Jurisprudence under the Mosaic Law would have proved the deity of Christ. John 10:30-32

John 10:28 and I give [by means of grace] eternal life to them, and they shall never perish [double negative - they will not no never perish]; and no one [no angel, no man, not even God] shall snatch them out of My hand.

 

John 10:29 "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.

 

Two of the most powerful hands in the universe are clamped around you and no one in the universe is powerful enough to pull them apart.

         

The Son’s and the Father’s hands…

1.       This is an anthropomorphism of eternal security.

2.       God is perfect; His plan is perfect.

3.       Therefore everything in the plan of God depends on His perfection, His resources, His love - His character.

4.       God’s plan is greater than our failures.

5.       God’s plan is greater than our sins.

6.       God’s plan is greater than our disasters.

 

You as a believer are anchored in union with Christ and nothing can shake it, nothing can destroy it. You are in something that is perfect and permanent.

 

John 10:30 "I and the Father are one.”

 

Here He clearly indicates His deity while speaking from His humanity. For this reason the Jews will again pick up rocks to stone Him.

 

Remember in verse 24 they said, “tell us plainly,” and here it couldn’t be any more plain.

 

The Lord doesn’t say that He and the Father is the same person, but that they are identical in essence. So it’s not one hand that they both share, rather it is two hands that both share the essence of deity, and in this case the emphasis is on omnipotence.

 

This is the doctrine of the hypostatic union.

 

John 14:28 "You heard that I said to you, 'I go away, and I will come to you.' If you loved Me, you would have rejoiced, because I go to the Father; for the Father is greater than I.

 

This is clearly spoken from His humanity. If they had understood they would have rejoiced because the humanity of Christ was going to be successful on the cross and be resurrected and then ascended to the highest position of authority, the right hand of God. This is the fulfillment of GEN 3:15 and the strategic victory of the AC.

 

Deity cannot be die for the sins of the world, deity cannot die physically and so it cannot be resurrected. Deity cannot sit at the right hand of God because deity is omnipresent.

 

But when He said that no one is able to snatch them out of my hand He was referring to His deity. The human hand of Jesus Christ, even the resurrected hand of Jesus Christ cannot even hold one person in it, never mind all believers.

 

This is why the preservation of the believer in eternal security is held by the power or the omnipotence of God, both God the Father and God the Son.

 

You should take great comfort in the fact that you are a sheep and a son of God forever. Therefore, there will always be a relationship (whether you take advantage of it or not) as well as protection and provision.

 

Because they Jews understood His proclamation of deity they walked away from the portico of Solomon where there were no stones and into the outer court to get some stones.

 

They do what religion always does when it has been unable to enforce its will on its victims, violence. 

 

John 10:31 The Jews took up stones again to stone Him.

 

The first time they did it was in John 8:59 in the temple. These are the religious Jews. Every stone in the hands of a Jew was a negative ballot in the grace of God and the plan of God.

 

However, as we noted, no one can do violence to you unless it is allowed by the Father and then it is only under special circumstances.

 

The Lord is in no danger here because His hour has not yet come.

 

John 10:32 Jesus answered them, "I showed you many good works from the Father; for which of them are you stoning Me?"

 

John 10:33 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."

 

"For a good work we do not stone You,” That is a lie. The Pharisees deny that their attempt at violence is not connected with the healing of the blind man on the Sabbath, yet that is exactly what it is.

 

This violated their pet taboo of legalism; this aroused their antagonism. There is nothing worse than a legalistic religious person when you cross him.

           

but for blasphemy” - the penalty for blasphemy under the law was death by stoning, Leviticus 24:16.

 

The Pharisees, because of their implacability, wanted Him eliminated and they are trying to use this as an excuse.

 

These people were not seeking information; they wanted Him to condemn Himself.

 

When He said, “I and the Father are one” He was saying “I am God,” and they call that blasphemy.

 

That is their excuse to stone Him. They were only asking questions so they could kill! They wanted Jesus to condemn Himself and this was a violation of Jewish law (for a person to condemn himself from his own lips).

           

“and because thou, being a man (and always being a man), make yourself God.” They are claiming that Jesus by speaking made Himself God, and He is, but under Jewish law they cannot condemn Him for it.

1. By Jewish law Jesus cannot be convicted by His own testimony. A person could only be convicted by the testimony of two or three eye witnesses.

 

2. Under Jewish law they must prove that what Jesus said is not true. They cannot kill Him unless they prove that what He has said is not true.

 

3. They can’t do it because His miracles proved that He was God. So they can’t prove it by law.

 

4. The prosecution in the Sanhedrin must prove that Jesus is not God. (This was on Solomon’s porch which was no court).

 

5. They cannot prove Jesus was guilty of blasphemy until they establish the fact that He is not God. And they won’t do it because if they bring in the evidence, the more they bring in then the more it is demonstrated that He is God. So they won’t take Him to court.

 

By the way, religious Christians will do this too - judge you without the facts, malign you, gossip about you, assume the worst about you, and dislike you without a cause. If you are a grace believer and you bump into legalism at any point, or religionism—whether it is a Christian or a non-Christian—, they are going to judge you; they are going to condemn you without the facts.

 

6. They cannot establish this fact because Jesus has demonstrated that He is God.

 

7. The religious crowd deny the Father’s evidence. Hence, this false court that isn’t in a courtroom is out of order by rejecting evidence by the primary Witness who is the Father.

 

You see, in this mock trial as well as the 6 trials that the Lord would face right before the cross, the law of God performed beautifully.

 

It wasn’t the law that was at fault but the evil of the people who distorted the law.

 

Anyone could say they were God and they could not be convicted. When the Lord gave the Law to Moses He certainly understood that His son’s claims would be put to the test.

 

And if the Pharisees had strictly followed the Mosaic Law they would have proven Christ to be God by means of the Law.

 

They say, “You claim to be God, that’s blasphemy, we will stone you.” However, if we go to court and gather witnesses the witnesses (more that three) will testify that He healed the lame man at the pool of Bethesda and He healed the blind man outside of the temple steps. And so, if God’s Law is followed His Son is seen to be who He is.

 

If some other person claimed to be God there would be no witnesses of miracles because there would be no miracles.

 

You might remember when we were in John 8 that Christ presented to two witnesses needed to prove a matter under Jewish law.

 

John 8:18 "I am He who bears witness of Myself, and the Father who sent Me bears witness of Me."

 

The miracles become the third witness of Christ.

 

The Gospel of John is full of these witnesses. The apostle John is an eyewitness.

John 20:29-31

Jesus said to him, "Because you have seen Me, have you believed? Blessed are they who did not see, and yet believed."

30 Many other signs therefore Jesus also performed in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; 31 but these have been written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name.

 

John 10:34 Jesus answered them, "Has it not been written in your Law, 'I said, you are gods'?

 

Verse 34 - “Jesus answered them” is literally, ‘Jesus had an answer for them.”

           

“Has it not been written” - perfect tense of the verb grapho which is used for the permanence of the scripture. The scripture cannot be changed; it is here to stay. It was written in the past with the result that it stands written forever.

           

“in your law” - Psalm 82:6. We have a quotation. “In your law” refers to the Old Testament scripture.”

           

“I said, Ye are gods?” The word for “god” here is Elohim in the Hebrew.

 

In Psalm 82:6 this is addressed to those who were the judges of Israel. We know this from Psalm 82:2.

 

Now the question is: Why were they called ‘gods’? What is behind all this and why does Jesus use this particular quotation?

 

It represented the function of God—judging. The judges who are addressed in Psalm 82:2 actually represented one of the divine functions which is delegated to human beings under divine institution #4, nationalism.

 

So since they represented one of the functions of God, which is judging, Jesus is much more a representative of God the Father than the judges of the Old Testament.

 

The principle of logic is a very simple one. If men representing God could be called gods, how much more the true Son of God could be called “God.”

 

All Jesus is doing is showing them that logically they have no right to try to execute Him without a trial because in Psalm 82:6 men were actually called gods, the reason being that they had one of the functions which belongs to God but was delegated—judging.

 

Psalm 82:6 does not mean ‘You are gods,’ but ‘You represent a function of God [in judging the people of the land].’

           

This was addressed to men, and if the scripture which cannot fail and cannot lie called certain people God, and Jesus calls Himself God, even if they simply think that he is a man Jesus is simply pointing out that they are out of line to jump Him for blasphemy.

 

Because even more so He represents a function of God as illustrated by the miracles He has already performed as credit cards for Messiahship.

 

John 10:35 "If he called them gods, to whom the word of God came (and the Scripture cannot be broken),

 

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'?

 

John 10:37 "If I do not do the works of My Father, do not believe Me;

 

John 10:38 but if I do them, though you do not believe Me, believe the works, that you may know and understand that the Father is in Me, and I in the Father. " 

 

John 10:39 Therefore they were seeking again to seize Him, and He eluded their grasp.

 

John 10:40 And He went away again beyond the Jordan to the place where John was first baptizing, and He was staying there.

 

John 10:41 And many came to Him and were saying, "While John performed no sign, yet everything John said about this man was true."

 

John 10:42 And many believed in Him there.