Why couldn't the sons of Abraham recognize and embrace Jesus?
The sons of Abraham could not recognize and embrace Jesus because they relied on their physical genealogy, claiming Abraham as father and denying any sin problem. Their spiritual blindness, rejection of His word, and desire to kill Him showed they were not doing Abraham's works of faith.
Les explains that when Jesus confronted them with their sin, they could not see it because they were relying on their genealogy, saying, "We're the children of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. We don't have a sin problem." As the sons of Abraham who thought they were righteous, they should have been able to embrace Jesus and realize who He was, but they were blind. Jesus acknowledges they are Abraham's seed, yet they seek to kill Him because His word has no place in them. He says He speaks what He has seen with His Father, and they do what they have seen with their father, showing they were not of the same Father. When they insist Abraham is their father, Jesus replies that if they were Abraham's children, they would do the works of Abraham and be people of faith, but they seek to kill Him, a man who told them the truth from God. This did not Abraham.