-Before Abraham Was, I Am

Reading: Exodus 3:13-14; John 1:1-5; Colossians 1:15-20

When Jesus declared before Abraham was, I am, the crowd immediately reached for stones. They understood exactly what he was claiming. He was applying the divine name of God, the great I AM of Exodus 3, directly to himself.

This was not the statement of a good moral teacher or a wise prophet.

This was the claim of God in human flesh.

Colossians 1 affirms that all things were created through him and for him, and that he holds all things together.

John 1 declares that he was in the beginning with God and that he was God.

The Jesus of the Bible is not a figure to be customized or softened.
He is the eternal Son of God, the only Savior, the coming Judge, and the one before whom every knee will bow.

The only appropriate response to who he is is worship and surrender.

Reflection Questions:

• How does the full deity of Christ change the way you approach your relationship with him?
• Are there areas of your life where you have fashioned a more comfortable, less demanding version of Jesus? What would it look like to surrender those areas to the biblical Christ?

Practical Application: Take 15 minutes today in quiet worship. Open with Psalm 23, read it slowly, and then spend time in prayer acknowledging who Christ is, not what you need from him, but simply who he is. Let adoration be the entire focus of your time with him today.