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Jesus is the Great – I Am
In addition to all of the above claims, Jesus also claimed to be the “I AM”, which is a proclamation of being the God who spoke to Moses out of the burning bush.
The gospel of John records the words of Jesus making this proclamation:
Jesus said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM.” (John 8:5)
This proclamation made the Jews furious. A reference to the book of Exodus helps in understanding this:
Then Moses said to God, “Indeed, when I come to the children of Israel and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they say to me, ‘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 children of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you.’“ Moreover God said to Moses, “Thus you shall say to the children of Israel: ‘The LORD God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you. This is My name forever, and this is My memorial to all generations.’“ (Exodus 3:13-16)
So, we can see by reading the above passage that God claimed the name, “I Am” in His conversation with Moses, and then Jesus referrers to Himself as “I Am” when speaking to the religious leaders of Israel.
The “I Am” passage provided to Moses is not well understood because there is not a subject provided that would answer the question: I Am what? Jesus made a number of “I Am” statements in His ministry but up until the preceding passage they all had a subject. For example, the following “I Am” statements have already been presented in various posts on our site:
I Am the Way, the Truth and the Life
I Am the Door to the Sheepfold
I Am the Good Shepherd
I Am the Bread of Life
I Am the Light of the World
I Am the Resurrection and the Life
I Am the True Vine
I Am the Alpha and the Omega
I Am the Root and Offspring of David
I Am the Morning Star
But what does, “I Am” mean if such a definitional statement is missing? Certainly the words that came from the Father to Moses are not simply a statement of existence but rather a statement of all inclusiveness. I Am all of the things identified in the list above. I Am every good thing that you ever needed, everything you could possibly imagine, and even more because I Am God.
Therefore, in speaking the same words as the Father spoke to Moses; Jesus clearly communicated His identity to the scribes and Pharisees. But this was not the only time that Jesus proclaimed Himself to be God. For example, Jesus was more direct in claiming to be the Father in the following statement:
Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; so how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?” (John 14:9)
This is by far the most interesting, and the most right doctrine I’ve ever seen. You surely have read the bible and internalized it.
Thank you
This incomparable CHRIST left the glories of heaven to assume a body of flesh.
This incomparable CHRIST came to earh as the wonderful ONE of Heaven.
Through the prophet Isaiah the WORD of GOD prohesied long before CHRIST’s first advent: For unto us a child is born,unto us a son given: and the goverment shall be upon HIS shoulders: HIS Name shall be called Wonderful,Counsellor, the Mighty GOD, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. Of all the titles given JESUS, none seems as complete as “HIS NAME SHALL BE CALLED WONDERFUL.” This title thrills me. How it stirs my faith in HIM, and my admiration of HIM.
Thank you deeply for your Godly insights….may the LORD continue to bless you!!
hi there, just wanted to point something out to you which may be of interest. if you are going to expound on scripture, you need to know something of the translation of them. john 8:58 is not a literal comparison to exodus 3:14. if you really want to know the unadulterated truth here goes; the original hebrew in exodus 3:14 should be correctly rendered as ‘i will be who i will be’, the original greek rendition in john 8:58 should read ‘i am he’ with an italicized ‘he’. it is impossible to compare the two directly as you and many others have done and come up with the understanding that ‘jesus is saying he is the great i am’. oddly, the phrase from john 8:58 is ‘ego eimi'(εγω ειμι) which occurs approx. 48 times in the N.T. and is always rendered as ‘i am he’ meaning ‘i am the one – of whom it has been prophesied’ yet in only one single occurence is the ‘he’ omitted. how can the rule for applicaba;applicable in this interpretation be subverted only once in 48 instances? does it matter that theologians are aware of this anomaly yet the teaching persists in the body? if you realy & truly want to know the truth why are the words of christ himself on this matter not plain enough when in mark12:26&27 jesus teaches ‘…have you not read in the book of moses…god(yhwh) spoke to him(moses)…he(yhwh) is the god of abraham, isaac & jacob…he(yhwh) is therefore the god of the living…’ also read in acts 7 stephen speaks of this event also. so if jesus calls the one appearing to moses god(yhwh) how can his own teaching be ignored in its entirety especialy since he speaks of god(yhwh) as a being outside of himself? besides this jesus, whom you are claiming to ‘be yhwh’ himself has a god – who then is this god that is greater than yhwh? wake up – its only the truth that can set you free! be careful how you hear!
Thanks for your comments. I appreciate your scholarly knowldege the translations of our current day scriptures.
Your right, your translation is different than that of all of the different bibles that I currently have, as they all translate John 8:58 into “I AM”. One of my New King James bibles actually makes a reference from John 8:58 back to the burning bush passage in Exodus. Even my Catholic bible, which was a translation from the most original scriptures avalilable, and which used a multi denominational team to do the translation, translates it as “I AM”. In addition, the Catholic version it has a reference to a translation for “I AM” that I will share here:
“Came to be, I AM: the Greek word for “came to be” is the one used of all creation in the prologue, while the word used for “am” is the one reserved for the Logos.
I am not saying that you are wrong, but only that yours would seem to be a miniority opinion, and one that I can not judge one way or the other.
Regarding the rest of your comment, I am not sure that I understand what it is that your trying to get to, but will offer the following comment:
Jesus was the spirit of God contained in the body of a man. When God spoke to Moses in the burning bush scriptures God appeared and spoke as spirit. So when Jesus makes reference to God being external to himself he can do the spirit of God existed before the man Jesus was born, and this is all Jesus is saying.
This is supported by my last scriptrual reference found in this posting, in which Jesus tell one desciple that when he sees Jesus that he sees the Father. So, in Jesus’ own words He confirs that He is God.
Thanks again for you comment.
Thanks to both of you. There must be a correlation between coming to a spiritual understanding of the nature of Christ and being able to sift through the details of biblical texts, I feel my appreciation of the Savior has been enhanced by both your comments
JESUS THE “GREAT I AM” JEHOVAH! THE PRE-INCARNATE
JESUS, SPOKE TO MOSES FROM THE BURNING BUSH: INSIDE
THE JESUS CHRIST STUDY BIBLE: NEW TESTAMENT (KJV)
AND CHRISTOLOGY: AVAILABLE @ AMAZON .COM ~
BARNES AND NOBLE .COM ~
CHRIST BOOKSTORE ON LINE ~
http://WWW.CHRISTBOOKSTOREONLINE.COM
CONTENTS: NEW TESTAMENT (KJV) BIBLE AND COMMENTARY ~
Chapter 1 ~ Jesus and The Trinity ~ Creation ~ Gap
Chapter 2 ~ Jesus The Almighty Son of God
Chapter 3 ~ Jesus The Word of God
Chapter 4 ~ Jesus Created The Angels
Chapter 5 ~ Jesus The Great Jehovah ~ Great I Am
Chapter 6 ~ Jesus The Only Savior and Messiah
Chapter 7 ~ Jesus The Eternal Divine High Priest
Chapter 8 ~ Jesus Rapture The Church ~
Book of Revelation Bible Commentary~
Jesus Names and Titles Scriptures~
Jesus Salvation Scriptures~
JESUS is GOD and anybody who says he is not is foolish.