I AM Who I AM

Meditations for Seeking the Life in Christ

The Gospel of John 

August 6, 2024

I AM Who I AM

Jesus continued, “You are from below; I am from above. You belong to this world; I do not. That is why I said that you will die in your sins; for unless you believe that I AM who I claim to be, you will die in your sins.”

John  8: 23-24

Jesus’ “I AM” statements in the Gospel of John are rooted in God’s self-disclosure of His own identity to Moses at the beginning of the first exodus: “But Moses protested, “If I go to the people of Israel and tell them, ‘The God of your ancestors has sent me to you,’ they will ask me, ‘What is his name?’ Then what should I tell them?”  God replied to Moses, “I AM Who I AM. Say this to the people of Israel: I AM has sent me to you” (Exodus 3:13-14). Twice in today’s passage, Jesus applies God’s self-disclosed identification to himself: “for unless you believe that I AM who I claim to be”; and “So Jesus said, “When you have lifted up the Son of Man on the cross, then you will understand that I AM he” (John 8:24b and John 8:28a, Emphasis mine).

Throughout John’s Gospel, Jesus seamlessly weaves an interrelationship between himself and God, his Heavenly Father. The more the life in Christ becomes my way of life, the more I see this way of Jesus impacting my life. I find that I move seamlessly from directing my thoughts to my Heavenly Father and to Jesus, not only within the same prayer, but within the same statement or thought. If I am leading prayer in a group setting, this may be a bit confusing to my listeners, but not to me. Someone may approach me after the prayer and ask, “Were you praying to God or to Jesus?” “Yes” I respond.

For me this is no small matter. By faith, the Holy Spirit has revealed to me that Jesus is God, just like Jesus said he would: “my Father in heaven has revealed this to you. You did not learn this from any human being” (Matthew 16:17).

My Takeaway: God is not only sovereign in taking the initiative to save us; He is also sovereign in taking the initiative to reveal Himself to us. That’s good news for me because I need all the help I can get!

Sē’lah

My book on prayer,

First Think, Then Pray

is now available on Amazon Kindle.

 

(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

 

These meditations are written by Alex M. Knight as he seeks the life in Christ as his way of life.  The meditations are published on the BLOG, http://seekingthelifeinchrist.blogspot.com/ and they are also distributed on the Constant Contact email server. You may subscribe to this email service by sending an email to: amkrom812@gmail.com.

 

Copyright © 2024 by Alex M. Knight

 

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.