If the thought of dying in your sins sounds terrifying to you, it should. What follows such a death is the lifting up of the eyes in hell (Luke 16:23) as the body goes to the grave and the soul goes into the afterlife. You see, that’s what happens to each individual who lives his or her entire life and never places saving belief in Jesus. A certain group of Pharisees heard that message one day, with the message bearer being none other than Jesus. We read about it in John 8:21-24:

Then Jesus said to them again, “I am going away, and you will seek Me, and will die in your sin. Where I go you cannot come.” So the Jews said, “Will He kill Himself, because He says, ‘Where I go you cannot come’?” And He said to them, “You are from beneath; 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 if you do not believe that I am He, you will die in your sins.” (N.K.J.V.)

As I normally do on the blog, I’ve used the New King James Version to cite the above reference. Like the classic K.J.V., the N.K.J.V. uses italicized words to show where the word in question doesn’t actually translate a word found in the original Hebrew or Greek. Instead, the italicized word is added in by the translator in an attempt to not only complete the sentence structure of the English language but also make the translation easier to read. When I use N.K.J.V. references on the blog, I never repeat the italics in my citations because I don’t want the reader to think that I myself have italicized the word for emphasis. However, in the case of John 8:24 I need to draw your attention to something.

The N.K.J.V. italicizes the word “He” in Christ’s quote: “…for if you do not believe that I am He, you will die in your sins.” So, if we omit the “He” — again, it doesn’t translate anything from the original Greek — we find that what Jesus literally said was, “…for if you do not believe that I AM, you will die in your sins.” This name/title “I AM” was very familiar to those Jewish Pharisees because they knew their Old Testament. Standing at the burning bush, Moses had asked God to reveal His name so that Moses could speak to the Israelites in the authority of that name. And God had answered him, “Tell them, ‘I AM has sent me to you'” (Exodus 3:13-14).

Obviously, Jesus claiming that particular name/title for Himself was a powerful statement about His divinity. It was His way of telling those Pharisees, “When you see Me, you see the God of your ancestors. That God was, of course, the true and living God, the God who spoke to Moses, the God who led the Israelites out of Egypt, the God who gave the Israelites His law, the God who gave the Israelites the land of Canaan, and the God of salvation.

Later on in that same teaching session, Jesus once again made this astounding claim by saying to those Pharisees, “Most assuredly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM” (John 8:58, N.K.J.V.). By that time, though, they’d heard all they were going to hear of that, and they picked up stones to stone Him to death for blasphemy in accordance with Leviticus 24:16. But Jesus, knowing that it wasn’t the time, the place, or the cause for Him to die, escaped from them (John 8:59).

By attempting to stone Jesus, those Pharisees made it clear that they had made their decision concerning Him. Actually, they had rejected Him long before the attempted stoning. Even as Jesus spoke with them that day, He knew their hearts were already eternally set against Him. That’s how He could already predict their future when He said to them concerning His death, resurrection, and ascension:

Then Jesus said to them again, ‘I am going away, and you will seek Me, and will die in your sin…” (verse 21, N.K.J.V., emphasis mine)

I don’t know where this post finds you in life, but you need to understand one simple truth: Failure to place saving belief in Jesus Christ will seal your eternal fate. God is sinless, but you are a sinner. Therefore, what does a sinner need most of all? Forgiveness. God has provided that forgiveness via the blood that Jesus shed in dying on the cross as the substitutionary sacrifice for the sins of the human race, but to receive the forgiveness you must believe in Jesus as your personal Savior. To reject Him is to reject the forgiveness, and the end result of that will be you dying in your sins and lifting up your eyes in hell. Those Pharisees made their choice, and they chose poorly. How about you?