Author: BTP

“I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever” (John 6:51).

When the Lord Jesus was here on earth, He fed the hungry people several times by multiplying the small number of loaves of bread that were available. As you may imagine, the people readily followed Him, hoping for another free meal. However, the Lord Jesus had to remind them that natural food would satisfy them only for a short time; then they would want another meal. But if they believed on the Lord Jesus, He would give them that living bread, which was Himself. What does this mean?

It means that the Lord Jesus would go to the cross and suffer for sin, so that all who came to Him and ate of Him, spiritually speaking, would have eternal life. When we eat something, it is taken into our stomachs and digested; then it becomes part of us. In the same way, if we believe on the Lord Jesus, we accept Him as our Savior, and we make Him our own. We do not simply believe in who He is, but we accept Him in our hearts. Then we have eternal life, as our verse today says.

“Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world” (John 8:12).

Here is another situation where the Lord Jesus uses the words “I am” to describe who He is, and what He was doing in this world. Here He is telling the people that He is the light of the world, and that those who follow Him will have light.

The Lord Jesus is not speaking here of natural light, for we know that the sun rises every day, and gives light to all who are in the world. No, the Lord is here speaking about moral light—the kind of light that tells us God’s thoughts about everything, including our own thoughts, and our behavior too.

It is true that in the Old Testament, the Jews had that part of the Bible, and it told them what God required of them. In that way they had light from God. But when the Lord Jesus came, He not only told them what God required of them, but also revealed God as a God of love and grace. Sadly, men did not want that light, and eventually crucified the Lord Jesus. But as long as He was in the world, the Lord Jesus was the light of the world.

“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” (John 8:57-58).

About 1500 years after the Lord spoke to Moses and sent him to deliver the children of Israel, the Lord Jesus came into this world. He was the Son of God, and was the same One who had said to Moses, Tell them that I AM has sent you. When the Jews challenged the Lord Jesus as to who He was, He gave them the same answer that Moses gave to the children of Israel—“Before Abraham was, I am.”

The Jews immediately recognized that He was claiming to be God, and they took up stones to throw at Him, thinking that He was speaking blasphemy. But notice how the Lord Jesus worded His answer. He did not say, Before Abraham was, I was. That would have been true, but it was also true of Abraham’s father, grandfather, etc. However, when the Lord Jesus said, “Before Abraham was, I am,” He clearly identified Himself as the One who had existed from all eternity, before time existed. Sadly, the Jews did not want to believe on Him, in spite of all the miracles He performed. Tomorrow, and for the next few days, we will consider a few other examples where the Lord Jesus uses the words “I am.”

“And Moses said unto God, Behold, when I come unto the children of Israel…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, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you” (Exodus 3:13-14).

The children of Israel had been in Egypt for many years, and now the Lord was going to deliver them from the slavery under Pharaoh, and bring them into the promised land. Moses was told to go and tell them that God was ready to deliver them, but then he asked God what name he should tell them, if they asked about God’s name.

The name “I AM” might seem like a strange name to us, but it shows us that God is the ever-existing one—the One who was from all eternity, and will live for all eternity. When Moses told all this to the people, and showed them some miraculous signs from God, they believed, and understood that the Lord was really going to deliver them.

We too need to understand that God existed from all eternity; He had no beginning. As human beings and as creatures we cannot really understand this, but we can believe it, because God has told us in His Word. I know that we had these verses last year, but I am using them again, as we want to speak about some other connections with them in the next few days.

“Today if ye will hear His voice, harden not your hearts” (Hebrews 3:7-8).

Many years ago, I remember memorizing this verse in Sunday school, and I remember how my Sunday school teacher impressed on us the importance of believing and paying attention to God’s Word. We need to listen to the Word of God if we are not saved, and of course we need to accept the Lord Jesus as our Savior. But it is possible to harden our hearts against God’s Word even as Christians. When we read something that touches our conscience, we can submit to it and accept God’s Word, or we can harden our hearts. If we harden our hearts, then we no longer enjoy the Lord’s presence with us in our Christian life, and we become unhappy. A happy Christian is one who is obedient to God’s Word!

“For in that He Himself hath suffered being tempted, He is able to succor [help] them that are tempted” (Hebrews 2:18).

We do not use the word “succor” much in everyday speech anymore, but it simply means to help or support others, especially when they are in trouble. During His time in this world, the Lord Jesus went through every kind of suffering that a sinless man could go through, so that He could understand and sympathize with us in our difficulties.

Perhaps you have been in trouble, and had a well-meaning friend say to you, “I know how you feel.” Yet, unless he or she has been through the same kind of trouble as you are experiencing, they cannot really know how you feel. But the Lord Jesus always knows how we feel, for He has suffered from the effects of sin in this world, and knows the difficulties we face. We can always go to Him in our troubles, knowing that He will understand.

“But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor; that He by the grace of God should taste death for every man” (Hebrews 2:9).

Men in the world today may say that they have not seen God, nor have they seen God interfere in straightening out the mess in this world. Sin still exists, violence and crime still exist, and suffering still exists.

But there is one thing that man can see, and that is Jesus, because He came into this world and suffered for sin. He tasted death for everything, in order to take away the sin of the world. As our verse today tells us, now we as believers can see Him by faith, “crowned with glory and honor.” He is honored there in heaven, and will one day come back in power and glory, to be honored in this world. But today we can see Him as our Savior—the One who went into the suffering of death for us.

“The mystery [secret] of His will…that in the dispensation of the fulness of times He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in Him: in whom we also have obtained an inheritance” (Ephesians 1:9-11).

Here we find a further step in God’s purposes, for now He has made known to us the secret of His will. Not only did He decide in a past eternity to make His beloved Son head over all things in heaven and on earth, but He has included us in it all! God said, I am going to make My Son head over all things, but I am not going to do it, and leave Him all alone in that place. No, God chose us in Christ long before this world was made, in order to bless us in Christ, and to give us an inheritance in Him. Do we realize what a privilege this is?

God knew that sin would come into this world, and that in order to have us as part of His plan, His Son would have to suffer on Calvary’s cross in order to put sin away. And yet God made those plans away back before this world was made. He was thinking of you and me, and wanting to have us with Him.

“God…hath in these last days spoken unto us by His Son, whom He hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also He made the worlds” (Hebrews 1:1-2).

After God had spoken to man through the Old Testament prophets, He finally sent His beloved Son into the world, to show us clearly what God the Father was like. After that, man had no excuse for saying, “I do not know God, because I have never seen Him.” No, God had come down in the form of a man, so that people could hear Him, see Him, touch Him, and in every way come to know who God was.

But there is something else very interesting in this verse. It tells us God has appointed His Son “heir of all things,” and then tells us that it was by the Son that God made the worlds. At some point in the past, God created this world, but it was long before this world was created that God appointed His Son “heir of all things.” It was back in a past eternity that God determined to make His Son head over all things. Isn’t that wonderful! And then God created this world in order to work out His purposes concerning His beloved Son.

“Make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way” (Hebrews 12:13).

In our verse for today, we have some more talk about feet—our own feet. Have you ever walked behind other people and tried to walk in their footsteps? I remember doing that when I was a boy, and we were walking through deep snow. My father would walk ahead of me, and I would simply have to place my feet in his bigger footsteps. It made it much easier for me to walk, but there was a change in the way I walked. I had to keep my eyes on his footsteps, instead of watching where I was going.

How then did I know where I was going? I had to trust my father, and as long as I kept in his footsteps, I ended up at the right place. He knew the way, and he made a straight path for his feet.

We are called to do that as Christians. Whether we realize it or not, others are looking at us, and perhaps trusting us to make straight paths for our feet, so that they can follow. It is a big responsibility, and only the Lord can help us do it.