“So the Jews said to Him, ‘You are not yet fifty years old, and have You seen Abraham?’ Jesus said to them, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was born, I am.’ Therefore they picked up stones to throw at Him, but Jesus hid Himself and went out of the temple.
John 8:57-59 (NASB)
Jesus was not simply a great teacher, a great healer and a great prophet. Jesus was also God in the flesh. There are some who argue that Christ Himself claimed to be God. This encounter recorded in John’s Gospel show that argument to be untrue. When pressed by the Jews as to His true identity, Jesus said this: “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was born, I am.” Christ began this statement with the words “truly, truly” or “amen, amen” indicating that what He was about to say was not only true, but very true. He then makes the claim to have existed before Abraham. Abraham lived some 2000 years before the birth of Christ. Therefore Jesus is making a claim that no mere man could have made. Finally, Christ identifies Himself as “I AM”. This was the same way that God identified Himself to Moses in Exodus 3:14. It was clear that Christ was actually claiming to be the God of Moses. It is clear to us now and it was clear to the Jews then who (after hearing this claim) immediately sought to stone Jesus to death for the sin of blasphemy.
Questions for application…
Why do many deny that Jesus was God in the flesh?
What does the Bible say about those who deny this truth about Christ?
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