John 8:24

John 8:23-24

Ὑμεῖς ἐκ τῶν κάτω ἐστέ, ἐγὼ ἐκ τῶν ἄνω εἰμί·

ὑμεῖς ἐκ τούτου τοῦ κόσμου ἐστέ, ἐγὼ οὐκ εἰμὶ ἐκ τοῦ κόσμου τούτου.

εἶπον οὖν ὑμῖν ὅτι ἀποθανεῖσθε ἐν ταῖς ἁμαρτίαις ὑμῶν·

ἐὰν γὰρ μὴ πιστεύσητε ὅτι ἐγώ εἰμι, ἀποθανεῖσθε ἐν ταῖς ἁμαρτίαις ὑμῶν.

You are from Below, I am from Above.

You are from this world, I am not from this world.

Thus I said to you that you will die in your sins.

For if you do not believe that I am, you will die in your sins.

Since Jesus attached such a dire warning to this statement, we need to know exactly what it means.

Its meaning is in the immediate context of 8:23.

Then, the same phrase is used in the same way at 8:28.

Then, the same phrase is used in the same way at 8:58.

A later usage of a word or phrase illuminating what came before it is technically called a "cataphora." The meaning of John 8:24's phrase is illuminated further by 8:28 and 8:58.

A trifecta thus occurs in John 8: Jesus uses the phrase "I am" to claim He is literally from Heaven ("Above"), "not from this world," The Son of Man, not separated from The Father, that He existed before Abraham, and that He is the great I AM. This last phrase is a Name unique to Yahweh, given to no other. Jesus claimed to be Yahweh Himself.

This plenary context colors the phrase all throughout Jesus's last speech at The Feast of Tabernacles (John 8:12-59).
The great I AM is what Jesus was alluding to at 8:24 and 8:28, and then directly stated in the culmination at 8:58.

Therefore, the key phrase in John 8:24 can validly be capitalized:

"If you do not believe that I AM, you will die in your sins."

For the full background of this short explanation:

→ See the paper Where Does Jesus Say "I am God?"