One Gospel: Four ViewsSample

JESUS: THE GREAT I AM (PART 5)

The book of John is vastly different from the other three Gospels. John carefully crafted his account to demonstrate Jesus is the great I AM (God’s personal name used in the Old Testament) so his audience would continue to believe in Jesus as Messiah, the promised rescuer.

John uses a lot of sevens, which is considered a number of holiness or completeness. Seven times, Jesus simply said, “I AM” (or, in the original Greek, ego eimi). Whenever Jesus said, “I AM,” He was hinting that He is God.

In John’s gospel, the first time Jesus revealed His identity in this way, it was to an outcast—a Samaritan woman living in sexual sin. Jesus overlooked all of the barriers between them and revealed His identity to her (4:26). She welcomed this news with joy, running through the village to spread the good news!

Unfortunately, this wasn’t always the response that Jesus got when He revealed His identity as I AM. In chapter 8, Jesus had a long conversation with a group of people about who He is. Three times during the conversation, Jesus said, “I AM,” but the people didn’t get it until the last time. And when they finally realized Jesus was proclaiming that He is God, they started picking up rocks to stone Him. Instead of rejoicing, they wanted to kill Him.

And, eventually, people did kill Jesus. The last time Jesus said, “I AM” in the book of John was when Jewish Temple guards and Roman soldiers came to arrest Him. But this time, when Jesus said His seventh “I AM,” the soldiers fell to the ground. Jesus’s name holds so much power, they couldn’t even stand! Yet Jesus went willingly to an unjust trial and public execution.

It’s fitting that Jesus revealed His identity when laying His life down for His people. He demonstrated that the great I AM is most fully embodied in this act of self-sacrificial love. If you want to know who God is, you have to look at the cross.

But that’s not the end. Through His self-sacrificial death, Jesus defeated sin and death. When He rose again, He secured our resurrection for the day He returns. Until then, He’s given us His Holy Spirit so we can know Him and love others self-sacrificially, pointing to the great I AM who loves us immeasurably.

— Taylor Eising

THINK ABOUT IT

Why does it matter that Jesus revealed Himself through an act of self-sacrificial love?

KEY VERSE

But these are written so that you may continue to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing in him you will have life by the power of his name. John 20:31 (NLT)