This is a lightly edited transcript of what I actually said when I delivered this message at Spring Creek Bible Church on April 7, 2019, as part of The Names and Titles of Jesus series. It differs from what I planned to say; for the prepared text, see the manuscript.
In our series on the names and titles of Jesus, I’ve been asked to speak on Jesus as “I Am.” If I were expositing a single text, it would be John 8:58, but instead I want to look at all the texts where Jesus says “I am,” most of them in John’s Gospel. There’s a group of passages where Jesus says “I am” and then doesn’t finish—he leaves you hanging. That’s potentially significant, because in the Old Testament the Lord Yahweh revealed himself as “I AM” to Moses (Exodus 3:14). On the other hand, in Greek “I am” was the ordinary way to say “it’s me”—if someone knocks and asks “Who’s there?” you’d answer, literally, “I am.” So when Jesus said “I am,” was he simply confirming he was the person in question, or claiming identity with Yahweh? That’s our question tonight, in four movements: the New Testament texts, the Old Testament background, the sayings in their contexts, and application.
Let’s pray. Father, we thank you that we can consider you, our great God, and your Son Jesus, who makes the invisible God visible and brings your saving and protecting presence to your people by your Spirit. Bless our study; help our minds to understand rightly, our hearts to love the truth, and our lives to reflect that we know you, the only true God, in Jesus Christ whom you have sent. In Jesus’ name, amen.
The “I Am” Sayings
John’s Gospel holds all but four of the roughly twenty occurrences, in two groups. There are seven metaphorical “I am” statements—“I am the bread of life,” “the light of the world,” “the door of the sheep,” “the good shepherd,” “the resurrection and the life,” “the way, the truth, and the life,” “the true vine”—which teach us about Jesus’ role as our Savior (each deserves its own message; our brother Scott took up the good shepherd last week). Tonight we’ll look at the seven absolute “I am” statements, which teach us about Jesus’ identity: to the woman at the well (“I who speak to you am he,” 4:26), walking on the water (“I am; do not be afraid,” 6:20), three times in dialogue with the Jews (“unless you believe that I am, you will die in your sins,” 8:24; “when you have lifted up the Son of Man…you will know that I am,” 8:28; “before Abraham was, I am,” 8:58), predicting Judas’s betrayal (“that…you may believe that I am,” 13:19), and at his arrest in the garden (“I am,” 18:5–8). In each, the NASB supplies an italicized “he” to signal there’s no Greek word for it—the translators inserted it. As Richard Bauckham notes, in ancient Jewish literature the number seven “is never insignificant—it is the number of completeness,” so these seven absolute sayings, alongside the seven metaphorical ones, point to the completeness of the salvation Jesus brings. (There are also three occurrences in the Synoptics—the parallel to the water-walking, plus Mark 14:62 and Luke 22:70—which I encourage you to study on your own.)
The Old Testament Background
If Jesus meant these as pointers to the Old Testament, which part did he have in mind? The obvious place is Exodus 3:14, one of the most important passages in the Bible, where Yahweh appears to Moses. When Moses asks God’s name, God answers, “I AM WHO I AM….Say to the people of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you,’” and then, “The LORD [Yahweh]…has sent me to you….This is my name forever.” So “I AM WHO I AM,” “I AM,” and “Yahweh” are all connected. The Hebrew verb here (ehyeh) can be past, present, or future; notice that the very same word in verse 12 is rendered “I will be” (“I will be with you”), and elsewhere it’s past (“as I have been with Moses”). So translators render it many ways—“I am who I am,” “I will be who I will be,” “I am who I am and what I am and I will be what I will be” (the Amplified). None is wrong; the word is intentionally rich and multifaceted. There’s intended mystery here: we cannot capture God’s identity in a single word, or even many. (I just sat in Mark’s class for ten weeks, and we still didn’t fully comprehend all that God is.)
This word ehyeh appears about thirty more times of God, and the pattern is striking: “I will be with you,” “I will be with your mouth,” “I will be their God,” “I will be a wall of fire around her.” All of them show God in relationship to his people—emphasizing his presence, protection, redemption, covenant faithfulness, unchanging character, and his uniqueness and transcendence. This is the heart of what the name Yahweh, “I am,” conveys: God’s eternality, self-existence, presence, unchangeableness, and faithfulness. What’s the difference between “I am” and “Yahweh”? “I am” as a name occurs only in Exodus 3:14, while “Yahweh”—God’s covenant name—occurs almost seven thousand times. Both come from the Hebrew verb hayah, “to be”: ehyeh is the first person (“I am”), and Yahweh is likely the third person (“he is”). As Bruce Waltke helpfully puts it, God changes the abbreviated name from first person (ehyeh) to third person (Yahweh) because “the first person is appropriate only in God’s mouth, and the third person…in Israel’s mouth.” God says of himself “I am”; we say of him “he is.” They’re essentially synonyms—the same truth from two perspectives.
Deuteronomy 32:39 is an important bridge into Isaiah: “See now that I, even I, am he….There is no god beside me.” Here the Greek Septuagint uses egō eimi—“I am”—exactly the phrase we find in the Gospels. And Isaiah is full of absolute “I am” sayings: “I, the LORD, the first, and with the last; I am he” (41:4); “that you may know…that I am he” (43:10, 13); “I am the LORD, and there is no other” (45:18); “even to your old age…I am” (46:4); “I am he; I am the first, and I am the last” (48:12). These are strong affirmations of Yahweh’s exclusivity—he is God alone. (Ezekiel adds “I am the LORD” eighty-six times, with the same theme.)
Exodus or Isaiah?
Is Exodus or Isaiah the better background? Bauckham notes a difficulty: no known Greek translation of Exodus 3:14 renders “I am” with egō eimi, the phrase in John. But he grants this isn’t insuperable—John uses both the Septuagint and the Hebrew text, so the sayings could rest directly on the Hebrew of Exodus 3:14. Still, Bauckham prefers another explanation: the Septuagint uses egō eimi in Deuteronomy 32:39 and repeatedly in Isaiah 40–55 to render the Hebrew ani hu (“I am he”). So Isaiah has striking parallels to John. I’d add two things: the Septuagint is often loose, and the New Testament writers, though familiar with it, weren’t bound by it—so we shouldn’t over-read that detail; and Isaiah’s own use of “I am he” is plainly rooted in Exodus 3:14. So we needn’t choose: it’s Exodus and Isaiah—Isaiah perhaps the more direct background, pointing back to the “I AM” of Exodus. As G. K. Beale comments, John 8:58 “alludes in some degree” to Exodus, “though the primary source drawn from is Isaiah 43:10 and 13, which has paraphrastically developed Exodus 3:14.” So see both as the background where fitting.
Examining the Seven Sayings
With the woman at the well—“I am, the one speaking to you”—the natural reading is simply, “I am the Messiah you just mentioned,” which the Greek fully allows. But even so, there are indications that the Messiah himself is divine: he is “from of old, from ancient days” (Micah 5:2), “Mighty God, Everlasting Father” (Isaiah 9:6), and “the LORD [Yahweh] our righteousness” (Jeremiah 23:5–6). So even “I am the Messiah” carries, in the background, that the Messiah would be divine, even Yahweh himself. With the water-walking—“I am; do not be afraid”—“I am” could be mere self-identification (“it’s me, Jesus”); but two miracles frame it (walking on the water, and the boat immediately reaching shore), which hint that something deeper is going on. In John 8, before “unless you believe that I am, you will die in your sins” (v. 24) and “you will know that I am” (v. 28), Jesus has said “I am from above…not of this world,” so there’s a possible referent in context—yet believing in one who came from the Father is itself a strong claim, and a deeper meaning may well be intended.
John 8:58 is the clearest: talking about Abraham, Jesus says, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.” Here there’s nothing in the immediate context to complete the phrase—“before Abraham was, it’s me” makes no sense—so virtually everyone agrees Jesus is claiming to be the great “I Am,” pointing back to Exodus and Isaiah. As Bauckham says, “I am” here indicates not only that Jesus preexisted Abraham but a claim to divine identity, which his hearers took as blasphemy. Jesus didn’t merely predate Abraham; he was Yahweh, the God of Abraham. John 13:19 is the second strongest: “I am telling you before it takes place, that…you may believe that I am.” If “I am” only meant “teacher and Lord,” the point collapses—they already believed that; it makes no sense for Jesus to work to convince them of something they already held. So something deeper is in view—so much so that several translations (NIV, and others) render it “I am who I am,” and some capitalize “I Am” to point back to the Old Testament. And at the arrest—“I am,” said three times, at which the soldiers “drew back and fell to the ground”—Bauckham observes that the ordinary meaning hardly explains why they fell, and the threefold repetition suggests an emphatic climax; Jesus seems to unveil a bit of his authority as the covenant God of Israel.
How many point back to the Old Testament? Beale says only one is clear (8:58); Carson says two constitute explicit self-identification with Yahweh (8:58 and 13:19), while several others may involve intentional double meaning; Bauckham is most confident, taking all seven as a set—where an ordinary meaning is possible, it’s a double entendre. I agree with Bauckham, for five reasons: the number seven is significant, especially in John’s writings; there’s at least one clear double meaning (the arrest); the sayings seem to grow progressively more suggestive; John is known for double meaning throughout his Gospel; and Jesus regularly communicated on two levels—revealing truth to some while concealing it from others, saying, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.” The deeper meaning was there for those who could hear it; others missed it.
Seven Applications
So there’s good reason to believe that in these sayings Jesus identifies himself with Yahweh, the covenant God of Israel—both indirectly, as the divine Messiah, and directly, as the great “I Am.” Even if you’d quibble over some, you can’t escape that Jesus associates himself with the Yahweh of the Old Testament. But we must move beyond conviction in the head to the heart—from orthodoxy (right belief) to orthopathy (right feeling) and orthopraxy (right action). Let me draw seven applications, one from each passage.
First, from the woman at the well: we must believe in Jesus as the divine Messiah, the one who gives living water. If your heart is empty and longing, look no further—he alone satisfies its deepest longings, and this is a message for the saved and unsaved alike. Second, from the storm: Jesus comes to us in our need to help us and calm our fear. Are you living in fear tonight—of sickness, death, losing your job, your marriage, your kids? Turn to Jesus; he is present, and though he may not act with a miracle, he will drive away your fear and give you peace in the storm. Third, from “unless you believe that I am”: we must believe Jesus is who he says he is, or we will die in our sins—there is no salvation, no forgiveness, outside of him, so don’t look elsewhere, and don’t be ashamed to proclaim that exclusivity. Fourth, from “when you have lifted up the Son of Man”: look to the cross to understand who Jesus is. If you have doubts about him, there’s no better place to strengthen your faith.
Fifth, from John 8:58: you must believe Jesus is the “I Am” to escape death—he wasn’t merely a good man or great teacher or a lesser god, but the eternally self-existing, unrivaled God of the universe, and it’s by coming to him, the way, the truth, and the life, that we escape death. Sixth, from the prophecy of Judas’s betrayal: Jesus’ prophecies and their fulfillments strengthen our faith. Do you worry about the future or doubt his promises? Look to the one who knows the future because he made and controls it, and to the record of his promises made and kept. And seventh, from the arrest: you must bow at the feet of the “I Am.” Cry out with Thomas, “My Lord and my God!” If you don’t bow now, you will one day, when every knee bows and every tongue confesses that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
In conclusion, Jesus is not only the promised Messiah but the divine Messiah—and that divine Messiah was himself Yahweh, the covenant God of Israel, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, whose children we are by faith. Yahweh is “I Am”: the eternally self-existing One, without rival, who never changes, whose promises never fail, and who is always present with his people to save. This is Jesus—and, as if we needed more evidence, it’s right there in his name: “Jesus” means “Yahweh saves,” and he is also called Immanuel, “God with us.” In Jesus, by the Spirit, Yahweh the great “I Am” is present with his people—present to save, to protect, and to rule our lives for our good and his glory, yesterday, today, and forever. Behold your God.
Let’s pray. Father, we’ve come face to face with the glorious and mysterious truth of your triune existence, and we bow in humble worship and adore you for who you are and for how you’ve revealed yourself through your Son and by your Spirit. Thank you for making yourself known in Jesus and revealing your saving and protecting presence. Thank you that you are the eternal, self-existing, unchanging, faithful, sovereign, and gracious Lord, without equal—and that you have given us eyes to see, ears to hear, and hearts to love you. You are worthy of our trust, devotion, worship, and lives. May we live for your glory as those who know and love you. In Jesus’ name and by his Spirit, amen.