The Jesus Claim in John

By:  Erick Nelson
Last Updated:  June 6, 2002

The Narrator's Description

Who Jesus Is

Jesus pre-existed, with the Father and then became a human:

• The Word was:
  • God's expression of himself
  • with God
  • was God
  • the agent or channel by which God created everything that exists
  • the source, or bearer of life and the "light of mankind"
  • the true light which shines upon every man
     
• The Word became Jesus.  He:
  • came into the very world he created
  • lived among us
  • was largely unrecognized
  • gave us the power to become sons of God
  • is the only Son
  • is divine
  • lives in the closest intimacy with the Father
  • the only one who has ever seen God at any time
  • has made God known
     
• Jesus returned to the Father
  • Jesus realized that the time had come for him to leave this world and return to the Father.
  • Jesus, with the full knowledge that the Father had put everything into his hands and that he had come from God and was going to God, ...

What the Narrator's Purpose Is

• wrote what's in the gospel of John
• so that we may believe that Jesus is Christ
• so that we may believe that Jesus is the Son of God
• that in such belief we may have life as his disciples

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John the Baptist

Heaven (above) vs Earth (below)

• Jesus pre-existed (2)
• The one from above, is above everybody
• The one from the earth belongs to the earth and speaks from the earth.
• The one from Heaven is above all others and tells what he has seen and heard (in heaven)

Above Men (John)

• John not fit to tie Jesus' shoes
• Bridegroom (vs. bridegroom's friend)

Son of God

• has the Spirit without measure
• Lamb of God who will take away the sins of the world (2)
• Baptizes with the Holy Spirit
• Eternal life depends on belief in the Son

Son of God and the Father

• the one whom God sent
• speaks the authentic words of God
• Father loves him in a special way
• Father has put everything in his hand

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Jesus Himself (and Reaction)

Christ/Messiah (several)

Jesus is the only Son of God, loved by his Father

• Father loves the Son
• I am alive because of the Father
• God's only Son
• My Father (several)

Jesus was originally pre-existent, with God

• Just as the Father has life in himself, so by the Father's gift, the Son also has life in himself
• Before Abraham was, I AM
• You [the Father] loved me before the world began.

Jesus was sent by God from Heaven to Earth

• The living Father sent me
• For I have come down from Heaven
• I am the bread of life (like manna)
• I have not come of my own accord; I am sent by one who is true
• ... so that they may believe that you have sent me.
• (other statements)

Jesus is God's expression on earth.  He does exactly what the Father does, and says what the Father tells him to say:

• What the Son does is always modeled on what the Father does
• Father shows the Son everything he he does himself
• Son of Man is the one who bears the stamp of God the Father
• Father put judgment entirely into the Son's hands
• Father has given him authority to judge because he is the Son of Man
• I do nothing on my own authority but speak simply as my Father has taught me.
• I am telling you what I have seen in the presence of my Father
• For I have not spoken on my own authority:  the Father who sent me has commanded me what to say and what to speak.
• All that I say I speak only in accordance with what the Father has told me.

Integration/Identification with God

• so that all men may honor the Son equally with the Father
• I and the Father are One
• the Father is in me and I am in the Father
• If you had known who I am, you would have known my Father.  From now on, you do know him and you have seen him.
• Have I been such a long time with you, without your really knowing me, Philip?  The man who has seen me has seend the Father. 
• Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me?  The very words I say to you are not my own.  It is the Father who lives in me who carries out his work through me.  Do you believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me?
• (to God) Everything that is mine is yours and yours mine
• (Climax of the gospel narrative, after Thomas' "My Lord and my God!"):  Is it because you have seen me that you [correctly!] believe?  Happy are those who have never seen me and yet have believe.

Uniqueness - qualitative difference from any other human.  No one else has seen God or come from Heaven or has the same relationship with the Father.

• Not that anyone has ever seen the Father except the one who comes from God - he has seen the Father
• You don't know him; I do know him, because I come from him and he has sent me here
• The difference between us is that you come from below and I am from above.  You belong to this world but I do not.
• No one has ever been up to Heaven except the Son of Man who came down from Heaven
• You have never at any time heard what he says or seen what God is like
• Whatever the Father possesses is also mine

Jesus is going back to the Father

• What would happen if you were to see the Son of Man going up to the place where he was before?
• ... for I am going away to the Father
• ... for I am going away to the Father
• Yes, I did come from the Father and I came into the world.  Now I leave the world behind and return to the Father.

Sin

• Unless you believe that I am who I am, you will die in your sins
• the Father has never left me alone for I always do what pleases him.
• Which of you can prove me guilty of sin?

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Reaction - Blasphemy

In case someone thinks that some of these statements are ambiguous, or need not be interpreted in a strong sense, consider the people's reaction to Jesus' claims.  The narrator is certainly trying to get something across, namely that Jesus' claims were considered blasphemy in the Jewish religion.  The most outstanding of such reactions are the following:

Reaction to "Before Abraham was, I AM"

• At this, they picked up stones to hurl at him [for blasphemy]
• (Because he is not just claiming to have pre-existed, but to exist in the eternal now, probably using God's holy name Yahweh)

Reaction to "I and the Father are One"

• Again the Jews reached for stones to stone him to death
• (Surely not because he only claimed to be one with the Father in unity and purpose, but in a more substantial sense)

Reacton to "the Father is in me and I am in the Father" 

• And again they tried to arrest him.
• (Same as above)

Reaction to his claim to be the Son of God:  Jews to Pilate 

• We have a Law, and according to that Law, he must die, for he made himself out to be Son of God.
• (What is this law, if Jesus really only meant "son of God" in the [trivially true] sense which applies to all humans?