Below is an early Christian symbol that summarizes what Christians believe about Jesus. You have probably seen this symbol on bumper stickers or jewelry.
The Greek word for this symbol of a fish is ICHTHUS (Iota-Chi-Theta-Upsilon-Sigma), which is an acrostic for "Jesus Christ, God's Son, Savior" (Iesous Christos, Theou Uios, Soter). This symbol was an early recognition symbol between persecuted believers. It was also an early confession of who those early Christians thought Jesus to be.
Is this who Jesus really is? If so what does it mean? What does it mean that he is a Savior? Three logical options are possible:
1) Jesus is who he and those who knew him personally say he is.
2) Jesus is a deluded mad man who deluded others.
3) Jesus is the world's greatest con man and liar.
The arguments about Jesus have gone on since he first revealed himself to the world. You have probably heard many of the arguments made pro and con. I do not intend to make these arguments again here. What I intend is to present what Jesus said about himself and most particularly certain statements as recorded in the Gospel of John. What Jesus said leaves no room for at the same time rejecting him as Lord and Savior and yet thinking him to be a good teacher, or a good example. You cannot just accept the parts of Jesus with which you are comfortable and reject those parts that confront you with the difficult truths.
We will look at Jesus’ "I Am" statements in John to find out what Jesus said about himself and his work. There are several instances in John that are marked by a particular kind of Greek phrasing. The "I Am" statements are emphatic in Greek. The emphatic pronoun is added to the verb and makes a very strong statement which, as we will see in what follows, connects to certain statements found in the Greek translation of the Old Testament, called the Septuagint or LXX, commonly in use at the time of Jesus.
I unapologetically accept the Gospels as accurate historical and theological documents. The evidence supporting this assumption is easily available to anyone who will honestly take the time to evaluate it. In any case that is my starting assumption.
Before looking at the "I Am" statements in John, it is clear that John is not the only place one can find these statements in the Four Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John). The other instances are found in several places. Matthew 14:27 and Mark 6:50 record the statement also made in John 6:20 to the frightened disciples as Jesus walked on the storm tossed water toward their boat. Matthew 24:5, Mark 13:6, and Luke 21:8 record Jesus’ warning about false Christ's who would claim to be the true Christ using the emphatic "I Am" language. Mark 14:62 records Jesus' answer when asked by the High Priest if he were the Christ, the Son of the Blessed (God). Jesus answers emphatically, "I Am!" Luke 24:29 records a post resurrection appearance by Jesus to the Disciples.
One last preliminary thing to note is an explanation of Jesus' name. Jesus’ name is the Latinized Greek version of Yehoshua or Yeshua meaning “savior.” This can be found in Matthew 1:21 "She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins." (All verses quoted are the ESV translation unless otherwise noted.)
The question that must be asked is what does the necessity of a Savior imply about us?
Jesus' surname is not "Christ." Christ is a title not a name. It is from the Greek version of the Hebrew term Messiah. Both Hebrew and Greek terms mean “anointed one.” In the Old Testament period prophets, priests and kings were anointed. Prophets were God's spokesmen and proclaimed God's covenant promises and warnings to the people. Priests made sacrifice for sins, prayed for the people, and taught God’s truth. Kings led, ruled, and protected God’s people. The title “Anointed One” evokes these offices in connection with Jesus. Jesus, the Savior, is also Prophet Jesus, High Priest Jesus, and King Jesus.
Why use John's Gospel to answer the question "Who is this Jesus"?
I picked this Gospel because it is unique in the many emphatic self-identification statements made by Jesus. I wanted to let Jesus' statements speak for themselves. However, there is much background to these "I Am" statements. They do not stand naked and alone. John gives them a meaningful historical context.
What is John's purpose in writing? John’s Gospel gives a theological-historical account of Jesus life and ministry. He intends to answer the question we are asking: John 20:30-31, Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.
In the next chapter John speaks about the veracity of what he wrote and the fact that he selected only some of what Jesus said and did. Being truthful and yet selective is a necessary part of any historical record. John 21:24-25 This is the disciple who is bearing witness about these things, and who has written these things, and we know that his testimony is true. Now there are also many other things that Jesus did. Were every one of them to be written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written. John is being truthful and telling us what we need to know in order to receive the gift of forgiveness, life, and salvation.
John's selection of materials intends to evoke well-known accounts in the Old Testament such as Creation, Sinai, and the Passover. For instance see John 1:1-5 in which he clearly intends to evoke Genesis chapter one. In John 1:17-18, he compares Moses the Law-giver and Jesus the Life-giver. In John 1:29 John the Baptist, who John the author of the Gospel quotes, calls Jesus "the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!" This identification evokes the entire history of salvation in the Old Testament especially the Passover Lamb (see also Genesis 22:8). It is John's way of saying that Jesus is the Savior of the world.
Jesus' "I Am" statements as recorded in John have their background in Exodus 3:6, 14, 20:2. In these passages God identifies himself. The translators of the LXX used the emphatic pronoun and the verb.
Ex. 3:6 And he said, "I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.”
Ex. 3:14 God said to Moses, "I AM WHO I AM.”
Ex. 20:2 “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.”
What does this connection imply about Jesus? I believe John intentionally evokes these well-known statements by YHWH in the Old Testament when he selects to record what Jesus said. A reader of the Gospel of John could very properly think that Jesus himself intends to make the claim to be the same One who appeared to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, and Isaiah when he used the emphatic statements. There are frequent statements made by God in many places in OT "that you might know that I am the Lord" and in similar phrases that use the emphatic pronoun in the LXX translation. One such emphatic statement from Isaiah is sufficient to illustrate this.
Isaiah 45:22 “Turn to me and be saved, all the ends of the earth! For I am God, and there is no other.”
Jesus claims to be the Messiah.
In John chapter four Jesus encounters a Samaritan woman. It is important to understand just how much hatred there was between the Jews and the Samaritans. Jews were forbidden to marry them, have any social interaction with them, even to walk through Samaria. Defilement was the result of any contact. The barriers existed on both sides of the conflict between the Jews and Samaritans. The strongest racial epithet was to call a person a “dog and Samaritan.” Jesus broke all the customary practices in going through Samaria and in speaking to the woman. Furthermore, the time of day in which the woman was at the well implies that she was somewhat of a notorious sinner among her own people. Women normally went to the wells in the cooler parts of the day, mornings and evenings. She went in the hot part of the day because others shunned her. Perhaps, her own sense of shame made the whispered comments and looks of others too uncomfortable to endure.
While Jesus was sitting by the well the woman came out to draw water. She was startled that a Jew would be there, speak to her, and ask for a drink of water. Jesus ignored every prejudicial, social restriction. Using her surprise as an opening Jesus told her that he could offer her “living water.”
John 4:10, 13-14 Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water . . . . Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
Later in the Gospel a further explanation of the “living water” idea is given by John when he explains what Jesus meant.
John 7:37-39 On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’” Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.
What is Jesus offering to this woman? He is offering her eternal life. This is the life given freely by God to anyone who comes to Jesus. Jesus’ disregard for social prejudice shows us that the offer of eternal life is for each and every person regardless of who they might be. Why? Because we all need it. We are perishing whether we know it or not.
John 3:16-18 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.”
As they talked Jesus spoke about very personal details concerning the woman’s life. Because of this revelation of private details she thought Jesus to be a prophet (John 4:19). This sets the stage for her hope that Jesus is more than a prophet, but that he is The Prophet who was to come, that is the Messiah (John 4:25).
God told Moses that another greater Prophet like Moses would come and speak God’s words. Deuteronomy 18:18-19 “I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers. And I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him. And whoever will not listen to my words that he shall speak in my name, I myself will require it of him.”
Prophet is one of the three offices of the Anointed One, Prophet-Priest-King. In John Jesus shows himself to fulfill these expectations. Here he acts as a prophet. In chapter seven he claims the role of a High Priest. A tradition of pouring out water by the altar during the Feast of Tabernacles, commemorating the water from the rock in the wilderness (Exodus 17:6), was carried out by the High Priest. Jesus claimed to be the one who gives the true living water (John 7:37-38).
When the woman mentions the Messiah, Jesus emphatically says, "I AM he, who is speaking with you.” John 4:26 (my own translation). At this declaration by Jesus the woman went to her village and told everyone about him. Her excitement and their own desire to see for themselves resulted in Jesus staying with them for two days.
John 4:39-42 Many Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me all that I ever did.” So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them, and he stayed there two days. And many more believed because of his word. They said to the woman, “It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is indeed the Savior of the world.”
Jesus clearly claimed to be the promised Messiah. These people believed in him after their own personal seeing and hearing. In making the claim to be the Messiah and in promising to give the true living water of everlasting life Jesus claims to be greater than Moses, greater than the priesthood. He claims to be the very One who Moses and the priesthood anticipated would one day come to save the world.
[Part 2 will continue this study.]
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