Before Abraham Was, I Am.

BEFORE ABRAHAM WAS, I AM.

John 8:46-59.

JOHN 8:46. There was nobody who could lay any charge against our spotless Saviour. So why do people refuse point blank to receive the Gospel? This is the unreasonableness of fallen mankind.

JOHN 8:47. Elsewhere Jesus says, ‘My sheep hear my voice’ (cf. John 10:27). If we love God, we will love God’s word. A person who dislikes to hear the word of God shows themselves to be “not of God.”

JOHN 8:48. They accused Him of being a Samaritan and having a devil - the two epithets tripped so readily together off their lips. To say that Jesus was “a Samaritan” was a suggestion that He was no true Jew, such as they imagined themselves to be. Jesus had already told them that if they were truly Abraham’s seed, they would not be seeking to kill Him (cf. John 8:39-40). To say that Jesus had “a devil” was to suggest that Jesus was not speaking from God, but from Satan.

JOHN 8:49. Jesus’ reply was to emphasise the opposite: that He had not a devil, and that He sought the honour of His Father. They, for their part, did dishonour Jesus, the Son (which, by inference, is to dishonour the Father also.)

JOHN 8:50. Jesus sought not His own glory, but His Father sought it, and would judge those who dishonoured Him.

JOHN 8:51. On the other hand, Jesus said, “If a man keep my saying, he shall never see death.” He was referring to eternal and irreversible separation from God, which is the second death (cf. Revelation 21:8). We are all born into spiritual death under Adam, from which Christian believers are made alive at conversion (cf. Ephesians 2:4-5). Furthermore, even physical death cannot hold us as death and hell have lost their sting (cf. 1 Corinthians 15:55-57).

JOHN 8:52. Our Lord’s hearers reiterated their accusation that Jesus had a devil. They could only think of this in terms of physical death: Abraham and the prophets were dead, so how could Jesus say, “If a man keep my saying, he shall never taste of death?”

JOHN 8:53. The Jews further asked, “Art thou greater than our father Abraham?” The inference is that the answer to the question is 'Yes,' as Jesus affirmed in the ensuing conversation. “Whom makest thou thyself?” is an angry, ‘Who do you think you are!’

JOHN 8:54. Jesus’ reply was, “It is my Father that honoureth me.” Such honour, incidentally, is evident in all His words and works, and signs and miracles. This was the one whom they professed to believe, “of whom ye say, that He is your God.”

JOHN 8:55. Jesus suggested that they did not know God. With this He contrasts His own complete knowledge of God. It is a strong assertion to say that if Jesus were to deny that He knows God, He would be a liar like unto them. “But I know Him, and keep His saying.” Jesus does keep God’s sayings, and was fulfilling the mission for which He was commissioned.

JOHN 8:56. Abraham foresaw the day of Christ, and rejoiced. So, yes, Jesus is greater than Abraham. But what foresight on the part of Abraham! What wonderful knowledge! By faith, Abraham saw the still future day of Christ, the day of His ultimate triumph.

JOHN 8:57. Inevitably, this brought about the rejoinder, “thou art not yet fifty years old, and hast thou seen Abraham?” These people were interpreting Jesus’ comment from a fleshly point of view. “Not yet fifty years old” was a way of saying, ‘not yet middle-aged.’

JOHN 8:58. “Before Abraham was,” said Jesus, “I AM.” By this statement, Jesus was both claiming to be eternal, and to be the LORD (the great “I AM”). Before even Abraham was born, Jesus already existed, without beginning and without end, as the great ever-present I AM.

JOHN 8:59. His opponents could not accept this, and picked up stones to slay Him. But they could not, and Jesus conveyed Himself away from them.