Perhaps the boldest claim Jesus made about His identity was the statement, “Most assuredly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM” (John 8:58), which caused those who heard Him to try to stone Him for blasphemy. When God first revealed Himself to Moses in Exodus 3:13-14, He told him His name was. “I AM WHO I AM” and they knew Jesus was claiming to be the God of the Old Testament——the “I AM” of Exodus 3:14, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob (Exodus 3:15).
“I AM” and the related YHWH are the names of God inferring timeless self-existence. Although impossible to translate accurately into English, YHWH conveys meanings of “The Eternal One,” “The One Who Always Exists” or “The One Who Was, Is and Always Will Be.” By Jesus making claim to the name “I AM,” He was saying He was the God whom the Hebrews knew as YHWH— a name considered so holy a devout Jew would not pronounce it.
When Jesus was arrested, His use of the same term had an electrifying effect on those in the arresting party. “Now when He said to them, ‘I am He,’ they drew back and fell to the ground” (John 18:6). The word “He” in this verse is in italics, meaning the word was added by the translators and isn’t the original wording. Their attempt to make Jesus’ answer more grammatically correct obscures the fact that He was likely again claiming to be the “I AM” of the Old Testament.
Jesus also incensed the crowd condemning him when He told them: “I and My Father are one” (John 10:30), meaning the Father and Jesus were both divine. The Jews again attempted to stone Him for blasphemy (John 10:31), telling Him “ You, being a Man, make Yourself God” (John 10:32-33).
When Jesus healed a crippled man at the pool of Bethesda on the Sabbath, the Jews sought to kill Him because He did it on the Sabbath (John 5:16). Jesus then made a statement they could take in only one way: “My Father has been working until now, and I have been working.” Their response to this was: “Therefore the Jews sought all the more to kill Him, because He not only broke the Sabbath [according to their interpretation], but also said that God was His Father, making Himself equal with God” (John 5:16-18).
Jesus also claimed authority to forgive sins. When Jesus healed a paralyzed man, He told him, “Son, your sins are forgiven you” (Mark 2:5). The scribes who heard this concluded He was blaspheming, because, as they rightly understood and asked, “Who can forgive sins but God alone?” (Mark 2:6-7). Jesus responded to them by stating: “…the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins” (Mark 2:8-11, NRSV).
Jesus demonstrated yet another power God alone possessed—to raise and judge the dead: “For as the Father raises the dead and gives life to them, even so the Son gives life to whom He will” (John 5:21). John 5:25-29 tells us: “Most assuredly, I say to you, the hour is coming, and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God; and those who hear will live…All who are in the graves will hear His voice and come forth—those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation.”
Jesus also accepted honor and worship on many occasions and stated, “All should honor the Son just as they honor the Father” (John 5:23). The First and Second of the Ten Commandments forbid worship of anyone or anything other than God (Exodus 20:2-5).
Jesus also instructed His followers to pray to the Father in His name: “And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son” (John 14:13). He made it clear that access to the Father is through Him: “…no one comes to the Father except through Me.” (verse 6 ).
The Apostle Paul states of Jesus: “Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Philippians 2:9-11).
Jesus understood Himself to be unique in His close relationship with the Father and that He was the only One who could reveal the Father: “All things have been delivered to Me by My Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father. Nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and the one to whom the Son wills to reveal Him” (Matthew 11:27).
On several occasions Jesus asserted He was the One through whom men and women could attain eternal life. “This is the will of Him who sent Me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have everlasting life; and I will raise him up at the last day” (John 6:40). See also John 6:47 and 54).
When speaking of the virgin birth Matthew quotes from Isaiah 7:14, “‘Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel,’ which is translated, ‘God with us'” (Matthew 1:23), making it clear that he understands that this child is God—“God with us.” John is likewise explicit in the prologue to his Gospel. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God …And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us” (John 1:1-14).
