“Who Am I?” Part 3
The I AM Statements of Jesus
Introduction Part 3- “Who Am I?”
In the book, The Secret Life of Walter Mittie (more recently made into a movie starring Ben Stiller), Walter is a character whose life is boring and predictable. He copes through a vivid imagination, seeing himself as a daring explorer or passionate lover, all occurring in his mind. He never says or does what his desires and passions might lead him to until he is confronted with a work situation that forces him to pursue a client around the world. In his pursuit, he ends up living his own authentic, adventure-filled dreams. He becomes more of what he wants and people begin to see the real Walter Mittie. In our own lives, we may think and dream and plan in ways that never become reality. We too have passions and desires that we may never act upon and so people may not know the ‘real’ us, as we struggle to simply be authentic and answer the question, “Who am I?”
So, with these struggles, what hope do we have to be known and loved? To live and excel and be happy in this world if we do not truly know ourselves, unable to even answer this most basic of questions, “Who am I?” The world tells you to look inward to discover the answer. It also tells you that for true happiness, you must create your own answers, your own identity. Society tells us that we are the product of random chance plus time, evolved beings who have come about as accidents of some cosmic puddling; amino acids combining in a primordial soup, billions of years ago, forming the basics of life. If so, we have no other option but to look inward and desperately try and create on our own and hope that others will like what they see.
But, if we are Divinely created beings, image-bearers of a loving God, then shouldn’t we explore what God has said about our value and worth? Shouldn’t we run to Him to discover the answer to this question, “Who am I?” Wouldn’t it make sense to go to the Author of life, to see what He has to say about why He created us, and how we should live, caring less about what others believe and far more about what He feels for us?
Often when we try and answer the question of “Who am I?”, we begin our descriptions with, “I am…”. We begin our introductions, “I am Greg Marshall”- giving you my named designation. “I am a pastor”, giving you my job or calling. “I am married”, telling you about my marital status and adding that I am a father of four, letting you know of my children. Even when sharing about our favorite activities, some may share a similar beginning, “I am… a soccer player or cheerleader or hunter or runner, etc.” We use the grammatical phrase, “I am…” often when communicating with others of ourselves. “I am” statements help get to the core of who we are but even these do not fully answer the question because each of our “I am” statements are conditional. They are dependent on something outside of us or connected to us. We, as human beings, must self-define in connection with other things/people/ideas because that is the only way we can give insight into who we are.
But there is One Who is not dependent upon anyone, anything, or any other idea. This One is Jesus Christ. He is the Creator and Sustainer of all things, including us. While we rely on Him for our beginnings and our being sustained, He is the One Who was not created. He is self-defining and self-sustaining. He is not dependent upon anything or anyone for Who He is or What He does. If He is our Creator, Sustainer, and the One Who gives our lives purpose and meaning, shouldn’t we get to know Him on a much deeper level, so that we might understand and know ourselves? To answer the question, “Who am I?” we must understand, “Who is He?” In understanding the second, we come to understand the first! So, Who is Jesus?
So, What Now?
Below you will find the theme for this series of devotionals. Think about this and pray that the Lord would use the I AM statements to teach us about Him and ourselves.
Main Thesis/Point: Jesus Said- “I AM…”- In each of the “I AM” statements that Jesus made, we get a fuller understanding of Who Is Jesus, and in that we learn more of Who we are and gain answers to life’s most basic questions.