Do You Judge After the Flesh?

Tom:

We are continuing with the gospel of John and we’re right now in John:8:13-16 [13] The Pharisees therefore said unto him, Thou bearest record of thyself; thy record is not true. [14] Jesus answered and said unto them, Though I bear record of myself, yet my record is true: for I know whence I came, and whither I go; but ye cannot tell whence I come, and whither I go. [15] Ye judge after the flesh; I judge no man. [16] And yet if I judge, my judgment is true: for I am not alone, but I and the Father that sent me.
See All..., “The Pharisees therefore said unto him, Thou bearest record of thyself; thy record is not true.Jesus answered and said unto them, though I bear record of myself, yet my record is true: for I know whence I came, and whither I go; but ye cannot tell whence I come, and whither I go.Ye judge after the flesh; I judge no man. And yet if I judge, my judgment is true: for I am not alone, but I and the Father that sent me.”

Dave:

Now Tom, let’s remind our listeners, in case they’ve forgotten of what Jesus said just before this.The Pharisees say you are bearing witness of yourself.Jesus had said, “I am the light of the world, he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness but shall have the light of life.”That’s quite a statement, but they’re saying oh yes, but that’s your opinion.That’s what you are saying about yourself, but you can’t bear testimony of yourself, your witness isn’t true.Well no, you can’t say that.I mean I can tell the truth.What they are saying is you need some other corroborating evidence.You need some other witnesses to back you up.And Jesus says, “Well first of all, I know where I came from,” and he has told them, and he will tell them again.A little later in this chapter he’s going to say “I’m from above, you’re from beneath and if you don’t believe that I am (that is, that I am God), you will die in your sins and where I go you cannot come.”So Jesus is saying, “Of course I know where I came from and where I am going.My record is true.I am speaking the truth, but if you want to judge me, I’m not alone.My Father sent me…” and I think that’s where you got to isn’t it?

Tom:

Yes.

Dave:

Verse 16.

Tom:

Well, I’m wondering about—just go back to 15: “You judge after the flesh….”Dave that has a lot to do with what we’ve been talking about.I mean these are somebody coming with biases and prejudice, and their own opinions and their ideas.“Well it seems to me that this is the way it is or that’s the way it is.”Jesus certainly doesn’t judge that way.

Dave:

Now this is quite a statement in verse 15: “You judge after the flesh, I judge no man.”Whoops, chapter 5 he said the Father has committed all judgment unto the Son.How do we reconcile that?

Tom:

It seems to me that he’s following up on what he said.He doesn’t judge according to their standards.

Dave:

Let’s go back to earlier in the chapter.Remember, they brought this woman taken in adultery and he says he that is without sin among you let him cast the first stone and then he looks down at the ground and writes again and when he looks up there is nobody there.They’ve all left.And he says to her, “Has no one condemned you?”She says, “No man Lord.”“Neither do I condemn you, go, and sin no more.”Christ didn’t come to judge the world; he came to save the world.But one day he will judge the world.When we get to chapter 12, he tells the Jews, “The word that I have spoken will judge you at that day.”The very fact of who he is and the perfect sinless life that he lived the scripture tells us that by living that life he has condemned sin in the flesh; condemned all the rest of us.And when the lost stand before Christ at the great white throne judgment, let’s say somebody says well I suffered this or I suffered that and who is he to judge me?No, he suffered everything.He was accused of being a bastard, an illegitimate child, they hated him, they persecuted him, and yet in all of that he didn’t revile anyone.He didn’t threaten, he didn’t strike back.Peter tells us that “when he was reviled, he reviled not again.When he suffered he threatened not, but committed himself to him that judges righteously.”And he will be the one on the great white throne judgment.God and man in one and no one can say well you didn’t understand what I went through, you never suffered like that.No, he has and in fact, he bore the penalty for our sins on the cross, so he says verse 16, “And yet if I judge, my judgment is true: for I am not alone, but I and the Father that sent me.It is also written in your law, that the testimony of two men is true. I am one that bears witness of myself, and the Father that sent me beareth witness of me. (Now they’re going to get upset.)Then said they unto him, Where is thy Father? Jesus answered; ye neither know me, nor my Father: if ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also.” That’s a new expression Tom.The rabbis didn’t use that.They didn’t refer to God as their Father.

Tom:

Certainly not Abba, Father.

Dave:

In fact, it’s you know there are some people who say well Jesus studied under the gurus in the East and that’s where he got it.He traveled to India and so forth.Well if he had traveled to India he would been kind of a Jewish Marco Polo.That would have made him famous.The gurus, the yogis referred to their guru.Jesus didn’t refer to his guru.He used a term that the gurus didn’t like and the rabbis didn’t like, “My Father in heaven,” and he’s not on his way trying to become God, he is God and he refers to God as his Father in a unique way.In chapter 3 of John’s gospel we heard Jesus say, “No man has ascended up to heaven but he that came down from heaven.”And then he makes this strange statement, “Even the son of man which is in heaven.”So he is claiming that he is omnipresent even while he is in a human body as a man.Nevertheless he is omnipresent because he is God and man in one person.He’s making some—we said it in the earlier part of this program, we have to face what Jesus said.You can’t escape it.I mean the Bible’s true.That’s why they try to destroy the Bible and it’s pretty powerful what he is saying here.He’s telling them he’s the light of the world; that he is the Son of God and he is going to go on and say that he is God himself in a few verses and if you don’t believe what I say you will die in your sins.Tom, he is either telling the truth, or he’s a liar or a lunatic.

Tom:

Dave, let me just digress or move to an issue here that as I’m reading these verses, it kind of hits me.You know today one controversy is neuter gender Bibles.We certainly don’t want to offend women by using terminology that puts them—I’m talking about a religious correctness here and so on, but how do you get away from any of this with these verse that we are reading?Jesus was continually referring to his Father as Father.

Dave:

What are you going say, Father/Mother?That’s not what the Bible says—

Tom:

No, but some Bible do now that’s the problem.

Dave:

Okay, now here’s the problem with that Tom.Why is God our Father?Well what the world of the occult and the world of mysticism, Mother Nature, goddess worship, Mother Earth—

Tom:

Gaia.

Dave:

—And so forth, but the problem is that a woman produces, gives birth out of herself. The offspring is part of her.It’s an extension of her.That’s the problem with pantheism—that everything is God.No the Bible says the universe is not an extension of God.He created it out of nothing.This is not something that he birthed out of his womb.But if you use female terms for God then you would be driven to that conclusion.That somehow this god, this goddess somehow birthed everything out of its womb out of itself.Therefore the universe would be an extension of God.But if the universe is an extension of God, or part of God, then everything is deity.Then we have pantheism—you’re god, I’m god, everything is god.So what that leads to is God means nothing.I mean if the microphone is god, if a cat is god, you’re god, I’m god, there’s no extension between being god and not god.In fact there is no not god, everything is god, therefore God has been dragged down to the level of the most mundane things, and that would be the problem if you used female terms, but the God of the Bible is separate and distinct from his universe.He created it out of nothing.See the Star Wars force, second law of thermodynamics is running down like a clock because the whole universe is running down like a clock.There’s no hope.You can’t bring this thing back to life.You can’t renew the energy and so forth.But the God of the Bible can create a new universe and that in fact is what it says.He can bring not reincarnation recycling this dead and dying universe and the life that we have, but resurrection.Creating a new life, a new universe is what the Bible says.We look for a new heaven and a new earth and those who have been made new creatures in Christ Jesus; they will be in that new heavens and earth.Those who are not will not be.