The I am- sayings of Jesus Christ

                   “ I Am ”

                            Εуώ   Είμι                           הוּא   אני   אני

                            Ego    Eimi                                   Who    Ane    Ane

                            I       I Am                                     He      Am I       I

The  I am- sayings of Jesus Christ in the Gospel of John carry great exegetical and theological weight. Jesus made these statements within the context of all of the previous revelation that God had given concerning Himself up to this time in the Hebrew Scriptures.

                God had established the I-saying prerogative as a tool 
for His own Self-revelation. Every learned Jew and every 
biblical scholar knew that God had claimed the subjective absolute 
of the I-mode of declaration for Himself exclusively.

Ex. 3:14 – And God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.” And He said, “Thus you shall say to the children of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you.’ ”

Deut. 32:39 – “Now see that I, even I, AM HE, And there is no God besides Me; I kill and I make alive; I wound and I heal; Nor is there any who can deliver from My hand.”

Isa. 48:12 – “Hearken to me, O Jacob, and Israel, My called one, I [AM] HE, I [AM] FIRST, and I [AM] LAST.”

          There can be only one absolute subjective reality, (just as there can only be one actually infinite being). All other concepts of reality must be objective. God is the eternal absolute Subject, never the object. All being, happening and volition are object before God. The I-ego of God will not tolerate any second subject, any other god. Man is what he is only and always with reference to God. He is lost when He condemns him and he is saved when He saves him. God’s knowledge is always determinative. Not once in any circumstance is man ever the determining subject concerning the nature of ultimate reality. Man does of course have a subjective perspective of the world around him, but this view is not determinative of reality, it seeks to understand the objective truth as God knows it.

          Only the eternal Son, the Messiah is afforded the status of subject along side the Father. But this unique privilege is not in the sense of a second independent subject, but rather a unity of “Subjectness” with the Father. “I and My Father are one” Jn.10: 30.  They share a unique “I / THOU” relationship which transcends separation and rises to “I / I AM”, Ego Eimi, equality. This shared singleness is monotheistic and monolatrious, one God, one faith and only one ever worthy of worship.