Many claim that they are saved but do not believe that the Lord is God come in the flesh.
I have always been taught this in my life.
John 8:24 “Therefore I said to you that you will die in your sins. For unless you believe that I am He, you will die in your sins.”
The above verse plainly says that we need to believe that Christ is God in the flesh.
Those that do not believe this vers say that Christ did not mean "I am" to be Yahweh—the Lord.
What do others believe, is this doctrine needed for salvation or not?
am (
1510)(
eimi)
Eimí is the usual verb of existence, meaning to be or to have existence. For example, in Jn 1:1
eimi is used 3 times all in the imperfect tense (Gk = "
en") to describe the Word's (Jesus') continual existence, continual presence with His Father and continual existence as God.
Ego eimi - See also
Jehovah - I Am and the
Tetragrammaton. Jesus Himself used
ego eimi to express His eternal self-existence (without beginning, without end) in Jn 8:58 = "“Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was born,
I am.” He was saying He was Yahweh (I Am the One Who Is). Jesus is clearly claiming that He is God! The Jehovah's Witness New World Translation (2013) translates Jn 8:58 incorrectly as "I have been" which Greek scholars say is absolutely incorrect! Compare other "
I Am" statements by Jesus = Jn 4:26, 8:24, 28, 13:19, 18:5, 6 ["they drew back and fell to the ground!" = His Name "I Am" literally knocked an entire band of from 300-600 soldiers backward abruptly and hard onto the ground! His Name is indeed powerful!], Jn 18:8. see similar use in Ex 3:14 above). In Ge 17:1 God addresses Abram declaring "I am (
ego eimi) God" (cp similar uses in Ge 26:24, 31:13, 46:3, Ex 3:6, 7:5, 8:18, 14:4, 18, 20:2, 29:46, etc). Note that there are about 174 uses of "
ego eimi" in the Septuagint and 48 uses in the NT, but not all uses refer to God (e.g., Mt 14:27). There are 24 uses of
ego eimi in John's Gospel and most do refer to the Messiah. E.g., in the first occurrence, Jesus tells the Samaritan woman "
I Am" (ego eimi) (Jn 4:26) when she made a reference to the Messiah (Jn 4:25). In fact ego eimi introduces His great "I am" statements in John = "I am"..."the bread of life" (Jn 6:35, 41, 48, 51), "the Light of the world," (Jn 8:12), "the door" (Jn 10:7, 9), "the good shepherd" (Jn 10:11, 14), "the resurrection and the life," (Jn 11:25), "the Way and the Truth and the Life" (Jn 14:6); "the true Vine" (Jn 15:1, 5). At Paul's conversion on the Damascus Road Jesus told him "I am (ego eimi) Jesus Whom you are persecuting." (Acts 9:5). In the final use of ego eimi in Scripture Jesus affirms "
I am the root and the descendant of David, the bright morning star." (Rev 22:16) -
It is notable that Jehovah had used "
I Am" in the Old Testament in Isaiah 43:10 where He declared “that you may know and believe me and understand that
I am He (
ego eimi).’ In fact as
shown above,
ego eimi is used repeatedly in Isaiah 41-48, in passages that would have been very familiar to these Pharisees who prided themselves on their knowledge of the Old Testament. It is difficult to imagine that they did not understand that Jesus was clearly stating that He was the eternal God repeatedly described by their own prophet Isaiah!
Hendriksen on
I am... - The meaning is: that
I am all that I claim to be; the One sent by the Father, the One who is from above, the Son of man, the only-begotten Son of God, equal with God, the One Who has life in himself, the very essence of the scriptures, the bread of life, the light of the world, etc. The fact that rejection of the Son—failure to believe in him and to obey him—results in everlasting death is expressed not only here in Jn 8:24 but also in Jn 3:36 (
see on that verse), which may be viewed as an explanation of Jn 8:24. (BORROW
Exposition of the Gospel according to John - Chapters 7-21)
John MacArthur on
I Am - Jesus was applying to Himself the tetragrammaton (YHWH, often transliterated as Yahweh)—the name of God that was so sacred that the Jews refused to pronounce it. Unlike many modern cult groups (such as the Jehovah’s Witnesses), the Jews of Jesus’ day understood perfectly that He was claiming to be God. In fact, they were so shocked by His use of that name, in reference to Himself (cf. vv. 28, 58), that they attempted to stone Him for blasphemy (v. 59). (ED: See also
Jehovah - I Am and the
Tetragrammaton).... To be a Christian one must believe the full biblical revelation about Jesus: that He is the eternal second person of the Trinity, that He entered space and time as God incarnate, that He was born of a virgin, that He lived a sinless life, that His death on the cross is the only sufficient, substitutionary sacrifice for the sins of all who would ever believe in Him, that He rose from the dead and ascended to the Father in heaven, that He now intercedes for His own redeemed people, and that He will one day return in glory. To reject those truths about Him is to “be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ” (2 Cor. 11:3), to worship “another Jesus” (v. 4), to be cursed by God (Gal. 1:8–9), and ultimately to hear the Lord say, “I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness” (Matt. 7:23).
Notice the Jews' question in (Jn 8:25, cp Jn 10:24 and His answer in Jn 10:30!) even though He clearly has just told them He is "I AM"! Jesus emphasized that the fatal, unforgivable, and eternal sin is failure to believe in Him as Messiah and Son of God. All other sins can be forgiven if this one is repented of.
I AM is the self-designation for God in many Scriptures .(Ex 3:14 Dt 32:39; Isa 41:4, 43:10, 11, 13, 25; 44:6 46:4; 48:12; etc.), to render Hebrew “I (AM) He.” Jesus' use of this phrase is clearly a claim to Deity as the reaction to His claim clearly demonstrates in (Jn 8:58,59). The incorrect rendering of the Jehovah's Witnesses in their NWT only serves to illustrate the difficulty of evading the meaning of the phrase and the context.
Preceptaustin.com
