Why do ye not understand my speech; even because ye cannot hear my word. (44) 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. (45) And because I tell you the truth, ye believe me not. (46) Which of you convinceth me of sin? and if I say the truth, why do ye not believe me? (47) He that is of God heareth God's words: ye therefore hear them not, because ye are not of God. (48) Then answered the Jews, and said unto him, Say we not well that thou art a Samaritan, and hast a devil? (49) Jesus answered, I have not a devil; but I honour my Father, and ye do dishonour me. (50) And I seek not mine own glory: there is one that seeketh and judgeth. (51) Verily, verily, I say unto you; If a man keep my saying, he shall never see death. (52) Then said the Jews unto him, Now we know that thou hast a devil. Abraham is dead, and the prophets: and thou sayest, if a man keep my saying, he shall never taste of death. (53) Art thou greater than our father Abraham, which is dead? and the prophets are dead: whom makest thou thyself? (54) Jesus answered, If I honour myself, my honour is nothing: it is my Father that honoureth me; of whom ye say that he is your God: (55) Yet ye have not known him: but I know him. And if I should say, I know him not, I should be a liar like unto you: but I know him, and keep his saying. (56) Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day; and he saw it, and was glad. (57) Then said the Jews unto him, Thou art not yet fifty years old: and hast thou seen Abraham? (58) Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am. (59) Then took they up stones to cast at him: but Jesus hid himself; and went out of the temple, going through the midst of them, and so passed by.
We have the continuation of our Lord's Sermon, on much the same subject; only, that Jesus is rising higher, and making use of much stronger language in the doctrine, when separating the precious from the vile; the wheat from the chaff; the Church from the world. He here considers the Pharisees as totally incapable of receiving his word, because of their total inability of understanding it. And the Lord traces up the effect, to the cause; in decidedly declaring, and without the smallest reserve or limitation whatever, that they were of their father the devil, and the works of their father they would do. Here opens at once the whole matter, and becomes a decision to all the subjects of dispute, which, from age to age, have divided the opinions of men in the world. Wherefore some are everlastingly obdurate, whilst others relent. Some believe in Christ, to the salvation of their souls; whilst others are entrenched in invulnerable unbelief. Jesus, by assigning the cause of infidelity, in Satan, plainly shews the cause of faith, in the gift of God. I beg the Reader not to turn away from this solemn but just view of the subject, before that he hath first carefully looked over those scriptures, which very fully explain it: Mat_23:15; Mat_23:33; 1 John 3:8-12; Matthew 13:38-39; Acts 13:10. There can be no concord between Christ and Belial; between the Church and the world: they differ, in beginning and end; in cause, and effect. They never can coalesce. Tares and wheat may grow together; but tares and wheat they must everlastingly remain, as long as they remain. Hence Christ's final sentence to the characters of the Serpentine brood; ye shall die in your sins: and whither I go ye cannot come.
I will only detain the Reader with just observing, what a very blessed, and decisive declaration, the Lord Jesus made of himself, when, in the close of his sermon, he said, Before Abraham was I am! In every sense how truly blessed! Considered as to his eternal nature, and essence. Considered as to his Mediator-character, as set up the Head and Husband of his Church, from everlasting. Considered as to his Office-work before he openly tabernacled in substance of our flesh, when in his goings forth at creation, and in the garden, with our first Parents; with Noah, and before and after the flood! And though it was subsequent to the days of Abraham. when the Lord went before his people, in the wilderness; yet Stephen, under the immediate influence of the Holy Ghost declared, that he it was who spake to Moses, in Mount Sinai. Acts 7:35. And that the Jews understood our Lord in this sense is very plain, for they took up stones to cast at him for what they considered blasphemy. Hence, that the Lord Jesus asserted his Godhead in this blessed expression; Before Abraham was I am: and that the Jews took it in this sense is as plain as words can make it. Neither do I think the action of Christ which followed, less convincing than his words in proof of Deity. For as he had done once before upon a like occasion, (See Luke 4:28-30.) to escape their malice for that season; so now he did the same, either by rendering, himself for a time invisible, or blinding their apprehension of him: but in either case, manifesting his Godhead so as to pass them by.