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  Long Island Abundant Life Church 長島豐盛生命教會

John 8:39–59

5/31/2012

 
Click here to read today's passage on Bible Gateway.

I AM
Another important passage today.  We've see a couple of "I am" passages from Jesus so far, and we'll see more as we go on.  Something sets this one apart though:

"The climax of the entire chapter arrives at 8:58: “ ‘I tell you the truth,’ Jesus answered, ‘before Abraham was born, I am!’ ” The seriousness of this statement is confirmed by Jesus’ preface (lit.): “Truly, truly [Gk. amen, amen] I say to you,” a phrase Jesus uses some twenty times in the Gospel. This is an absolute claim to preexistence anchored in the absolute “I am” (Gk. ego eimi) language we have already seen in this Gospel (cf. 4:26). “I am” possesses no predicate (as in “I am the bread of life,” 6:35) and so stands alone, no doubt echoing the Greek translation of God’s divine name given in Exodus 3:14. To exist before the birth of Abraham—and yet to stand here today—is the boldest claim Jesus has yet made. It recalls the affirmation of the prologue that the Word existed even at the beginning of time. His existence has been continuous since his life is completely drawn from God’s eternal life." [1] (emphasis mine)

This is Jesus undeniably claiming to be God by taking the divine name "I AM".  How do we know this?  The response of the crowd.  As soon as Jesus makes this statement, they pick up stones to stone Him to death.

So why is this important?  There are many people who like Jesus - they think He was a good teacher or whatnot.  There are many who say that He never claimed to be God.  This is evidence to the contrary.  If you ever need a verse to show that Jesus claimed to be God, this is the one. And so we are left with few options.  As always, Clive Staples Lewis says it the best:

"I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic — on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg — or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronising nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to." [2]

[1] Gary M. Burge, NIV Application Commentary: John (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 2000), 263.
[2] Lewis, C.S., Mere Christianity, London: Collins, 1952, 54-56.
Josiah
5/31/2012 02:19:56 pm

This is going to sound a bit mad, but did Jesus mean to get those Jews very mad, cause it kinda sounds like he was. Or maybe they were already mad already. (After all, they are trying to kill him.)

Greg
6/1/2012 04:43:49 am

Very true. I'm sure the "You are of your father the devil" statement probably got people pretty angry. It wasn't arbitrary though. They're trying to get "points" just for being Jews, but Jesus makes it clear that you can't do that. You don't get favor with God just for your ancestry, you have to have faith like Abraham did. I think it's a combo of people being mad already and Jesus making them more mad by taking away their cherished beliefs about themselves.

Andrei
5/31/2012 07:13:54 pm

lol my comment is related to Josiah's question... these passages are somewhat painful to read; Jesus smashes in His points with righteous authority and we feel the crescendo of Jewish anggerr

love the C.S. Lewis quote... I've definitely heard a people say that they think that Christianity is a 'good foundation of morality'..... but not absolute. He definitely shatters that idea emphatically in the quote...

Greg
6/1/2012 04:47:06 am

Yeah - a lot of writing on this passage points to it as the most volatile interaction between Jesus and a crowd recorded in any of the Gospels. It basically ends with Jesus saying that they are children of the devil and the crowd saying that Jesus' power comes from demons. Then He claims to be God and they try to stone Him. That's intense.

I love the quote too. It's been called "Lewis' Trilemma". Interesting read on Wikipedia if you'd like to see what others think. I personally think it's a great and true quote, but there has been some criticism of it for being to simplistic. Anyway....totally love that quote and I've been waiting a while for the right time to use it!


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