I AM

John 8 is the morning after the last day of the Feast of Booths. John 7 and 8 are set in a very short period of time in the life of Jesus, in the temple courts of Jerusalem. The setting is about six months before His death, burial and resurrection. He is under severe attack but His time was not yet come. He sees various reactions from his audience which includes 1) major speculations as to His identity; 2) conviction of sin as they walked away from the adulterous woman; 3) superficial faith in Him; 4) anger and debate over His provocative words; 5) and the attempt to stone Him. In the mix of all these reactions Jesus gives them and us profound words that lead to the grand conclusion in 8:58, "Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was born, I AM." I see this statement as the crescendo of this section, if not the crescendo of Jesus' teaching. One of the essentials of Jesus' teaching, around which much of the Gospels spin, is His absolute identity. There is no getting this wrong. There is no almost. There is no maybes. Jesus is the great I AM. His existence was, is, and is to come. He lives in the eternal NOW. He is the only Necessary Being. There is no contingency in Him. He is not "like" and "as" God. He is God. He will not accept casual faith. When it exists He challenges it, tests it to see if it will affirm the great truth of His Deity. In this case it did not. The stones that might have been used to execute a sinful woman was now being raised to execute the Holy One of Israel. No wonder Jesus would not entrust Himself to men. Look at the fickleness they exhibit. They swing from wanting to kill a lawbreaker to wanting to kill the law-giver.

A crescendo needs music that leads to that end. Jesus provides that music, scored in the text of John 8. Jesus builds on the theme of His Divine Nature throughout the day. Here are a few. 8:11-Jesus has the choice not to condemn sin; 8:12-He is the light of the world that prevents us from walking in darkness; 8:14-He is the one who knows where He comes from and where He is going; 8:16-His judgments are supported by God; 8:18-His Father bears witness to Him; 8:19-His opponents know neither the Son nor the Father; 8:21-22-He is going where they cannot follow; 8:23-He is from above, not of this world; 8:24-If people believe in Him they can avoid dying in their sins; 8:26-What He hears from His Father He tells to the world; 8:28-He was taught by the Father; 8:29-He does what pleases the Father; 8:31-Truth will set them free if they abide in His words; 8:36-He is the one who makes people free indeed; 8:38-He does what He saw His Father doing; 8:40-He heard truth from His Father; 8:42-He proceeded forth from His Father; 8:46-He had no sin they could convict Him of; 8:49-He honors His Father; 8:50-He can cause people to never see death; 8:54-He is glorified by the Father; 8:55-Jesus knows the Father; 8:56-Abraham saw Him. CRESCENDO! I AM.

I have a Master's degree in Christian Apologetics. I studied the proofs for God, Jesus, the Bible and the Christian faith. But, no one ever spoke the way Jesus did. His approach to apologetics is unique. He makes His own case in His own way. He lays out the evidences for His Deity based mostly on relational phrases, His relationship to and knowledge of His Father. He demonstrates His intimacy with the Father in the way He speaks of His Father. He also speaks confidently of what He has received from His Father, and what He has come to do in the lives of the people He is speaking to. He does not shrink from speaking truths that might be misunderstood or by dumbing them down. He seeks to pull people up to God and truth by proclaiming it. Each statement Jesus makes is calculated to challenge His hearers to believe that He is the Christ, the Son of the Living God, and that believing they might have life in His name (John 20:30-31). I suggest we cannot improve on Jesus' own words. We need not filter them. We simply need to repeat them. They are true and relevant simply because Jesus is the Great I AM, the one for all times and all circumstances.