John 10:32-42 Bible Teaching

1 God (capital G – theos) standeth in the congregation of the mighty; he judgeth among the gods (lower case g – also theos).

God is nothing but a title of a position of ultimate authority. With God (uppercase G) it speaks of YHWY (his personal name) as judge over the universe) with god (lower case g) it speaks of men who judge others and situations on earth.

Here God (upper case) seems to be chiding the judges of the land (lower case g) and seems to be asking . . .

2 How long will ye judge unjustly, and accept the persons of the wicked? Selah.
3 Defend the poor and fatherless: do justice to the afflicted and needy.
4 Deliver the poor and needy: rid them out of the hand of the wicked.
5 They know not, neither will they understand; they walk on in darkness: all the foundations of the earth are out of course.
6 I have said, Ye are gods; and all of you are children of the most High.
7 But ye shall die like men, and fall like one of the princes.
8 Arise, O God, judge the earth: for thou shalt inherit all nations.

Here Jesus seems to be arguing that, EVEN IF HE WERE NO MORE THAN A MAN, that they ought not to object to his use of the word god in relation to Himself – it was done in the Old Testament, for goodness sake!

I mean God, Jesus seems to by saying, said through the Psalmist to men placed in judgment over other men –

“You are gods.”

And whether a lower case g or an upper case the word was the same – theos – which is just a title.

Jesus then reasons with them and says:

35 If he called them gods (LC g), unto whom the word of God came, and the scripture cannot be broken;

In other words if God referred to men that were set in judgment over others as gods, and we read about this in scripture (which Jesus says cannot be broken – or, in other words, this was said in scripture that can be trusted forever) . . . In other words . . .

“If, therefore, the Scripture uses the word god as applied to men who are magistrates, I certainly have the right to apply the term to myself.

In (verse 36) Jesus seems to say, “If all this is true

36 Say ye of him (me), whom the Father hath sanctified, and sent into the world, Thou blasphemest; because I said, I am the Son of God?

In other words, God has called regular old men gods through the Psalmist and did not consider it blasphemy but you say of ME . . . (listen)

. . . “whom the Father hath sanctified, and sent into the world, “Thou blasphemest;” because I said, I am the Son of God?”

We have a lot to consider here that Jesus is saying.

First of all, He has made it clear that to use the term or title (or even position) of god, relative to man, was no big deal – God Himself did it because as a title with a lower case g it is wholly insignificant.

There are in this world, many, many, many gods (lower case) and all of them are calling for attention and adoration.

In 1st Corinthians 8 there was a dispute among the believers over eating meat that was sacrificed to idols and Paul writes rather plainly to the situation saying:

1st Corinthians 8:4 As concerning therefore the eating of those things that are offered in sacrifice unto idols, we know that an idol is nothing in the world, and that there is none other God but one.
5 For though there be that are called gods, whether in heaven or in earth, (as there be gods many, and lords many,)
6 But to us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him.

So to the point that Jesus “was making Himself God” Jesus pointed to the Old Testament and showed them that the term theos (the Greek term for God from the Septuagint) was applied to both men (in roles of responsibility and power) and to God himself and if that was the case in the situation of regular old men . . .

“Why, in my case, to “whom the Father hath sanctified, and sent into the world, (you’re claiming that I “blaspheme, because I said, I am the Son of God?”

Regular men that were judges God had referred to as god, but in my case,”
(and He describes His situation in three ways)

First, He describes Himself as “Whom the Father hath sanctified”

The word sanctify commonly means to “make holy,” but it also carries with it a definition of setting someone or something apart from the rest.

Since the Word of God and the Word made flesh has always been holy I would suggest that we have to read this as who the Father has set apart from common elements as a holy thing.

To set something apart or aside for a holy or sacred work, as God set Jesus apart from the rest of everything else for a sacred purpose.

In other words Jesus is saying,

Common men are referred to as gods in scripture and you accuse me of blasphemy, me, who God set apart for a holy purpose?

And He adds saying that the father also “sent Him into the world.”

From these descriptions of Jesus we see that the Father is in charge, and He both sanctified the Word made flesh and sent the Word into the World as the Messiah, which in the context of this discussion Jesus is pointing out is an office far more honorable and exalted than that of a human judge or magistrate known as a god.

And yet in spite of all this you charge me with blasphemy because I say that “I am the Son of God.”

We have not note here that the Jews were charging Him of blasphemy for making Himself God.

Jesus first defends this (perfectly, we might add) but then He points out that that He hadn’t called Himself God but the Son of God, which the Jews evidently understood as the same as saying that he was equal with God.

I want to point out that in scripture Jesus is constantly referred to as the Son of God.

The phrase is used 46 times in scripture.

“Son of Man,” or how Jesus almost always referred to Himself, is mentioned nearly double – eight six or seven times I think.

But we never, ever read Jesus refer to Himself (or any other New Testament writer refer to Jesus as) “God the Son.”

There is a reason for this – and the reason is plain and clear – Jesus is the Son of God not God the Son.

Now, don’t let this mess you up. Jesus is all God and all Man. His flesh was Man, His Spirit God.

The invisible God, the all-consuming fire of love and light took on flesh and in that flesh became the Son of God NOT God the Son.

God (whom, since He had a Son, scripture refers to as a Father) sanctified the Son, and He sent the Son. The Son did His will, and though He (Jesus) thought it not robbery to be equal to God the Father, He found himself in the form of a man and humbled Himself to the Will of the invisible God.

So what Jesus does here in these verses and in this situation is first:

He shows that their logic and reasoning in attacking Him was off.

He said I and my Father are one and they picked up stones to kill Him.

Jesus says, “All I have ever done are good works and you are going to kill me?”

They reply, “We are killing you for doing a good work. We want to kill you for making yourself God.”

Here Jesus does not deny the term applied to himself but challenges their reasoning by reminding them that God Himself referred to mere magistrates as God, and none of them were sanctified and sent as He, the Son of God, was.

Then He brings them back to the best defense He could. Again why? Because the way that He proved He came from or was the Son of God was not through words but through deeds, so He says:

37 If I do not the works of my Father, believe me not.

You question my status as either God’s Son or the Son of God. The way you can tell is if I do the works of God.

Now we are talking about the works ONLY God can do here, not the work of God like loving others.

In other words He says If I don’t do the works ONLY God can then don’t believe me.

Well, at that time, what were the works only God could do?

Simply put – everything Jesus has been doing.

Walking on water.
Turning water into wine.
Casting out demons.
Giving sight to people born blind.
Causing life-long lame people to walk.
And in the next chapter, we’re going to read how He raises Lazarus (who was deemed legally dead) from the grave.

These are the works only God can do. So in verse 37 He seems to be saying:

Let’s not judge each other by verbal claims. If you can’t or won’t or don’t believe my words, judge the things I do which are things ONLY God can do.

If I’m not doing the works “only God can do,” then don’t believe me,

38 But if I do (the works only God can 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.

Now, here we see that the term, Son of God IS, in-fact, synonymous with God.

If they had seen (perceived) Him, they had seen (perceived) the Father! This was one of the reasons He came – to reveal the Father, the invisible God, to the fallen material world.

He did NOT come to reveal Himself or the person some theologians claim He had or was from the beginning. AS the Word (and what do words do? They describe) So as the Word of God made flesh He came to reveal (describe) the invisible God as He is in “His expressed image.”

(Not anthropomorphic image but expressed – expressions of His image).

If He was “God the Son” then His presence on earth would be to reveal His own “person” instead of God the Father!

But His purpose was to point to and reveal and describe the invisible living God.

The way they could tell that He was from God, that He had a direct relationship with the invisible God, that He came from God, did the work of God and was infact the Son of God, was to examine His labors.

In verse 38 He says,

38 But if I do (the works only God can do), though ye believe not me, believe the works: that ye may know, and believe, that

READY? He’s about to reveal the relationship He has with the Father and the relationship the Father has with Him, saying that they can know, and believe, that in Him (JESUS)

“the Father is in me, and I in him.”

Step back with me for a minute. To the monotheistic Nation of Israel. What separated them from the rest of the polytheistic world, from the Sumerians and the Babylonians and the Philistines and the Greeks was Israel worshipped in One True and Living God.

The Great Shemai of Deutoronomy 6:4-5 says it all:

“Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD,”

“Hear Israel, Yehovah Elohim yachad Yehovah.”

Not two God’s, not three or twenty – ONE.

But this single God Almighty could never reveal Himself to the Nation. Too Holy, Too Bright. Too much fire. So He remained hidden in clefts of rocks and burning in bushes that were never consumed and descending in clouds.

By His word through faith He created the worlds and all things within them that are.

He spoke to ancient prophets His directives, promising them a Messiah, and at the perfect time He, single God somehow took His Word, sanctified it, sent it, and it became flesh – and dwelled among us.

And they called His name Emmanuel, which means, God with us.

Not another God with us – God.

And though clothed in a body of flesh His Spirit came from and was still in the bosom of the Father just as the Father was in the Bosom of His Son.

Spiritually being as one as they ever were before the world was with the Word being in God and with God being in His Word.

This was the most intimate connection possible for men in bodies of flesh and up until that point in time it had never been experienced by fallen Man.

With the Father in Him and Him being in the Father Jesus was able to clearly and perfectly state, “I and my Father were one,” and the Jews responded yet again in the same way they had responded before . . . and in a manner they would turn to again:

39 Therefore they sought again to take him: but he escaped out of their hand,

40 And went away again beyond Jordan into the place where John at first baptized; and there he abode.
41 And many resorted unto him, and said, John did no miracle: but all things that John spake of this man were true.
42 And many believed on him there.
Q and A