I AM Who I AM

August 3, 2016

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). 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 to me because I need all the help I can get!

Sē’lah

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(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. The BLOG is also available on Amazon Kindle, by subscription.

Publications by Alex M. Knight:

·        Seeking the Life in Christ, Meditations on the New Testament and Psalms has been published and is now available at Amazon.com in paperback and Kindle.

·        The second edition of  First Think – Then Pray is available on Amazon Kindle.

·        Meditations on The Story of My Life as told by Jesus Christ has been released as an e-book on Amazon Kindle.

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2007. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188.