Dave's Diary

Daily Readings: John 18 and Psalm 34

In John 18, Jesus was arrested. But it soon becomes evident that while He placed Himself under the physical control of the authorities, He was never controlled by them spiritually. John records His arrest in such a way as to report three times that Jesus confessed: “I am He!” In fact, in the original Greek text, Jesus answers with only two words (to which English translations unfortunately add the word “He”. Jesus replied:

“I AM”

(John18:5, 6, 8)

With these two words, Jesus consciously proclaimed that He was God – Yahweh, the Great “I Am” – just as He had done a number of previous times in John’s Gospel (John 6:48, 8:12, 8:58, 9:5, 10:9, 10:11-14, 10:36, 11:25, and 14:6) much to the horror of the religious authorities.

Jesus was spiritually in complete control and, even as He was betrayed and arrested, He was testifying to His true identity as the Great I Am.

Simon Peter stands in stark contrast to Jesus. In the high priest’s courtyard, Peter was physically free, but spiritually he was in bondage to his fear of people. While Jesus boldly testified to the truth of His identity, “I Am!”, Peter fearfully denied his, responding to questioning about his status as a disciple of Jesus by saying three times:

“I am NOT!”

(John 18:17, 25, 27)

How tragic – to be physically free, but be spiritually held captive by fear.

Life Application: What will you testify today? Take every opportunity that comes your way to make the bold confession that you are a disciple of Jesus and that He is the LORD – crucified and risen from the dead. Embrace the freedom Christ has given you and stand for Him today.