Jesus As God From John 8


How privileged we are to read in the Gospel of John of the majesty of Jesus Christ, particularly in chapter 8 that talks about bondage to sin and freedom from it and how bondage points to the one whom we serve, the devil, because through it we learn the reality about ourselves and what can be done about it.

In verse 42 He says, "I proceeded forth and came from God", whoa, what could that mean? Who among us can claim such a thing? Following, He continues the discussion about the fatherhood of God and Satin, and then in verse 51 he says, "If anyone keeps My word he shall never see death".

If you say that Jesus is a good moral teacher, then what is He teaching here except consequences follow behavior and the consequence of sin is death? He is also saying that He gives exact instructions to eliminate that undesirable consequence.

The Pharisee's questioned him about this saying, "Who do You make Yourself out to be", because in their understanding no one had such clear knowledge of what it takes to gain eternal life. But Jesus' response in verse 58 was the metaphorical "icing on the cake" saying, "Most assuredly, I say to you, before Abraham was I AM."

You see, claiming preexistence, an attribute of God alone, means you're claiming to be God, and since they didn't believe Him the text says, "Then they took up stones to throw at Him; but Jesus hid Himself and went out the temple". Please note that according to Jewish law the penalty for blasphemy was death by stoning.

So you see, we cannot therefore say that Jesus was simply a good moral teacher, because He claims to be God and if it is not true then He is either a liar or a lunatic, but if He is true then He is God in the flesh and cannot be honestly dismissed as a good moral teacher when His own words don't justify such a conclusion. If we are to be true therefore, we must chose between liar, lunatic or God.

And if God, then shouldn't we "get off the fence" and fall to the ground on our knees and worship Him and proclaim Him God and Lord of all?