Anchor My Faith

My Works Demonstrate Who I Am

Scripture: John 10:36-39

In the previous lesson we consider whether Jesus was actually God or a just a man making himself out to be God and thus guilty of blasphemy as charged by the Jews. In this lesson we will look at the final argument Jesus makes and end the section.

Jesus continues and says, ^{Jn 10:36} “do you say of him whom the Father consecrated and sent into the world, ‘You are blaspheming,’ because I said, ‘I am the Son of God’? ³⁷ If I am not doing the works of my Father, then do not believe me; ³⁸ but if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works, that you may know and understand that the Father is in me and I am in the Father.” ³⁹ Again they sought to arrest him, but he escaped from their hands.”

Jesus is claiming that, like the prophets and Aaronic priest before him, the Father consecrated him and sent him into the world on assignment. An example of this consecration is found in Jeremiah 1:5 ESV: “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations.” Another example is found in Exodus 28:41 ESV: “And you shall put them on Aaron your brother, and on his sons with him, and shall anoint them and ordain them and consecrate them, that they may serve me as priests.”

Jesus stands above the priests and prophets who were consecrated because he existed as the Son of God before his physical birth. This uniqueness among men was made possible through the virgin birth. The Jews in rejecting the virgin birth could then reject Jesus as being the Son of God and thus refuse to believe that Jesus was consecrated and sent into the world and therefore could charge him with blasphemy.

Jesus then asks them to look at the works he has been doing, like healing a person born blind, and see that they are works of his Father. Jesus said, look at the works and believe them and know from them and understand that the Father is in me and that I am in the Father.

In 1 Peter 2:4, 5, 9 ESV we find: ⁴ “As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, ⁵ you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. ⁹ But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.”

As part of the holy priesthood, we are set apart to live lives of sanctification, holiness, and purity. Our lives are to bear fruit, the works of God, that people would see as attractive. Do these works of God in our lives set us apart from the unsaved in ways that attract others to God? When one studies the lives of those living under persecution who are willing to suffer and even die for their faith, you see a lifestyle that sets them apart from others as Jesus was set apart as he suffered and died for us. Are we willing to suffer and die for our faith so that others would see the works of God and believe?

Conclusion

After Jesus made it clear to the Jews that he was the Son of God, who was consecrated by the Father to come into the world on mission, he escapes from their hands and was not arrested.