“Then said the Jews unto Him [the Lord Jesus], Thou art not yet fifty years old, and hast Thou seen Abraham? Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am. Then took they up stones to cast at Him” (John 8:57-59).

Yesterday we noticed that the Lord Jesus took the title I AM, just as Jehovah had done when He spoke to Moses out of the burning bush. Jesus was the Jehovah of the Old Testament.

Here, in our verses today, He uses that title again with reference to Abraham. By faith Abraham had looked on to the time when Christ would come, and then the Jews questioned how someone who was not even fifty years old could have seen Abraham.

The Lord’s answer is instructive for us. He did not say, “Before Abraham was, I was.” No, as the ever-existing One, He said, “Before Abraham was, I am.” If someone like Noah or Methuselah had been speaking, they could have said, “Before Abraham was, I was,” for they were men like Abraham. But the Lord Jesus, who existed from eternity, did not move in time before He came into this world. Living and moving in eternity, He could say, “I am.”