Walking Worthy of the Calling – Part II (6)

 

 

Continuing to consider “hardness of heart” as it is manifested in John Chapter 8:

 

“As He spoke these things, many came to believe in Him. So Jesus was saying to those Jews who had believed Him, if you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free” (John 8:30 – 32).

 

What do you see in this passage? What are its key elements? Does this passage portray a person in a consummated relationship with Jesus Christ?

 

How do these people respond? Do they submit to the Word of Christ, accepting what He is saying, and rejoicing at the prospect of receiving and knowing the truth and experiencing freedom?

 

“They answered Him, We are Abraham’s descendants and have never yet been enslaved to anyone; how is it that You say, You will become free?”

 

“Jesus answered them, Truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is the slave of sin. The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son does remain forever. So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed. I know that you are Abraham’s descendants; yet you seek to kill Me, because My word has no place in you.”

 

The rest of the chapter portrays an escalating interchange between Jesus and “those Jews who believed in Him,” which culminates with the people picking up “stones to throw at Him, but Jesus hid Himself and went out of the temple.”

 

The people went from believing in Him (8:30) to attempting to murder Jesus (8:59)? Why? Because they hardened their hearts by rejecting Jesus’ offer of truth and freedom, and continued to harden them throughout the interchange with Jesus, resulting in their hearts turning to murder.

 

Note that when our hearts reject the Word of Christ and they turn to a spirit of murder, that Jesus Christ hides Himself and He no longer remains within the temple.

 

The people refused to accept God’s assessment of their condition. When the people believed in Him (v. 30) perhaps they expected Jesus to feel privileged that they were accepting Him. Perhaps the last thing they anticipated was Jesus calling into question their identity, which they took pride in, and their spiritual condition (slaves to sin).

 

As they reject Jesus’ assessment of their identity and spiritual condition, they attack Jesus, accusing Him of having a demon and then picking up stones to kill Him. When our hearts are hardened not only do we reject God’s Word and the Person of Jesus Christ, but we attack God and His Word.

 

Now then, these people are what the world and the church would call “good people.” They are gathered in the temple, They are listening to Jesus. Many of them may be known for doing good works, They may be the very people we would love to work alongside in our jobs, they may be great neighbors, One would think that they don’t get into trouble…and yet these very people are attempting murder in the temple. Why? Because of the hardness of their heart.

 

How do the good people around us react to Jesus Christ? What is the reality about appearances and hardness of heart?

 

When Christ and His Word confront us, we can either by His grace submit to Him, confessing our sins and repenting, and taking up our cross and following Jesus Christ; or we can harden our hearts, and harden them again, and again, and again. When we are wrapped in pride and self-righteousness and our own goodness, the danger is great – O how difficult it is to repudiate those false identities we have trusted in, how difficult it is to realize that our righteous deeds, in and of themselves, are disgusting filthy rags.

 

When Paul looked back at his own self-righteous life and considered that, “as to  the righteousness which is in the Law, [I was] found blameless,” he could say that he counted “them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ, and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith…” (Philippians 3:1 – 14).                        

 

One of the religious tragedies of our time are those pastors and churches whose goal is to make people feel good about themselves at the expense of not preaching repentance and confession of sin(s) and the Cross of Christ as our Way of Life. For what occurs in these environments of false teaching is a continuing hardening of hearts, for the more pleased we are with ourselves and our false identities, the more our hearts are hardened and the more we become like those religious people of John Chapter 8. Sadly this insidious evil is pervasive, and the temptation to give-in to it confronts us along our pilgrimage. How tragic that we would rather live in the prison of self-righteousness than in the freedom which Christ promises us.

 

Let us remember, every day of our lives, that there are really only two kinds of people on the planet, those who are alive in Christ and those who are not. Let us also recall that we are here, in Christ, to bring His Light and Life to others – for “as the Father has sent Me, I also send you” (John 20:21).