Who Are You An Article for Supply Preach Utah/Idaho by Michael Frye
The Jews said to Him: “Who are you?” And, Jesus said to them: “Just what I have been telling you from the beginning.” “I AM...” (Adapted from John 8:25-30) The Jews did not want to accept that Jesus was the Messiah. They did not want to believe that He was sent by God or entertain the thought that He might be God. They posed this question more out of denial than anything else. They had the truth, but denied it based on their own presuppositions. Jesus told them the truth. He was at the beginning. He is I AM. From the beginning Jesus was. He was involved in the creation of the world. He was walked during the cool of the day in the Garden of Eden and talked to Adam and Eve. He made the promise of progeny to Abraham “by the oaks of Mamre”. From the beginning Jesus is I AM. “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 were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him.” John 1:1-5 & 9-10 (ESV) Jesus became flesh and dwelt as God among us. He grew up as any boy would and amazed the teachers of the Law of God at the age of twelve with His knowledge of the Law. He was baptized by John the Baptist at the outset of His ministry among the Israelite people. He taught the truth, not from a humanistic standpoint, but from God's standpoint. Jesus performed miracles. He removed the blight of physical ailments from those who believed that He could. Their faith in Him made them whole. When He died He did not take this truth with Him. He left the truth here with us. Jesus was scourged and then hung a cross, so that we might be healed of our spiritual ailments; sin. Therein lies the point of it all. He died, so that we might have the opportunity to live. Our faith in Him can make us whole. Jesus promised the Holy Spirit to those who would accept, have faith, and follow Him and the Holy Spirit came just Jesus said He would. He too is God. The early believers in the church experienced the Holy Spirit as He manifested Himself in glorious form within those accepted Jesus Christ. “But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me. And you also will bear witness, because you
have been with me from the beginning.” John 15:26(ESV) These are simple facts. So simple that mankind struggles with what to make of it all. We attempt to make since of it by relying on our understanding, but fail, because our own understanding is not God's truth. Some may say that this is to simplistic. Further, that those who believe in such things are uneducated simpletons, but I tell you that those who have believed in Jesus Christ have a witness to His existence and to the truth. That witness is the Holy Spirit. Some may say that we find truth everywhere in what we find and see around us; there is no need for a God. I tell you that any truth you may find is that truth given to us by God through the workings of His hands. “Oh Lord, our Lord, how majestic is Your name in all the earth, who have displayed Your splendor above the heavens...When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars, which You have ordained; What is man that You take thought of him, and the son of man that You care for him? Yet You have made him a little lower [than the angels] and You crown him with glory and majesty...O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is Your name in all the earth.” Psalm 8 (NASB) Others may say that although there is a God we have no need of a Savior; we are all going to heaven anyway. I tell you apart from an acceptance of the One that God sent who is testified to by the Holy Spirit, Jesus Christ, you will perish. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.” John 3:16-18 (NASB) Again, therein lies the point of it all. Jesus is I AM. Apart from Him you do not have any hope for life here or anywhere else. It is simple. You are dead. Having read this if you are asking the question, “Who are You?”; where Jesus is concerned then you know that He is calling for you to accept Him. You have asked the question, so seek to understanding this thing so simple. Jesus died so that you might live.