Willie Tebo | November 15, 2016
John 8:58 “And Jesus said unto them, Verily verily I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am.”
Often (if we listen closely) we will hear people say that “Christ was” such-and-such. Speaking as if He has come and gone and is no longer around or alive and active. On television (sometimes even Christian-based programs) we hear people speak of Christ as if He no longer exists.
But our Lord , the Son of the Living God is still alive today! It was He who said “let there be light”. It was He who told Noah to build the ark. It was He who told Abram “get the out of thy country”. It was He who spoke to Moses out of the bush. It was the Son, the Word, who communed with the priests and prophets throughout the millennia in the Old Testament. The Son’s work did not begin in Bethlehem; and more importantly His existence did not begin there!
John said “In the beginning was the Word (God, the Son)”! And the word “was” in John 1:1 means “exist[ing]”. In other words, He did not begin at what we know as the beginning (the creation of the universe); He already WAS before then.
The Son of God had no beginning; and He will have no end. He is eternal. That is why He is called “I AM”. He never “was” -existed in the past, but no longer living-. And He will never reach an end of living. Our Savior’s story did not end at the cross. But even more encouraging and exciting; His story didn’t end when He left this world! He is alive at this very moment. Just like He was alive at the creation.
Before creation “I AM”. Before Abraham was, “I AM”. And He said to the Apostle John -and by extension, to all mankind- “Fear not; I am the first and the last: I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen. Our Lord is eternal. We do not worship a dead man; but a living God and a living Savior.