Not only did Jesus identify Himself as the “I AM” of the Old Testament, but He also established Himself as the “I AM” of the New Covenant:
1. “I AM the bread of life” (John 6:35)
2. “I AM the light of the world” (8:12, 9:5)
3. “I AM the door” (10:7,9)
4. “I AM the good shepherd” (10:11,14)
5. “I AM the resurrection and the life” (11:25)
6. “I AM the way, the truth, and the life” (14:6)
7. “I AM the true vine” (15:1,5)
Just as the burning bush of Exodus was a lowly shrub emitting a divine light and power, so Jesus would also be God in the form of a lowly man. Jesus wasn’t only a good man, or a human prophet, Jesus was the Almighty God in human form (Philippians 2: 6-8, NIV):
“Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross!”
But wait! There is another I AM statement in the gospels. Jesus has been arrested by the Jews for blasphemy. They bring him before the elders, priests, and scribes of the Sanhedrin and asked Him, “Are you then the Son of God? So he said to them, ‘You rightly say that I AM.’ ”
(Luke 22:70, NKJV).
~Stephen Beagles