Jesus' I AMs

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Jesus' I AMs

Post #1

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John 14:6 . . I am the way

The Greek word translated "way" is somewhat ambiguous. It can not only indicate a route-- a path, a road, or a trail --but also progress.

For example, it takes roughly five months for people afoot to complete the entire route of the Pacific Coast Trail from Campo California to Washington State's border with Canada.

Resourceful hiker trash report their daily progress on social media platforms like FaceBook and YouTube. Successful thru hikers-- those who complete the journey --publish one final progress report when they reach their ultimate destination: the Canadian border.

That's the sort of progress report that Jesus announced on the cross when he said "It is finished." His crucifixion was trail's end, and he capped the journey by crossing the border, viz: by rising from the dead.

People who have come to faith in Christ, do not need to retrace his steps because they already did. God-- by means of some strange procedure that I do not understand at all --reckons them crucified, died, buried, and resurrected along with, and in, His son. (Rom 6:3-11, Gal 2:20, and Col 3:2-3)
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Re: Jesus' I AMs

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John 11:25 . . I am the resurrection.

People who make the cut for a bodily Christian resurrection will be immortal. (1Cor 15:51-54)

However; at the time Jesus made that statement, he wasn't yet risen from the dead, i.e. Jesus wasn't immortal. We can be sure of that because had he been, then it would've been very difficult for the Romans to execute him on the cross. Jesus is immortal now (Rom 6:9 and 1Tim 6:16) but he wasn't then.

So; there's apparently more to the resurrection that Jesus spoke of than immortality because the grammatical tense of his statement is present tense rather than future; indicating he was the resurrection right then.

When Jesus was here, he was not only a human being with human life, but he was also a human being with eternal life.


John 5:26-27 . . For as the Father has life in Himself, so He has granted the Son to have life in himself.

That very same eternal life is available right now, no delay and no waiting period.


John 5:24-25 . . I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes Him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life. I tell you the truth; a time is coming, and has now come, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live.

So: a rough-hewn description of a Christian is someone that's a human being with human life while simultaneously a human being with eternal life: same as Jesus was, and still is.

But there's a catch. People cannot have eternal life a la carte as it can only be had by having Christ too seeing as he is, in some mysterious way, the very existence of eternal life even as his Father is the very existence of eternal life.


1John 1:1-2 . . That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched-this we proclaim concerning the Word of life. The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us.

1John 5:11-12 . . God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His son. He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life.

NOTE: According to John 5:24-25 and 1John 5:11-2, people lacking eternal life are not only dead on the hoof, but neither do they have God's son; which is a very grave situation because according to Rom 8:9, folks lacking God's son are outsiders, viz: they are not Christ's sheep.
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Re: Jesus' I AMs

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The 10th chapter of John begins with what appears to be a community stockyard where large numbers of sheep from all over are penned when they aren't out to pasture; probably during winter when grasses might be scarce.

It also appears that more than one shepherd is keeping sheep there; and then in Spring, when the weather begins warming and grasses are greening up, the shepherds come to round up their flocks and move them out to pasture.

One of the shepherds in this story stands out. He apparently has a vested interest in his sheep because he bought and paid for them out of his own pocket whereas the other shepherds are seasonal wranglers, i.e. employees.

The exceptional shepherd in the story is personal with his sheep, and has even given each individual head a pet name; and the sheep have somehow memorized their own names, which makes it easier for Mr.Exceptional to cull his sheep from the stockyard without inadvertently taking another man's sheep by mistake.

Mr.Exceptional's sheep not only know their own names, but they are familiar enough with the timbre of his voice to recognize it from among all the other shepherds. This suggests to me that this particular shepherd continually communes with his sheep along the trail to pasture and also when they're settled down for the night too. I wouldn't be surprised if he sang to his sheep like cowboys sometimes do to calm the nerves of the cattle under their care.

Then the scene shifts to the outdoors, a ways off from the stockyard. The sheep are bedded down for the night under circumstances where the only way that predators can get to the sheep is past Mr.Exceptional himself, i.e. over his dead body, so to speak. The location could be a cave, or a small box canyon with high walls: anything would do just so long as there is only one way in and one way out.


John 10:11 . . I am the good shepherd. A good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.

The thing to note is that the quality of Mr.Exceptional's dedication, his competency, and his reliability is so high that he can confidently guarantee that any, and every, sheep seeking shelter in his stronghold is 110% safe from all alarm.


John 10:9 . . I am the gate. Whoever enters through me will be saved

Were Mr.Exceptional a so-so shepherd; then he wouldn't dare say "will be" saved; no, he'd have to tone it down a bit and say "can be" saved. That would leave him some room for error. But when he says "will be" saved, he's claiming a 0.0% failure rate. This shepherd is one tough cookie!
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Re: Jesus' I AMs

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John 6:48-49 . . . I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died.

Manna was very nourishing but limited; it didn't sustain Moses' people indefinitely even though it was God-given and miraculous.

Psalm 78:24-25 is commonly translated to say that the manna was angels' food, but in none of the other fifteen places where the Hebrew word appears is it translated to indicate celestial beings. It usually speaks of strength, valiance, and/or superiority.

I think we can safely paraphrase Ps 78:25 to say that manna was powerful food; and indeed it was because it's common to develop deficiency diseases when people eat only one kind of food at every meal day after day; especially vegans. But according to Deut 8:4, the people apparently enjoyed exceptional health.


John 6:50-51a . .This is the bread which comes down from heaven, that a man may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven; if any one eats of this bread, he will live forever;

Jesus chose a good comparison. Up till that moment, the Jews knew of no foods superior to manna.


John 6:51b-52 . . And the bread which I shall give for the life of the world is my flesh. The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying: How can this man give us his flesh to eat?

The Jews misunderstood Jesus to mean cannibalism. Well; he laid that idea to rest with this statement:


John 6:61-62 . . Aware that his disciples were grumbling about this, Jesus said to them: Does this offend you? What if you see the Son of Man ascend to where he was before?

In other words; in order for people to successfully cannibalize Jesus' body, it would have to be accessible where they could cut into it with a knife and fork. Were he to depart for heaven, which he eventually did; people would lose access to his body and thus find it impossible to comply if true that his teaching spoke of cannibalism. So we can rule out a literal meaning of his words right off the bat.

Jesus' teachings were somewhat cryptic.


John 6:63 . .The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life.

Spirit words oftentimes contain hidden meanings not easily discerned by human intelligence.


1Cor 2:13-15 . .We speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words. The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned.

Jesus' spirit words were not well-received by the audience that day.


John 6:66 . . From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him.

Well; no surprise there. The reason they gave up on Jesus was simply because they were listening to his spirit words with human ears instead of hearing them with ears provided by God; ergo:


John 6:63-65 . .There are some of you who do not believe. This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless the Father has enabled him.

In order to get in on the Father's enabling, people must first be confident that Jesus' teachings are reliable.


John 6:67-69 . . You do not want to leave too, do you? Jesus asked the twelve. Simon Peter answered him: Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.

That was easily the wisest decision Peter ever made. Though he didn't have a clue what Jesus was talking about at first, our guy was confident that Jesus was the voice of God. That's a really, really good place to start with Christ.


John 12:49 . . I have not spoken of myself; but the Father which sent me, He gave me a commandment, what I should say, and what I should speak.
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Re: Jesus' I AMs

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John 15:1 . . I am the true vine

A religion that incorporates father confessors resembles the true vine; but a setup like that, though structured like the true vine is, nevertheless, an impersonation of the real McCoy.

Still speaking to the branches of the true vine; Jesus says:


John 15:3 . . Now you are clean through the word which I have spoken unto
you.

The Greek word translated "clean" doesn't indicate sinless perfection. Katharos (kath-ar-os') speaks of hygiene, i.e. bathed, washed, purified, purged, and/or sanitized; which is accomplished by means of the genuine father confessor.


1 John 1:9 . . If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Sill speaking to the branches of the true vine; Jesus says:


John 15:4a . . Abide in me, and I in you.

The abiding about which Jesus spoke is all the same as fellowship, which is intimately associated with the hygiene instructed by 1 John 1:9


1 John 1:3-7 . .That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that you also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ. And these things write we unto you, that your joy may be full.

. . .This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth: But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His son cleanses us from all sin.

Sill speaking to the branches of the true vine; Jesus says:


John 15:4b-6 . . As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can you, except you abide in me. If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned.

In a nutshell; when a branch fails to keep itself cleaned up, then it dries up; i.e. it becomes yard debris which in that day ranchers disposed by means of a bonfire. Needless to say; a yard-debris Christian has pretty much permanently lost their fellowship with God while down here on the earth.


NOTE: "Fellowship" is translated from the Greek word koinonia (koy-nohn ee'-ah) which isn't redemption. It's more like association and/or partnership in a common endeavor. And seeing as how it's futile to prune dead wood, then I think it's safe to assume that yard-debris Christians have lost that benefit too.
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Re: Jesus' I AMs

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Rev 22:16 . . I am the offspring of David

The Greek word translated "offspring" is genos (ghen'-os) which basically refers to kin, viz: one's relatives.

Christ's kinship with David is quite a bit more specific in Rom 1:1-3 where it says:

"Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh"

The Greek word translated "seed" in that passage is sperma (sper'-mah) which is a bit ambiguous because it can refer to spiritual progeny as well as to biological progeny; for example:


Gal 3:29 . . If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's seed.

That seed is obviously spiritual progeny; whereas David's is biological because it's "according to the flesh" i.e. his physical human body.

Seeing as Jesus' dad Joseph played no role in his son's conception, and his wife was a virgin at the time, then Jesus' biological association with David defaults thru his mother, i.e. Mary was biologically related to David; which places her baby in David's tribe; the tribe of Judah. (Heb 7:14)

This fact may be somewhat insignificant to most Gentiles-- other than their interest in Christ's connection to Abraham's promises --but Jesus' association with David is extremely important to the Jews because in order to validate Jesus' right to rule over the land of Israel, he absolutely must be biologically situated in the Davidic dynasty: no getting around it. (2Sam 7:8-17 and Ps 89:3-4)
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Re: Jesus' I AMs

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Mark 14:61-62 . . Again the high priest was questioning him, and saying to him: Are you the Christ, the son of the Blessed?" And Jesus said: I am;

The connection between the Christ (a.k.a. Messiah) and the son of the Blessed (a.k.a. God) wasn't something new and unusual. The connection was already well-known; not just among Judaism's elite, but also among ordinary pew warmers too.

So; how did they know? Who told them that Messiah would be the son of God rather than just another nondescript son? For example:

"I said: You are all sons of the Most High." (Ps 82:6)

In a nutshell: It was believed that all kings of the Davidic dynasty were each in their turn the son of God in a special way. For example David (Ps 89:27) Solomon (2Sam 7:12-14) and all the others (Psalm 2 and Psalm 45)


NOTE: The Hebrew equivalent to Christ is mashiyach (maw-shee'-akh) which simply means anointed-- i.e. divine appointment to a throne --and isn't limited to Jewish monarchy, e.g. Cyrus (Isa 45:1)

So then, Jesus admitted that he was indeed the son of God; and by doing so laid claim to the Davidic monarchy-- not only in the presence of the high priest, but also commoners and the Roman official governing Israel at that time.


John 4:25-26 . .The woman said: I know that Messiah is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us. Then Jesus declared: I, who speaks with you, am he.

John 18:37 . . Pilate said: You are a king, then? Jesus answered: You are right in saying I am a king. In fact, for this reason I was born.
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Re: Jesus' I AMs

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Rev 22:16 .. I am the root of David

This hails way back to the eleventh and fifty-third chapters of Isaiah where there's predicted that David's root will sprout a twig that ultimately becomes a branch.

The two chapters aren't very long; and I have to say they are very much worth the reading because they tell so much about Christ's person, his purpose, his work, and his future kingdom on earth.


Rev 22:16 . . I am the bright morning star.

By comparing Isa 14:12, Luke 10:18, and Rev 2:26-28; it can be readily deduced that the Bible's morning stars are persons wielding political power. But none are as radiant as Christ because he's the signet promised to Zerubbabel in Hag 2:21-23. In other words: Jesus wields the power of God so much so that he is in the position of God as God.


Rev 1:8 . . I am the Alpha and the Omega-- says the Lord God --who is, and who was, and who is to come: the Almighty
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Re: Jesus' I AMs

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Matt 11:29a . . I am meek

( Moses was meek too. Num 12:3 )

Jesus would likely get challenged for his statement seeing as how he was very not passive while evicting merchants from the Temple area. So, if meekness isn't the opposite of anger and aggression, then what are we talking about here?

The Greek word translated "meek" is praus (prah-ooce') which means mild, defined by Webster's as gentle in nature or behavior; i.e. temperate; viz: agreeable, approachable, reasonable, calm, mellow, and self-controlled.

Well it appears to me that Jesus is the kind of man that picks his battles carefully, and avoids getting all riled up over trifles, i.e. he's not bipolar, nor ready to fight at the drop of a hat, nor does he consider every disagreement an act of war to be won at any cost.

In other words; Jesus was temperate, self controlled, agreeable, reasonable, approachable, patient, tolerant, not easily insulted, and lenient.

Non-temperate people could be characterized as moody, grudging, irritable, emotional, thin-skinned, belligerent, militant, pugnacious, brawling, defensive, confrontational, and reactive; around whom everybody has to walk on egg shells all the time to avoid setting them off.

A man mellow in demeanor should never be assumed lacking in strength, courage, conviction, or self confidence. Anybody who's studied the lives of Moses and Jesus can easily testify that neither of those men were either timid, wimpy, or vacillating.
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Re: Jesus' I AMs

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Matt 11:29a . . . I am humble.

Jesus didn't have a problem with conceit; defined by Webster's as as excessive self-appreciation of one's own worth or virtue. In other words hubris; which often indicates a loss of contact with reality and an overestimation of one's own competence, accomplishments or capabilities.

We can trust Jesus' opinion of himself because he has been approved by a much higher critic than even the best and the brightest among us.


Matt 3:16-17 . . And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water: and, lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him: and lo a voice from heaven, saying: This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.

And again:


Matt 17:4-5 . . Peter said to Jesus: Lord, it is good for us to be here. If you wish, I will put up three shelters-one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah. While he was still speaking, a bright cloud enveloped them, and a voice from the cloud said: This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him.
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