If You Do Not Believe

DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL OF JOHN

IF YOU DO NOT BELIEVE

John 8:21-24

21 Once more Jesus said to them, "I am going away, and you will look for me, and you will die in your sin. Where I go, you cannot come."  22 This made the Jews ask, "Will he kill himself? Is that why he says, 'Where I go, you cannot come'?" 23 But he continued, "You are from below; I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world. 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." 

NIV

It just cannot be much clearer than what Jesus just said here to those Pharisees. They were going to die in their sin. It does not matter how religious the Pharisees appears to be, even if they actually believe they are doing the right thing by adhering to the Law, which was given by God through Moses. It would seem they did believe in the Law and that they were doing want was required of them, sort of. History records they sort of perverted the Law given by Moses into their own form of religion by their adding to it by their own interpretations of it.  Jesus told them as long as they wanted to live by the Law they would die by the Law, and the only thing the Law actually did was show them they are sinners in need of salvation. Religion does not bring salvation, Jesus does. Religious rituals do not bring salvation, they do not bring eternal life because they are not from above, but they are from below, from the world, from the mind of man. Jesus is telling them as well as all who read his words that unless we believe in him for our salvation we will indeed die in our sin. Unless we acknowledge that Jesus is the Son of God, that he was in Heaven before he came to the world in the flesh, we will die in our sin. We must believe in Jesus. It is one thing to know that he is who he is, but it is entirely a different thing to believe in him. The other truth which also stands out here is that if we die in our sin, we will not go to heaven. Many people believe those who do not go to heaven will go to hell and even if they do, they will not spend eternity there for hell will be cast into the lake of burning sulfur. If it imperative that if we what to escape such an end, we need to believe in Jesus for salvation, not in religion, not in religious activities, good deeds, not in rituals, or even in lists of do’s and don’ts. The only correct course of action is to believe in Jesus. Sure, once we believe in Jesus we will desire make changes in our lives, continued changes, but we will never be completely free of all our sin, we will never be completely changed until Jesus comes back for us, so we can only believe in Jesus if we want to go where he is. We must not be among those who do not believe.