Deity of Christ; Trinity; John 10:30-42

The people and the Pharisees who heard this would not have been ignorant of the passage in Ezekiel, so when Jesus begins to say that he is the good shepherd they knew exactly what Jesus was claiming.

Ezekiel 34:2 ^NASB “Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel. Prophesy and say to those shepherds, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD, ‘Woe, shepherds of Israel who have been feeding themselves! Should not the shepherds feed the flock?’” Here the term shepherds is used to refer to the rulers and leaders of the nation. The point is that it is the responsibility of the leaders of Israel, the religious leaders, to feed the flock by teaching them doctrine. [8] ‘As I live,’ declares the Lord GOD, ‘surely because My flock has become a prey, My flock has even become food for all the beasts of the field for lack of a shepherd, and My shepherds did not search for My flock, but {rather} the shepherds fed themselves and did not feed My flock.’” This is an indictment of the religious leaders at the time that Ezekiel wrote but it has application to the Pharisees. They were more concerned about fleecing the flock for their own benefit. [9] “‘therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of the LORD’: [10] Thus says the Lord GOD, ‘Behold, I am against the shepherds, and I will demand My sheep from them and make them cease from feeding sheep. So the shepherds will not feed themselves anymore, but I will deliver My flock from their mouth, so that they will not be food for them’. [11] For thus says the Lord GOD, ‘Behold, I Myself will search for My sheep and seek them out’.” So here we have the Lord God taking on the function of a shepherd. The Lord Himself is identified with the shepherds. [12] “‘As a shepherd cares for his herd in the day when he is among his scattered sheep, so I will care for My sheep and will deliver them from all the places to which they were scattered on a cloudy and gloomy day. [13] I will bring them out from the peoples and gather them from the countries and bring them to their own land; and I will feed them on the mountains of Israel, by the streams, and in all the inhabited places of the land’.” That is a prophesy of what takes place at the end of the Tribulation when all of regenerate Israel is gathered together for the establishment of the new covenant with Israel at the beginning of the Millennial kingdom, but it has application to what we are studying. [14] “‘I will feed them in a good pasture, and their grazing ground will be on the mountain heights of Israel. There they will lie down on good grazing ground and feed in rich pasture on the mountains of Israel. [15] I will feed My flock and I will lead them to rest,” declares the Lord GOD. [16] I will seek the lost…” What did Jesus just do in John chapter nine? “… bring back the scattered, bind up the broken and strengthen the sick; but the fat and the strong I will destroy. I will feed them with judgment’.” So we see that this is what characterises the ministry of this divine shepherd who is, by application, the Messiah.

In all of this we see the Lord identifying Himself as the shepherd; the shepherd is God. But then there is a shift if verse 23: “And I, the LORD, will be their God, and My servant David will be prince among them; I the LORD have spoken.” The servant is seen now not only as divine but as human, the human descendant of David. What we see here is a divine and a human shepherd and the passage truly relates to the Millennium. Remember that Jesus was coming as messiah to offer the kingdom, it was rejected, and so it is postponed until the second advent. By application we see that this is the background to everything Jesus says about a shepherd. This is what Jesus is referring to when he comes to John 10:30 ^NASB “I and the Father are one.” He identifies Himself as the God-Man and the God-man shepherd. At this point the Pharisees are going to react to Him. They understand all the symbols of Scripture, they know what he is saying, they understand Ezekiel 34 and know exactly what Jesus is claming here.

We must understand the context here. In John 10:28 Jesus says, “I give eternal life to them.” This is His prerogative as the Messiah. Those who trust in Jesus Christ alone are given eternal life. We are told that it comes specifically from the second person of the Trinity. The verb that is used here is didomi [didomi] and it is the present active indicative, 1^st person singular. It means to give, to bestow, to grant. And when God is the subject as it is here it is always the verb indicating grace, unmerited favour. “I give to them” is the dative plural of advantage of the 3^rd person plural pronoun, indicating “I give eternal life for their advantage.” What He gives is described in the accusative case as zoe aionios [zwh a)iwnioj]. The accusative case always denotes the direct object or limits in some sense the action of the verb. It describes here what it is that is given, that Jesus gives eternal life to them. The result is indicated in the next clause: “they shall never perish.” The negative here is a double negative in the Greek, ou and me [o)u and mh], the two words for no in the Greek language. In English it is bad grammar to use a double negative but in Greek you can compound the negatives to intensify the negation. So when you want to indicate something very strongly as being impossible you use both negatives, ou me. The verb is apollumi [a)pollumi] which means to be destroyed or to perish and it is in the aorist middle subjunctive. The subjunctive mood is the mood of potentiality. What this means is that there is absolutely no potential or possibility that they can lose their salvation. The aorist subjunctive is used along with this negative as the strongest form of negation in the Greek language. The same construction is used in Galatians 5:16 ^NASB “walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh.” It indicates absolute impossibility for the fulfilment of the verb.

Then in verse 29 there is a shift from Jesus Christ to the Father. It is the Father who has given them. It is the Father who has delegated this responsibility of giving eternal life to God the Son. So God the Son is not operating independently of the Father. There is subordination in the Trinity: subordination of roles, not subordination of persons. Jesus is saying: “My Father, who has given {them} to Me.” This is the responsibility that God has given, it is a perfect participle which indicates that this is an action that occurred in the past with results that go on throughout eternity. Once we have been given to the Father in terms of God’s plan designated at the council of divine decrees in eternity past, then nothing can be lost. “…is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch {them} out of the Father’s hand.” It is in this context that Jesus says: “I and the Father are one.” We have the same will, we are united in will and purpose. He has subordinated my will to His will, there is one plan functioning here. That is the correct interpretation of 10:30. There is a unity of purpose, plan and intent in the Godhead because there is a unity of essence in the Godhead.

Augustine made the interesting observation that there is a plural subject in John 10:30, “I and the Father.” There is the first person pronoun “I” referring to Jesus and then the masculine noun with the definite article ho pater [o( pathr], meaning the Father. So the subject is compound and plural. That necessitates a plural verb, esmen [e)smen], and it is the present active indicative, third person plural. The present tense means continuous action from the verb to be, eimi [e)imi] which means continuous existence. This is the same verb that we saw in John 1:1 when John writes, “In the beginning was.” There he used an imperfect tense, continuous action in past time to indicate the continual existence of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Logos, in past time. So there is this emphasis here of the verb eimi, the present tense indicates continuous action, active voice, indicative mood which is the mood of reality emphasising the doctrinal reality of this position of “I and the Father are one.” The word “one” here is where we get into a very interesting scenario. This is hen [e(n], the neuter form of the number one, heis [e(ij]. heis is the masculine singular form, en is the neuter. Why is that important? If Jesus had used the masculine form he would have been saying we are one in person, but He is using the neuter which indicates that they are one in essence but distinct in person. So what we have implicit in this verse is the doctrine of the Trinity, the separation between Jesus and the Father as distinct persons, yet having the same essence.

How Jesus has claimed deity in the Gospel of John

1) He has continuously used the phrase ego eimi [e)gw e)imi] in the Greek. It is the Greek translation of the proper name of God, YHWH which we transliterate as Yahweh. In 4:26 He states this to the woman at the well: “If you believe that I am.” He states it to the disciples in John 6:20. He makes the statement “I am the bread of life” in 6:35, 48. In 6:41 the Jews reacted to Him and complained because He said ego eimi, “I am the bread of life.” In 6:51 He uses ego eimi again, “I am the living bread.” In 8:12 He says, “I am the Light of the world.” At the end of chapter 8 he said, “Before Abraham was [ginomai], I am [e)gw e)imi].”

2) Jesus claimed to perform the identical functions of God the Father. In 5:18 he says, The Father is continuously working, and I am continuously working.”

3) He claimed deity when He called Himself the Son of God. He was not claiming that He had been generated by God, the descendant of God. He was not emphasising the incarnation and virgin birth, he is emphasising deity. He was not claiming generation from God as much as He was claiming the essence of deity: “I am God.” So by calling Himself God in 5:19 and 5:25 He is claiming full deity.

4) Jesus claimed to be the source of life and to give life just like God the Father did in John 5:21, 28. Being the source of life is a characteristic of deity and Jesus claimed that for Himself.

5) He claimed to have the equal right to judgment as God the Father. John 5:22.

6) He claimed equal honour with God the Father, that just as the Father was worthy of all honour so He was worthy of all honour, 5:23.

7) He claimed to give life to the dead just as God the Father gives life to the dead, 5:21.

8) He was sent directly from God, 6:29, 38, 51, 57; 7:28, 29.

9) He is the only one to see and reveal God the Father, 6:46.

In John 10:31-33 we see Jesus’ dialogue with the Jews and their reaction. First of all, they understand clearly what He said, that He was claiming to be God. John 10:31 ^NASB “The Jews picked up stones again to stone Him. [32] Jesus answered them, ‘I showed you many good works from the Father; for which of them are you stoning Me?’” He uses the aorist active of the verb deiknumi [deiknumi] which means to reveal, to demonstrate the meaning of something, to present evidence. [33] “The Jews answered Him, ‘For a good work we do not stone You, but for blasphemy; and because You, being a man, make Yourself out {to be} God’.” They understand that He has claimed to be God, but notice how they twist it: “You, being a man, make yourself out to be God.” Jesus is not a man who claimed to be God; Jesus is God who claimed to be a man. The Scriptures do not present Jesus as a man who claims to be God, the Scripture presents Jesus as God who became a man. We have to make that point. Notice how sophisticated Jesus’ response is.

John 10:34 ^NASB “Jesus answered them, ‘Has it not been written in your Law, ‘I SAID, YOU ARE GODS’?” We have to look at His use of the word “law” here. This is a general term for the Old Testament. Jesus is going to quote, not from the Torah but from the Psalms, specifically Psalm 82. Te subject in the Psalm is going to deal with the Supreme Court of heaven and God’s authority as the ultimate judge in the universe. Psalm 82:1 ^NASB “God takes His stand in His own congregation; He judges in the midst of the rulers. [2] How long will you judge unjustly And show partiality to the wicked? Selah.” There is an unjust system operating in Israel at this time. The call is made, v. 3 “Vindicate the weak and fatherless; Do justice to the afflicted and destitute. [4] Rescue the weak and needy; Deliver {them} out of the hand of the wicked. [5] They do not know nor do they understand; They walk about in darkness; All the foundations of the earth are shaken. [6] I said, ‘You are gods, And all of you are sons of the Most High’.” This is the verse Jesus is talking about. God is the one speaking. To whom is He speaking? He is speaking to earthly judges and rulers in Israel. So this is talking about the rulers of the people. These rulers are in the divine viewpoint of legislation. Remember, Romans chapter thirteen says God appoints the rulers of this world as ministers of righteousness. God, in Genesis chapter nine in the Noahic covenant, delegated judicial authority to the human race. Because he delegated this judicial authority human judges are called elohim because they function in the place of the Supreme Court of heaven who is God-Elohim. That is the thrust of this passage. The human judges are called to repent of their unjust and inconsistent application of the judicial principle because they represent the Supreme Court of heaven.

Jesus goes into this lesser-known psalm and to this one verse, and He plucks out this one phrase and hinges His whole argument on this. So His first principle is going to be that there is a principle in Scripture of calling the human rulers of Israel elohim.

John 10:35 ^NASB “If he called them gods, to whom the word of God came (and the Scripture cannot be broken)…” The Scripture cannot be broken; the infallibility of the Word of God. The Pharisees understood that. They believed in the infallibility of Scripture and Jesus believed in the infallibility of Scripture, right down to the minutia. [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’?” Jesus uses a very sophisticated argument here. He is basing this completely on an understanding of the infallibility of Scripture, “the Word of God cannot be broken,” and on one word, elohim [pl.]. Jesus is using an argument from the lesser to the greater here. He is saying: “If you don’t have a problem applying elohim to human rulers, how much more is it correct to apply that to the Son of God who has demonstrated that he is deity by all the works that he has performed?”

John 10:37 ^NASB “If I do not do the works of My Father, do not believe Me; [38] but if I do them, though you do not believe Me, believe the works, so that you may know and understand that the Father is in Me, and I in the Father.” This again is a very profound argument. The emphasis is on belief here on the basis of His works. Jesus is validating the fact that you can have saving faith based on miracles. In fact, that is John’s whole thesis, 20:31. So a faith based on the signs, evidences and credentials that Jesus established by His miracles is not some lesser faith.

John 10:39 ^NASB “Therefore they were seeking again to seize Him, and He eluded their grasp.” He slips out of the temple area and He departs.

John 10:40 ^NASB “And He went away again beyond the Jordan to the place where John was first baptizing, and He was staying there.” And notice the contrast here. [41] “Many came to Him and were saying, ‘While John performed no sign, yet everything John said about this man was true’.” And what was the result? [42] “Many believed in Him there.” They didn’t believe in Him in the temple. Notice the contrast between the religious leaders of the people who reject Jesus and the people who come to Him out in the desert, who had to go out of their way to get to Him. Many believed in Him and accepted the free gift of salvation, even though it wasn’t convenient. Jesus makes the offer but he doesn’t beg people to be saved.