His Sentence (John 7:19-20)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 5/5/2016 9:07 AM

My Worship Time                                                                                          Focus:  His Sentence

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                       Reference:  John 7:19-20

            Message of the verses:  “19 “Did not Moses give you the Law, and yet none of you carries out the Law? Why do you seek to kill Me?" 20 The crowd answered, "You have a demon! Who seeks to kill You?"”

            In verse 19 Jesus asks a rhetorical question that I am sure did not feel that way to those He was asking it to, and the question was do they keep the Law, and their answer would be yes they do, but in truth no one can keep the Law, that is no one but our Lord Jesus Christ who kept the Law perfectly.  The Law shows us the holiness of God, the Law is perfect “The law of the LORD is perfect, restoring the soul (Psalm 19:7a).”  In John MacArthur’s commentary on these verses he offers the following NT Scriptures that draw on the same teaching of the Old Testament:  “9 What then? Are we better than they? Not at all; for we have already charged that both Jews and Greeks are all under sin; 10 as it is written, "THERE IS NONE RIGHTEOUS, NOT EVEN ONE; 11 THERE IS NONE WHO UNDERSTANDS, THERE IS NONE WHO SEEKS FOR GOD; 12 ALL HAVE TURNED ASIDE, TOGETHER THEY HAVE BECOME USELESS; THERE IS NONE WHO DOES GOOD, THERE IS NOT EVEN ONE." 13 "THEIR THROAT IS AN OPEN GRAVE, WITH THEIR TONGUES THEY KEEP DECEIVING," "THE POISON OF ASPS IS UNDER THEIR LIPS"; 14 "WHOSE MOUTH IS FULL OF CURSING AND BITTERNESS"; 15 "THEIR FEET ARE SWIFT TO SHED BLOOD, 16  DESTRUCTION AND MISERY ARE IN THEIR PATHS, 17  AND THE PATH OF PEACE THEY HAVE NOT KNOWN." 18 “THERE IS NO FEAR OF GOD BEFORE THEIR EYES." 19 Now we know that whatever the Law says, it speaks to those who are under the Law, so that every mouth may be closed and all the world may become accountable to God; 20  because by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified in His sight; for through the Law comes the knowledge of sin (Rom. 3:19-20)”

            “10 For as many as are of the works of the Law are under a curse; for it is written, "CURSED IS EVERYONE WHO DOES NOT ABIDE BY ALL THINGS WRITTEN IN THE BOOK OF THE LAW, TO PERFORM THEM."  21 Is the Law then contrary to the promises of God? May it never be! For if a law had been given which was able to impart life, then righteousness would indeed have been based on law. 22 But the Scripture has shut up everyone under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe. 23 But before faith came, we were kept in custody under the law, being shut up to the faith which was later to be revealed. 24 Therefore the Law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ, so that we may be justified by faith (Gal. 3:10-11, 21-24).” 

            “3 And I testify again to every man who receives circumcision, that he is under obligation to keep the whole Law. 4 You have been severed from Christ, you who are seeking to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace. 5 For we through the Spirit, by faith, are waiting for the hope of righteousness. 6 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything, but faith working through love.”

            Now as mentioned the Law of God is perfect, but it was not made to save people, but to reveal sin in their lives.  If we read the Law and it says that we are not to take the Lord’s name in vain, and then we do that, the Law is doing its job by showing us that we have sinned.  So how does this tie into what Jesus was telling these folks in these two verses?  Well it says in the Word of God that we are not to commit murder and yet that is exactly what they people desired to do, and eventually did to Jesus, it went against the Law of God.  Now they would say that He was blaspheming, and yet He asked a question to them “which one of you accuses me of sin?”  The answer is that He never sinned, and so the things that He told them about who He was were true, and yet they did not believe Him and so they wanted to get rid of Him.  John MacArthur writes about these people “But they were so far from understanding the Law’s purpose that they rejected the only One who could deliver them from the Law’s condemnation and sought to kill Him.”  I want to give you one more reason as to why the Law came in and this one is kind of hard to understand until you think about it:  “Ro 5:20-21  The Law came in so that the transgression would increase; but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, 21  so that, as sin reigned in death, even so grace would reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

            MacArthur writes “Our Lord’s sentence on them came in His question, ‘Why do you seek to kill me?’  They prided themselves on being disciples on Moses, yet their treatment of Jesus was an outrage before the God who gave the Law and sent His Son to deliver them from its curse.  Specifically, they were seeking to murder the Lord, proving themselves to be blasphemous and unworthy descendants not only of Moses, but also of Abraham (8:40).  They were blind to the truth of their own Scriptures, as Jesus indicated on several occasions (cf. John 5:39; Luke 16:29; 24:27).”

            I suppose that if they didn’t believe what Jesus was saying to them that they had to resort to name calling so that is what they did when they told Him that He had a demon, and then asked “Who seeks to kill You?”  Well the answer was that they sought to kill Him and as far as having a demon that was the biggest reason why Jesus began to teach those around Him in parables, for in the 12^th chapter of Matthew the crowd accused Him of doing miracles by the power of Satan and then in chapter thirteen Jesus began to teach in parables so that they would not understand what He was teaching.  Why not for when He told them the truth they did not believe Him, something that Isaiah prophesied so why not tell the truth in a way so that they would not understand it for they didn’t want to hear it anyway.

            MacArthur concludes “The sentence of guilt for violating the Law is confirmed by their hatred of the Son of God, who fulfilled the Law blamelessly (Matt. 3:17; Heb. 7:26).”

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  Jesus was showing them their sentence as they wanted to kill Him, which broke the Law, and then in the end the Jews would sentence Him to death, which in turn sealed their sentence of eternal death.  All of this is placated on their unbelief.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  To learn more about my Lord, to love Him more, and to bring honor to Him through what I do.

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “Jehu” (2 Kings 10:28).”

Today’s Bible question:  “In Jewish money, two bekahs equal what?”  (Small hint “Equal’s one?)”

Answer in our next SD.

5/5/2016 9:56 AM