Nationality Will Not Save! John 8:33-40

Text: “They (the unbelieving Jews) answered Him, We be Abraham’s seed, and were never in bondage to any man; how sayest Thou, Ye shall be made free?”

John 8:33.

Good morning, universal Christian!  God has blessed you and I with faith to believe His Word: that we are Hell-deserving sinners; that to be saved, we must be righteous; that Jesus Christ is the only way of Eternal Salvation; that there is a Heaven that is Holy and a Hell that is hot.  Praise God it is so! 

Nationality can never save us - we must be made part of the Body of Christ: by grace, through faith in the Atonement Sacrifice, on the Cross, of the Son of God, Christ Jesus.  True Christianity is universal!

We are true Christians IF, and only IF, we are Spiritually regenerated by God; ‘born again’ from Above; Redeemed by the precious Blood of Christ Jesus; sanctified (set apart) from the world, the flesh and the Devil.  IF we are in such a state of Divine grace then, and only then, are we an integral part of the Body of Jesus Christ - the true church.  (John 3:3-8) (Acts 4:12)

“The church is not only a Divine institution; it is also a Spiritual one.  Its administration is Spiritual in nature and aims, different in kind from the kingdoms of the world.  The realization of this, by both church and state, would go far to resolve the repeated difficulties in reconciling the freedom of Christian conscience on the one hand and the legitimate rights of the State on the other.  The Lord commands His people to render to Caesar the things which are Caesar’s and to God the things which are God’s.  But Caesar has no legitimate control over the things of God.”  (Dictionary of Theological Terms, by Alan Cairns, page 88)

Earthly kingdoms and nationalities therefore, can never determine the individual’s position as part of the Body of Christ, the church.  Only the Lord God determines whom He will save and whom He will refuse to save in time and for Eternity.  The bottom line is that there is only ONE GOD, and that one God must be Lord in every aspect of His own Creation.  Praise His Name!

“As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.  What shall we say then?  Is there unrighteousness with God?  God forbid.  For He saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.  So then (conclusion) it is not of him that willeth (man‘s will), nor of him that runneth (legalistic works), but of God that sheweth mercy…Therefore hath He mercy on whom He will have mercy, and whom He will He hardeneth.”  (Romans 9:13-18)

God alone is God - He continually does just whatever He desires to do!

“But our God is in the Heavens; He hath done whatsoever He hath pleased.”  (Psalm 115:3)

“That in the dispensation of the fullness of times He might gather together in ONE (the church) all things in Christ, both which are in Heaven, and which are on earth; even in Him: in Whom also we have obtained an inheritance (through the Cross Sacrifice of Christ), being predestinated according to the purpose of Him Who worketh ALL things after the counsel of His own will; that we should be to the praise of His glory, who first trusted in Christ.”  (Ephesians 1:10-11)  (2 Thessalonians 2:13-14)  Hallelujah!  We are Eternally saved!

The unbelieving Jews present in today’s Bible reading in John’s Gospel assumed that they were Spiritually free - due to the fact of their heritage as a nation that directly descended from Abraham!  They seem to have known nothing about the curse of ‘original sin’ inherited from our common forefather Adam!  They, like all mankind, were and are slaves to natural sin.

“Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.”  (Psalm 51:5)  (Jeremiah 17:9) (Job 14:1-4) (Romans 3:10)

Hear and learn a vital truth, dear friends: “Jesus answered them, Verily, verily I say unto you, Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin.”  (V.34)

Have you met any sinless Christians lately?  Exactly.  We all sin every day!  Only those most successful in psychological denial will disagree.

The people present on that day were taught vital lessons that were hard to hear.  Yet the loving Lord Jesus took time to teach His truth to them anyway.  Only one who cares passionately for the precious souls of men and women will dare to speak such Eternal truths.  All others are Eternally careless.

Abraham’s nation were given the Ten Commandments from the Lord God and one of them is ‘Thou shalt not kill’.  Yet these same people sought to kill the Lord Jesus Christ - because Christ’s Word ‘had no place in them’ (V. 37)

Thought:  Christ’s true universal church always heed His God-breathed Word.