Anchor My Faith

I and the Father Are One

Scripture: John 10:27-31

We ended the previous lesson in the middle of verses 27 – 29. We will continue that study in this lesson.

^{Jn 10:27} “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. ²⁸ I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. ²⁹ My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.”

These sheep who hear the voice of Jesus the Shepherd are first held securely in the hand of the Father. I believe this to be a spiritual growth time prior to spiritual birth. As the spiritual gestation period ends, the Father gives that one to Jesus as a gift and Jesus then extends that life into eternity. Jesus gives the promise that we will never perish and that we are eternally safe with him. In fact, we are safe because both the Father and the Son have us in hand.

Jesus then makes a statement which causes the Jews to once again pick up stones. He says, ^{Jn 10:30} “I and the Father are one. ³¹ The Jews picked up stones again to stone him.”

To begin our study of “I and the Father are one.”, we must go back and look at verses 27 and 28 again. In verse 28, the sheep that Jesus knows and who hear his voice and follow him, Jesus says that no one is able to snatch them out of his hand. In verse 27, Jesus knows those sheep, who hear his voice and who follow him because they were given to him by His Father, and that no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.

The common object, in those verses, is the sheep that is held with equal security by both Jesus and the Father. This equality of security indicates that the power of Jesus is as the power of God the Father. The implication is that Jesus and the Father are not one in person but one in essence; Jesus the Son is of one substance with the Father.

Since the common object that Jesus and the Father are united in are sheep that are in need of being redeemed, some believe that the oneness is in relation to design and work they are doing in this process of rescuing people from spiritual death, but a more common acceptance of this oneness is unity of nature between the Father and Jesus the Son.

The Jews were not upset with Jesus claiming to be united with the Father in plan and counsel, but in power. In previous lessons, we have heard Jesus claim that he was able to rescue and keep his people from all enemies, or that he had power superior to men and devils. In his miracles he demonstrated that he had supreme power over all of creation. He affirmed the same of his Father and in this they were united. In this union the Jews heard Jesus claim an attribute only of God, and thus they understood him as claiming equality to God. It was his affirming this equality with God that caused the Jews to pick up stones to kill him for blasphemy. They understood his claim that he was God to which Jesus did not deny as that was his intention to so be understood. A few verses later, Jesus will clearly claim that he is the Son of God.

Conclusion

As the Word became flesh and we have walked with him along the gospel path, we have experienced Jesus revealing more and more of who he really was and as he did the Jews became more and more upset with him. Again, Jesus claims equality with God and again the Jews pick up stones, but the time and method of death is not right, and the Jews will have to wait.