To Believe in Jesus – Part 88
ཡོ་ཧ་ནན། 8:25-30
25མི་དེ་རྣམས་ན༌རེ། ཁྱོད་རང་སུ་ཡིན་ནམ་ཞེས་དྲིས། དེ་ནས་སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུས་འདི་སྐད༌དུ། བདག་ནི་ཐོག་མ་ཉིད་ནས་ཁྱོད་རྣམས་ལ་སྨྲས་པ་དེ་ཉིད་ཡིན་ནོ།། 26བདག་གིས་ཁྱོད་ཅག་ལ་ཉེས་སྐྱོན་བརྗོད་པ་དང་བདེན་རྫུན་གྱི་ཤན་འབྱེད་པའི་དོན་མང་པོ་ཡོད༌ནའང༌། ང་རང་མངགས་མཁན་དེ་ནི་བདེན་པ་ཡིན༌པས། ངས་ཁོང་གི་དྲུང་ནས་གང་ཞིག་ཐོས་པ་དེ་ཁོ་ན་འཇིག་རྟེན་གྱི་མི་རྣམས་ལ་སྨྲ་བ་ཡིན་ཞེས་གསུངས་སོ།། 27དེ་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུས་རང་གི་ཡབ་བསྟན་པ་མ་རྟོགས༌པས། 28ཡང་སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུས་འདི་སྐད༌དུ། ཁྱོད་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་མིའི་བུ་གྱེན་དུ་བསྒྲེངས༌པའི་དུས་སུ། ང་རང་ནི་གཏན་དུ་གནས་པ་དེ་ཉིད་ཡིན་པ་རྟོགས་ངེས་པ༌དང༌། ངས་རང་ཉིད་ལ་བརྟེན་ནས་དོན་ཅི་ཡང་མི་བྱེད༌པར། ཡབ་ཀྱིས་བསླབས་པ་བཞིན་དུ་དེ་ལྟར་སྨྲས་པའང་ཁྱོད་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་ཤེས་པར་འགྱུར་རོ།། 29ང་རང་མངགས་མཁན་ནི་བདག་དང་ལྷན་དུ་བཞུགས༌ཏེ། ངས་དུས་རྟག་ཏུ་ཁོང་ཉིད་ཐུགས་དགྱེས་པའི་ལས་ཁོ་ན་བྱེད་པས་ཁོང་ཉིད་ང་རང་དང་ཁ་མི་འབྲལ་ཞེས་གསུངས་སོ།། 30སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུས་དེ་ལྟར་གསུང་བའི་དུས་སུ་མི་མང་པོ་ཁོང་ལ་དད་པར་གྱུར༌ཏོ།།
John 8:25-30
25 So they said to him, “Who are you?” Jesus said to them, “Just what I have been telling you from the beginning. 26 I have much to say about you and much to judge, but he who sent me is true, and I declare to the world what I have heard from him.” 27 They did not understand that he had been speaking to them about the Father. 28 So Jesus said to them, “When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am he, and that I do nothing on my own authority, but speak just as the Father taught me. 29 And he who sent me is with me. He has not left me alone, for I always do the things that are pleasing to him.” 30 As he was saying these things, many believed in him.
Continuing from previous post where Jesus speaks of separation and division, and those who do not receive Him and do not accept His teachings were warned they will die in their sin!
What Jesus said in John 8 is very serious especially for these Jews who had learned through God’s law about sin and judgement, and God’s provision for atonement and redemption.
So the Jews who heard Jesus demanded to know “who are you?” What Jesus said would have been a very difficult message for them.
How Jesus answered them at this point is very interesting –
28ཡང་སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུས་འདི་སྐད༌དུ། ཁྱོད་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་མིའི་བུ་གྱེན་དུ་བསྒྲེངས༌པའི་དུས་སུ། ང་རང་ནི་གཏན་དུ་གནས་པ་དེ་ཉིད་ཡིན་པ་རྟོགས་ངེས་པ༌དང༌། ངས་རང་ཉིད་ལ་བརྟེན་ནས་དོན་ཅི་ཡང་མི་བྱེད༌པར། ཡབ་ཀྱིས་བསླབས་པ་བཞིན་དུ་དེ་ལྟར་སྨྲས་པའང་ཁྱོད་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་ཤེས་པར་འགྱུར་རོ།།
28 So Jesus said to them, “When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am he, and that I do nothing on my own authority, but speak just as the Father taught me.
We must bear in mind at this point Jesus was speaking of future event for the Jews who were listening to Him.
Today we are looking back in history, we know Jesus’ death and resurrection is past event, and we know from other scripture references that what Jesus said here in John 8 deals with
- His death on the cross
- His resurrection
- His blood for atonement
- His redemption for Man from sin and death
- His ascension after resurrection
- His authority to judge sin and to provide redemption
Let’s look at a passage in Hebrews that can help us understand what Jesus said in John 8.
The Book of Hebrews was written most likely for second generation believers after the Apostles and they would have had better understanding of the atonement sacrifice of Christ.
The Apostles who witnessed the resurrected Christ and seen the ascension of Christ would know and understand how this Messiah chosen of God made perfect atonement for sin and to redeem those who trust and obey Him to full restoration of peace with God, and they would had passed on what they learn to the believers from one generation to the next till Christ return again.
ཨིབ་རི་པ། 9:11-14
11འོན་ཀྱང་། ད་ལྟ་སྐྱབས་མགོན་མཱ་ཤི་ཀ་ནི་ཕེབས་ཟིན་པ༌དང༌། ཁོང་ནི་བྱུང་ཟིན་པའི་དོན་བཟང་པོ་དག་གི་མཆོད་དཔོན་ཆེན་པོར་མཛད་ཅིང༌། མིའི་ལག་པས་མ་བཟོས་ཤིང་འཇིག་རྟེན་འདི་ལའང་མི་གཏོགས་པར། སྔར་གྱི་གུར་མཆོག་ལས་ཀྱང་ཆེ་ཞིང་ཕུན་སུམ་ཚོགས་པའི་གུར་མཆོག་བརྒྱུད་ནས་ཕེབས་པར་མ་ཟད། 12ར་མ་དང་བ་ཕྲུག་དག་གི་ཁྲག་ལ་མི་བརྟེན་པར། རང་ཉིད་ཀྱི་སྐུ་ཁྲག་ལ་བརྟེན་ནས་ཐེངས་གཅིག་ཁོ་ནར་གནས་དམ་མཆོག་ནང་དུ་ཕེབས་ཏེ། མཐའ་མེད་པའི་ཐར་པའི་དོན་དེ་འགྲུབ་པར་མཛད་དོ།། 13གལ་ཏེ། ར་མ་དང་གླང་ཐུག་གི་ཁྲག་དང་། བ་གཞོན་གྱི་ཐལ་བ་དེ་མི་གཙང་བའི་མི་ཡི་ལུས་སྟེང་ལ་གཏོར་བས། ལུས་པོ་གཙང་མར་འགྱུར་བའི་ཆེད་དུ་མི་དེ་དམ་པར་བྱ་ནུས༌ན། 14སྐྱབས་མགོན་མཱ་ཤི་ཀའི་སྐུ་ཁྲག་ནི་ལྟ་ཅི་སྨོས། ཁོང་གིས་མཐའ་མེད་པའི་ཐུགས་ཉིད་ལ་བརྟེན་ནས། རང་ཉིད་ཉེས་སྐྱོན་ཅི་ཡང་མི་མངའ་བར་དཀོན་མཆོག་ལ་ཕུལ༌བས། ཁོང་གི་སྐུ་ཁྲག་གིས་དེ་བས་ཀྱང་ཁྱོད་རྣམས་ཀྱི་བསམ་པ་ནི་དག་པར་མཛད༌ཅིང༌། འཆི་ལམ་དུ་འཇུག་པའི་སྤྱོད་པ་བསལ༌ཏེ། ཁྱོད་ཅག་གིས་གཏན་དུ་གསོན་པོར་བཞུགས་པའི་དཀོན་མཆོག་ལ་ཞབས་ཕྱི་སྒྲུབ་པར་མཛད༌པ་མ་ཡིན་ནམ།
Hebrews 9:11-14
11 But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation) 12 he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption. 13 For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer, sanctify for the purification of the flesh, 14 how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God.
Hebrews 9 speaks of the complete redemption work of the Messiah chosen of God. And the contexts of Hebrews 9 identify Jesus Christ doing a particular duty of a High Priest that would only be done on Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement).
Back to John 8, the background situation was still during the Feast of Booths (Feast of Tabernacles) which was right after Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement). So the Jews in Jerusalem who heard Jesus speaks would be familiar with atonement from sin and restoration to peace with God. However what would be difficult for them to accept was
A) What does Jesus have to do with atonement for sin?
B) What does Jesus have to do with restoration and peace with God?
During the time of Jesus the Sadducees were in charge of the Temple service and they for sure did not give any approval for Jesus to conduct any service in the Temple. Although Jesus did teach and preach within Temple compound and the Sadducees were not happy about it.
I think the predicament these group of Jews had with Jesus was His declaration about receiving authority from the Father to judge.
Question – What kind of authority and what type of judgement?
Judgement about sin, conditions for redemption, and provision for atonement approved by God.
Our faith in Christ is about our redemption from sin and death and the future hope of eternal life.
Back to the situation in John 8, even for those who believed Jesus is the Messiah they had been waiting for, and those who had been brought up through the Temple service, what they had been taught about sin and redemption would had been influenced by their religious establishments especially the Pharisees and Sadducees.
The context of Hebrews, post-resurrection of Christ and post-ascension of Christ, explained the limitations of the earthly Temple service.
Jesus made perfect that which was lacking with regards to our redemption and restoration to God with reference to what was happening within the Temple in Jerusalem during His time.
We must remember an important historical fact – the Ark of the Covenant was missing since the days of Jeremiah when Jerusalem was conquered by Babylon! And in few of my previous post I pointed out how the religious establishments were running some sort of religious scam in Jerusalem! Means to say, Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement) which the Sadducees were conducting were meaningless and not complete because the Ark of the Covenant was not there! And were they misleading the Jews by claiming otherwise or adulterated the teachings and instructions of God to deceive the people into believing their redemption is secure while it is not?
The author of the Gospel of John noted, in the midst of all these confrontations Jesus had with religious establishments and oppositions, many actually believed in what Jesus said-
30སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུས་དེ་ལྟར་གསུང་བའི་དུས་སུ་མི་མང་པོ་ཁོང་ལ་དད་པར་གྱུར༌ཏོ།།
30 As he was saying these things, many believed in him.
To be continue …
David Z
The Life of Yeshu 