THE SIMPLE GOSPEL - John 8:21–30

THE SIMPLE GOSPEL

John 8:21–30

JOHN MacARTHUR

It’s wonderful when a person comes to Christ—they no longer are under the tyranny of sin and guilt or of lust and desire—and they no longer are under the bondage of a purposeless and meaningless kind of existence. Christ not only gives meaning to life, but also restores harmony to our spiritual lives by completely forgiving our sin. 

Now, what happens when someone does not want to establish a relationship with the living God through Jesus Christ? What happens when a person maintains the masquerade of Christmas, giving homage to an event, but not tolerating the individual in which that event finds its meaning? If receiving Jesus Christ results in an abundant and eternal life, then not receiving Jesus Christ results in receiving the curse of God. 

We find in this passage of John 8 some very alarming statements by Jesus. I must admit they make the passage a difficult thing for me to discuss, let alone understand. I sometimes want to cry out with Richard Baxter, “Oh, for an empty hell and a full heaven!” It is not my desire, nor is it Jesus’ desire, for anyone to enter hell, for God is “not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance” (2 Pet. 3:9). It is not condemnation, but rather warning that Jesus speaks in these verses.

It ought to be brought to our attention that people who give lip service to Christianity while rejecting Christ are engaged in the most foolish kind of fun. It would be comparable to people having a party on the Lusitania, as they went on ignoring the reality of the German threat. If people really knew their eternal destinies were determined by Christ, whom they in actuality rejected, I doubt whether there would be much for them to celebrate.

The Bible makes clear that there is no neutrality on this issue. Jesus put it simply and succinctly when He said, “He who is not with Me is against Me” (Matt. 12:30). All the way back into the first set of writings that the Bible gives us, the Pentateuch, Moses establishes this pattern that continues all the way to the book of Revelation: “I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. So choose” (Deut. 30:19). Here are the same two things that we see right through Scripture: life or death, blessing or cursing. 

Joshua 24:15 says, “Choose for yourselves today whom you will serve: whether the gods which your fathers served which were beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living; but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” Two options are given: serving the true God or serving false gods. 

John 3:18 says, “He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already.” You only have two choices: you’re either condemned to hell or not condemned. And the crux of the issue is whether you believe. The reason for condemnation is given at the end of the verse: “because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.”

The book of Revelation closes with an invitation: “The Spirit and the bride say, ‘Come.’ And let the one who hears say, ‘Come.’ And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who wishes take the water of life without cost” (22:17). There again is the choice of choosing one of two ways.

The other day, one of my children asked me, “Daddy, is it true that there are only two places you can go when you die, heaven or hell?” And I said, “That’s true, only two, heaven or hell.” There is no neutral ground, no purgatory, and no waiting place. Hell may have different designations as to its final form and identity, but there are only two places—heaven, where God is, or hell, where God is not. You may have heard the old line, “He had nobody to blame but himself.” That is actually biblical. There may be a big theological argument about who is responsible when people get saved—whether it’s God, or whether men have anything to do with it—but there’s no question about who is responsible in the Bible when people go to hell, because it says that men choose.

Jesus substantiated the reality of man’s choice of hell when he confronted some of the Jews, saying, “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; it is these that testify about Me; and you are unwilling to come to Me so that you may have life” (John 5:39–40). The responsibility for not choosing Christ belongs to us. In Romans 1:20 Paul says that men are without excuse.

John 16:8–9 says, “And He [the Holy Spirit], when He comes, will convict the world concerning sin . . . because they do not believe in Me.” To not believe in Christ is the sin of all sins.

The Lord condemns Jezebel, who was misleading the church at Thyatira, saying, “I gave her time to repent, and she does not want to repent of her immorality” (Rev. 2:21). In other words, God has given the call to repentance, and when people do not repent and turn to Him in faith, that is their own fault and they are responsible for that decision. 

Now as we come to John 8, we notice in verse 21 a powerful statement on the part of Jesus, given to the Jewish leaders: “Then He said again to them, ‘I go away, and you will seek Me, and will die in your sin; where I am going, you cannot come.’” Here Jesus is making a very strong statement about the fact that He is going to heaven and they are not.

Already by the time we reach chapter 8, He can give such a warning because they have had enough information to have made a decision about Him. For eight chapters John has been chronicling the self- manifestation of God in Christ by recording the many wonders He had accomplished in Galilee and in Jerusalem. Furthermore, Jesus has said many astounding things: His claims to deity are clear—no one need mistake them. In fact, later on Jesus exhorts those Jews who were evaluating His ministry that they should believe Him for the words and the works that He had said and done (John 10:37–38; 14:10–11).

Throughout these chapters, we see His works and hear His words again and again. In chapter 1, He is introduced by John as God Incarnate, who “became flesh, and dwelt among us . . . the only begotten from the Father” (v. 14). In John 2 He performed His first miracle at Cana as He changed water into wine. In John 4, we see Him reveal a woman’s personal life, never having known her, and talk about the fact that He was the living water. In John 5, we hear His dialogue with the Pharisees as He claims to be God, who has been commissioned by His Father to make the ultimate judgment. In John 6, we see Him doing many miracles all day long, including feeding thousands of people on a hillside in Galilee. In John 7, He proceeds to Jerusalem and the things that He says there continue to support that He is God. In John 8, He forgives sin and claims to be the light of the world. All of these words and works, and signs and wonders, should have been sufficient to elicit genuine faith and confidence in who He was. And in the mind of Jesus, anyone who was seeing, hearing, and experiencing those things, yet not believing, alone bears the guilt of their own sin—they are without excuse.

Even though many had their physical needs met by Jesus Christ, they still rejected Him, not wanting to have to face the spiritual need for repentance and belief in Him. In Galilee, big crowds initially followed Him because He fed and healed them. But when He started laying down some principles of life and meddling in their sin, they stopped wanting to crown Him king. When He came to Jerusalem, the same thing happened: great crowds followed Him everywhere. But as He began to turn away from the physical to the spiritual and deal with the sin in the hearts of people, the crowds began to melt away until finally, the only crowd left was a group of Pharisees trying to figure out how to kill Him. Such a tragic rejection was epitomized in John’s words: “He came to His own, and those who were His own did not receive Him” (John 1:11). The Jews were responsible for their conclusions about Christ, as are you and I and every other person.

Though some did believe, John 7:40–41 tells us there were others who didn’t: “Some of the people therefore, when they heard these words, were saying, ‘This certainly is the Prophet.’ Others were saying, ‘This is the Christ.’ Still others were saying, ‘Surely the Christ is not going to come from Galilee, is He?’” To some who rejected Him Jesus said, “And you are unwilling to come to Me so that you may have life” (John 5:40). But they had no one to blame but themselves, as do all who have full revelation and yet turn away from the truth (Heb. 6:10).

Though the unbelief of the scribes and Pharisees was manifested in their desire to kill Jesus, John 8:20 says that “no one seized Him, because His hour had not yet come.” Held back by God from being able to take His life at this point, they are confronted by Jesus in verse 21: “I go away, and you will seek Me, and will die in your sin; where I am going, you cannot come.”

This confrontation reveals the tragic result of refusing Jesus Christ—dying in one’s sin. Jesus hinted at this in the previous chapter when He said, “‘For a little while longer I am with you, then I go to Him who sent Me. You will seek Me, and will not find Me; and where I am, you cannot come.’ The Jews then said to one another, ‘Where does this man intend to go that we will not find Him? He is not intending to go to the Dispersion among the Greeks, and teach the Greeks, is He?’” (John 7:33–35). Whereas they were honestly confused about what He meant in chapter 7, in chapter 8 the Jews become cynical when Jesus repeats essentially the same warning: “So the Jews were saying, ‘Surely He will not kill Himself?’” (John 8:22). But their cynicism only serves to reveal their lack of understanding. Jesus was simply saying that He was going to go to the Father in heaven and that they would be unable to, because they would be in hell, having rejected Him. If they sought Him too late, their seeking would be in vain.

There is a limit to the grace God will bestow upon those who reject Him. Amos 8:11–12 says, “‘Behold, days are coming,’ declares the Lord God, ‘when I will send a famine on the land, not a famine for bread or a thirst for water, but rather for hearing the words of the Lord. People will stagger from sea to sea and from the north even to the east; they will go to and fro to seek the word of the Lord, but they will not find it.’” The same thing is true of His gospel about Christ.

In Proverbs 1:24–31 divine wisdom is personified turning away from those who would reject it: “Because I have called and you refused, I stretched out my hand and no one paid attention; and you neglected all my counsel and did not want my reproof; I will also laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your dread comes, when your dread comes like a storm and your calamity comes like a whirlwind, when distress and anguish come upon you. Then they will call on me, but I will not answer; they will seek me diligently but they will not find me, because they hated knowledge and did not choose the fear of the Lord. They would not accept my counsel, they spurned all my reproof. So they shall eat of the fruit of their own way and be satiated with their own devices.” In other words, when the day of grace has ended, those who have rejected God’s wisdom will be responsible and will pay the consequences that they themselves have earned. It is like the prisoner who was instructed by the king to make a chain. Every day he added another link, until finally, they took him and bound him with his own chain. That is how it is with sinful people who reject Christ: they are producing in their life their own ultimate disaster.

Whereas Jesus’ death would take Him to the Father, the death of those who rejected Him would not, because of sin. Now what sin did Jesus have in mind when He told the Pharisees that they would die in their sin? It is the sin of rejecting Christ. John 16:8–9 says that the Holy Spirit will convict of sin because they did not believe in Christ. If you want to rationalize and say, “Well, I don’t commit any sins; I’m a very good person and I try to do everything I can,” it will be of no avail, because if you have never received Jesus Christ, that is the ultimate sin. That is why Jesus says that those who seek Him too late will die with unforgiven sin. That is the supreme disaster, because such a person is destined for hell.

The Jewish leaders did seek heaven all their life. But they sought it in the wrong place. Instead of seeking it at the feet of Jesus, they sought for it in their own self-righteousness. Romans 10:17 says that faith comes by hearing a message about Christ. But instead of seeking it there, they sought it in their own books, laws, and rituals.

They not only sought it in the wrong place, but they sought it in the wrong way. In Romans 10:2 Paul says about the Jews, “For I testify about them that they have a zeal for God, but not in accordance with knowledge.” They were seeking God according to their own system, and it was far from being a wholehearted search. Jeremiah 29:13 says, “You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart.” The scribes and Pharisees didn’t give their whole heart to seeking God because they had devoted their whole heart to the proud propagation of their own self-righteousness.

So, many of the Jews were seeking in the wrong place, in the wrong way, and unfortunately, they would also be found seeking at the wrong time. I’m sure there have been countless people who, when it was far too late, started their search for heaven after the sentence had been passed on them for their continual rejection.

Jesus tried to convey the fearfulness of hell with some of His parables. For instance, in Matthew 13:40–43 Jesus said, “Just as the tares are gathered up and burned with fire, so shall it be at the end of the age. The Son of Man will send forth His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all stumbling blocks, and those who commit lawlessness, and will throw them into the furnace of fire; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear.” There are only two places to spend eternity: hell, where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth, or heaven, where you shine as the sun. And Jesus says that if you have ears, then you had better listen. It’s a fearful warning.

When Jesus warns the Jews in this passage, He is not brutalizing them by sovereignly ending their choice or putting an end to all possibility of salvation for them. He is merely warning them of the consequence of their current choice. When you hear people criticize God for speaking negatively like this, saying that God is not a loving God, don’t believe it for a minute. God is so merciful and so loving that He warns us. No one ever went to hell who didn’t choose to go there. But God isn’t going to force Himself eternally on someone who doesn’t want Him.

Now, there are four elements that I see in John 8:21–30 that show how a person can die in his sin.