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Holy Trinity Anglican Orthodox Church
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I AM |
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John
8:46-59 Passion
Sunday March
21, 2010 Some
of the very most important words ever spoken by Christ are found in verse
58, "Before Abraham was, I AM."
These words are not just important because they show the deity and
eternity of Christ. They do
show that. Abraham lived 2,000 years prior to the day Christ spoke these
words, and even Methuselah didn't live that long. But what makes these words so important is that in them
Christ directly assumes the name of God. In Exodus 3:14 God called Moses
to go to Egypt and lead the Hebrews to Canaan.
Moses was afraid the Hebrews would not believe God had sent him.
They would ask the name of God as proof that He had spoken to
Moses. God told Moses,
"Thou shalt say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you."
"I AM" means
God is without beginning or end. His
existence is a continuing present tense.
He always is. He is
forever AM.
Past and present are human ways of talking about things that happen
prior to, or after the present moment in time.
But God transcends past and future.
To Him all things are eternally present. When Genesis 1:1 says, "In the beginning God created the
heaven and the earth," it refers to the beginning of the natural,
created order, not to the beginning of God.
God has no beginning. God
"inhabiteth eternity" (Is. 57:15). When
Jesus said, "Before Abraham was, I
AM," He was in the Temple being questioned by the religious
leaders of the Jews. Though
the New Testament was written in Greek, Jesus, as most of the Jews of His
time, spoke primarily Aramaic. As a child, however, Jesus was thoroughly
instructed in Hebrew, and could read and quote Scripture in the Hebrew
tongue, which was used almost exclusively in the Temple.
In this passage Jesus spoke His words in Hebrew, "JEHOVAH."
This was the name of God Himself (Gen.15:18).
These were the words Jews did not speak for reverence of the Name
of God. They were considered
too holy for a mere man to speak. But
Jesus spoke them boldly. Jesus
applied them to Himself. Before
Abraham was, JEHOVAH.
What is the name of God who created the heaven and earth, who
called Abraham from Ur and made him the father of a multitude, and sent
Moses to Egypt to lead His people back to the Promised Land?
His name is JEHOVAH, I AM. Who is
this man who stands before the Pharisees, this wanderer, this outcast who
is despised and rejected of men, this man of sorrows? Who is this man who stilled the sea, healed the sick and
raised the dead? He is "I
AM." He is the same One who created this universe, called Abraham,
and sent Moses to Egypt. He
is I AM. He is JEHOVAH. So,
when Jesus ascended to the cross to give His life as the Ransom for many,
it was no mere man who suffered and died.
It was no half-god, created by the Father specifically to come to
earth for this purpose. God
could not create something to bear our sins, even if that something were
created out of the very essence of God.
In our sins we have offended God.
In our sins we have rejected Him, laughed at Him, and crucified Him
in our souls. Since it is God we have offended, it is God who must bear the
cost of our sins if we are ever to be forgiven. Just as you must bear the cost of forgiving those who sin
against you, if you want your relationship to continue, so God Himself
must bear the cost of forgiving our sins against Him if He wants our
relationship with Him to continue. Either
He will bear the cost of our offenses, or He will require us to pay for
them ourselves. He chose to
bear them Himself, so He became flesh and went to the cross to die for
them. In Christ, the Great I
AM, JEHOVAH, went to the
cross for us. Something
else needs to be emphasised here. In
Christ, the Great I AM stands
before His people. I AM addresses them in person.
I AM teaches them the
great and deep things of Himself, and offers them life and hope and peace.
I AM delivered their
ancestors from their physical bondage to Egypt.
Now I AM stands before
us to deliver us from the spiritual bondage of our guilt and sin (Jn.
8:32). But many will not
listen. Why do they hear
without listening and look without seeing?
Why are they so indifferent to the words and appearance of God?
Look at the words of Christ in verse 47. "He
that is of God heareth God's words: ye therefore hear them not, because ye
are not of God." Why
did these people not receive Christ's words?
Why did they reject Him and mock Him and crucify Him?
Because they were "not of God." It is so easy to deceive
our selves into thinking all is well between ourselves and God.
Many have told me how they have made their "peace with
God," yet they obviously do not hear God's words.
I say this not to condemn anyone, but to say with sorrow that they
allow themselves to drift along on every wind of doctrine, believing they
have somehow earned Heaven, or that God doesn't really care about their
sins, or that their unbiblical thoughts and lifestyles, their absence from
a true Church on the Lord's day, their worldly and self centered habits
and attitudes, and their self-centered and self-made "faith" are
actually blessed by God and require no change, no confession, no
repentance. Such people are
in the same spiritual state as the people Christ addressed when He stood
before them in person. And
His words are addressed to those people today as much as they were
addressed to the Pharisees more than 2,000 years ago.
"Ye are not of God." But,
thanks be to God, Christ has other words to speak as well.
Just a few verses after these terrible words, we read words of hope
and peace. "If a man
keep my saying, he shall never see death" (Jn. 8:51).
A few verses prior to this we read, "He that believeth on me,
as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living
water" (Jn. 7:38). "He
shall never see death" is a promise from I
AM that those who do believe in Christ, in true and biblical faith,
are delivered from the death of the soul in which they formerly lived, and
which awaits the lost in hell forever.
They are delivered from the penalty and cost of their sins,
forever. "Rivers of
living water" refers to the abundant and joyful life we have now and
forever in Christ Jesus. It
is the peace that comes into all our being from knowing we are at peace
with God through Jesus Christ. It
is also the joy that comes from walking the paths of righteousness.
To abstain from evil is to avoid the things that cause suffering
and grief. To do
righteousness is to do the things that produce peace and happiness.
This is a great part of the living water that flows from and
through the inner being of Christ's people. Today
the Great I AM stands before
us. Today He addresses us
with the same words, the same promises, the same good news, and the same
bad news. Those who hear Him
still receive eternal life and rivers of living water.
Those who refuse to hear Him are still not of God and have no part
in Him. God grant us grace
that we may always hear Him.
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