The Righteous Claim
Again the Jews picked up stones to stone him, but Jesus said to them, “I have shown you many great miracles from the Father. For which of these do you stone me?” “We are not stoning you for any of these,” replied the Jews, “but for blasphemy, because you, a mere man, claim to be God.” Jesus answered them, “Is it not written in your Law, ‘I have said you are gods’? If he called them ‘gods’ to whom the word of God came – and the Scripture cannot be broken – what about the one whom the Father set apart as his very own and sent into the world? Why then do you accuse me of blasphemy because I said, ‘I am God’s Son’? John 10:31-37
Jesus had just claimed ‘I and the Father are one’ (10:30). In context the statement spoke of the oneness in the mission of the Father and the Son. Father and Son are one in their commitment to prevent anyone snatching believers from out of their hands. This is a functional oneness.
Jesus reminded them of His great miracles, “I have shown you many great miracles from the Father. For which of these do you stone me?” But the Jews won’t be put off, “We are not stoning you for any of these,” replied the Jews, “but for blasphemy, because you, a mere man, claim to be God.” In the Mishnah (the written codifying of the Jewish Law by the rabbis), blasphemy involves pronouncing God’s divine name (YHWH). Jesus hasn’t done this but the Jews are taking Jesus’ ‘I and the Father are one’ statement out of context (10:30). By doing this they are actually saying Jesus has made the ‘claim to be God’ The amazing truth is: He is God but in His statement at the centre of the accusation, He didn’t actually say that.
‘Jesus answered them, “Is it not written in your Law, ‘I have said you are gods’”?’ The quote is from Psalm 82:6. In its broadest sense the Law included the Psalms. This verse from Psalms was understood to be God’s word to the Israelites at Mt Sinai when they first received the Law. By receiving the Law and living by it they would be lifted to a new rank. They would be ‘gods’ or more particularly ‘sons of God.’ So if God named those He gave His Law to “gods,” why should Jesus be charged with blasphemy if He, as the one whom ‘the Father set apart as his very own and sent into the world’ say ‘‘I am God’s Son’?’ Arguing from the lesser to the greater, if those to whom the Law was given can be called ‘gods,’ (‘and the Scripture cannot be broken’), then the one whom God commissioned and sent into the world can call Himself God’s Son.
Coming back to Psalm 82 the next verse to the one quoted above says ‘But you will die like mere men; you will fall like every other ruler’ (Psalm 82:7). Israel failed to live by the Law. The nation failed its calling which brought the inevitable result ‘But you will die like mere men; you will fall like every other ruler.’ Jesus had succeeded where the nation failed.
There is further irony in this because the setting of the John 10:31-37 passage is the Feast of Dedication (10:22). While the Jews celebrated the rededication of the Temple as the sanctuary of the living God, they rejected the one ‘dedicated’ (set apart) by God from all eternity as the meeting place between man and God.
We have come to Jesus and through Him we have come to God the Father. The meeting place is not a building but the eternal Son of God.
To listen to this message, download in MP3 here.