The I AM Dies?
Charles Wesley’s hymn, And Can It Be That I Should Gain?, contains a rich, yet somewhat controversial line in the refrain: “… that Thou, my God, shouldst die for me.” God dying? Some will argue that this is theologically imprecise and quite dangerous. Jesus died in his humanity but not in his deity. However, that brings up another set of questions that were debated and settled at the Council of Chalcedon about the union of the two natures in the one person of Jesus. Did Jesus die as the eternal Word-made-flesh, or did he just die as flesh? “’Tis mystery all, Th’ Immortal dies! / Who can explore his strange design?”
I believe Wesley strikes the right note here (pun intended). There are aspects of the incarnation and the death of the Word-made-flesh that pass our comprehension but demand our confession, awe, and gratitude.
In John 8:21-30, Jesus speaks somewhat cryptically about his death as the I AM. Speaking of his death (along with his resurrection and ascension), he tells the Jews that he is “going away” (8:21). Returning to what he told Nicodemus in chapter three, he tells the Jews that they will “lift up the Son of Man,” again referring to his death (cf. Jn 3:14; cf. also 12:32-34). Jesus must die as the beginning of his glorification. Death is the path to the throne.
Twice in this particular dialogue with the Jews, Jesus identifies himself as I AM (which is not uncommon in John’s Gospel). In John 8:24, he tells the Jews, “if you do not believe that I AM, you will die in your sins.” Then in John 8:28 he says, “When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I AM….” The one who dies is the great I AM who revealed himself to Moses on Mt. Sinai when he commissioned Moses to deliver his people from Egypt. He is the one who led them through the Sea and wilderness into the Promised Land. I AM is the Deliverer.
Jesus is the Deliverer, and he will deliver his people and the entire created order from slavery to sin and death. When Jesus tells the Jews that they will know that he is the I AM after they have lifted him up as the Son of Man, he is calling up Daniel’s vision recorded in Daniel 7. There, the Son of Man ascends to the Ancient of Days to receive a kingdom, but he does so only after suffering. Suffering and death were always an integral part of the story. The same story is told in Isaiah 52 and 53. The servant of Yahweh will be lifted up, exalted (Isa 52:13). This exaltation will be through his suffering and death to save his people from their sins.
Jesus is the revelation of the God of the Jewish fathers. He is the Deliverer. He is the I AM. The living God, the God who has life in himself, will mysteriously submit to death to deliver his people from their great bondage to death and lead them to life.
“Amazing love! How can it be that Thou, my God, shouldst die for me?”
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