Text: John 8:48-59, 1 John 1:1-4
This is part of a 10-day series on the person of Christ in the 2016 Lent study.
What was so special about Abraham? Why did people throw around “sons of Abraham” like it gave them some kind of special position of privilege? It seems like you couldn’t turn around in the New Testament without stepping on a son of Abraham (Luke 13:6; 19:9).
Abraham was important because he was the initial beneficiary of God’s covenant oath. Remember when God promised him offspring as numerous as the stars in the sky (Genesis 22:17)? By the time Jesus walked the earth, Abraham’s starry offspring were everywhere, clamoring for their rightful due as inheritors of the covenant.
As soon as my husband woke up this morning I nudged him, “Hey honey, where’s that verse in Matthew where Jesus says something like, ‘If I had a nickel for every son of Abraham…’?” He rolled over, opened his eyes, and grinned, “Oh, I don’t reckon Jesus mentions nickels in the New Testament.”
After coffee and some hunting, we found it. It turns out I was mistaken—the quote was from John the Baptist. In Matthew 3, he says, “And don’t presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I tell you that God is able to raise up children for Abraham from these stones! Even now the ax is ready to strike the root of the trees! Therefore, every tree that doesn’t produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire” (Matthew 3:9-10).
While John the Baptist doesn’t mention nickels here, he’s essentially saying they’ve placed too much importance on being a son of Abraham and missed the bigger picture. In fighting over cotton candy, they were missing the whole circus.
“Jesus said to them, ‘I assure you: Before Abraham was, I am.’”
-John 8:58
Jesus references Abraham because He is declaring not only His divinity, but His supreme authority and redemptive purpose. He is announcing His true self and declaring that He is greater than Abraham. Indeed, Christ was “before” Abraham in two profound ways.
First, as Creator, Christ is the firstborn over all creation (Colossians 1:15), and without Him nothing would have been made (John 1:3). As Creator, He has authority over everything. And as His creation, we ought to respond to Him with every obedience. He has made us for Himself (Isaiah 43:7), and therefore, we cannot live unto ourselves. We owe Him our whole lives—we owe Him everything.
Second, Christ is before Abraham because He is the Messiah. He was anointed to save us from our sins (Isaiah 61:1). This is the same gospel truth that overjoyed father Abraham—“he saw it and rejoiced” (John 8:56). Even now, Christ performs His role as perfect mediator before God’s throne, on our behalf (Hebrews 8:6).
Believing that Christ is the Messiah runs counter to our inclination to try to save ourselves. We endeavor to invent our own system of salvation, based upon our own accomplishments and problem-solving skills. We’d like to take at least a little credit, but we can’t: Christ is the only Savior. He alone is the appointed One. No man comes to the Father, but by Him (John 14:6).
Christ is greater than Abraham both because He is before him, and because He is the very Hope in which Abraham put his faith. He has proclaimed Himself to us, saying, “I Am!” that we might have fellowship in Him, that our joy may be complete (I John 1:3-4). Thanks be to God.
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50 thoughts on "Before Abraham Was, I Am"
“Before Abraham was, I am”. What a scandalous thing for Jesus to say. I am putting myself in the shoes of the listeners and what it would be like to hear Him say that. I can imagine the whispers: “Did he really just say that? Hold on, did he just call himself God?” And yet for me reading it, knowing the end of the story, I love it! Thanks for that this morning!
“If I glorify myself, I glorify nothing” –John 8:54
This is speaking volumes to me this morning. Hanging my head in shame at all the ways I try to glorify myself. Oh, not in the sense that I put myself on a “pedestal” so to speak, but in all the little ways every single day…….
Good word! I needed that!
… and if we had a dollar for everyone who calls themselves a Christian, in the same way that’s not the point. pointing to Jesus is.
My grandfather, my mother’s Dad, was a charming and savvy businessman and it seemed to me that, in his hometown, everyone loved and knew him. I took pride in this knowledge because when we visited, as we’d enter a restaurant, store or even funeral with him friends would shout, “George” and shower him with conversation while my little eyes looked on. Even after he passed away the same thing would happen but instead, it was, “George’s girls” followed with many many stories. It seemed as if my grandfather was in every corner of that town as if it existed because he had, and while there were scores of other people there I only identified with my him. Many years later, when my sisters and I returned, my grandfather long gone, things were different, few people recognized us or knew of my grandfather but upon entering our favorite bakery we were recognized immediately and the warmth just ran through my blood. My grandfather was important to me, to my identity, to my heritage. Abraham was important to these folks for all those reasons and then some, including the very real reality that he was their link to God’s covenant, to His promise. It would have been hard to hear someone say that they were more important than Abraham….heck, even as an elementary student I held such regard and love over my grandfather that I think I would have taken a swing at anyone claiming this over him and he was just a man, like Abraham. Jesus became man so that we could identify with Him, so that we could live in eternity with Him because He IS the great “I AM”. Realizing that the sun didn’t rise and set in my grandfather didn’t change what he was to me or what he had done, how God may have used him … it just helped to put my focus on the One with whom it actually does rise and set on.
“Christ is greater than Abraham both because He is before him, and because He is the very Hope in which Abraham put his faith”
That is a great analogy – just as we never put our complete hope in any one person – only Christ can never disappoint.
Ccomp
That pulled this all together for me, thank you.
Thank you for sharing! That really helps me get a feel for how the people felt (and why) when Jesus said these things. Abraham was their everything, and his legacy was their hope — to have someone brush it off as nothing was probably infuriating AND terrifying. Because they didn’t understand the incredible Truth right in front of them.
I feel like it’s easy for us to do this in small ways today — hanging on a a specific program, or church body, or Bible study as “the thing” that people just need to have, see, hear, learn for salvation (or at least for joy and contentment in Christ). When in reality, there is only ONE thing who gives that, who can satisfy, who can save — and it is Him IN all those other things that brings glory.
Love this perspective, B. It’s so easy to paint those Jewish people as prideful and blind to the Truth. And in many ways they were, just as we can be. But I love how you say “it just helped to put my focus on the One with whom it actually does rise and set on.” I enjoy the thought that all people and things point back to Jesus. And I just realized that the pride I have often felt that these Jewish people embodied is the same pride I was personally feeling in knowing the truth of Jesus. Oh my, how backwards as Jesus Himself embodies humility in its truest sense.
Grateful for your words, B. They’ve humbled my own heart this morning. Hope all is well down your way!
This study has been great for keeping the nature of God in front of me during Lent.
As a young teenager, I would always try to decipher verses like this where God says He has always been. I could not wrap my head around it. I would lie in the grass in our big back yard and look up at the sky, wondering, “Who made God?” How could He always have been, even before time?
As I grew in age and in my walk with God, I realized I didn’t have to understand every little thing, but I did need to trust Him to be who He said He was and to trust His Word as the answer to all I didn’t “get”. That’s worked out pretty well because He never fails, He never forgets us and His Word stands forever. This Great I Am, this Yahweh, this One that has no beginning or ending, wasn’t just great for Abraham or the disciples, or Martin Luther, or Corrie ten Boom…He is still GREAT for me and you. He is the same. Loving the encouragement in the Word today. ♥
Love this! And love you sister. I so appreciate your encouragement every morning!
How many times I sat asking the same questions “Who made God?” … unable to wrap my very literal brain around those concepts. And now my own little people with the same questions. I love it. Love you N!
I struggled with that too…….and my middle boys does especially…..he is very concrete -literally…..black and white (he is on the spectrum)….. <3
My nephew, on the spectrum but a real reader and high school age, really liked a book called Belief, essays from scientists. Compiled by the guy who spearheaded the genome project. Forget his name. Might be helpful someday for your son (or just a good tool for you). Hugs.
I am loving these “I am” statements that we are diving into. It’s amazing how much God WANTS to reveal Himself to us! We know so little about Him, but He makes it possible to know Him through his Word! Even when we don’t always understand, He is patient and gracious. Thank you!
How great is our God? Before Abraham, before humanity itself, He’s planned this out. The Lord had graced us with His love, breathed life into us, He walks through the trenches with us, and uses us as vessels for His good work! All He asks is that we have a relationship with Him, glorify Him; stubborn and broken as we are, we’ll never do it enough. But He is so grand, so perfect, that His love and forgiveness are, too. We are so undeserving. So blessed. So empowered! Thank You, Heavenly Father! You walked on Earth, and endured our pain as Jesus Christ, subjected yourself to our torment, that You might save us. That we may get to know You.
Thank You, Father. Amen.
Precious words. Amen.
Amen