(I Am) Jesus

Jesus is the center of all things.  He is I Am, Who I Am, God's Son and man's son.  All life revolves around Him.  As one of the Trinity of I Am Who I Am, Jesus is God.  Thus, He is the Creator of all things in the heavens and earth.  In John 1:1-3, the Apostle wrote, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him, not even one thing came into being that has come into being.”   In Him was life, and the life was the light of men."

     Jesus, the Son of God, has received from His Father all authority in the heavens and on the earth.  In addition, God's Holy Spirit teaches and leads all men and women to know and understand Jesus Christ.  Thus, it can be argued that Jesus is the one in whom we place our focus when beginning and maintaining a relationship with God.

     Before Jesus was born into the world, He lived amongst His Creation in the heavens and on earth in a bodily form.  We do not know what this physical form was.  It was not the body of a man like the one we read that lived on the earth, and it was not a resurrected body like the one described in Scripture.  His body was different.  He lived in a body and walked in the heavens, and in this same body, He lived and walked on the earth.  Several events can be read in Scripture as evidence of this.

     We read that Jesus walked in the garden with Adam in Genesis 3:8, “Now they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.”  Scripture reads that Jesus appeared to, ate with, and had His feet washed by Abraham.  We read this account in Genesis 18:1–22: "Now the Lord appeared to Abraham…., and when he saw them, he ran from the tent door to meet them and bowed down to the ground, and said, 'My Lord…., Please let a little water be brought and wash your feet….and I will bring a piece of bread, so that you may refresh yourselves'…., Abraham also ran to the herd, and took a tender and choice calf…., and set it before them; and he was standing by them under the tree as they ate…., Abraham was walking with them to send them off…."

     More descriptions of Jesus appearing on earth before He became "the Son of Man" himself can be read.  To Moses, He was seen in the burning bush as seen in Exodus 3:2: “Then the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a blazing fire from the midst of a bush; and he looked, and behold, the bush was burning with fire, yet the bush was not being consumed.” and then again to Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the furnace, as described in Daniel 3:25: He responded, “Look! I see four men untied and walking about in the middle of the fire unharmed, and the appearance of the fourth is like a son of the gods!”  Furthermore, God changed their bodies to be unaffected by the fire.

     During the time between Adam's beginning and the conception of Christ, Jesus was known as I Am Who I Am, God and Lord, He who has always existed and always will, and Yahweh. We understand that this was Jesus before He came into the world as the Son of Man and was named Jesus because, in John 1:18, He said, “No one has seen God at any time; God the only Son, who is in the arms of the Father, He has explained Him.”  He affirms this again in John 5:37, “And the Father who sent Me, He has testified about Me. You have neither heard His voice at any time, nor seen His form.”  The Holy Spirit appears in Scripture not as a man but as a dove.  God was physically among men before Jesus was born in Bethlehem.

     During this time, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit had specific expressions of "I Am, Who I Am."  However, the prophecy would eventually be fulfilled.  As Isaiah 9:6 states, "For a child will be born to us, a Son will be given to us, and the government will rest on His shoulders; and His name will be Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace."  The one who would be named Jesus would leave heaven, His spiritual body becoming a human body on Earth. 

     I Am Who I Am would have a new expression.  In Galatians 4:4, we read; “But when the fullness of the time came, God sent His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law.”  In Moses' time, His Trinity was called Elohim.  However, at the birth of Jesus, I Am Who I Am would be seen not only as the Father of Creation but as the Father of Jesus, Jesus Himself, and the Holy Spirit.

     By the will of the Father and the power of the Holy Spirit, God formed His fetus body in the womb of Mary and breathed His own life into it.  Thus, the Messiah would now dwell on earth as a man among men.  Jesus would now be known as the Son of God, and Jesus became a living Soul!  Jesus' soul would distinguish Him from the Father and the Holy Spirit because He would not just be known as God (Elohim), but He would be known as the Son of God and the Son of Man.

     When the appointed time came, He was born into the world as a male infant baby, one hundred percent human.  Romans 8:3 says, “…. sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh….”  However, He was different from the rest of us because, He was the Son of God (Yahweh)!

     God’s Son would be a man who would be an example to all humankind and show how they are to have a relationship with God (Yahweh) the Creator.  Moreover, most importantly, through His Son, God (Yahweh) would show us how to love one another!  As the Apostle John wrote and we read in 1 John 4:7–11, “Beloved, let’s love one another; for love is from God, and everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. The one who does not love does not know God, because God is love. By this the love of God was revealed in us, that God has sent His only Son into the world so that we may live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.”  God never asked—nor will the only true God ever ask—us to sacrifice the life of any human on an alter to please Him.  He made himself human and died on a cross to show us how much He loved us!  What an example has been given to us to reveal what love is.

     Through Christ Jesus, I Am Who I Am limited Himself to the restrictions of the human body and soul!  He restricted Himself in the body of Jesus to the authority of the Father and the authorities ruling this world's governments.  In Philippians 2:8, we read, “And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death: death on a cross.”  Jesus never disobeyed!  He submitted His authority to His Father, and the laws of man, and His Father returned all the authority to Him.  Jesus did not respond to any man with the authority He had; instead, He knew the will of His Father and obeyed Him with all His will.  The passage 1 Peter 2:23 reads, “and while being abusively insulted, He did not insult in return; while suffering, He did not threaten, but kept entrusting Himself to Him who judges righteously.”  Thus, because of His obedience, God the Father can express through Jesus His unlimited love to us!

     This love is manifested in the account of the creation of humankind, starting with Adam.  While we know very little about Adam's life, we know that his Creator formed his body from the earth and that God breathed life into him.  We know that God caused Adam to fall into a deep sleep and that He created Eve from a rib removed from Adam.  We know that Adam disobeyed God at a specific time and became aware that he had sinned.  When he disobeyed God, his flesh fell from perfection into a fallen state and began to decay.

     As the Son of Man, Jesus was a son of Adam and would have to grow and mature spiritually, mentally, and physically as all human beings do.  The Holy Spirit would reveal the truth to Jesus and guide Him to do His Father's will through communication to Him through the Innermost Man (Jesus' Spirit).  As He grew physically like any other human from His birth until His death, He would be educated and eventually learn the carpenter trade from His family.  However, as the Son of God, Jesus would not have the blood of Adam but of His Heavenly Father flowing through His veins, making Him one hundred percent Divine!

     Let us examine the effects of the fallen flesh into which Jesus was born, which was the same type of body as all humans; Mary was His mother, subject to the exact fallen nature and curse of death laid upon all humankind.  She required redemption and sanctification from sin, just as all others were born before.  Thus, Jesus abided in a body of flesh under the curse of death.  While He dwelt among us as the son of man, men and women would experience Him through all the bodily senses given them.  Men and women saw Him, smelled Him, heard Him, and felt Him.  Mary kissed His feet, and we know that Judas betrayed Him with a kiss, thus tasting His skin.  Moreover, Jesus, Himself would experience a relationship with His Creation using all the senses given Him through His human body.

     Over the years, I have heard that Jesus' flesh tempted Him to sin in all things as we are tempted, but He did not sin.  I agree with this teaching, and yet, it posed a question I had difficulty reconciling: Could Jesus have sinned if He had chosen to?  I believe and am thoroughly convinced that Jesus could not have sinned, as He is I Am Who I Am.  While Jesus, being I Am Who I Am, is incorruptible, Jesus' physical body, which was man, was subject to corruption.  Thus, while sin could never overcome Him, He knew and experienced being born in a human, fleshly, and corruptible body.  Jesus felt every emotion man had felt but never reacted sinfully against His Father's will.  Philippians 2:6–7 reads, “who, as He already existed in the form of God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but emptied Himself by taking the form of a bondservant and being born in the likeness of men.”  Jesus served His Father and mankind.  He was pure in Spirit, walking in complete truth and without any rebellion ever.

     In Jesus, we see I Am Who I Am—the Father.  Jesus is recorded in John 14:9 as saying, “Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you for so long a time, and yet you have not come to know Me, Philip? The one who has seen Me has seen the Father; how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?”  The disciples looked in His eyes; they saw the truth, experienced His presence, and felt His touch.

     Jesus willingly let the men and women He created murder Him on a cross.  He said no words to defend Himself, nor did Jesus' fight or have others fight for Him.  He showed us what love is.  He comforted us with His death.  Before dying, while hanging on that cross, He said, "Father forgive them."

     Three days after He died and was buried, He was resurrected from the dead.  He received and was seen in His third and final body—the body all believers will receive at the resurrection.

     Jesus is a divine part of the Trinity of I Am Who I Am, and he is a human created in God's image, like the rest of humankind!  We can boldly proclaim that Jesus is the body of God, containing the fullness of God!  Furthermore, Jesus is the son of man!  Thus, we understand that Jesus has a Spirit, Soul, and Body!