Hello everybody and welcome in to episode #297 of the Bible 2021 podcast. We are reading John 8 today and our focus is on How Can We Know We Have Salvation in Jesus? + Is Jesus God and Equal to God? How To Have Assurance of Salvation.  We are a daily 10ish minute podcast, where we will dig in to the truth of the Word of God by reading one Bible chapter a day and discussing it. Welcome to new listeners in  .  Our goal is to encourage DAILY Bible reading, so you can jump in at any time and join with us. We want to invite as many people as possible to join us in daily Bible reading, so help spread the word and share the podcast! Don’t forget about our web-page, Bible2021.com – contact page, show notes, transcript and more– Click here for our Bible 2021 reading plan\

First: If you are reading along with us in a modern Bible, or even in some apps, you will probably notice something unusual with the last verse of John 7 and the first few verses of John 8. John 7:53-8:11 is known as the Pericope Adulterae, (pericope means an extract or portion of a written text) Your Bible will probably tell you that many of the oldest and most reliable ancient Greek texts do not have the story of the woman caught in adultery at the end of John 7/beginning of John 8. In some manuscripts it is in a different place in John, occasionally, it is found in Luke, and often it is not in the ancient Greek manuscripts at all. Does this mean that the story of the woman caught in adultery didn’t really happen, or wasn’t part of the Bible? I don’t think so, and wrote the longest article of the year on last year’s daily Bible Reading podcast blog, so please check that out, if you’d like. Biblereadingpodcast.com, or CLICK HERE. Was the Story of the Woman Caught in Adultery in the Original Bible?

Next topic: One of the most important theological passages in all of the Bible is in John 8, which also gives us further conflict between Jesus and the regular people of Israel:

⁴⁸ The Jews responded to him, “Aren’t we right in saying that you’re a Samaritan and have a demon?” ⁴⁹ “I do not have a demon,” Jesus answered. “On the contrary, I honor my Father and you dishonor me. ⁵⁰ I do not seek my own glory; there is one who seeks it and judges. ⁵¹ Truly I tell you, if anyone keeps my word, he will never see death.” ⁵² Then the Jews said, “Now we know you have a demon. Abraham died and so did the prophets. You say, ‘If anyone keeps my word, he will never taste death.’ ⁵³ Are you greater than our father Abraham who died? And the prophets died. Who do you claim to be?”⁵⁴ “If I glorify myself,” Jesus answered, “my glory is nothing. My Father—about whom you say, ‘He is our God’—he is the one who glorifies me. ⁵⁵ You do not know him, but I know him. If I were to say I don’t know him, I would be a liar like you. But I do know him, and I keep his word. ⁵⁶ Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day; he saw it and was glad.” ⁵⁷ The Jews replied, “You aren’t fifty years old yet, and you’ve seen Abraham?” ⁵⁸ Jesus said to them, “Truly I tell you, before Abraham was, I am.” ⁵⁹ So they picked up stones to throw at him. But Jesus was hidden and went out of the temple.

Is Jesus God? Very deliberately here, Jesus is telling us that He and His Father are one – He is claiming to be Yahweh in the flesh. Recall that Yahweh is God’s personal name, and means, “I am that I am.” For Jesus to say to this crowd, “Before Abraham was, I AM,” is no doubt Him identifying Himself with Yahweh, and even the common Jews knew it, because they immediately tried to kill Jesus for saying He was Yawheh. as Colossians 2:9 teaches us, “For the entire fullness of God’s nature dwells bodily in Christ”

Final topic: How can we know we have salvation in Jesus? Is it by our feelings? I don’t think so – our feelings can lie and betray us, and are completely unreliable at times. Is it by walking the aisle at church? I don’t think so again – salvation isn’t in a church aisle, it is in Jesus, as Acts 4:12 says, “And there is no salvation in any other man, for there is no other name under Heaven given to the children of men by which it is necessary to receive life”  But how can we know Jesus has saved us? Jesus Himself is going to give us a way of assurance today, and it is a pretty obvious one:

³¹ Then Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you continue in my word, you really are my disciples.³² You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” John 8:31-32

Compare this to what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15:1-2, “ Now I want to make clear for you, brothers and sisters, the gospel I preached to you, which you received, on which you have taken your stand ² and by which you are being saved, if you hold to the message I preached to you—unless you believed in vain.”

and what the writer of Hebrews says in Hebrews 3:14, ” For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end.”

and John says in 1 John 2:19, “They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us”

So the surest sign that you are saved, according to Jesus and Paul and John and the writer of Hebrews, is that you are continuing in the good news of Jesus – following Him day by day. That person who made a “decision for Christ” long ago, and has not lived a life that shows evidence of following Jesus for the years since, should be shaken by what Jesus says in John 8. It is not that you preserve your own salvation by your own power, but, according to Jesus, if you are saved, you will persevere in following Jesus throughout your life. That, my friends, is the sign that you are set free and saved by the truth of Jesus. And here’s a bit of good news about God’s protection as we follow Him:

 But the Lord is faithful. He will establish you and guard you against the evil one. 2nd Thessalonians 3:3

Let’s read our passage.

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Bible Memory passage for the month of October: ⁷ Dear friends, let us love one another, because love is from God, and everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. ⁸ The one who does not love does not know God, because God is love.  1 John 4:7-8 

The Bible 2021 Podcast Is a ministry of Valley Baptist Church A Baptist Church in North Salinas, California.

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