Previous Lesson -- Next Lesson
d) Jesus the light of the world (John 8:12-29)
JOHN 8:21-22
21 Jesus said therefore again to them, “I am going away, and you will seek me, and you will die in your sins. Where I go, you can’t come.” 22 The Jews therefore said, “Will he kill himself, that he says, ‘Where I am going, you can’t come?’”
Jesus knew he was surrounded on all sides by the servants of the temple. He pointed in cryptic terms the deep meaning of the future, "The hour of my death is near. Then I shall leave this world and you will not be able to pursue me. You are not my killers according to your own plans. I decide the time of my departure."
"But I shall arise from my tomb passing through rocks and locked doors. You will seek me in vain and not find me. I shall ascend to my Father and you will not be aware of it. You have rejected me, the Lamb of God and did not trust me, the Redeemer of mankind. You will perish in the prison of your sin." Jesus did not say, "You will die in your sins." Our manifold social sins do not constitute our original guilt, rather it is our attitude to God, and our unbelief that is our sin.
The Jews realized that Jesus was speaking of his final departure, but did not grasp his testimony that he would return to his Father. But they assumed that in his conflict with the Pharisees and priests he had arrived at the limits of his energies. Nothing was left for him but suicide. Will hell or perdition swallow him up as a suicide? The Jews thought or speculated that they would not share that fate on account of their righteousness. But when Rome besieged Jerusalem in 70 AD, thousands of Jews committed suicide from famine and despair.
JOHN 8:23-24
23 He said to them, “You are from beneath. I am from above. You are of this world. I am not of this world. 24 I said therefore to you that you will die in your sins; for unless you believe that I am he, you will die in your sins.”
Jesus proclaimed that God’s realm truly exists above our evil world. We are all from below from clay, full of bitter thoughts. The devil’s seed bring forth rotten fruit. The natural man cannot realize God’s realm but may feel dimly its existence.
Christ is not of our world; His soul proceeds from the Father. He placed his Father’s realm on high but not in a geographical sense. As gravity is lowered the higher we go, so also the nightmare of sin vanishes as we come nearer to God. Our world is a prison from which we cannot escape. We are the offspring of our environment refusing to submit to God’s love. Our lives are full of sin. At this point Jesus used "sins" in the plural, since from our opposition to God many sins and errors arise. We are like the leper full of sores and scars. Just as that wretch dies slowly, even though he is still alive. Similarly sin destroys man. We shall die because we have sinned. What is sin? It is unbelief, for he who is bound to Christ lives for ever – the blood of God’s Son keeps cleansing us from sin. His power cleanses our consciences and sanctifies our thoughts. But whoever stays apart from Christ, chooses death, remaining in the prison of sins, awaiting judgment. Faith in Christ alone frees us from God’s wrath.
Who then is this Jesus who requires faith in his person? Again he describes himself "I am He" (John 6:20 and 8:24). Thus he summarizes all the great testimonies of himself. He called himself the Lord of truth, the living God, the Holy One who revealed Himself to Moses in the bush with the same phrase "I am" (Exodus 3:14; Isaiah 43:1-12). In no other is salvation. Every Jew knew these two phrases, but dared not pronounce them, to avoid using God’s name in vain. But Jesus called himself by them publicly. He is not just Christ the Son of God, but also Yahweh, God in truth.
He is the epitome of the Gospel. Christ is God in the flesh. Whoever believes in him lives, but he who rejects him and objects to his authority deprives himself of forgiveness. Faith or unbelief decides man’s destiny.
QUESTION:
- What does faith in the One who called himself "I am He" mean?