Peace in the name of Christ
I have had a study / discussion with 2 friends who are JW on the topic of the Trinity. During this discussion I threw in John 8, and more specifically John 8:24 as a prooftext to why it is necessary to believe that Jesus is in fact God.
John 8:24 (kjv)
“I said therefore unto you, that ye shall die in your sins: for if ye believe not that I am he, ye shall die in your sins.”
Now that is a nice prooftext to throw onto the table. And my JW friends had no answer, neither on the day, nor later, as to what that verse meant. I have since then started to wonder: how is it, that failing to believe that Jesus is God (or of divine nature) will make it impossible to escape our sins?
I have found that there is one parallel statement in 1 cor 15:17
“And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins.”
I have a thought, that this may correspond with Romans 4:25
“Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification.”
Alright, so there are some ways to go about this question
(1) maybe take a look at the context of john 8. Since it comes after the great statements of “I am the bread of life” (6:35), “whoever believes in me out of his belly shall run rivers of living water” (7:37) and more like that, maybe it is a summary that all those things are accessed only by faith in Jesus as being divine?
(2) maybe go into the OT prophecies about the messiah, maybe the statement is not really about needing to believe in Jesus’ divinity, but about believing that Jesus is THAT messiah / that prophet.
Alright, I hope this can give you a start, and maybe see how this is interesting. For me, at least partly, it is about being able to give a reasonable layout of the John 8:24 verse and the principle behind it.
Regards, Peter
I have had a study / discussion with 2 friends who are JW on the topic of the Trinity. During this discussion I threw in John 8, and more specifically John 8:24 as a prooftext to why it is necessary to believe that Jesus is in fact God.
John 8:24 (kjv)
“I said therefore unto you, that ye shall die in your sins: for if ye believe not that I am he, ye shall die in your sins.”
Now that is a nice prooftext to throw onto the table. And my JW friends had no answer, neither on the day, nor later, as to what that verse meant. I have since then started to wonder: how is it, that failing to believe that Jesus is God (or of divine nature) will make it impossible to escape our sins?
I have found that there is one parallel statement in 1 cor 15:17
“And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins.”
I have a thought, that this may correspond with Romans 4:25
“Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification.”
Alright, so there are some ways to go about this question
(1) maybe take a look at the context of john 8. Since it comes after the great statements of “I am the bread of life” (6:35), “whoever believes in me out of his belly shall run rivers of living water” (7:37) and more like that, maybe it is a summary that all those things are accessed only by faith in Jesus as being divine?
(2) maybe go into the OT prophecies about the messiah, maybe the statement is not really about needing to believe in Jesus’ divinity, but about believing that Jesus is THAT messiah / that prophet.
Alright, I hope this can give you a start, and maybe see how this is interesting. For me, at least partly, it is about being able to give a reasonable layout of the John 8:24 verse and the principle behind it.
Regards, Peter