To Believe in Jesus – Part 85

 

ཡོ་ཧ་ནན། 8:13-16

13ཕ་རུ་ཤི་པ་རྣམས་ན༌རེ། ཁྱོད་ཀྱིས་རང་ཉིད་ལ་བདེན་དཔང་བྱེད་པ་ཡིན་པས་ཁྱོད་ཀྱི་བདེན་དཔང་དེ་བདེན་པ་མིན་ཞེས་སྨྲས་པ༌ལ། 14སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུས་འདི་སྐད༌དུ། བདག་གིས་རང་ཉིད་ལ་བདེན་དཔང་བྱས་ནའང་བདག་གི་བདེན་དཔང་ནི་བདེན་པ་ཡིན༌ཏེ། ངས་ང་རང་གང་ནས་ཡོང་བ་དང་གང་དུ་འགྲོ་བའང་ཤེས༌ཤིང༌། ཁྱོད་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་ང་རང་གང་ནས་ཡོང་བ་དང་གང་དུ་འགྲོ་བའང་མི་ཤེས་པའི་ཕྱིར༌རོ།། 15ཡང་ཁྱོད་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་མིའི་ལུགས་སྲོལ་ལྟར་ཁ་ཚོན་གཅོད་ཅིང་ངས་མི་སུ་ལའང་ཁ་ཚོན་མི་གཅོད་དོ།། 16འོན༌ཀྱང༌། ངས་ཁ་ཚོན་གཅོད་པའི་དབང་དུ་བཏང་ནའང་དེ་ནི་བདེན་པ་ཡིན༌ཏེ། ངས་རང་ཉིད་གཅིག་པུར་བརྟེན་ནས་ཁ་ཚོན་བཅད་པ་མ་ཡིན༌པར། ང་རང་མངགས་མཁན་ཡབ་དང་ངེད་གཉིས་ཀྱིས་ལྷན་དུ་ཁ་ཚོན་གཅོད་པའི་ཕྱིར༌རོ།།

John 8:13-16

13 So the Pharisees said to him, “You are bearing witness about yourself; your testimony is not true.” 14 Jesus answered, “Even if I do bear witness about myself, my testimony is true, for I know where I came from and where I am going, but you do not know where I come from or where I am going. 15 You judge according to the flesh; I judge no one. 16 Yet even if I do judge, my judgment is true, for it is not I alone who judge, but I and the Father who sent me.

 

Continuing from previous post, how Jesus responded to the Pharisees’ accusation.

I pointed out the Pharisees were trying to discredit Jesus based on their doctrines, how they interpreted scripture, while more and more of their own Jews living in Jerusalem were beginning to be convinced this Jesus is the Messiah they had been waiting for.

The Pharisees was one of the prominent religious establishments in Jerusalem at that time that oppose Jesus and John the Baptist.

If we read through all the four gospel records without understanding the historical and cultural background of that time we would be very confused about these kinds of arguments and confrontations between Jesus and the Pharisees.

The gospels were first written for those who had knowledge of what was already happening in Jerusalem during the time of John the Baptist and Jesus and the main purpose is to identify the real Messiah chosen of God.

Back to John 8, Jesus’ response highlighted few important points the Pharisees disagree with Him either due to ignorance or blinded by their own doctrines or simply to reinforce their position of authority in Jerusalem.

 

1. Jesus’ relationship with the Father

14སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུས་འདི་སྐད༌དུ། བདག་གིས་རང་ཉིད་ལ་བདེན་དཔང་བྱས་ནའང་བདག་གི་བདེན་དཔང་ནི་བདེན་པ་ཡིན༌ཏེ། ངས་ང་རང་གང་ནས་ཡོང་བ་དང་གང་དུ་འགྲོ་བའང་ཤེས༌ཤིང༌། ཁྱོད་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་ང་རང་གང་ནས་ཡོང་བ་དང་གང་དུ་འགྲོ་བའང་མི་ཤེས་པའི་ཕྱིར༌རོ།།

14 Jesus answered, “Even if I do bear witness about myself, my testimony is true, for I know where I came from and where I am going, but you do not know where I come from or where I am going.

What Jesus said here we need to cross reference with what is written by the same author in John 16

 

ཡོ་ཧ་ནན། 16:28 – ང་རང་ཡབ་ཀྱི་དྲུང་ནས་བྱུང་སྟེ་འཇིག་རྟེན་དུ་ཡོང་བ༌དང༌། ཡང་འཇིག་རྟེན་དང་ཁ་བྲལ་ནས་ཡབ་ཀྱི་དྲུང་དུ་འགྲོ་བ་ཡིན་ཞེས་གསུངས་སོ།།

John 16:28 – I came from the Father and have come into the world, and now I am leaving the world and going to the Father.”

 

John 16 recorded what Jesus disclosed to His inner circle of disciples who had been through those few years of pubic ministry together and had first hand encounters with all those confrontations with the Pharisees, Sadducees, and the Sanhedrin about Jesus’ identity and ministry.

This relationship between Jesus and the Father in heaven is repeatedly mentioned.

Although the Jewish’s faith of their times had assumed relating to God as the Father in heaven, but this relationship between Jesus and the Father is unique and reserved.

This relationship with the Father Jesus speaks of in John 16 refers to His appointment as the Messiah chosen of God and it clearly demonstrated His approval by the Father in heaven.

 

How important is this relationship between Jesus and the Father for us Gentiles?

 

It speaks of His position as the Messiah not only for the Jews but also for Gentiles, for all Mankind.

It speaks of His position and authority to provide redemption and salvation for Man created in the image of God and our hope of eternal life.

 

2. Judgement not based on man-made doctrine

15ཡང་ཁྱོད་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་མིའི་ལུགས་སྲོལ་ལྟར་ཁ་ཚོན་གཅོད་ཅིང་ངས་མི་སུ་ལའང་ཁ་ཚོན་མི་གཅོད་དོ།།

15 You judge according to the flesh; I judge no one.

 

I believe the kind of judgement Jesus addressed here goes beyond criminal and civil law codes of any known national constitutions.

Here Jesus speaks of something in contrast to the religious narratives of the Pharisees.

I believe the kind of judgement Jesus speaks of here is something of eternal value.

I believe it is the kind of judgement that determines God’s grant of grace, mercy, and eternal life for Man, especially for those who would choose to believe and accept Jesus as the Messiah chosen of God and to learn of His teachings.

What we know about sin, judgement, and salvation, based on God’s teachings, moral standard, requirement for obedience, and how we needed the Christ for our redemption.

 

3. Judgement based on God’s teaching

16འོན༌ཀྱང༌། ངས་ཁ་ཚོན་གཅོད་པའི་དབང་དུ་བཏང་ནའང་དེ་ནི་བདེན་པ་ཡིན༌ཏེ། ངས་རང་ཉིད་གཅིག་པུར་བརྟེན་ནས་ཁ་ཚོན་བཅད་པ་མ་ཡིན༌པར། ང་རང་མངགས་མཁན་ཡབ་དང་ངེད་གཉིས་ཀྱིས་ལྷན་དུ་ཁ་ཚོན་གཅོད་པའི་ཕྱིར༌རོ།།

16 Yet even if I do judge, my judgment is true, for it is not I alone who judge, but I and the Father who sent me.

 

What Jesus said here is another reminder, emphasis, and reinstatement of His rightful position as judge to eternal life as appointed by the Father in heaven.

Judgment based on God teachings show us the true path to redemption and eternal life and therefore we believe and accept that Jesus is the way and truth to eternal life!

 

To be continue …

David Z