John 8

Finding a key verse in this chapter is just very hard. So many amazing things occurred here. At the end of this chapter we find Jesus talking to a group of people who are questioning Him after He tells the that Abraham was looking forward to His coming. They ask Him, that since He’s not even fifty years old yet, how can He have seen Abraham? And He replies with an incredibly powerful answer. Jesus answered, “The truth is, I existed before Abraham was even born!” That one statement right there proclaims He is God. He is eternal. This did not sit well with the Jewish leaders so they tried to stone Him for basically making Himself an equal to God.

But before all this took place, Jesus was talking to the Jewish leaders about the fact the He was “going away”. He tells them that they cannot come where He is going. And they all start to wonder, what He means by that. “is he planning to commit suicide? What does he mean, ‘You cannot come where I am going’?” To which Jesus tells them that they are from below where He is from above, and that leads into the verse that really grabbed me.

Key Verse: That is why I said that you will die in your sins; for unless you believe that I am who I say I am, you will die in your sins.”

He is basically saying that by rejecting Him, they are rejecting the only way to be saved, and receive the eternal gifts that Jesus is offering. He did tell them that “whoever believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life” The problem is that everyone is so wrapped up in the things of this world, that they are just blinded or outright reject these gifts. So they will miss out, “die in their sins” It is so easy to shift one’s focus off of Christ and become caught up with what the world has to offer. I struggle with it all the time. But when you keep your focus on God, all the other things just kind of fade into the background.

My prayer: Lord, I know that each day brings new opportunities and new temptations to take our focus off of you and more on this world, I pray that with your help, and by continually reading your word, You can help keep our focus on where it belongs, on You. Amen.