John 8:58 “Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am.”
While speaking to the Jewish leaders who did not believe that Jesus is the Son of God, He declared, “Before Abraham was, I am”; that is, “I am” Jehovah, the God that eternally exists of Himself. They knew exactly what the words “I am” meant; for, “God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you” (Genesis 26:24). They knew that He was telling them that He is Jehovah-God; thus, He is eternal, He is Sovereignly Omnipotent, He is The Messiah, He has complete power and authority over all things, and He is to be worshiped and served and obeyed. The unbelieving Jews outright rejected Him, for being God present with them would deny them their personal claims to power over the people, deny them their demands that the people glorify them, and deny them their elite status over the people. They did not and could not lovingly believe in Him; for, as He explained to them, “because ye are not of God” (John 8:47) they did not have the Spiritual ears (John 8:43) with which they could lovingly “hear” and believe in the Lord. In another place, He told them “ye believe not, because ye are not of my sheep” (John 10:26). Simply put, they were not Children of God; thus, they did not have God-given “faith” (Hebrews 12:2) to lovingly know and believe in Him. But, we, like many in that day, “believe that” He is “the Christ, the Son of God” (John 11:27) and that He “hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began” (II Timothy 1:9). Believing that He is our Savior-God, we rejoice to know that He “hath” saved “his people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21) and that He is our “good shepherd” (John 10:11) in this present world and that He will deliver us through our troubles (II Corinthians 1:8-10) and that one blessed day He will “raise” us up to be forever with Him in the Eternal-Heaven (John 6:39). Now, believing, even in the very midst of all our troubles, we sing, “O come, let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the LORD our maker.” (Psalms 95:6)!