John 8:24

I said therefore unto you, that ye shall die in your sins: for if ye believe not that I AM he, ye shall die in your sins.

Here is the conflict on our part as a typical English reader. Herein, the reader likely would say, but there is nowhere within the verse above wherewith Jesus is referring to Himself as God. However, the term used by Him, with the phrase I AM, it isn’t referring to Himself as the speaker. Rather, the I AM is a title.

To Further understand this, let us go back in time, to the beginning. All through the Scriptures, from the dawn of time, the names and titles of God were brought forth by the believer through the revelation of God upon their hearts for what He has done for them. For an example, Abraham found himself in a dire situation, when it seems like there was no way out, God Intervened and the situation turned out for the better. In return, one of the names of God was brought forth, which is, Jehovah Jireh – which means, the Lord will provide. There were many other examples as this. However, one of, if not the first time God reveals Himself by name to humanity was to Moses.

The name in which He used to reveal Himself to mankind was the same name Jesus used in the verse above, the name I AM. The account of the first use of this name is recorded in Exodus Chapter three. And Moses said unto God, Behold, when I come unto the children of Israel, and shall say unto them, The God of your fathers has sent me unto you; and they shall say to me, What is His name? what shall I say unto them? And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and He said, this shall you say unto the children of Israel, I AM has sent me unto you. The idea of the name I AM means, the eternal God, and whatsoever your problem is, I AM the solution. (Exodus 3:13-14)

Now, back to our text, whenever the Lord Jesus used the title, I AM, in essence He was saying to the so-called religious leaders, I AM the eternal God who has the power to forgive your sins. Remember, it is only God who forgive sins, and here Christ Jesus is saying boldly, if ye believe not that I AM he, ye shall die in your sins.

Notice, there is the pronoun “he” after I AM, but if you have the right Bible, the pronoun is in the italic. This is to cautiously bring attention to the English reader because there is no “he” in the original Greek text. It reads this way, Therefore I said to you, You shall die in your sins, for if you do not believe that I AM, you shall die in your sins.

One of many reasons for us to pay attention to the text, while using the right Bible.

Thanks guys, it is informative.

Thanks for contributions, folks 🙂

For further insight to this topic, you can go to the Lobby and scroll down the page. There are some audio lectures that could be helpful. It wasn’t mentioned in the Bulletin because it is still being worked on, but there is still over an hour of lecture.