You Can Insure You Die In Your Sins

The words of Moses begin this whole pattern that continues throughout the Bible concerning life and death.

Deuteronomy 30:19 I invoke as a witness against you  the heaven and the earth: life and death I have set, blessing and curse. So choose life, so that you may live, you and your offspring,

Jesus substantiates this reality in John 5:39-40, “Search the Scriptures,” “And you will not come to Me, that you might have life.” We have a responsibility in responding  that affects what happens to us after death.

You Can Insure Your Death in Sin  If You Are Self-righteous

John 8:21 So he said to them again, “I am going away,  and you will seek me and will die in your sin. Where I am going you cannot come!”

By this time Jesus was common conversation. He had done countless miracles, and massive evidence supporting His claim to be the Son of God had been seen. But there is still a problem. Human will and human volition are required to be activated toward Christ for salvation.

Satan is clever. When he puts together a phony system based on human achievement and works righteousness, he does it in such a complex, and supposedly Biblical way that it’s tremendously deceiving.

Their self-righteousness is seen in their misunderstanding. Heaven is where they thought they were going, and if Jesus was going somewhere where they weren’t, He’d have to be going to damnation, (hell), by way of suicide.

You Can Insure Your Death In Sin If You Have a Worldly Focus

John 8:23 And He said to them, “You are from below; I am from above. You are from this world; I am not from this world. 8:24b For if you do not believe that I am, you will  die in your sins.”

Their focus was on self and works of this world,  a worldly mentality, controlled by Satan. They are from this world, this fallen moral order  in conscious rebellion against God the creator.

1 John 2:15 Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

This idea becomes progressively clear in John 8:44, and culminates in John 8:58 when Jesus said unto them, “Verily, verily I say unto you, before Abraham was, I Am !”  Apart from Christ, we’re from below. That’s the origin of our worldview and religion.

You Can Insure Your Death In Sin If You Are Obstinate and Reject Jesus

John 8:25 So they began to say to him, “Who are you?” Jesus said to them, “I have been saying to you from the beginning.” 8:26 I have many things to say and to judge concerning you.

Jesus says that His revelatory witness has been consistent from the beginning of His ministry. Their mind set remains one of rejection. They have had plenty of evidence  to prove who He was, but they continue to reject it.

The contrast between the revelation He mediates from the Father and the stance of His hearers is so great that what He is saying is about them, but inevitably in judgment of them.

You Can Insure Your Death In Sin If You Continue to be Ignorant

John 8:27 They did not know that He was speaking to them about the Father. 28 Then Jesus said, “When you lliftup the Son of Man, then you will recognize that I am He, and I do nothing from Myself, but just as the Father taught Me, I say these things.

These Jewish leaders were willfully ignorant. They had enough evidence, and had heard enough speeches  about Christ. Even with all the information, they refused  to believe, and in their chosen ignorance they mocked  Him again. It is a terrible thing to repeatedly refuse to listen and reject truth. Jesus said, “Maybe you will understand who I am when you crucify Me and God raises Me up.”

The Father raised Jesus from the dead to verify the claims that he had made. When the resurrection comes they would have to look honestly at the truth and what Jesus said about Himself. When Jesus’ resurrection occurred, the church was born. At that time literally thousands of people in the city of Jerusalem did see and believe.

One of the functions of the cross is to reveal who Jesus is. At the cross the Jews will know the truth. Some of Jesus’ opponents were converted at the cross and those (then and now) who do not believe will stand at the last day condemned by Him whom they ‘lifted up’ on the cross. They are blind to the glory that shone around them, yet one day  they will forced to kneel and confess that Jesus is Lord.

We don’t have to die in our sins.

Let’s make a choice not to die in sin.

Jesus can save us now,  if we will trust Him.

Only then can we truly live.