Dave spoke from John 8:48-59 on the deity and pre-incarnate nature of Christ. The difference between orthodox faith and cults or between Christianity and other religions has always been focussed on the person of Jesus Christ. Other monotheistic religions do not understand how Christians believe in one God in Three Persons: Father, Son and Spirit. Clearly, the Jews of Jesus’s time also struggled to understand this and He was crucified because they asserted that He claimed to be God (which was blasphemous in their eyes.)
Jesus often engaged in debate with the Pharisees who were astounded at His words. By referring to the divine name ‘I am’ (the name by which God revealed Himself to Moses in Exodus 3), Jesus showed that His existence did not begin with His birth at Bethlehem. Rather, He knew glory with the Father before the world began (John 17:5) and was loved by God before the creation of the world. (John 17:24) John 1:1-3 makes it clear that Jesus is the creator of the world and the Word of God, co-eternal with the Father, without beginning or ending of days. 2 Cor 8:9 reminds us that He exchanged all the riches of heaven for poverty on earth: He knew the riches of love, fellowship, harmony and immeasurable resources, but chose to take on human flesh so that He could save us from our sins. He did not cease to be God when He took on flesh, but the Incarnation was the only way that man could be saved:
‘He laid aside; and here with us to be,
Forsook the Courts of everlasting Day,
And chose with us a darksom House of mortal Clay.’ (John Milton)
Christ appeared in theophanies in the Old Testament (eg at the burning bush) and there seems to be some reference to this in the passage in John 8, for God’s promises to Abraham found their fulfilment in Jesus. Heb 2:14-15 shows us why angels could not bring our salvation. Instead, Jesus shared in our humanity in order to bring salvation to us, being both God and Man, truly the means of our salvation!