Your Father the Devil
Introduction: A Spiritual Paternity Test
We live in an age that wants a domesticated Jesus. We want a Jesus who is a life coach, a therapist, a political mascot for our preferred party. We want a Jesus who affirms us, who pats us on the back, and who would never, ever say anything that might cause us to pick up stones. But the Jesus of the Scriptures, the Jesus we meet in the eighth chapter of John, is an altogether different sort of person. He is not safe. He is not tame. He is the Lord of glory, and He has come into the world with a sword.
The conversation we have before us is not a polite theological exchange over tea. It is a high stakes, bare-knuckled confrontation. It is a spiritual paternity test. Jesus confronts a group of people who had made a profession of faith, "those Jews who had believed Him," and He proceeds to demonstrate that their true father is not Abraham, and certainly not God the Father, but rather the devil himself. This is not the kind of talk that gets you invited back to speak at the conference. This is the kind of talk that gets you killed.
And we must not imagine that this is a problem for first-century Jews only. The temptation to claim a spiritual heritage that is not ours, to boast of a freedom we do not possess, and to wear the family name while despising the firstborn Son, is a perennial human temptation. It is the great temptation of the visible church in every generation. We think we are free because we were baptized, because our parents were Christians, because we are members of a sound church. But Jesus here provides an acid test. The test is not your bloodline, but your love for the Son. The test is not your formal profession, but whether you abide in His Word.
The Text
So Jesus was saying to those Jews who had believed Him, “If you abide in My word, then you are truly My disciples; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.” They answered Him, “We are Abraham’s seed and have never yet been enslaved to anyone. How is it that You say, ‘You will become free’?” Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is the slave of sin. And 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... You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father... Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.” Therefore they picked up stones to throw at Him, but Jesus hid Himself and went out of the temple.
(John 8:31-59 LSB)
Counterfeit Freedom (vv. 31-33)
Jesus begins by addressing those who had made a profession of faith. He gives them the mark of a true disciple.
"If you abide in My word, then you are truly My disciples; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free." (John 8:31-32)
True discipleship is not a one-time decision. It is not walking an aisle or signing a card. It is a settled condition of life. It is to abide, to remain, to dwell, to make your home in the words of Christ. And the result of this abiding is twofold: you know the truth, and that truth sets you free. Truth is not an abstract concept; it is a person, and His name is Jesus. To know Him is to be liberated.
But liberated from what? Their response reveals their utter blindness. They are immediately offended.
"We are Abraham's seed and have never yet been enslaved to anyone. How is it that You say, 'You will become free'?" (John 8:33)
This is a staggering piece of historical amnesia. Never been enslaved? What about Egypt? What about Assyria? Babylon? What about the Roman soldiers marching through their streets as they spoke? They were a conquered people. But their pride was rooted in their genetics. "We are Abraham's seed." They confused political and ethnic identity with spiritual reality. They were free, they thought, because of their bloodline. This is the original identity politics. And it is a lie. They were blind to their real chains because they were so proud of their counterfeit freedom.
The Real Slavery (vv. 34-38)
Jesus ignores their political and historical delusions and goes straight to the heart of the matter. He redefines slavery in terms that they cannot escape.
"Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is the slave of sin." (John 8:34)
This is the true slavery. It is not about Roman legions but about the tyranny of your own lusts. The man who is mastered by his anger, his greed, his pride, his appetites, is not a free man. He is a slave, and his master's name is Sin. And this slavery is universal. "Everyone who commits sin" means everyone. This is a condition of the human race apart from Christ.
Jesus then draws a distinction between a slave and a son. A slave has no permanent place in the household, no inheritance. But a son abides forever. Then comes the glorious offer: "So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed" (v. 36). The only one who can liberate a slave of sin is the Son who belongs in the house. True freedom is not a political status; it is a gift of grace bestowed by the Son of God. It is not freedom to do whatever you want; it is freedom to do what you ought, freedom from the mastery of sin.
He then acknowledges their physical lineage only to drive a wedge between it and their spiritual lineage. "I know that you are Abraham's seed; yet you are seeking to kill Me, because My word has no place in you" (v. 37). Their murderous hearts reveal their true family trait. He speaks what He has seen with His Father; they do what they have heard from their father. The stage is set for the great reveal.
The Paternity Test Revealed (vv. 39-47)
The Jews double down on their claim: "Abraham is our father." Jesus then delivers the crushing refutation. A family resemblance is not determined by what you say, but by what you do.
"If you are Abraham's children, you would do the deeds of Abraham. But now you are seeking to kill Me, a man who has told you the truth, which I heard from God. This Abraham did not do." (John 8:39-40)
Abraham welcomed messengers from God; he did not try to kill them. Your actions, Jesus says, betray your claimed parentage. You are doing the deeds of another father. Feeling the sting of this, they retreat to another claim: "We were not born of sexual immorality; we have one Father: God" (v. 41). They are claiming spiritual fidelity to God, denying that they have committed spiritual adultery by going after other gods.
Jesus applies the same test. "If God were your Father, you would love Me" (v. 42). Love for the Son is the non-negotiable evidence of love for the Father. You cannot claim to love the author while burning his autobiography. Their hatred of Jesus is Exhibit A that God is not their Father. The reason they cannot understand Him is because they are spiritually deaf; they "cannot hear My word" (v. 43). This is the biblical doctrine of total inability. Their nature itself prevents them from receiving the truth.
And then, the final, devastating verdict:
"You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him." (John 8:44)
This is one of the most terrifying verses in Scripture. Their murderous desire to kill the truth-teller reveals their family resemblance to the first murderer, Cain, and his father, the devil. Their inability to believe the truth reveals their kinship with the father of lies. They are not free sons of Abraham. They are enslaved sons of Satan. And because they are not of God, they cannot hear the words of God (v. 47).
The Divine "I AM" (vv. 48-59)
Having been exposed, their only recourse is slander. "Do we not say rightly that You are a Samaritan and have a demon?" (v. 48). This is the ancient equivalent of calling someone a deplorable racist. It is a content-free ad hominem attack. Jesus calmly denies it and makes another astounding promise: "if anyone keeps My word he will never see death" (v. 51).
They take this as further proof of His insanity. Abraham died. The prophets died. Who do you think you are? This is the central question of the entire Gospel. "Whom do You make Yourself out to be?" (v. 53).
Jesus's answer builds to the ultimate crescendo. He states that Abraham himself, their supposed father, "rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it and was glad" (v. 56). Abraham's faith was not in himself or his lineage, but in the promised Messiah who was to come. He looked forward and saw Christ. The Jews, his supposed children, were looking right at Christ and could not see Him at all.
They mock His chronology: "You are not yet fifty years old, and have You seen Abraham?" (v. 57). They are thinking in linear time. Jesus responds with an assertion of eternal being.
"Jesus said to them, 'Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.'" (John 8:58)
He does not say, "Before Abraham was, I was." He says, "I am." This is the divine name. This is the name God revealed to Moses at the burning bush. This is a direct, unambiguous claim to be Yahweh, the self-existent, eternal God of Israel. And they understood Him perfectly. Their theology was corrupt, but their grammar was not. The penalty for blasphemy was stoning, and they immediately reached for stones. The great I AM, the one who spoke the world into existence, simply hid Himself and went out of the temple.
Conclusion: Whose Child Are You?
The questions raised in this chapter are not historical artifacts. They confront us today with the same force. It is possible to be raised in the church, to know the Bible, to affirm the creeds, and to still be a child of the devil. It is possible to boast in our Christian heritage while having hearts that are full of murder toward the real Christ.
The test is the same. Do you abide in His Word? Does it have a home in you? Or do you resist it, resent it, and seek to kill it when it confronts your sin? Do you love the Son? Does the name of Jesus Christ cause your heart to rejoice, as it did for Abraham?
Or do you find yourself reaching for stones? The stones today are not literal rocks. They are the stones of slander, of mockery, of dismissal, of sophisticated theological objections that are really just a smokescreen for a heart that will not have this man rule over them. Everyone has a father. Everyone serves a master. The only way out of the devil's family and the slavery of sin is to be set free by the Son. And if the Son, the great I AM, makes you free, you will be free indeed.