Before Abraham was Born, I Am

Some claim Jesus never claimed to be equal with God during his ministry on earth. However, when closely examined, it seems there are a couple of verses which tell us otherwise. One of these is John 8:58—"I tell you the truth,” Jesus answered, “before Abraham was born, I am!” There are a couple of things that Jesus is implying here. First, he states he existed before Abraham. That claim in itself would seem to suggest he was not any ordinary human. In fact, it would imply, if he was human, he was unique from any other human who had ever existed. He was not claiming he had been born before Abraham. After all, many of those there knew him or knew Mary and/or his brothers and/or sisters. Therefore, this claim was not that he was born centuries earlier. He was claiming that before his physical birth on earth he had existed which is only a quality God could possess. Second, it would seem he is claiming the name of God: “I Am” or in Greek ἐγώ εἰμι (transliterated ego eimi). We only have to look at the next verse to see the Jewish leaders’ reaction: they thought it blasphemy! Now, if they were only reacting to Jesus stating he existed before Abraham, they would merely have stated, in their opinion, Jesus was crazy. However, to claim to be God, now that was something different. To them, that was blasphemy.

James White makes an exceptionally good connection of this term, ego eimi, to the term “I am” (ani hu transliterated from Hebrew) used by Isaiah (Is 41:4; 43:10; 46:4). Isaiah used this term, ani hu, as a euphemism to connect with the name of God Himself. Then in Isaiah 45:18, this term is then tied to the act of creating which the New Testament attributes to Jesus Christ (Jn 1:3, Cl 1:16-17; Hb 1:2-3). White then states that the connection between these passages in Isaiah and Exodus 3:14 (where God stated to Moses, “I AM THAT I AM”) is undeniable. The Jewish leaders understood this connection Jesus was making and is the reason they were so upset. They understood what Jesus was saying but refused to accept it, and accused him of blasphemy. John 8:59 states they were so upset they were willing to stone him on the spot. Remember, this was a time in Jewish history when the Romans had taken capital punishment away from the Jewish leaders. This shows how really upset they were. They were willing to go against the commands of Rome to silence Jesus making such a claim.

This is not the only verse where Jesus made this claim. In John 10:30, Jesus stated, “I and the Father are one.” And in John 14:9, Jesus told Philip, “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father.” Therefore, Jesus was not passive in making a claim to not only be equal with God but to be God as well. Jesus was stating he was part of the Trinity and we see scripture supports this doctrine of God being Trinity.

This is really an important message because we need to stop and think about the significance of Jesus’ death. If he was not God, then His death has no real meaning for us. God demanded a perfect sacrifice. That was not possible up until the time of Jesus Christ, and so the sacrifices had to be done repeatedly. Jesus had to be 100% God for the sacrifice to meet God’s perfection criterion. Jesus had to be 100% human for his sacrifice to count for mankind’s payment. Since he was part of the Trinity (and therefore equal to God as well as a part of God) Jesus was able to appease the wrath of God that was headed toward each of us. We now count on his payment for our sins and by no other means of effort. We can only stand before a holy God because of what Jesus Christ did for us. After all, scripture also states that salvation can only come through Jesus Christ (Ac 4:12). No wonder no one else was qualified to meet the high expectation of a sin payment that God required. Only Jesus Christ met the criteria God established. How amazing! God established the criteria because of His justice and, knowing we could never pay the requirement, did so on our behalf to show His love and mercy. Don’t you want a God like that? Doesn’t that make Him a God of Easter?

James White, “Purpose and Meaning of "Ego Eimi" in the Gospel of John In Reference to the Deity of Christ,” Alpha and Omego Ministries, https://www.aomin.org/aoblog/general-apologetics/purpose-and-meaning-of-ego-eimi-in-the-gospel-of-john/

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