The Great and Mighty “I AM”

Be Strong, Be Well — Monday, July 6

Sometimes we rush over familiar verses and don’t look deeper into them like we would with a new verse we are studying. When we slow down and take a closer look we may find something of extreme interest.

Yesterday, in our sermon we mentioned the Great Commission in Matthew 28:18-20. With our usual emphasis, we latch onto the part of making disciples through teaching and baptism.

But there’s something very profound in the last part of verse 20. “...and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen.”

It should be very comforting to us to know the One who has all authority in heaven and on earth, is always with us, even to the very end. He’s the One who came from heaven to this earth to become a man, to live and die on our behalf, then to rise up from the grave, go back to heaven, leaving us with the gospel, so we can follow Him into heaven one day.

Here’s something else I just learned recently. When Jesus said, “I am with you” this “I am” is the same expression He used in John 8:58. “Most assuredly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM.” Just imagine the eternal Almighty God who appeared to Moses on Mount Sinai, has promised to be with us! This is not something in the future. This is present tense. This is now until the end.

Don't forget, God’s commandments are conditional. His promise to be with us will be a reality only when we teach and “observe all things that I have commanded you…”

We can do this! And when we do, the great and mighty “I AM” will be present with us today, tomorrow, and until the very end. “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever” (Hebrews 13:8). —Chris