Anchor My Faith

Was Jesus God Or An Impostor?

Scripture: John 10:32-35

We ended the previous lesson with the Jews, once again, holding stones to throw at Jesus because they heard him claim he was God. To this threat on his life, Jesus asks them a question: ^{Jn 10:32} “I have shown you many good works from the Father; for which of them are you going to stone me?”

Jesus is trying to draw their focus back to the works, the miracles, that he has done to demonstrate who he was claiming to be. “These are works from the Father manifested in the visible world by the Son” (Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers). Jesus asks: “Which one are you going to stone me for?”

^{Jn 10:33} “The Jews answered him, “It is not for a good work that we are going to stone you but for blasphemy, because you, being a man, make yourself God.”’

Once again, we see the importance of the virgin birth, for without it Jesus is only a man and thus would be guilty of blasphemy since he is claiming to be God. Jesus is the Son of God, the Messiah, the Son of Man, the God/Man.

^{Jn 10:34} “Jesus answered them, “Is it not written in your Law, ‘I said, you are gods’? ³⁵ If he called them gods to whom the word of God came—and Scripture cannot be broken— “’

Jesus is quoting from Psalm 82:6 ESV: “I said, “You are gods, sons of the Most High, all of you.”’ His purpose is to show that in some sense human judges can be called gods. These judges are spoken of in the first part of Psalm 82. These servants received their dignity and honor only because the law of God was entrusted to them. The law of God used here would mean the commandments, which were commissioned to them to do justice.  Considering their role as representatives of God, this designation is even more appropriate for the one who truly is the Son of God.

In his argument, Jesus is focusing on the single word “gods” in the Old Testament, and in saying that Scripture cannot be broken, he is implying that every single word in Scripture is true and reliable. These Jews do not differ with this high view of Scripture, either here or elsewhere in the Gospels. If the word “god” can be applied to these servants or to others in similar offices, then it is not blasphemy for Jesus to use this word in reference to himself.

In all honesty, as I thought through verses 34 and 35 and wrote the above, and as I look at what others have said about these verses, I am not convinced that this was a meaningful argument. I am apparently missing something that they seemed to have understood that made this argument more meaningful to them. In my thinking, the importance is the virgin birth of Jesus cannot be overlooked. If he was virgin born then he is God/Man and not guilty of blasphemy, but if he was not virgin born, then the Jews are correct, and he stands guilty.

We will need one more lesson to finish this section.

Conclusion

In your thinking was Jesus making himself out to be God or was he actually God incarnate in flesh? That is a very important question to answer and then respond to.