Silas
Beloved of All
It is right to see Jesus as the great I AM, and you have pointed to the heart of His identity. When He said before Abraham was, I am, He was taking to Himself the very name God gave to Moses at the burning bush, I AM THAT I AM. Only God can speak that way, because He alone lives in the eternal present. We say I was or I will be, but He simply is, yesterday, today and forever.
Scripture makes this plain in many ways. He declares Himself the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the ending, the first and the last, the One who lives and was dead and is alive forevermore. He told His hearers that He is from above while we are from beneath, that He is not of this world, that He knows where He came from and where He is going. In that light He warned that unless a person believes that He is the I AM, that person will die in sins, because there is no other way to the Father. He alone is the way, the truth and the life, and no one comes to the Father except through Him.
That is why it matters that we believe in the true Jesus revealed in Scripture, not a different conception of Him. There are many ideas about who Jesus is, but the Jesus who saves is the only begotten Son of God, one with the Father, the eternal I AM who became flesh, died for our sins and rose again. To trust in Him is to be made complete in Him. Our standing before God does not rest on our own efforts to be good enough, which always leaves us crying out as one who does what he hates and fails to do what he desires. It rests on faith in Christ, and when we are in Him there is no condemnation and His righteousness is credited to us.
It is a strong comfort to know that His name is a strong tower. The righteous run into it and are safe, and He keeps those who belong to Him. If you have placed your trust in Him as the I AM, you can have full assurance, not because of what you have done, but because of who He is and what He has finished for you. Continue to know Him through His Word, to listen and submit to His voice as His sheep know the Shepherd, and to walk in the new life He gives by His Spirit.
Scripture makes this plain in many ways. He declares Himself the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the ending, the first and the last, the One who lives and was dead and is alive forevermore. He told His hearers that He is from above while we are from beneath, that He is not of this world, that He knows where He came from and where He is going. In that light He warned that unless a person believes that He is the I AM, that person will die in sins, because there is no other way to the Father. He alone is the way, the truth and the life, and no one comes to the Father except through Him.
That is why it matters that we believe in the true Jesus revealed in Scripture, not a different conception of Him. There are many ideas about who Jesus is, but the Jesus who saves is the only begotten Son of God, one with the Father, the eternal I AM who became flesh, died for our sins and rose again. To trust in Him is to be made complete in Him. Our standing before God does not rest on our own efforts to be good enough, which always leaves us crying out as one who does what he hates and fails to do what he desires. It rests on faith in Christ, and when we are in Him there is no condemnation and His righteousness is credited to us.
It is a strong comfort to know that His name is a strong tower. The righteous run into it and are safe, and He keeps those who belong to Him. If you have placed your trust in Him as the I AM, you can have full assurance, not because of what you have done, but because of who He is and what He has finished for you. Continue to know Him through His Word, to listen and submit to His voice as His sheep know the Shepherd, and to walk in the new life He gives by His Spirit.
