John 8:21-24

John 8:21-24

Therefore He said again to them, “I am going away, and you all will seek for me.  And in your sin you all will die.  Where I am going you all are not powerful enough to come.”  Therefore the Jews were saying, “Will He not kill Himself because He says, ‘Where I am going you all are not powerful enough to come?’”  And He was saying to them, “You all are out of the space below.  I am out of the space above.  You all are out of the things of this world; I am not out of the things of this world.  Therefore I said to you that you all will die in your sins.  For unless you all should believe that I am, you all will die in your sins.”

Thoughts for Today

First Thought:

Jesus tells the Jewish leaders quite implicitly that a time is coming when He will be gone and they will realize their missed opportunity.  They will look for Him, but they will not find Him.  This is not an open threat meaning that they will honestly seek God’s truth and Jesus will prevent them from finding salvation.  Rather, Jesus is telling them that their time on earth in which they can find salvation is rather limited.  We all only have so much time alive and so many opportunities to find God.  When our time is up and our opportunity expended, we will die in our sinfulness and no longer be able to find God.  That is the reality in which we live.

Do you take advantage of the opportunities that God sets before you?  Are you drawing closer to God day in and day out?

Second Thought:

The Jewish leaders also mistake Jesus’ words about being powerful enough to follow Him.  They think He’s going to kill Himself.  Jesus is talking about their sinful nature.  They are not powerful enough to get to heaven on their own.  They cannot earn their way into heaven.  Their sinfulness will keep them short of heaven.  They – nor we – are powerful enough to follow Jesus.  We must rely upon Him to bring us and make the way possible for us to get into the presence of God.

How much do you embrace your own inability to bring yourself into the presence of God?  Do you get hung up on your works and your own righteousness?  How can you learn to abandon your own works and simply cling to the righteousness of Christ?

Third Thought:

Jesus also speaks in this passage about being from above while the Jewish leaders are from below.  Jesus is separating existence into two realms.  There is the realm of heaven, which is an eternal realm with God.  There is also another realm.  The Greek term that Jesus uses is the word kosmos (κόσμος), from which we derive our English word cosmos.  John 1:9-10 tells us that Jesus came into the kosmos (world).  Those verses also tell us that the kosmos (world) did not know Him.  John 3:16 tells us that in spite of God’s realm being different than our realm, God loves the kosmos (world).  Here we have Jesus telling the Jewish leaders the truth.  There is a chasm between the place of God and the place of creation.  Jesus has come into creation to bridge the gap between the place of God and the place of creation.  We cannot get there from here; but Christ can sure get here from there!  Thanks be to God!

What does it mean to you that Christ came here from the realm of the Father?  Why did He come?  What benefits are you currently reaping from His coming?

Passage for Tomorrow: John 8:25-30