I AM - I AM NOT

  Interwoven within the mock trials of Jesus was a meaningful dichotomy. Mankind’s problem since original sin has been “I AM.” Satan, speaking through the Serpent’s mouth, had warned, “God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil” (Gen 3:5).

  The translation is ambiguous since ‘elohym, the reference for God, is plural but is used for God’s One Existence. Whether it intends to be “as gods” or “as God” is not clear. It seems that since they usurped God’s Authority, they both became “as God.”  A “god” is One Being who is perfect in all aspects (Merriam-Webster Dictionary). Ironically, Eve was one being who had been perfect (entirely good; Gen 1:31) but that was about to change. Likewise, Adam had been one being who had been perfect and that too was about to change.

  Hence, even as they were created perfect in the image of God, God provided them with a potential flaw. They did not exhibit that flaw in the Design and Build stages, but in practice, God knew it would be there. God has a “Will” — that is “the power of control over one’s own actions or emotions” (ibid). Adam could not control Eve, Eve could not control Adam, the Serpent could not control either them or God, none of them could control God, and God intentionally limited His control over them! Both Adam and Eve were endowed with their own “wills” in the image of God. Satan could not demand that they do things, but with their own will, things must come about of their own volition.

  Before, Adam and Eve had submitted to God and there was unity between themselves and them and God. That is the definition of “glorified.” Jesus prayed, “glorify Me together with Yourself” and added, “with the glory which I had with You before the world was” (John 17:5; NKJV). Before the foundation of the world, God ordained that His creatures be “holy and without blame before Him in love.” “Glorified” then is with God, in the image of God, holy, perfect, and in love with God; just like it was in the Garden before the lesser beings’ souls were emptied of the Supreme Being’s Spirit.

  Who exhumed God’s Spirit from Adam and Eve? The Serpent had no power to do so. God has the Power to give and take the His Holy Spirit, but that would be autocratic. Adam and Eve exhumed God’s Spirit from themselves, themselves! The Devil didn’t do it; the Serpent didn’t do it, and God didn’t do it!

  Look what they had done: God breathed life unto them (Gen 2:7). “What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder” (Mark 10:9).  Of course, God “joined together” Adam and Eve in marriage, but only He could put that asunder. God pulled Eve from Adam’s side, and only God has the Authority to do that. Adam and Eve usurped Holy Matrimony with God, in that the “marriage” was between woman, man, and God; and with that they were pretend God(s).

God Is without name, but said, “I AM THAT I AM” then shortened it to “I AM” (Exod 3:14). God is THE “Existence” and Adam and Eve were two other existences. God is I AM. Who were they? To be’s! With their rebellion they usurped God, and as such desired “to be” God. The English word, “sin,” comes from an ancient Danish verb meaning “to be.” Sin is ultimately “to be as God.”

  Jesus is God manifested in the Flesh “to take away our sins” (1 John 3:5). The Purpose of Jesus is to take away the sin in people’s hearts. I AM came in the Flesh to remove the “to be” from the hearts of mankind.

  Intertwined in the arrest of Jesus was positive identification of Jesus and Peter. Three times Peter denied Jesus before the cock crowed twice. The cock crowing represents a new day. Suddenly at daybreak, Peter was not one of them, he was someone else. His new identity was revealed with the light of the morning.

  The mob came after Jesus in the dark hours. Ironically, the Garden of Gethsemane may have been the midst of the Garden of Eden. The mob came to arrest Jesus, perhaps exactly where the Tree of Life stood. That was the customary place that Jesus took refuge from the world. They came to “Glory” to “Glorify” God. The crucifixion of Jesus would glorify God and Jesus prayed that… “Father, glorify Me together with Yourself!”

  In the dark, Peter was one of them.  He cut off the right ear of Malchus. According to Scripture, Peter had no right to do that. Whatever offends a person, that person should cut off themselves. Peter was circumcising Malchus’s ear, attempting to make him understand, but Jesus was about to provide the solution to that. By His blood, hearts could be circumcised; not just offensive hearing, offensive fornication, but the entire being!

  “Circumcision of the heart” is sacrificing oneself in entirely. It is allowing Jesus to glorify and make things as they were in the Garden. It is the removal of sin by God. Jesus death was to put away the desire to be and replace it with the image of the Great I AM.

  Now look at what Peter did. Three times, Peter denied Christ. The gospels recount Peter’s denials, but Luke may have been the one who got it exactly right; he wrote, “I AM not” (Luke 22:58; capital letters mine). Peter denied Jesus and denied himself. Not only was he not God, but neither was he Peter! Jesus said, “If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me” (Mat 16:24). Peter denied himself, but that was not enough or the intent. The last part was for Peter to take up his cross. He failed to do that. He followed Jesus but not all the way to the cross. He “stood down,” using the modern vernacular.

  Three times Peter was asked, Are you the guy who followed Jesus? Three times Peter denied Jesus and himself. He even denied himself to Malchus who painfully knew who Peter was. When Jesus, said “I AM” it is written, “They all drew back and fell to the ground” (John 18:6). Jesus was perhaps believed for a moment until the Serpent’s Spirit in Judas intervened.

  Peter denied Jesus and himself three times. Not one time did Jesus deny Himself. Jesus said three times when asked, Are you, You? “I AM he.” (John 18:5,8; Mark 14:62). The word “he’ in the Bible is not there. Is was added for context, and that is signified by the word being in italics. Jesus only said, “I AM.” He signified to the Jews that “I AM THAT I AM” (JHWH; Yahweh)!

  They should have known that by then. Forty-eight times in the New Testament, Jesus said, “I AM” but they had not heard that. Perhaps that is why Peter cut-off the ear of Malchus. When you read that before, did you hear “Yahweh” when Jesus said, “I AM?”

Many times, I was taught to hear Peter’s “I am not,” but only with study of the Word, did I understand that I AM means that Jesus is He. Peter’s denial is there for a reason. Perhaps what we should understand that we are not Him. We must deny our own existence and Glorify God’s Existence.

  Peter denied Jesus three times before the cock crowed. One crow for each time Jesus asked that His cup pass from Him. Jesus endeavored to convince the Father to take away His Purpose, but to no avail for by doing so, Jesus would have been denying himself.

  If Jesus had not filled the “cup” with His own blood, Judas would have. Unlike Peter, Judas denied himself, and took up his “cross” by hanging himself from a common tree. What went wrong with Judas? He attempted to elevate himself! He justified his own sins. He was the second sinful Adam who like him, tried to cover his own sins with fig leaves. Satan surely learned that technique from Adam and used it on Judas. Redemption, after all those years was under the “Jesus Tree of Life.” The “Judas Tree” with corrupt roots — the love of money — would not suffice!

(picture credit: "dead fig tree" by Fine Arts America)