John 8:12-30: Two Ways to Die

Scripture Reading

Romans 5:8–10 But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.

Intro

How will you die?

That’s a morbid question to start off a sermon.

Happy New Year! Have you made your funeral arrangements?

No. I don’t mean how will you physically die as in what will kill you.

I ask that question theologically.

How will you die as in what state or condition will you die in?

According to the Bible there are two ways to die.

In your sin or in the Lord.

And how you die will determine where you will spend eternity.

And the decision for how you will die isn’t made at the point of death.

Its here and now?

It is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment (Hebrews 9:27).

So what will it be? How will you die?

That’s the question we are going to answer today from John 8:12-30, and the Big Idea of the passage is this.

Jesus is the Light of the World who alone can save us from dying in our sins and give us Eternal Life.

How will you die? It all depends on what you will do with Jesus.

Let’s start with point number 1…

I. Jesus is the Light of the World

John 8:12 Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”

Light/Darkness

Here Jesus makes a profound theological statement - I am the light of the world.

I am is God’s own Name, so Jesus taking the Divine Name upon Himself is clearly claiming to be God incarnate in human flesh.

And the Light of the world is Old Testament language for the Messiah.

So in saying I am the Light of the World, Jesus is saying I am the Son of God and promised Messiah incarnate in human flesh who has come to save you from all of your sins.

I am the light shining in the darkness…

Darkness, in the Bible, is a theme rich with theological significance and imagery.

It represents evil, sin, and wickedness.

The Domain of Satan.

Rebellion against God and works of godlessness.

Ignorance of God and His ways.

It represents…death…judgment…and bondage…

Lostness…blindness…and slavery to sin…

Misery…despair…and the wrath and condemnation of God our sin justly deserves.

And so when Jesus says I am the Light of the world…what He is saying I am the answer for all of that.

I am the One sent to save you from darkness.

I am the Messiah God promised would be a light to the nations (Isaiah 9:2, Isaiah 42:6-7).

The One who would open blind eyes.

Set the captives free.

Go after the lost sheep.

Save us from sin and death and give us eternal life.

The Light of the world who would call us out of darkness into the marvelous light of His salvation once and for all (1 Peter 2:9).

What Jesus was saying would not have been lost on the Jews.

They knew the Scriptures.

They knew in Isaiah the Lord had promised the Messiah I will give you as a covenant for the people, a light for the nations, to open the eyes that are blind, to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon, from the prison those who sit in darkness (Isaiah 42:6-7).

And here Jesus is saying, “Here I am. I am the Messiah…the Son of God…the Savior of the World.

And how do the Jews respond? Verse 13…

John 8:13 So the Pharisees said to him, “You are bearing witness about yourself; your testimony is not true.”

Instead of believing in Him, the Pharisees reveal their hard-hearted unbelief by essentially dismissing Him out of hand.

They try to dismiss Him on a legal technicality: the Old Testament Law said, the truth of a matter is established on the testimony of two or three witnesses (Num. 35:30, Deut 17:6, 19:15).

They even go so far as to try to use Jesus’ own words against Him.

Back in John 5:31, speaking with the Jews, Jesus said “If I alone bear witness about myself, my testimony is not true.”

And so the Pharisees are saying, “See Jesus! Even by your own words we can’t believe what you are saying.”

But Jesus was saying the same thing there that the Pharisees were trying to say here.

In a court of law, you needed two or three witnesses to consider whether or not something was true.

And in chapter 5, Jesus had those witnesses.

John the Baptist…God the Father as we’ll see again here…Moses…and the Scriptures.

4 witnesses…one more than what was required by the Law to make the point that there was no denying it and Jesus surely was who He said He was: the Son of God and Savior of the world.

The same claim here.

But the great irony here is that while Pharisees were simply dismissing who Christ was on the basis of a legal technicality of needing 2 or 3 witnesses, Christ actually says that legal technicality should actually make them listen to what He said and reckon with who He claimed to be, because there are two witnesses…

Christ, bearing witness to Himself, and God the Father through all of Christ’s works.

Verse 14...

John 8:14–18 Jesus answered, “Even if I do bear witness about myself, my testimony is true, for I know where I came from and where I am going, but you do not know where I come from or where I am going. You judge according to the flesh; I judge no one. Yet even if I do judge, my judgment is true, for it is not I alone who judge, but I and the Father who sent me. In your Law it is written that the testimony of two people is true. I am the one who bears witness about myself, and the Father who sent me bears witness about me.”

Jesus very clearly here claims to be the Son of God incarnate in human flesh.

From Heaven

He says I know where I come from and where I am going…

Jesus came down from heaven.

His origin is not from anywhere on this earth. He is not from below. He is from above.

Yes…He was born in Bethlehem, but as the eternal Son of God He existed before Bethlehem.

John 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

And as the Son of God come down from heaven, Jesus alone has a sure and true word of salvation straight from God Himself.

To Nicodemus Jesus said “Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know, and bear witness to what we have seen, but you do not receive our testimony…No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man.” (John 3:11, 13).

As the One True Prophet, Jesus speaks with a first hand knowledge of salvation…what He has seen and heard God from the Father.

He is not a mere man born from below making His best guess at salvation.

Trying to figure out from a limited human perspective how we might be saved.

That’s every other religion and every other system of faith…Man’s best guess.

John 3:31–32 He who comes from above is above all. He who is of the earth belongs to the earth and speaks in an earthly way. He who comes from heaven is above all. He bears witness to what he has seen and heard…

Jesus is from above.

He came down from heaven carrying the very gospel itself…the Word incarnate came to give us the message of eternal life.

The true and sure word of salvation straight from God Himself.

Who has ascended into heaven except He who descended from heaven?

That’s why Christ is the Light of the World.

Who else has come from heaven with a sure promise of salvation for how we might be saved from our sins?

Only one: He who was in the beginning with God (John 1:2).

But the Jews Christ was speaking to were ignorant of this.

They judged Him according to the flesh…they saw Him as just another man.

They were spiritually blind to Christ and who He really was.

Jesus in contrast judges no one according to the flesh…meaning by mere appearances…

He judges with perfect spiritual judgment, one that is in perfect accord with the Father.

That’s verse 16: Yet even if I do judge, my judgment is true, for it is not I alone who judge, but I and the Father who sent me.

One with the Father

This is another claim to divinity because Jesus is saying He is one with the Father in Judgment.

Again its similar to what we saw in chapter 5.

Jesus calls God His own Father making Himself equal with God (John 5:18)…

And in John 5:22–23 Jesus said The Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son, that all may honor the Son, just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him.

In other words, Jesus, as the Son of God, holds the same power and authority as the Father and one with and equal to God is worthy of the same worship and honor the Father receives.

So Jesus makes this startling claim: I am the light of the world.

And the Pharisees basically say you are bearing witness about yourself, we have no reason or obligation to believe you.

The Law says you need to have at least two or three witnesses.

And so Jesus says, “Ok. I’m one witness.”

My testimony is true.

I’m from heaven and one with the Father.

And since the truth is established on two or three witnesses, I have another witness. God himself.

Verse 18: I am the one who bears witness about myself, and the Father who sent me bears witness about me.

Throughout Jesus’ life, the Father bore witnesses to Christ in several ways.

At both His baptism and transfiguration the Father spoke audibly from heaven: This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him! (Matthew 3:17, 17:5).

But more important for the Gospel of John were Jesus’ own works…the signs and miracles He did given to Him by the Father.

Again back to John 5:36 But the testimony that I have is greater than that of John [that is John the Baptist]. For the works that the Father has given me to accomplish, the very works that I am doing, bear witness about me that the Father has sent me.

Jesus’ miracles were the Father’s own testimony that He was sent from God.

Even Nicodemus, one of the Pharisees own number said Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him (John 3:2).

So the Pharisees wanted to witnesses and Jesus gave them to them. But did they believe?

No…they hardened themselves in unbelief.

Verse 19-20…

John 8:19–20 They said to him therefore, “Where is your Father?” Jesus answered, “You know neither me nor my Father. If you knew me, you would know my Father also.” These words he spoke in the treasury, as he taught in the temple; but no one arrested him, because his hour had not yet come.

For the sake of time I want to be quick here.

By asking where is your Father? the Pharisees were in effect denying Jesus was the Son of God.

And by denying and rejecting that Jesus was the Son of God they proved that they were ignorant of God the Father.

For all their knowledge of the Law…for all their religion…for all their striving and works of the Law…the Pharisees, the Holy Men, the holiest ones in Israel were absolutely ignorant of God.

Jesus said in John 8:19 You know neither me nor my Father. If you knew me, you would know my Father also.

This leads us to a very important biblical truth: the only way to know God the Father is through God the Son.

The Pharisees for all their religion and adherence to the Law were far from God.

All their works…all their theology did not benefit them.

The only way to the Father is through the Son.

Jesus is the only way.

John 14:6 I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

How else can you know God the Father as your Father unless you know Him through God the Son?

Outside of Christ we are still far from God dead in our trespasses and sins.

Under God’s holy and righteous wrath and condemnation.

Its only in Christ that our sins can be forgiven.

Its only in Christ that you and I can be adopted in Christ as beloved sons and daughters of God.

Without Him we can never know God or be reconciled to Him.

You must believe in Jesus Christ.

That’s the point Jesus has been driving to.

Transition

Remember…this whole thing started off with Jesus saying I am the light of the world.

And this is key because if you miss this you’ll be like me when I first started looking at this passage you’ll get lost in the back and forth and miss how all of these verses connect…

Everything from there has just been Jesus answering a challenge and giving legal proof to the Jews that He was who He said He was.

But the point has not been lost.

He is the light of the world.

He is the only One who can save us from the darkness death, misery, and most of all condemnation for all our sin.

That’s what’s holding this whole passage together and that’s point number two…

II. Unless You Believe in Christ You will Die in your Sins

John 8:21–24 So he said to them again, “I am going away, and you will seek me, and you will die in your sin. Where I am going, you cannot come.” So the Jews said, “Will he kill himself, since he says, ‘Where I am going, you cannot come’?” He said to them, “You are from below; I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world. I told you that you would die in your sins, for unless you believe that I am he you will die in your sins.”

For this point I want to focus in on where Jesus says you will die in your sin.

You’ll notice He says it three times in quick succession.

Its like the beat of a drum. Its the main point He’s driving home.

Its obviously important.

Its what Christ as the Light of the world came to save us from - dying in our sins.

And you’ll also notice that the first time Jesus says it, He uses the singular: you will die in your sin.

But the second two times He uses the plural you will die in your sins.

Singular

The singular…you will die in your sin…refers to the state of condemnation we are all born into under Adam.

Romans says that Adam’s one trespass led to the condemnation of all men and by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners (Romans 5:18-19).

That in Adam we are all born dead in our trespasses and sins guilty before God, unfit for heaven and worthy of condemnation and judgment.

Plural

And when Jesus says you will die in your sins, He is talking about our many actual transgressions before the Law.

As Thomas Watson says our sins are as the sands of the sea for number and the rocks of the sea for weight (Watson, A Body of Divinity, 201).

The Bible says all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23).

And its not just one or two sins…its a flood of sin…the way the Bible talks about it is that we are drowning in sin.

Ezra 9:6 For our iniquities have risen higher than our heads, and our guilt has mounted up to the heavens.

Psalm 38:4 For my iniquities have gone over my head; like a heavy burden, they are too heavy for me.

They weigh us down. They sink us to the depths.

Psalm 40:12 For evils have encompassed me beyond number; my iniquities have overtaken me, and I cannot see; they are more than the hairs of my head; my heart fails me.

So not only are we in a state of sin and condemnation before God, but all of us have an ocean of actual sins following us to the grave that call out and demand punishment from almighty God.

Not because God is petulant and needs to get His pound of flesh.

But because He is Just and Righteous and Holy.

For the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23).

The soul who sins shall die (Ezekiel 18:20).

We deserve to die for our sin, and Jesus says unless we believe in Him, we will.

Dying in your sin is to suffer that horrible fate of dying under a curse…of dying with your sins unrepented of and unatoned for.

You can read you will die in your sins as you will die [under the curse of] your sin.

Hell

And I can tell you, there is nothing more terrifying than the idea of you…or I…or anyone…dying in their sin.

Its the great disaster…the great calamity…the great peril and terror to our souls for anyone that is outside of Christ.

The penalty for dying in your sin with your sin unatoned for is the second death.

It is suffering eternal, conscious torment under the wrath of God forever and ever in Hell.

The Bible describes it as a place of everlasting shame and contempt (Daniel 12:2).

Jesus called it the outer darkness to describe the terror and dread the soul experiences there under God’s wrath with a conscience that is perfected to feel the full weight of your guilt and every sin against God, with no hope or relief of that fear or those burdens being taken away.(Matthew 25:30).

Its the full weight of your sins coupled with the full weight of God’s wrath poured out against your sins undiluted and in full strength (Revelation 14:10).

Its the place where the fire is not quenched and the worm does not die (Mark 9:48).

Worms in this context are maggots that feed on death.

So Hell is a place where you eternally die but are never dead so that there is more than enough death to feed the worm forever.

Jesus called it the place of weeping and gnashing of teeth (Matthew 25:30).

Weeping the great anguish and sorrow of the soul where the pain cannot be bottled up or contained but overflows in a flood of tears.

The gnashing of teeth…the idea where you just grit your teeth and bear it…do all that you can to make it through but it never ends…

Its eternally drowning in the Lake of Fire with a millstone around your neck where you will forever drain the cup of God’s wrath down to the dregs (Revelation 20:14-15, Matthew 18:6).

And its a fiery furnace where Revelation says the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever, and they have no rest, day or night (Matthew 13:41-42, Revelation 14:11).

Never-ending without one moment or even one second for all eternity of respite or relief with no hope or chance of escape.

That is the terror awaiting every person who will die in their sins.

Gospel

But then Jesus gives us that precious word…unless.

Unless you believe that I am He you will die in your sins.

In that one little word is al the promise of the gospel and gives us all the hope and the only hope we have for escaping the wrath of God and dying in our sins…faith in Christ.

Faith in the light of the world.

If you believe in Jesus He will save you and instead of dying in your sins you will die in the Lord and have eternal life.

There are two ways to die.

In your sin or in the Lord.

Revelation 14:13 Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.

When you believe in Christ you are hidden in Him.

He lived a perfect and sinless life on your behalf and He died the death your sins deserve drinking the cup of God’s wrath on the cross down to the dregs so that you and I would never have to (Matthew 26:39).

There are two options.

You can drown your sins in God’s infinite grace in Christ or you will drown for eternity in the Lake of fire.

In love God sent His son so that whoever believes in Him would not perish but have eternal life (John 3:16).

God does not delight in the death of the wicked!

Ezekiel 33:11 Say to them, As I live, declares the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live; turn back, turn back from your evil ways, for why will you die, O house of Israel?

Why will you die in your sins when God has provided a way of escape by the free gift of His grace?

Believe in Christ…the Son of God and Messiah…the Light of the world and you will be saved!

Trust in Him. Cast yourself on His mercy and His grace and He will save you He will cleanse you.

He will wash away everyone of your sins.

Jesus promised Whoever comes to me I will never cast out (John 6:37).

I will never forsake…I will never abandon to the outer darkness.

But I will bind them to myself and save them.

I will cover them in my blood and make full atonement for their sins once and for all so that they will not die in their sins but live forever.

I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this? (John 11:25–26).

If you do you will be saved and you will be saved this very moment for such is the grace of God to save even the most far off and unclean sinner.

Self-Righteousness and Sin

But what does it mean to come to Christ?

Ironically, we see that with the Pharisees.

Jesus said in verse 21 I am going away, and you will seek me, and you will die in your sin. Where I am going, you cannot come.

Jesus was talking about going back to the Father in Heaven.

But the Pharisees mocked Him.

“Will He kill Himself since he says ‘Where I am going you cannot come?’”

The Jews believed that anyone who killed themselves would go to Hell so they smugly assume in their self-righteousness “Well, of course we won’t be able to follow you we will be in heaven!”

And Jesus point is that you will seek me…you will seek the Light of the world…the Messiah who can save you from all your sins but you’ll never find Him because I’m standing here right in front of you.

The Pharisees assumed they didn’t need Jesus.

They kept the Law. They were righteous enough on their own to save themselves from their sins.

But what they didn’t see is that they were still dead.

That we cannot save ourselves by good works but only by the grace of God in Jesus Christ.

And so Jesus answers them.

You think you are righteous. You think you are bound and destined for heaven.

But verse 23: You are from below; I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world.

Far from being near to God they were far from God.

Like Jesus said earlier you neither know me nor my Father (John 8:19).

Because they rejected Christ they were still of the world.

Children of the devil walking according to the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience (John 8:44, Ephesians 2:2).

The Bible says that to have friendship or love for the world is to be at enmity with God (James 4:4).

And If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him (1 John 2:15).

You see the Pharisees thought they were righteous…thought they were right with God…thought they were destined for heaven… but Jesus says they were all just a bunch of guilty sinners who did not know God but were far from God condemned in their sin and enslaved in chains of darkness.

We saw this idea already back in John 3.

John 3:18–19 Whoever believes in Him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil.

This is the Pharisees and this is every single person that refuses to come to Christ.

We don’t come to Christ because we don’t want our evil works to be exposed because we don’t want to have to give up our sin.

And here’s the point.

Unbelief…an all unbelief…is just a gnarled mess of self-righteousness and a love for sin.

In self-righteousness we think “I don’t really need Jesus.”

My sin’s not that bad. I’m good on my own.

If it was we would all run to Christ.

But all that self-righteousness is just a cover for our sin because we know if we came to Christ we would have to give it up and outside of God’s grace we are so enslaved to our sin that we can’t imagine our life without it.

But unless we renounce our sins…and renounce our self-righteousness…we will die in our sins and never come to Christ.

That’s what it means to come to Jesus.

We trust in Him and believe in Him renouncing all of our sin and all of our self-righteousness trusting in Him alone.

And if we do the Light of the World promises that whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.

Living water.

The fullness of Joy.

Eternal life.

The Full atonement for sin and the fullness of salvation.

These are all ways the Gospel of John describes the gospel.

And its a gift freely given to all that believe in Him.

And that’s point number 3…

III. All Who Believe in Christ Will Have Eternal Life

John 8:25–27 So they said to him, “Who are you?”

Another question that demonstrates their stubborn, hard-hearted unbelief rooted in self-righteousness and love for the world.

A question that essentially says you are not the Christ…you are not the Son of God…you are not the Light of the World…you are no one.

Jesus said to them, “Just what I have been telling you from the beginning. I have much to say about you and much to judge, but he who sent me is true, and I declare to the world what I have heard from him.” They did not understand that he had been speaking to them about the Father.

That much to say and much to judge is from John 7: I testify about [the world] that its works are evil, the very world Jesus here just said that the Pharisees belong to (John 7:7).

So this much to say and much to judge that Jesus has heard form the Father is that the Pharisees and all who belong to the world with them are condemned already in their sin.

Verse 28…

John 8:28–30 So Jesus said to them, “When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am He, and that I do nothing on my own authority, but speak just as the Father taught me. And He who sent me is with me. He has not left me alone, for I always do the things that are pleasing to Him.” As he was saying these things, many believed in Him.

So for the sake of time we are going to go through this really quick.

The term lifted up idea is a technical phrase in the Gospel of John that refers to Jesus’ death, and resurrection.

John 12:32–33 And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” He said this to show by what kind of death he was going to die.

So Jesus is talking about His crucifixion…of offering His life as a sacrifice on our behalf.

And He says to the Jews, “When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am He.”

That I am the Son of God. The Messiah. The Light and Savior of the World.

The Jews were of course the ones that handed Christ over to the Romans to be crucified...

But what Jesus is saying is that through His crucifixion, death, burial, and resurrection, Christ would be vindicated in all of His claims as to who He was.

Not that the Jews believe necessarily but that they would know…that Jesus’ death and resurrection would prove that He was who He said He was…the Son of God, Messiah, the Light of the World.

Romans 1:4 says that Jesus was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead.

And Romans 4:25 says that Jesus was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.

He died in our place for our sins and rose again to give us eternal life.

Jesus death and resurrection did not only prove that He was the Son of God but also proved that He was the Messiah…the Savior and Light of the world…because in raising Him from the dead God declared that Jesus sacrifice had been accepted.

That His death really did make full atonement for our sins to save us out of darkness into His marvelous light satisfying the wrath of God once and for all (1 Peter 2:9).

Through Jesus’ death and resurrection…His lifting up…we have the full assurance of salvation.

Why?

1 Corinthians 15:17 And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins.

But Christ has been raise.

The Stone’s been rolled away…the tomb is empty…

The Light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it (John 1:5).

And because of that there is no “in sin” for anyone that is in Christ.

We are righteous in Him.

He said I do nothing on my own authority…I always do the things that are pleasing to Him.

Christ lived a perfect and righteous life, and now His righteousness is given to us by grace through faith.

Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:1).

Because of Christ we don’t have to die in our sins.

We can be saved and have eternal life, but only if we believe in Him.

Conclusion

That’s verse 30…

As He was saying these things, many believed in Him.

As we will see next week these were apparently superficial believers…false converts.

Jesus calls them to greater discipleship, and they start arguing with Jesus.

But what that tells us is that there’s a difference between superficial and saving faith.

And you might say well what is that?

How can I be saved?

And Ironically saving faith is actually demonstrated in how you would answer the Pharisees three questions of hard-hearted unbelief.

Where Is Your Father?

In verse 19 they asked Where is your Father?

Saving answers His Father is in Heaven. Jesus truly is the Holy Son of God.

Will He Kill Himself?

In verse 22, Will He kill Himself and go to Hell?

Saving faith answer No…

But He will give Himself up for me.

He will die in my place and suffer the wrath my sin deserves to save me from Hell and bring me to Heaven.

Who are You?

And in verse 25, Who are you?

The same question the Lord asked Peter. Who do you say that I am? (Matthew 16:15).

And saving faith answers You are the Christ the Son of the Living God! (Matthew 16:16).

Jesus is the Light of the World who alone can save us from dying in our sins and give us Eternal Life.

Have you believed? There is no other way to be saved.

There are two ways to die:

In your sins or in the Lord.

And each one determines how you will spend eternity.

If you die in your sins you will perish in Hell.

If you die in the Lord you will have eternal life in Heaven with Christ.

And the good news of the gospel is that this is a free gift.

If you are already in Christ the way you apply this sermon today is rejoice.

Live a life of thankfulness to God for all that He’s saved you from.

Love and live all of your life for Christ.

And if you aren’t in Christ, trust in Him.

Come to Him and receive the light of life!

Remember what God said: Why will you die in your sins?

John 3:17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.

Let’s Pray