This morning we celebrate the festival of the Holy Trinity, that Sunday in the church year when we read together that really long Creed, the Athanasian Creed, and we scratch our heads but confess our faith in the mystery of the Holy Trinity. Half of this Creed talks about the Trinity, how the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit relate to one another.  But just as important is the second half of the Creed, which speaks of the two natures of Christ, God incarnate.  And so it is very fitting that today we hear in both our Old Testament reading and our Gospel reading that Jesus is true God, and true man, the second person of the Holy Trinity.

Now, our Gospel lesson comes right after Jesus speaks to some of the Jews about who their father was.  He had just finished telling them that their father is the devil because they refuse to hear the Word of God and they do not listen to Jesus because they are not of God. Their comeback is basically, “I know you are but what am I?” – that Jesus is a demon possessed Samaritan. To which Jesus replies, “Truly, truly I say to you, if anyone keeps My word, he will never see death.”

Is there anything more preposterous than saying if someone keeps His Word, they will never see death.  Everyone dies, there’s no getting around it. But they misunderstand, just like so many today misunderstand. This isn’t primarily about doing what Jesus says.  It isn’t talking about obeying the 10 Commandments perfectly.  It’s not about being a moral person, a good Christian. Here, “keep” refers to maintaining possession of something, and in this case, the Word of God. That if you keep, hold on to, have the Word of Christ, you have life.

And just who does this Jesus think He is to say that keeping His words could do any such thing?  And there’s the rub.  Only God’s Word has the power to do any such thing.  By the Word, God spoke creation into existence. By the Word, He brings dead souls to life through faith. By the Word, God will call all out of their graves on the last day, the day of resurrection.

And this is exactly Jesus’ point. “Before Abraham was, I am.” Grammatically, this makes no sense.  Before Abraham was, I am. It should be, “I was,” past tense, not present tense.  But Jesus says something way more important here. “I AM.”  Present tense, in the past, in the present, and into the future. Not just the He is, but who He is and what He does. With these words, Jesus says that He is God. 

Here we confront the Creator who became a human creature. But how is it possible that this man is the “I Am,” the creator of the entire universe? Everyone knew that he was only in his fourth decade of life on earth. He had been born in Bethlehem and raised in Nazareth. And so we encounter the mystery of the incarnation. Jesus can say that he is “I Am,” the Creator, because it is the person of the Son of God who took on a human nature. The one who speaks is the second person of the Trinity. Yet He speaks through His human nature, He speaks as a man.

Now, to the Jews there is no greater blasphemy, no greater insult to their religion or their station in life than to claim to be God.  They picked up stones to throw at Jesus. Jesus claim, and ours as well, that Jesus is true God and the only way to heaven receives intense and sometimes violent opposition. There is no other claim more serious and more offensive to our culture than to say that Jesus is God, that He is more than a man, but divine. Not like a god. Not a god. But God in the flesh, the Creator, the Redeemer and Sanctifier and that in Him and only in Him is there true life. To confess that Jesus is Lord and God is also to confess that He is the Creator. And because He is the creator, He has a claim on His creation.

In Proverbs 8, Wisdom speaks to us and describes His existence before the world was created.  Before the foundations of the world were laid, says Wisdom, I was there.  Before the mountains and hills, before even the first tiny particles of dust were made, I was given birth.  I was brought forth in eternity, before the Lord had done anything else, before the world began, before there was even such a thing as time.  There was never a time when I did not exist, says Wisdom.

This may seem unimportant to us, since no one else was around before the Creation of the world.  Why should we care how the Son of God came into existence as long as He does exist?  Why should we care if what He says in the Bible is true, or if it just has a moral of the story?  The answer to that is an old saying, “All theology is Christology.”  In other words, the Bible testifies to Jesus.  All the points of doctrine, the stories, the parables, the miracles, all relate to Jesus. All the truths of Scripture, including the doctrine of the begetting of the Son, are vitally important to us because before Abraham was, “I AM.”  If Jesus is any less than fully God, then it sets the forgiveness of sins in jeopardy. If Jesus is a lesser God, or if He is not the only-begotten Son, then the Cross would not be enough. 

The Blood that was shed upon the Cross for you is the Blood of the Eternal One.  It is the Blood of God. You need never wonder whether the Cross is enough.  Great as your sins may be, (and they are indeed very great) the Cross is greater.  If you agonize over the guilt that your trespasses have earned, hold onto Christ crucified.  If you look only upon your sins and feel the weight of their burden, look to the Son of God, for in Him your sins are done away with.  If death rears its ugly head, keep the Word of God, for in Him death is defeated.

This pure Gospel removes all uncertainty from the Christian soul.  When He existed before the world, even then He planned to take your human flesh to redeem you. Because Christ is the Word, the author of life, He is the Redeemer of the lost.  Because of Easter, death has no more power, it is an enemy without teeth.  Christ is the great I AM and so whoever keeps the Word of God, this Christ, Jesus our Lord, whoever has received Him by faith and grabs ahold tightly to the Son of God shares in His eternal life.