I Am

            One of the claims of those who deny the deity of Christ is He never made such a claim for Himself. That would be laughable if the ignorance displayed was not so tragic. Scripture abounds with evidences the Lord Jesus, the Messiah, understood Himself to be God. We could go to the many instances, beginning with the event when Jesus was twelve years old, where He identified Himself as the Son of God. In the Temple, where His earthly parents found the missing Jesus, He responded to them saying, “Wist ye not I must be about My Father’s business?” (Luke 2:49)

 

            Even the Greeks understood that someone who was the offspring of a god must in their very being themselves be a demigod. The big difference between what the Greeks conceived and what Jesus is lies in the fact He is not half god and half man but fully God and fully Man. But it is amazing how this world cannot even stretch as far as the Greeks when it comes to considering Jesus. They usually choose to deny His claim to being the Son of God, but my point here is what Jesus said of Himself.

 

            In the Gospel of John, the inspired writer took pleasure in utilizing the term “I am” in the statements of Christ. But the most telling one is where Jesus was conversing  with the Jews who asked Him “Art thou greater than our father Abraham…?” (8:53a) Among other things Jesus told them, “Abraham rejoiced to see My day: and he saw it and was glad. (66) This really set them back on their feet and when they sought to debate the issue the Lord said, “Before Abraham was, I AM.” (58b) These people then sought to stone Jesus because they understood He was saying that He was the God who sent Moses to free them in Egypt identifying Himself to the Children of Israel as the great I AM. (59) He is God in the flesh!