Jesus: Incarnate Christ, Eternal God
Not that you’d ever want to, but if you want to zap the mood, create awkward silence, and make people uncomfortable, just remind them that eventually we’re all going to die.
See what I mean? It worked again!
Christians are the kind of people for whom death and dying need not be taboo. Christians are the kind of people who can think of death, speak of death, smile at death, and live every moment of life informed by the looming reality of death… all because Jesus faced death and overcame it.
Memento Mori
As a young man, Jonathan Edwards, one of our theological heroes from the 1700s, famously wrote this in his journal: “Resolved, to think much on all occasions of my own dying, and of the common circumstances which attend death.”
His resolution to think often about his own death was part of a broader Christian tradition of “memento mori” - a Latin phrase that means “remember that you will die.”
This does not mean that we talk or think or relate to death glibly. It’s no laughing matter. It’s a result of the curse that rests upon all mankind. It causes pain, loss, and a host of other maladies. The apostle Paul called it the “last enemy,” that by means of fear enslaves its victims even while they live (Hebrews 2:15).
But death will not have the final word. In the end, death will die, and those who put their trust in Jesus Christ will live on, forever and ever in the paradise of the kingdom of the one, true, and living God.
But how often do we contemplate exactly how this could be? How is it that Jesus Christ has power over death? How is it that you and I can confidently trust that he will raise us up again on the last day, reconstituting the dust of our bones into redeemed bodies more glorious than we could ever imagine? From whence, we might ask, does his death-defeating, life-giving power come?
As we continue in our sermon series through the Gospel of John, today we come to John 8:48–59. And in this text, Jesus provides us a shocking and glorious answer to this very question regarding the source of his power over death.
Context of John 8
Our passage is John 8:48–59, and I’ll be titling this message, “Jesus: Incarnate Christ, Eternal God.”
As a reminder, the historical context of our passage is a heated dialogue Jesus was having with the Pharisees and other Jews in Jerusalem during an annual feast in which the city was packed to the brim with pilgrims and worshippers.
The chapter begins with the Pharisees picking up stones to kill an adulterous woman. Jesus steps in, forgives her, and sends her away to embark on a new life. The chapter ends, rather ironically, with those same Pharisees picking up stones with which to kill him.
And in our text, the heated debate centers around Jesus claiming to have power over the dreaded enemy of all mankind… death itself.
The text unfolds in three parts. So, we’ll follow those points in this message.
In vv.48–51, we see 1. The Audacious Claim of Jesus.
In vv.52–55, we note 2. The Accusing Cynicism towards Jesus.
And in vv.56–59, we find 3. The Abrahamic Confirmation of Jesus.
As a ‘heads up,’ the first two parts will be fairly quick, and we’ll spend about half of our time on the third part of our passage.
First, the Audacious Claim of Jesus
vv.48–51: The Jews answered him, “Are we not right in saying that you are a Samaritan and have a demon?” Jesus answered, “I do not have a demon, but I honor my Father, and you dishonor me. Yet I do not seek my own glory; there is One who seeks it, and he is the judge. Truly, truly, I say to you, if anyone keeps my word, he will never see death.”
It’s little wonder that Jesus’ bold claim caused quite a stir. Imagine hearing a man who looks like you, dresses like you, eats and sleeps like you say, “If anyone keeps my word, he will never see death.”
Let the weight of those words sink into your heart. What on earth could Jesus have possibly meant: “If anyone keeps my word, he will never see death.”
Does he mean that if you follow Jesus you won’t die of old age, or disease, or a car accident? Surely not, since we know that elsewhere he told his apostles they would be killed for his name’s sake.
There are two senses in which this claim of Jesus’ immortality-granting authority comes true for those who follow him.
To better understand what Jesus means by this claim, let’s turn briefly to John 11:25–26:
Jesus Speaks to Mary
Here we find Jesus talking to the grieving sister of one of Jesus’ best friends, Lazarus. Amazingly, Jesus would go on to actually raise Lazarus from the dead (but one of us pastors will be preaching that sermon in a few months). So, I just want us to notice that in this conversation with this bereaved sister he says two things that help explain his claim in John 8.
Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?” (John 11:25–26).
Notice he says two things:
First, “Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live.” This assumes that even believers can and will die… and be resurrected.
Second, “Everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die.” This speaks of the eternal life of the soul that is granted by God at the new birth, when a person is born again by God’s Spirit.
So, Jesus declares two aspects of this glorious promise of Christians' immortality: (1) the future resurrection of the body after we die physically and (2) the current eternal life of our souls, which begins when we are born again by God’s Spirit and will never be severed from us.
Thus, in John 8:51, he is claiming to be responsible for both realities when he affirms, “Truly, truly, I say to you, if anyone keeps my word, he will never see death.”
This brings us to the second segment in our passage, John 8:52–55, where we see the response of the Jews to Jesus’ audacious claim to have power over even death itself.
Second, the Accusing Cynicism towards Jesus
The Jews said to him, “Now we know that you have a demon! Abraham died, as did the prophets, yet you say, ‘If anyone keeps my word, he will never taste death.’ Are you greater than our father Abraham, who died? And the prophets died! Who do you make yourself out to be?” Jesus answered, “If I glorify myself, my glory is nothing. It is my Father who glorifies me, of whom you say, ‘He is our God.’ But you have not known him. I know him. If I were to say that I do not know him, I would be a liar like you, but I do know him and I keep his word” (John 8:52–55).
Obviously, near the end of this public conversation, emotions are high. The religious leaders are incensed at Jesus for making such seemingly blasphemous claims about himself.
Their trump card the entire chapter has been their biological linkage to Abraham. This is one of three times they mention their Jewish patriarch, Abraham, in chapter eight alone.
Their argument is simple: if even Abraham, the friend of God, the father of the nation of Israel succumbed to death, how on earth could Jesus claim to be able to keep anyone from dying?
If Jesus had power over death, he’d be greater than Abraham and the venerated Jewish prophets, all of whom lived and died. Jesus’ claim was an unthinkable proposal in their minds.
So, in v.53 they throw down the gauntlet with the mocking and daring question, “Who do you make yourself out to be?” Who do you think you are?
This is the question we all must ask ourselves about Jesus.
If Jesus claimed such things for himself, what are we to make of him? Who is he really?
The Jews are on the right track when they call him demon-possessed. His claims were so unthinkable that no man in his right mind would ever make such statements… unless they were true statements. Jesus surely was mentally ill or demon-possessed or evil… unless he actually does have power over death.
So the question becomes, what would have to be true of Jesus for him to have power and authority over death? That is the question that should weigh on our minds, and it’s the question Jesus answers for us in the third and final part of our text, vv.56–59.
Third, the Abrahamic Confirmation of Jesus
“‘Your father Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day. He saw it and was glad.’ So the Jews said to him, ‘You are not yet fifty years old, and have you seen Abraham?’ Jesus said to them, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.’ So they picked up stones to throw at him, but Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple” (John 8:56–59).
Jesus’ answer to their question is nothing short of history shaping. They were likely thinking that they had cornered him and that he would back down from claiming to be greater than Abraham and the Jewish prophets. Or perhaps, on the other hand, they were hoping he’d double-down and say something for which they could kill him on charges of blasphemy. But regardless of what they expected, nothing could have prepared them for what is possibly the clearest claim Jesus makes to not only being Messiah but being divine.
His answer unfolds in two parts. We’ll look at each in turn:
v.56: “Your father Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day. He saw it and was glad.”
To paraphrase his answer, Jesus says, “Well, since you keep bringing up Abraham and, now since you’ve dared me to assert my superiority over him, let me put it to you this way: Abraham knew about me, he knew there would be a day when I would arrive. He saw that day by faith, and it overjoyed his heart.”
At first, it might seem as if Jesus dodged the question of superiority over Abraham, but he does not. He is now upping his bet and pushing in even more chips. He’s claiming to be the fulfillment of God’s promises to Abraham, that one day from Abraham’s lineage would come a man through whom all the nations of the earth would be blessed. Jesus is claiming to be the Jewish Messiah, which undoubtedly would make him greater than Abraham.
There are several stories we could tell from Abraham’s life that demonstrate that he “saw the day of Christ and was glad,” but we’ll focus on only one, from Genesis 22.
Abraham lived around 1800 years before Jesus. He was a wealthy and powerful man who God chose to be the Father of the Jewish nation, and he had a son with his wife, Sarah, named Isaac.
As the story goes, while Isaac was still young, God put Abraham’s faith to the test. In Genesis 22, we learn that God told Abraham to take his son, his only son, his beloved son, Isaac, into the mountain of Moriah and there offer him as a sacrifice to the Lord.
This would be a test that earlier in Abraham’s life he surely would have failed, but having grown to trust God’s goodness and trustworthiness, Abraham obeyed. In fact, when Isaac asked his father, “Daddy, where is the lamb for the sacrifice, the patriarch replied, “My son, God will provide a lamb” (Genesis 22:8).
They ascend the mountain, Abraham builds an altar, he binds Isaac, and then sets him on the altar. Genesis 22 records that Abraham then took his knife and raised it into the air to plunge it into the heart of his son, his only son, his beloved son, Isaac. But in that dramatic moment of truth,
“The angel of the LORD called to him from heaven and said, ‘Abraham, Abraham!’ And he said, ‘Here I am.’ He said, ‘Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him, for now I know that you fear God, seeing you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me” (Genesis 22:11–12).
Then we see in Genesis 22:13–14:
“And Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him was a ram, caught in a thicket by his horns. And Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son. So Abraham called the name of that place, ‘The LORD will provide.’”
This is a moving story in itself, but what if I told you that Mount Moriah, according to 2 Chr 3:1, was later to be the location of the city of Jerusalem, and not only Jerusalem but the very site of the Jewish temple… the very place where Jesus is standing when he makes these claims?
And what if I told you that from the temple mount in Jerusalem, historians generally agree that one could most likely see Golgotha, the infamous hill where Jesus was brutally crucified?
So then, just as Abraham lifted up his eyes from the place of sacrifice and saw in the distance a ram caught in a thicket that would become the substitute for his beloved son, so also some 1800 years later, Israelites on the temple grounds would be able to lift up their eyes and see Jesus Christ caught, as it were, impaled to the wooden tree of the cross?
What a tremendous foreshadowing of the sparing of God’s people from the knife of eternal justice that we all deserved, though the provision of a sacrifice!
O, how the heart of Abraham must have rejoiced to see that God had provided a lamb for the sacrifice.
And O, how our hearts rejoice when we see that God has likewise provided a lamb for us in the person of Jesus…
But much like a dream within a dream within a dream… there is a deeper layer of meaning than first meets the eye. For as the writer to the Hebrews would say, the reason Abraham could raise his knife to kill his son at God’s command was not because he thought God would stop him, but because Abraham believed God would raise Isaac from the dead.
Hebrews 11:17–19: “By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was in the act of offering up his only son, of whom it was said, ‘Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.’ He considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead, from which, figuratively speaking, he did receive him back.”
This very resurrection power that Abraham trusted to raise his son from the dead is the same resurrection power that Jesus is claiming for himself in John 8. “Yes, Pharisees, I am greater than Abraham. It was me he was trusting in. I am the source of the resurrection power over death that has been bringing God’s promises to pass all these years.”
At this, the Pharisees jeer at Jesus: “You’re not yet 50 years old! How can you say Abraham knew you?” And Jesus’ response is an absolute “mic drop” moment.
John 8:58: “Jesus said to them, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.’”
In case they were not understanding him clearly enough, here Jesus claims for himself an identity that they could not have imagined: “Before Abraham was… I am.”
One last story. In Exodus chapter 3, God appeared to Moses in a burning bush, 430 years after Abraham had first received the promise of a son and a nation.
“I Am Who I Am”
God told Moses to lead the nation of Israel out of slavery in Egypt. Moses was a reluctant deliverer to say the least: “You want me to go to Pharaoh, the most powerful man on the face of the earth, and demand that he let his slave labor force go free? Why would Pharaoh obey me? In fact, how would even the Israelites trust that you’ve actually sent me?”
We read in Exodus 3:13–15:
“Then 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.’” God also said to Moses, “Say this to the people of Israel: ‘The LORD, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.’ This is my name forever, and thus I am to be remembered throughout all generations.
This is the first time God called himself by the designation “I Am Who I Am.” The name speaks to God’s eternal, independent, self-existent nature. The theological term is the Aseity of God. In Hebrew, it's expressed as "אהיה אשר אהיה" (Ehyeh asher Ehyeh), from the verb "היה" (Haya), meaning "to be." If that doesn’t sound familiar, you might recognize the noun form: Yahweh. This phrase grammatically signifies continuous, self-sustained existence. God transcends time and is not bound by the past, present, or future.
The I Am Who I Am is the ultimate being, the source of all existence… the one who alone has the power of life within himself.
Thus, by Jesus claiming “Before Abraham was… I am,” he is identifying himself as the very One who appeared to Moses in the burning bush: Christ is the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. Jesus is claiming to be Yahweh incarnate, the eternal, Great I Am Who I Am, who entered space and time in human form to live a perfectly righteous life and then die in the place of sinners to bring us to God.
And so, as you might expect, v.59 records, “So they picked up stones to throw at him. The claims of Jesus to this day still get mixed reactions. Don’t they? Some hate him for it. Christians love him for it. Others, too engrossed in constructing a house of cards–pretending death will somehow pass them by–remain indifferent to Jesus and his claims and promises.
Christians from the beginning have embraced, as asserted in Hebrews 13:8: “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever” (Hebrews 13:8). Death has no claim on him. The death he died was only in our place, and he arose never to die again.
To John the apostle, around 100 A.D., Jesus revealed himself in a vision saying:
“I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty” (Revelation 1:8).
There may be some here today who walked into this room an hour ago spiritually dead and in need of more than a sermon, in need of a miracle, in need of a spiritual resurrection. Jesus, the source of all life, is your only hope, our only hope.
Jesus Christ is the promised Messiah, the forgiver of our sins, the founder of an eternal kingdom, the sender of God’s Spirit, the husband of the church, the Great I Am.
May Christ, this morning, sustain the life that only he can grant, and grant the life that he alone can sustain. ❖
