Abraham does you no good, for ye are seeking to murder Me at this very moment, though I have come to fulfil the promises made to Abraham."
Here, as well as at the 40th verse, and chapter vii. 19, our Lord shows His perfect knowledge of all the designs of His enemies. He gives us an example of steady perseverance in God's work, even though we know our lives are in peril.
[Because my word hath no place in you.~\ This means, "Because the Gospel I preach, the message I brought from my Father, makes no way or progress in your hearts, or among you." — The Greek word, which our translators have rendered "hath place," is never so rendered elsewhere. The idea here seems to be that of " going forward, spreading, and marching on."
This describes literally the condition of many who hear Christ's word in every age. It seems to come to a dead stand- still or halt in their hearts, and to make no way with them.
88. — [I speak that, etc.~\ The sense of this verse appears to be filled up thus: "The truth is, that there is an entire gulf and breach between you and Me. I speak, and am ever speaking, the doctrine which I have seen with My Father, in our eternal councils about mankind, and which I am sent by Him to pro- claim to the world. You, on the other hand, clo and are always doing the things which your father the devil presents to your minds, and which you have seen and imbibed into your charac- ters, under his influence."
When our Lord speaks of what He has "seen" with His Father, we must remember, as elsewhere, that He uses language accommodated to our weak capacities, to describe the relation between Himself and the first Person in the Trinity. Compare John iii. 32 and v. 19.
There can be no doubt that the "father" of the Jews, to whom our Lord here refers, is " the devil," when we read the verses following. It conveys an awful idea of the state of unbelieving and wicked men, that they are doing what they have seen and learned from the devil. There may, however, be special reference to the design of the Jews to kill Christ. Our Lord's meaning may be, "Ye are doing what ye have seen with the devil your father. He has suggested to you to kill Me, and you are listening to his suggestion."
39. _ [They ansicered... Abraham is our father.'] This is a repeti- tion of what the Jews had already said. Startled at what our Lord said about their " father," they reassert emphatically their relationship to Abraham.— "What do you mean by thus speak- ing of our father ? Abraham is our father."
[Jesus saith...if Abraham's children... works of Abraham.] Our Lord here tells them that it is possible to be Abraham's chil-