BY GREG CRUM
“And Moses said unto God, Behold, when I come unto the children of Israel, and shall say unto them, The God of your fathers hath sent me unto you; and they shall say to me, What is his name? what shall I say unto them? And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you.” Exodus 3:13-14
Moses wanted reassurance of God’s identity, perhaps even a reassurance of His authenticity, and God responded with the perfect “mic drop.” What’s your name God? The I AM! In other words, the everything, the all in all, the only of significance, end, stop. Fast forward to that day recorded in John 8 when Jesus was asked by his opponents who he thought he was to be doing and saying what he was doing and saying, again questioning his authority, his authenticity, his identity.
His reply? “Before Abraham was, I am.” In other words, the everything, the all-in-all-in-all, the only of significance, the one who had that conversation with Moses all those years ago—mic drop, end, stop.
The last few weeks we have thought about the importance of Jesus according to Scripture. Colossians 1:18 states that “in all things he might have the preeminence.” In other words, above everything and everyone, Jesus should be first. Sadly, in our times, this is not the case; in fact quite the opposite, even among many American Christians.
A big reason our nation has walked away from the morality of the Lord is because Christians have allowed other things to rest on the seat only Jesus should occupy. Thankfully there is a remedy for this ailment. Jesus can again take the throne of the Church in America if we will purposely give him back the place in our hearts and lives that is rightly his. Here’s the rub though: this can only happen if we quit asking him to scoot over a bit for our kids, our jobs, our sports, and our social media presence. And if we wake up and realize once and for all that the first seat is his seat alone!
We left off last week noting the importance of getting reacquainted with the King of all kings, and how we need to personally and deeply understand who he is. The natural outflow of that will cause us to want him to be first place in our lives. How do we get to that personal knowing? I think the quickest path is to begin to examine who Jesus himself said he was. There is great light and understanding of God in the self-revelation of Jesus as relayed in the Bible.
So, who did Jesus say he was? Well, it can be summed up with his testimony recorded in John 8:58 that we mentioned earlier. I mean, “I AM” says it all, right? With that said, Jesus is not trying to be mysterious or illusive; he never was. He wants us to know him because he knows the more we personally know him, the better our lives will become. With that end in mind, Jesus went to great lengths to communicate just who he is, and made several very definitive statements concerning his identity while he was here on this earth.
Last week we noted that he said he was the Resurrection and the Life. How powerful that is when you ponder on its ramifications! He is the Resurrection of our dead hopes, dreams, relationships, resources, and bodies. Things just can’t stay dead around Jesus; he’s the God of the comeback! He is the Resurrection because he brings things back to life, and that’s most logical because he is The Life.
Jesus is The Life, but what does that mean? Well, what is life? What do we need to be able to live? Vitals—heartbeat, capacity to breathe, reaction to stimuli, metabolic function? Sure, but really this just speaks to existence, right? True life the way God designed us to live also touches on quality—enjoyment, peace, protection, purpose.
When Jesus declared that he is The Life he was saying that he is the genesis of all of this for all of humanity. He is the “Son,” the power behind photosynthesis. He is what causes food to grow. He is the power behind our atmosphere and the producer of our oxygen—all those things we need for existence, but more than that he is our “Zoe,” our God-quality of life. He is love, joy, peace, plenty, health, purpose and all other measures of goodness in this life. Friends, Jesus is life and life more abundantly!
Greg Crum is the pastor of Calvary Temple in Lovely.