Fill in the blank

In John 8:58, Jesus Christ makes His famous statement, “Verily,verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am.” It represents one of the key passages in all of Scripture describing the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. It’s His own full, unambiguous declaration of His glory and deity.

The statement is a direct reference back to Exodus 3:13 when Moses, being instructed by God about going in and delivering Israel, asks the question previously asked in the Bible by Jacob: “Behold, when I come unto the children of Israel, and shall say unto them, The God of your fathers hath sent me unto you; and they shall say to me, What is his name? what shall I say unto them? And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you."


Jordan says, “It’s a question that’s never fully answered until you come to the ministry of the Apostle Paul, which makes it a fascinating study. Jacob asks the Lord when he wrestles with Him that famous night, ‘I won’t let you go until you tell me your name. What’s your name?’ and God says back, ‘I won’t tell you.’ "

In Judges 13, when the angel comes to Samson’s mom and dad, the word is, “A man of God came unto me, and his countenance was like the countenance of an angel of God, very terrible: but I asked him not whence he was, neither told he me his name: and began to tell them about that, they say what’s your name.”

Jordan explains, “He says, ‘I can’t tell you; it’s a secret.’ The closest thing you find as an answer to that is in Proverbs 30. To Moses He says, ‘I am that I am. Go tell everybody else I Am has sent you.’

“Now, there’s really a difference between the two ‘I Am that I Ams.’ I Am is more than ‘I am.’ But when Moses goes and tells people who it is that sent him, he says, ‘I am.’ Now you know that’s not a complete statement; it requires a completer and yet there isn’t one. What that is is an expression of God’s ‘Jehovahness’; of what it means to be Jehovah.

“It’s sort of like He puts a blank and then He says, ‘Fill in the blank. Whatever you need me to be for you—just fill in the blank—I’ll be that.’ And that’s why you find these numerous Jehovah titles where the name Jehovah is placed with another name.

“When they asked back in verse 53, ‘Whom makest thou thyself?’ the answer is, ‘Well, let me tell you who I am. I’m Jehovah.’ You remember back in Psalm 2 when Jehovah said, ‘Unto me I bear the same identity as the father. I’m equal with the father. I’m Jehovah God. Every title belongs to Him belongs to me too because I and the Father are one’?

“That verse just sort of sticks in the craw of people. People talk about Jehovah as those He’s different from Jesus. It’s fascinating, you go through Old Testament Scripture, and time after time after time after time after time, you’ll see that what Jehovah does, and who He is and what He accomplishes, it always turns out its Jesus Christ the verse is talking about.

“Now in Psalm 2, that was God the Father who was Jehovah. In Isaiah 53, when He says, ‘The Lord Jehovah has laid on him the iniquity of his own,’ there’s the Father called Jehovah. You see, all three members of the godhead share the same title because they’re all three God. The name Jehovah is a name that can equally be applied to God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit.”

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Exodus 34:14 reads, “For thou shalt worship no other god: for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God.” Jordan says, “You understand Jehovah is passionate. He was passionate about His relationship with the nation Israel. He was their God and He was passionate over that relationship. And He demanded their devotion and was satisfied with nothing else. That was the first commandment He gave, if you recall: Worship no other god.

“Look at Revelation 1:8, 1:11 and 1:17, in which Christ says, ‘And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead. And he laid his right hand upon me, saying unto me, Fear not; I am the first and the last.’
“When you see that title repeated over and over—‘The First and the Last’—you get a concordance and find back in Isaiah 46 Jehovah says, ‘I am the first and last and I’m the only one that is!’ So you read both of those verses and you say, ‘Aha, I got that! The Lord Jesus Christ is the first and the last. He’s Jehovah!’

“You see, you and I don’t have too much trouble accepting that but most people don’t get that. Most people have the idea that the God of the Old Testament is some mean, wicked, old guy sitting on a stump somewhere mad in the heavens and casting down lightning bolts. And the God of the New Testament is just this sweet little milquetoast-milksop guy who comes along and likes everybody.

“It’s none of that! It’s the same one! It’s the same God! The Lord Jesus Christ is unique among humans in that He had a pre-existing existence because He always was equally in the person of God the Son and the person of Jehovah God.”