Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of John 8:21

Then said Jesus again unto them, I go my way, and ye shall seek me, and shall die in your sins: whither I go, ye cannot come.

21. Then said Jesus again unto them ] The name ‘Jesus’ should be omitted both here and in the preceding verse (see on Joh 6:14), and ‘then’ should be therefore (see on Joh 6:45; Joh 6:53; Joh 6:68, Joh 7:15; Joh 7:30; Joh 7:33; Joh 7:35; Joh 7:45). He said, therefore, again to them. The ‘therefore’ does not compel us to place what follows on the same day with what precedes; ‘therefore’ merely signifies that, as no one laid hands on Him, He was able to address them again. ‘Again’ shews that there is some interval, but whether of minutes, hours, or days, we have no means of determining. There is no distinct mark of time between Joh 7:37 (the close of the Feast of Tabernacles) and Joh 10:22 (the Feast of the Dedication), an interval of two months. See introductory note to chap. 6.

I go my way ] There is no ‘my way’ in the Greek; the word is the same as for ‘I go’ in Joh 8:14 and Joh 7:33; but to avoid abruptness we may render, I go away. Possibly in all three passages there is a side reference to the Jews who were now leaving Jerusalem in great numbers, the Feast of Tabernacles being over.

shall seek me ] See on Joh 7:33-34. Here Christ is more explicit; He does not say ‘shall not find Me,’ but ‘shall die in your sin.’ So far from finding Him and being delivered by Him, they will perish most miserably. In your sin shall ye die. ‘Sin’ is emphatic, and is singular, not plural, meaning ‘state of sin.’

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

I go my way – See the notes at Joh 7:33.

Ye shall die in your sins – That is, you will seek the Messiah; you will desire his coming, but the Messiah that you expect will not come; and, as you have rejected me, and there is no other Saviour, you must die in your sins. You will die unpardoned, and as you did not seek me where you might find me, you cannot come where I shall be. Observe:

1. All those who reject the Lord Jesus must die unforgiven. There is no way of pardon but by him. See the notes at Act 4:12.
2. There will be a time when sinners will seek for a Saviour but will find none. Often this is done too late, in a dying moment, and in the future world they may seek a deliverer, but not be able to find one.
3. Those who reject the Lord Jesus must perish. Where he is they cannot come. Where he is is heaven. Where he is not, with his favor and mercy, there is hell; and the sinner that has no Savior must be wretched forever.

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

Joh 8:21-24

I go My way, and ye shall seek Me, and shall die in your sins.

Sin here means the departure of the heart from God, general alienation from Him, and in Joh 8:24 the particular manifestations of such a disposition. In Joh 13:33 Jesus speaks to the apostles of theimpossibility of following Him in the same terms as at the end of this verse; but for them this impossibility would be but temporary, for He will return to fetch them (Joh 14:6). For the Jews, on the contrary, there will be no longer a bridge between earth and heaven; their separation will be consummated by their rejection of Him without whom no man cometh unto the Father. (F. Godet, D. D.)

Christ and men


I. THE WITHDRAWMENT OF CHRIST FROM MEN.

1. Christ had a way–undoubtedly that through the Cross to His native heavens. What a way! It will be the study of eternity.

2. Christ pursued His way voluntarily. I go. You cannot force Me.

(1) This is no extenuation of the guilt of His murderers. The Son of Man goeth but woe unto the man by whom He is betrayed.

(2) This is the glory of His history. Why has Christs death the power not only to save humanity but to charm the universe? Because it was free. I have power to lay down my life, etc.

(3) A more terrible calamity cannot happen than this–far greater than the withdrawment of the sun. There is a sense in which Christ withdraws from impenitent men now.


II. THE FRUITLESS SEEKING OF CHRIST BY MEN. This is a repetition of Joh 7:34. When I am gone, and the judgments of heaven will descend on your country, you will be seeking Me, but you will not find Me; you will have filled up the measure of your iniquity, the things that belong to your peace will be hid from your eyes.

1. The fruitless seeking is possible. The day of grace closes with some men even while they are in the world. In the judgment He will be earnestly sought, but shall not be found. Many shall say unto Me on that day, etc., etc.

2. This fruitless seeking is lamentable. Ye shall die in your sins. Sin is like quicksand, the man who walks on it must ultimately sink and be lost. It sometimes happens on the coast of Britain or Scotland that a person walking on the sand will suddenly find a difficulty in walking. The shore is like pitch, to which the soles of his feet cling. The coast appears perfectly dry, but the footprints that he leaves are immediately filled with water. Nothing distinguishes the sand which is solid and that which is not. He passes on unaware of his danger. Suddenly he sinks. He wishes to turn back, but it is already too late. The slow burial of hours continues: the sand reaches to his waist, to his chest, to his neck; now only his face is visible. He cries; the sand fills his mouth, and all is silent. What a striking emblem of the danger of sin!


III. THE ETERNAL SEPARATION OF CHRIST FROM MEN. Whither I go ye cannot come. The separation will be complete and irreversible. Ye cannot come. Christ had said this before (Joh 7:34), and He refers to it again (Joh 13:33). So that to Him the words had a terrible meaning. More terrible words than these could not be sounded in human ears, Ye cannot come. It means incorrigible depravity, hopeless misery. Separation from Christ is hell. The commission of every sin contributes to the construction of the impassable gulf. (D. Thomas, D. D.)

Final impenitence

From the time that our Lord left the world down to this day, the expression has been peculiarly true of the Jewish nation. They have been perpetually, in a sense, seeking and hungering after a Messiah, and yet unable to find Him, because they have not sought aright. In saying this we must carefully remember that our Lord did not mean to say that any of His hearers were too sinful and bad to be forgiven. On the contrary, not a few of them that crucified Him found mercy on the day of Pentecost, when Peter preached (Act 2:22-41). But our Lord did mean to say, prophetically, that the Jewish nation, as a nation, would be specially hardened and unbelieving, and that many of them, though an elect remnant might be saved, would die in their sins. In proof of this peculiar blindness and unbelief of the Jewish nation we should study Act 28:25-27, Rom 11:7, and 1Th 2:15-16. The Greek expression for sins in this verse confirms the view. It is not, literally rendered, sins, but sin: your special sin of unbelief. Let us note that


I. IT IS POSSIBLE TO SEEK CHRIST TOO LATE, OR FROM A WRONG MOTIVE, and so to seek Him in vain. This is a very important principle of Scripture. True repentance, doubtless, is never too late, but late repentance is seldom true. There is mercy to the uttermost in Christ; but if men wilfully reject Him, turn away from Him, and put off seeking Him in earnest, there is such a thing as seeking Christ in vain. Such passages as Pro 1:24-32; Mat 25:11-12; Luk 13:24-27; Heb 6:4-8; Heb 10:26-31, ought to be carefully studied.


II. THAT IT IS POSSIBLE FOR MEN TO DIE IN THEIR SINS, and never come to the heaven where He has gone. This is flatly contrary to the doctrine taught by some in the present day, that there is no future punishment, and that all will finally be forgiven. It is worthy of remark that our Lords words, Ye shall seek Me, and Whither I go ye cannot come, are used three times in this Gospel–twice to the unbelieving Jews, here and at Joh 7:34, and once to the disciples, Joh 13:33. But the careful reader will observe that in the two first instances the expression is coupled with, Ye shall not find Me, and Ye shall die in your sins. In the last, it evidently means the temporary separation between Christ and His disciples which would be caused by His ascension. (Bp. Ryle.)

Unbelief fatal

Observe the infinite difference between dying in our sins, and dying not in our sins. Lazarus, and Dives the rich man, both died–one in his palace, but in his sins; the other famished at the gate, but not in his sins. Stephen was stoned to death, but not in his sins, for he could say Lord Jesus, receive my spirit, I see the Son of man, etc.; but Judas, in his sins, went and hanged himself. Ananias and Sapphira died in their sins, but the thief upon the cross cast his last look upon the Saviour, and his sins, though many, were instantly forgiven.


I. Let us contemplate THIS FEARFUL PREDICTION OF THE CERTAIN END OF ALL UNBELIEVERS.

1. They die under the sentence of Divine condemnation for their sins.

2. They die under the dominion or power of them.

3. Under the guilt and misery of sin.

4. They die to experience the immediate and everlasting punishment denounced upon them.


II. THE EXCLUSIVE CONDITION UPON WHICH THIS FEARFUL AND IMPENDING DOOM CAN BE AVERTED. It is involved in the converse of the text–if ye believe not, ye shall die–but if ye believe, ye shall not die.

1. The object of their believing.

2. The nature of their belief. Must be cordial, entire, practical, With the heart man believeth unto righteousness.

3. The spiritual importance and efficacy of such faith. Saving in its effects by divine appointment.


III. APPLICATION.

1. Let those who have faith exercise it on the glorious object. Appreciate the glory and grace of that Saviour by faith in whom they have life everlasting.

2. Let those who believe not in Jesus remember–. They are condemned already, because they have not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. (The Evangelist.)

To die in sin is the most terrible death

This is a heavy doom, and the very door of damnation. It is a sad thing to die in prison, to die in a ditch, but far worse to die in your sins. Death to the wicked is as a trapdoor to let them into hell; so that it is a just wonder that, foreseeing their danger, they do not go roaring and raving out of the world. (J. Trapp.)

Dying in sin

Charles IX (who gave order for the massacre on St. Bartholomews day, 1575) expired bathed in his own blood from his veins, whilst he said, What blood–what murders–I know not where I am–how will all this end? What shall I do? I am lost forever. I know it. Francis Spira, an Italian apostate, exclaimed, just before death, My sin is greater than the mercy of God. I have denied Christ voluntarily; I feel that He hardens me, and allows me no hope. Hobbes–I am taking a fearful leap into the dark.

Sinners warned of death

On a very dark, stormy night, out West, the wind blew down a part of a railroad bridge. A freight train came along, and it crashed into the ruin, and the engineer and conductor perished. There was a girl living in her fathers cabin near the disaster, and she heard the crash of the freight train, and she knew that in a few moments an express train was due. She lighted a lantern, and climbed up on the one beam of the wrecked bridge, and then on the main part of the bridge, which was trestle work, and started to cross amid the thunder and the lightning of the tempest and the raging of the torrent beneath. One misstep and it would have been death. Amid all that horror the lantern went out. Crawling sometimes and sometimes walking over the slippery rails and over the trestle work, she came to the other side of the river. She wanted to get to the telegraph station where the express train did not stop, so that the danger might be telegraphed to the station where the train did stop. The train was due in five minutes. She was one mile off from the telegraph station, but fortunately the train was late. With cut and bruised feet she flew like the wind. Coming up to the telegraph station panting, with almost deathly exhaustion, she had only strength to shout, The bridge is down! when she became unconscious, and could hardly be resuscitated. The message was sent from the station to the next station, and the train halted, and that night the brave girl saved the lives of hundreds of passengers, and saved many homes from desolation. But every street is a track, and every style of business is a track, and every day is a track, and every night is a track, and multitudes under the power of temptation come sweeping on and sweeping down toward perils raging and terrific; God help us to go out and stop the train. Let us throw some signal. Let us give some warning. By the throne of God let us flash some influence to stop the downward progress. Beware! Beware! The bridge is down, the chasm is deep, and the lightnings of God set all the night of sin on fire with this warning, He that being often reproved hardeneth his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy. (De Witt Talmage.)

Then said the Jews, Will He kill Himself?–Afterwards at the siege of Jerusalem by Titus, many of the desperate Jews did the very thing they here said of our Lord–they killed themselves in madness of despair. (Rupertus.)

Self-murder was, by the Jews, esteemed the most aggravated of crimes–a crime which sent everyone after death to Gehenna, the place of damnation. Josephus, in the weighty speech wherein he warns his companions in war, who had been hemmed in by the enemy, to refrain from self-murder, says of suicides, a darker hell receives the souls of such. The Jews, no doubt, perceived very well what Christ meant to say. But, instead of permitting themselves to be humbled, their only purpose was to retort upon Christ the cutting expression, Ye shall die in your sins, and, therefore, they contemptuously utter the taunt, Well, if He is determined to take His own life and go to Gehenna, He is indeed correct when He says that no one will follow Him thither. (Tholuck.)

Ye are from beneath: I am from above.–An abyss separates heaven, life in God, the home of Jesus, and earth the life of this world, the natural and moral home of the Jews; and faith in Jesus could alone have bridged over this abyss. Hence their perdition is, if they refuse to embrace Him, certain, since He alone could have raised them to heaven. (F. Godet, D. D.)

Jesus lived and moved in a different world. His motives were pure, honest, kind, self-sacrificing. His joys were holy, spiritual, expanding, enduring, Divine. He had heaven in His soul, and they had hell begun in theirs. A gulf impassable between them, except by repentance. One must think with Christ, will with Him, toil with Him, endure with Him, and die with Him, so as to dwell with Him forever. (W. H. Van Doren, D. D.)

Christs moral elevation

The expression is susceptible of two interpretations.

1. Physical or local, in which sense Christ must have meant that He came from the heavenly world, and they had their origin on the earth. But the latter is only true of their bodies; all souls, as did the Divine personality of Christ, come from God.

2. Moral. The language must apply to character, its elevation and degradation. Christs moral character was from above–lofty, divine: theirs from beneath–mean, selfish, low as hell. In this sense Christ was as distant from His age and all unregenerate mankind as heaven from hell. Concerning this distance, note


I. IT WAS MANIFESTED IN HIS EARTHLY LIFE.

1. It was seen in the conduct of the Jews and others in relation to Him. The Gospels abound with instances illustrative of the felt disparity between Christ and the people with whom He lived (Luk 4:14-27; Mat 8:5-13; Mat 21:12; Joh 8:1-11). It was thus with the soldiers in Gethsemane, Pilate, the spectators of the Crucifixion. Whence arose this felt distance? It cannot be accounted for on the grounds of

(1) Social superiority: He was a humble Peasant.

(2) Non-sociality: He mingled with the people. It was

(3) Simply distance of character. His incorruptible truthfulness, immaculate purity, calm reverence, warm and overflowing benevolence struck them with awe.

2. It was seen in the conduct of Christ in relation to the people. He felt and manifested a moral loneliness. The crowd had nothing in common with Him. What they honoured, He despised; what He loved, they hated. Hence, He only felt akin to those who had kindred sympathy. My mother and brethren are those who do My will. Hence, too, His frequent withdrawal from the people to pour out His sorrows to the Father. And in His lonely hours He bewails the moral character of His age: O righteous Father, the world hath not known Thee. He was morally above them. They were mere flickering lamps, dim and sooty; He rolled as a bright star above them.


II. IT WAS DEMONSTRATIVE OF HIS REAL DIVINITY. Whence came such a character as this?

1. Intellectually there was nothing, either in Jewish or Gentile mind, to give rise to such a doctrinal system as that propounded by Jesus of Nazareth. His revelation of Gods love transcended all human conception.

2. And morally there was nothing in His age to produce such a character. How could immaculate purity come out of an age of corruption–incorruptible truth come out of a world of falsehood–self-sacrificing love out of a world of selfishness? Mens characters are formed on the principle of imitation; but Christs character could not be thus formed. He had no perfect form to imitate. Even the best of the patriarchs and the holiest of the prophets were imperfect. How can you account for the existence of such a character as His? Tell me not it came of the earth. Do grapes grow on thorns? Did the flaming pillar in the wilderness grow out of the sand?

(1) His perfect moral excellence was universally felt, not because there was no effort employed to discover imperfections in Him; the keen eye of His age was always on the watch, to descry some moral defect. And Pilate, who had every facility for knowing Him, and every motive for condemning Him, said, I find no fault in Him.

(2) This moral excellence was retained to the last, not because He was not assailed by temptation. Never came the great tempter to any man in a more powerful form than to Christ. How then shall we account for such a character as this? Only on the principle that He was indeed the Son of God.


III. IT WAS ESSENTIAL TO HIS REDEEMERSHIP. Had He not been thus morally above mankind, He had lacked the qualification to redeem souls. Holiness has the power to convict, to renovate, to sanctify, and to save. A man who is one with sinners, morally standing on the same platform, can never save them. Because Christ is above them, He rolls His moral thunders down to alarm the careless: pours His sunbeams to quicken the dead; rains His fertilizing showers to make moral deserts blossom as the rose. As the well-being of the earth depends upon the heavens, so the spiritual progress of humanity depends upon that Character that is stretched over us like the sunny skies. Conclusion: The subject predicates

1. The way to true elevation. Men are endowed with aspirations. But what altitudes should they scale to reach true dignity? Commerce, literature, scholarship, war? No; from all these heights man must fall–fall like Lucifer, the sun of the morning. The altitude of imitating Christ is that which conducts to glory. Seek the things above. Press on to assimilation to that character that is above you. It will always be above you, and so far it meets the unbounded moral aspirations of your heart. Be ye holy, even as God is holy. Christs character is everlastingly saying to you, Come up hither.

2. Reveals the only way by which we can regenerate the world. Keep at a moral distance from mankind. Let the people amongst whom we bye feel that we are morally above them. In this age, what is called the Church is morally so identified with the spirit that moves the world, that it is on the same moral plane as the market, the theatre.

3. Presents motives for the highest gratitude. The grandest fact in the history of our planet is, that a perfect moral character has been here, wearing our nature. Though His physical personality is gone, His character is here still. (D. Thomas, D. D.)

Methods of living

There are three methods of living–from beneath, from within, from above. We none of us live after one single method. There has been but one self-consistent man, Jesus, who followed one method throughout. But no other man is either wholly good or consistently bad. Three distant principles, however, of the formation of character are clearly manifest.


I. LIFE FROM BENEATH we can easily recognize. The world has received Christian education enough to lead it publicly, at least to repudiate the method of the devil, even though they may follow it privately.


II. LIFE FROM WITHIN is good so far as it goes. It is the effort to live as a human being may best live in the powers of his own reason, and out of the motives of his own heart without seeking help from above. And it is fair to say that some who follow it reach admirable results. Christian faith need not make us blind to natural virtues.


III. BUT SCRIPTURE FAILS TO RECOGNIZE THIS INTERMEDIATE METHOD OF LIVING. Yet Jesus must have looked out upon life with as quick an appreciation of anything fair in it as any of us can ever feel, and was always ready to see good where we cannot. Nevertheless, He admits of only two sharply defined principles and tendencies–one of this world and tending towards that which is beneath; and the other like His own higher life rising towards that which is above. This is admittedly a difficulty. We observe a good deal of loveableness and goodness in the world growing out of mens hearts without any religions vitality in it; Christ recognized nothing of the kind. Which is right?

1. Remember that Jesus went beyond all that is temporary in human conduct, and that His judgments have reference to radical principles and final issues. When, therefore, He distinguishes two opposite methods of life only, while human experience shows us a third, the question arises whether life can go on much farther in the halfway fashion? Is not this intermediate way a path that must break off somewhere, and he who follows it be compelled to scale the height or plunge into the abyss? Is it anything more than a provisional method, and so cannot be justified as a necessary and reasonable expedient for a life?

2. It is a great presumption against it that it is an expedient, and cannot possibly be the full, final method of an immortal soul. It is a serious disadvantage that the plan must be held subject to death, and will have to be dropped in the grave. As thinking, acting beings, we want to plan our lives for ages, not for years; and who of us expect to live one single day after death without finding ourselves obliged to take God and the whole kingdom of righteousness into our account of life? I cannot live fifty, one hundred, one thousand years hence, still drifting on in unconcern about the greatest and final realities of the universe.

3. Some will admit this disadvantage, but, however they may wish to believe as their mothers have, say, I must build my life upon known facts and truths which experience can substantiate. So be it, give me facts to build into the substantial arch of a life, but let me not neglect the Keystone, because life can be carried so high without it, and the temporary scaffolding hold all in place for the present. And if the gospel brings the facts which are necessary to make life entire we ought at once to use them. Is faith in Christ, this Keystone, which completes and secures all, and that with no temporary scaffolding of our own construction, but with the righteousness of God?

4. Let me ask you who are trying to live honourably without religion to search the scriptures of your heart, and of providence, and see if the present fact of a living God is not everywhere pressed upon you? But beside this there is a whole range of Divine facts in the world called Christianity, as positive facts of history as the rocky mountains are facts of geography; and one might as reasonably attempt to engineer a railroad across America without taking the mountains into account as to seek to stretch a purpose across this life without taking Christianity into his plan. From these facts let us specify

(1) The person of Christ. Pilate did not know what to do with it and would wash his hands; but the world cannot evade its responsibility. Christ stands before the judgment throne of every soul, and the final question of our lives, whether we will or no, becomes, What shall I do with Jesus? etc.

(2) The power of the Holy Ghost in the lives of men. This is a fact which runs through the whole range of Christian history, and is not unknown outside it, or whence those instinctive prayers, great ideas, visions of better things?

5. We must allow that a provisional way of living is justifiable only on the supposition that it is necessary. One may live as well as he can in a tent, provided there is no material of which he can build a house. One may camp out under a mere moral theory of life, provided a religious home is an impossibility. But there are materials sound and ample for a Christian home in life in the Christian Church. Do not then camp out, but come in.

Conclusion: Note some considerations which show the completeness of the Christian method of living and the incompleteness of the best method which is not clearly Christian.

1. The Christian method is life from above. Christ finds the lost child and sets him in the midst of the Divine Fatherhood, and thus brings life into union with God.

2. It harmonizes everything in and around us, and the growing harmony of life is the sure proof that the method cannot be wrong.

3. Without these reconciliations the best life must be imperfect, and its method therefore to be eschewed. (Newman Smyth, D. D.)

If ye believe not that I am He, ye shall die in your sins.–Our Lord spoke as One having authority, as a king from the throne, a judge from the tribunal.


I. WHAT IS INCLUDED IN OUR BELIEVING IN CHRIST.

1. A deep sense of our need of Him as the only and all-sufficient Saviour. They that are whole need not a physician (Isa 27:13; Mat 9:12).

2. A giving full credit to the gospel revelation concerning Him in His Person, offices, and work.

3. A full conviction of conscience arising

(1) From a discernment of the excellency of what is revealed.

(2) From the manner in which it is revealed.

4. A removal of all enmity and aversion to Christ.

5. A. powerful attraction of the whole soul to Christ, a closing in with the gospel way of salvation, and a cleaving to Him with full purpose of heart.


II. THE AWFUL CONSEQUENCES OF UNBELIEF (Eze 3:18). Unbelievers

1. Die in a state of guilt and under condemnation. Their conscience condemns them because they have defiled it; the law, because they have broken it; the gospel, because they have rejected it. This condemnation is now (Joh 3:18).

2. Die under the power and dominion of sin (Rev 22:11).

3. Dying in their sins, they sink under everlasting punishment. Those who sin against the remedy perish without it. (B. Beddome, M. A.)

The greatest calamity


I. TO DIE IN ONES SINS IS THE GREATEST CALAMITY. To die is a terribly solemn thing, for it involves separation from home, business, acquaintance, world, the very body itself, and introduction into a mysterious, untried, spiritual state of retribution. But to die in sin adds immeasurably to its solemnity. Sin is the sting of death. To die in ones sins means

1. To die having misused this life with all its blessings. Lifes grand purpose is the cultivation of a holy character. For this

(1) All physical blessings are given: health, time, nature.

(2) All social pleasures and happy interchanges of thought, feeling, and soul

(3) All mental blessings, literature, science, poetry, schools, etc.

(4) All redemptive blessings–the gospel with its soul-saving appliances. He who dies in his sins has abused all.

2. To die with all the conditions of misery-conflicting passions, tormenting conscience, a dreaded God, foreboding anguish. It this is not hell, what is it? Better a thousand times to die in a paupers hovel or in a martyrs tortures than to die in sin.


II. UNBELIEF IS CHRIST READERS THIS GREATEST OF CALAMITIES INEVITABLE. Belief in Christ, as the Revealer of God, is essential to the deliverance of man from the guilt, power, and consequence of sins.

1. This deliverance requires the awaking in the soul of a supreme affection for God. Love to God only can destroy the old man.

2. A supreme affection for God requires a certain revelation of Him. In what aspects must the Eternal appear to man before this love can be awakened? He must appear personally, forgivingly, and sublimely perfect.

3. This certain revelation is nowhere but in Christ. Belief in Him therefore is essential to a deliverance of the soul from sin. (D. Thomas, D. D.)

Unbelief is a sin

1. Heavy with the burden of ingratitude (Luk 17:17).

2. Heavy with the burden of a broken law (Gal 3:10).

3. Heavy with impending wrath of God (Joh 3:36).

4. Crimsoned with blood (Isa 1:18; Heb 10:26; Hos 1:2). (W. H. Van Doren, D. D.)

Unbelief


I. IS THE THING THAT SPECIALLY RUINS MEN. All manner of sin may be forgiven. But unbelief bars the door against mercy (Mar 16:16; Joh 3:36.


II. WAS THE SECRET OF THE JEWS BEING SO THOROUGHLY OF THE WORLD. If they would only have believed in Christ, they would have been delivered from this present evil world. The victory that overcomes the world is faith. Once believing on a heavenly Saviour a man has a portion and a heart in heaven (Gal 1:4; 1Jn 5:4-5).


III. THERE IS NOTHING HARD OR UNCHARITABLE IN WARNING MEN PLAINLY OF THE CONSEQUENCES OF UNBELIEF. Never to speak of hell is not acting as Christ did. (Bp. Ryle.)

Unbelief will destroy the soul

If but one sin be unrepented of, the man continues still a bond slave of hell. By one little hole, a ship will sink into the bottom of the sea. The stab of a penknife to the heart will as well destroy a man as all the daggers that killed Caesar in the senate house. The soul will be strangled with one cord of vanity as well as with all the cart ropes of iniquity: only the more sins, the more plagues and fiercer flames in hell; but he that lives and dies impenitent in one, it will be his destruction. One dram of poison will despatch a man, and one reigning sin will bring him to endless misery. (R. Bolton.)

Dying in sin

A dying woman, after a life of frivolity, said to me, Do you think that I can be pardoned? I said, Oh, yes, Then, gathering herself up in the concentrated dismay of a departing spirit, she looked at me and said, Sir, I know I shall not! Then she looked up as though she heard the click of the hoofs of the pale horse, and her long locks tossed on the pillow as she whispered, The summer is ended. (T. DeWitt Talmage.)

We must believe or perish

Unbelief stops the current of Gods mercy from running; it shuts up Gods bowels, closeth the orifice of Christs wounds, that no healing virtue will come out. He could not do many mighty works there, because of their unbelief (Mat 13:58). (T. Watson.)

Judgment overtakes sin suddenly

The Rev. F.W. Holland in 1867 was encamped in Wady Feiram, near the base of Mount Serbal. He says: A tremendous thunderstorm burst upon us. After little more than an hours rain the water rose so rapidly in the previously dry wady (valley), that I had to run for my life, and with great difficulty succeeded in saving my tent and goods, my boots, which I had not time to pick up, being washed away. In less than two hours a dry desert wady, upwards of 300 yards broad, was turned into a foaming torrent from eight to ten feet deep, roaring and tearing down, and bearing everything before it–tangled masses of tamarisks, hundreds of beautiful palm trees, scores of sheep and goats, camels, donkeys, and even men, women, and children, for a whole encampment of Arabs was washed away a few miles above me. The storm commenced at five oclock in the evening, and at half-past nine the waters were rapidly, subsiding, and it was evident that the flood had spent its force. In the morning a gently flowing stream, but a few yards broad and a few inches deep, was all that remained of it. But the whole bed of the valley was changed. Here great heaps of boulders were piled up, where hollows had been the day before; there holes had taken the place of banks covered with trees. Two miles of tamarisk wood, which was situated above the palm grove, had been completely washed away, and upwards of a thousand palm trees swept down to the sea. The change was so great that I could not have believed it possible in so short a time had I not witnessed it with my own eyes. So sudden, and greater far will be the final ruin of those who build their hopes of eternal life on the sand of human doing, and not upon the Rock–Christ Jesus.

Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell

Verse 21. Then said Jesus again unto them] He had said the same things to them the day before. See Joh 7:34.

Ye shall seek me] When your calamities come upon you, ye shall in vain seek for the help of the Messiah, whom ye now reject, and whom ye shall shortly crucify.

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

The greatest part of what is said here, was said by our Saviour before, Joh 7:34; (see the explication of it there); only here, instead of ye shall not find me, is,

ye shall die in your sins; a phrase we shall find in Eze 3:18,19, which doubtless signifieth, in the guilt of your sins, not removed from you; and is a threatening of eternal death, as well as temporal in the destruction of Jerusalem: and those who do so, cannot come into heaven, where Christ is.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

21-25. Then said Jesus again untothem, I go my way, &c.(See on Joh7:33).

Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

Then said Jesus again unto them,…. It may be, immediately after he had said the above words; or rather some time after, it may be on the same day:

I go my way; meaning, the way of all flesh, or that he should die: the way of speaking shows, that his death was certain, a determined thing; which must be, and yet was voluntary: he was not driven, nor forced, but went freely; this being the path, the way, through which he must enter into his kingdom and glory:

and ye shall seek me; that is, shall seek the Messiah, as their deliverer and Saviour, when in distress; and whom he calls himself, because he was the true Messiah, and the only Saviour and Redeemer of his people, in a spiritual sense; otherwise they would not, nor did they seek Jesus of Nazareth:

and shall die in your sins; or “in your sin”; so it is in the Greek text, and in the Vulgate Latin, and Persic versions: meaning, in their sin of unbelief, and rejection of him the true Messiah: the sense is, that in the midst of their calamities, which should come upon them, for their sin against him, they should in vain seek for the Messiah, as a temporal deliverer of them; for their nation, city, and temple, and they therein should utterly perish, for their iniquity; and their ruin would not only be temporal, but eternal: since it follows,

whither I, go ye cannot come, signifying, that whereas he was going to his Father, to heaven and glory; to enjoy eternal happiness at his Father’s right hand, in the human nature; they should never come there, but whilst many sat down in the kingdom of heaven, with their fathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, who should come from afar, they would be shut out, and not suffered to enter in.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

Christ’s Discourse with the Pharisees.

      21 Then said Jesus again unto them, I go my way, and ye shall seek me, and shall die in your sins: whither I go, ye cannot come.   22 Then said the Jews, Will he kill himself? because he saith, Whither I go, ye cannot come.   23 And he said unto them, Ye are from beneath; I am from above: ye are of this world; I am not of this world.   24 I said therefore unto you, that ye shall die in your sins: for if ye believe not that I am he, ye shall die in your sins.   25 Then said they unto him, Who art thou? And Jesus saith unto them, Even the same that I said unto you from the beginning.   26 I have many things to say and to judge of you: but he that sent me is true; and I speak to the world those things which I have heard of him.   27 They understood not that he spake to them of the Father.   28 Then said Jesus unto them, When ye have lifted up the Son of man, then shall ye know that I am he, and that I do nothing of myself; but as my Father hath taught me, I speak these things.   29 And he that sent me is with me: the Father hath not left me alone; for I do always those things that please him.   30 As he spake these words, many believed on him.

      Christ here gives fair warning to the careless unbelieving Jews to consider what would be the consequence of their infidelity, that they might prevent it before it was too late; for he spoke words of terror as well as words of grace. Observe here,

      I. The wrath threatened (v. 21): Jesus said again unto them that which might be likely to do them good. He continued to teach, in kindness to those few who received his doctrine, though there were many that resisted it, which is an example to ministers to go on with their work, notwithstanding opposition, because a remnant shall be saved. Here Christ changes his voice; he had piped to them in the offers of his grace, and they had not danced; now he mourns to them in the denunciations of his wrath, to try if they would lament. He said, I go my way, and you shall seek me, and shall die in your sins. Whither I go you cannot come. Every word is terrible, and bespeaks spiritual judgments, which are the sorest of all judgments; worse than war, pestilence, and captivity, which the Old-Testament prophets denounced. Four things are here threatened against the Jews.

      1. Christ’s departure from them: I go my way, that is, “It shall not be long before I go; you need not take so much pains to drive me from you, I shall go of myself.” They said to him, Depart from us, we desire not the knowledge of thy ways; and he takes them at their word; but woe to those from whom Christ departs. Ichabod, the glory is gone, our defence is departed, when Christ goes. Christ frequently warned them of his departure before he left them: he bade often farewell, as one loth to depart, and willing to be invited, and that would have them stir up themselves to take hold on him.

      2. Their enmity to the true Messiah, and their fruitless and infatuated enquiries after another Messiah when he was gone away, which were both their sin and their punishment: You shall seek me, which intimates either, (1.) Their enmity to the true Christ: “You shall seek to ruin my interest, by persecuting my doctrine and followers, with a fruitless design to root them out.” This was a continual vexation and torment to themselves, made them incurably ill-natured, and brought wrath upon them (God’s and their own) to the uttermost. Or, (2.) Their enquiries after false Christs: “You shall continue your expectations of the Messiah, and be the self-perplexing seekers of a Christ to come, when he is already come;” like the Sodomites, who, being struck with blindness, wearied themselves to find the door. See Rom 9:31; Rom 9:32.

      3. Their final impenitency: You shall die in your sins. Here is an error in all our English Bibles, even the old bishops’ translation, and that of Geneva (the Rhemists only excepted), for all the Greek copies have it in the singular number, en te hamartia hymon—in your sin, so all the Latin versions; and Calvin has a note upon the difference between this and v. 24, where it is plural, tais hamartiais, that here it is meant especially of the sin of unbelief, in hoc peccato vestro–in this sin of yours. Note, Those that live in unbelief are for ever undone if they die in unbelief. Or, it may be understood in general, You shall die in your iniquity, as Eze 3:19; Eze 33:9. Many that have long lived in sin are, through grace, saved by a timely repentance from dying in sin; but for those who go out of this world of probation into that of retribution under the guilt of sin unpardoned, and the power of sin unbroken, there remaineth no relief: salvation itself cannot save them, Job 20:11; Eze 32:27.

      4. Their eternal separation from Christ and all happiness in him: Whither I go you cannot come. When Christ left the world, he went to a state of perfect happiness; he went to paradise. Thither he took the penitent thief with him, that did not die in his sins; but the impenitent not only shall not come to him, but they cannot; it is morally impossible, for heaven would not be heaven to those that die unsanctified and unmeet for it. You cannot come, because you have no right to enter into that Jerusalem, Rev. xxii. 14. Whither I go you cannot come, to fetch me thence, so Dr. Whitby; and the same is the comfort of all good Christians, that, when they get to heaven, they will be out of the reach of their enemies’ malice.

      II. The jest they made of this threatening. Instead of trembling at this word, they bantered it, and turned it into ridicule (v. 22): Will he kill himself? See here, 1. What slight thoughts they had of Christ’s threatenings; they could make themselves and one another merry with them, as those that mocked the messengers of the Lord, and turned the burden of the word of the Lord into a by-word, and precept upon precept, line upon line, into a merry song, Isa. xxviii. 13. But be ye not mockers, lest your bands be made strong. 2. What ill thoughts they had of Christ’s meaning, as if he had an inhuman design upon his own life, to avoid the indignities done him, like Saul. This is indeed (say they) to go whither we cannot follow him, for we will never kill ourselves. Thus they make him not only such a one as themselves, but worse; yet in the calamities brought by the Romans upon the Jews many of them in discontent and despair did kill themselves. They had put a much more favourable construction upon this word of his (Joh 7:34; Joh 7:35): Will he go to the dispersed among the Gentiles? But see how indulged malice grows more and more malicious.

      III. The confirmation of what he had said.

      1. He had said, Whither I go you cannot come, and here he gives the reason for this (v. 23): You are from beneath, I am from above; you are of this world, I am not of this world. You are ek ton kato—of those things which are beneath; noting, not so much their rise from beneath as their affection to these lower things: “You are in with these things, as those that belong to them; how can you come where I go, when your spirit and disposition are so directly contrary to mine?” See here, (1.) What the spirit of the Lord Jesus was–not of this world, but from above. He was perfectly dead to the wealth of the world, the ease of the body, and the praise of men, and was wholly taken up with divine and heavenly things; and none shall be with him but those who are born from above and have their conversation in heaven. (2.) How contrary to this their spirit was: “You are from beneath, and of this world.” The Pharisees were of a carnal worldly spirit; and what communion could Christ have with them?

      2. He had said, You shall die in your sins, and here he stand to it: “Therefore I said, You shall die in your sins, because you are from beneath;” and he gives this further reason for it, If you believe not that I am he, you shall die in your sins, v. 24. See here, (1.) What we are required to believe: that I am he, hoti ego eimi—that I am, which is one of God’s names, Exod. iii. 14. It was the Son of God that there said, Ehejeh asher Ehejeh–I will be what I will be; for the deliverance of Israel was but a figure of good things to come, but now he saith, “I am he; he that should come, he that you expect the Messias to be, that you would have me to be to you. I am more than the bare name of the Messiah; I do not only call myself so, but I am he.” True faith does not amuse the soul with an empty sound of words, but affects it with the doctrine of Christ’s mediation, as a real thing that has real effects. (2.) How necessary it is that we believe this. If we have not this faith, we shall die in our sins; for the matter is so settled that without this faith, [1.] We cannot be saved from the power of sin while we live, and therefore shall certainly continue in it to the last. Nothing but the doctrine of Christ’s grace will be an argument powerful enough, and none but the Spirit of Christ’s grace will be an agent powerful enough, to turn us from sin to God; and that Spirit is given, and that doctrine given, to be effectual to those only who believe in Christ: so that, if Satan be not by faith dispossessed, he has a lease of the soul for its life; if Christ do not cure us, our case is desperate, and we shall die in our sins. [2.] Without faith we cannot be saved from the punishment of sin when we die, for the wrath of God remains upon them that believe not, Mark xvi. 16. Unbelief is the damning sin; it is a sin against the remedy. Now this implies the great gospel promise: If we believe that Christ is he, and receive him accordingly, we shall not die in our sins. The law saith absolutely to all, as Christ said (v. 21), You shall die in your sins, for we are all guilty before God; but the gospel is a defeasance of the obligation upon condition of believing. The curse of the law is vacated and annulled to all that submit to the grace of the gospel. Believers die in Christ, in his love, in his arms, and so are saved from dying in their sins.

      IV. Here is a further discourse concerning himself, occasioned by his requiring faith in himself as the condition of salvation, v. 25-29. Observe,

      1. The question which the Jews put to him (v. 25): Who art thou? This they asked tauntingly, and not with any desire to be instructed. He had said, You must believe that I am he. By his not saying expressly who he was, he plainly intimated that in his person he was such a one as could not be described by any, and in his office such a one as was expected by all that looked for redemption in Israel; yet this awful manner of speaking, which had so much significancy in it, they turned to his reproach, as if he knew not what to say of himself: “Who art thou, that we must with an implicit faith believe in thee, that thou art some mighty HE, we know not who or what, nor are worthy to know?“

      2. His answer to this question, wherein he directs them three ways for information:–

      (1.) He refers them to what he had said all along: “Do you ask who I am? Even the same that I said unto you from the beginning.” The original here is a little intricate, ten archen ho ti kai lalo hymin which some read thus: I am the beginning, which also I speak unto you. So Austin takes it. Christ is called Arche—the beginning (Col 1:18; Rev 1:8; Rev 21:6; Rev 3:14), and so it agrees with v. 24, I am he. Compare Isa. xli. 4: I am the first, I am he. Those who object that it is the accusative case, and therefore not properly answering to tis ei, must undertake to construe by grammar rules that parallel expression, Rev. i. 8, ho en. But most interpreters agree with our version, Do you ask who I am? [1.] I am the same that I said to you from the beginning of time in the scriptures of the Old-Testament, the same that from the beginning was said to be the Seed of the woman, that should break the serpent’s head, the same that in all the ages of the church was the Mediator of the covenant, and the faith of the patriarchs. [2.] From the beginning of my public ministry. The account he had already given of himself he resolved to abide by; he had declared himself to be the Son of God (ch. v. 17), to be the Christ (ch. iv. 26), and the bread of life, and had proposed himself as the object of that faith which is necessary to salvation, and to this he refers them for an answer to their question. Christ is one with himself; what he had said from the beginning, he saith still. His is an everlasting gospel.

      (2.) He refers them to his Father’s judgment, and the instructions he had from him (v. 26): “I have many things, more than you think of, to say, and in them to judge of you. But why should I trouble myself any further with you? I know very well that he who sent me is true, and will stand by me, and bear me out, for I speak to the world (to which I am sent as an ambassador) those things, all those and those only, which I have heard of him.” Here,

      [1.] He suppresses his accusation of them. He had many things to charge them with, and many evidences to produce against them; but for the present he had said enough. Note, Whatever discoveries of sin are made to us, he that searches the heart has still more to judge of us, 1 John iii. 20. How much soever God reckons with sinners in this world there is still a further reckoning yet behind, Deut. xxxii. 34. Let us learn hence not to be forward to say all we can say, even against the worst of men; we may have many things to say, by way of censure, which yet it is better to leave unsaid, for what is it to us?

      [2.] He enters his appeal against them to his Father: He that sent me. Here two things comfort him:–First, That he had been true to his Father, and to the trust reposed in him: I speak to the world (for his gospel was to be preached to every creature) those things which I have heard of him. Being given for a witness to the people (Isa. lv. 4), he was Amen, a faithful witness, Rev. iii. 14. He did not conceal his doctrine, but spoke it to the world (being of common concern, it was to be of common notice); nor did he change or alter it, nor vary from the instructions he received from him that sent him. Secondly, That his Father would be true to him; true to the promise that he would make his mouth like a sharp sword; true to his purpose concerning him, which was a decree (Ps. ii. 7); true to the threatenings of his wrath against those that should reject him. Though he should not accuse them to his Father, yet the Father, who sent him, would undoubtedly reckon with them, and would be true to what he had said (Deut. xviii. 19), that whosoever would not hearken to that prophet whom God would raise up he would require it of him. Christ would not accuse them; “for,” saith he, “he that sent me is true, and will pass judgment on them, though I should not demand judgment against them.” Thus, when he lets fall the present prosecution, he binds them over to the judgment-day, when it will be too late to dispute what they will not now be persuaded to believe. I, as a deaf man, heard not; for thou wilt hear,Psa 38:13; Psa 38:15. Upon this part of our Saviour’s discourse the evangelist has a melancholy remark (v. 27): They understood not that he spoke to them of the Father. See here, 1. The power of Satan to blind the minds of those who believe not. Though Christ spoke so plainly of God as his Father in heaven, yet they did not understand whom he meant, but thought he spoke of some father he had in Galilee. Thus the plainest things are riddles and parables to those who are resolved to hold fast their prejudices; day and night are alike to the blind. 2. The reason why the threatenings of the word make so little impression upon the minds of sinners; it is because they understand not whose the wrath is that is revealed in them. When Christ told them of the truth of him that sent him, as a warning to them to prepare for his judgment, which is according to truth, they slighted the warning, because they understood not to whose judgment it was that they made themselves obnoxious.

      (3.) He refers them to their own convictions hereafter, Joh 8:28; Joh 8:29. He finds they will not understand him, and therefore adjourns the trial till further evidence should come in; they that will not see shall see, Isa. xxvi. 11. Now observe here,

      [1.] What they should ere long be convinced of: “You shall know that I am he, that Jesus is the true Messiah. Whether you will own it or no before men, you shall be made to know it in your own consciences, the convictions of which, though you may stifle, yet you cannot baffle: that I am he, not that you represent me to be, but he that I preach myself to be, he that should come!” Two things they should be convinced of, in order to this:–First, That he did nothing of himself, not of himself as man, of himself alone, of himself without the Father, with whom he was one. He does not hereby derogate from his own inherent power, but only denies their charge against him as a false prophet; for of false prophets it is said that they prophesied out of their own hearts, and followed their own spirits. Secondly, That as his Father taught him so he spoke these things, that he was not autodidaktos—self-taught, but Theodidaktos—taught of God. The doctrine he preached was the counterpart of the counsels of God, with which he was intimately acquainted; kathos edidaxe, tauta lalo–I speak those things, not only which he taught me, but as he taught me, with the same divine power and authority.

      [2.] When they should be convinced of this: When you have lifted up the Son of man, lifted him up upon the cross, as the brazen serpent upon the pole (ch. iii. 14), as the sacrifices under the law (for Christ is the great sacrifice), which, when they were offered, were said to be elevated, or lifted up; hence the burnt-offerings, the most ancient and honourable of all, were called elevations (Gnoloth from Gnolah, asendit–he ascended), and in many other offerings they used the significant ceremony of heaving the sacrifice up, and moving it before the Lord; thus was Christ lifted up. Or the expression denotes that his death was his exaltation. They that put him to death thought thereby for ever to have sunk him and his interest, but it proved to be the advancement of both, ch. xii. 24. When the Son of man was crucified, the Son of man was glorified. Christ had called his dying his going away; here he calls it his being lifted up; thus the death of the saints, as it is their departure out of this world, so it is their advancement to a better. Observe, He speaks of those he is now talking with as the instruments of his death: when you have lifted up the Son of man; not that they were to be the priests to offer him up (no, that was his own act, he offered up himself), but they would be his betrayers and murderers; see Acts ii. 23. They lifted him up to the cross, but then he lifted up himself to his Father. Observe with what tenderness and mildness Christ here speaks to those who he certainly knew would put him to death, to teach us not to hate or seek the hurt of any, though we may have reason to think they hate us and seek our hurt. Now, Christ speaks of his death as that which would be a powerful conviction of the infidelity of the Jews. When you have lifted up the Son of man, then shall you know this. And why then? First, Because careless and unthinking people are often taught the worth of mercies by the want of them, Luke xvii. 22. Secondly, The guilt of their sin in putting Christ to death would so awaken their consciences that they would be put upon serious enquiries after a Saviour, and then would know that Jesus was he who alone could save them. And so it proved, when, being told that with wicked hands they had crucified and slain the Son of God, they cried out, What shall we do? and were made to know assuredly that this Jesus was Lord and Christ, Acts ii. 36. Thirdly, There would be such signs and wonders attending his death, and the lifting of him up from death in his resurrection, as would give a stronger proof of his being the Messiah than any that had been yet given: and multitudes were hereby brought to believe that Jesus is the Christ, who had before contradicted and opposed him. Fourthly, By the death of Christ the pouring out of the Spirit was purchased, who would convince the world that Jesus is he,Joh 16:7; Joh 16:8. Fifthly, The judgments which the Jews brought upon themselves, by putting Christ to death, which filled up the measure of their iniquity, were a sensible conviction to the most hardened among them that Jesus was he. Christ had often foretold that desolation as the just punishment of their invincible unbelief, and when it came to pass (lo, it did come) they could not but know that the great prophet had been among them, Ezek. xxxiii. 33.

      [3.] What supported our Lord Jesus in the mean time (v. 29): He that sent me is with me, in my whole undertaking; for the Father (the fountain and first spring of this affair, from whom as its great cause and author it is derived) hath not left me alone, to manage it myself, hath not deserted the business nor me in the prosecution of it, for do I always those things that please him. Here is,

      First, The assurance which Christ had of his Father’s presence with him, which includes both a divine power going along with him to enable him for his work, and a divine favour manifested to him to encourage him in it. He that sent me is with me,Isa 42:1; Psa 89:21. This greatly emboldens our faith in Christ and our reliance upon his word that he had, and knew he had, his Father with him, to confirm the word of his servant, Isa. xliv. 26. The King of kings accompanied his own ambassador, to attest his mission and assist his management, and never left him alone, either solitary or weak; it also aggravated the wickedness of those that opposed him, and was an intimation to them of the premunire they ran themselves into by resisting him, for thereby they were found fighters against God. How easily soever they might think to crush him and run him down, let them know he had one to back him with whom it is the greatest madness that can be to contend.

      Secondly, The ground of this assurance: For I do always those things that please him. That is, 1. That great affair in which our Lord Jesus was continually engaged was an affair which the Father that sent him was highly well pleased with. His whole undertaking is called the pleasure of the Lord (Isa. liii. 10), because of the counsels of the eternal mind about it, and the complacency of the eternal mind in it. 2. His management of that affair was in nothing displeasing to his Father; in executing his commission he punctually observed all his instructions, and did in nothing vary from them. No mere man since the fall could say such a word as this (for in many things we offend all) but our Lord Jesus never offended his Father in any thing, but, as became him, he fulfilled all righteousness. This was necessary to the validity and value of the sacrifice he was to offer up; for if he had in any thing displeased the Father himself, and so had had any sin of his own to answer for, the Father could not have been pleased with him as a propitiation for our sins; but such a priest and such a sacrifice became us as was perfectly pure and spotless. We may likewise learn hence that God’s servants may then expect God’s presence with them when they choose and do those things that please him,Isa 66:4; Isa 66:5.

      V. Here is the good effect which this discourse of Christ’s had upon some of his hearers (v. 30): As he spoke these words many believed on him. Note, 1. Though multitudes perish in their unbelief, yet there is a remnant according to the election of grace, who believe to the saving of the soul. If Israel, the whole body of the people, be not gathered, yet there are those of them in whom Christ will be glorious, Isa. xlix. 5. This the apostle insists upon, to reconcile the Jews’ rejection with the promises made unto their fathers. There is a remnant, Rom. xi. 5. 2. The words of Christ, and particularly his threatening words, are made effectual by the grace of God to bring in poor souls to believe in him. When Christ told them that if they believed not they should die in their sins, and never get to heaven, they thought it was time to look about them, Rom 1:16; Rom 1:18. 3. Sometimes there is a wide door opened, and an effectual one, even where they are many adversaries. Christ will carry on his work, though the heathen rage. The gospel sometimes gains great victories where it meets with great opposition. Let this encourage God’s ministers to preach the gospel, though it be with much contention, for they shall not labour in vain. Many may be secretly brought home to God by those endeavours which are openly contradicted and cavilled at by men of corrupt minds. Austin has an affectionate ejaculation in his lecture upon these words: Utinam et, me loquenti, multi credant; non in me, sed mecum in eo–I wish that when I speak, many may believe, not on me, but with me on him.

Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary

Again (). Probably (again) in verse 12 refers to a day after the feast is over since the last day is mentioned in 7:37. So then here again we probably move on to another day still beyond that in verse 12.

And ye shall seek me ( ). As in 7:34, “the search of despair” (Bernard), seeking for the Messiah when it is too late, the tragedy of Judaism today (1:11).

And ye shall die in your sin ( ). Future middle indicative of which is the emphatic word here (cf. Ezek 3:18; Ezek 18:18; Prov 24:9). Note singular (sin) here, but plural (sins) when the phrase is repeated in verse 24 (sin in its essence, sin in its acts).

Ye cannot come ( ). Precise language of 7:34 to the Jews and to the apostles in 13:33.

Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament

Then [] . Properly, therefore, connecting the fact of Jesus ‘ continuing to speak with His freedom from arrest.

Said Jesus. Omit Jesus, and read, He said therefore.

Go away [] . Withdraw myself from you; this sense being emphasized by the succeeding words, ye shall seek me. In expressing one’s departure from men or from surrounding objects, we may emphasize merely the fact of removal, in which case ajpercomai, to go away, would be appropriate; or we may emphasize the removal as affecting some relation of the person to that from which he removes, as in Joh 6:67, where Jesus says to the disciples, “will ye also go away, or withdraw from me,” in which case uJpagw is the proper word. 31 In your sin [ ] . See on Mt 1:21. Note the singular, sin, not sins. It is used collectively to express the whole condition of estrangement from God.

Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament

1) “Then said Jesus again unto them,” (eipen oun palin autois) “Then he said again (further) to them,” in addition to His statement Joh 8:14.

2) “I go my way, and ye shall seek me,” (ego hupago kai zetesete me) “I go away, as I will, and you all will seek me,” search for me, when it is too late, as described by Pro 1:20-31. Except men “seek Him” of their own will, as the Spirit calls and enlightens, none will find Him, Isa 55:6-7; Pro 29:1.

3) “And shall die in your sins (kai en te hamartia humon apothaneisthe) “And you all will die in your sin,” or your alienation from God, with no hope forever thereafter, Luk 13:3; Luk 13:5; Act 17:30-31; Heb 9:27; Heb 4:7; Eph 2:14; Eph 4:18, as the rich man in hell had died, Luk 16:25-31.

4) ”Whither I go, ye cannot come.” (hopou ego hupago humeis dunasthe elthein) “Where I go you all are not able to come,” Joh 7:34; Because of the “fixed gulf” between believers and unbelievers, none can come to Him, after death’s call, Luk 16:26. There is a deadline in every life, a final conviction and call from God to repentance and faith in Jesus Christ, to which every lost soul should instantly obey, lest it be too late. See Pro 1:20-31; Pro 29:1; Isa 55:6-7; 2Co 6:2; Heb 4:7; Rev 22:17.

Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary

21. I go. Perceiving that he is doing no good among these obstinate men, he threatens their destruction; and this is the end of all those who reject the Gospel. For it is not thrown uselessly into the air, but must breathe the odour either of life or of death, (2Co 2:16.) The meaning of these words amounts to this. “The wicked will at length feel how great loss they have suffered by rejecting Christ, when he freely offers himself to them. They will feel it, but it will be too late, for there will be no more room for repentance.” And to alarm them still more by showing them that their judgment is near at hand, in the first place, he says that he will soon go away, by which he means that the Gospel is preached to them only for a short time, and that if they allow this opportunity to pass away, the accepted time and the days appointed for salvation (Isa 49:8; 2Co 6:2) will not always last. Thus also, in the present day, when Christ knocks at our door, we ought to go immediately to meet him, lest he be wearied by our slothfulness and withdraw from us. And indeed we have learned, by many experiments in all ages, how greatly this departure of Christ is to be dreaded.

And you shall seek me. We must first ascertain in what manner the persons now spoken of sought Christ; for if they had been truly converted, they would not have sought him in vain; because he has not falsely promised that, as soon as a sinner groans, he will be ready to assist him. Christ does not mean, therefore, that they sought him by the right way of faith, but that they sought him, as men, overwhelmed by the extremity of anguish, look for deliverance on every hand. For unbelievers would desire to have God reconciled to them, but yet they do not cease to fly from him. God calls them; the approach consists in faith and repentance; but they oppose God by hardness of heart, and, overwhelmed with despair, they exclaim against him. In short, they are so far from desiring to enjoy the favor of God, that they do not give him permission to assist them, unless he deny himself, which he will never do.

In this manner, however wicked the scribes were, they would willingly have applied to themselves the redemption which had been promised by the hand of the Messiah, provided that Christ would transform himself, to suit their natural disposition. Wherefore, by these words Christ threatens and denounces to all unbelievers, that, after having despised the doctrine of the Gospel, they will be seized with such anguish, that they shall be constrained to cry to God, but their howling will be of no avail; because, as we have already said, seeking, they do not seek And this is still more plainly expressed in the next clause, when he says, you shall die in your sin; for he shows that the cause of their destruction will be, that they were disobedient and rebellious to the very last. What is the nature of their sin we shall presently see.

Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary

FATAL UNBELIEF

Text 8:21-30

21

He said therefore again unto them, I go away, and ye shall seek me, and shall die in your sin: whither I go, ye cannot come.

22

The Jews therefore said, Will he kill himself, that he saith, Whither I go, ye cannot come?

23

And he said unto them, Ye are from beneath; I am from above: ye are of this world; I am not of this world.

24

I said therefore unto you, that ye shall die in your sins: for except ye believe that I am he, ye shall die in your sins.

25

They said therefore unto him, Who art thou? Jesus said unto them, Even that which I have also spoken unto you from the beginning.

26

I have many things to speak and to judge concerning you; howbeit he that sent me is true; and the things which I heard from him, these speak I unto the world.

27

They perceived not that he spake to them of the Father.

28

Jesus therefore said, When ye have lifted up the Son of man, then shall ye know that I am he, and that I do nothing of myself, but as the Father taught me, I speak these things.

29

And he that sent me is with me; he hath not left me alone; for I do always the things that are pleasing to him.

30

As he spake these things, many believed on him.

Queries

a.

What is the consequence of dying in sin?

b.

Why say I am from above . . . ye are from beneath?

c.

How would the Jews know that Jesus was the Christ after they had lifted Him up?

Paraphrase

So He said again to them, I am going away, and in your hour of death you will search for the Messiah and His salvation, but you will die in and under the sentence of your sin. Where I am going it is not possible for you as an unforgiven sinner to come. At these words the Jews began to ask among themselves, He is not going to kill Himself and be cast into hell, is He? Is that why He says, Where I am going it is not possible for you to come?

Jesus replied, You are from below; I am from above. You in your unregenerate nature, are of this condemned world. My nature is divine and I am not of this world. That is why I told you that you will die in and under the sentence of your sins. For if you do not trust and believe in Me as the Messiah and obey my words and become spiritually regenerate, you will die condemned in your sins.

The Jews said to Him, Just who are you anyway? Jesus replied, I am exactly the One of whom I have been telling you all along. I have many things to say and many judgments to bring concerning this nation. But, in spite of your rejection and unbelief, what I say is true and shall come to pass because He who sent Me is true and whatsoever I have heard from Him these things only do I speak to the world. They did not perceive that He was speaking to them of the Father so Jesus added, When you have crucified the Son of Man, then you will have evidence that I am the One sent from God and that of my own authority I do nothing but I say exactly that which My Father Jehovah has taught Me. And Jehovah who sent Me is with Me constantly. He has not left Me alone, for I always do the things that are pleasing unto Him.
As He said these things many believed on Him.

Summary

Jesus patiently warns these Jews again that their rejection of Him will be fatal for them. By their unbelief and disobedience they remain unregenerate and unable to follow Him into the presence of God. They will die with the wrath of God abiding upon them. When they shall have crucified the Man of Nazareth they will realize they have slain Gods Son, but too late for many of them.

Comment

Behold the longsuffering and patience of the Son of God! He had been pleading with this nation and these people for over two years. He gave them signs and wonders to substantiate His claims. But again and again they blatantly repudiated them. Especially was this true here at the Feast of Tabernacles (cf. Joh. 7:27; Joh. 7:30; Joh. 7:32; Joh. 7:35-36; Joh. 8:13; Joh. 8:19). So He patiently explains to them once more concerning His divine nature and the absolute necessity of believing in Him, In Joh. 8:21 the Lord looks forward to His exodus from this world and His return to the right hand of the Father, There will come a time when many of the Jews now standing about Him will cry out in the hour of their death for the Messiah and the prophesied deliverance of the Messiah, Such a time actually came in 70 A.D. at the destruction of Jerusalem by the Roman legions. Millions of Jews were besieged within the walls of that city at Passover-time and suffered indescribable torments. Josephus, a Jewish general then captive of the Roman army, wrote a history of this terrible conflict, and said the lamentations of the people within the city exceeded even the noise of the battle! He also relates that there were many false Christs in the city at that time. People followed them in desperation, hoping until the terrible end for a Messiah to deliver them from the Romans. But many thousands died in their sin. His words would be applicable, of course, to any of these Jews who, having come by any manner or at any time to their hour of death seeking the Messiah, had rejected Jesus as the Christ. Christs warning here is for all mankind. There is only one end for men who deny Christ. They shall die in their sin.

What a fearful alternative to choose! To die in ones sin is to enter into eternity with the wrath of God abiding upon one (cf. Joh. 3:36). It is to be called before the Righteous Judge of all the earth to pay the penalty decreed by this Judge for ones own sin. Sin must be paid for (cf. Rom. 2:3-16). The writer of the epistle to the Hebrews illustrates from the reality of history that punishment for sin is inevitable if we neglect so great a salvation as may be found by faith and obedience to Christ (Heb. 2:1-4). Those men and women who are even now rejecting the Son of God are judged already (cf. Joh. 3:18) and are dead [separated eternally] in their sins (cf. Eph. 2:1-2). When Christ returns, all the unrepentant and disobedient shall be sent away into everlasting punishment (cf. 2Th. 1:7-9).

And so these self-satisfied, unregenerate Jews would die in their sins and suffer the second death because of their sins. They would be eternally separated from the God whom they professed to worship. Jesus said plainly enough that they would not be able to go where He was goingnamely, to the Father. Why, then, could they not understand? Why the sarcastic answer, Will he kill himself, that he saith, Whither I go, ye cannot come?

Jesus both explains His warning and the reason for their misunderstanding in Joh. 8:23-24. They could never follow Him into heaven and the presence of Jehovah God because they were unregenerate. They were at enmity with Godrebellious and unrepentant. They were, in fact, children of the devilsons of disobedience (cf. Joh. 8:44). Christ plainly told a Judean Pharisee many months before this that a new birth was necessary for every man who wished to become a part of Jehovahs kingdom (cf. Joh. 3:1-21). They were degenerate and their hearts, minds, desires, goals and actions had not been changed; they had not the love of God in them (cf. Joh. 5:42) and thus they deliberately misunderstood and misrepresented every great spiritual truth uttered by Jesus. They were so wise they were foolish. What they needed to do was to become fools in order to partake innocently and open-mindedly of the wisdom of God (cf. 1Co. 2:1-16; 1Co. 3:18-21). If men are to understand the wisdom of God they must have honest and good hearts (cf. Luk. 8:15); they must seek the things that are above (cf. Col. 3:1-4; Php. 4:8); they must will to do the will of Christ and then they will begin to understand (cf. Joh. 7:17); and they must accept and rely upon the infallibly inspired revelation of God as the only true source of wisdom (1Co. 2:1-16; Joh. 8:31-32). Such men these Pharisees refused to be and thus their ludicrous question, Will he kill himself . . . etc.

They are actually mocking Jesus, for the Jews the deepest and darkest recesses of the regions of Gehenna claimed all those who committed suicide. Trusting in their religious heritage as sons of Abraham, they were positive they would not be able to follow this Nazarene to Gehenna. According to certain Jewish traditions, father Abraham will sit at Hells gates and will not permit one son of Abraham to fall into its pits.

Hendriksen seems to have caught the spirit of the Jews in their question of Joh. 8:25 when he writes that they were probably thinking that the best defense is an offense; they attack Him with the scornful, You, just who are you? They are not interested in knowing who He is, for they have already settled that matter in their hearts, but they sneeringly demand, How do you come to assume a role like this? The Lords answer to this jeer is not easy to interpret and is discussed at length by the various commentators. Essentially there are two conflicting interpretations: (a) I am altogether, essentially or exactly, that which I am telling you from the beginning; or, (b) How is it that I should even speak to you at all! We are inclined to favor the first because it seems to be a better rendering of the original language. The second interpretation does not take proper account of ten archen (from the beginning).

By their ad hominem argument they hoped to put Jesus on the defensive and thus dispose of His penetrating judgments. If they can successfully attack His character and reject His authority, they will salve their consciences and justify their unbelief. This has been the point of attack by infidelity through the centuries. Christs claims and His soul-searching doctrines are mocked and attacked as being those of a deluded Jewish Rabbi.

Jesus will not be side-tracked in His aim to reveal to these Jews their necessity for conversion. As the Messiah, it was His prophetic duty to be the arm of Jehovahs judgment (cf. Isa. 11:3; Isa. 51:5; Mic. 4:3). He had many piercing judgments to make concerning this nation and these men. And in spite of their attacks upon Himin spite of their rejections and unbeliefthey could not change the truth of His pronouncements. For He came forth from Jehovah who is Truth and Son and Father are One. Both the Son and the Father agree in word, will and deed (cf. Joh. 5:19). The judgments made and the sentences pronounced by the Son are exactly the same as those of God the Father (cf. Joh. 3:11; Joh. 5:30; Joh. 5:32, Joh. 5:37; Joh. 7:16).

Again the Jews must have given evidence in some manner that what Jesus was speaking was beyond their carnal comprehension. They had already prejudged Jesus as a demon because He spoke of suicide. If what Jesus said before was beyond their comprehension, certainly His statement concerning the lifting up of the Son of man would present an incomprehensible enigma to their hardened hearts.

By the statement in Joh. 8:28, When ye have lifted up the Son of man, then shall ye know that I am he, Jesus looks forward to His crucifixion. Not merely the crucifixion only, but the resurrection, the appearances and the manifestation of His ascension on the day of Pentecost is also included. Some scholars reject the idea that Jesus may be referring to the crucifixion as the motivating power behind the conversion of three thousand on the day of Pentecost (Act. 2:36). We believe, to the contrary, that His passion did offer testimony which caused some of the Jews to turn to Him and become followers of the Way. Even the Roman centurion was touched in the very depths of his soul as he witnessed the crucifixion of the Nazarene (Mat. 27:54; Mar. 15:39). We quote here the comments of R. C. Foster in his Syllabus of the Life of Christ concerning Joh. 8:28 :

Jesus refers to His crucifixion and how His divine personality and Gods spiritual program will become plain to them in His death. Some in the crowd are earnestly trying to understand and believe; some are maliciously determined not to believe, but Jesus is sympathetic and kind. He realizes how hard it is for them to understand the mysterious program of God and patiently explains that they will be able to see clearly later that which seems beyond comprehension now.

When Jesus said, lifted up, etc. . . . He meant not only the crucifixion, but all the culminating works of God in His Son. Naturally, the crucifixion without the resurrection would be powerless to convict and convince these people of Christs deity. Just as the crucifixion without the resurrection would not be able to draw all men unto Him (cf. Joh. 12:32). Thus we believe Jesus means the entire process of the glorification of the Son (death, resurrection, ascension and sending of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost), when He says, When ye have lifted up the Son of man, then shall ye know that I am he. Yes, after these things many would come to know Jesus as the Christthe One from the very bosom of Jehovah-God. Some would cry out in faith and repentance, Men and brethren, what shall we do? These would be told the gospel plan of salvation (Act. 2:38). But many others, unable to deny the facts (Act. 4:15-16), would still reject Jesus as the Messiah because they loved the glory that is of men rather than the glory that is of God (cf. Joh. 12:42).

Joh. 8:29 is a beautiful lesson on how we may have God with us. We need only follow the example of Jesus and attempt always to do the things pleasing to God. If we keep His commandments we abide in the love of Christ even as He kept His Fathers commandments and dwelt in the Fathers continual love and presence (cf. Joh. 15:10).

We remember the man David, a man after Gods own heart, that he attempted always to do that which pleased God. Gods presence was always very near to DavidGod was an ever-present help to him.

Joh. 8:30 tells us that many believed on Him, and Joh. 8:31 indicates that He addressed His next discourse to those who believed. But how sincere was their belief? Read ahead in the text, Joh. 8:31 through Joh. 8:59, and it is singularly evident that their faith was not one of surrender and change of heart. As Hendriksen says, whether the faith here indicated is genuine or not will have to be indicated by the following verses [the context]. The context certainly indicates that it was not genuine, There are other instances where people were said to have believed on Jesus, but their faith was far from that which changes mens hearts (cf. Joh. 2:23; Joh. 7:31; Joh. 12:42). There were many who thought they believed in Him as the Messiah. Perhaps they professed their beliefs aloudor perhaps Jesus looked upon their hearts and saw a superficial faith which they dared not express. At any rate, He begins, in Joh. 8:31, addressing these people and showing them that their faith was short of the mark. It did not even measure up to the faith of the one they claimed as their father, Abraham (cf. Joh. 8:39-40).

Quiz

1.

When did the Jews seek the Messiah most fervently? At what other time would they seek a Saviour, but die in their sins?

2.

What is meant by die in your sins?

3.

Why could the Jews not follow Jesus when He should go away?

4.

Why the sarcastic question, Will he kill himself . . . etc.?

5.

Of what does Jesus speak when He says, When ye have lifted up the Son of man . . . etc.?

6.

How may we be sure of Gods presence with us?

7.

How did these Jews believe in Jesus?

Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series

[(b) Jesus is Light (continued).

()

His return to the Father misunderstood by the Jews, and explained by Him (Joh. 8:21-29).]

(21) Then said Jesus again unto them.The best MSS. omit the word Jesus, and read, He said, therefore, again unto them. The word therefore connects the discourse which follows with something which has gone before, probably with the fact that no man laid hands on Him, for His hour was not yet come. He is still free to address the multitude, and after an interval does so. This interval is marked by the word again, but is not necessarily more than a short break in the discourse. We shall find reason for believing (see Note on Joh. 9:14) that the whole of the teaching and work which is included between Joh. 7:37; Joh. 10:21, is probably to be placed on the last and great day of the feast. The persons addressed are the people assembled round Him in the Temple. Some of the officials take part in the discussion, for it is the Jews who reply in the next verse. We have to think, it may be, of men gathered together in small groups discussing what He had before said. Some are really inquiring with earnest hearts about Him. The rulers are trying to suppress the growing conviction of the multitude. There are thus two currents of thought and feeling. One is found in the honest hearts of the untutored multitude; they know little of argument, and dare not interpret the Scriptures for themselves, but in their rough-and-ready way they are grasping the truth; the heart of man is bowing before the presence of its God. The other is found in the priests and rulers to whom, as a holy and learned caste, the representatives of God to man and the interpreters of their Sacred Books, the people are in intellectual and moral bondage. They seek to bind with their fetters hearts that are finding their way to the truth. Some of these groups have moved on, it may be, and others have taken their place. Seeing a new audience near Him, Jesus speaks to them again; for it is not probable that the words of Joh. 8:27 apply wholly to the same persons as those in Joh. 8:19.

I go my way.The rendering is a little tinged by the following thought. The Greek word is the same as in Joh. 8:14, where it is rendered I go. There, as here, I go away is better. It was, let us again remind ourselves, the last day of the feast, and now its closing hours have come. That thronging multitude would be before the close of another day, leaving Jerusalem to spread itself through all the extent of Palestine and the Dispersion. He also is going away. Many of them will never see Him again. Before another Feast of Tabernacles He will, in a deeper sense, be going away. They will seek Him, but it will be too late. There is in all the discourse the solemn feeling that these are the last words for many who hear Him.

Ye shall seek me, and shall die in your sins.Comp. Notes on Joh. 7:34; Joh. 7:36. But here the result of the seeking and not finding is declared in the sadness of its fatal issue. In your sins is not quite exact, and is, perhaps, somewhat misleading. The Greek has the singular not the plural, and should be rendered in your sin. It points out the state of sin, rather than actual transgressions. This latter thought is expressed where the words are repeated in Joh. 8:24.

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

Fatal effects of rejecting Jesus, Joh 8:21-24.

21. Go my way Pass through my mission of life, death, and ascension.

Die in your sins Not merely, as some interpret, die for your sins; but die in guilt, in impenitence, and in a sinful state of purpose.

Ye cannot come The separation is complete and irreversible.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

‘He said therefore again to them, “I am going away, and you will search for me and die in your sin, for where I am going you cannot come”.’

‘He said therefore again –’. We do not know how long after the previous verses He spoke these words. There is a strange pathos to them. Jesus was going away, as He knew, to Heaven via the cross. And they would go on looking for Him in vain. They would go on searching for eternal life and for a Messiah from God (‘for Me’), and they would fail in their efforts and would die in their sin, because unknowingly they had rejected the One Whom they were pretending to seek, the true Messiah Who was the only source of eternal life. And because they would not come to Him their search would be blind and futile, and they could never go where He was going.

The word for ‘sin’ here is in the singular. It sums up their whole sinful attitude of heart. They were rooted in sin.

Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett

Jesus Is From Above ( Joh 8:21-30 ).

The emphasis now moves away from the fact that He is the light of the world, to the fact that He is the One Who has come from above. That is why their failure to recognise Him is very much an indication that they are of this world. This is a new incident, although following closely on the last.

Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett

Christ’s going to the Father:

v. 21. Then said Jesus again unto them, I go My way, and ye shall seek Me, and shall die in your sins; whither I go, ye cannot come.

v. 22. Then said the Jews, Will He kill Himself? because He saith, Whither I go, ye cannot come.

v. 23. And He said unto them, Ye are from beneath; I am from above: ye are of this world; I am not of this world.

v. 24. I said therefore unto you that ye shall die in your sins; for if ye believe not that I am He, yes hall die in your sins.

v. 25. Then said they unto Him, Who art Thou? And Jesus saith unto them, Even the same that I said unto you from the beginning.

v. 26. I have many things to say and to judge of you; but He that sent Me is true; and I speak to the world those things which I have heard of Him.

v. 27. They understood not that He spake to them of the Father.

Jesus did not permit Himself to be disconcerted or in any way influenced by the enmity which was manifested in their bearing nor by the angry thoughts of their hearts, but continued His testimony, in the effort to make clear to them what the relation between Him and His Father implied. It was necessary for Him to speak with severity, because of the hardness of their hearts, but the Savior’s sympathy and mercy is evident in every sentence. Their time of grace was the present time, now, while He was in their midst. Now was the time to accept Him as the Messiah of the world. Later, when their time of grace will have come to an end, then they will search and look for Him, then they will frantically comb the country for the Messiah whom they have rejected. But it will be too late, and all their false Messiahs will not be able to bring them either temporal or spiritual salvation. They will therefore bring the judgment upon themselves that they will die in their sins. Their unbelief, the sin! If sins, having rejected the Redeemer, all regrets would be too late; condemnation would come upon them entirely by their own fault. This fact finds its full application also today, when thousands and mil lions are fooling and frittering away their time of grace. The unbelievers cannot enter into heaven, the place of bliss, they cannot become partakers of eternal happiness. The only way, the only method, the only means of getting to heaven is Christ; he that does not accept Him is lost. The Jews were again hurt to the quick by this plain statement of the Lord. And they tried to vent their spite in mockery. Their insinuation that He contemplated suicide was a most malicious blasphemy, showing the meanness and carnal-mindedness of their hearts. See chap. 7:35. The sustained loftiness of His thoughts contrasted all the more strongly with the sordidness of their usual line of contemplation. But Jesus disregarded the sneering interruption and pointed out to them what constituted the real cause of separation between Him and them. They were from beneath, from below, from this world, in the worst sense of the term. Their thoughts were wrapped up in the blind sinfulness of this world, wherefore they had no eyes for, and no understanding of, the matters which concerned heaven and eternity with Christ. Christ, being from above, with divine ideas and thoughts, was separated from them by a wide gulf. That the Jews did not believe in Christ could be explained only by their natural blindness and enmity toward God. Their origin and their associations were both brought out in their manner of thinking and acting. They are concerned with the matters of this world; Christ’s mind and thought is centered in the world to come. And now the Lord tells them why they would die in their sins, why their sins would prove the factor of their own condemnation. It is due to the fact that they do not and will not believe. For that is the one condition for obtaining salvation, to believe that it is Jesus, and Jesus only, in whom there is salvation. That is the object which brought Him down from heaven, and that is the great gift which He has earned for all men, the gift which can be secured by faith only. This statement of the Lord did not yet make things clear to the Jews; in a measure, it added to their bewilderment, since they could not associate this simple Nazarene with supernatural gifts. In their blindness they ask: Who art Thou? And Jesus told them: What I have told you from the beginning and always, that I am. He is above all, from the beginning, the Word which He is speaking to them; He is identified with that Word; that is His essence and the description of His person and office: the Word of God Incarnate. As such He still has many things to say to them; the revelations which He could give them concerning the Father and the Father’s will are so great and wonderful that the subject could never be exhausted. And He would also be obliged to judge, to condemn them because they refuse to believe on Him. They should know, however, in spite of their refusal to believe, that the Father who sent Him is true; there is no falseness, no deceitfulness in Him. There are certain matters which the Father, that sent Jesus, has given Him to say to the world, and this will He carries out. Even now the Jews did not understand the Lord; their understanding was darkened; they did not identify “Him that sent Me” with “the Father. ” Note: By the reconciliation which Christ earned through His atonement the sins are no longer imputed to him that accepts this redemption; to him that refuses to believe, they remain imputed, not because the atonement has not been made, but because it is not accepted. Mark also, in the entire passage, the stately quiet of Jesus, while His words roll from His lips like the tolling of the bell of doom. The unbelievers load a terrible responsibility upon themselves in rejecting their Savior.

Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann

Joh 8:21. I go my way, and ye shall seek me, &c. Our Lord had said this to them in a former discourse, Ch. Joh 7:34 and repeated it now, that it might make the deeper impression upon them: his meaning here seems to be, that “after his ascension into heaven, when the Roman armieswere spreading desolation and death in every corner of the land, they would earnestly desire the coming of the Messiah, in expectation of deliverance; but should die for their sins, and under the guilt of them, without any Saviour whatsoever, and be excluded for ever from heaven.” Perhaps in this our Lord opposed a common error of the Jews, who imagined that by death they made atonement for all their sins. Instead of in your sins, some render the original , in your sin, that is, of unbelief, see Eze 3:19.

Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke

Joh 8:21 . A new scene here opens, as in Joh 8:12 , and is therefore, after the analogy of Joh 8:12 , to be placed in one of the following days (so also Ewald; and in opposition to Origen and the common supposition).

The connecting word, with which the further discussion on this occasion (it is different in Joh 8:12 ) takes its rise, is a word of grave threatening , more punitive than even Joh 7:34 .

] As no one had laid hand on Him, comp. Joh 8:12 .

, as in Joh 8:12 , indicating the delivery of a second discourse , not a repetition of Joh 7:34 .

] to the Jews who were present in the temple, Joh 8:20 ; Joh 8:22 .

] namely, as a deliverer from the misfortunes that are coming upon you, as in Joh 7:34 . But instead of the clause there added, , here we have the far more tragical and positive declaration, . . . . .: and (not reconciled and sanctified, but) in your sin (still laden with it and your unatoned guilt, Joh 9:34 ; 1Co 15:17 ) ye shall die , namely, in the universal misfortunes amid which you will lose your lives. Accordingly, is the state wherein , and not the cause whereby (Hengstenberg) they die. The text does not require us to understand eternal death, although that is the consequence of dying in this state. , however, is to be taken in a collective sense (see Joh 8:24 ; Joh 1:29 ; Joh 9:41 ), and not as merely referring to the sin of unbelief ; though being itself sin (Joh 16:9 ), it is the ground of the non-extinction and increase of their sin. Between , finally, and the dying in sin, there is no contradiction; for the seeking in question is not the seeking of faith , but merely that seeking of desperation whose object is merely deliverance from external afflictions. The futility of that search, so fearfully expressed by the words

., is further explained by , etc., for they cannot ascend into heaven , in order to find Jesus as a deliverer, and to bring Him down (to this view Joh 13:33 is not opposed). Accordingly, these words are to be taken quite as in Joh 7:34 , not as referring to the hell into which they would come through death; for Jesus speaks, not of their condition after , but up to , their death.

Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary

DISCOURSE: 1651
MEETNESS FOR HEAVEN NECESSARY

Joh 8:21. Whither I go ye cannot come.

THE generality of men conceive that there is no difficulty in securing heaven: and hence they use no efforts to obtain an entrance there. If told, that, in their present state, they could not by any means obtain admission to the Saviours presence, they would account it a very uncharitable and unwarrantable assertion; and would be as unable to account for it as our Saviours hearers were when they asked, Will he kill himself? because he saith, Whither I go, ye cannot come. But they consider not what kind of a place heaven is, or what state of mind is necessary for the enjoyment of it. It is certain, however, that what our Lord again and again said to his hearers [Note: Joh 7:33-34; Joh 13:33. with the text.], is applicable to us at this day. They indeed expected a Messiah, whilst they rejected him whom God had sent; and therefore our Lord says so repeatedly, Ye shall seek me, and shall not find me: and so far his address to them is not applicable to us, who all acknowledge that Jesus is the Christ. But what he adds, is as applicable to us as ever it was to them; since in an unregenerate and unconverted state it is impossible for us ever to behold the face of God in peace.

I am aware that this is an observation that must occasion pain: but, if such persons still exist as those to whom the declaration was made, it is surely the office of love and charity to apprise them of it. You will therefore receive my friendly suggestions in the spirit with which they are offered to you, whilst I shew,

I.

To whom this declaration was made

They are here clearly described by our Lord himself:

1.

The worldly-minded

[Ye are of this world: I am not of this world. Now the worldly are not only put in a state of contrast with the Saviour himself, as in this and other places [Note: Joh 17:14; Joh 17:16.], but with the children of God also: they are represented as being wiser in their generation than the children of light [Note: Luk 16:8.]; and as hating them on account of their stricter course of life: If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you [Note: Joh 15:19.].

Now it is really not difficult to discover, to which of these opposite parties we belong. Let us only ask, Which we more esteem? which we more desire? which we more delight in, the things of time and sense, or the things which are invisible and eternal? I ask not, Which of the two engages more of our time? for our social and civil duties require a great deal of our time: and God himself permits us to labour six days, and to reserve the seventh only for him. But the question is, On which of the two is our heart fixed? Which do we mainly affect, the things of this, or of the future world? If only we mark, which of the two chiefly engages our thoughts, when our minds are free to fix upon the things which are most interesting to us, we shall then see the real bias of our minds, and our true character as before God God has expressly warned us, that if we love the world, the love of the Father is not in us [Note: 1Jn 2:15-16.]; and therefore we are assured beyond all doubt that the lovers of this present world are justly placed among those to whom the declaration in our text pre-eminently pertains.]

2.

The unbelieving

[If ye believe not that I am he, ye shall die in your sins. Now there is as great a difference between the believer and the unbeliever, as between those who are of this world, and those who are of God. Only see the conduct of believers, and the matter will be as clear as the light itself. The true believer is humbled for his sins, and, under a consciousness of his utter inability ever to reconcile himself to God, he flees to Christ, and lays hold on him, and relies wholly upon his meritorious blood and righteousness, and glories in him as all his salvation and all his desire. The unbeliever, on the contrary, neglects him, and seeks for himself some other ground of hope, if not openly and professedly, yet in the real feelings and dispositions of his soul.
Now it is easy to ascertain, whether from day to day we are bewailing our sinfulness and fleeing to Christ for refuge, as to the hope that is set before us; or whether we be resting satisfied with some attainments of our own, and only complimenting Jesus with the name of Saviour, without labouring to obtain an interest in him, and cleaving to him with our whole hearts. The exercises of our soul this very day will suffice to shew us, in a great measure, to which of these classes we belong: and whether we be not of those who shall die in their sins, and never be with Christ where he is. Beyond all doubt, the unbelieving soul will be excluded from his presence, and never be suffered to taste of his saving benefits.]
Does this appear uncharitable? Then let me remind you, that it is the declaration, not of a fallible man, but of our Lord himself; and let me set before you,

II.

The grounds and reasons of it

It were quite sufficient that our Lord has declared it, even though we were not able to account for that which he has spoken: but we may well and satisfactorily account for the exclusion of such persons from the presence of God, and from the felicity of heaven. For,

1.

There is nothing in heaven suited to their taste

[What do those persons affect as their supreme happiness on earth? Do they say with the Psalmist, Who will shew us any good? Lord, lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon us [Note: Psa 4:6.]. No: they desire nothing beyond the things of time and sense. Some indeed affect only carnal, whilst others delight themselves chiefly in intellectual, pursuits: but still the objects of their desire belong to this world only; and there is no scope for the enjoyment or pursuit of them in heaven. Here a man may have sensual gratifications of various kinds. But feasting, and dancing, and music, and all the other things which are here considered as sources of happiness, terminate with this life: and the man who derives all his satisfaction from them, will find nothing in heaven to please his appetite. And on this very account heaven would be no heaven to him, but only like a prison, where nothing palatable, nothing desirable was afforded to the unhappy tenant. He would be altogether out of his element: and what would be happiness to others, would be misery to him.]

2.

They have an utter incapacity to enjoy heaven, even if they were admitted there

[Supposing for a moment, as our Lord says, that, instead of coming into that sheepfold through the door, they have climbed up some other way, and obtained by some artifice admission into the assembly of the just; what pleasure could they find either in the company or the employments of heaven? Could they delight themselves in a Holy God, whose purity would appal them, and who could not look upon them but with the utmost abhorrence [Note: Hab 1:13.]? Could they find pleasure in the sight of that Saviour, whom they have all their life long despised, and whose very blood they have trodden under foot by continuing in sin? Would the presence of the glorified saints and angels be any source of comfort to their minds? With no one of them would they have the slightest possible communion: nor would so much as one of those holy beings admit them into their society. Methinks such persons getting into heaven, would resemble King Uzziah, who went into the temple of God to offer incense: the priests, filled with disgust at his leprous state, thrust him out thence; yea, he himself also hasted to go out [Note: 2Ch 26:20.]: so little did the sanctuary of the Most High God become him, and so little would their intrusion prove a source of happiness to them.

But neither would they find any comfort in the employments of heaven. Never having obtained favour with God, or an interest in the Saviours merits, they could never join in the songs of praise which are offered there continually by the whole assembly of the redeemed. Nay, as in a concert here on earth, a man unskilled in music, with an inharmonious voice, and an instrument untuned, would, by his efforts to join the choir, only disturb the harmony of the whole, so it would be with them in heaven, where their every note would produce the most hateful discord, and their odious deformity create one universal feeling of disgust.]

3.

They are excluded from heaven by an absolute and irreversible decree

[Persons are not the subjects of Gods reprobation: characters are. When St. Peter says, that some stumble at the word, being disobedient, whereunto they were appointed [Note: 1Pe 2:8. See Doddridge on the place.], the meaning is, not, that they were appointed to stumble or to disobey, but that God had appointed, that they who would not obey the word, should find it a stumbling-block to them; and that they who would not make it a savour of life, should find it to be a savour unto death [Note: 2Co 2:16.]. Now God has ordained that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God [Note: 1Co 6:9.]: and that into heaven nothing shall enter that defileth [Note: Rev 21:27.]. In particular he has declared, that even the friendship of the world is incompatible with love to him [Note: Jam 4:4.], and that he who believeth not in Christ, shall perish everlastingly [Note: ver. 24. with Joh 3:36.]. Now I ask, Will God reverse these decrees for us? Will he act contrary to his word for us? Is he a man, that he should lie, or the Son of man, that he should repent? Hath he said, and shall he not do it? Hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good [Note: Num 23:19.]? Know then, that if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die [Note: Rom 8:13.]; and to hope for heaven in a carnal and unconverted state is only to deceive your own souls.]

Let me then request of you two things:
1.

Inquire what measure of preparation you have for the enjoyment of heaven?

[There is a meetness for the inheritance of the saints in light [Note: Col 1:12.]. There is a preparation of heart for it, without which heaven would be no heaven to you. An ignorant clown would find no pleasure in the conversation of men of science, or in the polished society of courtiers. He would soon wish to leave such scenes, and to return to the company that was better suited to his habits, and intelligence. Now in heaven there is one continued effusion of praise from every soul around the throne. Saints and angels join in one general chorus of praise and thanksgiving to God and to the Lamb. Inquire then whether you have learned that song? Inquire whether you have yet tuned your harps, that you may bear your part in that concert? If you have not yet learned to play the higher parts of praise and thanksgiving, can you at least sound the lower notes of humiliation and contrition? Nor think it hard to be put on this inquiry. It is not your minister, but an inspired Apostle, that calls for it at your hands: Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith: prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you except ye be reprobate [Note: 2Co 13:5.]? Examine carefully whether the things of this world or the felicity of heaven be the higher in your esteem, and the object of your more diligent pursuit? You can easily ascertain your proficiency in earthly things: search then and see whether ye be growing daily in grace, and in a conformity to the Divine image? This inquiry will be made at last by the heart-searching God; and his sentence will be passed upon you in perfect accordance with your real state. I entreat you therefore to judge yourselves now, whilst space is given you for repentance, that you may not be judged of the Lord, when your state will be irremediable and final.]

2.

Let the testimony of your conscience produce in you its appropriate effects

[If conscience bear witness that you have lived to yourselves and to the world instead of living for God and for eternity, begin without delay to implore mercy at the hands of God, and to seek that renovation of heart and life, without which you cannot be saved. Withdraw yourselves from the world which lieth in wickedness, and give up yourselves to Christ as his redeemed people: and let it henceforth be your daily labour to flee from the wrath to come, and to lay hold on eternal life
But if you can call God to record, that, notwithstanding your many defects, you do indeed set your affections on things above rather than on the things of time and sense, then, rejoice and bless God for the work which he has wrought in your hearts; and look to him to perfect in you the good work he has begun. To you, beloved, I will reverse the text, and say, Where Christ is, there shall ye be also. In fact, he has promised, that where he is, there shall also his servants be. He has actually gone before, in order to prepare a place for you; and he will shortly come and take you to himself, that you may be with him for ever [Note: Joh 14:22.]. In his intercessory prayer, he declared this to be his fixed purpose: Father, I will, that they whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory which thou hast given me [Note: Joh 17:24.]. Look forward then to that blessed period, when you will be no longer at a distance from him, but enjoy his presence, and inherit his glory, for evermore.]




Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)

Then said Jesus again unto them, I go my way, and ye shall seek me, and shall die in your sins. Whither I go, ye cannot come. (22) Then said the Jews, Will he kill himself? because he saith, Whither I go, ye cannot come. (23) And he said unto them, Ye are from beneath, I am from above: ye are of this world; I am not of this world. (24) I said therefore unto you, That ye shall die in your sins: for if ye believe not that I am he, ye shall die in your sins. (25) Then said they unto him, Who art thou? and Jesus saith unto them, Even the same that I said unto you from the beginning. (26) I have many things to say and to judge of you: but he that sent me is true: and I speak to the world those things which I have heard of him. (27) They understood not that he spake to them of the Father. (28) Then said Jesus unto them, When ye have lifted up the Son of man, then shall ye know that I am he, and that I do nothing of myself; but as my Father hath taught me, I speak these things. (29) And he that sent me is with me: the Father hath not left me alone; for I do always those things that please him (30) As he spake these words many believed on him.

If the Reader will take into account the different characters here described, he will be led to discover, (the Lord being his teacher,) wherefore it was, that from the same words and the same preacher, even Christ himself; some rejected the counsel of God, against their own souls: and some, while he spake these words, believed on him. It was so in the days of Christ, and under Christ; and it hath been the same in every age, and must remain so, until the consummation of all things. And the reason is given in the Scriptures. They who are born in the Adam-state of nature by the fall, and void of all grace-union in Christ; have no apprehension of the divine life. Our Lord describes them: Ye, are from beneath, I am from above: ye are of this world, I am not of this world. And of such the Lord speaks: If we believe not that I am; ye shall die in your sins: And as the Lord had said in the former Chapter; whither I am ye cannot come. Joh 7:34 . And on the other hand, they who were given to Christ before the world began; who are of the first born whose names are written in heaven; and by virtue thereof, have had a grace-union in Christ; and Christ hath betrothed them to himself forever, in a covenant which cannot be broken: these are secured for recovery from the Adam-nature of a fallen state; in which they were also born, but from their oneness in Christ, are in the fulness of time called out of it and regenerated, and made willing in the day of God’s power. See Eph 1:4 ; Luk 10:20 ; Hos 2:18-19 ; Psa 110:3 .

By making the true scriptural distinction between these very opposite characters; a light is thrown over this whole discourse, and others of the same nature, of our Lord’s. Hence the everlasting opposition made, by the Scribes and Pharisees, to all the divine preaching of Jesus. And hence the light of grace which broke out in the minds of the Lord’s people, under the very same discourses of Jesus, by which, while he spake these words, it is said, that many believed on him.

I beg the Reader to notice the particularity of the expression. If ye believe not, said Jesus, that I am; (the he subjoined is not in the original, neither ought it to be considered elliptical,) by which there is an evident allusion to Exo 3:14 and there can be no question, but that our Lord meant it in the same sense. I am, that I am. So he spake to Moses, at the bush. So again he spake here. And so once more, in the close of this same Chapter, Joh 8:58 . And I venture to believe, that our Lord meant the words not only in the eternity of his nature, as God; but also in his Mediator-character and office, as God-Man. And the change of words in this last verse, from was to am, Before Abraham was I am; most plainly and decidedly proves this most blessed and glorious truth. Reader! ponder it well. Carry it about with you wherever you are; with the credentials of your holy faith. All the blessedness, the marrow, and sweetness, of the Person, Headship, and Office-character of the Lord Jesus, are included in it.

Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

21 Then said Jesus again unto them, I go my way, and ye shall seek me, and shall die in your sins: whither I go, ye cannot come.

Ver. 21. Ye shall die in your sins ] A heavy doom, the very door to damnation. It is a sad thing to die in prison, to die in a ditch, but far worse to die in your sins. This is to be slain with death, according to that, Rev 2:21 ; “I will kill her children with death.” All men die, but wicked men only are killed with death. As a godly man said, that he did aegrotare vitaliter, so do all the righteous, mori vitaliter, because they have hope in their death; which to them is as the valley of Achor, a door of hope to give entrance into Paradise. Whereas to the wicked it is as a trap door to let them into hell; so that it is a just wonder, that foreseeing their danger they go not roaring and raving out of the world. Nothing should be done (we say) to trouble a dying person, no shrieking or crying out. Oh, take heed and prevent the shriekings of conscience at that hour, &c. Take heed ye die not in your sin, in that your sin of unbelief, , in hoc peccato in this sin, (as Beza here rendereth it), for unbelief shuts a man up close, prisoner in the law’s dark dungeon, till death come with a writ of Habeas corpus, let you have the body, and hell with a writ of Habeas animam, &c. let you have the soul.

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

21 59. ] Further discourses of Jesus. The Jews attempt to stone Him . This forms the great conclusion of the series of discourses to the Jews. In it our Lord testifies more plainly still to His divine origin and sinlessness, and to the cause of their unbelief; until at last their enmity is worked up to the highest pitch, and they take up stones to cast at Him. It may be divided into four parts: (1) Joh 8:21-24 , announcing to them the inevitable consequence of persistence in their unbelief on His withdrawal from them: (2) Joh 8:25-29 , the things which He has to say and judge of them, and the certainty of their own future recognition of Him and His truthfulness: (3) Joh 8:30-47 , the first springing up of faith in many of them is by Him corrected and purified from Jewish pride, and the source of such pride and unbelief detected: (4) Joh 8:48-58 , the accusation of the Jews in Joh 8:48 , gives occasion to Him to set forth very plainly His own divine dignity and pr-existence .

Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament

21. ] The time and place of this discourse are not definitely marked; but in all probability they were the same as before. Only no stress must be laid on the as connected with Joh 8:20 , for it is only the accustomed carrying forward by the Evangelist of the great self-manifestation of Jesus.

. includes the idea ‘and shall not find me,’ which is expressed in ch. Joh 7:34 ; Joh 7:36 : ye shall continue seeking Me .

. . and shall die (perish) in (not because of (Lampe, Kuinoel)) your sin. This sin is not unbelief , for, Joh 8:24 , it is clearly distinguished from that: but, ‘your state of sin, unremoved , and therefore abiding and proving your ruin ’ (see on Joh 8:24 ).

The words do not refer to the destruction of Jerusalem, but to individual perdition . In these discourses in John, the public judgment of the Jews is not prominently brought forward, as in the other Evangelists.

is the consequence , not the cause (by any absolute decree) of their dying in their sins (see ch. Joh 7:34 ; Joh 13:33 ). This latter sense would have required .

Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament

Joh 8:21-30 . Further conversation with the Jews, in which Jesus warns them that He will not be long with them, and that unless they believe they will die in their sins. They will know that His witness is true after they have crucified Him .

Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson

Joh 8:21 . . On another occasion, but whether the same day (Origen) or not we do not know, although, as Lcke points out, the favours Origen’s view, Jesus said: . This repeats Joh 7:34 , with the addition “and ye shall die in your sin”; i.e. , undelivered by the Messiah, in the bondage of sin and reaping its fruit. He adds the reason why they should not find Him ( cf. Joh 7:34 ): . He goes to His Father and thither they cannot come, if they do not believe in Him.

Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson

NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Joh 8:21-30

21Then He said again to them, “I go away, and you will seek Me, and will die in your sin; where I am going, you cannot come.” 22So the Jews were saying, “Surely He will not kill Himself, will He, since He says, ‘Where I am going, you cannot come’?” 23And He was saying to them, “You are from below, I am from above; you are of this world, I am not of this world. 24Therefore 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.” 25So they were saying to Him, “Who are You?” Jesus said to them, “What have I been saying to you from the beginning? 26I 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.” 27They did not realize that He had been speaking to them about the Father. 28So 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. 29And He who sent Me is with Me; He has not left Me alone, for I always do the things that are pleasing to Him.” 30As He spoke these things, many came to believe in Him.

Joh 8:21-22 “where I am going, you can not come. . .Surely He will not kill Himself, will He” The question of Joh 8:22 expects a “no” answer. It is obvious from the context that although they misunderstood His statement (cf. Joh 7:34-36), they related it to His death. From Josephus we learn that suicide condemned one to the lowest parts of Hades. Their question apparently indicates that this is where they thought Jesus should be.

Joh 8:21 “and will die in your sin” This is literally “In the sin of you, you will die.” The term “sin” is singular in Joh 8:21 and plural in Joh 8:24. This refers primarily to their rejection of Jesus as the Christ (cf. Joh 8:24). This is really the unpardonable sin of the Synoptic Gospels. Their leaders are rejecting Jesus in the presence of the great light from His words and signs.

See the following notes from my commentary on Mark.

Mar 3:29 “whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit” This must be understood in its pre-Pentecostal historical setting. It was used in the sense of God’s truth being rejected. The teaching of this verse has commonly been called “the unpardonable sin.” It must be interpreted in light of the following criteria:

1.the distinction in the OT between “intentional” and “unintentional sins,” (cf. Num 15:27-31)

2.the unbelief of Jesus’ own family contrasted with the unbelief of the Pharisees in this context

3.the statements of forgiveness in Mar 3:28

4.the differences between the Gospel parallels, particularly the change of “son of man,” (cf. Mat 12:32; Luk 12:10) to “sons of men,” (cf. Mat 12:31; Mar 3:28).

In light of the above, this sin is committed by those who, in the presence of great light and understanding, still reject Jesus as God’s means of revelation and salvation. They turn the light of the gospel into the darkness of Satan (cf. Mar 3:30). They reject the Spirit’s drawing and conviction (cf. Joh 6:44; Joh 6:65). The unpardonable sin is not a rejection by God because of some single act or word, but the continual, ongoing rejection of God in Christ by willful unbelief (i.e., the scribes and Pharisees).

This sin can only be committed by those who have been exposed to the gospel. Those who have heard the message about Jesus clearly are the most responsible for its rejection. This is especially true of modern cultures that have continual access to the gospel, but reject Jesus (i.e., America, western culture).

Joh 8:23 “You are from below, I am from above” This is another example of John’s vertical dualism (i.e., below vs. above, cf. Joh 7:35-36; Joh 18:36).

John’s contrast between Jesus who is from above and the Jews who are from below, forms a dualism that is unique among the Gospels. The Synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke) contrast the two Jewish ages, the evil present age and the future age of righteousness. This difference is described by the terms horizontal dualism vs. vertical dualism. Did Jesus teach both in different settings? Possibly the Synoptics recorded Jesus’ public teachings while John recorded Jesus’ private teachings to the disciples.

“you are of this world” The world lies in the power of the Evil One (cf. 2Co 4:4; Eph 2:2; and 1Jn 5:19). For world (kosmos) see Special Topic at Joh 14:17.

Joh 8:24 “unless” This is a third class conditional sentence which means potential action.

NASB, NKJV”you believe that I am He”

NRSV, JB”believe that I am he”

TEV”believe that ‘I Am Who I Am'”

NJB”believe that I am He”

This is one of the strongest statements of Jesus’ self-understanding of His own divine nature (or it is possible that in this context “the Messiah” is the referent). He uses the OT title for YHWH (cf. “I am” of Exo 3:14). This is distinct from the famous “I am” statements in John. This has no predicate (cf. Joh 4:26; Joh 6:20; Joh 8:24-25; Joh 8:58; Joh 13:19; Joh 18:5-6; Joh 18:8). See Special Topic: John’s Use of “Believe” at Joh 2:23.

Joh 8:25 “Who are You” The Jewish authorities are looking for legal grounds for a charge of blasphemy (cf. Mat 26:57-68; Mar 14:53-65)! They want Him killed. They are not looking for information but for condemnation.

Jesus clearly reveals Himself in John (unlike the Synoptics)! His words (i.e., Joh 8:24) and His acts (i.e., healing on the Sabbath) clearly show His authority.

NASB”What have I been saying to you from the beginning”

NKJV”Just what I have been saying to you from the beginning”

NRSV”Why do I speak to you at all”

TEV”What I have told you from the very beginning”

NJB”What I have told you from the outset”

Originally the Greek manuscript had no spaces between the words. Therefore, the Greek letters can be divided in different places to make words that fit the context. The divergence of translations is not related to a manuscript variation, but word division. Here are the options.

1. hote – I have said to you from the beginning (NASB, NKJV, TEV, NJB, NIV)

2. ho ti as a Semitic idiom of exclamation – that I talk to you at all (NRSV, TEV footnote)

It is probably one of John’s word plays that the term “beginning” is used in the Septuagint’s translation of Gen 1:1 (creation) and in Joh 1:1 (His ministry). Jesus is from the “beginning” and has been telling them this all along by words and deeds!

Joh 8:26-27 These themes are repeated in John for emphasis.

1. the Father sent Me (cf. Joh 3:17; Joh 3:34; Joh 4:34; Joh 5:36; Joh 5:38; Joh 6:29; Joh 6:44; Joh 6:57; Joh 7:28-29; Joh 8:16; Joh 8:26; Joh 8:42; Joh 10:36; Joh 11:42; Joh 12:49; Joh 14:24; Joh 15:21; Joh 17:3; Joh 17:18; Joh 17:21; Joh 17:23; Joh 17:25; Joh 20:21)

2. the Father is true (cf. Joh 3:33; Joh 7:28)

3. Jesus’ teachings are from the Father (cf. Joh 3:11; Joh 7:16-17; Joh 8:26; Joh 8:28; Joh 8:40; Joh 12:49; Joh 14:24; Joh 15:15)

4. Jesus reveals the Father (cf. Joh 1:18; Joh 8:26-29; Joh 12:49-50; Joh 14:7; Joh 14:9)

“the world” See note at Joh 1:10.

Joh 8:27 Another editorial comment by the author. If they had understood His clear metaphorical and symbolic language, they, like other Jews, would have tried to kill Him (cf. Joh 5:18; Joh 8:59; Joh 10:33). His claims were not that hidden!

Joh 8:28 “When you lift up the Son of Man” This is an OT allusion to Num 21:4-9, which is discussed in Joh 3:14. This term, as so many terms in John, had a double meaning. It can mean “lifted up” as on the cross (cf. Joh 3:14; Joh 12:32; Joh 12:34), but it is often used in a sense of “exalted,” as in Act 2:33; Act 5:31; Php 2:9. Jesus knew He came to die (cf. Mar 10:45).

“the Son of Man” This is Jesus’ self-chosen title because it had no militaristic or nationalistic implications within rabbinical

Judaism. Jesus chose this title because it connects both the concepts of humanity (cf. Eze 2:1; Psa 8:4) and deity (cf. Dan 7:13).

“then you will know that I am He” Even the disciples (and His family) did not fully understand until (cf. Joh 7:39) after Pentecost! The Spirit came with eye-opening power to all who had spiritual eyes and ears!

For the unique grammatical affirmation “I am He” see the note at Joh 8:24. They will know

1. who He is (i.e., Messiah)

2. that He reveals the Father (cf. Joh 5:19-20)

3. that He and the Father are one (Joh 8:29)

Joh 8:29 “He has not left Me alone” Jesus’ fellowship with the Father sustained Him (cf. Joh 8:16; Joh 16:32). This is why the broken fellowship on the cross was so difficult for Him (cf. Mar 15:34).

Joh 8:30 “many came to believe in Him” There is great latitude in the use of the term “believe” in this passage. It seems to refer to shallow faith on the part of some hearers (cf. Matthew 13; Mark 4). They were willing to concede that He was the Messiah based on their understanding of what that meant. The context of Joh 8:30-58 clearly shows that they were not true believers (cf. Joh 2:23-25). In John there are several levels to belief, not all lead to salvation. See Special Topic at Joh 2:23.

Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley

go My way = withdraw Myself.

shall = will.

sins = sin. See App-128. The sin of rejecting Him.

cannot = are not (Greek. ou) able to.

Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics

21-59.] Further discourses of Jesus. The Jews attempt to stone Him. This forms the great conclusion of the series of discourses to the Jews. In it our Lord testifies more plainly still to His divine origin and sinlessness, and to the cause of their unbelief; until at last their enmity is worked up to the highest pitch, and they take up stones to cast at Him. It may be divided into four parts: (1) Joh 8:21-24,-announcing to them the inevitable consequence of persistence in their unbelief on His withdrawal from them: (2) Joh 8:25-29,-the things which He has to say and judge of them, and the certainty of their own future recognition of Him and His truthfulness: (3) Joh 8:30-47,-the first springing up of faith in many of them is by Him corrected and purified from Jewish pride, and the source of such pride and unbelief detected: (4) Joh 8:48-58,-the accusation of the Jews in Joh 8:48, gives occasion to Him to set forth very plainly His own divine dignity and pr-existence.

Fuente: The Greek Testament

Joh 8:21. , again) For He had said so at ch. Joh 7:33, etc., Ye shall seek Me, and not find Me; and where I am, thither ye cannot come, when they had plotted against Him, as at this place.-, sin) The Singular: the whole of perdition is one, arising from unbelief, through which all sins flourish, Joh 8:24, If ye believe not that I am He, ye shall die in your sins [Plural]. In this place, the emphasis is on the word, sin, which in this verse comes first; afterwards [at Joh 8:24] on the verb ye shall die, which there comes first.-, ye shall die) by death of every kind [spiritual and eternal, of body and soul].-, I go) Joh 8:22, ch. Joh 13:33; Joh 13:36. [to Simon Peter] Whither I go, thou canst not follow Me now, but thou shalt follow Me afterwards; Joh 14:4, Whither I go ye know, and the way ye know.

Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament

Joh 8:21

Joh 8:21

He said therefore again unto them, I go away, and ye shall seek me, and shall die in your sin:-He turns to the same thought presented in Joh 7:34. When distressed, and especially when they come to meet God and the judgment, they would seek to come where he is and would not be able to come. [Jesus will depart and return to heaven, and they shall seek him when it is too late and shall not find him, but die in their sins.]

whither I go, ye cannot come.-[The results of rejecting the Savior are that they shall die in their sins and therefore cannot go to heaven where he is. This, together with the next three verses, opposes the doctrine of universal salvation.]

Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary

the Father Made Known in His Son

Joh 8:21-30

Our Lord was absorbed in acquiring glory for His Father. He was sent by the Father, lived by the Father, could do nothing of Himself, and spoke only as the Father taught Him, Joh 8:28. He could dispense with all human help and stand alone, because the Father never left Him, Joh 8:29. To honor Him, please Him, work His works, live in His love, was the passion of His life, Joh 8:29; Joh 8:49.

There was a mystery in all this that baffled the men of His age. They were from beneath; they lived for worldly aims, were governed by earthly motives, and sought for the praise of men. His life was spent in fellowship with heaven. But to us there should be no mystery. We, too, should aim to do the will of God as the supreme goal of life. Our aims and ends are too low. The conversion of the unsaved, the upbuilding of the Church, are excellent, but they should be included in the sweep of a wider circle. Aim at the planet and you miss the sun; aim at the sun, and you include the planet. Our one intention should be that God be magnified in our bodies, both in life and death. But for this we must be willing to take up the cross and follow Jesus in His lifting up.

Fuente: F.B. Meyer’s Through the Bible Commentary

Then said Jesus again unto them, I go my way, and ye shall seek me, and shall die in your sins: whither I go, ye cannot come. Then said the Jews, Will he kill himself? because he saith, Whither I go, ye cannot come. And he said unto them, Ye are from beneath; I am from above: ye are of this world; I am not of this world. I said therefore unto you, that ye shall die in your sins: for if ye believe not that I am he, ye shall die in your sins. Then said they unto him, Who art thou? And Jesus saith unto them, Even the same that I said unto you from the beginning. I have many things to say and to judge of you: but he that sent me is true; and I speak to the world those things which I have heard of him. They understood not that he spake to them of the Father. Then said Jesus unto them, When ye have lifted up the Son of man, then shall ye know that I am he, and that I do nothing of myself; but as my Father hath taught me, I speak these things. And he that sent me is with me: the Father hath not left me alone; for I do always those things that please him. As he spake these words, many believed on him. Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.

The question, Is there a second chance for salvation after death? is a very serious one. It is raised at times even by real Christians when some of their own loved ones close their eyes in death without giving any evidence of repentance or of personal saving faith in the Lord Jesus. No matter how orthodox one may be or how thoroughly one may be indoctrinated in respect to the hopelessness of the state of the unsaved dead, this question will come to the surface. People who have never thought of it before think seriously of it when one of their own has gone out into eternity in this hopeless condition. And their hearts cry out, May it not be true that after all, when men live and die out of Christ, there may be some way by which God will save men on the other shore after He has failed to reach them on this side? The only way we can get a true answer to this question is by turning directly to the Word of God itself. And here we have the testimony of our Lord Jesus Christ, and it is very solemn and serious. Then said Jesus again unto them, I go my way, and ye shall seek me, and shall die in your sins: whither I go, ye cannot come (v. 21).

He was addressing men who had seen His works of power, who had heard His marvelous teaching, who had been urged to receive Him in faith, the Living Bread, that they might find life eternal. And now He says to them, I am not going to be here forever. I have come for an appointed service. The hour of My crucifixion is just before Me. I go My way back to the presence of the Father. I go My way through the gates of death into resurrection and up to the glory, and after I have left you, after I have gone, many of you will begin to be concerned. You will seek Me and want to listen to My message, but you will not be able to find Me. You will not be able to hear Me. You shall seek Me, but you shall die in your sins. And He adds, And whither I go, ye cannot come. There is something very, very tragic about that. I have often said that every time I am asked to speak at a funeral service where the deceased has given no evidence of knowing Christ, I would like to believe that there is something so purifying about death, so wonderful about dissolution, that when men pass from this life into the next they will immediately have their eyes opened and will see how foolish they have been in rejecting Christ. Then they will gaze upon His face and will trust Him. I would like to believe that. I would like to believe that no one will be lost. So would any compassionate person.

We can enter into and sympathize with the thoughts of Richard Baxter, who used to pray, O God, for a full heaven and an empty hell! We would it might be, but when we turn to this blessed Book and are prepared to bring our thoughts to the test of Thus saith the Lord, we do not find that this Word diffuses any ray of hope for the one who dies unsaved. Nothing could be clearer than our Lords words here. He says, Ye shall die in your sins.

There are two ways to die. In the book of the Revelation we read, Blessed are [they] which die in the Lord They [shall] rest from their labours and their works do follow them (14:13). It will be a blessed thing to die in the Lord. Millions have died in the Lord and are resting from their labors, and their works shall follow them. Their works did not save them; they were saved by the Lord Jesus Christ. But when they stand at the judgment seat of Christ they will be rewarded for their works by the One who has saved them. But here is the awful contrast, If ye believe not that I am he, ye shall die in your sins. See verse 24, I said therefore unto you, that ye shall die in your sins: for if ye believe not that I am he, ye shall die in your sins. And to all those who die in their sins Jesus says, Whither I go, ye cannot come. He was speaking of going back into heaven. It is just another way of saying, if you die in your sins you will never enter heaven.

I do not think you can find a clearer passage than this. There are many others. It was the Lord Jesus Himself who said, And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal (Mat 25:46). And it was Jesus who said, Wherefore if thy hand or thy foot offend thee, cut them off, and cast them from thee: it is better for thee to enter into life halt or maimed, rather than having two hands or two feet to be cast into everlasting fire (18:8). Jesus said that, and when He used language like that He meant us to understand there is a possibility of being eternally lost. In the epistle to the Hebrews we read, It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God (Heb 10:31). Search this Book throughout. Read it carefully, and you will find that it does not offer the slightest hope of eventual blessing for anyone who leaves this world impenitent.

But now having said that, I want to say something to comfort the hearts of some of you who may be saying in your hearts, Well, that may be the truth. It must be the truth if Jesus said it, but even so, it hurts my heart to think of loved ones for whom I prayed for years and they died unsaved. Let me say this to you: Do not jump at conclusions. Who put it into your hearts to pray for that loved one? Who laid the burden for that soul upon your heart? It was the blessed Holy Spirit of God. It was Christ Himself. Often when God is going to do something for us, He puts it on our hearts to pray for that very thing. It is a great thing for anyone who has a praying mother or praying friends. It is a great thing for an unsaved wife to have a praying husband, or vice versa, For what knowest thou, O wife, whether thou shaft save thy husband? or how knowest thou, O man, whether thou shalt save thy wife? (1Co 7:16). If we bring our loved ones to God in prayer, we can count on Him to work in His own way upon their hearts and consciences. Even though we may not get the evidence that our prayers have been answered, let us never give up, but let us believe that the God who taught us to pray for our dear ones has found a way of answering our prayers.

Have you ever thought of the mother of the penitent thief, that one who hung by the side of our Lord Jesus Christ on the cross? I wonder if he had a praying mother, a mother who had again and again brought her son before God, and I wonder if by any chance she was in the crowd that day when Jesus was on that center cross and her son and another hung on either side of Him. What anxiety must have been hers if she was there, and if she was, I wonder if she got close enough to hear the colloquy that went on between her boy and that One who was in the same condemnation (Luk 23:40). I wonder if she was off there somewhere in the crowd and doing her best to look over the heads of the others and saying, Oh, there he is, my poor, lost boy, and I prayed for him and counted on God to save him. There he is, dying a malefactors death. I wonder if she might have been close enough to have heard both of those robbers railing on Jesus, and said, Oh, there he is dying with curses on his lips. But he did not die that way!

I wonder if she was so far away that she did not hear what went on during those last moments. And one of the malefactors which were hanged railed on him, saying, If thou be Christ, save thyself and us. But the other answering rebuked him, saying, Dost not thou fear God, seeing thou art in the same condemnation? And we indeed justly; for we receive the due reward of our deeds: but this Man hath done nothing amiss. And he said unto Jesus, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom. And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, Today shah thou be with me in paradise (Luk 23:39-43). It was as though He said, You will not have to wait until I come in My kingdom. You will be with Me in Paradise today. I wonder if his mother heard that. If she did not hear she might have cried, Oh, my boy! Lost! No, he was saved, though she may have known nothing about what took place at that last moment. Gods ways are past finding out. So I say to you who are praying: do not let your faith waver. Count on God to work in His own wonderful way. Sometime, somewhere, He will answer you.

But to you who are Christless, I would say this: Do not count too much on the patience of a holy God. There is such a thing as sinning against His mercy, goodness, and grace to such an extent that the conscience becomes seared as with a hot iron. It is that against which Jesus warns us here. If ye believe not that I am he, ye shall die in your sins.

The Jews did not understand Him and said, Where is He going? Will He commit suicide? He said, You reason as men of the earth. I am from above and not of this world. I said to you, If ye believe not, ye shall die in your sins (see vv. 22-24). Then said they unto him, Who art thou? And Jesus saith unto them, Even the same that I said unto you from the beginning (v. 25). He was the Eternal Son who came down into this world to be our Redeemer. He added, I have many things to say and to judge of you: but he that sent me is true; and I speak to the world those things which I have heard of him. They understood not that he spake to them of the Father. Then said Jesus unto them, When ye have lifted up the Son of man, then shall ye know that I am he, and that I do nothing of myself; but as my Father hath taught me, I speak these things (vv. 26-28). They lifted Him up on the cross, where He died for our redemption, and it was that to which He referred as He said to Nicodemus, As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up (3:14). He has been lifted up.

Lifted up was He to die,

It is finished, was His cry;

Now in heavn exalted high,

Hallelujah! What a Saviour!

He concludes this address with these words, He that sent Me is with Me: the Father hath not left Me alone; for I do always those things that please Him. No one else ever lived who could use such language as that in its entirety. Gods most devoted servants have failed in something. We are all poor sinners saved by grace. But Jesus failed in nothing. He could say, I do always those things that please him (8:29). As He spake these words, many believed on him (v. 30). Then Jesus put a test to them by saying something like this, Now it is not enough that you simply believe intellectually. You must prove the reality of your faith by obedience to My word. Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free (vv. 31-32). And so we know Him who is the truth, from His lips we receive the truth, through His word that truth is opened up to us, and by the Spirit we are able to walk in that truth.

My sins laid open to the rod

The back which from the law was free;

And the Eternal Son of God

Received the stripes once due to me.

Fuente: Commentaries on the New Testament and Prophets

sins

(See Scofield “Rom 3:23”).

Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes

I go: Joh 7:34, Joh 12:33, Joh 12:35, 1Ki 18:10, 2Ki 2:16, 2Ki 2:17, Mat 23:39, Mat 24:23, Mat 24:24

and shall die: Joh 8:24, Job 20:11, Psa 73:18-20, Pro 11:7, Pro 14:32, Isa 65:20, Eze 3:18, Eze 3:19, Luk 16:22-26, 1Co 15:17, 1Co 15:18, Eph 2:1

whither: Joh 7:34, Joh 13:33, Mat 25:41, Mat 25:46

Reciprocal: Num 27:3 – died in his Ezr 9:15 – in our trespasses Job 36:12 – die Isa 22:14 – Surely Isa 55:6 – Seek Eze 18:18 – even Eze 18:24 – in his Eze 33:6 – he is Zec 11:9 – I will Mar 8:13 – General Luk 13:24 – for Luk 14:24 – General Luk 17:22 – when Joh 12:8 – but Joh 14:19 – a little 1Co 15:56 – sting 2Pe 2:12 – perish Rev 22:11 – that is unjust

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

SEEKING IN VAIN

We shall seek Me, and shall die in your sins.

Joh 8:21

This verse contains a thought so deep that we cannot fathom it. We learn that it is possible to seek Christ in vain. Our Lord says to the unbelieving Jews, Ye shall seek Me, and shall die in your sins. He meant, by these words, that the Jews would one day seek Him in vain. The lesson is a very painful one. That such a Saviour as the Lord Jesus, so full of love, so willing to save, should ever be sought in vain, is a sorrowful thought. Yet so it is!

I. A man may have many religious feelings about Christ, without any saving religion.Sickness, sudden affliction, the fear of death, the failure of usual sources of comfortall these causes may draw out of a man a good deal of religiousness. Under the immediate pressure of these he may say his prayers fervently, exhibit strong spiritual feelings, and profess for a season to seek Christ, and be a different man. And yet all this time his heart may never be touched at all! Take away the peculiar circumstances that affected him, and he may possibly return at once to his old ways. He sought Christ in vain, because he sought Him from false motives, and not with his whole heart. Unhappily this is not all.

II. There is such a thing as a settled habit of resisting light and knowledge, until we seek Christ in vain. Scripture and experience alike prove that men may reject God until God rejects them, and will not hear their prayer. They may go on stifling their convictions, quenching the light of conscience, fighting against their own better knowledge, until God is provoked to give them over, and let them alone. Such cases may not be common; but they are possible, and they are sometimes seen.

III. There is no safety but in seeking Christ while He may be found, and calling on Him while He is nearseeking Him with a true heart, and calling on Him with an honest spirit. Such seeking, we may be very sure, is never in vain. It will never be recorded of such seekers, that they died in their sins. He that really comes to Christ shall never be cast out.

Illustration

It is worthy of remark that our Lords words, Ye shall seek Me, and Whither I go ye cannot come, are used three times in this Gospeltwice to the unbelieving Jews, here and Joh 7:34, and once to the disciples, Joh 13:33. But the careful reader will observe that in the two first instances the expression is coupled with, Ye shall not find Me, and Ye shall die in your sins. In the last, it evidently means the temporary separation between Christ and His disciples which would be caused by His Ascension. Melancthon observes that nothing seems to bring on men such dreadful guilt and punishment as neglect of the Gospel. The Jews had Christ among them and would not believe, and so when afterwards they sought they could not find. Rollock observes that the seeking which our Lord here foretells was like that of Esau, when he sought too late for the lost birthright.

Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary

1

I go my way refers to the return of Jesus to his Father. Shall seek me does not mean they will seek to find Jesus as their Saviour, for he did not intend ever to get out of reach of any man who was honestly disposed unto eternal life. It refers to the desire for the benefits that had been bestowed upon man while Jesus was in his personal ministry. (See the comments on Luk 17:22.) With only such a selfish motive for seeking Jesus, they would fail to find him and would die unsaved, which would make it impossible for them to go into his presence.

Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary

THIS passage contains deep things, so deep that we have no line to fathom them. As we read it we should call to mind the Psalmist’s words,-“Thy thoughts are very deep.” (Psa 92:5.) But it also contains, in the opening verses, some things which are clear, plain, and unmistakable. To these let us give our attention and root them firmly in our hearts.

We learn, for one thing, that it is possible to seek Christ in vain. Our Lord says to the unbelieving Jews, “Ye shall seek Me, and shall die in your sins.” He meant, by these words, that the Jews would one day seek Him in vain.

The lesson before us is a very painful one. That such a Savior as the Lord Jesus, so full of love, so willing to save, should ever be sought “in vain,” is a sorrowful thought. Yet so it is! A man may have many religious feelings about Christ, without any saving religion. Sickness, sudden affliction, the fear of death, the failure of usual sources of comfort-all these causes may draw out of a man a good deal of “religiousness.” Under the immediate pressure of these he may say his prayers fervently, exhibit strong spiritual feelings, and profess for a season to “seek Christ,” and be a different man. And yet all this time his heart may never be touched at all! Take away the peculiar circumstances that affected him, and he may possibly return at once to his old ways. He sought Christ “in vain,” because he sought Him from false motives, and not with his whole heart.

Unhappily this is not all. There is such a thing as a settled habit of resisting light and knowledge, until we seek Christ “in vain.” Scripture and experience alike prove that men may reject God until God rejects them, and will not hear their prayer. They may go on stifling their convictions, quenching the light of conscience, fighting against their own better knowledge, until God is provoked to give them over and let them alone. It is not for nothing that these words are written,-“Then shall they call upon Me, but I will not answer; they shall seek Me early, but they shall not find Me: for that they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the LORD.” (Pro 1:28-29.) Such cases may not be common; but they are possible, and they are sometimes seen. Some ministers can testify that they have visited people on their death-beds who seem to seek Christ, and yet seek in vain.

There is no safety but in seeking Christ while He may be found, and calling on Him while He is near,-seeking Him with a true heart, and calling on Him with an honest spirit. Such seeking, we may be very sure, is never in vain. It will never be recorded of such seekers, that they “died in their sins.” He that really comes to Christ shall never be “cast out.” The Lord has solemnly declared that “He hath no pleasure in the death of him that dieth,”-and that “He delighteth in mercy.” (Eze 18:32; Mic 7:18.)

We learn for another thing, how wide is the difference between Christ and the ungodly. Our Lord says to the unbelieving Jews,-“Ye are from beneath; I am from above: ye are of this world; I am not of this world.”

These words, no doubt, have a special application to our Lord Jesus Christ Himself. In the highest and most literal sense, there never was but One who could truly say, “I am from above,-I am not of this world.” That One is He who came forth from the Father, and was before the world,-even the Son of God.

But there is a lower sense, in which these words are applicable to all Christ’s living members. Compared to the thoughtless multitude around them, they are “from above,” and “not of this world,” like their Master. The thoughts of the ungodly are about things beneath; the true Christian’s affections are set on things above. The ungodly man is full of this world; its cares and pleasures and profits, absorb his whole attention. The true Christian, though in the world, is not of it; his citizenship is in heaven, and his best things are yet to come.

The true Christian will do well never to forget this line of demarcation. If he loves his soul, and desires to serve God, he must be content to find himself separated from many around him by a gulf that cannot be passed. He may not like to seem peculiar and unlike others; but it is the certain consequence of grace reigning within him. He may find it brings on him hatred, ridicule, and hard speeches; but it is the cup which his Master drank, and of which his Master forewarned all His disciples.-“If ye were of the world the world would love His own, but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.” (Joh 15:19.)-Then let the Christian never be ashamed to stand alone and show his colors. He must carry the cross if he would wear the crown. If he has within him a new principle “from above,” it must be seen.

We learn, lastly, how awful is the end to which unbelief can bring men. Our Lord says to his enemies, “If ye believe not that I am He, ye shall die in your sins.”

These solemn words are invested with peculiar solemnity when we consider from whose lips they came. Who is this that speaks of men dying “in their sins,” unpardoned, unforgiven, unfit to meet God,-of men going into another world with all their sins upon them? He that says this is no other than the Savior of mankind, who laid down His life for his sheep,-the loving, gracious, merciful, compassionate Friend of sinners. It is Christ Himself! Let this simple fact not be overlooked.

They are greatly mistaken who suppose that it is harsh and unkind to speak of hell and future punishment. How can such persons get over such language as that which is before us? How can they account for many a like expression which our Lord used, and specially for such passages as those in which He speaks of the “worm that dieth not and the fire that is not quenched”? (Mar 9:46.) They cannot answer these questions. Misled by a false charity and a morbid amiability, they are condemning the plain teaching of the Scripture, and are wise above that which is written.

Let us settle it in our minds, as one of the great foundation truths of our faith, that there is a hell. Just as we believe firmly that there is an eternal heaven for the godly, so let us believe firmly that there is an eternal hell for the wicked. Let us never suppose that there is any want of charity in speaking of hell. Let us rather maintain that it is the highest love to warn men plainly of danger, and to beseech them to “flee from the wrath to come.” It was Satan, the deceiver, murderer, and liar, who said to Eve in the beginning, “Ye shall not surely die.” (Gen 3:4.) To shrink from telling men, that except they believe they will “die in their sins,” may please the devil, but surely it cannot please God.

Finally, let us never forget that unbelief is the special sin that ruins men’s souls. Had the Jews believed on our Lord, all manner of sin and blasphemy might have been forgiven them. But unbelief bars the door in mercy’s face, and cuts off hope. Let us watch and pray hard against it. Immorality slays its thousands, but unbelief its tens of thousands. One of the strongest sayings ever used by our Lord was this,-“He that believeth not shall be damned.” (Mar 16:16.)

==================

Notes-

v21.-[Then said Jesus again unto them.] There seems a break or pause between this verse and the preceding one. It is as if our Lord resumed discourse with a new leading thought or key-note. The other idea, viz., that “again” refers to Joh 7:34, and means that our Lord impressed on his hearers a second time that He would soon leave them, does not seem probable.-It seems not unlikely that in the first instance our Lord spoke of “going” to the officers of the priests and Pharisees, and that here He speaks to their masters, or at least to a different set of hearers.

[I go my way.] This must mean, “I am soon about to leave this world. My mission is drawing to a close. The time of My decease and sacrifice approaches, and I must depart, and go back to My Father in heaven, from whence I came.”-The leading object of the sentence appears to be to excite in the minds of the Jews thought and inquiry about His divine nature. “I am one who came from heaven, and am going back to heaven. Ought you not to inquire seriously who I am?”

Chrysostom thinks our Lord said this, partly to shame and terrify the Jews, and partly to show them that His death would not be effected by their violence, but by His own voluntary submission.

[Ye shall seek me…die in…sins.] This means that His hearers would seek Him too late, having discovered too late that He was the Messiah whom they ought to have received. But the door of mercy would then be shut. They would seek in vain, because they had not known the day of their visitation. And the result would be that many of them would die miserably “in their sins,”-with their sins upon them unpardoned and unforgiven.

[Whither I go ye cannot come.] This must mean heaven, the everlasting abode of glory which the Son had with the Father before He came into the world, which He left for a season when He became incarnate, and to which He returned when He had finished the work of man’s redemption. To this a wicked man cannot come. Unbelief shuts him out. It is impossible in the nature of things that an unforgiven, unconverted, unbelieving man can go to heaven. The words in Greek are emphatic,-“Ye cannot come.”

The notion of Augustine and others that “Ye shall seek Me” only means “ye shall seek Me in order to kill Me, as ye are wishing to do now, but at last I shall be withdrawn from your reach,”-seems to me quite untenable. The “seeking,” to my mind, can only be the too late seeking of remorse.-The theory of some, that it refers exclusively to the time of the siege of Jerusalem by the Romans, seems to me equally untenable. My belief is that from the time that our Lord left the world down to this day, the expression has been peculiarly true of the Jewish nation. They have been perpetually, in a sense, “seeking” and hungering after a Messiah, and yet unable to find Him, because they have not sought aright.-In saying this we must carefully remember that our Lord did not mean to say that any of His hearers were too sinful and bad to be forgiven. On the contrary, not a few of them that crucified Him found mercy on the day of Pentecost, when Peter preached. (Act 2:22-41.) But our Lord did mean to say prophetically that the Jewish nation, as a nation, would be specially hardened and unbelieving, and that many of them, though an elect remnant might be saved, would “die in their sins.” In proof of this peculiar blindness and unbelief of the Jewish nation we should study Act 28:25-27; Rom 11:7, and 1Th 2:15-16. The Greek expression for “sins” in this verse confirms the view. It is not, literally rendered, “sins,” but “sin,”-your special sin of unbelief.

Let us note that it is possible to seek Christ too late, or from a wrong motive, and so to seek Him in vain. This is a very important principle of Scripture. True repentance, doubtless, is never too late, but late repentance is seldom true. There is mercy to the uttermost in Christ; but if men willfully reject Him, turn away from Him, and put off seeking Him in earnest, there is such a thing as “seeking Christ” in vain. Such passages as Pro 1:24-32; Mat 25:11-12; Luk 13:24-27; Heb 6:4-8, and Heb 10:26-31, ought to be carefully studied.

Let us note that our Lord teaches plainly that it is possible for men to “die in their sins,” and never come to the heaven where He has gone. This is flatly contrary to the doctrine taught by some in the present day, that there is no hell and no future punishment, and that all will finally go to heaven.

It is worthy of remark that our Lord’s words, “Ye shall seek Me,” and “Whither I go ye cannot come,” are used three times in this Gospel:-twice to the unbelieving Jews, here and Joh 7:34, and once to the disciples, Joh 13:33. But the careful reader will observe that in the two first instances the expression is coupled with, “Ye shall not find Me,” and “Ye shall die in your sins.” In the last, it evidently means the temporary separation between Christ and His disciples which would be caused by His ascension.

Melancthon observes that nothing seems to bring on men such dreadful guilt and punishment as neglect of the Gospel. The Jews had Christ among them and would not believe, and so when afterward they sought they could not find.

Rollock observes that the “seeking” which our Lord here foretells was like that of Esau, when he sought too late for the lost birthright.

Burkitt observes, “Better a thousand times to die in a ditch than to die in our sins! They that die in their sins shall rise in their sins, and stand before Christ in their sins. Such as lie down in sin in the grave shall have sin lie down with them in hell to all eternity. The sins of believers go to the grave before them; sin dieth while they live. The sins of unbelievers go to the grave with them.”

v22.-[Then said the Jews, etc.] It is plain that this last saying of our Lord perplexed His enemies. It evidently implied something which they did not understand. In the preceding chapter (Joh 7:34-35) they began speculating whether it meant that our Lord was going forth into the world to teach the Gentiles. Here they start another conjecture, and begin to suspect that our Lord must mean His going into another world by death. But by what death did He think of going? Did He mean to “kill Himself”? It seems strange that they should start such an idea. But may it not be that their minds were occupied with their own plan of putting Him to death? “Will He really anticipate our plan, by committing suicide, and thus escape our hands?”

Origen suggests that the Jews had a tradition about the manner in which Messiah would die: viz., “that He would have power to depart at His own time, and in a way of His own choosing.”

Rupertus observes that afterwards, at the siege of Jerusalem by Titus, many of the desperate Jews did the very thing they here said of our Lord-they killed themselves in madness of despair.

Melancthon remarks that nothing seems to anger wicked men so much as to be told they cannot come where Christ is.

v23.-[And He said, Ye are from beneath, etc.] Our Lord’s argument in this case appears to be as follows: “There is no union, harmony, or fellowship between you and Me. Your minds are entirely absorbed and buried in earth and objects of a mere earthly kind. You are from beneath, and of this world; while I came from heaven, and my heart is full of the things of heaven and my Father’s business. No wonder, therefore, that I said you cannot come where I go, and will die in your sins. Unless your hearts are changed, and you learn to be of one mind with Me, you are totally unmeet for heaven, and must at last die in your sins.”

The expressions “from beneath” and “from above” are strong figurative phrases, intended to put in contrast earth and heaven. (See Col 3:1-2.) The Greek phrases literally rendered would be,-“Ye are from the things beneath: I am from the things above.”

The expression “of this world” means bound up with, and inseparably connected by, tastes, aims, and affections, with this world, and nothing else but this world. It is the character of one utterly dead and graceless, who looks at nothing but the world, and lives for it. It is a character utterly at variance with that of our Lord, who was eminently “not of this world;” and therefore those who were of this character were incapable of union and friendship with Him.”

Let it be noted that what our Lord says of Himself here is the very same thing that is said of His true disciples elsewhere. If a man has grace he is “not of this world.” (See Joh 15:19; Joh 17:16; and 1Jn 4:5.) Christ’s living members always have more or less of their Master’s likeness in this respect. They are always more or less separated from and distinct from this world. He that is thoroughly worldly has the plainest mark of not being a member of Christ and a true Christian.

Theophylact observes that the strange notion of the Apollinarian heretics, that our Lord’s body was not a real human body, but came down from heaven, was built on this verse for one of its reasons. But, as he remarks, they might as well say the Apostles had not common human bodies, since the same thing is said of them-“not of this world.”

v24.-[I said therefore, etc.] This verse seems elliptical, and must be filled up in some such manner as this: “It is because you are thoroughly earthly and of this world, that I said, Ye cannot come where I go. You are not heavenly minded, and cannot go to heaven, but must go to your own place. The end will be that you will die in your sins. Not believing in Me as the Messiah, you cut yourselves off from all hope, and must die in your sins. This, in short, is the root of all your misery-your unbelief.”

Let it be noted that unbelief is the thing that specially ruins men. All manner of sin may be forgiven. But unbelief bars the door against mercy. (Mar 16:16, and Joh 3:36.)

Let it be noted that unbelief was the secret of the Jews being so thoroughly “of the world.” If they would only have believed in Christ, they would have been “delivered from this present evil world.” The victory that overcomes the world is faith. Once believing on a heavenly Savior a man has a portion and a heart in heaven. (Gal 1:4; 1Jn 5:4-5.)

Let it be noted that there is nothing hard or uncharitable in warning men plainly of the consequences of unbelief. Never to speak of hell is not acting as Christ did.

The expression “believe not that I am He” would be more literally rendered “Believe not that I am.” Hence some think that our Lord refers to the great name, well known to the Jews, under which God revealed Himself to Israel in Egypt,-“Say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent you.” (Exo 3:14.)

Augustine remarks that “the whole unhappiness of the Jews was not that they had sin, but to die in sins.” He also observes, “In these words, Except ye believe that I am, Jesus meant nothing short of this, Except ye believe that I am God, ye shall die in your sins. It is well for us, thank God, that He said except ye believe, and not except ye understand.”

Quesnel remarks: “It is a mistaken prudence to hide these dreadful truths from sinners, for fear of casting them into despair by the force of God’s judgments. We ought, on the contrary, to force them, by the sight of danger, to throw themselves into the arms of Christ, the only refuge for sinners.”

v25.-[Then said they…Who art Thou?] This question cannot have been an honest inquiry about our Lord’s nature and origin. Our Lord had spoken so often of His Father,-for instance, in the fifth chapter, when before the council,-that the Jews of Jerusalem must have known well enough who and what He claimed to be. It is far more likely that they hoped to elicit from Him some fresh declaration which they could lay hold on, and make the ground of an accusation. Anger and malice seem at the bottom of the question-“Who art thou that sayest such things of us? Who art thou that undertakest to pronounce such condemnation on us?”

Ecolampadius thinks the question was asked sarcastically,-“Who art thou, indeed, to talk in this way?”

[And Jesus saith…even the same…beginning.]-Our Lord’s reply here seems so guarded and cautious, that it increases the probability of the Jews’ question being put with a malicious intention. He knew their thoughts and designs, and answered them by reminding them what He had always said of Himself: “Why ask Me who I am? You know well what I have always said of Myself. I am the same that I said to you from the beginning. I have nothing new to say.”

Scott thinks it simply means, “I am the same that I told you at the beginning of this discourse,-the Light of the World.”

There is an undeniable difficulty and obscurity about the sentence before us, and it has consequently received three different interpretations. The difficulty arises chiefly from the word “beginning.”

(a) Some think, as our own English version, Chrysostom, Calvin, Bucer, Gualter, Cartwright, Rollock, and Lightfoot, that “beginning” means the beginning of our Lord’s ministry. “I am the same person that I told you I was from the very first beginning of My ministry among you.” This view is confirmed by the Septuagint rendering of Gen 43:18, Gen 43:20.

(b) Some think, as Theophylact, Melancthon, Aretus, and Musculus, that “beginning” is an adverb, and means simply, “as an opening or beginning statement.” “First of all, as a commencement of My reply, I tell you that I am what I always said I was.”

(c) Some think, as Augustine, Rupertus, Toletus, Ferus, Jansenius, Lampe, and Wordsworth, that “beginning” is a substantive, and means the Beginning of all things, the personal Beginning, like “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End.” (Rev 1:8; Rev 21:6; Rev 22:13.) It would then mean, “I am the great beginning of all things, the eternal God, as I always said.”

The reader must exercise his own judgment on these three views. The extreme brevity and conciseness of the Greek words make it very hard to give a decided opinion upon them. On the whole, I prefer the view taken by our translators. In three other places in John’s Gospel our Lord speaks of His early ministry as “the beginning.” (Joh 6:64; Joh 15:27; Joh 16:4.) In no place in John’s Gospel does He ever call Himself “the beginning.” As to the second view, that it only means, “First of all, as an opening statement,” it seems to me so meager, flat, and bald, that I cannot think it is correct.

Rollock, who takes the view of our English version, observes what a bright example our Lord here sets to all Christian’s, and especially to ministers, of always telling the same story, and witnessing one and the same confession without variation.

v26.-[I have many things, etc.] This verse again is very elliptical. The meaning seems to be as follows: “You marvel and are angry at My saying that you are from beneath, and will die in your sin, and cannot come where I go. You ask who I am that speak and judge in this manner. But I tell you that I have many other things that I might say, and other judgments that I might pronounce about you. But I forbear now. Yet I tell you that He who sent Me is the one true God; and I only speak to the world things which I have heard of Him, and am commissioned by Him to proclaim. He that sent Me will prove them to be true one day.”

The general idea seems to be that our Lord defends His right to speak decidedly and pronounce judgment on His enemies’ conduct on the ground of His divine mission, “I have a right to say what I have said; and I might say much more, because I am not a common prophet, but am commissioned and sent as the Word of the Father.”

The frequency with which our Lord speaks of Himself as “sent by the Father,” in John’s Gospel, should be carefully noticed.

When our Lord speaks of Himself as “hearing” things from the Father, we must remember that His language is accommodated to our understanding. The relation between the Father and the Son in the Trinity is something too mysterious for us fully to comprehend. The Son does not really and literally need the Father to “speak” to Him, and does not himself need to “hear” Him. The first and second Persons in the Trinity are ineffably united, though two distinct Persons.

Lightfoot thinks the latter part of this verse means, “He that sent Me hath of old said and judged of you, and He is true, and they are true things that He said. Of this kind are the passages Isa 11:10, and Isa 29:10, and from such predictions Christ concludes thus,-‘ye shall die in your sins.’ ”

v27.-[They understood not, etc.] Why the Jews who heard these words did not comprehend that our Lord spoke of the “Father” is not clear. They must have thought that “He that sent Me” meant some earthly sender. The extent to which our Lord’s hearers sometimes understood Him, as in Joh 5:18, and sometimes did not understand Him, as here, is a curious subject.

Alford observes: “There is no accounting for the ignorance of unbelief; as any minister of Christ knows by painful experience.”

v28.-[Then said Jesus, etc.] This verse is prophetical. Our Lord predicts that after His crucifixion the Jews would know that He was the Messiah, that He had done all He had done not of His own private authority, but by God’s commission, and that He had spoken to the world only such things as the Father had taught and appointed Him to speak. But whether our Lord meant that His hearers would really believe with the heart and really confess His Messiahship, or that they would know it too late and be convinced when the day of grace was past and gone, is a nice and difficult question.

My own opinion, judging from the context and the analogy of other places, is in favor of the latter view: viz., that our Lord predicted the Jewish nation would know the truth and discover their own mistake too late. I think so because our Lord seems so frequently to allude to the light which would come on the minds of the Jewish nation at large after His death. They would be convinced though not converted.

Chrysostom thinks that our Lord meant, “Do you expect that you shall certainly rid yourselves of Me, and slay Me? I tell you that then ye shall most surely know that I am, by reason of the miracle of my resurrection, and the destruction of Jerusalem. When ye have been driven away from your place of worship, and it is not even allowed you to serve God as hitherto, then ye shall know that He doth this to avenge Me, and because He is wroth with those who would not hear Me.”

Augustine takes the other side, and says: “Without doubt Jesus saw there some whom He knew, in His foreknowledge He had elected together with His other saints before the foundation of the world, that after His passion they should believe.”

Euthymius, agreeing with Chrysostom, remarks how the crowds that saw our Lord crucified, and returned home smiting their breasts,-the centurion who superintended His crucifixion,-the chief priests who tried in vain to stifle the report of His resurrection,-and Josephus the historian, who attributed the misfortunes of the nation to their murder of Christ,-were all witnesses to the truth of this verse. When too late they knew who our Lord was.

(4) Alford thinks that the words admit of a double fulfillment, and that the Jews were to “know” that Jesus was the Christ, in two different ways. Some would know by being converted, some by being punished and judged.

The expression “lifted up,” both here and elsewhere in John’s Gospel, can mean nothing but our Lord’s crucifixion and lifting up on the cross. (Joh 3:14, and Joh 12:32.) It is never used in any other sense, and the modern habit of talking of Christ as “lifted up,” when magnified and exalted in the pulpit, is a total misapprehension, and a play upon words.

Rollock and others think that the phrase “lifted up” may fairly include all the consequences and effects of our Lord’s crucifixion, such as His second advent to judge the world, and that this will be the time when the unbelieving will at last know and be convinced that Christ is Lord of all. But the idea seems far-fetched.

The expression “then ye shall know” may possibly refer both to our Lord’s resurrection as well as His crucifixion. Certainly the rising again from the dead silenced our Lord’s enemies in a way that nothing else ever did.

The expression “that I am he,” here as elsewhere, might be equally well rendered “that I am;” that I am the great “I AM,” the Messiah.

The phrase “that I do nothing of myself” is the same that we have had frequently before, as in Joh 5:19, Joh 5:30. It means “that I do nothing of My own independent authority.” The reference is to the perfect union between the Son and the Father.

The expression, “as my Father hath taught Me I speak these things,” again bears special reference to the divine commission of our Lord and the perfect union between Himself and His Father. “I do not speak the things I speak of Myself and by My own authority only. I speak nothing but what my Father has taught, commissioned, and appointed Me to speak.” (Compare Joh 8:7, Joh 8:16, and Joh 8:26 of this chapter.)

Augustine says here: “Do not as it were represent to yourselves two men, the one father, the other son, and the father speaking to the son, as thou doest when thou sayest certain words to thy son, advising and instructing him how to speak, that whatever he has heard from thee he may commit to memory, and having committed to memory utter also with the tongue. Do not so conceive. Stature and motion of the body, the office of the tongue, distinction of sounds, do not go about to conceive them in the Trinity.” Again: “Incorporeally the Father spake to the Son, because incorporeally the Father begat the Son. And He taught him not as if He had begotten Him ignorant and in need of teaching; but this ‘taught’ is the same as begat Him knowing.”

v29.-[And He that sent Me, etc.] This verse contains once more that deep and oft-repeated truth, the entire unity between God the Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ, and the consequent entire and complete harmony between the mind of the Father and the mind of the Son. It contains moreover that entire and complete performance of the Father’s will by the Son, and that perfect righteousness, obedience, and holiness, wherewith the Father is well-pleased.

When we read such words as “he that sent Me is with Me,” and “hath not left Me alone,” we must remember that there is much in them which we cannot fully explain. We must be content to believe that the Father was “with” the Son, and never “left” Him during the whole period of His incarnation, in an ineffable and inscrutable manner. Perhaps also there is a reference to Isa 50:7-9.

Augustine remarks: “Albeit both are together, yet one was sent, and the other did send. The Father sent the Son, yet quitted not the Son.”

When we read such words as “I do always those things that please Him,” we must see in the expression a description of that spotless perfection with which the Son during His incarnation constantly pleased the eternal Father.

Let Christians never forget the practical lesson that in this verse, as in many other places, Christ is their example and their encouragement. Like Him, however short they may come, let them aim at “always doing what pleases God.” Like Him, let them be sure that so doing they will find the Father “with them,” and will never be left quite “alone.”

Calvin remarks: “This is the courage with which we ought to be animated in the present day, that we may not give way on account of the small number of believers: for though the whole world be opposed to His doctrine, still we are not alone. Hence it is evident how foolish is the boasting of the Papists, who, while they neglect God, proudly boast of their vast numbers.”

v30.-[As He spake these words, many believed on Him.] There can be little doubt that “these words” in this place, refer to the whole discourse which was delivered at this time, and not to the single verse which immediately precedes this one. It is possible that the reference to Isa 50:7-9, may have brought light to the Jews’ minds, and explained our Lord’s relation to the Father, and His claim to be received as the Messiah.-Otherwise it is not very clear what it was that made “many believe” on Him at this juncture. There is, however, no reason to think that the “belief” here was anything more than a head belief that our Lord was the Messiah. That many did so believe whose hearts remained unchanged, there can be little doubt. The same expression occurs at Joh 10:42, and Joh 11:45, and Joh 12:42. The extent to which men may be intellectually convinced of the truth of religion, and know their duty, while their hearts are unrenewed, and they continue in sin, is one of the most painful phenomena in the history of human nature. Let us never be content with believing things to be true, without a personal laying hold on the living Person, Christ Jesus, and actually following Him.

Chrysostom observes, “They believed, yet not as they ought, but carelessly and by chance, being pleased and refreshed by the humility of the words. For that they had not perfect faith, the Evangelist shows by their speeches after this, in which they insult him again. Theophylact, Zwingle, and Calvin take the same view.

Fuente: Ryle’s Expository Thoughts on the Gospels

Joh 8:21. He said therefore again unto them, I go, and ye shall seek me, and in your sin ye shall die: whither I go, ye cannot come. The conflict of Jesus with His opponents has now passed into a higher stage. It is no longer with the Pharisees merely (Joh 8:13), but with the Jews (Joh 8:22). The witness, too, which Jesus now bears regarding Himself has reference to the last things, both for Himself and for them. It is vain however to inquire when the discourse was thus continued: the bond is one rather of thought than of date. The main object of these words is judgment: hence Jesus does not linger on the thought of His own departure, but on that of the fate awaiting them. The time will come when they will seek Him, but in vain. He is not speaking of the seeking of faith or of repentance, but (as before in chap. Joh 7:34) of the awakening (too late) to need and danger,an awakening not accompanied by the forsaking of sin, for He adds, in your sin (i.e. your state of sin, comp. Joh 8:24) ye shall die.

Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament

Observe here, A dreadful threatening denounced by Christ against the obstinate and unbelieving Jews. Ye shall die in your sins; that is, in the guilt of your sins, under the power, and undergoing the punishment of your sins:

Lord! what a sad word is this, Ye shall die in your sins. O better is it a thousand times to die in a ditch; for they that die in their sins, shall rise in their sins and stand before Christ in their sins; such as lie down in sin in the grave, shall have sin lie down with them in hell to all eternity. The sins of believers go to the grave before them; sin dieth while they live; but the sins of unbelievers go to the grave with them. While they live they are dead in sin: and by sin they fall into death; from which there is no recovery unto life.

Observe, 2. The grand sin for which this great punishment is threatened, and that is the sin of unbelief: If ye believe not that I am he, ye shall die in your sins.

Plainly intimating, that, of all sin, infidelity or unbelief is the grand damning sin under the gospel. The devil hath as great an advantage upon men, by making them strong in unbelief, as God hath by making his people strong in faith? Unbelief renders a sinner’s case desperate and incurable; it doth not only procure damnation, but no damnation like it.

Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament

Joh 8:21. Then said Jesus again Probably in the same place where the preceding discourse was pronounced; and still confiding in the protection of Divine Providence; I go my way That is, I shall speedily go away from among you; and ye shall seek me Shall inquire after the Messiah; and shall die in your sins Impenitent and unbelieving, and therefore unpardoned. Or, ye shall die, suffering the punishment of your sins: you shall perish for your unbelief and rejection of me, by a singular stroke of divine vengeance. The threatening, thus explained, conveys a prediction of the destruction of their city and state, in which probably some, that were now our Lords hearers, afterward perished. Whither I go ye cannot come Either to molest me, or to secure yourselves. Though you should be ever so desirous of being admitted into my presence, the favour will not be granted you. He repeats what he had said to them in a former discourse, (see on Joh 7:33-34,) that it might make the deeper impression upon them. He meant, that after his ascension into heaven, when the Roman armies were spreading desolation and death in every corner of the land, they would earnestly desire the coming of the Messiah, in expectation of deliverance, but should perish for their sins, and under the guilt of them, without any Saviour whatsoever, and be excluded for ever from heaven. Some think, that in saying this, our Lord opposed a common error of the Jews, who imagined, that by death they made atonement for all their sins.

Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

3. It is I. 8:21-29.

Jesus had just applied to Himself the two principal symbols which the feast presented to Him. The following testimony completes the two which precede; it is a more general affirmation respecting His mission.

ADDITIONAL NOTES BY THE AMERICAN EDITOR.

Vv. 21-29.

1. Meyer holds that the words of Joh 8:21 f. were spoken on a different day from those of the preceding verses. Godet and others hold that it was the same day. Weiss (comp. Keil) regards the question as one which does not admit of a decisive answer. The position of Weiss is probably the correct one, but there seems to be no serious difficulty in supposing that all which is recorded in this chapter took place on one and the same day, the place only being changed at Joh 8:21.

2. In the words of Jesus contained in Joh 8:21 (comp. Joh 8:24) we find, in addition to what is said in the similar sentence in Joh 7:34, the words, You will die in your sin (your sins, Joh 8:24). As remarked in Note 11., 4, above, this clause seems to show that the seeking referred to is a seeking for the Messiah as connected with the securing of the life and blessings of the Messianic kingdom. With respect to these words two points may be noticed:

(a) That the words are addressed by Jesus to those to whom He had already presented Himself as the Messiah, and in Joh 8:24 the result mentioned is connected with not believing that He is what He thus claims to be.

(b) That dying in sin is apparently presented as a finalitya limit beyond which the hope of entrance into the kingdom is excluded. This passage must be regarded as one of the most impressive ones in the New Testament, as indicating the termination of the period of probation at the end of this life. With regard to the question whether it can be properly understood as indicating this only in the case of those who have the knowledge of Christ given them before death, it should be observed, in the first place, that everything which Jesus said was, of course, said to those who heard Him and thus knew of His claims; secondly, that His general manner of teaching was that of addressing personally those who heard Him, and declaring to them the blessing or evil which awaited them, and not of giving doctrinal statements as appertaining to a theological system. The particular declarations of such a teacher are, in general, to be extended more widely from the individual example to mankind, than in the case of one who teaches in the other way.

(c) Death is evidently referred to, in these words, as if it were the great deciding- point in human history as related to the matter of escape from the consequences of sin.

(d) Jesus does not intimate anywhere else that the other (Gentile) nations will, unlike the Jews, have an opportunity of entering the Messianic kingdom after death. The indications of any such view on the part of the apostolic writers are also, to say the most that can be said, very few and very uncertain.

(e) The knowledge of Jesus as the Messiah and of the Christian system which the Jewish hearers of Jesus, generally speaking, can be said to have hadwhen the contradiction of all their preconceived notions is considered: His refusal to assume earthly power, His obscure origin, His new idea of righteousness, His view of the Messianic kingdom, almost incomprehensible to their earthly mindedness, educated as they were under the influence of the Pharisaic teacherswas, in reality, so little developed, that it is difficult to say how far allowances may not properly have been made for their ignorance, after a similar manner with those which it is thought must be made for the heathen.It is an assumption, which requires proof, that, when Christ and the apostles carried the Christian message to the men whom they chanced to meet, they placed them in an entirely new position, so far as the limiting of the probation is concerned. The proof needed is, to say the least, neither abundant nor decisive.

3. The words of Joh 8:23 seem to give the real ground of their continuance in sin and dying in it at the end. It was because they are from the things below and from this world. This was the reason why, when Jesus was presented before them as the Messiah, and as the way, the truth and the life, they did not believe in Him. The antecedent thing lying back of their unbelief was the state of their hearts and will. The refusal to believe, when He came to them, was only the outcome of this. It would seem, therefore, that the true view of the declaration of Jesus here is to be reached by taking the verses together. The man who is in the state of heart and will in which these Jews were, whoever or wherever he may be, will, if he remains in it, die in his sins, and dying thus will not be able to go to the place where Jesus isthat is to say, will not have the blessedness of the eternal life in heaven.

4. Weiss agrees with Godet in making refer to the opposition of naturei.e., origin, and … to the contrast of disposition and moral activity; and this, though not necessarily, is yet not improbably the correct view.

5. The two explanations of the difficult phrase … (Joh 8:25) which are found in the text of R. V. and in the margin of A. R. V. are the most satisfactory which have been offered: Even that which I have also spoken unto you from the beginning, and Altogether that which I also speak unto you. The use of in each of these two senses is justified by examples. In the former case, He declares that He is what He has been telling them even from the beginning of His public discoursingthat is, the Messiah, the one sent from God, the one who has seen God and come forth from God to bring the full revelation of Him to the world. In the other case, the meaning may perhaps be the same, except that the idea of from the beginning is not contained in the words; or it may more probably be this: that the answer to the question will be found in the words of Jesus: Fathom my speech and you will discern mynature (see Godet’s note).

6. The connection of Joh 8:26 is rather with Joh 8:25 than Joh 8:24. The prominent thought of this verse is in the last part of it. The verb , which occurs in Joh 8:25-26; Joh 8:28, seems to show a close connection in thought throughout these verses, and to favor the idea that in the discoursings of Jesus was to be found the truth with regard to Himself. It will be noticed that the of Joh 8:26; Joh 8:28 refers to a speaking forth of what was given to Him by the Father to proclaim. This indicates that the of Joh 8:25 also has a similar referenceat least, that it represents Jesus, in answer to their question, as the one sent from God as a messenger and revealer. The whole context, therefore, is rather favorable than otherwise to the view given in A. R. V. marg.that the meaning of Joh 8:25 is, Altogether that which I also speak unto you. The bearing of all this upon the meaning of , of Joh 8:24, is towards the conclusion that the predicate of is he i.e., the one sent or the one from above, the Messiahand that these words are not to be understood as meaning I am, in the sense of Deu 32:39.

7. In regard to Joh 8:27, the explanation given by Weiss, with whom Keil essentially agrees, or that given by Godet, may be adopted. That the hearers of Jesus must have generally, or oftentimes, connected the words which He spoke with God, cannot be questioned. But, considering the fact that His declarations and teachings were so widely removed from the preconceived ideas of the people, it is not surprising that at times they should have failed to understand His meaning, or that they should even have misunderstood, at one time, statements which were apparently no less clear than those which they partially comprehended at another. The representations of John as to these understandings and misunderstandings are seen to be life-like, so soon as we place ourselves in the real condition and circumstances of the time.

8. Joh 8:28 refers to the time which follows the crucifixion and ascension. The declaration of this verse, you will know, etc., doubtless has its explanation in connection with the outpouring of the Spirit and the wider proclamation and triumph of the Gospel; but the probability is that it indicates the beginning of what will be realized in its fulness only as time passes onward. But even now, in the present and intermediate period, before the realization of this future, the Father, He adds, is still with Him; and whatever His enemies may do in rejecting Him, He is strong and victorious in the truth which He proclaims.

9. There is an evident unity of thought in this whole passage, and the closing words of Joh 8:29 present the opposite character of His state of mind and life to theirs, which will finally result in the fact that the place where He is to be will be closed to them.

Fuente: Godet Commentary (Luke, John, Romans and 1 Corinthians)

ALARMING PREDICTION AGAINST THEM

Joh 8:21-27. Then He again said to them, I go, and you shall seek Me, and you shall perish in your sin; whither I go, you are not able to come. The prophetic eye of Jesus saw the awful calamities coming on those people, when they would perish miserably by sword, pestilence, and famine, doubtless many of them seeing their awful error when too late. Then the Jews said, Whether will He kill Himself? because He says, Whither I go, you are not able to come; and He said to them, You are from beneath, I am from above; you are of this world, I am not of this world. Those people, both preachers and members, solidly believed themselves to be the true people of God. Here the Infallible Teacher informs them that they are from beneath; i. e., not only unacquainted with God, but actually in the hands of Satan, and led captive at his will. Therefore I said unto you, that you shall perish in your sins; for if you may not believe that I am He, you shall perish in your sins. This is a most solemn and sweeping abnegation of all human hope without Christ. John the Baptist had preached to those people three years previously, telling them, in words of heaven- born eloquence, winged with celestial lightning, that this Jesus is the veritable Christ of prophecy, Redeemer of Israel and Savior of the world; actually pointing Him out, introducing Him to them, and inaugurating Him into His official Messiahship by the rite of baptism. These three years they have been taking counsel of the devil, imbibing unbelief, hardening their hearts, and stiffening their necks against the truth; not only sealing their own doom, but, by precept and example, leading the multitudes in the way of death. Then they said to Him, Who art Thou? Jesus said to them, That which I tell you from the beginning, I tell you now. I have many things to speak and judge concerning you. He knew that the judgment of the quick and dead would devolve on Him in the last day. But the One having sent Me is true; and whatsoever things I heard with Him, these I am speaking to the world. What a wonderful blessing is the gospel of Christ, as, having lived in heaven from the dawn of creation, in the very bosom of God, He then spoke on earth precisely what He heard from His Omniscient Father! They did not know that He was speaking to them of the Father.

Fuente: William Godbey’s Commentary on the New Testament

Joh 8:21-30. Warnings of Coming Doom.But He knows that in the end the rulers must have their way. He tells the Pharisees that His time is short, and that they will need Him when it is too late. The Jews are scornful. Is He thinking of suicide? In answer He emphasizes the gulf which separates them from Him and His teaching. Who is He, they ask, to make such claims? He reiterates the hopelessness of the situation. Why does He talk with them at all? (So Joh 8:25 mg. The view that He called Himself The beginning comes from the Vulg.; the Gr. cannot be so translated. It is very doubtful whether the words can mean either Essentially I am what I say or I am what I have told you all along from the beginning.) He has much to say. But they would not listen to Gods truth. He must say it to a different audience (Joh 8:26). They will never understand till they have exalted the Son, through suffering and rejection, to the honour God has appointed for Him. Then they will know that He is no self-boaster, but Gods obedient Messenger.

Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible

8:21 {8} Then said Jesus again unto them, I go my way, and ye shall seek me, and shall die in your sins: whither I go, ye cannot come.

(8) Because men naturally abhor heavenly things, no man can be a fit disciple of Christ unless the Spirit of God makes him so: in the meantime nonetheless, the world must necessarily perish, because it refuses the life that is offered unto it.

Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes

Jesus’ claims about His origin 8:21-30

Jesus began to contrast Himself and His critics.

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)

Evidently what follows continues Jesus’ teaching in the temple when He spoke the words that John recorded in the preceding verses. The Greek word palin ("again" or "once more") indicates a pause but not a significant break in the narrative (cf. Joh 8:12). The content of His teaching in this verse recalls Joh 7:33-34.

When Jesus said He was going away He was speaking of His death, resurrection, and ascension into heaven. The Jewish leaders would not seek Jesus personally, but they would continue to seek the Messiah. They would die in their sin (singular) of unbelief because they rejected Jesus. Jesus was going to His Father in heaven. These Jews could not come there because they had rejected Jesus.

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)

Chapter 19

JESUS REJECTED IN JERUSALEM.

He said therefore again unto them, I go away, and ye shall seek Me, and shall die in your sin: whither I go, ye cannot come. The Jews therefore said, Will He kill Himself, that He saith, Whither I go, ye cannot come? And He said unto them, Ye are from beneath; I am from above: ye are of this world; I am not of this world. I said therefore unto you, that ye shall die in your sins: for except ye believe that I am He, ye shall die in your sins. They said therefore unto Him, Who art Thou? Jesus said unto them, Even that which I have also spoken unto you from the beginning. I have many things to speak and to judge concerning you: howbeit He that sent Me is true; and the things which I heard from Him, these speak I unto the world. They perceived not that He spake to them of the Father. Jesus therefore said, When ye have lifted up the Son of man, then shall ye know that I am He, and that I do nothing of Myself, but as the Father taught Me, I speak these things. And He that sent Me is with Me; He hath not left Me alone; for I do always the things that are pleasing to Him. As He spake these things, many believed on Him. Jesus therefore said to those Jews which had believed Him, If ye abide in My word, then are ye truly My disciples; and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. They answered unto Him, We be Abrahams seed, and have never yet been in bondage to any man: how sayest Thou, Ye shall be made free? Jesus answered them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Every one that committeth sin is the bondservant of sin. And the bondservant abideth not in the house for ever: the son abideth for ever. If therefore the Son shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed. I know that ye are Abrahams seed; yet ye seek to kill Me, because My word hath not free course in you. I speak the things which I have seen with My Father: and ye also do the things which ye heard from your father. They answered and said unto Him, Our father is Abraham. Jesus saith unto them, If ye were Abrahams children, ye would do the works of Abraham. But now ye seek to kill Me, a man that hath told you the truth, which I heard from God: this did not Abraham. Ye do the works of your father. They said unto Him, We were not born of fornication; we have one Father, even God. Jesus said unto them, If God were your Father, ye would love Me: for I came forth and am come from God; for neither have I come of Myself, but He sent Me. Why do ye not understand My speech? Even because ye cannot hear My word. Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father it is your will to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and stood not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father thereof. But because I say the truth, ye believe Me not. Which of you convicteth Me of sin? If I say truth, why do ye not believe Me? He that is of God heareth the words of God: for this cause ye hear them not, because ye are not of God. The Jews answered and said unto Him, Say we not well that Thou art a Samaritan, and hast a devil? Jesus answered, I have not a devil; but I honour My Father, and ye dishonour Me. But I seek not mine own glory: there is One that seeketh and judgeth. Verily, verily, I say unto you, If a man keep My word, he shall never see death. The Jews said unto Him, Now we know that Thou hast a devil. Abraham is dead, and the prophets; and Thou sayest, If a man keep My word, he shall never taste of death. Art Thou greater than our father Abraham, which is dead? and the prophets are dead: whom makest Thou Thyself? Jesus answered, If I glorify Myself, My glory is nothing: it is My Father that glorifieth Me; of whom ye say, that He is your God; and ye have not known Him: but I know Him; and if I should say, I know Him not, I shall be like unto you, a liar: but I know Him, and keep His word. Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day; and he saw it, and was glad. The Jews therefore said unto Him, Thou art not yet fifty years old, and hast Thou seen Abraham? Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am. They took up stones therefore to cast at Him: but Jesus hid Himself, and went out of the temple.- Joh 8:21-59.

John has now briefly detailed the self-manifestations of Jesus which He considered sufficient to induce the Jews to believe in Him; and he has shown us how, both in Galilee and in Jerusalem, the people, with few exceptions, remained unconvinced. He has also very clearly shown the reason of His rejection in Galilee. The reason was that the blessings He proposed to bestow were spiritual, while the blessings they craved were physical. Their Messianic expectation was not satisfied in Him. So long as He healed their sick, and by His mere will furnished famishing thousands with food, they thought, This is the King for us. But when He told them that these things were mere signs of higher blessings, and when He urged them to seek these spiritual gifts, they left Him in a body.

In Jerusalem opinion has followed a similar course. There also Jesus has exemplified His power to impart life. He has carefully explained the significance of that sign, and has explicitly claimed Divine prerogatives. But although individuals believe, the mass of the people are only perplexed, and the authorities are exasperated. The rulers, however, find it impossible to proceed against Him, owing to the influence He has with the people, and even with their own servants. This state of matters, however, was not destined to continue; and in the eighth chapter John traces the course of popular opinion from a somewhat hopeful perplexity to a furious hostility that, at length, for the first time, broke out in actual violence (Joh 8:59). Jesus did not indeed immediately retire, as if further efforts to induce faith were useless, but when the storm broke out a second time (Joh 10:39-40) He finally withdrew, and taught only such as sought Him out.

At this point, then, in the history we are invited to inquire what grounds of faith Jesus had presented, and what were the true reasons of His rejection.

1. But first we must ask, In what character or capacity did Jesus present Himself to men? What did He declare Himself to be? What demand did He make on the faith of those to whom He presented Himself? When He required that they should believe in Him, what exactly did He mean? Certainly He did not mean less than that they should believe He was the Messiah, and should accept Him as such. The Messiah was an elastic title, perhaps not conveying to any two minds in Israel precisely the same idea. It had indeed for all Israelites some contents in common. It meant that here was One upon earth and accessible, who was sent to be the Bearer of Gods good-will to men, a Mediator through whom God meant to make His presence felt and His will known. But some who believed Jesus was the Christ had so poor a conception of the Christ, that He could not accept theirs as a sound faith. The minimum of acceptable faith must believe in the actual Jesus, and allow the idea of the Christ to be formed by what was seen in Jesus. Those who believed must so trust Jesus as to be willing that He should fashion the Messiahship as He saw fit. It was therefore primarily in Himself the true believer trusted. He did not, in the first instance, believe He was this or that, but he felt, Here is the greatest and best I know; I give myself to Him. Of course this involved that whatever Christ claimed to be, He was believed to be. But it is of importance to observe that the confession, I believe that Jesus is the Christ, was not enough in Christs own day to guarantee the soundness of the faith of the confessor. He had further to answer the question, What do you mean by the Christ? For if you mean a national Messiah, coming to give you political freedom and social blessings only, this faith cannot be trusted. But if any one could say, I believe in Jesus, and if by this he meant, I so believe in Him that whatever He says He is, I believe He is, and whatever be the contents with which He fills the Messianic name, these contents I accept as belonging to the office, this faith was sound and acceptable.

And, according to this Gospel, Jesus at once made it plain that His idea of the Messianic office was not the popular idea, It was eternal life He constantly proclaimed as the gift the Father had commissioned Him to bestow; not physical life, not revived political life. So that it very shortly became impossible for any one to make the confession that Jesus was the Christ, in ignorance of what He Himself judged the Christ to be. It may be said, therefore, that when Jesus required men to believe in Him, He meant that they should trust Him as mediating efficiently between God and them, and should accept His view of all that was needful for this mediation. He meant that they should look to Him for life eternal and for perfect fellowship with God. What was doctrinally involved in this, what was implied in His claim regarding His eternal nature, might or might not at once be understood. What must be understood and believed was, that Jesus was empowered by God to act for Him, to represent Him, to impart to men all that God would impart.

II. This being so, we may now inquire, what sufficient reason Jesus, as already reported in this Gospel, has given why the people should accept Him as the Christ. In these eight chapters what do we find related which should have furnished the Jews with all the evidence which reasonable minds would require?

1. He was definitely identified as the Christ by the Baptist. It was Johns function to recognise the person sent by God to fulfil all His will, and to found a kingdom of God among men. For this John lived; and if any man was in a position to say yes or no in response to the question, Is this the Christ, the Anointed and commissioned of God? John was that man. No man was in himself better qualified to judge, and no man had such material for judging, and his judgment was explicit and assured. To put aside this testimony as valueless is out of the question. It is more reasonable to ask whether it is even possible that in this matter the Baptist should be mistaken.

Jesus Himself indeed did not rest upon this testimony. For His own certification of His dignity He did not require it. He did not require the corroborative voice of one human being. It was not by what He was told regarding Himself that He became conscious of His Sonship; nor was it by an external testimony, even from such a man as John, that He was encouraged to make the claims He made. John was but a mirror reflecting what was already in Him, possibly stimulating self-consciousness, but adding nothing to His fitness for His work.

2. He expected that His claim to have come forth from God would be believed on His own word. The Samaritans believed Him on His own word. This does not mean that they believed a mere assertion; they believed the assertion of One whom they felt to be speaking the truth. There was that in His character and bearing which compelled their faith. Through all He said there shone the self-evidencing light of truth. They might not have been able to stand a cross-examination as to the reason of the faith that was in them, they might not have been able to satisfy any other person or induce him to believe, but they were justified in following an instinct which said to them, This man is neither deceiver nor deceived. There was nothing in the claim of Jesus absolutely incredible. Nay, it rather fell in with their idea of God and with the knowledge of their own needs. They wished a revelation, and saw nothing impossible in it. This may nowadays be judged a homely rather than a philosophical view to take of God and of His relation to men. But primary and universal instincts have their place, and, if scientific knowledge does not contradict them, should be trusted. It was because the Samaritans had not tampered with their natural cravings and hopes, and had not allowed their idea of the Messiah to harden into a definite conception, that they were able to welcome Jesus with a faith which He rarely met with elsewhere.

And the main authentication of Christs claim at all times is simply this, that He makes the claim, and that there is that in Him which testifies to His truth, while there is that in the claim itself which is congruous to our instincts and needs. There was that in the bearing of Christ which commanded belief in natures which were not numbed and blunted by prejudice. The Capernaum courtier who came to Jesus expecting to bring Him down with him to heal his boy, when he saw Him felt he could trust Him, and returned alone. Jesus was conscious that He spoke of what He knew, and spoke of it truly. I speak that which I have seen with My Father (Joh 8:38). My record is true (Joh 8:14). If I say the truth, why do ye not believe Me? (Joh 8:46.) This consciousness, both of an intention to speak the truth and of a knowledge of the truth, in a mind so pellucid and sane, justly impressed candid minds in His own day, and is irresistibly impressive still.

Again, we judge of what is probable or improbable, credible or incredible, mainly by its congruity with our previous belief. Is our idea of God such that a personal revelation seems credible and even likely? Does this supposed revelation in Christ consist with previous revelations and with the knowledge of God and His will which those revelations have fostered? Does this final revelation actually bring us the knowledge of God, and does it satisfy the longings and pure aspirations, the thirst for God and the hunger for righteousness, which assert themselves in us like natural appetites? If so, then the untutored human heart accepts this revelation. It is its own verification. Light is its own authentication. Christ brings within our ken a God whom we cannot but own as God, and who is nowhere else so clearly revealed. It is this immediacy of authentication, this self-verification, to which our Lord constantly appeals.

3. But a great part of the self-revelation of Christ could best be made in action. Such a work as the healing of the impotent man was visible to all and legible by the dullest. If His words were sometimes enigmatic, such an action as this was full of significance and easily understood. By this compassionate restoration of the vital powers He proclaimed Himself the Fathers Delegate, commissioned to express the Divine compassion and to exercise the Divine power to communicate life. This was meant to be an easy lesson by which men might learn that God is full of compassion, ceaselessly working for the good of men; that He is present among us seeking to repair the mischief resulting from sin, and to apply to our needs the fulness of His own life, and that Jesus Christ is the medium through whom He makes Himself accessible to us and available for us.

These works were done by our Lord not only to convince the people that they should listen to Him, but also to convince them that God Himself was present. If I do not the works of My Father, believe Me not. But if I do, though ye believe not Me, believe the works, that ye may know, and believe, that the Father is in Me, and I in Him. It was this He strove to impress on the people, that God was with them. It was not Himself He wished them to recognise, but the Father in Him. I seek not Mine own glory (Joh 8:50). And therefore it was the kindness of the works He pointed to: Many good works have I showed you from My Father (Joh 10:32). He sought through these works to lead men to see how in His Person the Father was applying Himself to the actual needs of mankind. To accept God for one purpose is to accept Him for all. To believe in Him as present to heal naturally leads to belief in Him as our Friend and Father. Hence these signs, manifesting the presence and good-will of God, were a call upon men to trust Him and accept His messenger. They spoke of gifts still more akin to the Divine nature, of gifts not merely physical, but spiritual and eternal. Possibly in allusion to these intelligible and earthly signs our Lord said to Nicodemus, If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe, if I tell you of heavenly things? If ye are blind to these earthly signs, what hope is there of your understanding things eternal in their own impalpable essence?

III. What were the true reasons of our Lords rejection?

1. The first reason no doubt was that He so thoroughly disappointed the popular Messianic expectation. This comes out very conspicuously in His rejection in Galilee, where the people were on the point of crowning Him, but at once deserted Him as soon as it became clear that His idea of the needs of men was quite different from theirs. The same reason lies at the root of His rejection by the authorities and people of Jerusalem. This is brought out in this eighth chapter. Many had believed on Him (Joh 8:30); that is to say, they believed on Him as Nicodemus had believed; they believed He was the Christ. But as soon as He explained to them (Joh 8:32; Joh 8:34) that the freedom He brought was a freedom attained through knowing the truth, a freedom from sin, they either were unable to understand Him or were repelled, and from believers became enemies and assailants.

It may have been with reluctance our Lord disclosed to those who had some faith in Him, that in order to be His disciples (Joh 8:31) they must accept His word, and find in it the freedom He proclaimed. He knew that this was not the freedom they sought. But it was compulsory that He should leave them in no dubiety regarding the blessings He promised. It was impossible that they should accept the eternal life He brought to them, unless there was quickened within them some genuine desire for it. For what prevented them from receiving Him was not a mere easily rectified blunder about the Messianic office, it was an alienation in heart from a spiritual conception of God. And accordingly in depicting the climax of unbelief John is careful in this chapter to bring out that our Lord traced His rejection by the Jews to their inveterate repugnance to spiritual life, and their consequent blinding of themselves to the knowledge of God. He that is of God heareth Gods words: ye therefore hear them not, because ye are not of God (Joh 8:47). Ye seek to kill Me, because My word hath no place in you [finds no room in you]. I speak that which I have seen with My Father; and ye do that which ye have seen with your father (Joh 8:37-38).

2. Here, as elsewhere, therefore, our Lord traces the unbelief of the Jews to the blindness induced by alienation from the Divine. They do not understand Him, because they have not that thirst for truth and righteousness which is the best interpreter of His words. Why do ye not understand My speech? even because ye cannot bear My word. It was this word of His, the truth regarding sin and the way out of it, which sifted men. Those who eagerly welcomed salvation from sin because they knew that bondage to sin was the worst of bondages (Joh 8:34), accepted Christs word, and continued in it, and so became His disciples (Joh 8:31). Those who rejected Him were prompted to do so by their indifference to the Kingdom of God as exhibited in the person of Christ. He was not their ideal. And He was not their ideal, because however much they boasted of being Gods people God was not their ideal. If God were your Father, ye would love Me; for I proceeded forth and came from God (Joh 8:42). Jesus is conscious of adequately representing God, so that to be repelled by Him is to be repelled by God. It is really God in Him that they dislike. This is not only His own judgment of the matter. It is not a mere fancy of His own that He truly represents the Father, for neither came I of Myself, but He sent me. He was sent into the world because He could represent the Father.

The rejection of Jesus by the Jews was therefore due to their moral condition. Their condition is such that our Lord does not scruple pungently to say, Ye are of your father the devil. Their blindness to the truth and virulent opposition to Him proved their kinship with him who was from the beginning a liar and a murderer. They are so completely under the influence of sin that they are unable to appreciate emancipation from it. They look for satisfaction so determinedly in an anti-spiritual direction, that they are positively enraged at One who certainly has power, but who steadfastly uses it for spiritual purposes. Out of this condition they can be rescued by believing in Christ. Into the mystery which surrounds the possibility that such a belief should be cherished by any one in this condition, our Lord does not here enter. That it is possible, He implies by blaming them for not believing.

It is, then, those who are unconscious of the bondage of sin who reject Christ. One of the sayings with which He sifted His profoundly attached followers from the mass is this: If ye continue in My word, then are ye My disciples indeed; and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. The word of which Jesus here speaks is His whole revelation, all He taught by word and action, by His own habitual conduct and by His miracles. This it is which gives knowledge of the truth. That is to say, all the truth which men require for living they have in Christ. All knowledge of duty, and all that knowledge of our spiritual relations, out of which we can draw perennial motive and unfailing hope, we have in Him. The truth disclosed in Christ, and which emancipates from sin, must not be too carefully defined. But while leaving it in all its comprehensiveness, it must be noted that the truth which especially emancipates from sin and gives us our place as children in Gods house, is the truth revealed in Christs Sonship, the truth that God, in love and forgiveness, claims us as His children. In its own measure every truth we learn gives us a sense of liberty. The truth emancipates from superstition, from timorous waiting upon the opinion of authorities, from all that cramps mental movement and stunts mental growth; but the freedom here in view is freedom from sin, and the truth which brings that freedom is the truth about God our Father, and Jesus Christ whom He has sent.

Fuente: Expositors Bible Commentary



Disfruta de miles de canciones cristianas en exclusiva sólo en Bibles