Did Jesus lie?
One of the most common questions in Christianity…
How could a perfect Savior commit one of the sins listed in the Ten Commandments?
Sceptics and Christians alike, have been drawn to the story in John 7:8-10; because at a glance, it appears that Jesus is being deceptive.
So, is it true?
Did Jesus really lie?
Let me begin with a little story.
A couple years ago, for the first time I was asked this exact question…
At this point in my life, I was not in a good place in my faith…
I was in a conflicting and frightening season, where I began to believe that I was not saved anymore!
I was in the middle of a journey to discover the truth…
Was I truly saved by the grace of God?
or…
Did I still need to work for salvation?
I had such a heavy question on my shoulders everyday, so when this question was introduced to me, I wasn’t sure how well I could answer it.
I was questioning the very foundation of my faith, yet God had me in the position to answer a question about Jesus that could end up pulling the trigger on the gun that was already pointing at my belief!
So, this is what I did…
I read John 7:1-10 NKJV
“After these things Jesus walked in Galilee; for He did not want to walk in Judea, because the Jews sought to kill Him. Now the Jews’ Feast of Tabernacles was at hand. His brothers therefore said to Him, “Depart from here and go into Judea, that Your disciples also may see the works that You are doing. For no one does anything in secret while he himself seeks to be known openly. If You do these things, show Yourself to the world.” For even His brothers did not believe in Him. Then Jesus said to them, “My time has not yet come, but your time is always ready. The world cannot hate you, but it hates Me because I testify of it that its works are evil. You go up to this feast. I am not yet going up to this feast, for My time has not yet fully come.” When He had said these things to them, He remained in Galilee. “But when His brothers had gone up, then He also went up to the feast, not openly, but as it were in secret.”
Yep…
It does seem like Jesus was being deceptive, after reading that story.
It appears that he was planning to go to the feast, but He just didn’t want to go with His brothers, so He told them that it was not His time to go…
In my understanding, It did look like He was just telling them a story, so they would go without Him, so He could go secretly.
This is what I feared when I was first introduced to this question.
I felt unequipped to advise anyone, when I didn’t even believe in what Christ did on the cross.
However, I still wanted to get to the bottom of the question… if not for the person who asked me this question, for myself.
I researched desperately and found an article that explained it well enough for me to tell the person who asked me this question; though I still wasn’t confident in the article.
The article basically said that Jesus was human enough to beat around the bush.
He technically did not lie.
He said “My time has not fully come.”
Technically, He was being honest. His time to go was not with them, in that moment.
Sounds reasonable…
Right?
Regardless of how confident I tried to sound, there was no way of making this sound good. The person who asked the question, didn’t believe it and neither did I.
It wasn’t Jesus’ character at all!
Yet I still went on, trying to explain it to the person; trying to convince her and myself, that based on this explanation, Jesus wasn’t deceptive.
No matter how biblical my words were or how long I spoke, something didn’t add up!
Jesus was fully human but He was also fully God. He made things easy for people to understand but He never beat around the bush! He was not only honest but He was transparent! He didn’t say anything that would lead people to believe something else. He didn’t need to use figures of speech to get the plan going as God needed it to!
That explanation was rationalizing it to the extent that it displayed God to be without power.
It’s like God didn’t know this situation would happen and therefore would need to use words to get Himself out of the jam.
That is too human of an explanation.
This is forgetting that God controls situations! If He didn’t want this situation to happen, it wouldn’t! If God wanted this to go smoothly, without the disciples asking Jesus to come to the feast, God would eliminate this from occurring!
However, God allowed this to come to pass.
Jesus Christ was viewed by many as deceptive because of this moment, that is written in the very book that is supposed to encourage people to believe that Christ is the sinless lamb who was sacrificed, so we could be pardoned from the death penalty, for the crime of our sins!
It makes no sense to include this moment in the only book that Christ’s testimony can be witnessed! It seems to play against Him.
Or does it?
God, not only let this moment happen but He included it in the scriptures!
Is there a reason?
Well, I was getting nowhere talking to the person who asked me the question. so, while still trying to convince her, I prayed in my heart that the Holy Spirit would speak for me and help her understand.
He did more than that!
He made me understand.
Instantly, I said something completely different and not ever previously thought of in my basic human understanding mind.
“Jesus didn’t lie and He wasn’t deceptive because Jesus honestly didn’t know. Jesus didn’t know He would be leaving for the feast shortly after He said he wouldn’t”
“Jesus may have always seemed to know the plan well, but Jesus didn’t know the plans that the Father had, He was just that obedient!
When the Father told Him to do something, He didn’t tarry or wait to decide if He should do it or not. He didn’t take a few days to “pray about it” or ask His friends what he should do. Jesus heard and obeyed…
This is so trusting and obedient that we can’t even imagine getting to this point!
Jesus is so different!
He was told to do something and He did it with no warning, He just did the Fathers will without question! He says this many times in the Gospels, that He doesn’t do His will, but the Father’s will!
Jesus never did what He decided, He did what the Holy Spirit told Him to do, the second He told Him to do it, without hesitation!
We know that Jesus didn’t want to go, because He knew that the people in Judea sought to kill Him. (John 7:1)
How could JESUS not know the plan?
Remember, when Jesus was in the Garden, praying to God before He faced the cross?
“And He was withdrawn from them about a stone’s throw, and He knelt down and prayed, saying, “Father, if it is Your will, take this cup away from Me; nevertheless not My will, but Yours, be done.””
Luke 22:41-42 NKJV
“But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.”
Mark 13:32 NKJV
Only the Father knows!
Jesus will be the One on the horse with a sword coming out of His mouth, radiating light with KING OF KING AND LORD OF LORDS written on His thigh, when He returns…
yet He doesn’t even know ahead of time when He will be doing this?
Only the God head, the Heavenly Father knows these things!
Could it be that Jesus just does exactly what He’s told the minute He is told?
Yes!
So, when Jesus was asked to go to the feast and said “it’s not my time” all He really knew was it wasn’t His time.
He didn’t have an idea of when the time was!
He never knew when His time was, all He knew was it wasn’t time yet! Then when His time came, only then did He know it was His time.
He never said “tomorrow is my time” he only either said “it’s not time” or “my time has come.”
Jesus never knew the plan, He just obeyed the Father as if He knew the plan. He trusted God’s plan so much that it looked like He had a plan… but the whole time He just trusted God’s plan and depended second by second on what God instructed Him to do.
So, was Jesus deceptive?
No!
He didn’t know where He would be going in a few minutes.
When God told Him to stay, He stayed.
Then when God told Him to go to the feast in secret, He went!
He didn’t lie nor did He deceive His brothers, because all He knew was it wasn’t His time! He didn’t know when His time was, He just knew that God hadn’t instructed Him to go.
Since He knew His God’s voice so well and devoted His life to obeying God’s will, He never hesitated when God instructed Him! He knew the voice of His Father and followed!
Can you imagine this?
Committing your life to God so much, that you never need to question what the Holy Spirit tells you…
You just trust Him and give up what you want or what you think is smart to follow God’s will!
This is faith!
This is the character of Jesus!
Unlike any human being but perfectly in line with God!
This is truth and I never thought of this before!
It was so profound, I couldn’t believe it came out of my mouth!
The person believed this and felt relief and I thanked God openly and joyfully because I was more sure, in this moment, than any other, that this was the Holy Spirit using my voice, to speak the truth; that I didn’t even know in my heart!
It is crazy!
I really never could comprehend this truth, even on my most spiritually strong day, yet God sent me this miracle, through His Holy Spirit; when I was at my weakest spiritually!
I guess this is how He works though!
In my weakness, He is strong!
“And He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”
II Corinthians 12:9-10 NKJV
He can do something in me when I’m admittedly powerless without Him!
I mean, the Holy Spirit was obviously in me! It was really Him!
THANK YOU, HOLY SPIRIT!!!
Even when I questioned God’s grace, He still sought to give me understanding!
Let this remind you that, no matter how far away from God you feel, God is fighting that much more to bring you back to Him!
If you don’t understand something yet…
Just trust Him with what you don’t understand, until He reveals it to you!
The story of how I finally truly accepted God’s grace, I will tell you in another blog post!
Photo by Tara Winstead
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
