I talked to a man once who had incurred a hospital debt of over $100,000. Apparently, he had no insurance to cover himself. Unable to pay the debt even over a period of years and because he was limited in his work capacity, his only hope was to beg for mercy. To his surprise the hospital honored his plea and forgave the entire debt!
Do not we stand before God the same way? Knowing this, He sent his only Son into the world to take our debt upon his shoulders and pay it in full. There were some, however, who believed that they could pay off the debt themselves and appease God through their works (John 8:21-30).
“Jesus said to the Pharisees: ‘I am going away, and you will look for me, but you will die in your sin.”
By rejecting Jesus, these men closed the door to their own salvation and locked it tight. God gave them a way to salvation, and they preferred to hang to their own counterfeit system. Knowing this, Jesus told them that, in the end, they would die, unrepentant.
He went on to explain:
“You belong to what is below, I belong to what is above. You belong to this world, but I do not belong to this world. That is why I told you that you will die in your sin. For if you do not believe that I AM, you will die in your sin.”
Three times Jesus said they would die in their sin. And what was their sin? After all they were practically perfect at living up to the requirements of their religious system. Their sin was rejecting Jesus. He was the only one who could take them beyond this world. In accepting Jesus, they could open themselves to the flow of new life and participate in things above. By refusing to believe that Jesus was the Son of God, they remained tied to this world and its path to destruction.
“But the one who sent me is true, and what I heard from him I tell the world.” They did not realize that he was speaking to them of the Father.”
Who sent Jesus, they wondered? Was he a Roman spy that infiltrated the Jews so as to destroy them? Was he sent by some king of a neighboring nation? They could not fathom that Jesus was sent by God and was representing Him to the world. Stuck in their belief that Jesus was an imposter, they dug themselves a deeper hole of self-righteousness. And so, their sin remained, and would remain, as Jesus told them, until death.
Jesus was so clear and direct in these words that,
“…many came to believe in him.”
Many realized that Jesus was sent by God and alone had the power to save them. He made it clear that observing the Law was not enough to win the forgiveness of God.
We live in a culture that has more faith in science and in the concoctions of this world than it has in God. It believes, for the most part, that they are not in sin and that there is no such thing as offending God. And, if there was debt to pay, they believe that they have the wherewithal to pay it off themselves—God’s mercy is not needed.
Grateful that we have faith to believe that Jesus is the only way to God, and that mercy is the only way out of our debt, we confess our sins and humbly plead for His forgiveness.
