Unless you believe I am....

Then He said to them, "You are from below; I am from above. you are of this world; I am not. That is why I said that you will die in your sins; for unless you believe that I am who I say I am, you will die in your sins." Tell us who you are," they demanded. Jesus replied, "I am the one I have always claimed to be. I have much to say about you and much to condemn, but I won't. For I say only what I have heard from the One who sent me, and He is true." But they still didn't understand that He was talking to them about His Father. (John 8: 23-27)

Pretty strong words of Jesus. Unless we believe that Christ is who He says He is, there's no hope for us. We will die in our sins unless we believe that He is what He claims to be. There is no other substitute. God's holiness demands a penalty for the sin we commit, and unless we accept Jesus as our sacrifice for our sins, we will have to pay the penalty ourselves. It sounds harsh, until you consider that we don't deserve God's favor at all. It is only God's kindness to us that allows us to accept Jesus as the payment for our sins. And once it's covered, it's covered. God won't keep reminding us of our past sins. In fact, if we think He is doing that we need to realize that even though our sins our forgiven, Satan is still seeking to destroy us and will try to deceive us into thinking that God is condemning us all over again.

I am going to believe that He is who He says He is....how about you, dear readers?