The identity of Jesus was made clear early on when He was baptized by John the Baptist. Here, at the dawn of His ministry, Christ was greeted with words prophesying and declaring His destiny. The title “Lamb of God” foreshadowed Christ’s substitutionary death on the cross for our sins as a sacrificial lamb. This episode chronicles the beginning of the calling of the twelve to follow Jesus during His earthly ministry, as they come to recognize Him as Israel’s promised Messiah, the Son of God.

As we continue with our series on “Who is Jesus?” we see in this episode, through Jesus’s interaction with the Samaritan woman at the well, that He is “the Christ, the Saviour of the world.” The woman was caught off guard by the conversation, considering there was great enmity between the Samaritans and the Jews at the time. But that didn’t prevent Christ from also offering her “living water” and plainly identifying Himself as the promised Messiah, the One for Whom this woman looked and hoped.

The title, Son of God, is in reference to Christ’s deity as the second member of the Godhead and that He is fully God. The title, Son of man, refers to His humanity as the Messiah and that He is also fully man. In this episode, we see that these two titles are intertwined, since Christ, the man, never acted independently of His Father. We are also reminded of the four chief witnesses to Christ’s identity as the Son of man: John the Baptist, Christ’s works and miracles, God the Father, and the Scriptures.

John 8:31-59 is the account of the Jewish leaders’ outrage over one of the most powerful statements in the Word of God as to the deity of Jesus Christ: “Before Abraham was, I am.” With this climactic and dramatic self-proclamation, Christ told them that He is the eternal God, existing not only during the time of Abraham, but before it and from eternity past. This intense back and forth, culminating in the Jews wanting to stone Him for blasphemy, should serve as evidence to the contrary for those who suggest that Christ never claimed to be God.

If the Jews weren’t convinced as to Christ’s previous claim of deity with His “I am” statement, it certainly was reinforced with His pronouncement, “I and My Father are one.” We see in this episode Christ beginning His discourse with the Jewish leaders with the fact that, as God, He has the authority to give eternal life, and also the power to keep His “sheep,” or followers, eternally safe. Christ then let the truth of His Person and identity stand or fall on His works and miracles, which demonstrated His unity and oneness with the Father.

In this episode, we see Jesus comforting His distressed disciples—following the troubling news of betrayal, denial, and His impending departure—with truth concerning their future hope with Him in the millennial kingdom on earth. When Thomas questions the way, Jesus declares that He is “the way, the truth, and the life,” providing the only path to an eternity in God's presence. Upon Philip’s request to see the Father, Jesus affirms His deity and perfect union with the Father, declaring that knowing and seeing Him equals knowing and seeing the Father, as evidenced by his truthful words and miraculous works.