Dying In Your Sins vs. Believing and Receiving Jesus

Dying in Sins

"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'" (John 8:21-24 ESV).

What does Jesus mean by saying He is going away and that they will die in their sin?

Jesus is telling the Jewish people He is talking to that He is going (ὑπάγω) to the Father in heaven.  He says that they will die (ἀποθνῄσκω) and lose eternal life because they are in a state of being sinful and would not be capable of coming to eternal life with Him (Arndt, et. al., 2000).  The Jews He was talking to were not understanding what He was saying and questioned whether He was going to kill Himself or not.  

What does Jesus mean when He says they are from below and of this world?

Jesus is telling the Jews that they are below (κάτω) in a sense that there are part of this world and that He is from the world above which is heaven.  This means that the ones He is speaking with are of the world (κόσμος) and everything that belongs to it, which consists of being hostile to God, lost in sin, and wholly at odds with God (Arndt, et. al., 2000).  He contrasts that with Him being not of the world and instead of heaven.  

Unless you believe that I am He

Jesus then goes on to state that if they believe (πιστεύω), or consider to be true, the fact that Jesus is the Messiah then they would not die in their sins.  They would have to consider Jesus being worthy of their trust (Arndt, et. al., 2000). 

Some Examples of Sins

"Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God" (1 Corinthians 6:9-10).

The Unrighteous vs. Righteous

Paul is saying that the unrighteous (ἄδικος) are those who act in a way that is contrary to what is right.  He then gives examples of sins:
  • sexual immorality-fornicator, one who has sex with another but are not married to each other

  • idolatry - worshipping images; desiring for something that belongs to someone else or craving for something 

  • adultery - one who is unfaithful to their spouse and is cheating on
    them

  • practicing homosexuality - one who engages with sexual activity with the same sex, in this case men

  • thieves - robbers

  • greed - one who desires more than what is due

  • drunkards - those addicted to alcohol and constantly drunk

  • revilers - abusive people

  • swindlers - people who take advantage of others by means of deceit
He then says that the unrighteous will not possess the kingdom of God (Arndt, et. al., 2000).  Jesus says, "The kingdom of God is not coming in ways that can be observed, nor will they say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or ‘There!’ for behold, the kingdom of God is in the midst of you" (Luke 17:20-21).  In other words, Jesus is saying that God's kingdom is in the midst (ἐντός) or within the people.  The kingdom of God in this sense refers to the royal reign of God in the present (Arndt, et. al., 2000). Therefore, it is the righteous who will possess the royal reign of God within them not the unrighteous.      

Believe and Receive Jesus 

"But to all who did receive him, who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God" (John 1:12-13).

The meaning of believe (πιστεύω) here is to entrust oneself to Jesus in complete confidence and total commitment to Jesus.  In order to receive (λαμβάνω) Jesus, one has to include Him recognizing the fact that He has the authority.  He gave these people the capability of being children of God.  The children (τέκνον) John refers to here are those who exhibit the characteristics of God and are begotten by God (Arndt, et. al., 2000). Exhibiting the characteristics of God would involve changing of the heart and way of living where one hates sin and wants to please God by the power of the Holy Spirit.

References

Arndt, W., Danker, F. W., Bauer, W., & Gingrich, F. W. (2000). A Greek-English lexicon of the New Testament and other early Christian literature (3rd ed.). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

The Holy Bible: ESV. (2016). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles. 






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