Jesus said to them “Most assuredly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM”. (John 8:58) There’s a great difference between the Lord of our experience and our experience of the Lord. Sometimes we become so attached to our previous experiences of Him that we miss what He is seeking to do today. We all know people who can tell us how they became Christians or how the Lord intervened in some time of great need in the distant past. We long to ask, “What new discovery of the Lord’s grace and goodness have you experienced this week, yesterday, or today? We lose our freedom in the Lord when we become proud of our past encounters with Him. This was the problem of the leaders of Israel. When Jesus offered to set them free they touted their false confidence in their heritage as Abraham’s children. So Jesus met them on their own terms. If they wanted to emulate Abraham they would have to express the patriarch’s faith in God and his practical trust that made him open and responsive to God. Abraham was a friend of God, but that friendship was kept fresh with daily experiences of God. “’Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him for righteousness.’ And he was called a friend of God” (James 2:23). Christ made the staggering assertion, “Before Abraham was, I AM.” There was never a time when the Son was not. He is the timeless One who existed with the Father when Abraham was called. This was a supreme claim to Deity. Christ had authority to reveal to them their spiritual bondage to the past and set them free to experience the adventuresome faith He had engendered in Abraham of old. But they were locked into a worship of tradition and were missing the wondrous gift of new life being offered in Him in that moment. Christ has the authority to set us free of false pride over our previous experiences of His grace and give us fresh experiences of His power today. Let go of the past; today the Lord will do wondrous things!
Posted on: Sun, 09 Mar 2014 05:49:55 +0000
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