John 10:22-39…
Making it plain…
Jesus had previously revealed His identity (John 6:35, 8:12, 9:5, 10:9, 11), but the majority did not believe. They wanted a plain answer: was He the Christ? Jesus says He speaks to His sheep and leads them through life. He holds them and keeps them eternally secure. He then boldly announced, “I and the Father are one”. They are in one accord, one in nature, essence, purpose. This is as opposed to the leaders, who are not doing what was right, by God or by the people.
This statement was blasphemy in their view. They took up stones to put Him to death. Jesus responded by quoting from Psalm 82:6. The judges of Psalm 82 were called “gods” because in their office they determined the fate of other men. If God called those people entrusted with teaching and leading “gods”, it was no blasphemy for Jesus to call Himself the Son of God.
There are many things called “god”, but there is actually only one true God (1 Corinthians 8:4-6 / Psalm 115:3-8 / Jeremiah 10:14 / Habakkuk 2:18-20). God calls earthly judges “gods” (cf. Exodus 21:6, 22:8-9). Satan is called “god” (2 Corinthians 4:4), but he isn’t equal to God. It is merely speaking to the fact that the devil is captivating the minds of the unbelievers, keeping them in bondage (cf. Ephesians 2:2-3 / 2 Timothy 2:24-26 / 1 John 5:19).
Jesus was not applying “you are gods” to all humanity, or to all believers. In essence, He was saying to the Jewish leaders, “You are ‘gods’ but you mistreat and neglect the poor and downtrodden, and yet when I help them you say I blaspheme”. Psalm 82 refers to this matter of injustice. It has nothing to do with our being gods like Jesus is; it has to do with people of stature ignoring their responsibilities to help the less fortunate. They weren’t keeping each other accountable in matters of discipline and sin. They were abandoning social justice. They were false shepherds, unlike Jesus, the Son of God, who is the Good Shepherd.
Today we must make the same decision. Either we bow the knee now to the Lord Jesus as our Savior, or we will bow the knee to Him as our Judge (Philippians 2:9-11).
That is as plain as it gets.
3 comments:
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I love when He spoke with that type of vernacular.
"Is it not written in your Law, ‘I said, you are gods'?
But I can also see how that passage could be miss used.
P.
Amen!
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