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I Am
April 10
I Am
egōeimi
Here is a name for the Lord Jesus that explodes off the pages
of Scripture. Speaking to the Jews, Jesus declared, “Verily,
verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am” (Joh_8:58).
At that comment, the Jews “went ballistic” and couldn’t pick up
stones fast enough to kill Him on the spot.
Why did they react that way? Because they immediately
recognized precisely what Jesus was claiming, that He was no
less than God in the flesh. This was without question the most
unmistakable claim to deity that Jesus made while on earth.
I Am is egōeimi (G1510), words that actually are not very
significant in themselves. The word eimi is simply the verb “to
be” and is merely the usual word of existence. To Greeks in
Jesus’ day, and to our ears today, Jesus was just saying, “I
exist.”
Ah, but that’s not what the Jews heard! They instantly noted
Jesus’ reference to Exo_3:14, when Moses asked God His name and
God answered: “I AM THAT I AM,” which declares God “to be”
self-existent, without beginning, without end.
This is also expressed in the term Yahweh, “I Am the One Who
Is,” the most significant name for God in the OT. So when Jesus
said, “I have always been,” the Jews were enraged beyond reason
or control. Similar statements on other occasions enraged the
Jews because they understood that Jesus was claiming equality
with God (Mar_2:5-9; Joh_5:16-18; Joh_10:30-33).
That was no different, however, than it is in our day. People
call Jesus “a good man,” “a wise teacher,” “a moral example,”
and other such platitudes, but flatly reject Him as God. At the
core of several cults is the denial of the deity of Christ, but
this truth is an absolutely cardinal doctrine of Christianity;
without it, Christianity collapses of its own weight.
It’s also a doctrine that is clearly taught in Scripture with
no ambiguity whatsoever. As John declares, “In the beginning
was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
. . . And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we
beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the
Father,) full of grace and truth. . . . No man hath seen God at
any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the
Father, he hath declared him” (Joh_1:1, Joh_1:14,
Joh_1:18).
Scriptures for Study: Read the following scriptures, noting
Jesus’ claims to deity: Mar_2:5-9; Joh_5:16-18;
Joh_10:30-33.
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