John 8:24

8:21-29 Those that live in unbelief, are for ever undone, if they die in unbelief. The Jews belonged to this present evil world, but Jesus was of a heavenly and Divine nature, so that his doctrine, kingdom, and blessings, would not suit their taste. But the curse of the law is done away to all that submit to the grace of the gospel. 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 is given, to work upon those only who believe in Christ. Some say, Who is this Jesus? They allow him to have been a Prophet, an excellent Teacher, and even more than a creature; but cannot acknowledge him as over all, God blessed for evermore. Will not this suffice? Jesus here answers the question. Is this to honour him as the Father? Does this admit his being the Light of the world, and the Life of men, one with the Father? All shall know by their conversion, or in their condemnation, that he always spake and did what pleased the Father, even when he claimed the highest honours to himself.

John 8:24 . εἶπον οὖν … ὑμῶν . “Therefore said I unto you, ye shall die in your sins.” The emphatic word is now ἀποθανεῖσθε ( cf. John 8:12 ); the destruction is itself put in the foreground (Meyer, Holtzmann). “For unless ye believe that I am He, ye shall, etc.” What they were required to believe is not explicitly stated (see their question, John 8:15 ), it is ὅτι ἐγώ εἰμι “that I am,” which Westcott supposes has the pregnant meaning “that I am, that in me is the spring of life and light and strength”; but this scarcely suits the context. Meyer supposes that He means “that I am the Messiah”. But surely it must refer directly to what He has just declared Himself to be, “I am not of this world but of the things above” [“nämlich der ἄνωθεν Stammende; die allentscheidende Persönlichkeit,” Holtzmann]. This belief was necessary because only by attaching themselves to His teaching and person could they be delivered from their identification with this world.

I am he (ἐγώ εἰμι) He is inserted in the versions and is not in the text. By retaining it, we read, I am the Messiah. But the words are rather the solemn expression of His absolute divine being, as in John 8:58 : "If ye believe not that I am." See Deuteronomy 32:39; Isaiah 43:10; and compare John 8:28, John 8:58 of this chapter, and John 13:19.

24. if ye believe not that I am he, ye shall die in your sins—They knew well enough what He meant (Mr 13:6, Greek; compare Mt 24:5). But He would not, by speaking it out, give them the materials for a charge for which they were watching. At the same time, one is irresistibly reminded by such language, so far transcending what is becoming in men, of those ancient declarations of the God of Israel, "I AM He" (De 32:39; Isa 43:10, 13; 46:4; 48:12). See on [1811]Joh 6:20.

In the Greek it is only, if ye believe not that I am. Some refer this to Christ’s Divine nature; ( I am, is the name of God, Exodus 3:14 ); but others rather think that Christ here speaketh of himself as the Messiah and Mediator, and so the object of people’s faith; and he out of whom there is no salvation: the latter indeed includes the former; for cursed is he that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, Jeremiah 17:5 . The text plainly holds forth an impossibility of salvation for those who, under the revelations of the gospel, receive not and believe not in Christ as Mediator.

John 8:24 .[222] Ἀποθανεῖσθε , ye shall die ) The Jews had neglected the weightier words of John 8:21 , “Ye shall seek Me, and shall die in your sins:” all the rest they had taken up at John 8:22 [viz. that part of His words, “Whither I go, ye cannot come”]: therefore now those weightier and more severe words are repeated. [222] ἐὰν γὰρ μὴ πιστεύσητε , for unless ye shall believe) They who believe attach themselves to Christ, and through Him alone they attain to that, to which they could not attain otherwise.—V. g.

24 . ye shall die in your sins ] Here ‘die’ is emphatic, not ‘sin’ as in John 8:21 . Moreover the plural is here correct; it is no longer the state of sin generally, but the separate sins of each that are spoken of. Before it was ‘in your sin shall ye die;’ here it is ‘ye shall die in your sins.’ for if ye believe not ] This is the only way in which they can be delivered—faith in Him. Comp. John 1:12 , John 3:15-18 , John 6:40 . that I am he ] Better, that I am . It not merely means ‘that I am the Messiah,’ but is the great name, which every Jew at once understood, I AM. Comp. John 8:28; John 8:58 , John 13:19 , John 18:5 ; Exodus 3:14 ; Deuteronomy 32:39 ; Isaiah 43:10 .

(24) I said therefore unto you, that ye shall die in your sins. —He now further explains what He meant by these words in John 8:21 . The words, as they are twice repeated in this verse, differ in two particulars from their earlier form. One is, that the singular substantive “sin” has given place to the plural “sins.” He brings home to them the definite and known acts of sin which resulted from their sinful state. Another is, that the order of the words is changed. It is not so easy to preserve this in English; but we may read in John 8:21 “ In your sin ye shall die,” and here “ Ye shall die in your sins.” The believing not is itself a state of sin. (Comp. John 16:9 .) It is a separation from the only source of life, and is necessarily accompanied by death. If ye believe not that I am he.—The word “He” is not found in the Greek text, and this is marked by the italics in English; but they have been thinking and speaking of the Messiah, though the name has not been mentioned since John 7:42. It was the name ever first in their thoughts, and our version represents the generally received interpretation. It may, however, be doubted whether this interpretation gives to us the full meaning of the words “I am,” as used in this absolute way by our Lord, and as recorded in this Gospel.

Within this same chapter they meet us again in John 8:28; John 8:58, and in the account of the arrest in the Garden of Gethsemane we find them repeated. (See Notes on John 18:5 et seq.) The words had a sacred history which told of the revelation of Jehovah to Moses (Exodus 3:14). Uttered as they were by Him who had just claimed to be “from above” and to be “not of this world,” and uttered as they were within the precincts of Jehovah’s Temple, and in the presence of His priests and people, they may well have carried to their minds this deeper meaning, and have been intended as a declaration of His divine existence. The meaning then would be, “If ye believe not that I am, that in Me there is existence which is the life of all who receive it, ye must die in your sins.”

Verse 24. - Therefore I said unto you, Ye shall die in your sins: for if ye shall not have believed that I am (HE), ye will die in your sins. This last clause, "for," etc., gives our Lord's reason in full for the terrific fact. It is a virtual reference of the unregenerate, earthly, low-born condition of his hearers to the fact of their unbelief in him. This fleshly, worldly state may be, might be, reversed by their faith in his essential character, an adequate moral surrender to his claims. Let them believe him to be that which he really is, the separation would then cease, and, like himself, they too might be "called out of the world." They might be "born of the Spirit," enter into the fellowship of the Son of God, become "not of this world," "even as he is not of this world." They might "arise, and go to their Father." There is no impassable chasm between them, though it is an appalling one to be crossed only by a faith which is itself the form and essence of regeneration. The faith is especially defined. Three times in this chapter our Lord represents the object of faith, the central focus of the Divine revelation, to be "I AM." The predicate is unexpressed here, and the same may be said in ver. 28 and ver. 58. Elsewhere the predicate may easily be gathered from the context ( John 9:9 ; John 18:5, 6, 8 ; Mark 13:6 ; Luke 21:8 ).