the passage
which contains the statement, "The truth shall make you free", occupies a position at the
centre of the section, so that it cannot be understood apart from the whole scope of the
context. It is impossible to be free, without the knowledge of the truth so vividly set forth
in this passage. Satan's bondage will never be relinquished while any error is entertained