Jesus is God

I would love to debate more on God in another round, But this is going in that direction anyway by saying Jesus is God. God is making clear that His name-"I Am Who I Am"-is synonymous with "The Lord, The God of your fathers, The God of Abraham, The God of Isaac, And the God of Jacob, " and by these names He shall be known forever. God isn't just selecting an arbitrary name for Himself. Reflect for a moment on the profundity of His self-identification: I Am Who I Am. How better to describe the indescribable? God is saying He is pure essence. Who but God could devise such a name? The words signify God`s dynamic, Active, And eternal self-existence. Nelson`s Illustrated Bible Dictionary explains this divine appellation: His "I am" expresses the fact that He is the infinite and original personal God who is behind everything and to whom everything and to whom everything must finally be traced. "I am who I am", Signals the truth that nothing else defines who God is but God Himself. What He says and does is who He is. The inspired Scriptures are the infallible guide to understanding who God is by what He says about Himself and what He does. Yahweh is the all-powerful and sovereign God who alone defines Himself and establishes truth for His creatures and works for their salvation. As T. F. Torrance writes, "The very nature of God excludes the possibility of there being any other God beside himself. This is already evident in the unique self-naming of God to his covenant people Israel as 'I am who I am, ' which also carries with it the sense of 'I will be who I will be, ' for he is the ever-living completely self-sufficient and wholly self-grounded God in all that he is and does. " Significantly, Jesus uses a similar self-appellation. When the Pharisees challenge Him for essentially claiming to be a deity, He replies, "I tell you the truth, Before Abraham was born, I AM" (John 8:58). . This bold statement is ignored by the hard-nosed skeptics who deny that Jesus claimed to be God. They also overlook the violent reaction to Jesus' deity and try to stone Him for blasphemy (John 8:59). Note that Jesus' answer contains a pun of sorts: He not only identifies Himself as Yahweh (I AM-the short form of I Am Who I Am), But also asserts that He was before the patriarch Abraham, Who had lived and died more than two thousand years before. Jesus didn't say, "Before Abraham was born, I was. " That also would have been true, But it wouldn't have told the entire story. By saying, "Before Abraham was born, I AM, " Jesus is identifying Himself as Yahweh and asserting His existence from eternity past-way before Abraham and creation. If Jesus had said, "I was, " it could have implied there was a time when He did't exist. By using the present tense "I AM, " however, He forecloses that inference. I AM, Or Yahweh, Is equivalent to saying, "I have always been and always will be. " "This is, " says John Piper, "the essential meaning of his Old Testament name Yahweh (or Jehovah). It is built on the verb 'to be. '. . . To be 'I am' is to be absolutely the first and the last. No 'before' and no 'after. ' Simply 'I am. ' Chris's personal claims to deity are essential to Christianity. Some skeptics, However, Deny His divinity even as they praise Christ as the greatest man who ever lived or as an extraordinary prophet who laid down the world's best moral teachings. Benjamin Franklin even allowed as much, While admitting strong doubts about Christ's deity. Since becoming a Christian, One of my pet peeves has been the casual negligence with which people gloss over such a critical matter-as if it makes little difference, When in reality it makes all the difference. Because Jesus asserted that He is God, We can't logically contend that He was the greatest examplar of moral behavior in history without acknowledging that He is God. C. S. Lewis explains why this is so in a formulation now known as the "Trilemma": in short, Jesus is either the Lord, A Liar, Or a Lunatic. Lewis writes. I am trying to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: "I'm ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, But I do't accept His claim to be God. " That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic-on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg-oe else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, And is, The Son of God: orelse a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, You can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to. Many writers end that quote "the Devil of Hell, " but I think the remaining lines resoundingly punctuate the argument. John Piper nicely sums up the importance of Jesus' "I AM" affirmations: "Nothing greater can any man say of himself. It is true, Or it is blasphemy. Christ was God or godless. " Jesus makes many other "I AM" statements in which He either directly asserts His deity, Does so metaphorically, Or describes His attributes or activities that derive from His divinity. Lest there be any remaining doubt that He was claiming to be One with Jehovah, Jesus exclaims, "Have courage, I am He! Do not be afraid! " (Matt. 14:27;Mark 6:50; John 6:20); "I am, And you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of Power and coming with the clouds of heaven" (Mark 14:62); "I, The one speaking to you, Am he" (John 4:26); "I am the light of the world! The one who follows me will never walk in darkness, But will have the light of life" (John 8:12); "I am the one who testifies concerning myself, And the Father who sent me testifies concerning me" (John 8:18); "You are of this world;I am not of this world. I told you that you would die in your sins" (John 8:24). "Truly, Truly I say unto you, I am the door of the sheep" (John 10:7, 9); "I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for his sheep" (John 10:11, 14); "I am the the resurrection and the life" (John 11:25); "From now on I am telling you before it happens, In order that when it happens you may believe that I am he" (John 13:19); "I am the way, And the truth, And the life" (John 14:6); "I am the true vine" (John 15:1, 5). Hopefully that clears things up. But I have more if it doesn't.