However, God’s elect, His chosen people, had
However, God's elect, His chosen people, had the wrong concept. They did not pay full atten tion to the focus: that God Himself in the Son and as the Spirit wants to come into man to be his life and his everything. God's people missed this mark, collecting all the regulations, laws, and other good points, and putting them to gether to make a religion with which to kill them selves. How pitiful! Thus, by the time of John 8, there were two things on earth: a religion and a living Person. We all must see this contrast.
The Jewish religion was genuine and won derful. It was good in every respect except one— it was versus the great I Am. Religion may be good, but it cannot give you life. It cannot help you because you are dead. A dead person does not need something good; he needs something of life. Only life can help a dead man. Suppose you say to a dead person, "Poor man, here are gold and diamonds. You shouldn't be dead. Look at the gold—how valuable! Look at the dia monds—how precious!" It would be foolish to speak to a dead man in such a way. He could hear nothing. In John chapter five we see the porches near the pool on which were the blind, the lame, and the withered. If you were to preach to such people they would say, "Don't waste your