PERFECT VALIDITY

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

When Jesus spoke again to the people, He said, “I am the Light of the world. Whoever follows Me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”

The Pharisees challenged Him, “Here you are, appearing as your own witness; your testimony is not valid.”

Jesus answered, “Even if I testify on My own behalf, My testimony is valid, for I know where I came from and where I am going. But you have no idea where I come from or where I am going.”

“In your own Law, it is written that the testimony of two witnesses is true. I am one who testifies for Myself; My other witness is the Father, who sent Me.”

Then they asked Him, “Where is your father?”

“You do not know Me or My Father,” Jesus replied. “If you knew Me, you would know My Father also.”

He spoke these words while teaching in the temple courts near the place where the offerings were put. Yet no one seized Him, because His hour had not yet come.

John 8:12-14, 17-20

This ends today’s reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

Have you ever heard or read something and wondered whether or not it was true?

I know I have.

We are bombarded today with podcasts and video messages along with an array of online content on the internet, covering almost any topic you might be interested in. It’s not hard to find information but it is hard to verify it so that what you are hearing is valid.

That’s why the word of God is so refreshing and vital to people today, as it has been for the ages. We can always know we are receiving truth when we read the scriptures because they are grounded in Jesus who is One with our perfectly truthful God the Father. This is why Jesus can so boldly proclaim that He is the Way and the Truth and the Life (John 14:6).

Well, speaking of proclamations, we find Jesus addressing a group of people “in the temple courts near the place where the offerings were put” and within that group are some Pharisees, the Jewish religious leaders of the day. It is there Jesus testified:

“I am the Light of the world. Whoever follows Me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”

Indeed, Jesus was fully aware of His listeners’ status. They were all sinners, living in darkness and destined for the judgment of His Father, a judgment that not one of them could survive. The people needed a Savior, a Light that would not be temporary but eternal, chasing away the darkness of their transgressions and replacing it with the illumination of hope that comes with salvation. Anyone who would come to Jesus as Savior would never walk in darkness again but remain in His light.

How would the people receive this message?

We’re not sure about the overall reaction but we do know that the Pharisees took offense and decided to challenge the legitimacy of Jesus’ statement, saying:

“Here you are, appearing as your own witness; your testimony is not valid.”

Their rebuttal was grounded in what they knew as their Jewish law which offered this guidance in regard to statements made by witnesses:

One witness is not enough to convict anyone accused of any crime or offense they may have committed. A matter must be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses. Deuteronomy 19:15

It’s important to remember here that Jesus was also a Jew and was well aware of the Law. He was also aware of the heart attitude of the Pharisees who never sought to support or endorse Jesus but always approached Him with a spirit of malice, viewing Him as a threat to the religious establishment. With full knowledge that the Pharisees were only trying to discredit Him in front of the crowd, Jesus replied to them:

“Even if I testify on My own behalf, My testimony is valid, for I know where I came from and where I am going. But you have no idea where I come from or where I am going…In your own Law, it is written that the testimony of two witnesses is true. I am one who testifies for Myself; My other witness is the Father, who sent Me.”

As mentioned, Jesus and His Father, who sent Him from heaven to earth, were One (John 10:30). Wherever Jesus was, His Father was there as well. So to answer the question regarding the reliability of His claim to be the Light of the world, Jesus asserts that He said the words and His Father was present to satisfy the second person requirement. And that became validation in its most perfect sense.

Well, it could have ended right there but the Pharisees weren’t ready to wave the white flag. They couldn’t accept the possibility that Jesus was telling the truth and they were wrong in assailing Him so they ask, in what would think was an almost mocking tone:

“Where is your father?”

It was these words that moved Jesus to rebuke the Pharisees and call out their fallen spiritual state, saying:

“You do not know Me or My Father…If you knew Me, you would know My Father also.”

It wasn’t the words “You don’t know Me” that would have made the Pharisees blood begin to boil but when Jesus carried on, essentially accusing the Pharisees of not know God, one would think they were angered beyond consolation and seek to have Him arrested.

But that’s not what happened. It very well could have happened but it didn’t.

Why?

Well, the scriptures tell us that no one seized Jesus because “His hour had not yet come.” It’s not that the Pharisees won’t have their day in court with Jesus. That would happen but not until the Savior of the world, God’s one and only Son, the Lamb of God who had come to take away the sins of the world, was on the path to His crucifixion.

You see, everything happens in life according to God’s perfect plan. Our lives move along a timeline He has set for us already. We only need to seek and accept His perfect will, allowing things to happen in our lives when the right time has come and knowing that God walks with us through it all, just as He did Jesus.

When we do this, and only when we do this, will our lives have perfect validity because everything we do, in word or deed, will be ordained by God Himself. And this is something we all should be seeking to do in the new year.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

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