To Believe in Jesus – Part 92
ཡོ་ཧ་ནན། 8:45-47
45འོན་ཀྱང་བདག་གིས་ཁྱོད་ཅག་ལ་བདེན་པ་སྨྲས་པའི་རྐྱེན་གྱིས་ཁྱོད་རྣམས་བདག་ལ་ཡིད་མི་ཆེས། 46ཡང་ཁྱོད་རྣམས་ལས་སུ་ཞིག་གིས་བདག་ལ་སྡིག་པ་ཡོད་ཅེས་བདེན་དཔང་བྱེད་ནུས༌སམ། བདག་གིས་ཁྱོད་རྣམས་ལ་བདེན་པ་སྨྲས༌ནའང༌། ཁྱོད་ཅག་བདག་ལ་ཡིད་མི་ཆེས༌པ་ཅི་ཡིན་ནམ། 47དཀོན་མཆོག་ལ་གཏོགས་པའི་མི་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་དཀོན་མཆོག་གི་བཀའ་ལ་མཉན༌ཞིང༌། ཁྱོད་རྣམས་དཀོན་མཆོག་ལ་མི་གཏོགས་པས་དཀོན་མཆོག་གི་བཀའ་ལའང་མི་མཉན་ཞེས་གསུངས༌སོ།།
John 8:45-47
45 But because I tell the truth, you do not believe me. 46 Which one of you convicts me of sin? If I tell the truth, why do you not believe me? 47 Whoever is of God hears the words of God. The reason why you do not hear them is that you are not of God.”
Continue with Jesus’ conversation with a specific group of Jews in John 8.
Based on the record of John 8:31-33 – Jesus was still speaking with this same group of Jews who believed Him but were under the influence of misleading doctrines and teachings advocated by the Pharisees and Sadducees with regards to their identity as offspring of Abraham
Notice the repeated reference to sin
Why is the subject of sin an explosive topic between Jesus and the Jews?
Previous posts I pointed out the issue of how we define sin and how that can help or hinder us understand the judgement of God and how God will redeem Man from sin and death based on His established rule.
Today we have the benefit of hindsight and we are looking back in history the death and resurrection of Jesus and what we know as perhaps the most important mission of Jesus during the times of the Four Gospels –
པེ་ཏྲོ་དང་པོ། 1:17-21
17དེ་ཡང་མི་ལ་ཕྱོགས་རིས་མི་འཛིན་པར་མི་རེ་རེའི་སྤྱོད་ལམ་བཞིན་དུ་ཁྲིམས་ཐག་གཅོད་མཁན་ལ་ཁྱོད་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་ཡབ་ལགས་ཞེས་འབོད་པས། ཁྱོད་རྣམས་བྱེས་སུ་སྡོད་དུས་གུས་ཤིང་འཇིགས་པའི་སེམས་བཅང་དགོས་སོ།། 18ཁྱོད་རྣམས་རང་གི་ཕ་མེས་ཡང་མེས་ནས་བརྒྱུད་ཅིང་སྙིང་པོ་མེད་པའི་སྤྱོད་ལམ་དག་ལས་བླུས་ནས་ཐར་བར་མཛད་པ༌ནི། འཇིག་པར་འགྱུར་བའི་གསེར་དངུལ་ལ་སོགས་པའི་དངོས་པོར་བརྟེན་པ་མ་ཡིན༌པར། 19སྐྱབས་མགོན་མཱ་ཤི་ཀའི་སྐུ་ཁྲག་རིན་ཆེན་ཏེ། ནག་ནོག་མ་འདྲེས་པ་དང་། དྲི་མས་མ་གོས་པའི་ལུ་གུའི་ཁྲག་དང་མཚུངས་པ་དེ་ལ་བརྟེན་པ་ནི་ཁྱོད་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་ཤེས༌སོ།། 20དཀོན་མཆོག་གིས་འཇིག་རྟེན་ཁམས་མ་བཀོད་པའི་ཡར་སྔོན་ལ་སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུ་སྔ་མོ་ནས་མཁྱེན་པ་ཡིན༌ཡང༌། དུས་ཀྱི་མཐའ་མ་འདིར་ད་གཟོད་ཁྱོད་རྣམས་ཀྱི་དོན་དུ་མངོན༌པར་མཛད། 21ཁྱོད་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་ཀྱང་ཁོང་ཉིད་བརྒྱུད་ནས་དཀོན་མཆོག་ལ་དད་པ་བྱས༌ཤིང༌། དཀོན་མཆོག་གིས་ཁོང་ཉིད་སྐུ་གྲོངས་པ་ནས་སླར་གསོན་པ་དང་གཟི་བརྗིད་དང་ལྡན་པར་མཛད་དོ།། དེ་ནི་ཁྱོད་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་དཀོན་མཆོག་ལ་དད་པ་དང་རེ་བ་བྱེད་པའི་ཕྱིར༌རོ།།
1 Peter 1:17-21
17 And if you call on him as Father who judges impartially according to each one’s deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile, 18 knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot. 20 He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you 21 who through him are believers in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.
The death of Jesus on the cross and His blood being shed and poured out onto the ground did not make sense to His disciples who witnessed the event of His death.
It was after the resurrection of Jesus and how He met with His disciples in His resurrected body and communicated with them for a period of 40 days, Peter and the rest of the disciples begin to understand the full redemption work of God for Man accomplished through the chosen Messiah Jesus.
The blood atonement of Christ is further explained in the Book of Hebrews 9 – a lot of details there. The message of Hebrews was most likely written to 1st and 2nd generations followers of Christ of which Peter and the apostles who witnessed the death and resurrection of Christ would had provided valuable inputs either directly or through their circles of disciples.
The apostle Paul also made specific mention of the redemption works of Christ
ཨེ་ཕེ་སི་པ། 1:7-10
7ཡང་བདག་ཅག་ནི་ཁོང་གི་ནང་དུ་ཉིད་ཀྱི་སྐུ་ཁྲག་ལ་བརྟེན་ནས་བླུས་ཤིང་སྡིག་པ་བསལ་བ་ཡིན། དེ་ནི་དཀོན་མཆོག་གི་ཐུགས་རྗེ་ཕུན་སུམ་ཚོགས་པ༌བཞིན་ཏེ། 8ཁོང་གིས་ཤེས་རབ་དང་བློ་རིག་སྣ་ཚོགས་ཀྱི་སྒོ་ནས་བདག་ཅག་ལ་ཕངས་མེད་དུ་གནང༌ངོ་༎ 9ཡང་དཀོན་མཆོག་གིས་སྐྱབས་མགོན་མཱ་ཤི་ཀའི་ནང་དུ་སྔར་ནས་དམིགས་པའི་རང་ཉིད་ཀྱི་ཐུགས་དགོངས་ལེགས་པོ༌བཞིན། བདག་ཅག་ལ་ཁོང་གི་ཐུགས་དགོངས་ཀྱི་གསང་བ་དེ་མངོན་པར་མཛད་ཅིང་། 10དེ་ནི་དཀོན་མཆོག་གི་ཐུགས་བཀོད་ལྟར་ཁོང་གི་དུས་དེ་ལོངས༌པའི་ཚེ། ཁོང་གིས་གནམ་ས་གཉིས་ཀྱི་དངོས་པོ་ཐམས་ཅད་སྐྱབས་མགོན་མཱ་ཤི་ཀའི་དབང་འོག་ཏུ་གཅིག་གྱུར་མཛད་པ་ཡིན་ནོ།།
Ephesians 1:7-10
7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, 8 which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight 9 making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ 10 as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in Christ, things in heaven and things on earth in him.
It is important to note that Paul was rejected by the Jewish community even till today as heretic! Paul was a Pharisee before Jesus appeared to him after resurrection and delivered Paul from his misleading doctrines and Paul eventually became instrumental in preaching the redemption works of Christ among the Gentiles and not only to the Jews.
Back to the situation in John 8, why did Jesus face such rejection from the Jews, even among those who believe Him?
A few observations –
- The situation in John 8 was before the death and resurrection of Jesus
- The Jewish community especially those living in Jerusalem had been under the influence of two of the major religious establishments – namely the Pharisees and the Sadducees who explicitly rejected the teachings of Jesus and John the Baptist.
- Before the appearing of John the Baptist and Jesus, the expectation of the coming Messiah among the Jewish community in Jerusalem was about national restoration of Israel, deliverance from foreign rule, and such ideology and doctrine had been strongly advocated by the Pharisees and the Sadducees.
Point #3 is crucial to understanding the Jews’ strict rule about national identity.
As a general observation, the key difference between what Jesus teaches and what the Pharisees and the Sadducees advocated will point to the subject matter of sin, how sin is defined, how to deal with sin, and the needs to bear fruits of repentance which they discredited based on their assumption they are offspring of Abraham.
True repentance approved and acceptable to God is based first and foremost what we know and accept as sin as according to God’s teaching and that help us clearly define where we did wrong against God and need to turn away from our acts of sin.
Therefore there were problems of those who think “We are children of Abraham” and discredited Jesus and John the Baptist calls for personal repentance because they redefine and adulterated the true meaning of sin based on their own man-made agenda.
As long as these Jews do not agree with what Jesus teaches against sin and calling for repentance they will not bear fruits of repentance!
And so Jesus said to them –
45འོན་ཀྱང་བདག་གིས་ཁྱོད་ཅག་ལ་བདེན་པ་སྨྲས་པའི་རྐྱེན་གྱིས་ཁྱོད་རྣམས་བདག་ལ་ཡིད་མི་ཆེས། 46ཡང་ཁྱོད་རྣམས་ལས་སུ་ཞིག་གིས་བདག་ལ་སྡིག་པ་ཡོད་ཅེས་བདེན་དཔང་བྱེད་ནུས༌སམ། བདག་གིས་ཁྱོད་རྣམས་ལ་བདེན་པ་སྨྲས༌ནའང༌། ཁྱོད་ཅག་བདག་ལ་ཡིད་མི་ཆེས༌པ་ཅི་ཡིན་ནམ།
45 But because I tell the truth, you do not believe me. 46 Which one of you convicts me of sin? If I tell the truth, why do you not believe me
Jesus was addressing their perception of sin.
There were those who believe Jesus could be the Messiah they were waiting for but rejected His teachings about sin and repentance. And they assumed they were entering the kingdom of God when Jesus exposed them as going the wrong direction!
Furthermore Jesus said to them –
47དཀོན་མཆོག་ལ་གཏོགས་པའི་མི་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་དཀོན་མཆོག་གི་བཀའ་ལ་མཉན༌ཞིང༌། ཁྱོད་རྣམས་དཀོན་མཆོག་ལ་མི་གཏོགས་པས་དཀོན་མཆོག་གི་བཀའ་ལའང་མི་མཉན་ཞེས་གསུངས༌སོ།།
47 Whoever is of God hears the words of God. The reason why you do not hear them is that you are not of God.”
I think this refers to their disagreement that disqualifies them as true offspring and children of Abraham and this reflected their disassociation with God.
To be continue …
David Z
The Life of Yeshu 