John 8:21 - Meaning and Application

Christ here gives the careless, unbelieving Jews a fair warning. He wants them to think about what their unbelief will lead to, so they can turn back before it is too late. He speaks words of warning as well as words of mercy.

Notice first the judgment he threatens, in John 8:21. Jesus said again to them something that should have done them good. He kept teaching kindly for the sake of the few who did receive his word, even though many resisted it. That is a good example for ministers, who should keep doing their work even when they face opposition, because a remnant will be saved.

Christ now changes his tone. He had earlier offered grace to them, like a pipe playing a cheerful tune that they would not dance to. Now he speaks sadly about wrath, to see whether they will grieve for their sin. He says, "I am going away, and you will look for me, and you will die in your sins. Where I go, you cannot come." Every part of this is serious. It speaks of spiritual judgment, which is worse than war, disease, or exile, the kinds of judgments the Old Testament prophets often warned about.

Four things are threatened here against the Jews. First, Christ will leave them. "I am going away" means, "It will not be long before I leave. You do not need to drive me away, because I will go of myself." They had said, "Depart from us, we do not want to know your ways," and he takes them at their word. But sorrow waits for those from whom Christ departs. When Christ leaves, the glory is gone, and protection is gone too. He had warned them again and again that he would leave, like one reluctant to depart and willing to be asked to stay.

Second, their hatred of the true Messiah and their useless searching for another Messiah would be both their sin and their punishment. "You will seek me" can mean either that they would keep trying to ruin his work by persecuting his teaching and his followers, or that they would keep looking for a Christ still to come, even after the true Christ had already come. In either case, they would be like blind people wearing themselves out trying to find the door. Their searching would only deepen their misery.

Third, they would remain unrepentant to the end. "You will die in your sin" appears here in the singular, which seems to point especially to the sin of unbelief. Those who live and die without faith are forever lost. It may also mean, more generally, that they would die in their guilt, as Ezekiel says. Many people who have lived long in sin are saved by God’s grace through repentance before death, but those who leave this life with sin still unpardoned and sin still ruling them have no hope left. Even salvation itself will not save them then.

Fourth, they would be forever separated from Christ and from all happiness in him. "Where I go, you cannot come." When Christ left this world, he went to perfect joy, to paradise. He took the repentant thief with him, the man who did not die in his sins. But the unrepentant not only will not come to him, they cannot come. It is morally impossible, because heaven would not be heaven to people who die unholy and unprepared for it. They cannot come because they have no right to enter that holy city, the New Jerusalem (Revelation 22:14). And for all believers, this is also a comfort, because once Christ is in heaven, his enemies can never reach him there.

Second, notice how the Jews mocked this warning in John 8:22. Instead of trembling, they made a joke of it. "Will he kill himself?" they said. This shows how lightly they took his threats. They could laugh at what should have made them fear God. It also shows how badly they misunderstood him, as if he meant to take his own life in some shameful way. Their malice was growing more bitter all the time.

Third, Christ confirms what he said. He had said, "Where I go, you cannot come," and now he gives the reason in John 8:23. "You are from below; I am from above. You belong to this world; I do not belong to this world." Their hearts were fixed on earthly things, while his heart was set on heavenly things. He was completely free from the love of riches, bodily comfort, and human praise, and he was wholly taken up with God’s things. No one can be with him unless they are born from above and live with heaven in view.

He also repeats the warning, "You will die in your sins," and explains why. "That is why I said it, because you are from below. If you do not believe that I am he, you will die in your sins" (John 8:24). What they are required to believe is that he is the promised Christ, the one who truly is. The phrase "I am" also echoes one of God’s names in Exodus 3:14. The Son of God is the one who fulfills God’s saving purpose, and he is the Messiah they were meant to receive.

“I am more than just the bare name of the Messiah. I do not only call myself that, I am he.” True faith does not rest the soul with an empty sound of words. It brings the heart under the truth of Christ’s mediation, that is, his role as the one who brings us to God, and treats it as something real with real results.

How necessary it is that we believe this. If we do not have this faith, we will die in our sins. Without this faith, we cannot be rescued from the power of sin while we live, and so we will surely keep in it to the end. Nothing but Christ’s grace can powerfully move us to turn from sin to God, and only the Spirit of Christ’s grace can powerfully work that change in us. That Spirit is given, and that teaching is given, only to those who believe in Christ. So if Satan is not driven out by faith, he keeps the soul as if by a lease for life. If Christ does not heal us, our case is hopeless, and we will die in our sins.

Without faith, we also cannot be saved from sin’s punishment when we die. The wrath of God remains on those who do not believe (Mark 16:16). Unbelief is the sin that condemns, because it is sin against the remedy. This points to the great gospel promise: if we believe that Christ is the promised one and receive him that way, we will not die in our sins. The law speaks plainly to all and says, “You will die in your sins,” because we are all guilty before God. But the gospel cancels that curse for all who submit to its grace by believing. Believers die in Christ, in his love, in his arms, and so they are saved from dying in their sins.

Here is further teaching about Christ himself, brought out because he said faith in him is the condition of salvation (John 8:25-29). The Jews asked him, “Who are you?” They asked in a mocking way, not because they wanted to learn. He had said, “You must believe that I am he.” By not stating his identity in plain terms, he showed that in his person he was beyond any simple description, and in his office he was the one all who looked for rescue in Israel had been expecting. Yet they twisted this solemn way of speaking into an insult, as if he did not know how to speak about himself: “Who are you, that we must believe in you without explanation? You are some great ‘he,’ though we do not know who or what you are, and you are hardly fit to tell us.”

Jesus answered in three ways. First, he pointed them back to what he had already said: “Do you ask who I am? I am the same one I have told you from the beginning.” The wording here is a little hard, and some understand it as, “I am the Beginning, the one I am speaking to you about.” Christ is called the Beginning (Colossians 1:18; Revelation 1:8; Revelation 21:6; Revelation 3:14), and that fits with John 8:24, “I am he.” Compare Isaiah 41:4: “I am the first, and I am he.” But most interpreters take it as our translation does: “I am the same one I told you from the beginning.” That may mean from the beginning of time in the Old Testament Scriptures, the same one first promised as the woman’s Seed who would crush the serpent’s head. It may also mean from the beginning of his public ministry. He would stand by the account he had already given of himself. He had said he was the Son of God (John 5:17), the Christ (John 4:26), and the bread of life, and he had offered himself as the one whom saving faith must embrace. Christ is always consistent with himself. What he said from the beginning, he still says. His gospel is everlasting.

Second, he pointed them to his Father’s judgment and to the teaching he had received from him (John 8:26). “I have many things, more than you think, to say and to judge about you. But why should I keep dealing with you? I know the one who sent me is true, and he will support me. I speak to the world, which is my mission field, only what I have heard from him.” Here he held back from pressing his charge against them. He had much to say against them, and many proofs to bring, but for now he had said enough. God, who searches the heart, always has more to judge in us than we see ourselves (1 John 3:20). No matter how much God deals with sinners in this world, there is still a greater accounting ahead (Deuteronomy 32:34). We should learn not to say every harsh thing we can even against the worst people. We may have many words of blame that are better left unsaid, because that is not our place.

He also appealed to his Father. That gave him two comforts. First, he had been faithful to his Father and to the trust given him: “I speak to the world,” for his gospel was to be preached to every creature, “those things I have heard from him.” He had been given as a witness to the people (Isaiah 55:4), and he was the Amen, the faithful witness (Revelation 3:14). He did not hide his teaching, because it concerned everyone, and he did not change it or distort it. He spoke exactly what the Father gave him.

Second, he knew his Father would be faithful to him. The Father would keep his promise to make his mouth like a sharp sword. He would keep his purpose for the Son, which was fixed by decree (Psalm 2:7). He would also keep his warnings against those who rejected him. Even if Christ did not accuse them before the Father, the Father who sent him would surely deal with them. He would be true to what he had said: anyone who would not listen to that prophet God would raise up would be required to answer for it (Deuteronomy 18:19). Christ would not accuse them, but he said, in effect, “The one who sent me is true, and he will judge them, even if I do not press for judgment against them.” So when he lets the present case drop, he still leaves them bound over to the day of judgment, when it will be too late to argue against what they now refuse to believe.

The evangelist adds a sad note about this part of our Lord’s teaching: they did not understand that he was speaking to them about the Father (John 8:27). See here the power of Satan to blind the minds of those who do not believe. Christ spoke plainly about God as his Father in heaven, yet they did not understand whom he meant. They thought he was speaking about some father of his in Galilee.

Plain things become riddles and parables to people who are set on keeping their prejudices. Day and night are alike to someone who is blind.

This is also why the warnings of God’s word have so little effect on sinners. They do not understand whose wrath is being revealed in those warnings. When Christ told them about the truth of the One who sent him, and gave them a warning to prepare for his judgment, they ignored it. They did not realize whose judgment they were putting themselves under.

Christ then refers them to their own convictions later, in John 8:28, John 8:29. Since they will not understand him now, he puts off the matter until more evidence comes. Those who will not see now will see later (Isaiah 26:11).

Notice, first, what they would soon be convinced of: “You will know that I am he.” That is, Jesus is the true Messiah. Whether they would admit it before others or not, they would be forced to know it in their own consciences. They might try to silence those convictions, but they could not defeat them. He is not what they accused him of being, but the one he had already said he was, the one who was to come.

Two things would convince them of this. First, he did nothing on his own, meaning not on his own as a man, and not apart from the Father, with whom he is one. This does not weaken his own divine power. It only answers their charge that he was a false prophet. False prophets speak from their own hearts and follow their own spirits. Second, as his Father taught him, so he spoke these things. He was not self-taught, but taught by God. The teaching he gave matched the counsel of God, which he knew fully. He spoke not only what the Father taught him, but as the Father taught him, with the same divine power and authority.

Notice, next, when they would be convinced of this: “When you have lifted up the Son of Man.” This points to his being lifted up on the cross, like the bronze serpent was lifted on a pole (John 3:14), and like the sacrifices under the law. Those offerings were also called “elevations,” because they were lifted up before the Lord. In the same way, Christ was lifted up.

Or the phrase means that his death would be his exaltation. Those who killed him thought they were sinking him and his cause forever, but his death became the advance of both (John 12:24). When the Son of Man was crucified, the Son of Man was glorified. Christ had called his death his going away here he calls it his being lifted up. In the same way, the death of believers is their leaving this world and their rise to a better one.

He speaks to the very people who would be involved in his death. “When you have lifted up the Son of Man” does not mean they would be priests offering him up. No, Christ offered himself. It means they would be his betrayers and murderers (Acts 2:23). They lifted him up to the cross, and then he lifted himself up to his Father. Notice how gently Christ speaks to those he knew would put him to death. He teaches us not to hate or wish harm on anyone, even when we have reason to think they hate us.

Christ says his death would strongly convict the Jews of their unbelief. “Then you will know this.” Why then? First, careless and thoughtless people often learn the value of blessings when they lose them (Luke 17:22). Second, the guilt of putting Christ to death would stir their consciences and make them seriously look for a Savior. Then they would know that Jesus was the one who alone could save them. So it proved, when they were told that they had crucified and killed the Son of God with wicked hands, they cried out, “What shall we do?” and were made to know for certain that this Jesus was Lord and Christ (Acts 2:36).

Third, his death, and then his rising from death in the resurrection, would be marked by such signs and wonders that they would give stronger proof of his being the Messiah than anything seen before. Many were brought to believe that Jesus is the Christ, even after they had opposed him. Fourth, through the death of Christ, the Holy Spirit was purchased, and the Spirit would convince the world that Jesus is the one (John 16:7, John 16:8). Fifth, the judgments the Jews brought on themselves by killing Christ, which filled up the full measure of their sin, would be a clear warning even to the hardest hearts that Jesus was the one. Christ had often predicted that destruction as the right punishment for their stubborn unbelief, and when it came to pass, they could not help knowing that the great prophet had been among them (Ezekiel 33:33).

In the meantime, this is what supported our Lord Jesus, in John 8:29: “He who sent me is with me.” The Father was with him in all his work. The Father, the source and author of this whole mission, had not left him alone to handle it by himself. He had not abandoned either the work or the one carrying it out, because Jesus always did what pleased him.

Here we see, first, the assurance Christ had of his Father’s presence. That included both divine power going with him to strengthen him for his work, and divine favor shown to encourage him in it. “He who sent me is with me” (Isaiah 42:1; Psalm 89:21). This should greatly strengthen our faith in Christ and our trust in his word. He knew that his Father was with him to confirm the word of his servant (Isaiah 44:26). The King of kings went with his own messenger to confirm his mission and help him carry it out. He never left him alone, neither isolated nor weak. This also made the sin of those who opposed him even worse, and it showed the danger they were bringing on themselves by resisting him. They were fighting against God. However easily they may have thought they could crush him and silence him, they should have known he had support from One it is madness to oppose.

Second, this assurance rested on the fact that he always did what pleased the Father. That means, first, that the great work our Lord Jesus was always doing was the very work the Father who sent him was well pleased with. His whole mission is called the pleasure of the Lord (Isaiah 53:10), because it came from the eternal purpose of God and was the delight of God’s eternal mind.

His way of handling this matter did not displease his Father in any way. In carrying out his mission, he followed every instruction exactly and never stepped outside them. No mere human being since the fall could say that, for “we all stumble in many ways” (James 3:2). But our Lord Jesus never offended his Father in anything. Instead, as was fitting, he fulfilled all righteousness.

This was necessary for the sacrifice he was going to offer. If he had displeased the Father in any point, and if he had any sin of his own to answer for, then the Father could not have accepted him as an atoning sacrifice, that is, a sacrifice that turns away God’s anger against sin, for our sins. We needed a priest and a sacrifice who were perfectly pure and spotless. From this, we also learn that God’s servants can expect God’s presence with them when they choose and do what pleases him (Isaiah 66:4, Isaiah 66:5).

Here we also see the good effect this conversation had on some who heard it (John 8:30). As Jesus spoke these words, many believed in him. This shows, first, that although crowds may perish in unbelief, there is still a remnant, a small number chosen by grace, who believe to the saving of their souls. If Israel as a whole is not gathered, still there are some in whom Christ will be glorious (Isaiah 49:5). Paul also uses this truth to explain how the Jews’ rejection can stand alongside the promises made to their fathers. There is a remnant, he says (Romans 11:5).

Second, Christ’s words, especially his warnings, are made powerful by God’s grace to bring poor sinners to faith in him. When Christ told them that if they did not believe, they would die in their sins and never reach heaven, they began to take the matter seriously (Romans 1:16, Romans 1:18). Third, there can be a wide and effective opening for the gospel even when many people oppose it. Christ will continue his work, though the nations rage. The gospel sometimes wins great victories where it faces strong resistance. This should encourage God’s ministers to preach the gospel, even when they meet much opposition, because they will not labor in vain. Many may be quietly brought to God through efforts that people with corrupt minds openly attack and mock.

Augustine has a warm prayer on these words: “I wish that when I speak, many may believe, not in me, but with me in him.”