John Calvin Commentary John 8:44

"Ye are of [your] father the devil, and the lusts of your father it is your will to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and standeth not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father thereof." — John 8:44 (ASV)

You are of your father the devil. What he had twice said more obscurely, he now expresses more fully: that they are the devil’s children. But we must supply the contrast, that they could not cherish such intense hatred for the Son of God if it were not that they had as their father the perpetual enemy of God.

He calls them children of the devil, not only because they imitate him, but because they are led by his instigation to fight against Christ. For as we are called the children of God, not only because we resemble Him, but because He governs us by His Spirit, because Christ lives and is vigorous in us, so that He conforms us to the image of His Father; so, on the other hand, the devil is said to be the father of those whose understandings he blinds, whose hearts he moves to commit all unrighteousness, and on whom, in short, he acts powerfully and exercises his tyranny (as in 2 Corinthians 4:4; Ephesians 2:2, and in other passages).

The Manicheans foolishly and ineffectually misused this passage to prove their absurd tenets. For since, when Scripture calls us the children of God, this does not refer to the transmission or origin of the substance, but to the grace of the Spirit, which regenerates us to newness of life, so this saying of Christ does not relate to the transmission of substance, but to the corruption of nature, of which humanity’s revolt was the cause and origin. When people, therefore, are born children of the devil, it must not be ascribed to creation, but to the blame of sin. Now Christ proves this from the effect: because they willingly, and of their own accord, are disposed to follow the devil.

He was a murderer from the beginning. He explains what those desires are, and mentions two instances, cruelty and falsehood, in which the Jews too much resembled Satan. When he says that the devil was a murderer, he means that he planned the destruction of humanity; for as soon as humanity was created, Satan, impelled by a wicked desire to do injury, directed his strength to destroy them. Christ does not mean the beginning of the creation, as if God implanted in him the disposition to do injury; but He condemns in Satan the corruption of nature, which Satan brought upon himself. This appears more clearly from the second clause, in which He says,

He did not remain in the truth. For though those who imagine that the devil was wicked by nature attempt to make evasions, yet these words plainly state that there was a change for the worse, and that the reason Satan was a liar was that he revolted from the truth. That he is a liar does not arise from his nature having always been contrary to truth, but because he fell from it by a voluntary fall. This description of Satan is highly useful to us, so that each person may try to beware of his snares and, at the same time, repel his violence and fury; for

he goes about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour,
(1 Peter 5:8).

He also has a thousand stratagems at his command for deceiving. Therefore, believers ought all the more to be supplied with spiritual arms for fighting, and all the more earnestly they ought to keep watch with vigilance and sobriety. Now, if Satan cannot lay aside this disposition, we should not be alarmed by it, as if it were a new and uncommon occurrence when exceedingly numerous and varied errors spring up, for Satan stirs up his followers like a bellows to deceive the world by their impostures.

And we need not wonder that Satan makes such strenuous efforts to extinguish the light of truth, for it is the only life of the soul. Therefore, the most important and most deadly wound for killing the soul is falsehood. As all who have eyes to see perceive, in the present day, such a picture of Satan in Popery, they ought, first, to consider with what enemy they wage war, and, next, to commit themselves to the protection of Christ their Captain, under whose banner they fight.

Because the truth is not in him. This statement, which immediately follows the other, is a confirmation a posteriori, as the saying goes; that is, it is drawn from the effect. For Satan hates the truth and therefore cannot endure it, but, on the contrary, is entirely covered with falsehoods. Hence Christ infers that he is entirely fallen from the truth and entirely turned away from it. Let us not wonder, therefore, if he daily exhibits the fruits of his apostasy.

When he speaks falsehood. These words are generally explained as if Christ affirmed that the blame for falsehood does not belong to God, who is the Author of nature, but, on the contrary, proceeds from corruption. But I explain it more simply: it is customary for the devil to speak falsehood, and he knows nothing but to devise corruptions, frauds, and delusions.

And yet we justly infer from these words that the devil has this vice from himself, and that, while it is peculiar to him, it may also be said to be accidental; for, while Christ makes the devil the contriver of lying, He clearly separates him from God and even declares him to be contrary to God.

For he is a liar, and the father of it. The word father here has the same meaning as in the preceding statement, for Satan is said to be the father of falsehood because he is estranged from God, in whom alone truth dwells and from whom it flows as from the only source.