Augustine - 4 States of Sin in Man
Augustine
argued that there are 4 states, which are derived from the Scripture, that
correspond to the four states of man in relation to sin: (a) able to sin, able
not to sin (posse peccare, posse non peccare); (b) not able
to not sin (non posse non peccare);(c)
able not to sin (posse non peccare);
and (d) unable to sin (non posse peccare). The first state corresponds to the state of man
in innocence (before the Fall); the second state of the natural man after the
Fall; the third state if for the regenerate man; and the fourth is the glorified
man.
I Am - Deity of God
Gary Manning Jr
“I am” (ἐγώ εἰμι), by itself, is not a code for the name of God;
In the New Testament, ἐγώ εἰμι is used by Jesus, Judas (Matt 26:25), Gabriel (Luke 1:19), the blind man (John 9:9), Peter (Acts 10:21) and Paul (Acts 22:3, 26:29, Rom 11:13, 1 Tim 1:15), always to refer to themselves. This matches the use in Greek outside the NT. The Septuagint uses “I am” (ἐγώ εἰμι) in very normal ways. God uses the phrase often, but so does Jacob (Gen 27:32), Deborah (Jdg 5:3), Gideon (Jdg 6:15) and others. As I have searched through other works written in ancient Greek (Philo, the Pseudepigrapha, Plato and other philosophers), I have run across many such ordinary occurrences of ἐγώ εἰμι.
“I am” is only intended to refer to deity in some of Jesus’ sayings;
- “They saw Jesus walking on the sea… and they were frightened. But he said to them, “It is I (ἐγώ εἰμι); do not be afraid.”” (John 6:19-20)
- “Truly, truly I say to you: before Abraham was, I am (ἐγώ εἰμι).” (John 8:58)
- “Jesus said to [the soldiers], “Whom do you seek?” They answered “Jesus of Nazareth.” Jesus answered “I am he (ἐγώ εἰμι).” … when Jesus said to them “I am he (ἐγώ εἰμι),” they retreated and fell to the ground… Jesus answered “I told you that I am he (ἐγώ εἰμι).”” (John 18:6-8)
In each of these three, the context suggests that Jesus’ deity is implied.
Paying too much attention to the “I am” part of the sentence distracts readers from paying attention to the rest of the sentence.
I have often noticed, when listening to sermons or reading student papers about “I am” sayings in John, that there is so much focus on the “I am” part, and its purported reference to deity, that the actual claims found in the rest of the sentence are overlooked. These claims (bread of life, good shepherd, door, life, etc.), while consistent with Jesus’ deity, are usually about some other nuance of Jesus’ identity.
To sum up: the gospels clearly teach about Jesus’ deity. But that doesn’t mean that everything Jesus says is about his deity! “I am” (ἐγώ εἰμι) is such a common phrase that it cannot be taken as some sort of code word that always refers to deity.
