Monday, June 17, 2013

Jesus' Claim of Divinity (John 8:48-59)


Today's scripture: John 8:48-59

I'm back from vacation ... and back to John.

Some say that Jesus never claimed to be God. Even a cursory study of the Bible contradicts this, however. Jesus certainly did declare His divinity in passages such as today's. He couldn't have been more clear to His listeners when He said, "... before Abraham was born, I am."

But perhaps those words aren't so clear today. While Jesus' contemporaries would have understood what "I am" meant, readers today may not understand these words' impact. In his commentary, Adam Clarke writes (quoting Calmet):

[Jesus is saying,] I am from all eternity. I have existed before all ages. You consider in me only the person who speaks to you, and who has appeared within a particular time. But besides this human nature, which ye think ye know, there is in me a Divine and eternal nature. Both, united, subsist together in my person. Abraham knew how to distinguish them. He adored me as his God; and desired me as his Savior. He has seen me in my eternity, and he predicted my coming into the world.
Jesus was telling the listeners of His day—and us as well—that He was fully man, and therefore knows human suffering, and fully God, and therefore has the power to save.

We can trust Him to walk with us in our day-to-day, caring for our every need. We can also be assured of eternal life with Jesus—our God and Savior.

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