John 8:51 - Meaning and Application

In these verses, we have the doctrine of the immortality of believers in John 8:51. Jesus begins with his usual solemn words, “Truly, truly, I say to you,” which call for close attention and full belief. He says, “If anyone keeps my word, he will never see death.” A believer is one who keeps the words of the Lord Jesus, his teaching that he has given us. We must not only receive that word, but keep it. We must hold it in mind and memory, cherish it, and guard it so that we do not break it or go against it. We should keep it as a precious trust, and live by it as our rule.

The privilege of the believer is great: he will never see death forever. The original wording means this very strongly. It does not mean that believers’ bodies will be kept from dying. Even the children of the Most High must die like other people, and Christ’s followers have often suffered death more than others. So how is this promise true? In three ways. First, death is changed for them, so they do not see it as death. Its terror is taken away, and they look through it to what comes after. Second, death’s power is broken. They may still pass through it, but they will not remain under its hold forever. The day will come when death is swallowed up in victory. Third, they are fully rescued from eternal death, the second death. That is the death meant here, the death that lasts forever and stands against everlasting life. They will never come into that death, because they will never come into condemnation. They will receive their eternal inheritance, where there is no more death. Though they cannot avoid seeing death and tasting it now, they will soon be where they will never see it again.

The Jews object to this teaching. Instead of holding onto this precious promise of immortality, which human nature desires, they use it to insult the one who offers it. They say, “Now we know that you have a demon,” meaning, “You are mad and talking nonsense.” This shows how people can trample on the great promises of the gospel. If they really had proof he was mad, why had they already said earlier, before any such proof, “You have a demon”? Malice often works this way. It first throws out a hateful charge, then looks for evidence afterward. If Jesus had not clearly shown himself to be a teacher from God, people might have mocked such a promise. But his teaching was clearly divine, his miracles proved it, and the Jewish Scriptures had taught them to expect such a prophet and believe in him. So for them to reject him was to turn away from the very promise their tribes hoped for (Acts 26:7).

They also reasoned against him, and this gave them a way to attack him. They thought he was claiming to be greater than Abraham and the prophets. Abraham is dead, and the prophets are dead too. That is true, and it is also true that these Jews were the kind of people who killed such messengers. Abraham and the prophets were great men, great in God’s favor and honored by all good people. It is also true that they obeyed God’s word. Yet they still died. They never claimed to give immortality. Each of them died in his own time and was gathered to his people. It was their honor that they died in faith, but die they did. Why should any good person be afraid to die, when Abraham is dead and the prophets are dead? They have already gone through that dark valley, which should help us face death with less fear.

The Jews thought Christ was speaking wildly when he said, “If anyone keeps my word, he will never taste death.” To taste death means the same thing as seeing it, and death can be described as painful to all the senses, since it destroys them all. But their argument rested on two mistakes. First, they understood Christ to mean freedom from death in this world, and that was not what he meant. In his sense, it was not true that Abraham and the prophets were dead, because God is still the God of Abraham and the holy prophets (Revelation 22:6). God is not the God of the dead, but of the living, so Abraham and the prophets are still alive, and in Christ’s meaning they had not seen or tasted death. Second, they assumed that no one could be greater than Abraham and the prophets. But they should have known that the Messiah would be greater than any of them. They did well, but he excelled them all, and even their greatness came from him. Abraham’s honor was that he was the father of the Messiah, and the prophets’ honor was that they spoke beforehand about him. So Christ certainly had a far greater name than they did. Instead of concluding from his claim that he had a demon, they should have concluded from the works he did, works Abraham and the prophets never did, that he was the Christ. But their eyes were blinded.

They asked with scorn, “Who do you make yourself out to be?” As if he were acting out of pride and boasting. In truth, he was far from making himself greater than he was. He was actually covering his own glory, emptying himself, making himself lower than he was, and setting the greatest example of humility ever seen.

Christ’s answer to their complaint is patient and careful. He still reasons with them so that every mouth may be stopped. He could have made them silent or struck them dead at once, but this was the time of his patience. In his answer, he does not rely on his own witness about himself, because he sets that aside as not enough by itself. If I honor myself, my honor means nothing. If I glorify myself, that does not prove anything.

Self-honor is no real honor, and chasing after glory ends up losing it. That kind of self-made honor is a sham, a mere empty idea, and Scripture calls it vain glory, because it has nothing lasting in it (Proverbs 25:27). People who admire themselves are fooling themselves. Our Lord Jesus was not trying to honor himself, as his enemies claimed. He was crowned by the one who is the true source of honor, and he did not make himself high priest, but was appointed by God (Hebrews 5:4, Hebrews 5:5).

Jesus then turns to his Father, God, and to their father, Abraham. He says, “It is my Father who honors me.” By this he means, first, that all the honor he claimed came from his Father. He had commanded them to believe in him, follow him, and keep his word, and all of that showed the honor given to him. But it was the Father who gave him strength, filled him with all fullness, made him holy, sealed him, and sent him into the world to receive the honor due to the Messiah. That gave him full right to make these claims.

He also means that he depended on his Father for all the honor still ahead of him. He was not chasing praise from people around him, because he looked instead to the glory the Father had promised him, and which he had with the Father before the world began. He was aiming at the honor the Father would give him, the name the Father would bestow on him, and the lifting up described in Philippians 2:8, 2:9. Christ, and all who belong to him, depend on God for their honor. Anyone who is sure of honor where he is truly known does not need approval where he is still hidden.

Jesus keeps appealing to his Father’s testimony, even though the Jews would not accept it. This gives him a chance to explain why they did not believe, despite that witness. The reason was that they did not know God. It is as if he said, “Why should I speak to you about my Father honoring me, when you know nothing of him? You say he is your God, but you have not known him.”

They claimed a special relation to God. They said he was their God, the God they had chosen, and that they were Israel, but not all who belong to Israel in name are truly so (Romans 9:6). Many claim God as their own, yet have no real right to say it. The Jews talked as if the Lord were their God, but they had profaned the glory of Jacob and trusted in false words. It does us no good to say, “He is our God,” if we are not truly his people and do not belong to him in sincerity. Christ brings up their claim because it made their unbelief worse. Everyone honors those whom their God honors, but these Jews, who said the Lord was their God, worked to shame the one their God had honored. The profession of a covenant relationship with God, if we do not live it out, will be used against us.

Jesus also exposes their ignorance of God, in spite of their claim. “Yet you have not known him.” This may mean, first, that they did not know him at all. The Pharisees were so busy with their traditions about small and useless matters that they ignored the most important knowledge. Or it may mean, second, that they did not know him rightly, which is almost as bad as not knowing him at all. People may argue cleverly about God and still think of him as if he were just like themselves. They may know the name of God and still know nothing of his true character.

Many people claim a close link to God, but they have no real friendship with him. They only know how to use his name in speech and argument, but not his nature, his qualities, or his dealings with his creatures. That is a shameful thing (1 Corinthians 15:34). Multitudes comfort themselves, and fool themselves, with a mere title that says they belong to an unknown God. Christ lays this charge against the Jews to show how empty their claim was. They said God was theirs, but they proved by their own ignorance that it was false. A person is fully exposed as a fraud when he knows nothing of the people he claims loyalty to.

This also shows why Christ’s teaching and miracles did not move them. They did not know God, so they did not recognize God’s image or hear God’s voice in Christ. The reason people do not receive Christ’s gospel is that they do not know God. People do not submit to Christ’s righteousness because they are ignorant of God’s righteousness (Romans 10:3). Those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of Christ are grouped together in judgment (2 Thessalonians 1:8).

Then Jesus gives the reason he is so sure the Father will honor him and own him: “But I know him.” He repeats it, “I know him,” to show not only close acquaintance, as one who had been in the Father’s presence, but also full confidence that the Father would support him and stand by him in all he was doing. This matches the prophecy about him: “I know I will not be put to shame, because the one who vindicates me is near” (Isaiah 50:7, 8). It is like Paul saying, “I know whom I have believed” (2 Timothy 1:12). Jesus knew the Father to be faithful, powerful, and fully committed to the cause that he knew was God’s own.

He says this with complete confidence, with nothing hidden or ashamed. “If I were to say that I do not know him, I would be a liar like you.” He would not deny his relation to God just to please the Jews, escape their insults, or avoid more trouble. He would not take back what he had said, or admit that he had been mistaken or deceitful. If he did, he would be giving false witness against God and against himself. Those who deny their faith and their relation to God are liars, just as much as hypocrites are when they pretend to know him but do not.

Jesus then proves his knowledge of the Father: “I know him and keep his saying,” or his word. As man, Christ obeyed the moral law, the law that shows how we should live. As Redeemer, the one who saves, he also obeyed the mediatorial law, the duty given to him as the appointed go-between for God and people. In both ways, he kept his Father’s word, and he kept his own word given by the Father. Jesus calls us to keep his sayings (John 8:51), and he has set before us a perfect example of obedience, one without any flaw. He kept his Father’s sayings, so it was fitting that the one who learned obedience would teach it (Hebrews 5:8, 5:9). This is how Christ showed that he truly knew the Father. The best proof that we know God is that we obey him.

Only those who keep God’s word truly know him, as is already settled truth (1 John 2:3). We know that we know him, and do not just imagine it, if we keep his commandments. Christ then turns them back to their father, the one they proudly claimed as their own, Abraham, and that ends the argument.

Christ says that Abraham looked forward to him and honored him: “Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day, and he saw it, and was glad” (John 8:56). By this, Jesus shows that he was not wrong to speak of himself as greater than Abraham. Abraham had two kinds of regard for the promised Messiah. First, he strongly desired to see his day, and he was eager for it. The word used here means more than ordinary joy, because the verse then says, “he saw it, and was glad.” It carries the sense that he reached out for it, like Zacchaeus, who ran ahead and climbed a tree to see Jesus.

The reports Abraham received about the coming Messiah awakened a deep expectation in him, and he wanted to know more. Even a small hint of something important makes people ask who, what, where, when, and how. That is how the Old Testament prophets, having only a broad idea of the grace to come, searched carefully (1 Peter 1:10). Abraham was just as eager. God told him about the land he would give to his descendants and the honor and wealth he planned for them (Genesis 15:14), but Abraham did not long for that as he longed for the day of the Son of man. He could not stay indifferent about the promised seed the way he could about the promised land.

This teaches us that anyone who truly knows anything of Christ will want to know more of him. Those who catch sight of the first light of the Sun of righteousness will want to see his full rising. The mystery of redemption is something even angels long to look into, and we should long for it even more, since it concerns us so closely. Abraham wanted to see Christ’s day, even though it was far away. But this unbelieving generation of his did not recognize his day, and did not welcome it when it came. Gracious hearts love and long for Christ’s appearing, but worldly hearts dread and hate it.

Second, Abraham was deeply pleased with what he did see of Christ’s day: “He saw it, and was glad.” God answered Abraham’s holy desire. He longed to see Christ’s day, and he did see it. He did not see it as fully and clearly as we do under the gospel, but he did see something of it, and later he saw more than he had at first. To the one who has, more will be given, and to the one who asks and uses what he has, God will give more knowledge of Christ.

How did Abraham see Christ’s day? Some understand this as a vision he had in the next world. When his soul was set free from the body, Abraham saw the mysteries of God’s kingdom in heaven. Calvin mentions this view and does not strongly object to it. The longing of godly souls for Jesus Christ will be fully satisfied in heaven, and not before then. But it is more commonly taken to mean that Abraham saw something of Christ’s day in this life. Those who did not receive the promises still saw them from afar (Hebrews 11:13). Balaam saw Christ, but not then and not near.

It is possible that Abraham had some private vision of Christ and his day for his own comfort, though it was not recorded, just as Daniel’s vision was to be shut up and sealed until the end (Daniel 12:4). Christ knew better than Moses what Abraham saw. Even so, Scripture records several moments in which Abraham saw more of the coming day than he did when the promise was first given. He saw in Melchizedek, a priest made like the Son of God, a picture of an eternal priest. He saw Jehovah appear with two angels in the plains of Mamre. In his successful pleading for Sodom, he saw a pattern of Christ’s intercession. In Ishmael’s casting out and the covenant being confirmed through Isaac, he saw a figure of the gospel day, which is Christ’s day, for these things were an allegory. In offering Isaac, and then the ram instead of Isaac, he saw a double picture of the great sacrifice. Even the name he gave the place, Jehovah-jireh, meaning “The Lord will provide” or “It shall be seen,” suggests that he saw more there than others did. And when he made his servant put his hand under his thigh while swearing, he was thinking of the Messiah.

Abraham welcomed these discoveries of Christ’s day with joy. He saw, and he was glad. He was glad for God’s favor toward himself, and glad for the mercy God was storing up for the world. This may even refer to Abraham’s laughter when God promised him a son through Sarah (Genesis 17:16, 17). That was not Sarah’s laughter of doubt, but joy. In that promise, Abraham saw Christ’s day, and it filled him with unspeakable joy. So he embraced the promises. A believing sight of Christ and his day brings gladness to the heart. There is no joy like the joy of faith. We do not know true pleasure until we know Christ.

The Jews objected to this and mocked Jesus for it (John 8:57). They said, “You are not yet fifty years old, and you have seen Abraham?” They assumed that if Abraham had seen Christ and his day, then Christ must have seen Abraham in the same way. That was not necessarily what Jesus meant, though the wording did allow them to twist it against him. Still, it was true that Christ had seen Abraham, and had spoken with him as a man speaks with his friend. They also thought it ridiculous for Jesus to claim he had seen Abraham, who had died so many centuries before. They were thinking only in physical terms, while Christ spoke of spiritual realities.

This gave them another chance to scorn his youth, as if he were too young to know anything. “You are not yet fifty years old,” they said. They might as well have said forty, because he was only about thirty-two or thirty-three years old. Irenaeus, one of the early church fathers, used this verse to support a tradition he said he had heard from people who knew John, that Jesus lived to be fifty. That shows how little trust should be placed in tradition. In this case, the Jews were speaking loosely. They picked a number that was safely beyond his age, since he did not look forty, but they were certain he could not be fifty, much less a man who had lived before Abraham.

Old age was often counted as beginning at fifty (Num. 4:47), so their taunt likely meant, “You are not even an old man yet. Many of us are much older, and we have never claimed to have seen Abraham.” Some think his face had changed so much from grief and watching that he looked about fifty years old. In that case, his appearance would fit the prophecy, “his appearance was so disfigured” (Isa. 52:14).

Jesus answered this insult with a solemn claim that reached back before Abraham himself (John 8:58). He said, “Truly, truly, I say to you,” speaking not only to his disciples, who would agree with him, but to his enemies face to face. “Before Abraham was, I am.” The change in wording matters: Abraham came into being, but Christ simply says, “I am.”

This shows Abraham as a creature, and Christ as the Creator. Jesus was before Abraham in two ways. First, as God, “I am” is the name of God (Ex. 3:14). It speaks of his self-existence, his unchanging life, and his eternal being, as the first and the last (Rev. 1:8). So he was before Abraham, and before all worlds (John 1:1; Prov. 8:23).

Second, as Mediator, that is, the one chosen to bring God and people together, he was the promised Messiah long before Abraham. He was the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world (Rev. 13:8), the way God has always used to give light, life, and love to humanity. This also means Christ is truly divine and unchanging in himself from eternity (Heb. 13:8). He was the one who became for all believers wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption, from Adam onward, including Abel, Enoch, Noah, Shem, and all the patriarchs who lived and died by faith before Abraham was born.

Abraham was the root of the Jewish nation, the rock they were cut from. So if Christ was before Abraham, then his teaching and religion were not a new invention. In their substance, they came before Judaism and should have had first place.

That great statement ended the argument at once. They could not bear to hear any more, and he had said enough to support all his claims. One would expect that a speech so full of grace and glory would have won them over, but their deep prejudice against Christ’s holy and spiritual teaching, which stood against their pride and love of worldly things, defeated every effort to convince them. Then the prophecy was fulfilled, that when the messenger of the covenant came to his temple, they would not endure the day of his coming because he would be like a refiner’s fire (Mal. 3:1-2).

They were enraged by what Jesus said and picked up stones to throw at him (John 8:59). Perhaps they thought he had blasphemed, and blasphemers were indeed to be stoned (Lev. 24:16). But a person must first be legally tried and found guilty. Justice and order are lost if anyone claims the right to punish on his own. They had just said he was out of his mind, and if that were true, it would be wrong to treat him as a criminal for his words.

They took up stones. Dr. Lightfoot says stones may have been ready in the temple because workmen were repairing it or making additions, and the chipped-off stone pieces were at hand for this purpose. This shows the desperate power of sin and Satan over people who refuse to obey. Who would think such open rebellion could rise up against one who had clearly shown himself to be the Son of God? In that way, every person still has a stone ready to throw at Christ’s holy religion (Acts 28:22).

Jesus then escaped from their hands. First, he hid himself. The text says he was hidden, either by the crowd of people who wished him well and sheltered him, or perhaps by hiding behind walls or pillars in the temple. Or it may have been by divine power, as if he cast a mist before their eyes and became invisible to them. When the wicked rise up, a good and wise man can be hidden (Prov. 28:12, 28). Christ was not afraid or ashamed of what he had said, but his hour had not yet come. He would also show by his own example that his followers may flee in times of persecution when called to do so. The Lord hid Jeremiah and Baruch (Jer. 36:26).

Second, he departed. He went out of the temple, passed through the midst of them, and they did not recognize him. This was not a cowardly escape, nor did it show guilt or fear. It had been foretold that he would not fail or be discouraged (Isa. 42:4). It showed his power over his enemies, since they could do nothing more than he allowed. Later, when he was arrested, he offered himself willingly (John 10:18). They thought they had him trapped, yet he walked through their midst, either because their eyes were blinded or their hands were restrained, and left them frustrated like a lion that has missed its prey.

It also showed his wise care for his own safety, since his work was not yet finished and his witness not yet complete. In that he set an example for his own rule, that when people persecute us in one city, we should flee to another. If needed, even to a wilderness, as Elijah did (1 Kings 19:3-4), and as the woman, the church, did in Revelation 12:6. He could have called on the stones themselves to cry out against them, or the earth to open and swallow them. Instead, he chose to act in a way his followers could imitate without a miracle.

It was also a righteous leaving of those who had, worse than the Gadarenes, driven him away from among them. Christ does not stay long with people who tell him to go. He did visit the temple again after this, as one reluctant to leave, but at last he abandoned it forever and left it desolate. He went through the midst of the Jews, and none of them begged him to stay or even reached out to hold him. God never leaves anyone until they have first driven him away and refused him. Calvin notes that when these chief priests drove Christ from the temple, they proudly claimed to still possess it. But, he says, those people are badly mistaken who boast of a church or temple that Christ has left.

When Christ left them, he passed by quietly and unnoticed, so that they did not realize he was gone. This shows that Christ’s departure from a church, or from a particular soul, is often hidden and not noticed right away. The kingdom of God does not come with outward display, and it often does not leave that way either. See (Judges 16:20). Samson did not know that the Lord had left him. It was the same with these abandoned Jews, God had left them, and they did not even miss him.