 |  |
What a wealth of purpose is hidden behind "My time is not yet come". Instructed by
His Father, the Son's life was made up of fulfilling prophecy. The prophetic Word of
God is the vindication before heaven and earth in the future that all things were and are
controlled by Him and that they are inexorably working to the final fulfillment of His
plans. This fulfillment will be made despite the deadly opposition of Satan throughout
the ages which seeks to sabotage this glorious work of restoration.
Our Lord has to ensure that as the "Lamb of God" He should eat the Passover with His
disciples, and on the same day (the Jewish day, 6a.m. to 6p.m.), the exact day be offered
up as the Passover Lamb, and by His death preserve the life of the household of God.
This well attested fact of history, should in the eyes of the world, demonstrate the truth
and accuracy of the O.T. record from the Passover Lamb of the exodus through the
Temple ritual to successive pronouncements of God's prophets.
No.8.
Chapter 8:
pp. 55 - 59
This chapter (8:) is one of confrontation between our Lord and the leaders, the
scribes and Pharisees. We saw them in the last chapter desperate to stop the teaching of
Christ. With what anticipatory excitement they must have forced on our Lord the issue of
judgment on a woman taken in the very act of adultery (see Lev. 20: 10 for the penalty
of death). Which ever way Christ judged they felt that it would either show His violation
of the Law or bring alienation from the common people. They had nationally been
constantly guilty of spiritual adultery going after other gods when Jehovah looked upon
Himself as their husband. It is ironic that physical adultery featured in their test. Our
Lord's reply that the one without sin was to cast the first stone, left them defeated. What
gracious words He addressed to this poor woman:
"Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more" (8: 11).
Throughout the following verses our Lord in patient love seeks to show His violent
opponents that Satan unknown to them was their driving force, using them for his own
schemes to sabotage the plans of God. How can some today deny the existence of Satan,
saying that it is only the contrariness of man's heart that is wrong and that Satan is a
figure of sin generally and not a person. Consider:
"Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a
murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him.
When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it"
(8: 44).
In saying this our Lord may well have had in mind the first recorded lie: "Ye shall not
surely die" (Gen. 3: 4) and the action of Cain who could have been the progeny of Satan