Unbelievers Warned
Published by Stanley Pouw in 2021 · 7 March 2021
The purpose of the Gospel of John is, so that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God and that believing you might life in His name. That’s John 20:31. So everything in John focuses on believing who He is. Let us read John 8:21-25, “Later Jesus said to them again, “I am going away. You will search for me but will die in your sin. You cannot come where I am going.”
“22 The people asked, “Is He planning to commit suicide? What does He mean, ‘You cannot come where I am going’?” 23 Jesus continued, “You are from below; I am from above. You belong to this world; I do not. 24 That is why I said that you will die in your sins; for unless you believe that I am who I claim to be, you will die in your sins.” 25 “Who are you?” they demanded. Jesus replied, “The one I have always claimed to be.”
“You will die in your sins.” That’s what Jesus said three times to people who believed they were the representatives of God, that they were privileged with the hope of heaven. Now what led up this? Well, by the time this dialogue occurred, everybody in Israel was aware of Jesus. It’s about three years of ministry. We’re only six months from the cross at this time. The miracles of Jesus are known to everyone.
They’ve been talking about Jesus since the ministry of John the Baptist because John was talking about Jesus and all Jerusalem and Judea was coming out to John. Obviously no one ever did what He did. Now John is giving us evidence, but only samples of the ministry of Jesus. In John 20:30 we read “Therefore many other miracles Jesus also performed which are not written in this book.”
The miracles that John uses are just illustrations. John 21:25 says, “There are also many other things which Jesus did, which if they were written in detail, I suppose that even the world itself would not contain the books that would be written.” So in light of the overwhelming evidence, unbelief in Jesus is inexcusable. And that’s why He says, “You will die in your sins because you do not believe Me.”
Perhaps John 5:40 gives us the explanation, “And you are unwilling to come to me so that you may have life.” Human will is required to be activated toward Christ for salvation. And that was controlled by the rabbis who even now are very much against Jesus. Now they believe more in their Talmud, which is their Jewish traditions than their Torah, the first 5 books of the Bible.
And the Talmud is full of lies about Jesus. And that has been taught to all the Jews for 2000 years. The traditions are contrary to the teachings of the New Testament but no Jew would read the New Testament because of what the rabbis taught. The attitude towards women is very much the worldly attitude of the time it was written of being far less worthy than a man, unlike what Jesus taught where there was equality.
But even those people who have never heard the gospel are without excuse. Romans 1:20 says that the creation itself so clearly reveals God that men who do not acknowledge God and pursue God are without excuse. Hebrews 10:26 says, “If we deliberately continue sinning after we have received knowledge of the truth, there is no longer any sacrifice that will cover these sins.”
The reality of God is also delivered to us through conscience, the law of God written in the heart. A person is even further inexcusable in his unbelief if he or she has heard the gospel. In John 3:16, we read, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.” God send the Son into the world so believers might be saved through Him.
The person who believes in Him is not judged. The person who does not believe has been judged already. People think, well, I’m going to live my life and God’s going to combine all the good things I did and the bad things and the good will outweigh the bad and I’ll be fine in the end. No, the judgment has been made on you already. You are under that judgment now because you do not believe.
Did the light shine brightly in Israel for three years? Of course. Was the light manifest? Of course. And His teachings and His miracles are more than sufficient to produce the necessary evidence of His claims being true. John 7:17 says, “If anyone is willing to do His will, he will know of the teaching, whether it is of God of whether I speak from myself.” If you are willing, you will know the truth.
This comes back to the human will. We love the doctrine of the sovereignty of God and salvation and it is clearly taught in Scripture. And parallel to that is the reality that the sinner is responsible for his own will. Anyone seeing, hearing, and experiencing the reality of Christ the way they had and not believing, bears alone the guilt of that unbelief. Sufficient evidence makes unbelief inexcusable.
Their messianic expectation was not satisfied in Him. They wanted an earthly leader, an earthly king, a defender of Israel and an executioner of their enemies. They would accept Him when He healed the sick, cast out demons and created food for the masses. But when He demanded spiritual cleansing, confronted their sin and spoke of spiritual blessings and heavenly things, they left Him.
And when Jesus talked about His own death, and them having to believe that, in the sense you have to eat my flesh and drink my blood, even some of His disciples in John 6:66, left Him permanently. In Jerusalem demonstrating His power He drew crowds wherever He went. But when He presented spiritual truth, demanded recognition of sin and condemned their false religion, the crowds began to go away.
This fulfills the statement of John 1:11, “Jesus came into His own and His own people received Him not.” The offer of salvation was clear, the evidence was compelling and they made their choice. Most people rejected Him. Some believed. Back in John 6:14, “When the people saw the feeding of probably 25,000 people, they said, “This is truly the prophet who is to come into the world.”
In other words, this is the Messiah. And they took that from Deuteronomy 18 which was the prophecy of Messiah in which He would be identified as a prophet. Some believed and others said, ‘This is the Christ.’ ‘So along the way there were people who were believing, not many because on the day of Pentecost how many were gathered in the upper room? A hundred and twenty.
John 8:21, “Later Jesus said to them again, “I am going away. You will search for me but will die in your sin. You cannot come where I am going.” But notice He said it again. Could it be that this was a routine thing for Him to say? John 7:34 says, “You will search for me but not find me. And you cannot go where I am going.” His ministry was to talk about salvation, but He warned unbelievers as well.
This is about as direct as a warning gets. “You will die in your sins,” that is you will die unforgiven. “And where I am going you cannot come.” He said, “I came down from heaven.” “I came from the Father.” He even said, “I go back to the Father.” He would die, but heaven would be a place they would never see. Suffering in hell is where sin is unabated and therefore always painful.
Verse 22, “The people asked, “Is he planning to commit suicide? What does he mean, ‘You cannot come where I am going’?” That statement shows the self-righteousness of the Jews. Primarily it’s referring to the leaders, the scribes and the Pharisees, but it embraces all the people who followed in their religious system. Their mockery is obvious here. They didn’t need a redeemer.
Why would they say that? Josephus, the Jewish historian, tells us that among the Jews the worst sin was suicide. According to him a person who committed suicide didn’t just go to Hades, but went to the lowest, darkest point of Hades most remote place forever removed from what they called Abraham’s bosom, or heaven, where the people who were accepted by God went.
So Jesus warns them, “You’re going to die in your sins.” They are offended because they don’t see themselves as sinners. Jesus said, “I didn’t come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” That is always the issue with these religious leaders. They refused to recognize their sinful condition so they mock Jesus and say, “Oh, He’s going to kill Himself and He’s going to go to Hades forever.”
Amazing how deaf self-righteous people are to this warning, that they mock the Son of God. It is just really frightening. They laughed when they should have cried. And they laughed until they died and then they cried. And they’re still crying. Die in our sins? This self-righteousness attitude is deadly. It is a guarantee that you will die in your sins and go to hell forever.
What do I mean by self-righteous? That is the idea that you’re good enough for heaven. That you’re trusting in your own religion, your rituals, ceremonies, morality and goodness. The apostles understood this. Listen to the sermons in the Book of Acts and you begin to read and see that they understood that nobody would be saved by works. That salvation was a matter of faith alone.
In fact, Paul says to the Galatians, “If you break one law one time, you’ve destroyed the whole law and you’re cursed. And your only hope is Jesus Christ who became a curse for us.” In Romans 10 Paul says, “The Jews have established their own righteousness.” All religions are the same, they are the religion of human achievement where your works contribute to your salvation. And that is the devil’s lie.
Verse 23, Jesus continued, “You are from below; I am from above. You belong to this world; I do not.” He says, “That’s where you’re from. Your unbelief, your hypocrisy, your religion are right from hell.” You’re from below. You’re under the power of Satan. Ephesians 2:2, “You’re under the power of the prince of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience.”
On the other hand, Jesus says, “I am from above.” That is the distinguishing mark between Christians and nonbelievers. Our home is heaven, right? We’re citizens of heaven, aliens in this world. We’re blessed with all spiritual blessings in the heavenly in Christ, Jesus. Apart from Christ, you’re from below. That’s the origin of your worldview and religion. And at the end of the verse, “You are of this world.”
If you are consumed by the world, living in the world, loving the world, embracing the world, drawing satisfaction out of the world, you will die in your sin. What do you mean by the world? It’s not talking about the planet physically, geographically or geologically. I’m talking about the system, the ideologies, the world system, the thought patterns and attitudes. It is the invisible spiritual system of evil.
Romans 1:18, “But God shows his anger from heaven against all sinful, wicked people who suppress the truth by their wickedness.” This is what it does. This spiritual system of evil. We use the term ‘world’ that way. We talk about the world of sports and the world of politics and the world of education and we mean the complex of it, the ideologies of it, the structure of it, the system itself.
There’s a third reality that guarantees you will die in your sin. Verse 24, “That is why I said that you will die in your sins; for unless you believe that I am who I claim to be, you will die in your sins.” There’s only one thing that prevents you from going to hell forever and that is faith in Jesus Christ. Why do we preach Christ? Because only He is that one person. No one comes to the Father but by Me.
Verse 25, “Who are you?” they demanded. Jesus replied, “The one I have always claimed to be.” They were the most proud religious people on the planet. What a ridiculous thing to say, with all the evidence that was in. Do you think they know their own hearts? They know that they’re white washed on the outside and full of dead man’s bones on the inside. But they wouldn’t admit it.
Verse 26, “I have much to say about you and much to condemn, but I won’t. For I say only what I have heard from the one who sent me, and He is completely truthful.” And to show you how blind they were, verse 27, “But they still didn’t understand that He was talking about his Father.” Even though He said that over and over again. “I and the Father are one, I don’t speak of My own self, what the Father shows Me I speak.”
Theirs was a self-content, mocking ignorance born out of a love for their own pride. They heard who He was many, many times. They saw ample evidence of it, but sin produces unbelief, and unbelief produces obstinate ignorance. Verse 28, “So Jesus said, “When you have lifted up the Son of Man on the cross, then you will understand that I am He. I do nothing on my own but say only what the Father taught me.”
But they refused to know because they loved their sin. They should have known. Verse 29 says, “And the one who sent me is with me—He has not deserted me. For I always do what pleases Him.” You should have seen God in me. You should have known by all the proofs you have seen, you should have heard by all the things I have proclaimed, but you still don’t understand.
Verse 30, “Then many who heard Him say these things believed in Him.” To them He says, ‘If you continue in my word, you’re truly disciples of mine.’” That would be my prayer today, that as I have spoken these things to you, as I have reiterated these words of Jesus that many would come to believe in Him. Well, there were 120 that were faithful. It’s a warning message and it’s as serious as serious gets. Let us pray.