“He said to them, ‘You are from below; I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world. I told you that you would die in your sins, for unless you believe that I am “He” you will die in your sins.’ So they said to Him, ‘Who are you?’ Jesus said to them, ‘Just what I have been telling you from the beginning.'” John 8:23-25
Devotional Thought For The Day
This represents one of the more inane arguments that Jesus had to put up with. These hearers were filled with all kinds of speculative questions rather than focusing on what Jesus had come to do and what was in their own personal interest. They refused to “listen” and to heed what Jesus taught, not attributing truthfulness to His Word as the Spirit bid them; they instead were wrapped up with their own questions and thoughts and unless answered as they saw fit, they were not going to believe Jesus or “in” Jesus. We encounter this same stubborn “will” not to believe in many people today, and the dynamic is similar – unless we answer their specific questions as they want us to, they will not listen or believe regardless of what is promised to believers and the warnings asserted about unbelief. And often, when their questions have been addressed, they don’t even remember what was urged to them from the beginning in regard to Jesus being the Savior of the world, the Lamb of God Who takes away the sin of the world.
There is no getting around the reality that unless people believe in Jesus they will die in their sins. This is what makes Christianity such a serious matter, and that includes theology, correct theology in regard to just “Who” Jesus is. He is a specific Person with a specific role that He came to fulfill and which He ultimately accomplished perfectly, fully, and completely – in His suffering and death on the cross, and in His glorious resurrection. He knew it, and communicated it clearly and often from the beginning of His mission to the very end of it. But often even within the church today this basic reality of “Who” Jesus is and what He accomplished, that He is the long-awaited Messiah, the Savior of the world, the eternal Son of God, is downplayed, minimized, or even forgotten. People have questions that they demand answers to: How can He be both God and man? How could He have been born of a virgin? How can He know and also not know certain things? How can He be almighty and yet suffer from human hands? How can we trust His Word recorded in Scripture when there are variant texts? If all sins are forgiven and taken away, what motivation is there for human beings to not sin, to refrain from evil? And so for many it seems safer, simpler, and easier to just talk about doing the “right” thing and living a decent life. So Jesus is turned into a teacher of morals, a cheerleader for your own goodness, and a life coach – which is all ultimately an invention in the minds of those whose questions disallow them to believe what He says about Himself and His mission. But He still warns: “Unless you believe that I am “He” you will die in your sins.”
It is not a bad thing to recruit people for living a good life, unless one brings in the Name of Jesus, and essentially disregards and negates Who He is and the salvation He has accomplished for us and freely gives us. Then such recruiting is despicable and damnable, for it controverts Christ’s mission and the whole purpose of the church, those associations which bear His Name, so that people can’t believe in Him as our Savior but can only see Him as a moralist. All of this is a perpetuation of the same inane argument of these willfully ignorant and unbelieving hearers of Jesus. One would think that perhaps people might have gotten a little more sentient and sensible, especially after years of emphasizing and providing higher education to them. However, in many respects that public education does not make people more keen to listen and to think critically but rather fills them with the same kinds of inane questions that prevented Jesus’ hearers from actually looking at Him, hearing Him, and believing Him. Regardless, the consequence is the same, that these modern unbelievers will also die in their sins.
The warnings in regard to unbelief are as important as the promises given to believers, and it is the same source, the same “mouth” that speaks them both. If there is salvation and safety, life and health and eternal life apart from faith in Christ and His gift of salvation, then Christ’s suffering and death are completely marginalized and negated. For the premise of His suffering and death is that this is the only way for humanity to be redeemed and brought to eternal life, and so He bore the cross and the wrath and punishment of God for us. If our fate can be reversed by ourselves, then Christ wasted His time. This is the horrid nature of unbelief, and of ignoring Christ as Savior and presenting Him instead as a moralist. God forbid! So let us be among those who actually “hear” Him, who receive Him as He presents Himself, people who rejoice in having Him as our Savior and as our Lord and God – that we may have life. And may we present Him as such to others, that they too might possibly turn from unbelief and death, and receive the precious life and health that Jesus provides!
Prayer For The Day
Dear Lord Jesus, we too have questions. Forbid that our questions should take precedence over Your teaching, so that hearing we are not instructed, and seeing we do not believe. Help Your church to remain faithful to the message of Your work of salvation, so that Your saving grace might go out into all the world. Impede and remove all who distract from Your mission by distortion and disregard of Your teaching, Who refuse to receive Your salvation and dispense it to others. Thank You for delivering us from darkness and death by Your suffering and death. Amen.