The light cannot help but shine. No matter how much the Pharisees preferred to ignore Jesus, tried to discredit Him, or wanted to get rid of Him, they could not alter the reality of who Jesus is. Jesus, for His part, presses His teaching into their sore spots.

He’s been in Jerusalem teaching in the Temple since the middle of the Feast of Booths. It was around September or October, six or so months before they would crucify Him. He keeps telling them that they need Him. He is the bread of life (6:35), He is the light of the world (8:12), He alone can forgive sins (this section), yet they manufacture reasons to reject Him.

Last week we saw that those who follow Him don’t walk in darkness but have the light of life. The closer we are to Jesus the better we can see. Without Jesus, we can’t see anything truly. He is the only light in the world and He sheds light on everything in the world; He is the exclusive and comprehensive light. He made it all and only by looking at it all in His light will make it make sense.

The Pharisees didn’t see it; they weren’t following Him. That meant that they couldn’t truly understand Jesus’ testimony nor could they appreciate His witness, the Father, because they were in darkness. They attempted to judge Jesus, He assessed that they were in no position to judge.

Jesus continues the barrage of reality and begins with a grave warning.

His Warning (verses 21-22)

They won’t know what they didn’t get until He’s gone.

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.” (John 8:21 ESV)

Jesus has been saying for a while that His time among them was short. He is going away and, though He doesn’t say where in this dialogue, He previously said that He was “going to Him who sent” Him (7:33). As He did back then in the middle of the feast, He said you will seek me. Earlier He said that they would seek Him but not find Him. Then, as He had before, where I am going you cannot come.

Now the result of His departure was far worse, or at least more explicit. You will die in your sin. This is a grave warning, urgent and permanent. Not finding Him (7:34) means not finding forgiveness. They demonstrate the fact that they don’t get His point. They want salvation, or at least they think they do. They want deliverance, or at least they will want it someday. But salvation was right in front of them and they weren’t recognizing Him. Once He was gone, there would be no other option.

That they would seek him doesn’t mean that they would come to seek Jesus, it means that they would seek the Messiah. They would keep looking for the Christ, but wouldn’t be allowed where the Christ, Jesus, actually was.

The Jews, probably referring to the authorities, start talking among themselves.

So the Jews said, “Will he kill himself, since he says, ‘Where I am going, you cannot come’?” (John 8:22 ESV)

They probably should have paid more attention to the part about dying in their sins than the destination of Jesus’ departure. Instead they start debating among themselves (note the third person pronouns, “will he” and “he says”). Previously they supposed that Jesus meant that He was going to go to the Gentile lands and try to gain a following there among the less religiously literate (7:35). For whatever reason, now they figure that He’s talking about suicide, a despicable way to die in Israeli culture.

It’s ironic because they thought that He was talking about His death, and He was. But He wasn’t going to kill Himself, they were going to kill Him. They were going to kill their savior. They wouldn’t see it and Jesus tells them why.

His Perspective (verses 23-25a)

One’s viewpoint, one’s frame of reference really matters.

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 8:23–24 ESV)

They need to be born again. He doesn’t use that terminology here, but it’s the same point as Jesus made to Nicodemus in John 3. They are earthly, natural, and need to be born again by the Spirit from above. The contrast is between two life principles, one that is God’s and the other that is the world’s. It’s not as if the world’s life principle is visible and God’s is invisible. The world is in sin and darkness, God is in righteousness and light, but the two exist in the same place for now. That was the case with Jesus and these Jews.

Jesus is not like them. Yes, He took on flesh and dwelt among men, but He was from another place. He came from the Father in heaven. Unless the Jews dealt with that reality and came to Him, they could not be saved.

Jesus returns to the dying in sins problem. He is the only one who can deal with their issues, with their darkness. He doesn’t say how He will do it yet. And the issue of sins and forgiveness will come up again in chapter nine. But here, it still doesn’t change the fact that unless they believe that Jesus is, then they can’t be saved.

There is some question about what exactly they needed to believe. Believe that He is the one sent from the Father and going back to the Father? Believe that He is who He says He is? Believe that He is “I am”? Based on the upcoming dialogue, especially verse 58, He may be introducing that idea.

The Jews ask the same question. If He is calling Himself “I am” then they are made yet. When they realize it in verse 58 they immediately pick up rocks to stone Him.

So they said to him, “Who are you?” (John 8:25a, ESV)

This is a smug, dismissive question, but at least it is to Him rather than just about Him. “Who do you think you are?”

His Revelation (verses 25b-27)

He wasn’t telling them anything new.

Jesus said to them, “Just what I have been telling you from the beginning. I have much to say about you and much to judge, but he who sent me is true, and I declare to the world what I have heard from him.” (John 8:25–26 ESV)

From the beginning refers at least back to His visit to Jerusalem when He cleansed the Temple the first time (2:12-22). They missed His point then and weren’t any closer. He had much to say and much to judge about them, but His primary mission was to make known His Father’s message. Jesus basically says to them, “Why do you keep asking Me? I’ve already told you.”

The two, Father and Son, work together and Jesus doesn’t get tired of showing the connection. The Jews still don’t understand who He’s talking about.

They did not understand that he had been speaking to them about the Father. (John 8:27 ESV)

His Sacrifice (verses 28-30)

Now He comes back to the clarifying point of His death.

So Jesus said to them, “When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am he, and that I do nothing on my own authority, but speak just as the Father taught me. And he who sent me is with me. He has not left me alone, for I always do the things that are pleasing to him.” (John 8:28–29 ESV)

He referred to being “lifted up” in 3:14-15 with Nicodemus. Jesus says that He will be lifted up and that would prove that He is who He is.

How does that relate to the rest of Jesus’ comments about doing nothing on His own authority? Whose authority did He represent? The Father’s. Wouldn’t we expect divine authority to manifest itself in Jesus being lifted up on a throne? In fact, the Son spoke just as the Father taught Him. Wouldn’t we expect the Father to tell the Son about their glory and dignity so that the Son would represent them well? More than a representative, the Son and Father were in constant contact. Jesus was never alone, so much so that He could claim that He always did the things that please the Father.

But that gets us back to the first question, how does divine authority, revelation, fellowship, and pleasure belong with being lifted up? Why is it that Jesus’ otherworldly identity would be confirmed when He was lifted up?

John presents this story about Jesus being lifted up so that we might believe that Jesus is the Son of God because the nature of sacrifice comes from the nature of God.

When God (the Son) is killed you’ll recognize (that Jesus is) God. Why? Because not only is God strength, He is sacrifice. When the Father sent the Son on mission with authority, His authority got Him to the precise place He wanted to be: a throne through sacrifice. Jesus spoke what the Father taught Him. What were those eternal sessions about? What were the unit objectives? Divine glory through sacrifice. What does Jesus reveal? What the Father told Him, that the nature of greatness comes through sacrifice and service, not being served. How could the Son being lifted up, being killed, please the Father? His death has to be part of the always, right? Because sacrifice is what God does. Loving sacrifice is the way of the Trinity, not just an idea they came up with for someone else to try.

After the cross we look back to the cross as the divine story. We see little sacrifices as echoes of the great sacrifice. But what kind of God comes up with that sort of narrative? A God whose nature is loving sacrifice. It’s part of the reason that the Jewish religious authorities couldn’t recognize God in flesh, He was serving too many other people. They believed the lie that getting is better than giving. They couldn’t bear to hear Jesus’ words (8:43) because they were listening to their father, a murderer from the beginning (8:44).

The serpent took life, He did not give his life so that others could have life. The serpent made no sacrifice because he only had eyes for himself.

The Father and the Son bring otherworldly lessons about what really pleases God: sacrifice. It’s part of His nature and Jesus was the fulness of deity dwelling bodily. There was no more clear revelation of His deity than when He was lifted up on the cross. There was no greater pleasure that the Son brought the Father than when He was lifted up on the cross.

Conclusion

His sacrifice for undeserving sinners proved His identity. Our sacrifice for undeserving sinners proves our identity as Christians.

As he was saying these things, many believed in him. (John 8:30 ESV)

It sounds as if there was a positive response to Jesus’ message. We’ll see on the following Sunday nights (though look just at verses 31-33).

Two final things:

First, do we believe Jesus? We will die in our sins if we don’t.

Second, do we sacrifice? We are not like Christ if we don’t. Our sacrifices are never redemptive, but they do point back to the great sacrifice. We bear the image of our Creator, and it is in His nature to lovingly give Himself for others. That’s one of the ways the true God is recognized. It’s also one of the ways true believers are recognized.