Believe That I Am

Then Jesus said to them again, “I am going away, and you will seek Me, and will die in your sin. Where I go you cannot 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. Therefore I said to you that you will die in your sins; for if you do not believe that I am He, you will die in your sins.” (John 8:21, 23-24 NKJV)

As Jesus continues to confront the leaders in Jerusalem, his words become more and more pointed. Three times in the space of four verses, he tells them that they are going to die in their sins - not necessarily the approach most of us would take if we were trying to win friends and influence people.

He gives them three reasons: 1) They’re not going where he’s going (“Where I go you cannot come”); 2) They’re not from where he’s from (“You are from beneath; I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world”); and 3) They don’t believe (“If you do not believe that I am He, you will die in your sins”).

The last reason is in the form of a condition: “If you do not believe…” And what is it that they must believe in order to escape a death sentence?

I quoted this passage from the New King James Version because the translators of the NKJV use a particular convention: if a word doesn’t appear in the original language, they italicize it.

Take another look at the end of verse 24: “If you do not believe that I am He, you will die in your sins.” The word “He” is in italics because it isn’t there in Greek. It literally says, “If you do not believe that I am…”

With these two little words, Jesus asserts his deity - and he declares that life comes through faith in him as God and Savior. This is entirely in keeping with John’s purpose for writing his Gospel: “Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name” (John 20:30-31 ESV).

John recorded a number of “I am” statements from Jesus (see John 6:35, 48, 51; 8:12, 58; 10:9, 11, 14; 11:25; 14:6; 15:1, 5). Take some time to read and reflect on what Jesus says in these verses and on what his words reveal about him.