Who is God?

Those who know me best would, I think, support my claim to be an aficionado of the English language. I get most annoyed when people use an adjective when it is an adverb that is required. I like to see the humble apostrophe used in the correct manner (or omitted when it is not required!). I don't like to see a preposition as the final word in a sentence!

So I can understand why some people may think it strange that when, some 3,500 years ago, Moses asked his God - the God of the Israelite people - who He was, he received a strange response. God said: "Say to the Children of Israel, 'I AM has sent me to you ... This is My name forever." (Ex. 3:14-15).  

A two-word sentence! Yet it is full of meaning! In the English language, a sentence needs only two parts of speech to be complete - a subject and a verb. So when God says that His name, not one of His attributes, is "I AM", this conveys to us the concept that He is complete in Himself. He is subject and verb. He is everything that we could possibly need.

However, there is more. This name indicates His eternal nature. He is not "I was". That would suggest that He had a past. He is not "I will be". That would suggest that He has a future. His name "I AM" shows that He is dwells in the timelessness of eternity. You see, that is the nature of eternity. It is not "endless time", but timelessness! If you find that to be confusing, don't worry - you are not alone! However, it is one of the words with which I deal in my book "Great Words of the Faith" (see above for a link). I provide an analogy that, I believe, most people will understand - indeed, will have experienced!

Then, in the fulness of created time, Jesus put flesh on God's bare-boned answer to Moses' question. Jesus, Who is God the Son, left the eternal glory in order to give His life for our salvation. However, He also came to show us what it means to bear the Father's name. 

In John's account of the Gospel, the apostle records seven specific instances in which Jesus declared His deity by the the use of the words "I AM". He said, "I AM the bread of life" (6:35 ff). He said "I AM the light of the world" (8:12. 9:5). He said: "I AM the door" (10:7,9). He claimed "I AM the Good Shepherd" (10:11.14). Outside the tomb of His friend, Lazarus, He stated "I AM the resurrection and the life." (11:25). He told His disciples: "I AM the Way, the Truth, and the Life." (Jn.14:6). He said "I AM the true vine." (15:1,5).

John records two further instances of "I AM" statements made by the Lord Jesus. However, these are not metaphors. They are direct applications of "the Name" ("HaShem" - the manner by which Jews refer to "I AM") made by the Lord Jesus to Himself - and are therefore His own claims to being an integral part of the Godhead. (If the doctrine of the Trinity confuses you, I deal with that word, also, in "Great Words of the Faith.") The first of these is found in 8:58, where Jesus says to certain Jews who had been disputing with Him: "Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was born, I AM". He was not making what would have been a ridiculous claim that He was older than Abraham would have been at that time, but declaring His eternal existence - His being God.

The second occasion on which He speaks like this is recorded in John 18:4-5. Jesus is in the Garden of Gethsemane, and the soldiers, priests, and mob, led by the traitor, Judas, have come to arrest Him. As they approach, He asks for whom they are seeking. They tell Him that they seek Jesus of Nazareth, and the Lord says "I AM He"! Now that word "He" is added in English language translations, by the translators. However, in the original Greek of the Second (New) Testament, the record states that His response was "Ego eimi" - "I AM". He was applying God's covenant, personal, name to Himself. Little wonder that they "drew back, and fell to the ground". (v.6).

If, for whatever reason, you are questioning Who God is, take some time to get to know Jesus, the eternal One, made flesh, in the pages of His word. He is, as Paul wrote to the Colossian believers: "... the image of of the invisible God," (1:15). I commend Him to you - and you to Him!