|
[back]
The I Am Designation of God
Dear Friends,
There are profound depths and wonderfully rich blessings contained in the seven I am sayings of Jesus that John records in his Gospel (Jn. 6:35; 8:12; 10:9,11; 11:25; 14:6; 15:1). However, the most profound of the I am sayings is not one in which our Lord likens Himself to some creational feature such as food, light, or vine, but where He shockingly declares that before Abraham was, I am (Jn. 8:58). The relation of these sayings is like that of light revealing its seven visible components when it passes through a prism. All that Jesus claims about Himself in the seven I am sayings are contained in that one mysterious and profound declaration of His self-sufficient, eternal, and unchangeable being.
What are we to understand from the declaration of Jesus when he said: Truly, truly I say to you, before Abraham was, I am? It is certain that with these words, the Man from Nazareth was claiming to be God. The designation, I am, was the divine name God revealed to Moses when He sent Moses to lead Israel out of Egypt (Ex. 3:14). The Jews who heard Jesus speak these words clearly understood His claim of divinity and they took up stones to execute Him as a blasphemer accordingly. We who have saving faith in Jesus know Him to be the unique, atoning God/Man, who had to be both truly human and fully divine to save His people from their sins (Heb. 2:14-18). However, we but touch the surface of the profound meaning of our Lord’s I am declaration if we consider that declaration to be simply an assertion of His deity. With this single (one word in both Hebrew and Greek), simple, and stunningly clear declaration, our Savior tells the world not only that He is God, but also what sort of God He is.
If we extend our consideration of this I am saying only to the extent that Jesus was claiming to be God, we fail to realize that nowhere in all of God’s revelation to us in Scripture do we find a single instance of God simply telling us that He is God. Every word of Scripture points not only to who God is in Himself, but, beyond that, to who God is in relation to man, the crown of His creation and object of His redeeming love. Therefore, when Jesus claims to be the only self-sufficient and self-existing being in all of reality that includes not only the time-space continuum of creation, but also all of that unfathomable dimension we call eternity, the Son of God is announcing to us something essential for our understanding of His being and of His coming to us in His incarnation.
The stupendous truth that we can fail to apprehend if we do not grasp the essential significance of this I am declaration is that there is nothing in the being of our God that is needy and hence demanding of us. This truth is the light in which all else in Scripture should be seen and understood. For example, people may regard and have regarded the elaborate sacrificial system of the Old Testament to represent the varied and continual demands of an offended and prosecuting deity. Yet, God Himself tells His people, when they begin to regard the sacrifices they begrudgingly offer to Him in that way, that He does not need their offerings because the cattle on a thousand hills are already His (Ps. 50:10).
As the Jews of old wrestled with their inadequate and untrue conceptions of God, regarding Him as needing and hence requiring of them all sorts of things, so we who are in Christ can misconstrue the statements of our Lord and of His apostles regarding our discipleship as so many demands placed upon us by a needy and demanding Master. Nothing could be further from the truth!
The I am declaration of God in Christ supremely and blessedly reveals the gracious and lavishly generous nature of our God. He needs and hence He requires nothing of His creatures; He gives to them all that they are and have. He came not to add heavenly demands to our crushing earthly burdens, but rather to invite us to come to Him for relief that He alone is capable of giving in infinite degree and with loving motivation. Even when Jesus speaks of our bearing His yoke, it is not an image of our pulling our share of a great weight but rather is an image of our being united to the Lover of our souls who is infinitely equipped and lovingly disposed to lift us out of all that weighs us down.
There is sheer gospel in the words of Jesus: I am. He is the ultimate Giver of life, of forgiveness, of eternal glory. And He is all of that because this self-existing and self-sufficient God also designates Himself as love. (Jn. 3:16; 1 Jn. 4:8). As this truth masters us, we will find that our relief in redemption is not slight but incalculable, and that our cause for joy and gratitude is infinite and everlasting.
Yours in deepening relief and joy,
William Harrell
[back]
|
Sunday
Morning Worship 10:30 AM
Evening Worship
6:30 PM
Wednesday
Christian Education
7:00 PM
Saturday
Congregational Prayer Meeting
7:00 PM |
