Riff's Christian Journal

In the Gospel of John Jesus makes a very simple, but life saving, comment. If you read it, think about it and just dwell upon what Jesus said it will make you face your eternal destiny, and will give you a quick insight as to whether you will go to Heaven or Hell.

In chapter 8 of John Jesus is talking to some Pharisees. They had been accusing Him of falsely bragging about Himself and they wanted to know who He was and Who His Father was. To answer them He said:

“You are from beneath; I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world.  ²⁴ Therefore I said to you that you will die in your sins; for if you do not believe that I am, you will die in your sins.”

Simply put, Jesus basically told them that the only thing that can be done to keep them from dying in their sins and being condemned to Hell was to just believe that He is God. Now, unless you know the Bible and unless you are a Christian you will not understand this nor see where it is that Jesus said that.

What He said was:

“if you do not believe that I am, you will die in your sins.”

So you are saying to yourself, “believe that Jesus is what?” That is the secret that only God can reveal to you, but I’ll give you a clue as to what Jesus is saying with this.

In this same chapter the Pharisees and Jesus were talking about Abraham and the following conversation ensued:

⁵⁶ Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it and was glad.”

⁵⁷ Then the Jews said to Him, “You are not yet fifty years old, and have You seen Abraham?”

⁵⁸ Jesus said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM.”

Now when Jesus said this the Jews took up stones to throw at Him in hopes of killing Him. Now why would they do that? Well, here’s another hint.

In Exodus 3, at the Burning Bush Moses is talking with God. Then, when God tells Moses that he is to go to the Jews in Egypt and bring out the children of Israel we read the following:

¹³ Then Moses said to God, “Indeed, when I come to the children of Israel and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they say to me, ‘What is His name?’ what shall I say to them?”

¹⁴ And God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.” And He said, “Thus you shall say to the children of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you.’

Moses is to tell the children of Israel that the great “I AM” has sent him, meaning that it was God Himself that told Moses to do this. So now you should see why Jesus said:

“Therefore I said to you that you will die in your sins; for if you do not believe that I AM, you will die in your sins.”

The reason that the Pharisees took up stones to throw at Him is that Jesus was proclaiming that He was God. And that is why Jesus said, “for if you do not believe that I AM, you will die in your sins.”

And the same goes for you. Unless you believe that Jesus is God and bow before Him and submit to His Lordship over you, you will die in your sins. It’s that simple. There is no other way. If you deny Jesus, He will deny you.

This is why God tells us in Acts 4:12:

“Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”

So, why die in your sins? You cannot earn your way to Heaven, you cannot will your way into Heaven and you cannot work your way into Heaven. The only way you can get there is by believing that Jesus is God, and you will easily show your belief by submitting to Him as Lord of your life.

The simple Gospel message is this… Believe and be saved… Why die in your sins? Just believe in Jesus and you will spend eternity in Heaven. It’s that easy. It’s that simple.

Just believe!