If you want to know who Jesus is, do not ask His critics: listen to how He spoke of Himself. Over and over He did not merely point to the truth; He said, “I am” it.
“I am the bread of life” (John 6:35). “I am the light of the world” (John 8:12). “I am the door” (John 10:9). “I am the good shepherd” (John 10:11). “I am the resurrection, and the life” (John 11:25). “I am the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6). “I am the true vine” (John 15:1). Do you hear it, child of God? He puts Himself at the center of life, light, salvation itself.
“Before Abraham was, I am”
But He said something greater still, and the Jews picked up stones to kill Him for it, because they knew exactly what He meant:
“…Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am.” (John 8:58, KJV)
He did not say “before Abraham was, I was.” He said “I am”: the very name God gave Moses at the bush, “I AM THAT I AM” (Exodus 3:14). Jesus was claiming to be the eternal, self-existing God. And He warned, “if ye believe not that I am he, ye shall die in your sins” (John 8:24). In the Revelation He says it plainly: “I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last” (Revelation 22:13). That is God talking.
What He never identified Himself with
Now here is something worth seeing, and it ties to what we preach about baptism. In all these self-descriptions, the Lord Jesus never once identified Himself with water, or made water the place where sin is washed away. When He spoke of “living water,” John tells us plainly He meant the Holy Spirit (John 7:37–39). He is the giver, not the water. So any teaching that makes baptismal water the place where a soul is saved is resting on a foundation the Lord Jesus never laid. He identified Himself as the bread, the light, the door, the shepherd, the resurrection, the way, the truth, the life, the great I AM, and He calls you to come to Him and live. Glory to God.
Related Teaching
- Study Outline: His Own Self-Descriptions
- Our Great God and Saviour
- Scripture Supports the Doctrine of the Trinity
“And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation; To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God. For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.”
2 Corinthians 5:18-21 (KJV)
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