It is striking to notice in the Gospels that the more the Lord Jesus is rejected, the more His glory shines forth. In this wonderful chapter, the opposition of the Jews comes out very strongly.

Earlier in the chapter we read that the Son and His truth are able to set us free from captivity to sin (Jn. 8:34). Now the Lord tells them that if any one keeps His word, he would never see death. The truth that the Lord brought not only delivers from sin, as we have seen, but even delivers from the penalty of sin as regards our bodies, which is death. Not all believers in the Son will die, and in 1 Thessalonians 4:15–17 the apostle Paul includes himself in those who would be alive when “raptured”—from the Latin word for “caught up”—when the Lord returns. Only later did the Lord show him he would die. But even believers who pass through physical death do not taste death in its bitter penalty. For believers, it is “absent from the body and present with the Lord” (2 Cor. 5:8). Physical death simply brings believers into the Lord’s presence, awaiting the great resurrection day when they will be reunited with their bodies, then raised and glorified.

Then, due to their astonishment at His words, the Lord reveals to them who He really is: “Before Abraham was, I am.” The great “I am” who spoke to Moses in the burning bush (Ex. 3:14) was now standing before them, yet now as a Man. Jehovah Himself stood before them. What was their response? To fall down and worship Him? Sadly, no; instead, they took up stones to stone Him. What is your response to the Son, the great “I am”? Do you reject Him, too, or do you fall down and worship at His holy feet?