When Jesus Is "i Am" Series

It’s also interesting HOW Jesus said what He said. He didn’t say “Before Abraham was… I WAS!” He said – before Abraham was… I AM!

Someone once wrote a poem about this… and it went this way: “I was regretting the past and fearing the future. And suddenly my Lord was speaking: ‘MY NAME IS I AM.’ He paused. I waited. He continued. When You Live In The Past With It's Mistakes And Regrets, It is hard. Because I am not there. My name is not I WAS. When You Live In The Future, With Its Problems And Fears, It is hard, I am not there. My name is not “I WILL BE.” When You Live In The Moment, It's Not Hard, Because I AM HERE. MY NAME IS I AM.” Helen Mallicoat

As one person noted: Jesus is the one who will never me nor forsake me. Jesus is here --- NOW. ALWAYS. He is everything and anything we will ever need and He is always with me. He will NEVER LEAVE, never!

It reminded him of the promise God had made to Joshua "Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go." Joshua 1:9

No matter what difficulties you may encounter, Do not be afraid, do not be discouraged, because Jesus is the Great I AM and He will be with you no matter WHERE you go and no matter what HAPPENS to you.

(PAUSE)

Now… let’s get back to our main text. In John 8:24 Jesus said: “I told you that you would die in your sins, for unless you believe that I am (he) you will die in your sins.”

Now, did you notice, the word “he” is in parentheses? The parentheses are there because I put them there. That’s because the word “he” doesn’t show up in the Greek text. It’s just not there (if you were to read it in the KJV you’d find the word “he” in italics, indicating that they want the reader to know “he” is not in the Greek manuscript).

So (since the word “he” is not there) what Jesus actually said here was: “unless you believe that I AM, you will die in your sins.” And guess which two Greek words He used here???? EGO EIMI! I – I AM! Unless you believe that I AM GOD!!! You will die in your sins.

Now, we can read this one of two ways. We can read it as saying “If you don’t believe that I AM, I’ll punish you. You’ll die in your sins because I don’t like you very much. That’s one way to read this, but that’s NOT the Jesus we see in the New Testament. In fact right after John 3:16 (which says “For God so loved the world…”) we find that the next verse says “For God DID NOT send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.” John 3:17

So - if you reject the idea that Jesus is the “I AM” (i.e. – that He is God) you’re not going to die in your sins because God DOESN’T LIKE YOU. You’ll die in your sins because you’ve refused the only cure that God could offer for your shame and guilt.

ILLUS: It’s like going to a Doctor and he tells you that you have COVID 19. He tells you that you have a very serious form of the disease and if you don’t take the medicine he gives you … you’ll die. So what you gonna do? Well, if you’re smart, you’ll take the medicine and you’ll be cured. But if you’re not so smart --- you’ll die!