Two Worlds, Two Destinies Text: John 8:21-30
Introduction: A Vertical Collision
We come now to a passage where the conflict between Jesus and the religious authorities becomes white hot. The conversation is no longer about fine points of the law. The issue is no longer a matter of differing interpretations. Jesus forces a fundamental collision of two entirely different, mutually exclusive realities. He is drawing a line, not in the sand, but through the very fabric of the cosmos. There are two kinds of people, because there are two points of origin. There is the world below, and there is the world above. And you are from one or the other.
Our modern sensibilities want to resist this. We like to think of disagreements as horizontal, as if we are all on the same level playing field, just with different opinions. We want to find a compromise, a middle ground, a negotiated settlement. But Jesus will not allow it. He tells these men that the chasm between Him and them is not a horizontal gap that can be crossed with a bit of effort. It is a vertical abyss. He is from above; they are from below. He is not of this world; they are entirely of this world. This is the great antithesis, and it explains everything. It explains their confusion, their hostility, and their ultimate destiny if they refuse to believe.
What Jesus says here is an act of profound spiritual warfare. He is diagnosing their condition with devastating precision. Their problem is not a lack of information. Their problem is their nature. They are constitutionally incapable of understanding Him because their operating system, their entire framework for reality, is sourced from below. And because of this, they are on a trajectory that ends in death. The only thing that can interrupt this fatal trajectory is a radical belief, a belief that He is something other than a man from Nazareth. A belief that He is the great I AM.
The Text
Then He said again to them, "I am going away, and you will seek Me, and will die in your sin. Where I am going, you cannot come."
So the Jews were saying, "Surely He will not kill Himself, since He says, 'Where I am going, you cannot come'?"
And He was saying to them, "You are from below, I am from above. You are of this world, I am not of this world.
Therefore I said to you that you will die in your sins. For unless you believe that I am He, you will die in your sins."
So they were saying to Him, "Who are You?" Jesus said to them, "What have I been saying to you from the beginning?
I have many things to say and to judge concerning you, but He who sent Me is true; and the things which I heard from Him, these I am saying to the world."
They did not know that He had been speaking to them about the Father.
So Jesus said, "When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am He, and I do nothing from Myself, but I speak these things 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."
As He was speaking these things, many believed in Him.
(John 8:21-30 LSB)
The Great Divide (vv. 21-23)
Jesus begins with a solemn pronouncement of separation.
"I am going away, and you will seek Me, and will die in your sin. Where I am going, you cannot come... You are from below, I am from above. You are of this world, I am not of this world." (John 8:21, 23)
Jesus declares a future, final departure. He is going to a place they cannot follow. Their response in verse 22 reveals the pathetic limits of their imagination. They are so thoroughly "from below" that the only non-standard exit they can conceive of is suicide. They are thinking in purely horizontal, physical terms. Is He going to kill Himself? That would make Him unclean, and would certainly be a place they, as righteous men, could not go.
But Jesus corrects their grubby speculation by explaining the nature of the divide. It is not about geography; it is about ontology. It is about being. "You are from below, I am from above." This is not an insult; it is a statement of fact, like saying water is wet and rocks are hard. They are children of Adam, born of the dust, and their entire worldview is shaped by the dust. Their ambitions, their logic, their religion, it is all earthbound. Jesus, on the other hand, is from heaven. His origin is with the Father. He is not just another man in the long line of Adamic humanity. He is the Lord from heaven (1 Cor. 15:47).
This is the Creator/creature distinction applied to personhood. They are "of this world," meaning their nature and allegiance belong to the fallen, rebellious system that stands in opposition to God. Jesus is "not of this world." Though He is in it, He is not of it. His citizenship, His authority, His very life-source, is from another realm entirely. This is why they cannot understand Him. It is like trying to explain color to a man born blind. They lack the necessary faculty. Their spiritual receivers are tuned to the wrong frequency.
The Divine Ultimatum (v. 24)
Because of this fundamental divide, Jesus issues a stark warning and presents the only possible remedy.
"Therefore I said to you that you will die in your sins. For unless you believe that I am He, you will die in your sins." (John 8:24 LSB)
The consequence of being "from below" and "of this world" is to die in your sins. Notice the plural, "sins." It is not just that they are in a state of sin, but that they will die under the accumulated weight and guilt of all their specific, individual sins. This is the final paycheck of all who live and die by the standards of the world below. Their sin remains with them, unforgiven, and they carry it into a Christless eternity.
But there is an escape clause. There is one way to cross the vertical chasm. "Unless you believe that I am He." The Greek is simply ego eimi, "I am." This is not a grammatical accident. This is the covenant name of God, revealed to Moses in the burning bush. Jesus is claiming to be Yahweh. He is the self-existent, eternal God in human flesh. He is not saying, "believe that I am the Messiah" in some generic, political sense. He is demanding that they recognize His full deity.
This is the absolute center of the Christian faith. It is not enough to admire Jesus as a moral teacher. It is not enough to respect Him as a prophet. You must fall down and worship Him as God. To refuse this is to remain "from below." To refuse this is to die in your sins. There is no third option. This is the ultimatum. Your eternal destiny hinges on what you do with His claim: "I am."
The Question of Identity (vv. 25-27)
Their response is one of feigned ignorance and contempt.
"So they were saying to Him, 'Who are You?' Jesus said to them, 'What have I been saying to you from the beginning?'" (John 8:25 LSB)
"Who are you?" This is not an honest question. It is an expression of exasperation and defiance. It means, "Who do you think you are, making such outrageous claims?" Jesus's answer is brilliant. He essentially says, "My identity is my teaching. What have I been telling you all along?" He refuses to give them a simple title that they can then twist and use against Him. Instead, He points them back to the entire substance of His ministry. His words and His works have been one long, consistent revelation of who He is. If they have not gotten it by now, it is because they refuse to get it.
He goes on to say that He has much more to judge them about, but His message is not His own. It comes from the Father, "He who sent Me is true." Jesus is the faithful witness. He speaks the unvarnished truth of God into the world. The reason they cannot hear it, as John tells us in verse 27, is that they are spiritually deaf. "They did not know that He had been speaking to them about the Father." Their god was a projection of their own nationalistic and legalistic pride. They could not recognize the true and living God when His Son was standing right in front of them.
The Revelation of the Cross (vv. 28-30)
Jesus then points to the ultimate, paradoxical event that will vindicate His identity.
"So Jesus said, 'When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am He...'" (John 8:28 LSB)
Here is a profound and glorious irony. The phrase "lift up" has a double meaning. On the one hand, they will lift Him up on a Roman cross, a symbol of shame, curse, and utter defeat. This will be their moment of triumph, as they see it. They will have eliminated the troublemaker. But in that very act, they will be unwittingly participating in His true lifting up, His glorification and exaltation.
The cross is the event that will prove "that I am He." How? The cross is where the love and justice of God meet. It is where the holiness of God is satisfied. It is where the power of God is displayed in the face of human weakness. The resurrection that follows the crucifixion will be the Father's public amen to the Son's claim. The cross is not a tragedy that God redeems; it is the appointed throne from which Christ conquers sin, death, and Hell. It is their act of supreme rebellion that becomes the instrument of supreme revelation.
Jesus concludes by reaffirming His perfect unity with the Father. He does nothing on His own initiative. He speaks only what the Father has taught Him. And the Father is always with Him, precisely because Jesus "always do[es] the things that are pleasing to Him." This is a quiet, staggering claim to sinless perfection. He is the only man who has ever lived who could say this. His communion with the Father is unbroken because His obedience is perfect.
And what is the result of this hard, confrontational, doctrinally-dense sermon? Verse 30 tells us: "As He was speaking these things, many believed in Him." The Word of God, spoken plainly and without compromise, does its work. It offends the proud, it hardens the rebellious, but it also awakens faith in the hearts of His sheep. The light shines in the darkness, and some, by grace, see it and are saved.
Conclusion: Born From Above
The line Jesus drew in this passage still runs right through the middle of our world today. Every single person is either "from below" or "from above." By nature, we are all from below. We are born of the dust, children of Adam, and our natural trajectory is to die in our sins. We think in earthly terms, we are motivated by earthly desires, and we cannot, on our own, comprehend the things of God.
But the good news is that the one who is "from above" came down. He entered our world to make a way for us to be born from above. The cross, where He was "lifted up," is the doorway. When we look to Him, lifted up for our sins, and believe that He is the great "I AM," the eternal God who died for us, something miraculous happens. God performs a creative act. He gives us a new origin. He causes us to be born again, born from above (John 3:3).
When that happens, we are transferred from the kingdom of this world into the kingdom of His Son. Our citizenship changes. Our nature changes. We are no longer defined by the dust. We are defined by Him. And because we are in Him, we have the promise that where He has gone, we too will one day come. The ultimatum stands before you today. You will either die in your sins, or you will believe that He is. There is no other option.