You Don't Have to Taste Death

Jesus makes one of His most extraordinary promises: if you keep His word, you will never taste death. Today we'll explore what this means and why it changes everything.

John 8:51 "Truly, truly I say to you, if anyone keeps My word he will never see death."

When Jesus says "truly, truly"—and He says it 25 times in John's gospel—it means pay attention. This is of great importance. What follows is something you need to sear into your soul.

Against the backdrop of slander and accusation, against a crowd that's calling Him demon-possessed, Jesus is still gracious. He's still extending an invitation to the ill-deserving and undeserving. He's inclined toward mercy. And He makes another offer of life: "If you keep My word, you will never see death."

The Jews are confused. "Abraham died. The prophets died. Are you greater than Abraham?" They're thinking shortsightedly. They're thinking about one kind of death—physical death, the separation of the soul from the body.

But there are three types of death in the Bible. First is physical death—everyone reading this is going to die. That's not morbid; that's biblical. The Bible says you can't possibly live a life of wisdom unless you know that (Ps. 90:12). Sometimes people refer to death as "natural" but I want you to understand there is nothing natural about death. Death may be common, but death is a curse. It's not the way God designed things to be.

Where there is no sin, there is no death. But now that sin has entered the world, the book of Romans says: sin pays wages (6:23). Do you have a job? Well, your job typically pays you wages. We get that idea. Sin pays wages too, and the wages of sin is death.

Second is spiritual death—not the separation of the soul from the body, but the separation of the soul from God. When someone dies in their sins, there are no rewinds, no do-overs, no mulligans.

Third is eternal death—when the soul is united to the body for all of eternity in hell.

This is grave. This is serious. And Jesus gets serious with them. You know why? So they can understand the good news. Jesus says, you don't have to die this way.

Jesus says, "if you keep His word, you'll never see death, you'll never taste death (John 8:51)." What does He mean? Hebrews tells us that Jesus Christ tasted death for all those who would believe. He experienced the bitterness of death. He experienced the separation from God. He experienced the sting of death.

That's why Paul says, "O death, where is your sting?" If you're in Christ and you lose a loved one, does it still sting? You bet. But the final, true, eternal sting of death is gone because Jesus bore that sting. He tasted that.

For the Christian, death isn't sting. Death is not loss. Death is, Paul says, gain. It's when you meet your Savior face to face. This is the good news: you're going to die, and guess what? You can look forward to it! Paul says, "if I remain in this body, what is that to me? But if I die, I get to be with the Lord (Phil. 1:24)"—that's good news.

Jesus offers you an invitation: Whatever your life of sin, whatever your life of iniquity, whatever your life of wickedness, no matter how far you've gone down into the waywardness of the world, you don't have to taste death. He tells the thief on the cross, "Today you'll be with Me in paradise." No penance, no purgatory, no system of meritocracy where you inch your way back to God.

Jesus says in John 11, "I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies." And then He concludes with a question—you know what that question is? "Do you believe this?"

Because you can be reading this and not believe that. So let me ask you the same question Jesus does: Do you believe this?

Stay dialed in.