I Am
Next Part The Bread of Life
Introduction
The prophet Ezekiel and John in the book of Revelation both saw visions of four living beings. Each saw a lion, an ox, a man and a flying eagle. By the amazing supernatural design of God, these four beings corresponded in order to the four gospels of the New Testament. Matthew's biography of Jesus views him as a king, which corresponds to the lion. Mark sees him as a servant, which is the nature of the ox. Luke views Jesus as a man. John sees him as God, represented by the eagle flying in the heavens.
Jesus has the two extreme opposite roles of king and servant. He also combines the irreconcilably different natures of man and God. Irreconcilably different, that is, to the minds of all who came before him, and the great majority of those who have lived since his time, and even of those who have claimed to be his followers.
That Jesus should be both king and servant, as well as both man and God is a staggering revelation to the natural mind. Amazingly, however, there is a further, yet more surprising revelation hidden in the visions of the four living beings. Not only is Jesus king and servant, man and God; his followers also are called to these same privileges. They too are to become kings and servants, men and partakers of his divine nature.
I have written in more detail on this subject in a separate article entitled The Four Living Beings. This writing is a sequel to The Four Living Beings and will be clearer to those who have already read what I wrote there. This article focuses and expands on the fourth living being, the flying eagle. The flying eagle depicts Jesus the head, together with the members of his body, as God.
The Divine Name
Moses stood before the burning bush and asked God the question, "What is your name?" In answer God spoke the words, 'I am who I am.' From the word for I am (אֶהְיֶה (ehyeh) in Hebrew) came the name Yahweh. Basically then, Yahweh means I am.
To the Jewish people, past and present, I am is part of the divine name and was and is utterly sacred The third commandment says, 'Do not take the name of Yahweh, your God emptily, for Yahweh will not hold him guiltless who takes his name emptily.' Jewish people will not even pronounce the name for fear of breaking this commandment. When reading the scriptures aloud, they replace it with Adonai meaning Lord or ha-shem meaning the name.
For more on this, see The Name of Jesus and the Name of God.
Did Jesus follow this tradition? The answer is emphatically, "No." In John's gospel, which is the basis of this study, we find the words I am coming from the lips of Jesus no less than 21 times. Interestingly, 21 is the gematria (numeric value) of ehyeh (I Am), and is a multiple of 3 and 7, both of which numbers are associated with God.
Of course we use the words I am in normal speech all the time. Anyone can say "I am hungry" or "I am David" without implying that he is God! We must look more closely at the way Jesus used the words.
Sometimes he used the words I am to make incredible statements about himself, such as 'I am the light of the world' or 'I am the way, the truth and the life.' We will look at these claims individually later. Sometimes he used the words "I am" on their own. In John 8: 24 he said to the Jews, 'if you do not believe that I am, you will die in your sins.' Later in the discussion in verse 58 he said, 'before Abraham was born, I am!' What was their reaction? 'They picked up stones to throw at Him.' To them he was claiming to be God. He was in clear breach of the third commandment, and the penalty for this in the Law of Moses was death by stoning.
Soon after this event the Jews again attempted to stone Jesus. The reason was the same as before. He had just said, 'I and the Father are one.' The Jews made their reasoning very clear. '"We are not stoning you for any of these (good works)," replied the Jews, "but for blasphemy, because you, a man, are making yourself God."'
Jesus never directly said, "I am God." However he spoke words that to his hearers were the equivalent.
We can see how Jesus regarded himself. He knew his own identity. He knew he was one with the Father. We must now ask how he regarded his followers.
As we read what he said to and about his disciples, we find that he continually placed them on the same level as himself. He said, 'I and the Father are one' (John 10: 30). Soon after he prayed for his disciples that, 'they may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me.' (John 17: 21).
The Divine Family
Jesus regarded God as his father. What about his followers? Was God also their father? He taught them to pray, "Our Father." He said: 'Go to my brothers (and sisters) and tell them, 'I am returning to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God' (John 20: 17).
Jesus was the Son of God. At his baptism, the Holy Spirit descended on him, in the form of a dove, and God spoke the words, 'This is my beloved son, in whom I am well-pleased' (Mat 3: 17). We are probably too familiar with these words to have considered their implications. Never throughout Old Testament history had any human being described himself, or been described as a son of God. This was something totally new and revolutionary.
Was this sonship reserved for Jesus, or was it also for his followers? At the beginning of John's gospel we find the words: 'to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God' (John 1: 12). Paul was even more explicit: 'Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, "Abba, Father" ' (Gal 4: 6).
So the words of Jesus are plain. God is our father. We are his children. Jesus is our elder brother. We are all one family.
According to scripture and to common observation, every creature and every plant produces offspring after its own kind. Genesis chapter 1 states this rather obvious truth no less than 5 times! The great sea monsters and every living creature that moves after their kind ... every winged bird after its kind ... let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds. When God proclaimed that Jesus was his son, he was saying that he had produced offspring after his own kind. Jesus had the same nature and attributes as God himself. Jesus was and is the Son of God.
God was not content with just one son! He wants many offspring after his own kind. He wants more sons and daughters who will inherit his nature and attributes. His original purpose, stated at the beginning of Genesis was to have a family. 'Let us make man in our image, in our likeness,' He said (Gen 1: 26).
I Am
As we have seen, John's gospel records the incredible I am statements that Jesus made about himself.
I am the bread of life (6:35), I am the light of the world (8:12), I am the good shepherd (10:11), I am the door (10:7), I am the resurrection (11:25), I am the way, the truth and the life (14:6), I am the true vine (15:1).
As we are transformed to be like him, can we also make those same statements? Can we say that we are the bread of life, the light of the world, good shepherds, doors, resurrection, the way, the truth and the life?
Jesus emphasised that he 'did nothing of himself.' The Father who lived in him did everything. 'Don't you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you are not just my own. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work' (John 14: 10). He went on to make the astonishing promise to his disciples that he and the Father would live in them also. 'If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him' (John 14:23).
The same spirit that was in Jesus is in us, his people. That spirit, living in Jesus, was the bread of life, the light of the world, the good shepherd, the door, the resurrection, the way, the truth and the life. That same spirit, living in us, is also the bread of life, the light of the world, the good shepherd, the door, the resurrection, the way, the truth and the life.
Next Part The Bread of Life