Divine Titles And Their Significance / Part Twelve | Grace & Truth, Inc

Series – November 2015 – Grace & Truth Magazine

Divine Titles
AND THEIR SIGNIFICANCE / Part Twelve

Jesus Is Jehovah
Jehovah of the Old Testament is Jesus in the New Testament. His very name – Jesus – given by the angel of the Lord at His birth proves this (Mt. 1:20-21). It is the combination of Jah (the contraction of Jehovah) and Hoshea or Joshua, meaning Savior. In other words He is the Savior-God.

Jesus claimed to be Jehovah. In speaking to the Jews, He told them, to their utter astonishment, that Abraham rejoiced to see His day and was glad. They replied with scorn and unbelief that He was not 50 years old, so how then could He make this claim? His reply was, “Before Abraham was, I AM” (Jn. 8:58 NKJV). In this He clearly claimed to be Jehovah of the Old Testament. I AM is the claim of deity. Jehovah claimed to be I AM (Ex. 3:14); Jesus claimed to be I AM (Jn. 8:58). Jehovah spoke out of the burning bush saying that He had come down to deliver the children of Israel from the cruel bondage of the Egyptians. As Jesus, He was then seen in manhood form, come down to earth to deliver on a still mightier scale from the cruel bondage of sin, and that at infinite cost to Himself – even at the price of laying down His life in sacrifice at the cross of Calvary.

In considering the names of God in the Old Testament we gave a list of additional words added to Jehovah showing how God would bless His people with rich blessings (see the December 2014 issue). We now present the counterpart of this in the New Testament in connection with our Lord’s presentation of Himself. Several times in the gospel of John we get our Lord’s assertion of deity in the words “I AM” – the Jehovah of the Old Testament coupled with phrases which disclose what blessings God had in mind for man in sending His beloved Son into this world.

“I AM The Bread Of Life”
(Jn. 6:48). The first two words assert deity. The last four could not be true unless our Lord had entered into manhood and died on the cross that He might be to us the bread of life. We read, “I AM the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread that I shall give is My flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world” (Jn. 6:51). His life had to be given up sacrificially so life might be the portion of every believer on the Lord Jesus Christ.

“I AM The Light Of The World”
(Jn. 8:12). How could the heavenly light have shone unless He who is the Light of the world came into it and lived His life among men? We read: “In Him was life, and the life was the light of men” (Jn. 1:4). What true light has man today except that which comes from above? We read of that Eternal Life which was with the Father from all eternity being manifested in due time to our Lord’s disciples in His own blessed Person.

But we also read that men loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil (Jn. 3:19). The light shone in the darkness and the darkness did not comprehend it (Jn. 1:5). They crucified the Lord of glory. Such is man! Such is your heart and mine, except for the grace of God.

“I AM The Good Shepherd”
(Jn. 10:11). To provide a door, an entrance into the blessings of salvation through faith in His name, our Lord had to die an atoning death on the cross. So we read His own words: “I AM the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep” (Jn. 10:11).

Did ever love go so far or pay such a price? Through Him we get salvation, liberty (in contrast with Judaism), sustenance, life (which was forfeited at the Fall and under the law), intimacy (where the law spoke of distance), communion as the Father has communion with the Son, eternal life, never to be plucked from the hand of the Father nor from the hand of the Son (Jn. 10:28-29) – the double grip and security of eternal love. What assurance! Surely such love demands our all.

In verse 9, the Lord says, “I AM the door” – the only door to heaven and way to eternal blessing. He is “the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me” (Jn. 14:6).

“I AM The Resurrection And The Life”
(Jn. 11:25). It is clear that if our Lord could claim to be the resurrection and the life it meant death for Him on the cross. He has become the resurrection so all who put their faith in Him may have part in His resurrection. Therefore when He will shout the summoning shout at His second coming all the sleeping saints will be raised as well (1 Th. 4:16-17). “Jesus said ... ‘I AM the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?’” (Jn. 11:25).

“If the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you” (Rom. 8:11). So the holy, indwelling Spirit of God is the pledge to the believer that our Lord is the resurrection and the life; that is, in Him there is a resurrection to life for every believer in His name. Thus our Lord comforted the sorrowing Martha and would comfort each one of us today.

“I AM The True Vine”
(Jn. 15:1). Here we have a symbolic figure of believers being in communion with the Lord so their lives will be pleasing and fruitful to God. For this to be so, it is necessary that believers be the possessors of a new life, a spiritual mind, for “the carnal [fleshly] mind is enmity against God ... those who are in the flesh cannot please God” (Rom. 8:7-8). We read: “And this is the testimony: that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son” (1 Jn. 5:11).

Every believer has through infinite grace received the gift of eternal life, but this life is in God’s Son. So our Lord, who is the life (1 Jn. 5:20), the source of life, the inherent possessor of life, can communicate this divine life without which there can be no understanding of divine things and no fruit for God. Our Lord said, “Most assuredly, I say to you, the hour is coming, and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God; and those who hear will live” (Jn. 5:25).

The vine symbolizes our blessed Lord; and just as the branches bear fruit only if abiding in the vine, so believers bear fruit as they abide in Christ. Abiding in Him they bear much fruit. This is for the glory and pleasure of the Father, symbolized by the vinedresser who prunes every branch that bears fruit, “that it may bear more fruit” (Jn. 15:2).

The Lord is the true vine in contrast to Israel, the unfruitful vine that produced no fruit for God (Ps. 80:14-16). Turning away from the fruitless vine we get the prayer, “Let Your hand be upon the Man of Your right hand, upon the son of man whom You made strong for Yourself” (Ps. 80:17). This prayer was answered in our Lord Jesus Christ. There can be no union with sinners. Divine life could not be communicated unless the atoning death of our Lord satisfied all the claims of God’s holiness as to the whole question of sin. Only by a new and divine life imparted to believers could the symbolism of the vine and the branches be fulfilled.

By A. J. Pollack

Look for the continuation of this Series next month.