Today’s Passage: John 8:48–59
Jesus has been teaching in the temple in Jerusalem, and the religious leaders are furious with Him. Now the argument turns personal, and Jesus makes the boldest claim in the whole Bible. Every leader in that courtyard understands exactly what He means by it.
As you read, hold this: Jesus claimed God’s own name. Everyone in the room knew what He meant.
Context A fight in the temple
This argument had been building all day, ever since Jesus told the crowd that the truth would set them free (John 8:32). The leaders in this scene are called “the Jews” in the Bible text, and that means these particular leaders, not the Jewish people as a whole. They had already claimed Abraham as their father, and Jesus had answered that their actions proved otherwise. Today’s passage picks up right in the middle of that fight.
John 8:48–51 (BSB)
⁴⁸ The Jews answered Him, “Are we not right to say that You are a Samaritan and You have a demon?” ⁴⁹ “I do not have a demon,” Jesus replied, “but I honor My Father, and you dishonor Me. ⁵⁰ I do not seek My own glory. There is One who seeks it, and He is the Judge. ⁵¹ Truly, truly, I tell you, if anyone keeps My word, he will never see death.”
They cannot answer Jesus, so they insult Him instead. Rather than fight back, Jesus quietly points to His Father, the One who seeks His glory and does the judging.
Then He makes a staggering promise: whoever keeps His word will never see death. He does not say such a person will live a long life. He says that person will never see death at all.
John 8:52–56 (BSB)
⁵² “Now we know that You have a demon!” declared the Jews. “Abraham died, and so did the prophets, yet You say that anyone who keeps Your word will never taste death. ⁵³ Are You greater than our father Abraham? He died, as did the prophets. Who do You claim to be?” ⁵⁴ Jesus answered, “If I glorify Myself, My glory means nothing. The One who glorifies Me is My Father, of whom you say, ‘He is our God.’ ⁵⁵ You do not know Him, but I know Him. If I said I did not know Him, I would be a liar like you. But I do know Him, and I keep His word. ⁵⁶ Your father Abraham rejoiced that he would see My day. He saw it and was glad.”
To them the promise sounds impossible, because Abraham died and every prophet died, so their question finally comes out plainly: Who do You claim to be?
Jesus answers by reaching back even further than Abraham. He tells them that Abraham himself, long before Jesus came in the flesh, rejoiced to look forward to this very day. Abraham had been looking forward to Him all along.
John 8:57–59 (BSB)
⁵⁷ Then the Jews said to Him, “You are not yet fifty years old, and You have seen Abraham?” ⁵⁸ “Truly, truly, I tell you,” Jesus declared, “before Abraham was born, I am!” ⁵⁹ At this, they picked up stones to throw at Him. But Jesus was hidden and went out of the temple area.
Word study "I am": *egō eimi* (John 8:58)
Greek: ἐγὼ εἰμί (egō eimi), pronounced eh-GO ay-MEE. Strong’s G1473 + G1510.
It simply means “I am,” yet these are the very words God used for His own name at the burning bush, when He told Moses, “I AM has sent me to you” (Exodus 3:14). Notice that Jesus did not say, “I existed before Abraham.” He said, “I am,” taking up God’s own name and speaking it of Himself.
The leaders hear only a matter of arithmetic: You are not fifty. How have You seen Abraham? Jesus answers with something far bigger than age: before Abraham was born, I am.
Nobody in that courtyard missed what He meant. They understood those two words exactly, and so they reached for stones, because stoning was the punishment for a man who claimed to be God when he was not.
But it was not yet Jesus’s time, and so He walked out unharmed, right through the middle of the crowd.
Study notes The name at the burning bush
Long before this day in the temple, Moses stood at the burning bush and asked God His name. God gave one answer, and it became the most sacred name in the whole Bible.
"God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I AM has sent me to you.’”" Exodus 3:14 (BSB)
When Jesus said “I am” in the temple, He was reaching all the way back to Moses and taking that same name for Himself.
Jesus claimed God’s own name. Everyone in the room knew what He meant.
Personal Application
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Jesus stood in that courtyard and plainly took God’s own name for Himself. Do you believe He was telling the truth about who He is?
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If that name really belongs to Him, what would change in the way you speak to Him, and about Him, today?
Today’s decision: Today I will say, out loud or quietly, one true thing I believe about who Jesus is.
Pray to Close
The central truth: Jesus claimed God’s own name. Everyone in the room knew what He meant.
Praise: praise Him that He is the great I AM, the same name spoken at the burning bush and spoken again in the temple.
Give thanks: thank God that Jesus never hid who He is, even when the truth put His life in danger.
Ask: ask Him for the faith to believe the very claim the crowd could not accept.
Confess: tell Him honestly about any doubt that keeps Jesus smaller in your mind than He really is.
Worship for Today
Yahweh, Great I Am · Hillsong Worship
This song takes the name God gave Moses at the burning bush and sings it straight to Jesus. Sing it as your own glad answer to the very claim the crowd tried to answer with stones.
Listen: