Many people view Jesus as a great man – a paragon of moral virtue. Others view Jesus as the consummate teacher as the crowds were amazed at His teaching. There is a reluctance on the part of some however, to view Jesus as God. They may conclude that Jesus said and did many great things, but they certainly do not see Him as God. How did Jesus describe Himself? There are a number of instances when Jesus claimed to be one with the Father. A clear example is when Jesus was speaking with the Jews and indicated that Abraham looked forward to His day:

“Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it and was glad.” So the Jews said to Him, “You are not yet fifty years old, and have You seen Abraham?” (John 8:56-57)

His audience was confused because Abraham lived approximately 2,000 years ago – how could Abraham know about Jesus? Jesus then made an amazing declaration concerning His identity:

Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was born, I am.” (John 8:58)

This may sound like bad grammar, but it’s good theology. The phrase, Truly, truly was Jesus’ way of getting His hearers attention. Jesus did not merely claim preexistence, He was affirming His deity. His declaration of “I am” denotes that He was, He is, and He will be. This is a clear allusion to Moses encounter with the burning bush in the wilderness. As Moses approached the bush, he was told to remove his sandals for he was on holy ground. The Lord told Moses to go to his people and Moses inquired, “What is His name? What shall I say to them?”

And God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM”; and He said, “Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you.’” (Exodus 3:14)

You may be wondering, “Does this really mean that Jesus claimed to be God?” Jesus could not have stated this truth more clearly. The next verse reveals how the Jews who heard Him responded to His statement:

Therefore they picked up stones to throw at Him, but Jesus hid Himself and went out of the temple. (John 8:59)

They knew the significance of Jesus declaration and they sought to stone Him for making Himself equal to God. Who is Jesus to you? C.S. Lewis came to this conclusion about Jesus, “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 patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.” May our lives reflect the truth that Jesus is our Lord and Savior.

Rick Higgins

Associate Pastor – Discipleship.  The Church at LifePark