Has Seen the Father
Every declaration Yeshua made about his own identity is an identity statement, not a claim of resemblance, not a statement about representation, but the declaration of one YHWH in the incarnate register announcing who he is.
Document 10 of 13
Document 9 established the centerpiece of the Being One series, YHWH in a physical body speaking to YHWH pure spirit, the cry from the cross as divine to divine communication within one divine nature in the aloneness the covenant passage required. This document examines every major identity declaration Yeshua made across the gospel accounts through the one YHWH framework, and shows that every one of them is not a claim about resemblance or representation but a statement of identity. The same one. The I am. In the incarnate register. Declaring himself to be what the Sh’ma (the Hebrew declaration Hear O Israel YHWH our God YHWH is one) has always declared.
The tradition has read these declarations through the three-person Trinity framework, the Son accurately representing the Father, perfectly expressing the Father’s nature, being of one substance with the Father as Nicaea defined. These readings are not entirely wrong in what they affirm. But they consistently fall short of the full weight of what Yeshua was saying, because they assume two beings whose sameness must be philosophically established rather than one being whose identity is being directly declared. The one YHWH framework reads these statements as what they are. Identity declarations. Not I am like the Father. Not I represent the Father accurately. But the same one, in the mode you are looking at, is the same one you are asking about.
Each declaration Yeshua made about his identity is not a claim of resemblance or representation. It is the I am in the incarnate register announcing who he is. Not two beings whose sameness must be argued. One being declaring himself directly.
“He who has seen me has seen the Father”
Yochanan (John) 14:9, Yeshua speaking to Philip who asked to see the Father
Philip asked, show us the Father and it is enough for us. Yeshua’s response is not I look like the Father or I accurately represent the Father. It is, the one you are looking at is the one you are asking about. Have I been with you so long and you still do not know me Philip? He who has seen me has seen the Father. The incarnate register is not a window through which the Father can be glimpsed at a distance. It is the Father, the Av register of one YHWH, present in the mode of the incarnation. To see Yeshua is to see YHWH. Not a resemblance. The same one in the register you can see with human eyes.
“I and the Father are one”
Yochanan 10:30, spoken in the temple at the Feast of Dedication
The Greek word is hen, the neuter form of one, meaning one thing, one substance, one reality. Not heis, one person. Hen, the oneness of a unified substance that contains differentiation without fracturing into separate beings. The same echad (unified oneness) of the Sh’ma expressed in Greek. Yeshua is not saying I and the Father are the same individual in every mode. He is saying the one you see in the incarnate register and the one you call Father are one substance, one divine reality expressing itself in two modes of the same being. The Pharisees understood this as a claim to be YHWH, they picked up stones to stone him for blasphemy. They were right about what he was claiming. They were wrong about it being blasphemy.
“Before Avraham was, I am”
Yochanan 8:58, spoken in the treasury of the temple
The grammar is deliberately disruptive. Not before Avraham was, I was, which would be a simple claim of preexistence. Before Avraham was, the aorist tense, pointing to a specific past moment, I am, the present tense of eternal self-existence, the same ehyeh (I am, I exist) that YHWH declared to Moshe at the burning bush in Exodus 3:14. Yeshua is not claiming to have existed before Avraham as a separate divine being with a long history. He is declaring himself to be the I am, the eternal self-existence of YHWH that has no beginning and no past tense, the same one who spoke from the burning bush, now present in the incarnate register. The crowd again picked up stones, because they understood exactly what was being claimed.
“I am the way and the truth and the life”
Yochanan 14:6, spoken to Thomas who asked how they could know the way
Three declarations of identity built on the I am, the same self-declaration of the divine name. The way, the derek (path, route) to the Father is not a set of instructions or a system of practices. It is the one who is the Father in the incarnate register. The truth, not a proposition or a doctrine but the reality of what is, the one who is the full substance of what the tzelem (shadow or image) was always cast to carry. The life, the chayyim, the fullness of living, the divine life that the neshamah (breath of life) has always been the down payment of. No one comes to the Father except through me, because the way to the Av register of one YHWH is through the incarnate register of the same one YHWH. Not through a mediator between two separate beings. Through the mode of YHWH that entered the house and completed the building project.
“I am the resurrection and the life”
Yochanan 11:25, spoken to Martha before the raising of Eleazar (Lazarus)
Not I will cause the resurrection or I have the power to raise. I am the resurrection. The source of the raising is not a capacity Yeshua possesses. It is what he is. The aparche (firstfruits, the first portion of the harvest that declares the entire harvest complete) of all who slept is Mashiach, Paul declared this in 1 Corinthians 15:20. Yeshua standing before Martha saying I am the resurrection is YHWH in the incarnate register declaring himself to be the firstfruits before the completion has yet happened in visible history. The resurrection is not an event that happens to Yeshua or through Yeshua. It is what YHWH in the incarnate register is, the living declaration that the covenant sealed for all who slept is confirmed.
“I am the Aleph and the Tav, the first and the last”
Revelation 1:8, 1:17, 22:13, spoken by Yeshua to Yochanan
The Aleph and the Tav are the first and last letters of the Hebrew alphabet. In Revelation 1:8 YHWH declares, I am the Alpha and the Omega (the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet, translating Aleph and Tav into Greek for the Greek-speaking reader). The beginning and the end. And in Revelation 1:17 and 22:13 Yeshua uses the same title for himself, I am the first and the last, the beginning and the end. This is the same title YHWH declares in Yeshayahu (Isaiah) 44:6, I am the first and I am the last, and besides me there is no God. Yeshua in Revelation is claiming the identity YHWH declared in Isaiah. Not a resemblance to it. Not a secondary sharing of it. The same identity. The same one. In the incarnate register, declaring the eternal divine self-existence that was present before the creation began and will be present when all things are made new.
Every one of these declarations follows the same structure. It is not Yeshua saying I am like YHWH, or I represent YHWH, or I have the same nature as YHWH in the way a son shares his father’s nature. It is YHWH in the incarnate register declaring himself to be the same I am that spoke to Moshe, that passed between the pieces in Genesis 15, that gave the Heh letters to Avraham and Sarah, that was held at the right hand above every earthly power from Psalm 110 until the incarnation, that passed through the darkness at the cross in the aloneness the covenant required, and that rose on the third day confirming the covenant for all who slept. The same one. In every declaration. Every time.
The Pharisees who picked up stones understood what was being claimed. They were right about that. They were wrong about it being blasphemy, because the Sh’ma they had been reciting since childhood had always declared the same thing. YHWH is one. Echad. And the one standing before them in the incarnate register was the same one whose echad the Sh’ma declared. Not a second being claiming to be the first. The first, and only, being present in the mode that the Sh’ma’s echad had always contained. He who has seen me has seen the Father. Not because he looks like the Father. Because he is the Father, in the register you can see with human eyes.
Every identity declaration Yeshua made is one YHWH in the incarnate register announcing who he is. Not resemblance. Not representation. The same I am. In the mode you can see.
He who has seen me has seen the Father.
I and the Father are hen, one substance, one reality.
Before Avraham was, I am.
I am the way, the truth, and the life.
I am the resurrection and the life.
I am the Aleph and the Tav, the first and the last.
Not resemblance. Not representation.
One YHWH. In the incarnate register. Declaring himself.
The Gospel Revolution • Mike Williams Ministries
William Ethan Massengill • Michael Lilborn Williams • Daniel Thomas Rouse
Published by Audrey Williams