The Uniqueness of Christ预览

1/Unique in his Person: His Deity (1)

Jesus frequently made statements that only God has the right to make.

Often he used the expression ‘I am’ to reinforce the concept of his deity. In Greek the normal way of saying this was just one word (eimi). However, there was also an emphatic way (ego eimi) that more or less means, ‘I, even I, am.’ By using this term, Jesus was making it clear that there was no doubt about what he meant.

Furthermore, the phrase ‘I am’ was identical to part of the Name God gave to Moses: ‘I am who I am’ (Ex 3:14). It is possible that the name Yahweh was derived from this, a name so sacred that Jewish people will never utter it aloud even today. 

More than this, Jesus made a number of statements beginning with ‘I am’ that no ordinary person would even consider.. The greatest was, ‘I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me’ (John 14:6). Imagine a local builder in your community one day taking to social media make such a claim. You would naturally assume he was deranged or deluded. You would certainly not believe him. You would not believe him even if he was a lawyer or a professor or a billionaire or even a rock star.  

Seven times Jesus made such extraordinary claims. Here they are—

· I am the bread of life (John 6:35)

· I am the light of the world (John 8:12; 9:5)

· I am the door of the sheep (John 10:7, 9) 

· I am the good Shepherd (John 10:11, 14)

· I am the resurrection and the life (John 11:25) 

· I am the way the truth and the life (John 14:6)

· I am the true vine (John 15:1)

In all of these, Jesus is claiming to be able to meet any and every human need. Astonishing!

Finally, Jesus shocked his Jewish compatriots by saying, ‘Before Abraham was born, I am’ (John 8:58). Bad grammar but explosive theology.  And again, ‘If you do not believe that I am, you will indeed die in your sins (John 8:23-24). See also John 10:36; 18:6, 8.

There is no escaping the universal nature of these assertions. To implement them, you must have attributes such as omnipotence, omnipresence, omniscience and immortality. In other words, you must be God. 

Jesus made many other similar statements. All authority in heaven and earth, he said, belonged to him (Matt 20:18). What a claim! Not to mention statements like, ‘I will draw all people to me’ (John 12:32). See also John 10:8; 19:11; Mark 2:20. 

In a broadcast talk given in London in 1943, the great twentieth century apologist C. S. Lewis said, 

‘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—or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else 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.’ 

What next?  

If Jesus really is Lord, what are the implication for us? Consider the ‘I ams’ of Jesus and jot down alongside each one what your response should be.