The Gospel account of John records how Jesus was countering the Jews of his time. They were insisting they were descendants of Abraham, as John 8 records, and they did not like his teaching in which he in turn insisted that to call themselves this was missing the point if they were liars, since it is Satan, not Abraham, who is father of liars. John records how Jesus was upsetting them even more by insisting his own real father is God Himself. Jesus was referring, I believe, to this having God as his own Father when he stated “Before Abraham was born, I am.” I believe he was showing how much greater it is to have God as true Father, even more so than having Abraham as father, since God is and was and will be, and is therefore the one who is before Abraham. But it is in his alignment with God, by being of all people the only one who truly had real knowledge of God, that he has unity with God, and in this he is the light you and I need in living our lives such that we do not, as he put it, ‘die in our sins’. He can impart this knowledge of God his Father to us, if we believe in him and hold to his teachings. By truly knowing God, this God whose Son he truly is, he could fully please God, and enlighten the world to this truth of God. We need to live by this light, or else we must stay in the dark. Finding Jesus and his Father God, and finding knowledge of Jesus and his Father God, by being given this knowledge by their imparting of it, by their revealing themselves, it becomes possible to overcome opposition and trouble from the world, and possible to have the faith in Jesus which enables following his teachings by holding to them in belief they will lead to the truth that sets free.
AI response here to allow weighing of this against prevailing church opinions https://chatgpt.com/share/6a5e99f6-0ca8-83ed-81ea-1ba7b312803c
