Bleed the Bible

John 8:31-47

Main Idea: A genuine disciple holds to the Word.

1. Disciples Hold On to the Word of God.
2. Disciples Discover Truth in the Word about Jesus.
3. Disciples Find Freedom in the Truth.

When Jesus came to the Festival of Shelters (ch. 7), he taught he was the Messiah and all men needed to come to him so they would not die in their sin. Some responded to this message in belief (7:31; 8:30), but in the Gospel of John, whenever we see that someone believed, we should ask, “Was their faith genuine?” Not all claims to faith are genuine (2:23-25). Not everyone who says he is a believer in Jesus really is. Jesus understood there would be many who claimed to be his disciples that would turn and walk away, revealing their faith was false (6:66).

The words of Jesus, beginning in verse 31, clarify whether the faith of these men was genuine. verse 31 begins with the word then(Gk oun), which shows us we’re to interpret these words in light of the declaration of faith made by these men. Was their faith genuine? Jesus reveals that genuine disciples “continue” or abide in the Bible.

Disciples Hold On to the Word of God

The litmus test of true discipleship is continuing, abiding, remaining, and persevering in the Bible. These Jews were not genuine disciples. Jesus said his word found no place in them (v. 37), and they could not bear to listen to his word (v. 43). We know their faith is false because the teachings that would become part of the Bible didn’t find a warm and receptive home in their hearts. They may have reacted gladly to it at first, but ultimately they tossed his word aside.

What does it mean to “continue” in his word (v. 31)? We can understand it better if we look at the negative example found in verse 37. The opposite of abiding in his word is that his word finds “no place” in us. This expression is found only two other times in John’s Gospel. The first is in chapter 2, verse 6, when Jesus turns the water into wine. The jars “each contained twenty or thirty gallons” (emphasis added). The second use is in chapter 21: “And there are also many other things that Jesus did, which, if every one of them were written down, I suppose not even the world itself could contain the books that would be written” (v. 25). The problem was their hearts would not hold on to the words of Jesus. They were unwilling to contain the Bible.

To abide in the Bible means to hold on to the teachings of Christ and never let go. It means the Bible so fills us up that we can barely contain it. It means we’re willing to let the Bible dominate us. It means every area of our lives is being brought under the control of the Word of God. Every thought, deed, and action seeks conformity to the Scriptures. It means even when we don’t like something in the Bible, we still obey, asking God to change our hearts so the truth of the Bible will find a warm and friendly reception in us.

Abiding in Scripture also means we take a much longer-term perspective on things. We aren’t seeking immediate, instantaneous results. We understand genuine faith is proved over time, but false faith flickers and dies. It’s easy for us to focus on instant results—instant coffee, instant pudding, instant news—but the Christian life is not lived in the instant but in the eternal. Anyone can follow Jesus for a day, but a genuine believer will follow him for a lifetime. He or she will hold tightly to his words and never let go.

Our problem is we want the Bible to validate what we already think or feel. We love sermons that agree with how we think. We don’t like sermons that disagree with us. We don’t like the suggestion that something we believe could be wrong. We want our opinions and beliefs to be validated. Do we really think we have the Bible mastered to the point that our thinking is never going to be changed? If you’ve got it all down, then you don’t need the Bible. But you don’t have it all down. None of us do. We should find ourselves constantly rethinking things. We should regularly have our thinking challenged. That’s how God changes us. That’s how we grow.

The Bible is clear from cover to cover that we need constant contact with it in order to grow. Wisdom comes from prolonged exposure to the Bible. God told Joshua the Scripture should be meditated on day and night (Josh 1:8). The psalmist echoes God’s words and calls meditation a delight (Ps 1:2). Jesus isn’t changing the Bible’s teachings; he’s affirming what has always been its clear message: genuine disciples are marked by a commitment to God’s Word. The Bible is the means God has chosen to reveal himself to us, and through the Bible we grow in our understanding and worship of him.

When we hold to the Word of God, Jesus says, “You will know the truth” (John 8:32). The only pathway to truth is the Bible. The truth isn’t cloaked in obscure, vague ambiguity. We don’t have to learn special codes or study numerology. We just have to hold to the Bible. The longer we persevere in it, the clearer the truth becomes.

Truth is under attack. Some go so far as to suggest that the search for truth is pointless. On June 13, 2014, new age guru Deepak Chopra tweeted, “All belief is a cover up for insecurity.”^[3]In other words, there’s no such thing as truth. Even the notion of truth itself is ridiculous. There’s no such thing as right and wrong, no moral absolutes, just experience. So, Chopra advises, experience it. This false thinking has made its way into the church. We find ourselves pulled into a search for new spiritual experiences. We forfeit objective biblical revelation for private, mystical experience. We have our quiet time hoping to find some hidden jewel in the text that speaks right to our emotions and experiences and gives us a nice, warm buzz for the day. That’s not what Jesus promises! When we hold to the Bible and discover truth, here’s what we discover: truth is found in the person of Jesus Christ. We find him in his Word. That’s why we reject emotionalism, sentimentality, and other such drivel as being “God’s word to us” and instead rely solely on the Word of God, which focuses on the person of Jesus Christ.

Disciples Discover Truth in the Word of God

True disciples hold tightly to the Word of God, and as they do, they learn more and more about genuine reality, which is sourced in and centered on Jesus Christ (v. 32). To seek truth apart from Jesus Christ is inherently self-defeating because he alone is “the way, the truth, and the life” (14:6). If we reject the Word of God, we’ll not be able to discern, understand, or even desire the truth. These false disciples rejected the Word of God, so they could not know or appreciate the truth (8:40, 45).

When the Word of God is rejected, truth is lost. The apostle Paul warned Timothy a day would come when men would no longer endure the teaching of the Word, and instead they would desire that which made them feel good about themselves (2 Tim 4:3). Look at the popular books in bookstores right now, and let me know whether that day has come.

Disciples Find Freedom in the Truth

When we hold tightly to the Bible, we discover the truth about Jesus, and that truth sets us free. “You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (v. 32). Every person who is thrown in jail and claims they are innocent quotes this verse. Every politician lamenting corrupt government and promising drastic changes uses it in a speech. Every anti-establishment hippie paints it in neon colors on the side of his VW van. But this is not a general proverb to be applied however we want, whenever we want, in whatever situation we want.

First of all, it’s given in the context of abiding in the Word of God. Second, it’s not referring to one’s private situation but to something much bigger and universally applicable: the truth of the gospel revealed in Jesus Christ. Third, the freedom that is being promised is a specific freedom. It’s freedom from sin. Jesus said we’re all enslaved to sin (v. 34). Whether we want to admit it or not, each of us is a slave to sin. In this passage these men couldn’t see their own slavery. Jesus promises them freedom, and they answer spitefully: “We have never been enslaved to anyone” (v. 33). Jesus makes clear they’re slaves to sin, and at some point the slave is kicked out of the house, and only the family remains. “So, you need the Son,” Jesus says in essence, “to set you free.”

Do you see the progression? We believe on Jesus Christ, hold fiercely to his Word, learn more about him, and find greater freedom and victory over sin in our lives. This is true freedom.

True freedom is not the liberty to do anything we please, but the liberty to do what we ought; and it is genuine liberty because doing what we ought now pleases us. (Carson, John, 350)

We can be free from sin through Jesus Christ. Charles Wesley describes this freedom beautifully in his great hymn “And Can It Be?”

Long my imprisoned spirit lay

fast bound in sin and nature’s night;

Thine eye diffused a quickening ray—

I woke, the dungeon flamed with light;

My chains fell off, my heart was free,

I rose, went forth, and followed Thee.

Genuine freedom comes from submission to the Word of God. We think freedom is throwing off all social restraints and doing whatever we want, but that’s not freedom. That’s slavery—slavery to our passions and lusts, slavery to sin. Real freedom is the ability to say no to the fleeting pleasures of sin and hold out for the fulfilling joy that comes in Christ. Those who are mature understand that genuine freedom is the ability to say no to anything that’s going to hinder their enjoyment of Christ. The Word of God, the Bible, the truth of Jesus, sets us free from sin to enjoy God. It removes the chains of sin and gives us the freedom of a Son! As we persevere in the Word of God, we will—Jesus promises—understand more about him, and we will be increasingly liberated from the sin that shackles us to joylessness.

Part of this text is sad and scary. These religious men think they’re doing just fine spiritually, but they’ve been deceived. They see themselves as free men (v. 33), sons of Abraham (v. 39), and children of God (v. 41). But here’s what Jesus says about them: they’re enslaved to sin (vv. 34-35), they’re intolerant of truth (vv. 40, 45), and they’re the offspring of Satan (vv. 44-45).

If we’re not careful, an emphasis on reading and studying the Bible could push us to legalism. We could think, I’m a failure if I miss a single devotional time, or If I don’t do my Bible study today, God is not going to be happy with me, or A real Christian wouldn’t struggle with having to read her Bible. That’s not at all what Jesus is teaching in this passage. Verse 47 helps us see the gospel—what Jesus did for us—in relation to these truths.

Our hope is not found in ourselves and in our ability to perfectly fulfill a list of Bible-reading requirements. Our position in Christ is not rooted in our capacity to mark off boxes on a spiritual-discipline checklist. If we’ve turned from our sin and turned to Christ, then God will do that work in us. He will create in us a growing desire for his Word. He will give us the strength to say no to our lazy flesh and be diligent in our study of the Scripture. That doesn’t mean we will never have dry spells and difficulty, but it does mean that over the long haul God will work in us, giving us the desire to hold to his Word, the ability to see Christ in it, and the freedom that comes from it.

John Bunyan—the wonderful, Puritan pastor and author of Pilgrim’s Progress, the man whom Charles Spurgeon said bled the Bible—described the Bible this way:

I tell thee, friend, there are some promises that the Lord hath helped me to lay hold of Jesus Christ through, . . . that I would not have [these promises taken] out of the Bible for as much gold and silver as can lie between York and London piled up to the stars. (Bunyan, Sighs from Hell, 3:721)

Like Bunyan, read the Book, treasure it, immerse yourself in it, and do so for the long haul. Spend as much time as possible in the Bible so that it becomes a part of you, and then maybe one day you will cut your finger and bleed the Bible.

Reflect and Discuss

1. What are three marks of a genuine disciple?
2. What does it mean to abide in Jesus’s word?
3. How should we respond when we see something in the Bible we don’t like or understand?
4. Do you feel your time in Scripture frequently challenges your thinking and beliefs? Why or why not?
5. How can we grow in wisdom and delight in Scripture?
6. What are some ways you might seek truth apart from Jesus?
7. How can truth, and knowing it, set you free? What can the truth of Jesus set you free from?
8. How would you define true freedom in light of this passage?
9. How is the Christian understanding of freedom different from the world’s understanding?
10. How might you find yourself slipping into legalism in your pursuit of Jesus?