Did Jesus really Claim to be God?

It is a question of profound historical significance.  Did Jesus really claim to be God in the Scriptures or are Christians just making it all up?  Rather than attempt to show you all the Bible says on the subject I’d like to briefly examine one passage in particular.  Perhaps it might shed some light into the Christian perspective or just clear up some confusion for existing believers.  My examination of the passage will consist of three different perspectives and a historical overview to set the stage contextually.

Our passage:

John 8:56-59 – Your father Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day. He saw it and was glad.”  So the Jews said to him, “You are not yet fifty years old, and have you seen Abraham?”  Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.”  So they picked up stones to throw at him, but Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple.

Historical Overview

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Here in this passage, Jesus was engaged in a conversation with the Jewish people of his time who thought that they were justified (or declared righteous before God) because they were the literal descendants of Abraham.  They thought their physical birth as a Jew made them children of God.  So therefore they trusted in their blood line and obedience to the law for salvation.  However they were wrong.  They, like the Gentiles, needed to be saved from their sins and be born again spiritually by God.  Jesus was trying to get them to realize their need for salvation like everyone else.  Was Jesus actually claiming to be God here?  Yes!  We can confirm this from multiple perspectives.

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1.  Grammatical verification:  Jesus uses the words “I AM” in response to his existing before Abraham.  This is of huge significance because Abraham lived and died over two thousand years prior to this conversation and Jesus was speaking as if he had directly talked with and saw Abraham.  The Jewish people, aware of this vast impossibly, called him out that he was not even fifty years old and that it was impossible for him to have physically seen Abraham.  Jesus responds powerfully with the Statement “before Abraham was I am”.  The words “I AM” come from the greek words “egō eimi” which translate “I exist”.  It is of the first person singular present indicative, which means it is stated as a present tense concrete fact or absolute truth.  This is used only when (emphatic) or when giving forceful emphasis.  All this to demonstrate that Jesus was making a significant, divine, emphatic claim here.  Not only was He claiming to have been in existence for more than two thousand years but to have always been in existence.  Therefore, an accurate understanding of this statement would be “I am eternally existent”.  Notice he did not say “Before Abraham was I was but “I AM”.

2.  Prophetic connection:  You might be wondering, what else makes this “I AM” claim from Jesus so important?  Well, beyond the impact of the grammar alone, it has vast prophetic connections within the Old Testament.  Do you remember the famous scene where God speaks to Moses through a burning bush?  It’s a classic scene and many are familiar with it but do you remember what God said to Moses?  When Moses was told to lead the people he asked God a very simple question and he got a very profound answer.  Moses asked for God’s name.  God’s answer might shock you.

Exodus 3:13-14 – Then Moses said to God, “If I come to the people of Israel and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what shall I say to them?”  “God said to Moses, “ I am who I am.” And he said, “Say this to the people of Israel, ‘ I am has sent me to you.”

Does that sound familiar?  God’s response to Moses of his name is simply, “I AM”.  The response signified such a objective reality that a name was irrelevant, because he was the Only God who was.   He was everything in all.  Jesus was not being vague in John 8:58; He actually spoke in the most clear and direct way possible for his Jewish audience.  He spoke to them from their own Scriptures by making the “I AM” claim.

3.  Contextual affirmation:  So far we have two layers of confirmation that Jesus was claiming to be Yahweh or the “I AM,” eternally existent God, but how can we be absolutely certain it was his claim and we are not reading into the text subjective opinion?  In verse 59 we get our answer:  John 8:59 – “So they picked up stones to throw at him, but Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple.”  Now what does this affirm?  You have to remember, at this time it was Jewish law to stone a man for blasphemy.  It was Levitical law:  Leviticus 24:16 – “Whoever blasphemes the name of the LORD shall surely be put to death. All the congregation shall stone him. The sojourner as well as the native, when he blasphemes the Name, shall be put to death.”  The reaction of the direct audience confirms the intent of the grammatical language Jesus used and the correct prophetic relation to it.  Jesus purposefully appealed to Jewish language and prophetic contextualization in order to claim deity in a way that his audience would clearly understand within their culture.  There was no confusion at all.  Jesus was claiming to be God by identifying himself as the “I AM” of the Old Testament.

Conclusion:  This is only one of many passages where Jesus claims to be God.  The Bible has much more to say on this subject, but its clear that Jesus claimed to be God and he did it emphatically.