These verses follow the religious crowd’s accusation that Jesus was demon-possessed (John 8:48).  Jesus denied that lie, said that He honoured the Father, and that whoever obeys His Word will not die.  That inflamed them further and forced them to ask the correct question, “Who do you think you are?” (John 8:52-53).  Jesus did not answer directly and glorify Himself but appealed to Father God and Abraham as witnesses.

Jesus said that Father God had given Him glory from heaven (Matthew 3:17; Mark 9:7; Luke 2:8-12).  It is always God’s opinion about someone that counts.  However, the angry crowd would not listen to Jesus, protesting that He was inventing Himself as a religious celebrity.

They claimed to know the God of Abraham but hated the Son of God. So Jesus said they were liars!  Abraham was, they said, their father (John 8:33).  They were genetically descended from Abraham, but their claim to be his children implied that they were like him.  But they were not (John 8:39-40).  Abraham listened to God's word and believed; his response of faith was just what God was looking for in His family (Romans 4:1-3).  Although Abraham did not understand fully, he believed God's promise in Genesis 12:3, "... all peoples on earth will be blessed through you."     And Jesus was clear that He was the fulfilment of that promise.  But how could Jesus know what Abraham thought, when He was so young and could never have met the patriarch?  Jesus simply replied that He is God (I AM is the Old Testament Name of God in Exodus 3:14), and existed before Abraham was born.  But such apparent blasphemy infuriated them, and they decided to stone Him to death.
 
Little has changed.  Many claim to know God and to honour Abraham, but they do not honour Jesus as the great I AM, God in the flesh.  Yet the truth is that Jesus is exactly who He claimed to be.  However, without Christ there is no salvation: the Apostle Peter said about Jesus, "Salvation is found in no-one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved." (Acts 4:12). So let us be unafraid and unashamed to proclaim that Name, even if people do not understand or even hate us for it.