Let’s look at Jesus in the Old Testament. In John chapter 8…John is New Testament, I know, but stay with me…Jesus is talking with some Jews who were proud they were descendants of Abraham. Jesus told them, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples” (John 8:32). They pushed back, proud of their descent from Abraham. Jesus doesn’t back off. He says, “I speak of what I have seen with my Father.” In other words, Jesus says He has personally seen things with God the Father. Well, they kept harping on Abraham, so Jesus finally tells them bluntly, “Truly, truly I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.” “Before Abraham was, I am” (John 8:58).
This is not just a one-off, something Jesus said only one time. When Jesus was praying to the Father in John chapter 17, He said, “Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.” Again, in that same chapter, “Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory which you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world” (John 17:5, 24). And from Revelation, the book that looks ahead to the return of Jesus Christ on the Last Day to take us to our inheritance in heaven, from the very last chapter of that last book of the Bible, Jesus says, “I am the Alpha and Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end” (Revelation 22:13).
Ponder what Jesus says. Have we let our secular culture, our yearly worship routines, and our sentimentality reduce Jesus to a nativity set, a seasonal decoration? “Before Abraham was, I am.” Whoa! Tomorrow a look at one of His Old Testament advents.
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