Opening Prayer
Lord, grant us the obedience of faith and light in the mystery of grace. Amen.
Text: John 8:21-27
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.” Then they said to Him, “Who are You?” And Jesus said to them, “Just what I have 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 I speak to the world those things which I heard from Him.” They did not understand that He spoke to them of the Father.
Devotion
With deep sadness Jesus tells them how unhappy they are because they do not believe in Him. Every word expresses grief of genuine love and in this way He wants to waken them to repentance. But how miserable is the wickedness of the impenitent! Though they understand Him very well when He says: “Where I go you cannot come,” they interpret His words in the worst way possible, as if He perhaps intended to kill Himself. That is truly a devilish statement. They know that suicide is the most horrible thing a person can do, and they say such things about God’s Son! How the devil delights in this! But as poisonous as their statement is, the Lord becomes even kinder and gentler, only trying to win them over and proclaiming to them again and again the truth, that without faith they must die in their sins.
Everyone must believe in Him, if they are to be saved. For He is one with the Father, the only true God. Only through the Son do we come to the Father, and that by faith. But whoever believes in Him indeed comes to the Father through the Son. He is what He says, and whoever receives and keeps the Word, that is, believes, through that Word comes into fellowship with the Son and the Father. Notice what He says here: “I Am just what I have been saying to you.” When you receive My Word in your soul, then I Am there Myself and remain in you, and I AM WHO I AM (Exo 3:14). I Am the One who abides and remains eternally the same, the living God from above, the blessed One who has come to the world to take you with Me to heaven. The Jews did not understand that He was speaking to them about the Father, because they did not want to believe, but they wanted to remain in their sins. Dear soul, do you understand what the Lord is saying? Has it entered your heart? Has He become your life?
Closing Prayer
Lord Jesus, I have but a little glimpse of Your glory, and see more and more of it after I receive grace to obey You and keep Your Word with childlike faith. Give me continually new grace for this, most merciful Savior, highly-praised Son of God! Amen.
Hymn
O wouldest thou but once for all surrender
Thyself to Christ in prayer and grief for sin,
Thou shouldest feel thyself
By love most tender
Surrounded and the peace of Jesus win.
O how thy Savior would rejoice,
If thou should’st now begin
To listen to His voice!
O wouldest thou, when God to thee is calling,
But seize the hand that can salvation give,
And do it now, before
The night is falling
Upon the souls that still in sin do live.
O how thy Savior would rejoice,
If thou should’st now begin
To listen to His voice!
Brorson: Ak, vidste du, som gaar i Syndens Lænke L 507:6.8 HCH 171:4-5 tr. P. C. Paulsen;
tune: Ak vidste du (HCH 171); alternate hymn: Open now thy gates of beauty ELH 30:4