(The following is the April 16 devotional from my Next Step Devotions book. Before reading it, I suggest you read John 8 and pay close attention to verses 48-59.)
Two of life’s most important questions are “Who is Jesus?” and “How will I respond to him?” Throughout history, people have answered them differently. Was he merely a great teacher or prophet? Was he a popular person about whom legends arose as time passed? Was he a liar who made false claims about himself, or even a lunatic everyone should ignore? Or was/is he the Son of God, the incarnate second person of the Trinity, worthy of our eternal worship and praise?
Jesus spoke plainly about his identity when discussing Abraham and God the Father with some Jews. After Jesus said, “Abraham rejoiced to see my day; he saw it and was glad” (v. 56), the Jews objected that Jesus could not have seen Abraham since Jesus was not even 50 years old (much less approximately 2,000 years required to go back to Abraham’s day). Jesus’ reply claimed divine status: “Truly I tell you, before Abraham was, I am” (v. 58). Jesus invoked the sacred name “I AM,” and his hearers knew exactly what he meant. They considered his claim blasphemy and attempted to stone him.
Spurgeon wrote: “They had asked him, ‘Who do you make yourself out to be?’ And now they have his answer! It is the name by which God revealed himself to Moses at the burning bush, ‘I AM.’ Yet Jesus takes this title to himself!... Jesus’s statement claimed the Godhead. He declared that he was certainly God, self-existent from all eternity… If he was not God, he was the biggest imposter who ever visited this world. But he is God and nothing less.” *
We do not serve One who was merely a teacher or prophet. Jesus is no liar, lunatic, or legend. He is who he said he was. He is the great “I AM.” He is God, and there is no other.
Next Step:
Read Exodus 3:1-15, where God revealed himself to Moses as “I AM.” Reread John 8:58. Answer the questions, “Who is Jesus?” and “How will I respond to him?”
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* CSB Spurgeon Study Bible, ed. Alistair Begg (Nashville: Holman Bible Publishers, 2017), 1439.