Jesus said in John 10:30 – I and My Father are one.” 31Then the Jews took up stones again to stone Him. 32Jesus answered them, “Many good works I have shown you from My Father. For which of those works do you stone Me?” 33The Jews answered Him, saying, “For a good work we do not stone You, but for blasphemy, and because You, being a Man, make Yourself God.” 34Jesus answered them, “Is it not written in your law, ‘I said, “You are gods”’? 35If He called them gods, to whom the word of God came (and the Scripture cannot be broken), 36do you say of Him whom the Father sanctified and sent into the world, ‘You are blaspheming,’ because I said, ‘I am the Son of God’? 37If I do not do the works of My Father, do not believe Me; 38but if I do, though you do not believe Me, believe the works, that you may know and believe that the Father is in Me, and I in Him.” 39Therefore they sought again to seize Him, but He escaped out of their hand.
In the tenth chapter of John’s Gospel Jesus is rebuking the Jews for totally rejecting Him as the Messiah even though there have been undeniable proofs that Jesus truly is God. Sadly, many throughout history have rejected Christ even in the face of this ample proof. They have missed out on all of God’s blessings. They have missed out on all the promises of God to His children. They have missed out on true life on earth and will miss out on life after death.
Even in this chapter Jesus has preached to them the great blessings of being one of God’s elect. For example, notice John 10:28 – And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand. 29My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father’s hand. (NKJV)
This is the promise that many Baptist call Eternal Security. Notice that the “Eternal Security of the Believer” is founded in the Perseverance of the Savior to keep the believer saved. Just as we notice in that verse that it is Jesus who saves by His sovereign power, it is Jesus who keeps us from losing our salvation. We are in Jesus’ hand and the Father’s hand, doubly secure by the power of God. Oh what marvelous security!! God perseveres in preservation. God is faithful in keeping the Christian saved! But if you have rejected Christ like those in this text, this promise is not for you.
I. Jesus’ Claim to Diety — John 10:30 – I and My Father are one.” (NKJV)
- The term one (in verse 30) is in neuter tense meaning one thing. Jesus is not saying that He and God are one person but one being.
- Dr. James White explains the Trinity as One what, and Three who’s. God is one being and three persons within that being.
- This verse does not teach Modalism which is the heretical belief that God is one person who has revealed himself in three forms or modes. This is in contrast to the Trinitarian doctrine where God is one being eternally existing in three persons. According to Modalism, during the incarnation, Jesus was simply God acting in one mode or role, and the Holy Spirit at Pentecost was God acting in a different mode. Thus, God never exists as the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit at the same time, he can only manifest himself as one person at any specific time. Modalism thus denies the basic distinctiveness and coexistence of the three persons of the Trinity. Modalism, also called Saballianism, was condemned by Tertullian and others as heresy in the Third Century. Modalism is probably the most common theological error concerning the nature of God (i.e., who God is). “Present day groups that hold to forms of this error are the United Pentecostal and United Apostolic Churches. They deny the Trinity, teach that the name of God is Jesus… modalist churches often accuse Trinitarians of teaching three gods. This is not what the Trinity is. The correct teaching of the Trinity is one God in three eternal coexistent persons: The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.”
- This verse also should not be interpreted that Jesus was saying that he and God are just unified in will and design as the Unitarian interpretation. Unitarianism is a doctrine of God that stands in opposition to the Christian doctrine of the Trinity. Historic Unitarians believed in the moral authority, but not the deity, of Jesus. The heresy was believed by Michael Servetus, Faustus Socinus, Isaac Newton, and Christopher Reeve. Also the heresy is believed in the Churches of God, Oneness Penticostals, Jehovah Witnesses and the Philipino-based Iglesia ni Cristo. Also, the enormously popular Phillips, Craig and Dean trio are Oneness Pentecostals.
- Rather Jesus was clearly teaching that he is one with God the Father and Spirit in Substance, Power, Eternality, and Will.
Consider the 1689 Baptist Confession:
2.3 In this divine and infinite Being there are three persons, the Father, the Son (or the Word) and the Holy Spirit. They are one in substance, power, and eternity, each having the whole divine essence, yet this essence is undivided.
The Father is not derived from anyone, he is neither begotten nor proceeding; the Son is eternally begotten of the Father; the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son. All three are infinite, without beginning, and therefore but one God, who is not to be divided in nature and being. Yet they are distinguished by several distinctive characteristics and personal relations.
This doctrine of the Trinity is the foundation of all our fellowship with God, and of the comfort of our dependence on him.
8.2 The Son of God, the second person in the Holy Trinity, is truly and eternally God. He is the brightness of the Father’s glory, of the same substance and equal with him who made the world, who upholds and governs all things he has made.
When the fullness of time was come, he took upon himself human nature, with all its essential properties and common infirmities,5 yet without sin.6 He was conceived by the Holy Spirit in the womb of the Virgin Mary. The Holy Spirit came down upon her and the power of the Most High overshadowed her, so that he was born to a woman from the tribe of Judah, a descendant of Abraham and David, in accordance with the Scriptures.
So two whole, perfect, and distinct natures were inseparably joined together in one person, without conversion, mixing, or confusion. This person is therefore truly God and truly human, yet one Christ, the only Mediator between God and the human race.
Is this what the Jews understood Him to say? Yes! Notice that they immediately picked up stones and went to kill him.
But I ask you, do you believe that Jesus is God? Do you believe that He existed for eternity prior to becoming a man? Do you believe that Jesus is the God that created you?
Do you take Him at His word? He claimed to be God.
II. Jesus’ Claims are Rejected — John 10:31 – Then the Jews took up stones again to stone Him. (NKJV)
Jesus had not only made claims of Deity but had also proved his claims. Consider these two verses:
But the Jews did not reject him because of his proofs but because of his claims. Notice John 10:32 – Jesus answered them, “Many good works I have shown you from My Father. For which of those works do you stone Me?” 33The Jews answered Him, saying, “For a good work we do not stone You, but for blasphemy, and because You, being a Man, make Yourself God.” (NKJV)
If you have never received Christ as your Savior, for which work that He did do you reject Him? Was it when he healed the sick? Was it when he fed the hungry? Was it when he loved the outcast? Was it when he rejected racism? Was it when he forgave the woman caught in adultery? Was it when he refused to lift a violent hand against those who sought to kill him?
“No!” you say, ‘I don’t reject any work Jesus did.” And, guess what, neither did the the Jews. They did not reject him for any work he did. Why? They could not accuse him of doing any wrong because He was righteous in all His ways. Every accusation that was leveled towards Christ by his accusers He used the Scripture to prove that their accusations were unfounded. He was sinless. Even at the trial in which they condemned Jesus to death the Jews had to pay false witnesses to testify falsely because no one had ever seen Jesus do anything that was wrong. In fact, because He was God, it was even impossible for Him to even be tempted to sin. He was perfectly righteous. So there was nothing in His deeds that was cause to reject Him.
But they rejected him for another reason; not for what He did, but for what He said.
Concerning his words, do you have any reason to reject him? Do you reject his teaching about loving your neighbor as yourself? Do you reject his teaching to love your enemy? Of course not, and neither did the Jews reject those wonderful teachings. But what about His claim to be God? The Jews said that it was blasphemy for a man to claim to be God.
But Jesus used a two-fold argument to refute their accusation of blashemy:
- First — He used the Rabbinical Law against the Jews. He refers to Psalm 82 where the Psalmist refers to judges who were give authority and power by God to judge. In that psalm, God called them “gods” for they represented Him. So simply being called “god” is not necessarily a blasphemy. The force of His argument is that in no way whatsoever has He said anything even remotely improper. Whether he was “God” or “god,” Jesus’ works were righteous. Thus if someone were to say he represented God, it would not be blasphemy.
- I’m not sure we understand how blameless Jesus was. Because of historical revisionists in Hollywood who wish to make it look like Jesus was tempted with sin or make it look like Jesus was a little loose with His words or radical in His ways, we may not understand just how blameless and sinless He was. He is even arguing that if He weren’t actually God, that calling himself “god” would not be a sin because of the kind of ministry He had!
- And notice that Jesus uses the authority of the Bible to make his case. John 10:35 – If He called them gods, to whom the word of God came (and the Scripture cannot be broken), (NKJV) Here Jesus makes a clear reference to the infallibility and authority of Scripture. Jesus used His infinite knowledge of the Scriptures to confront the hatred of His accusers.
- Second — He doesn’t stop here with his rebuke and rebuttal to the Jews. He affirms His claims and proofs of actually being God.
- He continues in John 10:36- do you say of Him whom the Father sanctified and sent into the world, ‘You are blaspheming,’ because I said, ‘I am the Son of God’? 37If I do not do the works of My Father, do not believe Me; 38but if I do, though you do not believe Me, believe the works, that you may know and believe that the Father is in Me, and I in Him.”
- So Jesus had a double rebuttal. He argued, “I have done nothing wrong for using the term ‘god’ because my works were representative of God — and, furthermore, I am not just ‘god’ but ‘God.’ I have been sent by God, and I have proven that truth with undeniable proofs.” Oh! the wisdom of Christ. His accusers were dumbfounded.
Jesus was claiming that His works and words were holy and did not merit any punishment or rejection.
By the way, if you only focus on Jesus’ good works you have missed why He did those works. Jesus did every work, all of which were holy and pure, to cause you to listen to what He was saying. Listen to His claims of Deity and believe in Him!!
Why do people reject Jesus? Is it because of lack of proof – no. Is it because of lack of knowledge – no. People reject Jesus’ claim to be God because people in their depravity are sinful and hate the righteousness of Christ. Because of their sinfulness people despise the holiness of Christ. You may say, “No, I don’t believe that.” Let me tell you, that is exactly what the Apostle John is teaching us here in the Bible. This is what John, one of Jesus’ closest disciples, believed. Notice what John revealed to us about Cain’s heart in 1 John 3:12 – “not as Cain who was of the wicked one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his works were evil and his brother’s righteous.” (NKJV) People who reject Christ, like Cain, love their sin and hate the One who is righteous.
If you are not a disciple of Christ this argument confronts you. Can you accuse Jesus of sin or of an inadequate lifestyle? Hardly! Even the people who were His eyewitnesses and hated Him could not use any of His works to accuse Him. It is rather that He, by His life, accuses you. Many today speak well of Jesus’ works but still reject His claims. They will call Jesus good, but not God. They will even admit that He died on a Cross, but not as the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world. They claim that He died more as a religious martyr, the founder of a movement, as a social radical.
What do you say? Do you find His works inadequate, His words unsupportable? Certainly not! So then may these truths cause you to believe in Christ. On the basis of the authority, reliability and power of the Scriptures turn from your sin and embrace Jesus by active faith. Throw aside your rebellion and commit yourself to him as his disciple. Will you receive Christ as who He claims to be = God, Lord, the Almighty? Will you come to Him? Will you believe on Him as your Savior?
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Jason Robertson is a husband and a father and a pastor. He is dedicated to leading and equipping his the Church with God’s word and biblical theology for life ministry, using a combination of pastoral, church planting and evangelism experience. He holds a Master of Divinity from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. He is experienced in church planting, evangelism, missions, and the training of pastors and Bible teachers.
Jason has been preaching the gospel since 1985, serving the first ten years of ministry as a Southern Baptist itinerant evangelist out of Milldale Baptist Church in Zachary, LA which ordained him in 1993. He has preached in hundreds of churches in over 30 States and 4 countries. He planted churches in Siberia, Russia in the summers of 1993 and 1994. He founded Murrieta Valley Church in California, which he planted in cooperation with the SBC NAMB in 2001. He also teaches ministry students at California Baptist University.
You can hear his sermons and read his manuscripts on sermonaudio.com. Just follow the link to "sermons" at the top of this page.
Whoa. It was “impossible” for Jesus to be tempted? Isn’t that a bit of a reach, especially in light of Scripture? Don’t you mean that it was “impossible for Jesus to succumb to temptation?”
It is impossible for God the Son to be tempted. Jesus’ divine nature could not be tempted. Now since I do not know Jason’s view regarding posse non-pecarre I’m not going to speak for him regarding Jesus’ humananity.
I believe what I said. I believe that it was impossible for Jesus to even consider sinning. Satan tried to tempt Him and completely failed.
The only problem with that, of course, is that Hebrews 4:15 explicitly says that Jesus was tempted. Here’s what Louis Berkhof says of this in his Systematic Theology:
“We may not detract from the reality of the temptations of Jesus as the last Adam, however difficult it may be to conceive of one who could not sin as being tempted.” That’s on page 338 in my edition. The rest of the quote is worthy of some thought, but I didn’t want the comment to be overly long.
I should add that Berkhof held to the understanding that Jesus was not able to sin, which is interesting in light of the above statement. On page 318 he writes, “This means nnot merely that Christ could aoid sinning (potuit non peccare), and did actually avoid it, but also that it was impossible for Him to sin (non potuit peccare because of the essential bond between the human and the divine natures.” I have the Banner of Trust publication of 2003. Earlier versions may have different page numbers.
And I also believe that Jesus could not have sinned but was truly tempted. And further, and most importantly, I believe that He did not sin. (So much for not spamming up the comment section.)
I believe that the term “tempted” in Hebrews 4:15 is referring to what Jesus experienced that was synonymous with our “weaknesses” that are mentioned also in verse 15. So, there is a parallel given. If, therefore, one interprets “tempted” as meaning enticed to sin by appealing to one’s moral weaknesses then one must believe Jesus to have moral weaknesses. I do not believe that. I believe that the terms “weaknesses” and “tempted” refer to such needs that humans have due to cold, heat, hunger, contempt, poverty, external evils, feelings, sorrow, etc. This is the same view as John Calvin. Oh, we affirm the humanity of Christ, but we also affirm the Divinity of Christ. And because Jesus is God he was never enticed, drawn, or tempted by sin. Satan and others tried to tempt Him, but failed. It was impossible — and such was a proof of His divinity. I don’t think the Book of Hebrews teaches that Jesus sits in Heaven as our High Priest and sympathizes with our sinful temptations. Such is why He is the perfect High Priest!
Thanks for this. I am going to send it to my dad who has a very hard time with the deity of Christ. Also Jason thanks for your comment on the temptation issue. That happens to be one of dad’s sticking points “Jesus cannot be God because he was tempted and God cannot be tempted.”
Please, everyone, pray for my dad.
Thanks,
Tom
Jason,
How do you define temptation? It sounds in your above statement that temptation itself is sin. Scripture doesn’t teach that Satan tried to tempt Jesus; Scripture teaches that Satan tempted Jesus in the wilderness. It’s not called “The Attempted Temptation.” It’s called “The Temptation.” Jesus was hungry; Satan tempted Him to make bread. Jesus would have liked some bread, and I bet He could have made tasty bread, but He said no. Satan didn’t fail to tempt; he failed to make Jesus sin.
I do agree with you that Jesus doesn’t sympathize with our sin, but He does sympathize with our weaknesses and with those who struggle against temptation. That, to me, is an important point.
Sojourner, thanks for the questions. Concerning the definition of temptation, you need to deal with what I said in its context. I think that would help some of your concerns. In short, the context was emphasizing the complete sinlessness of Christ = that He had never sinned nor was it even possible for Him to sin. I then said that he wasn’t even tempted to sin or even close to sinning. So my point was not that someone did not try to tempt Jesus, but that Jesus never, even for one second, was in moment of moral crisis. The temptations never had a chance. They never caused him to even think an unholy thought. There was nothing unholy in Him for the temptation to even work with.
So yes, we call it “The Temptation” but we should call it “The Failed Temptation.” Why? because people do not understand the distinctions I have just described. Thus we have Hollywood perversions of this topic that have caused some to waver in their understanding of the sinlessness of Christ.
That was my only point in context. Your questions are good and valid but are actually about a slightly different topic.
Thanks, and I hope that clears it up.