Dwell on This Astonishing Truth - All The LORD is near Daily Devotionals for 2024

Jesus said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM.”
John 8:58 NKJV

Dwell on This Astonishing Truth
I know of nothing that has so astonished my mind as this revelation of “I am,” or the real thought that Jesus could say, “I am.” How manifest it is that nothing but the gift of faith could, even in a single atom, understand or know the truth in the Person of Jesus! While yet, by the perfection of its manifestation in the flesh, every soul was put under the responsibility to receive it as the true word of God. The broad penetrating fact, “I am,” the all-embracing word, must at once close all controversy. We must be opposers or bow before the throne of God. We must stand in awe of Jesus.

Well may it be said, “Kiss the Son!” (Ps. 2:12). Lord Jesus! What sort of subjection is this we owe to You? We have heard of You by the hearing of the ear; but now our eyes see You, we abhor ourselves. Oh! Can we see this in Jesus? Have we seen it? None can see it outside of Him. It is the truth only in Him. Surely we should move mountains if we believed it; yet it is simple truth.

Dwell on it, my soul! Jesus, whom you know, that stranger in the world among His own, is “I am.” Henceforth, let us be dead to all but this. I do indeed stand incapable of utterance. I do read and talk with Jesus, I watch Jesus in His ways as a servant, and, behold, He, even He, is “I am,” with whom I am, whose way I follow, whose grace I adore. Christ is the union of these two things: the Man—the rejected Man, whom I look at now with most thankful sympathy—and, behold, the presence of God! How low it lays men’s thoughts, experience, judgments, and notions! The perfection of God was there, very God, but rejected of men. What can meet or have a place along with this? Let this be my experience. Glory be to God Most High! Amen.

-- J. N. Darby