29  How to Die in Your Sins  (John 8:22–30)

So the Jews were saying, “Surely He will not kill Himself, will He, since He says, ‘Where I am going, you cannot come’?” And He was saying to them, “You are from below, I am from above; you are of this world, I am not of this world. Therefore I said to you that you will die in your sins; for unless you believe that I am He, you will die in your sins.” So they were saying to Him, “Who are You?” Jesus said to them, “What have I been saying to you from the beginning? I have many things to speak and to judge concerning you, but He who sent Me is true; and the things which I heard from Him, these I speak to the world.” They did not realize that He had been speaking to them about the Father. So Jesus said, “When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am He, and I do nothing on My own initiative, but I speak these things as the Father taught Me. And He who sent Me is with Me; He has not left Me alone, for I always do the things that are pleasing to Him.” As He spoke these things, many came to believe in Him. (8:22–30)

life in a fallen world is full of missed opportunities and personal regrets—the painful and sometimes devastating consequences of poor, sinful choices. The original missed opportunity, the one from which all the rest flow, came in the Garden of Eden. By eating the fruit that God had forbidden, Adam (and Eve) directly violated the Lord’s command. Adam’s sin cost him (and the entire human race) the privilege of continuing in uninterrupted fellowship with God (Gen. 3:6–8). As a result, “the Lord God sent him out from the garden of Eden, to cultivate the ground from which he was taken. So He drove the man out; and at the east of the garden of Eden He stationed the cherubim and the flaming sword which turned every direction to guard the way to the tree of life” (vv. 23–24).

Moses and Aaron also experienced the painful consequences of a sinful choice. Their disobedience at Meribah cost them the opportunity to enter the Promised Land:

Solomon, too, faced the consequences that poor decisions bring. Though he was Israel’s wisest and wealthiest king, he forfeited the opportunity to fully enjoy the blessings God had granted him, “for when Solomon was old, his wives turned his heart away after other gods; and his heart was not wholly devoted to the Lord his God, as the heart of David his father had been” (1 Kings 11:4). As a result, life for Solomon became nothing but vanity (Eccl. 1:2).

Judas Iscariot had the priceless opportunity of being one of the twelve men closest to the Lord Jesus Christ during His earthly ministry. Yet he threw away that privilege for a mere “thirty pieces of silver” (Matt. 26:15) and betrayed Jesus (26:47–50). By never repenting of his horrific treachery, Judas damned his soul forever (Acts 1:25; cf. Matt. 26:24).

Judas was the most notorious example of one who saw Jesus’ works, heard His words, observed His sinless life, and yet rejected Him. But he was certainly not the only one. By the time the dialogue recorded in this passage took place, all in Israel were well aware of Jesus’ ministry. For the past three years He had performed countless miracles. He had virtually banished disease from Israel, miraculously fed thousands of people, authoritatively cast out demons, and instantly calmed a raging storm on the Sea of Galilee (and later even walked across it). Those amazing and unprecedented (15:24; cf. 9:32; Matt. 9:33; Mark 2:12) miracles clearly demonstrated that Jesus was the Son of God (John 10:25; cf. v. 38; 3:2; 5:36; 7:31; 14:11; Acts 2:22)—as did the Lord’s astonishing claims (John 4:25–26; 5:18) and profound teaching (cf. Matt. 7:28–29; 13:54; Luke 4:32; 19:48; John 7:46).

In light of the overwhelming evidence, unbelief in Jesus is inexcusable. Those who hear the gospel and reject it will be eternally punished—with no one to blame but themselves. (It should be noted that even those who have not heard the gospel are still culpable for rejecting the truth that they have been given. Such truth includes aspects of the existence and character of God, as revealed through both the created order [Rom. 1:18–21] and the conscience [Rom. 2:14–15].) Thus all who reject Jesus Christ are fully responsible for choosing to die in their sins (John 3:19).

This passage reveals four ways people can ensure such a tragic and eternal death: by being self-righteous, worldly, unbelieving, or willfully ignorant.

BE SELF-RIGHTEOUS

So the Jews were saying, “Surely He will not kill Himself, will He, since He says, ‘Where I am going, you cannot come’?” (8:22)

In 8:21 Jesus had warned the self-righteous religious leaders that their unwillingness to believe in Him meant they would die in their sins. Unforgiven, unredeemed, and unprepared to meet God, they had accumulated a lifetime of culpability that would result in an eternity of punishment. The Lord repeated what He had said earlier to the crowd (7:33–34), that He was going to a place where those who refuse to believe in Him can never come. In response to that earlier declaration, His enemies had speculated that He might be planning to leave Israel for the Diaspora (7:35). Here, however, they offered a more sinister suggestion.

Faced with Jesus’ startling pronouncement in verse 21, the response of the Jews (the leaders in particular are in view here) was to turn His sobering warning into a venomous joke. “Surely He will not kill Himself, will He?” they asked sarcastically. Ironically, those who were plotting to take His life asked if He intended to commit suicide. They understood that when He said, “Where I am going, you cannot come,” Jesus was speaking of His death. The Jews abhorred suicide, and believed that those who killed themselves went to the blackest part of hell. Reflecting this conventional belief, the first-century Jewish historian Josephus wrote, “The souls of those whose hands have acted madly against themselves are received by the darkest place in Hades” (The Wars of the Jews, iii. viii. 5). Since they assumed that they were going to heaven, the Jews mockingly suggested that Jesus must be speaking of killing Himself, in which case He would go to hell.

Smugly confident in their self-righteousness, they were not just deaf to Jesus’ words, but they mockingly, blasphemously twisted their meaning. It is true that Jesus, though not committing suicide, would give up His life voluntarily. In John 10:17–18 He said,

But He would not die by His own hand, but rather at the hands of those very men who now mocked Him (Acts 2:23). And the place to which He was referring—where He would go but they could not follow—was not hell, but heaven.

Self-righteousness is a deadly deception, and utterly contrary to genuine salvation. The Judaism of Jesus’ day was an intricate legalistic system of salvation by human achievement. The people based their hope of salvation on performing good works, observing ceremonies and rituals, and, above all, keeping the Law (at least outwardly). As the apostle Paul wrote, “Not knowing about God’s righteousness and seeking to establish their own, they did not subject themselves to the righteousness of God” (Rom. 10:3). Tragically, they failed to understand what Paul, who had been raised a zealous Pharisee (Acts 23:6; Gal. 1:13–14), later came to understand that “by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified in [God’s] sight” (Rom. 3:20), because to break the Law in one place, one time, is to be guilty of all (James 2:10).

The truth that salvation cannot be attained through self-righteousness should have come as no surprise to anyone familiar with the Old Testament. In Psalm 14:2–3 David wrote, “The Lord has looked down from heaven upon the sons of men to see if there are any who understand, who seek after God. They have all turned aside, together they have become corrupt; there is no one who does good, not even one.” “All the ways of a man are clean in his own sight,” Solomon noted, “but the Lord weighs the motives” (Prov. 16:2), while in 20:9 he added, “Who can say, ‘I have cleansed my heart, I am pure from my sin’?” Proverbs 30:12 warns, “There is a kind who is pure in his own eyes, yet is not washed from his filthiness.” “I will declare your [false, external] righteousness and your deeds,” God declared to wayward Israel, “but they will not profit you” (Isa. 57:12). A few chapters later Isaiah expressed the utter inability of sinners to save themselves: “We have sinned … and we need to be saved. But we are all like an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags” (Isa. 64:5–6 NKJV).

The New Testament also teaches that no one can be saved by self-righteousness. In Matthew 5:20 Jesus told His hearers, “Unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.” External compliance to the Law will save no one; salvation comes only from Christ’s righteousness imputed to those who believe (2 Cor. 5:21). That genuine righteousness far surpasses the outward, legalistic righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees. Though the latter impresses men, it does not result in salvation (Matt. 6:1; cf. Rom. 3:20). The Lord scathingly denounced the Pharisees as those who “outwardly appear righteous to men, but inwardly … are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness” (Matt. 23:28; cf. vv. 23, 25).

In Matthew 9:11 the Pharisees demanded of Jesus’ disciples, “Why is your Teacher eating with the tax collectors and sinners?” They did not approve of His interaction with the riffraff of Jewish society. The Lord’s devastating reply was, “It is not those who are healthy who need a physician, but those who are sick. But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire compassion, and not sacrifice,’ for I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners” (vv. 12–13; cf. Luke 15:7). Jesus denounced the Pharisees as “those who justify [themselves] in the sight of men, but God knows [their] hearts; for that which is highly esteemed among men is detestable in the sight of God’” (Luke 16:15). Later in Luke’s gospel Jesus

To the Philippians Paul wrote that salvation comes “not [from] having a righteousness of [one’s] own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith” (Phil. 3:9; cf. Gal. 2:16–21). In Titus 3:5 he added, “He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit.” The Jews should have known from the Scriptures the truth that Paul wrote to the churches of Galatia:

The scribes and Pharisees were the epitome of self-righteous human achievers. Those who follow their example and trust in good works, morality, and religious activities to save them; who refuse to admit their inability to contribute anything to saving themselves and cry out, “God, be merciful to me, the sinner!” (Luke 18:13), will likewise die in their sins. The self-righteous will never see heaven.

BE WORLDLY

And He was saying to them, “You are from below, I am from above; you are of this world, I am not of this world.” (8:23)

Jesus refused to acknowledge the Jews’ mocking suggestion that He was going to commit suicide and thus condemn Himself to hell (cf. 1 Peter 2:23). Instead, He elaborated on His warning in verse 21 that they would die in their sin and not go where He was going (heaven). The Lord pointed out that their origin, like their destiny, was altogether different than His. They were from a completely different realm; they were from below; that is, they were part of this world.

Kosmos (world) is an important New Testament term. It refers in this context to the invisible spiritual system of evil that opposes the kingdom of God, comprises “every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God” (2 Cor. 10:5), and is controlled by Satan (John 12:31; 14:30; 16:11; 1 John 5:19). The world does not recognize Jesus’ true identity (1:10), or that of believers (1 John 3:1). It is also ignorant of the Holy Spirit whom Jesus sent (14:17). Those engulfed in the world “[love] the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds [are] evil” (John 3:19). As a result, they are utterly blind to spiritual truth (2 Cor. 4:4; cf. Matt. 13:11; John 12:39–40; Rom. 8:5; 1 Cor. 2:14)—having filled themselves with hatred toward Jesus (and His followers; John 15:18–19; 17:14; 1 John 3:13) for confronting their sin (John 7:7; 15:18). Because it hates God, the world rejoices in the death of His Son (16:20; cf. Matt. 21:37–39).

Materialism, humanism, immorality, pride, and selfishness—”the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life” (1 John 2:16)—are the world’s hallmarks. It is utterly opposed to divine truth, righteousness, virtue, and holiness. Its opinions are wrong; its aims are selfish; its pleasures are sinful; its influences are demoralizing; its politics are corrupt; its honors are empty; its smiles are phony; its love is false and fickle.

The source of the Jews’ antagonism and hostility to Christ was hell itself; they were, as Jesus would forcefully declare in verse 44, children of the devil, walking “according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience” (Eph. 2:2). Their “friendship with [the Greek word could also be translated “affection for” or “love for”] the world” marked their “hostility toward God,” because “whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God” (James 4:4).”If anyone loves the world,” John added, “the love of the Father is not in him” (1 John 2:15).

In sharp contrast to His opponents, Jesus is from above (heaven) and thus not a part of this world system. As noted in the discussion of 8:14 in chapter 28 of this volume, the Lord was always conscious of His heavenly origin (3:11–13; 5:36–37; 6:33, 38, 50–51, 58; 7:28–29, 33; 8:42; 10:36; 13:3; 14:28; 16:5, 28; 17:5, 8, 13, 18; 18:36; cf. 1 Cor. 15:47; Eph. 4:10).

Though once “without God in the world” (Eph. 2:12), believers are no longer part of the world system (cf. Col. 1:13; 1 John 4:5–6).”If you were of the world,” Jesus said to His disciples, “the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you” (John 15:19). They “are not of the world, even as [Jesus is] not of the world” (17:14, 16). When they were redeemed, they “escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust” (2 Peter 1:4). On the other hand, to be “worldly-minded” is to be “devoid of the Spirit” (Jude 19) and thus die in your sins and be consigned to hell.

BE UNBELIEVING

“Therefore I said to you that you will die in your sins; for unless you believe that I am He, you will die in your sins.” (8:24)

Here Jesus went beyond the self-righteousness and worldliness that damns to the ultimate issue—unbelief. Repeating His warning from verse 21, Jesus declared that those who reject Him will die in their sins because they refuse to believe that I am He. The Lord’s use of the absolute, unqualified phrase I am (the pronoun He does not appear in the Greek text) is nothing less than a direct claim to full deity. When Moses asked God His name He replied, “I AM WHO I AM” (Ex. 3:14). In the Sep-tuagint (the Greek translation of the Old Testament), that is the same phrase (ego eimi) Jesus used here (the Septuagint similarly uses ego eimi of God in Deut. 32:39; Isa. 41:4; 43:10, 25; 45:18; 46:4). Jesus was applying to Himself the tetragrammaton (YHWH, often transliterated as Yahweh)—the name of God that was so sacred that the Jews refused to pronounce it. Unlike many modern cult groups (such as the Jehovah’s Witnesses), the Jews of Jesus’ day understood perfectly that He was claiming to be God. In fact, they were so shocked by His use of that name, in reference to Himself (cf. vv. 28, 58), that they attempted to stone Him for blasphemy (v. 59).

Unmistakably, the Lord Himself says that those who reject Him cannot be saved, but will die in their sins. To be a Christian one must believe the full biblical revelation about Jesus: that He is the eternal second person of the Trinity, that He entered space and time as God incarnate, that He was born of a virgin, that He lived a sinless life, that His death on the cross is the only sufficient, substitionary sacrifice for the sins of all who would ever believe in Him, that He rose from the dead and ascended to the Father in heaven, that He now intercedes for His own redeemed people, and that He will one day return in glory. To reject those truths about Him is to “be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ” (2 Cor. 11:3), to worship “another Jesus” (v. 4), to be cursed by God (Gal. 1:8–9), and ultimately to hear the Lord say, “I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness” (Matt. 7:23).

The word unless introduces the only hope of escape from God’s wrath and judgment on sin. R. C. H. Lenski notes,

Persistent unwillingness to believe the truth about Jesus Christ, by its very nature, precludes the possibility of forgiveness, since salvation comes only through faith in Him (3:15–16, 36; 6:40, 47; Acts 16:31; Rom. 10:9–10; Gal. 3:26; 1 John 5:10–13). Those who continue in unbelief, refusing to embrace in faith all that Jesus is and has done, will die in their sins and be lost forever (cf. 3:18, 36; Heb. 2:3). And apart from the knowledge of the gospel of Jesus Christ, no one can be saved. Therefore believers are commanded to go to the world and preach Christ to everyone (Mark 16:15–16; Luke 24:47; Acts 1:8).

BE WILLFULLY IGNORANT

So they were saying to Him, “Who are You?” Jesus said to them, “What have I been saying to you from the beginning? I have many things to speak and to judge concerning you, but He who sent Me is true; and the things which I heard from Him, these I speak to the world.” They did not realize that He had been speaking to them about the Father. So Jesus said, “When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am He, and I do nothing on My own initiative, but I speak these things as the Father taught Me. And He who sent Me is with Me; He has not left Me alone, for I always do the things that are pleasing to Him.” As He spoke these things, many came to believe in Him. (8:25–30)

The jailer holding them captive in unbelief was their own obstinate ignorance. The Jews’ incredulous question, “Who are You?” was amazing in light of all the miraculous signs Jesus had performed (5:36; cf. Matt. 11:4–5) and the repeated claims He had already made (cf. 5:17ff.; 6:35ff.; 7:28–38; 8:12). There may have been an undercurrent of more mockery in the question; they may have been, in effect, sarcastically asking a rhetorical question: “Who are You to tell us we are going to die in our sins?” But the query in any case reflects their stubborn, willful ignorance (cf. Matt. 15:14; 23:16–26). The overwhelming evidence made it patently obvious who Jesus was, so He merely replied that He was who He had been claiming to be from the beginning of His ministry. He had nothing more to say to the willful ignorance of hard-hearted unbelief.

Nonetheless, Jesus did have many things to speak and to judge concerning them. They had been given more than enough revelation to be held responsible; their ignorance was inexcusable. His judgment of them would be in perfect harmony with the Father’s will, for it was the Father who sent Him, and Jesus spoke only the things which He heard from Him (cf. vv. 28, 40;3:32, 34;5:30;7:16;8:16; 15:15; 17:8).

Incredibly, despite the fact that Jesus had spoken so clearly to them, they still did not realize that He had been speaking to them about the Father. Such was the deceptive power of their willful unbelief. They had no ears to hear.

There was coming a day, however, when the truth of His claims would be confirmed, so as to become undeniable. Therefore Jesus said, “When you lift up the Son of Man (a reference to His crucifixion and implying His resurrection; cf. 3:14; 12:32–33), then you will know that I am He, and I do nothing on My own initiative, but I speak these things as the Father taught Me” (cf. 3:34; 5:19, 30; 6:38). Christ’s death and resurrection vindicated every claim ever made for Jesus by the prophets and apostles, and erased all doubt to any open mind as to His deity. That great and glorious work proved that He truly spoke the things that the Father taught Him, that the Father was one with Him and could not leave Him alone, and that He always did the things that are pleasing to the Father, for He could do nothing else in His divine perfection (Heb. 7:26).

Some of the Jews who rejected Jesus would later realize that they had been terribly mistaken about Him. On the day of Pentecost alone, about 3,000 Jews would come to receive Him as the Messiah (Acts 2:36–37, 41, 47). Even on this occasion, six months before the cross, His words were so powerful that as He spoke these things, many came to believe in Him, at least outwardly (cf. the exposition of 8:31–36 in chapter 30 of this volume). But the majority in spite of the evidence, refused to believe—choosing instead to remain self-righteous, worldly, unbelieving, and willfully ignorant to the end. As a result, they condemned themselves to ultimately die in their sins and never see heaven, but suffer eternal wrath.