Who is Jesus? The Seven I AM Statements

The Gospel of John contains seven statements giving the reader a clear picture of Jesus. It is no accident that John gives us seven. This is the number of perfection. These “I Am” sayings go back to Exodus 3:13-15 where God revealed Himself to Abraham as the great I AM THAT I AM. The seven declarations are:

1. And Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst” (John 6:35).
2. Then Jesus spoke to them again, saying, “I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life” (John 8:12).
3. “I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture” (John 10:9).
4. “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep” (John 10:11).
5. Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live” (John 11:25).
6. Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14:6).
7. “I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser” (John 15:1).

Just in case the reader missed it, John makes it even clearer by recording the time the Jews tried to kill Jesus for claiming be the I AM of the Old Testament scriptures (John 8:52-59). In the story the Jews asked Jesus, “You are not yet fifty years old, and have You seen Abraham?” Jesus answered them in a way that they could not miss, “Most assuredly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM.” The Jews reaction was to try to stone Jesus because he claimed to be equal to God (v. 58).

We only have one of four options or conclusions left to us by Jesus.

• Option one, the stories in the Bible are all legend. Jesus never really existed and all the stories in the Bible are fables.
• Option two, Jesus was a liar. Jesus willfully and duplicitously spun lie after lie. He laid claim to a title and a position to which He had no right. He promised to people things He knew He could not deliver.
• Option three, Jesus was a lunatic. Jesus, deranged and deluded, told stories and taught things about Himself which revealed insanity, not inspiration; delusion not divinity.
• Option four, the correct conclusion, Jesus is Lord. Jesus’ promises and claims may be relied upon. He is God in the flesh. He is the God-Man and the Savior of the world.

C.S. Lewis’ concluded: “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 the level with a man who said he was 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. But let us not come with some patronising [sic] nonsense about Him being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to” (Mere Christianity, 52).

"WHAT DID JESUS MEAN WHEN HE SAID 'I AM'?"

Answer: Jesus, in response to the Pharisees’ question “Who do you think you are?” said, “‘Your father Abraham rejoiced at the thought of seeing my day; he saw it and was glad.’ ‘You are not yet fifty years old,’ the Jews said to him, ‘and you have seen Abraham!’ ‘I tell you the truth,’ Jesus answered, ‘before Abraham was born, I am!’ At this, they picked up stones to stone him, but Jesus hid himself, slipping away from the temple grounds” (John 8:56–59). The violent response of the Jews to Jesus’ “I AM” statement indicates they clearly understood what He was declaring—that He was the eternal God incarnate. Jesus was equating Himself with the "I AM" title God gave Himself in Exodus 3:14.

If Jesus had merely wanted to say He existed before Abraham’s time, He would have said, “Before Abraham, I was.” The Greek words translated “was,” in the case of Abraham, and “am,” in the case of Jesus, are quite different. The words chosen by the Spirit make it clear that Abraham was “brought into being,” but Jesus existed eternally (see John 1:1). There is no doubt that the Jews understood what He was saying because they took up stones to kill Him for making Himself equal with God (John 5:18). Such a statement, if not true, was blasphemy and the punishment prescribed by the Mosaic Law was death (Leviticus 24:11–14). But Jesus committed no blasphemy; He was and is God, the second Person of the Godhead, equal to the Father in every way.

Jesus used the same phrase “I AM” in seven declarations about Himself. In all seven, He combines I AM with tremendous metaphors which express His saving relationship toward the world. All appear in the book of John. They are I AM the Bread of Life (John 6:35, 41, 48, 51); I AM the Light of the World (John 8:12); 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); and I AM the True Vine (John 15: 1, 5).

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