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Transcript 210C — God's Name: "I AM"
HC: Good evening. Welcome to Open Forum.
CALLER: Hello, Mr. Camping. I'd like some scriptures on the "I AM." I'd like some scriptures from the Old Testament and the New Testament, so I can write a paper of it for my class.
HC: The question that's been raised is concerning the use of God's Name, I AM. Back in the Old Testament Moses was told by God to go to Egypt and lead the people of Israel to freedom. And then in verse 13 Moses said to God, "If I come to the people of Israel and say to them, the God of your fathers has sent me to you, and they ask me, 'What is His Name?' what shall I say to them? God said to Moses, I AM who I AM. And He said, 'Say this to the people of Israel: I AM has sent me to you.'"
In other words, God is saying, effectively, that He is the Ever Present One. Now this same kind of language is also found in the New Testament, although it's not always greatly apparent. Sometimes we have to look very carefully to find it.
In John 8:58, for example, Jesus said to the Jews, "Before Abraham was, I AM." There He's using His Name of Exodus 3. Furthermore, remember Jesus said, "I am the Bread of Life." "I am the Good Shepherd." "I am the door of the sheep." (John 10:7) There are many of these in the Bible, and you can find these. I can't put my finger on all of them, but again and again He says, "I am" this, and "I am" that.
Now another place where He uses the words I AM is at the time that He was going out of the Garden of Gethsemane, on His way to be bound, to be crucified. And the temple servants have come to take Him. And then, as He left the Garden of Gethsemane, in John 18, Jesus asked them, in verse 4, "Whom do you seek?" They answered Him, "Jesus of Nazareth." Jesus said to them, "I AM." Now in your Bible you might have "I am He," but the "He" is not in the original. It's just "I AM." "Jesus said to them, 'I AM.' And then when He said to them, 'I AM,' they drew back and fell to the ground." In other words, Jesus was declaring Himself to be the Jehovah God of the Old Testament, when He said, "I AM."
Now these are the most important places in the Bible, I think, that speak about Jesus as being I AM.