“Rebirth brings us into the Kingdom of grace, and death into the Kingdom of glory.”
Richard Baxter
When Jesus is confronted by the religious leaders, he makes very clear the great chasm that exists between him and his hearers. Here is a portion of the discourse:
21So 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.” 22So the Jews said, “Will he kill himself, since he says, ‘Where I am going, you cannot come’?” 23He said to them, “You are from below; I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world. 24I told you that you would die in your sins, for unless you believe that I am he you will die in your sins.” [John 8:21-24]
His hearers are of this world. They are earthly in origin and they are worldly in their standards and in their methods of judgement. Jesus’ origin is from the Father and he always does what pleases the Father. The world with its enticements, methods, and standards has no hold on him. When Jesus dies and upon his resurrection, he is returning to his Father. The wages of sin are not incurred by him (although he pays that debt on our behalf), therefore death has no hold on him. But his hearers are in a different category altogether. Upon their death, they die in their sin and in their sins. They are from below. And by extension, so are we. All the sons and daughters of Adam are in that category unless…unless we “believe that I am he you will die in your sins.” Have you trusted Christ today? Do you believe that he is the Christ, the Son of the Living God? Are you trusting in him and his sacrificial death on the cross and applied all the promises associated with that substitutionary death to yourself? If not, trust him today. I want to close with a lengthy quote by R. C. Sproul:
The Bible speaks of two ways of dying. The people of God, the saints of the Old and New Testaments, die in faith, and their deaths are precious in the sight of God (Ps. 116:15). All of those who die in faith enter that place God has prepared for His people from the foundation of the world. The only other way one can die is to die in one’s sins. The Bible makes it clear that we’re all sinners, but when the Bible speaks of being in sin or in faith, it is talking about the state of our souls before God. A person who has no faith, the unconverted person, remains in sin, and the worst calamity that could ever befall a human being is to die in that state. But for those who die in faith, there will be eternal blessing.
Does eternal blessing await you? Have a blessed week and we will see many of you on Sunday.
Love in Christ,
Pastor Dale
