John 8:24 http://bookofjohnbible.com Fri, 25 Dec 2020 20:30:51 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.5.4 194844642 John 8:24 http://bookofjohnbible.com/john-824/ Sat, 19 Dec 2020 22:44:53 +0000 http://bookofjohnbible.com/?p=828 Continue reading "John 8:24"

]]> I told you that you would die in your sins; if you do not believe that I am the one I claim to be, you will indeed die in your sins.”

Jesus intentionally uses mysterious language here. There is no predicate following “I am” in the Greek so, as Temple points out, it could refer to several different things:

  1. that I am what I say =
    1. from above (verse #23)
    2. sent by the Father (7:28-29)
    3. the light of the world (8:12)
  2. that I am He = the Messiah
  3. that I am = in essence I am God.
    1. the name by which God declared Himself: the self-existent One. (Ex 3:14)
    2. God used this style to refer to Himself in His further revelation to man. (Isaiah 43:10)

Ex 3:14  God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I AM has sent me to you.’”

Isaiah 43:10  “You are my witnesses,” declares the LORD, “and my servant whom I have chosen, so that you may know and believe me and understand that I am he. Before me no god was formed, nor will there be one after me.

There is only one method of avoiding death in one’s sins: coming to believe on Jesus. Basically faith is trust, but it is impossible to have the kind of faith Jesus desires for us without having a high (and correct) view of Him. “Unless we believe that He is more than man we can never trust Him with that faith that is saving faith.” (Morris 447) This and only this is the cure for dying in one’s sin. Matthew Henry points out that unbelief is the sin that condemns because “it is a sin against the remedy.”

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