Valid Judging

My judgment is true; for I am not alone in it, but I and the Father who sent Me. (John 8:16)

There is much I could learn from just this short verse that I suspect I am missing. But it is worth the effort to spend some time exploring what I can discover here.

For one thing, I notice that there seems to be strong clues here about heaven's definition of judgment or at least some attributes about judgment that are necessary to understand. Jesus strongly implies here that for judgment to be true, to be valid, to not have the evil connotations of condemnation attached to it as we are so used to expecting, that good judgment must always involve agreement from multiple sources. This concept was woven into the very fabric of the Old Testament laws of Moses, the guidelines for the government of Israel in ancient times. No one was to be condemned on the testimony of only one witness; there had to be at least two or more reliable first-hand witnesses before someone could be found guilty of a crime. This was required for any judgment to be considered true and valid.

Secondly, I see in this verse an appeal to the credibility of the witnesses involved. Jesus' listeners would not accept that Jesus was God in the flesh and so would not allow that He had access to infinite wisdom. But Jesus asserted here that the Father God, the One who unquestionably knows everything about everyone, even the most remote and secret thoughts and impulses of the heart, was involved as one of the multiple witnesses connected with what Jesus was claiming. Jesus declares in this statement that He and the Father are in alignment with the fundamental principles of true judgment, that even God Himself will not insist on a determination about someone outside of the requirements for enough witnesses to make that determination credible.

This is a very compelling concept hidden here in this verse. To imagine that the God who knows everything about everyone, from whom nothing can be hidden in the slightest way, would still choose to submit His own knowledge and determinations to the same rules and requirements expected of everyone else is an amazing thing to say the least. It also runs counter to what many people assume about God, for many people just expect God to arbitrarily impose His decisions or punishments on people based solely on His superior advantage, knowledge and power. But God is never arbitrary even though His opponents have painted Him in that light.

Interestingly, the Godhead itself is actually composed and related in such a way as to reveal this very principle within itself. God is actually a mysterious three-in-one being and as such can experience and relate in such a way as to be in harmony with the very essence of love. We glibly talk about God as being love, but we spend very little thought considering the nature and requirements for love to exist. Love is always other-centered, always focused on the good of another. But when there are more than two involved in a love relationship that love becomes exponential. Because God is love it is inherently impossible for Him to only be one, for self-love is not really love if there is no other person involved. Fuller love needs a minimum of three involved within its parameters to be alive and authentic. We have very little grasp of these realities but that does not make them any less important or less true and we need to allow our minds to be impressed with these aspects of love so that we can experience it more fully ourselves.

This is very much connected with the idea of judgment, for judgment is simply the action or event wherein the true motives and secrets of the heart become fully exposed to others. When Jesus says here that His judgment is true, He is saying that as He is in open communion and agreement with His Father who knows everything about what is hidden, that their perspectives both confirm their evaluations of the truth about whatever is being analyzed. When the God who has become human and the Father who is also God both are in agreement about some other person and the Holy Spirit adds its confirmation to those opinions, the claims of such a trio are both valid and completely reliable and true. Jesus is also saying that this is the way each of us need to approach judgment for He is our example in how to relate to what is hidden in other people's hearts.

When Seeking Him Becomes Tragic

Then He said again to them, "I go away, and you will seek Me, and will die in your sin; where I am going, you cannot come." (John 8:21)

I want to process this more and see some of the implications embedded within this text.

It seems that the Pharisees and other Jewish leaders certainly wanted Jesus to go away. He was a major pain in their system, undermining their influence and tearing apart all that they had spent so many years working to perfect. He threatened their whole routine of religion, their power over the people, their credibility and their perceived piety before God. His views of what God was like made them look like hypocrites and He was infecting more and more people with ideas about God that threatened to destroy the very foundation of religion as they viewed it. And worst of all they could not seem to control Him or even intimidate or stop Him from spreading these damnable heresies. So with all of this going on, why would this statement about going away have this reaction from these men? They seemed intent on figuring out where He might go, but why? Did they still want to find Him for some reason?

What is not yet so clear is why they would want to seek Him when He went away. All throughout the passage here it keeps referring to the fact that they repeatedly sought to kill Him. But if He went away it doesn't make as much sense me why they would still be trying to seek Him. To kill Him? That is possible. What does come to mind through my spirit is something much larger, much more ominous that can only be glimpsed when viewed from the larger perspective which Jesus tended to speak from so often.

In my growing understanding of the greater context of the war between evil and good, I am starting to see a little more clearly what the final showdown between these two cosmic forces may look like. Unlike what many assume will take place – a battle between the two sides to see which has more brute power and strength like we are so used to seeing in this world – I am starting to perceive that the final showdown is going to be quite different in orientation from what most of us expect. This comes from careful consideration of the very nature and hidden strength of the real kingdom of heaven.

The kingdom of God is not about brute power, intimidation, fear or force. It is the hidden but far greater power created through love, selflessness, service, humility, kindness, transparency and absolute truthfulness. It centers on and receives its power from the principles of God's character and the advantages of living in total loyalty to Him. From our fallen perspective this kingdom appears extremely weak and vulnerable, but that is what hides its true power, for within the apparent weakness of the kingdom of heaven is hidden true strength.

Paul understood this truth and stated it this way. But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong. (2 Corinthians 12:9-10 NIV)

In the final showdown, that great day of judgment, or in other terms the great time of revelation about what is real but hidden, the truth will be fully exposed about the true principles of God's universe and how they are irrevocable, unbreakable and are perfectly harmonious. These are not arbitrary rules that must be obeyed or will elicit imposed punishments by an offended God; these are principles that have their own natural consequences if violated just like the principles of physics or any other science that we easily accept in our lives. All principles, or what we often call laws, were designed by God to work together harmoniously for good, and if we align ourselves with these principles and remain in harmony with them we find true joy and fulfillment and satisfaction as we were designed to live. If we choose to live apart from or in violation of these principles of life, we suffer the natural consequence of death and the related pain and suffering that go along with it.

God has actually interfered with these natural consequences to a great extent by preventing for a very long time the full natural results of these violations from taking place, both in the lives of angels and in fallen humanity. This is what we have come to call grace. Grace is God's restraint of the natural laws of cause and effect to prevent all who have sinned from being immediately extinguished by their own choices to live outside of His perfect system of life. But He will not extend this artificial life-support arrangement forever. But at the same time He is not going to artificially impose the penalties that are naturally involved in violations of these eternal principles. He is simply going to guide circumstances in such a way so that all intelligent beings everywhere will come to see clearly for themselves what He has been doing all along and thus will vindicate His character. But more importantly He is going to first allow all His created beings to judge His own role throughout all of this struggle with sin to determine whether or not He has been totally fair in every aspect of His dealings with sinners.

Sin and its followers are in rebellion against the natural principles of reality. Because of this sin's results eventually happen naturally and those results involve pain and death. God's artificial interference in this natural progression toward death is the gift of undeserved life in spite of our repeated violations of natural law (which all true law is really natural). God's artificial sustaining of our our existence to give us opportunities to repent and turn back to synchronize with life is a suspension of the natural principle of cause and effect, yet it is the only way in which He can salvage all who might respond to His gracious and extravagant offer of a second chance to live in harmony with life.

Sin is against and in violation of the natural principles that govern all the universe and it also produces intense resentment against God and all that He represents. Jesus came to reveal the truth about the Father and to expose these eternal principles of reality to our darkened understanding. He came to reveal both the truth about God and by contrast the absurdity of the claims and assertions of Satan. This is what Jesus called light which He mentioned just previous to this opening verse. Jesus is the light of the world because He is the only human who ever lived in full harmony with the principles of reality and therefore did not naturally induce any consequences of sin upon Himself.

But in doing so He exposed the intense resistance produced by sin in the attitudes and treatment He received from those who refused to believe in Him. They hated Him more and more and resented His very presence. To hear that He would go away would seem to have been the best news they might have heard in a long time. But what they did not realize in their ignorance was that to have Him go away they were really wishing to have the only source of grace and life leave them abandoned. And the result of our only Source of life leaving us is to suffer the only other option – death.

In the final day of judgment and revelation of what is really true and right and real, the great surprise for most people will be the discovery that God is not at all what His enemies have made Him out to be. He is not the arbitrary, vengeful, unforgiving and severe deity that He is thought by so many to be. And at first that will make Him and all of those who have chosen His ways to appear vulnerable and weak. Indeed, they are very vulnerable in some respects, for vulnerability and openness are some of the hallmarks of God's true kingdom. But vulnerability does not mean that His kingdom can be overcome or destroyed, for God's way of living in total transparency and humility is one of the greatest strengths and the secret of His true power.

While God's kingdom in its purest form may appear incredibly delicate and fragile, it is in this very truth that its real beauty is perfected. We are familiar with the fragility of some of the most beautiful things on earth and how easily they can be marred or destroyed by our clumsiness or disregard. Yet these very illustrations in nature give us examples of the true nature of God's kingdom and the need for all who want to live in that realm to live in purity, in maturity and in harmony with the principles exposed by these examples in order to live happily in safety and peace.

Those who resist living in harmony with the fragility of God's ways of living, who choose instead to exploit God's creation and His creatures for their own pleasure instead of living for the benefit of those around them, will discover too late that such selfish living only ends in destroying the very atmosphere needed for their own continued existence. In desiring that the very Author of life to go away from them they were in essence wishing upon themselves their own death without realizing it.

Part of God's character is respect and an intense jealousy for the freedom of all to choose their own direction. He invites, He warns of consequences, He gives abundant evidence, He entreats and draws in every way possible to attract all who will believe Him into intimate fellowship with Himself, to be transformed into harmony with the true ways of life. But for those who demand that He leave them alone, in the end He is going to respect their insistence and will finally allow them to suffer the natural results of choosing to live disconnected from the only Source of life that there is.

When the truth is fully and clearly exposed about God and His principles of reality in that final day of Judgment and it becomes clear that God is going to respect the wishes of all who want Him to leave them alone, with intense horror they will plainly realize their tragic mistake and will try to seek Him again. That is because it is in our nature to desire life; we call it the survival instinct. But the tragedy in this final seeking is that by this point they will have by their own repeated choices resisted His love and grace for so long that they have destroyed their very capacity to be truly converted. Too late they discover that choosing a life of rebellion and self-serving has permanently destroyed their very ability to live in the fragile but incredibly beautiful kingdom of perfect love and peace. In desperation they will seek Him, the only source of life, but only from a selfish desire for self-preservation. The motives and the timing with which we seek to embrace God's offer of life makes all the difference in our preparation for eternal life.

Those who resist Jesus to the very end and then realize that He is their only hope for continued life of any kind will end up dying in their sin; for sin is simply resisting the only possible way to live. By forming characters out of harmony with the delicate, vulnerable, joyful, interactive fellowship of heaven, they have ruined their own capacity to live any longer in a universe restored to its pristine condition of love. Like what was spoken of the angels who fell from their place in heaven, there will be no place found for them anymore. They will then see clearly that they have no one to blame but themselves for their final and eternal death.

But the glories of heaven that they are going to miss out on are so attractive and overwhelmingly beautiful that the misery and regret they will suffer can only be indescribably torturous. This is the surprising truth about the fires of hell, for it is a fire, not from an angry God getting even with His enemies but is actually caused by the far greater torture of realizing that their own choices have permanently disqualified them to live in harmony with the passionate power of love from a Father who has done everything possible to entice them to join Him in His kingdom of perfect love. They will die in their sin because that is the natural result of sin, which by simple definition is living apart from God and out of harmony with the principles of reality that make up His universe.

Where I am going, you cannot come. Jesus was not talking about traveling somewhere physically out of reach of these Jews or even killing Himself as they conjectured. He was speaking of going back to live in the reality in which all the rest of the universe thrives in total harmony, where sin cannot live because it is totally incompatible with that way of life. Jesus not only lived a human life free of all sin here on this earth, but He continues to live in a place with an atmosphere so intense that sinners cannot survive there. To follow Jesus inherently requires turning away from sin, for sin is the opposite of coming to Him. If we chose to remain in sin, it inherently means we are refusing to come to Jesus and to life, and the only end that this choice can ever produce is death in our sin.

Jesus temporarily visited our planet as a human to reveal to us the only path back into life and to provide us the ladder by which we can be rescued from this world plunging into self destruction. All those who turn away from their resistance to God (sin) can be elevated in character by staying on and clinging to the ladder of Jesus. In doing so they will be transformed by the renewing of their minds into harmony with His glorious kingdom of love and truth. But all those who put off or continue to refuse this incredible offer of salvation to be restored to their original design, will too late try to seek Him after their characters are permanently deformed.

It is all in the timing. Everyone will sooner or later seek Him. But timing makes all the difference between life or death for eternity. If we refuse to seek Him while He can be found to allow Him to live and dwell in us to prepare us for that coming kingdom by having it implanted into our hearts right now, then we will someday feel compelled to seek Him after it is too late; and in that seeking we will experience the tortures of hell. Hell in reality will be the torture experienced from the overwhelming agony of dying from the realization of all that we could have had but chose to turn down in our selfishness, pride and rebellion.

Father, I choose to embrace Your kingdom now, while You can still mold and reshape and conform me to live in harmony with Your principles of reality and truth. Have Your way in me today, dwell inside of my heart, capture all of my affections and attention and make me an example of what You want to do in each of our lives. Cleanse me of all the lies about You that keep me from resting in You fully. Fill me with Your Spirit, let Your sap of life flow through me as one of Your branches so that Your fruit can become abundant in my life. Do all of this for Your name's sake, for Your reputation, Amen.

Truth and Judging

So the Pharisees said to Him, "You are testifying about Yourself; Your testimony is not true." Jesus answered and said to them, "Even if I testify about Myself, My testimony is true, for I know where I came from and where I am going; but you do not know where I come from or where I am going. You judge according to the flesh; I am not judging anyone." (John 8:13-15)

The Pharisees thought they had found another trap in which to catch Jesus in His own words.

If I alone testify about Myself, My testimony is not true. (John 5:31) Since their awareness of the Father was pretty much non-existent, they could not sense the testimony from Him corroborating the testimony of Jesus. They were so tuned to the wrong spirit that the testimony of God's Spirit could not register in their minds and hearts and all they could see was what they could perceive in the flesh.

Jesus also notes here that He is not judging anyone. He goes on to talk about what would happen even if He did judge, but it is important to perceive His use of this word and not allow our usual assumptions about judging to interfere with what He is seeking to convey to us. He was not saying that He never judged, He was simply saying that in that conversation He was not judging them though it appears that they must have been feeling judged.

If they were feeling judged it was likely because judgment is simply what occurs whenever light comes close and begins to expose what we don't want exposed inside of us. Jesus was not imposing judgment on them at this time, but if they were feeling judged it was because their own hearts were condemning them. Whenever we continue to increase our resistance against God as He tries to share more truth and light with us, our feelings of guilt and condemnation and judgment equally will increase. But this is not because God is imposing those feelings on us but is simply the natural results of our resistance.

The psychological and physical description of what is occurring in the brain when we feel guilt is rather interesting and informative. Basically guilt is when the left and the right sides of the brain cannot come into agreement about something. What we might call the head and the heart are feeling tension and conflict with each other over some issue, and that resulting tension is what we have labeled as guilt. It is a God-designed part of our makeup to warn us of danger just as our nervous system serves to alert us of problems by producing pain when some part of our anatomy is having serious problems.

God does not impose physical pain on us to punish us when we touch a hot stove, our body is already set up to take care of that alerting signal to our brain. In the same way, our conscience is provided to create guilt inside our brains whenever we are suffering malfunction in our spiritual life. Of course our conscience can also have problems of its own and needs to be educated and transformed along with the rest of our mental makeup, but it is the part of us designed by God to nudge us and prick us and cause us trouble when we are moving outside of our intended harmony with God.

When we suffer pain, whether it be physical or spiritual or emotional, we have choices of what to do in response to that pain. When we move into blaming someone else for our pain while refusing to accept responsibility for our dysfunction and our part of causing the pain, then we live in denial and deception which is what our fallen natures often lead us to do. Living in the blame game and refusing to humble ourselves and turn to God for correction and realignment is to induce pain of all sorts that will only increase as we continue to malfunction and resist the truth.

These Pharisees were exhibiting just such symptoms. Instead of accepting Jesus' words and allowing them to have their intended effect of correcting their skewed ideas about God and about religion, these men sought to resist every statement of Jesus and then tried to pin the responsibility of all their inner pain and resentment on making Him out to be the problem. They repeatedly tried to discredit Him, to blame Him, to make Him out as the one out of harmony with God while they viewed their own teachings and beliefs and rules as valid standards of measurement. Thus it was really they who were really trying to judge God, not the other way around.

Finding Your Father

"In your law it is written that the testimony of two witnesses is valid. I testify on my own behalf, and the Father who sent me testifies on my behalf." Then they said to him, "Where is your Father?" Jesus answered, "You know neither me nor my Father. If you knew me, you would know my Father also." (John 8:17-19 NRSV)

These religious leaders were judging the testimony of Jesus based on physical perceptions and the social standards of the world. Because of this it was not possible for them to discern the Father or what the Father might be saying to them.

Was this because the Father was not speaking to them? Or was it because they were not hearing the Father because they had such false ideas about Him that created too much interference?

They were in essence saying that Jesus was lying about His Father's testimony because they could not see His Father anywhere around. In fact, the issue of who was the real father of Jesus was one of their hot topics of gossip, for they insisted that Jesus was an illegitimate child. Because of the serious doubts surrounding the circumstances of His birth, they were choosing to believe that Mary had likely had an illicit relationship with someone and that Joseph and Mary had conspired to cover it all up.

It was rumored that there were claims about a divine birth but that notion was even more preposterous. This reputation of illegitimacy followed Jesus all of His life and was brought up repeatedly in attempts to discredit Him.

Obviously we have no idea whether His earthly father was still alive yet at this time or not. But whether he was or not, he was evidently not available at the time of this story to testify about the authenticity of Jesus' testimony. And even if he had been there to testify they would have shredded his testimony with scorn and ridicule and unbelief.

In this question these Jews were clearly referring to Jesus' earthly father, but Jesus was speaking of His heavenly Father. They did not miss that point but wanted to steer attention away from His claim of divine parentage to draw attention to their insinuations about His illegitimacy.

The real issue comes back to something that haunts many of us more than we may think. Many who have had earthly fathers who caused deep wounds in their hearts or who may have been absent, to a great degree struggle with the issue of identity and value. They also have a very difficult time believing in a Father-God who really cares about and loves them like He claims He does. For many, the very word 'father' elicits strong triggers of repulsion or anger or deep bitterness because of their experiences in that part of their life.

Those of us who have father issues in our hearts are not overlooked by our heavenly Father even though we so deeply misunderstanding and distrust Him because of our preconditioning. He fully understands why we have such strong resistance to His claims of love for us but is eagerly ready and fully able to heal all of those deep wounds and fears and scars if we are willing to let Him draw us closer to Him. The issue is trust and God is eager to prove to us that He can be trusted in spite of all the lies of the enemy and the lies filling our own hearts based on previous experiences with Fathers or even with parent figures. If we are willing to give Him a chance to prove Himself trustworthy He will do that in such a way as to heal all the damage done and to restore into our souls the ability and capacity to live in intimate fellowship with a Father like we have never experienced before.

Light and Darkness

Then Jesus again spoke to them, saying, "I am the Light of the world; he who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life." (John 8:12)

Jesus says He is the Light.

If I follow Him He says that I will have the Light.

Then it is unavoidable that if He is the Light and I have the Light then I have Him.

The results of having Him, the Light, according to what He says here, is that I will not walk in darkness. That is just simple, logical sense, for if a person has light and is walking, then according to the laws of physics darkness is eliminated by light. Light always eliminates darkness, it is just the very nature of light to do so.

In the previous verse Jesus told a woman to go and sin no more. Jesus here was sharing with her how to do that – by following Him. By strong implication between these two verses, walking in darkness is the same as sin. To walk in darkness is hazardous at best, often dangerous and even potentially fatal. Darkness hides obstacles that can hurt us.

Darkness prevents us from feeling free to walk about safely.

Darkness hides things from us that we need to know about.

Darkness is deception and ignorance because it keeps us from knowing what we need to know.

The cure for darkness is light. The definition of darkness is simply the absence of light to start with, so since light is the only real thing, darkness is just a term we use to describe the condition we observe when the real deal is missing.

Jesus is the only real Light that dispels ignorance and exposes deceptions. This is not just a cliché but is the only reliable way to enter into true reality. Jesus came to reveal the real truth about the Father, how He feels towards us and what His character is really like. The Father is exactly like Jesus in all of His feelings and characteristics except that He did not physically become a human being like Jesus did.

Our darkness and sin is caused by our ignorance and blindness produced by deceptions and lies about what God is like and how He thinks about us. Satan's lies about God created the conditions we know of as sin and darkness. This is because of our misapprehension of God and our belief in so many lies about Him. When we are afraid of God because of our false ideas about Him we pull away from Him and then experience the symptoms of sins in our lives. We seek to extract life from other places or people or activities, but they all leave us more desperate than before. That is the nature of sin, it promises good things to satisfy us but then deprives and robs us of what little we do have.

The woman caught in adultery found herself in that trap of darkness. She had been abused herself and had been seriously emotionally wounded at a young age through sexual abuse by a religiously pious leader who then abandoned her and shamed her. As a result she felt compelled to enter a life of promiscuity in her attempt to find life and love from any source possible. But this kind of living always drains a person dry spiritually and emotionally and she was walking in darkness, bumping into things and being taken advantage of repeatedly by those who likewise were looking to false sources for life and love. She was not only in darkness herself but was surrounded by people living in darkness with her.

Darkness produces shame, fear and violence. Darkness robs us of our freedom, for when you can't see things clearly you are stripped of your ability to walk about safely and function properly. Darkness involves denying responsibility by blaming others for our problems. Darkness is when we try to lift ourselves up by putting others down. Darkness causes people to seek pleasure and power as substitutes for real satisfaction and peace.

Darkness and the deeds of darkness tend to separate us from each other and certainly from our Creator. Living in the dark creates loneliness and fear and pain and isolation. Darkness is not how we were designed to live and thrive and grow.

We were designed for light. Light empowers us to perceive more accurately, to appreciate beauty, to be aware of danger, to be free to move about safely and to bond with others living in the light.

Our hearts were designed to crave bonding with others more than any other desire. Without healthy bonding formed in true love, our hearts always feel empty and unfulfilled. We need connections with other hearts to thrive, to feel satisfied, to be fulfilled, to feel alive. This is an indisputable fact of life and has been proved clearly by research.

This woman Jesus pardoned and restored to live in the light had been attempting to function with counterfeit bonds instead of joy bonds. She had formed many temporary attachments in life, but all of them only left her more empty than before because they were selfish attachments used only for personal pleasure, not long-term bonds of selfless love in an exclusive relationship. We are all too familiar with such temporary, exploitive attachments even if we have not engaged in the same activities as a prostitute. Counterfeit bonds are most of what we have experienced in life, but Jesus came to show us more clearly the kind of bonding we were designed to enjoy by turning on the Light.

Jesus is the Light. He is the only relationship that can bring real life and joy and peace into the soul. He is the only source of that real love that must be present for any bond to remain stable and fulfilling. He is the Light of life, and life is what we crave the most. It is hard-wired into the deepest part of our psyche, the very survival instinct that God implanted within us at creation.

Our wiring was changed and severely damaged when sin entered our race. But we still crave and need life and the only way we can ever experience peace and satisfaction is to return to our original Designer to have our circuits repaired and our operating system restored and the viruses removed. As we allow the Light of life to be infused into our experience and our hearts, we will again begin to feel alive, to connect with others and to synchronize with the heart of our heavenly Father who designed us for love.

Living in the Light is not something I can work hard to achieve by trying to be good enough. Jesus says here that if I follow Him, pursue an intimate relationship with Him by personal acquaintance and stay in communion with Him, bonding with Him in every way possible – then the natural result will be that I will no longer have to walk in the dark because I have the Light.

That's what a light does. It dispels the darkness naturally. I don't have to do anything to get rid of darkness for that is foolishness. The only way darkness and all the problems associated with it will be solved is to get a light.

Jesus, I choose You as my light today. Fill me with Your presence of life and joy and peace.