Listen:  128.4

In John 10:30the Lord Jesus made this remarkable statement, “I and my Father are one.”  This saying angered the unbelieving Jews so they picked up rocks to stone Him to death.  The Lord pointed out that He had done many wonderful works and asked for which one of these works did they want to kill Him.  The Jews responded that it was not for His good works, but the Lord’s claim that He is God.  For those who claim that the Lord Jesus never claimed to be God, I encourage you to read this portion carefully.  When Jesus claimed to be one with the Father, the Jews knew exactly what He meant by those words.  He was claiming equality with God!  He was proclaiming that He is God!

Now let’s read John 10:34-36, “Jesus answered them, Is it not written in your law, I said, Ye are gods? If he called them gods, unto whom the word of God came, and the scripture cannot be broken; Say ye of him, whom the Father hath sanctified, and sent into the world, Thou blasphemest; because I said, I am the Son of God?”

The Lord, in His reply to these people, used the Word of God, which cannot be broken.  He quoted from Psalm 82.  Let’s read Psalms 82:6, “I have said, Ye are gods; and all of you are children of the most High.”  These were judges that were put in the place of being representatives of God, Himself.  They were the powers that God had ordained.  These men were to be the spokesmen for God to the nation of Israel, even though they were unjust in their doings as we read in Psalms 82:2, “How long will ye judge unjustly, and accept the persons of the wicked? Selah.”  Even though these men were in the place of being representatives of God, because of their wickedness, they would be punished as we read in Psalms 82:7, “But ye shall die like men, and fall like one of the princes.” 

The Lord’s argument before His accusers was quite simple.  If the one true God would call these mere men ‘gods’; these men who were unfaithful in carrying out their duties; why were they so upset when the One whom God sanctified and sent into the world claimed that He was God?  In the Old Testament, the Word of God came to these men.  Jesus IS the Word of God as we read in John 1:1, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”  Then, we further read in John 1:14, “And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.”  Jesus Christ is the living, breathing Word of God.  He is, without a doubt, God!

Most of the time, the Old Testament scriptures were divided into the law, the prophets, and the psalms as we read in Luke 24:44, “And he said unto them, These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me.”  Sometimes the Old Testament was referred to simply as the law and the prophets as we read in John 1:45, “Philip findeth Nathanael, and saith unto him, We have found him, of whom Moses in the law, and the prophets, did write, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.”  Yet, here in John 10:34, Christ spoke of the law, but quoted from the Psalms. With this, we see the Lord using the term ‘law’ in a general sense to represent the entire Holy writings.

The Lord goes on to tell these unbelievers to prove Him by His actions.  He says in John 10:37-38, “If I do not the works of my Father, believe me not. But if I do, though ye believe not me, believe the works: that ye may know, and believe, that the Father is in me, and I in him.”  Although the Lord had done many miracles openly, He is speaking of much more here.  He is speaking of ‘the works of my Father’; works which would manifest that He was sent from God; works which would manifest the love and mercy of God to undeserving men and women.  These works clearly showed that Christ was in the Father and that the Father was in Him.  (128.4)